Campus News

Ursuline is one of a dozen colleges and universities from across the country named institutional affiliates in a multiyear project titled “Legacies of American Slavery: Reckoning with the Past.”

Spearheaded by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), this initiative is designed to help CIC member institutions, their students, and their communities explore the continuing impact of slavery on American life and culture. The project will support campus-based research, teaching, and learning as well as community-based programs about the multiple legacies of slavery.

"This project truly centers on the importance of humanities perspectives in addressing, examining, and working towards solutions for complex topics like the legacy of American slavery," said Katharine G. Trostel, PhD, assistant professor and chair of English and humanities. Dr. Trostel will serve as the faculty lead for the project.

"Participating in this national network will allow us to interrogate as an institution how we teach our rooted history of racial segregation in a specifically Rust Belt context. We will work together with local and regional partners to amplify community dialogue, engage cultural organizations, and encourage our students to leverage their voices to activate social change. In doing so, we are able to highlight Cleveland and build upon previously established partnerships, such as our work with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards—the only juried book prize in the nation focused on uplifting and honoring authors addressing issues of racism and diversity," Dr. Trostel said.

In addition to the institutional affiliates, CIC named seven partner institutions, which will serve as the primary hubs of national networks. Each partner school will focus on a specific theme that has both local and national significance, organizing regional activities while contributing to a national conversation about race, equity, freedom, political power, and cultural resilience.

Legacies of American Slavery is directed by Pulitzer Prize winning historian David W. Blight, who notes, “Because slavery is so central to the history of the United States—its origins, economic development, society, culture, politics, and law—it has left in its wake a wide array of legacies that seem ever-present yet ever-changing in our world.” (His essay on this topic, and further information on the project, are at www.cic.edu/LegaciesofSlavery.)

Ursuline College President Sister Christine De Vinne, OSU, PhD, was awarded the Council of Independent Colleges’ 2020 Charles W.L. Foreman Award, the highest honor given by the organization’s State Councils, in a virtual ceremony on April 27, 2021.

The award is presented annually to a college president or corporate trustee who has demonstrated an outstanding record of service, leadership, and commitment that distinguishes the recipient from his or her peers in support of the CIC’s State Councils’ mission to promote independent higher education.

Bill Spiker, president of The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC), nominated Sister Christine.

“Sister Christine is a founding committee member of our Women’s Scholarship Initiative which raises money in support of non-traditional age female students,” Spiker wrote. “She has a giving spirit and very welcoming, engaging attitude and approach to her support of independent higher education across the country, of The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges on the state-level, and mostly with her impactful, insightful, and devoted leadership of her alma mater, Ursuline College.”

When the pandemic forced daycare centers to close and schools to switch to virtual learning, women began feeling overwhelmed and leaving the workforce – by choice or by lay-offs – in historic numbers. Ursuline’s new Institute for Women, Wellness and Work could not have been more timely.

The articles, podcasts, video, and workshops offered through the Institute have attracted a growing following. With titles like “Designing your Career to Fit your Life,” it’s easy to see why. “I loved the variety and the various modes of delivering the messages,” wrote one woman of her Institute experience. “I took away learnings and actions that I can continue to apply to my work/life balance. It was a great opportunity to meet and network with others outside of my company, which is especially challenging now with the pandemic,” wrote another.

The newest dimension of the Institute is subscriptions now available for corporations and individuals, enabling access to even more resources aimed at creating a rich, inclusive environment of continuous learning for all women, regardless of background or life stage. Go to www.ursuline.edu/wellness and explore the offerings.

In a sign of the times, the College is offering a new, graduate-level, one-credit, online course titled Telehealth for Health Care Professionals.

The offering is a graduate nursing course open to any health care professionals interested in learning more about how to use telehealth effectively. The intended audience includes but is not limited to physicians, advanced practice nurses, social workers, and counselors.

Participants will develop strategies for engaging patients and gain awareness of appropriate etiquette during virtual visits. The course also covers billing and coding requirements for medical record documentation for optimal reimbursement.

The course starts next on July 12. Once they start, students progress at their own pace through five asynchronous course modules that make learning flexible and convenient. Students receive a certificate upon successful completion of the course and a transcript documenting the completion of NR 500 Telehealth for Health Care Professionals. Tuition is $535.00. Registration is at www.ursuline.edu/telehealth.

Ursuline’s Breen School of Nursing and Health Professions together with Cleveland Clinic received the 2021 Ohio League of Nursing (OLN) Innovation Award in recognition of a perioperative immersion experience jointly developed for nursing students.

The award was officially presented by Dr. Deborah Lindell, Chair of the OLN Awards Committee, at the OLN Virtual Awards Ceremony on April 8, 2021.

“The OLN’s Nursing Innovations Award is a fitting tribute to the group effort, led by Associate Professor Laura Goliat, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, to expose our students to the perioperative environment, from scrub-in, to operating room, to recovery,” said Patricia A. Sharpnack, DNP, RN, CNE, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAAN, Dean and Strawbridge Professor. “Dr. Goliat and her colleagues continually seek innovative ways to bridge the gap between nursing education and nursing practice so as to advance our profession and ensure that our graduates are as prepared as possible to launch their careers as members of health care teams.”

Recent grant funding has enabled the College to respond meaningfully to the needs of students experiencing increased stress related to the pandemic.

On top of the typical anxieties of college life – exams, assignments, homesickness – add the worry over contracting COVID and spreading it to family members, the threat of a mandatory quarantine or isolation period for anyone testing positive or exposed to someone with COVID, and the longing for old-fashioned opportunities to connect with others.

“Students face multiple factors, all piled on top of each other, but one of the biggest problems is the socialization that students are missing,” said Campus Psychologist, Anita Forsberg Culbertson, Psy.D. “Since COVID hit, people are just cherishing interpersonal connectedness.”

While Ursuline resumed face-to-face instruction in the fall 2020, campus community members are asked to maintain social distancing, most residence hall rooms are now single occupancy, and in-person extra-curricular events are rare.

To help address students’ mental health needs in this troubling time, the College applied for and received a grant through the State of Ohio's Coronavirus Relief Fund, and a separate grant from the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland's Ministry Fund. The state funding (which came through the Ohio College Initiative at Prevention Action Alliance, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and the Ohio Department of Higher Education) and the generous grant from the Ursuline Sisters have helped to fund an increase in staffing in the Personal Counseling Office from one full-time and one part-time counselor to two full-time counselors.

In addition, the funds have enabled the College to develop creative remedies, including: • “Q Kits,” gift bags filled with art supplies, puzzle books, snacks and more for students quarantined in their dorm rooms • “RA Uber Service,” in which resident assistants deliver snacks to students in quarantine • Weekly DIY craft kits provided by Programming Board that students pick up from campus and then work on together, either in person or via video conference, to restore social contact • Weekly personal development and self-care programs offered by the Women’s Center • Domestic violence awareness sessions • Guest speakers and other programs hosted by the offices of Campus Ministry, Student Activities, and Diversity

“At Ursuline, we’re all about relationship building and making connections and that has been difficult in this time of COVID,” said Deanne Hurley, Vice President for Student Affairs. “We have tried to connect students with a variety of experiences with social, spiritual, diversity and inclusion elements.”

One silver lining of the pandemic, said Hurley, has been seeing the college community come together for the benefit of students. “Whenever I have to quarantine a student, the faculty just respond right away with the supports and the virtual accommodations the student needs. And staff from Athletics, Residence Life, Campus Ministry, the Women’s Center, Metz (the campus food service provider) and other departments have all worked together, more than ever, to provide engagement and connection opportunities for our students. It’s been very rewarding to see.”

They are, from left to right, top to bottom, • Elizabeth McIntyre, Executive Editor, Crain’s Cleveland Business • Ramya Ramadurai, MBA, Global Program Manager, Rockwell

Automation • Martin Rodriguez, MBA, Senior Vice President- Head of Capital

Markets, First Mutual Holding Company • Michael Santelli, MBA, Director and Portfolio Manager, Microcap at Ancora • Amy Cheatham Tye, JD, Judicial Staff Attorney, 8th District

Court of Appeals • Sheronda L. Peterson ’10 MMT, Alumnae Board President,

IT Associate Project Manager, Progressive Insurance • Sister Ritamary Welsh, OSU, MEd, President, Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland

The Ursuline College Moot Court team of Pre-Law and Legal Studies students Shalva Davidovich and Elizabeth Bena won a bid to the American Moot Court Association National Tournament in January. The first Ursuline team to make it to this competition, they were seeded 59 out of 100 teams.

While Davidovich was not available to compete, Anthony Trantham was allowed to step in as a substitute. “The students spent a tremendous amount of time studying the law, becoming experts on two dozen cases, and learning all aspects of the First Amendment,” said Anne Murphy Brown, J.D., associate professor and director of the Legal Studies Program. “As the team members prepared to compete at the Cleveland-Marshall Regional Tournament, they were able to support and challenge each other. Shalva and Liz making it to the National Competition was a victory for the whole moot court program. I am so proud of our students.”

The three-day competition was hosted by Cleveland-Marshall College of Law for the American Moot Court Association. Ursuline was among elite schools in this tournament, including University of Chicago, Yale University, University of Virginia, Duke, Georgetown, and University of Pennsylvania.

Thanks to a new Early Acceptance Partnership (EAP) with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), qualified students can gain acceptance to both Ursuline and LECOM, the nation’s largest medical school, and they have a 97% board pass rate for first takers.

Application to the EAP can occur as early as the senior year of high school or as late as the start of the third year at Ursuline College. LECOM is reserving up to 5 spots per year for Ursuline students. Read about sophomore Addisen Holt, the first Ursuline student offered LECOM early acceptance, at ursuline.edu/lecom.

Thanks to grant funding, the College has reinstated its Office of Mission, under the direction of Sister Virginia DeVinne, OSU. Collaborating with the Assistant Dean for Diversity and the Director of Campus Ministry, Sister Virginia will provide oversight of the myriad ways the College integrates Ursuline values in every facet of its daily life and outreach to alums and the broader community.

“As we mark the College’s 150th anniversary year, it is especially appropriate that Sister Virginia is charged with focusing on the mission of the college and ensuring that it is articulated publicly and operationalized throughout the institution,” said Richard Konisiewicz, vice president for institutional advancement.

Dr. Tim Kinsella, chair of the Department of History and Civic Engagement, served on the interviewing committee that unanimously chose Sister Virginia for this position. He said he “was impressed especially with Sr. Virginia’s thoughtful and thorough answers to our questions in addition to her calm demeanor. The college is blessed to have her.”

The mission of the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland is to "transform lives through contemplation, justice and compassion." Sr. Virginia noted, "I find such compelling evidence that the ministry at the College is rooted in this spirit. It is my hope that we celebrate and strengthen our commitment to Gospel values as we prepare our students, in the words of the College's mission statement, '. . . for service, leadership and professional excellence.' "

Cleveland Clinic and The Howley Foundation are partnering with Ursuline College to expand the ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program to offer college scholarships to underrepresented students interested in pursuing registered nursing careers.

The ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program, established by Cleveland Clinic and supported by a $10 million gift from The Howley Foundation, is a local high school and college program that seeks to increase diversity in healthcare, address opportunity gaps and reduce health disparities in the community.

Approximately 25 students per year from Cleveland-area high schools enter the ASPIRE program as high school juniors and are taught relationship-based care, research and evidence-based practice, simulation healthcare and more. Seniors in the program now have the opportunity to earn a scholarship to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Ursuline after high school.

Patricia Sharpnack, DNP, RN, Dean of Ursuline’s Breen School of Nursing and Health Professions, said, “We are committed to providing the resources and wrap-around services that will ensure student success in the program.” Ursuline’s Breen School of Nursing and Health Professions is ranked the # 2 nursing program in Ohio by Nurse.org. The program has a 100% employment rate, post licensure. A recent study by the American Enterprise Institute ranked Ursuline #1 nationally for its record of moving students from low-income into higher income groups.

Last fall, Ursuline welcomed 11 ASPIRE students. Most are 2020 high school graduates. Some transferred from the associate’s degree program at Cuyahoga Community College.

Below: Students in the ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program see what it would be like to be a nurse in an operating room.

Photo courtesy of Cleveland Clinic.

In 1990, John G. Wittman Jr., James W. Likly, and Frank G. Likly established an unusual scholarship fund at Ursuline: it is designed to support undergraduate students age 25 and older, nontraditional students, in today's parlance.

For 30 years, the Likly-Wittman Endowed Scholarship Fund has been doing just that, helping nontraditional students to meet their college expenses.

While Ursuline was a trailblazer in the movement to encourage adults to finish college, nontraditional undergrads were far less common in 1990 than they are today, and scholarship support specifically for such students, even more rare.

The men created the scholarship in honor of Margaret Mary Sords Wittman ’29, mother of John Wittman; Marguerite E. Wittman Likly, mother of James and Frank G. Likly; and Jeannette A. Wittman ’30, aunt of all three men. Their family continues to contribute to the fund, which this year assisted 13 students.

“When my brother John and our cousins James and Frank established the Likly-Wittman Endowed Scholarship in 1990, it gave my family a fitting opportunity to honor my mother (Margaret Mary) and my aunts Marguerite and Jeannette in perpetuity by contributing to the mission of the college that was so dear to each of them,” said Thomas V. Wittman. “Call it partial payback for those Baby Days hosted by Ursuline on the Hill back in the late 40s and early 50s.”

(Baby Days were held annually to give alumnae opportunities to gather with one another on the former Cedar Hill campus with babies and children in tow.)

“We are very grateful for the family’s longstanding support of Ursuline College and our mission in educating students for service, leadership, and professional excellence,” said Erin Gay Miyoshi, director of development. “Approximately 35% of our undergraduates are 25 or older and the Likly-Wittman Endowed Scholarship Fund is pivotal in providing financial support and encouragement to the recipients, many of whom are balancing work and family responsibilities while completing their degrees.”