Sister Joan Lescinski's Inaugural Address
Posted: Oct. 5, 2007
“Enriching Lives: Our Heritage, Our Future”
Joan Lescinski, CSJ, PhD
St. Ambrose University
October 5, 2007
Good afternoon,
Bishop Amos and members of the board of directors;
Bishop Franklin, religious, priests and people of the Diocese of Davenport, Sisters of Providence, and my own dear Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet;
Loyal alumni, benefactors and friends of the university;
Dr. Rogalski and other presidents;
Esteemed delegates from the colleges, universities and organizations, particularly the delegations from the College of Saint Rose, Avila University, Fontbonne University and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College;
Members of the administration, faculty and staff
Mayors Freemire, Thodos and Schweibert, and representatives of Governor Culver and Senator Harkin;
My beloved mother, brother, sister, family and friends;
And especially all of our students here at St. Ambrose;
I thank all of you for honoring St. Ambrose University and me with your attendance here today. It is indeed one of the greatest privileges of my life to stand before you as the thirteenth president of this university.
As with all of us, I would not be here but for the love and support of those whom I have been so very blessed to have in my life. When I was interviewing for the position of president, one of the many questions the St. Ambrose board of directors asked me was, “What supports you?” My first thought was, how fortunate I am to be able to answer that so easily.
I come from a very close-knit family, and for more than 40 years have been a member of a congregation of religious women who have supported me unstintingly throughout my life. They have rejoiced in this opportunity for me to use God’s gifts for leadership.
And so I cannot begin without recognizing my dear mother, Lucy Lescinski, whom we all call “Pearl.” I am especially thankful and blessed to have her present. Without her, I literally would not be here today!
I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to the person who occupied this office before me for the remarkable span of twenty years. During his tenure as president, St. Ambrose grew in nearly every way possible—academic programs and resources; faculty, staff and students; and physical growth of more than $67 million dollars. In short, I have inherited from Dr. Edward Rogalski a university that is strong and healthy.
I am honored and humbled to have been entrusted to build upon Dr. Rogalski’s legacy at this dynamic institution. He has left it poised to take advantage of all the opportunities the future has to offer, and it is to him especially that I make this solemn promise: Ed, I will not let you down.
When I first set foot on this campus for my forums with faculty, staff and students, it was, providentially enough, on December 7th, the Feast Day of Saint Ambrose.
I am a firm believer that we must know where we have been and what we have come from before we can move forward, so I had already researched the institution “from afar”—through the materials and literature I’d been sent, and through the university Web site. As I delved deeper, I learned of an institution with a founding mission and heritage of the caliber and endurance that resonated with me and my commitment to Catholic higher education.
In his excellent book about the first 125 years of St. Ambrose’s history, A Great and Lasting Beginning, Father George McDaniel explains it so eloquently when he writes of the “far-eyed vision” of Bishop John McMullen, who founded the college in 1882 in one of his first acts as the leader of the newly-formed Diocese of Davenport.
Bishop McMullen established St. Ambrose College with a mission that sprang from the tenets of Catholic social justice—the very basic concept of the inherent dignity of every person. Bishop McMullen believed with all his heart in the Gospel message, “Whatever you do for the least of my people, that you do unto me,” and that the true measure of a society is how well it treats its most underprivileged members. He believed just as strongly that the way to address these needs was through educating our young people, who would become the citizens and leaders of tomorrow, so that they might enrich their own lives and, more importantly, the lives of others.
Part of the credit for how successfully that mission was translated to the classrooms of St. Ambrose is due to Reverend Aloysius Schulte, the college’s first president. According to Father McDaniel, Father Schulte felt that the job of an educator was to develop, train and cultivate all the faculties—moral, intellectual and physical—which would form students into Christian men and women ready to take their places in the world. “Religion,” he said, “does not merely run parallel to the course of secular studies but, like a vitalizing sap, should enter into and pervade every fiber of them.”
What an eloquent way to articulate the Catholic intellectual tradition of scholarship informed by faith! A century later, the late Pope John Paul II would write in “Ex Corde Ecclesiae”—“From the Heart of the Church”—of the same enriching experience of a Catholic university. It is, he said, “the ardent search for truth and its unselfish transmission to youth and to all those learning to think rigorously, so as to act rightly and to serve humanity better.”
So, prior to my visit in December, I had learned St. Ambrose was a university founded with a vision and mission I embrace wholeheartedly. I was excited about the possibility of being part of this vibrant scholarly community.
And then I stepped onto the campus.
Those of you who have been here far longer than I have can attest to what makes St. Ambrose different. Simply put, the mission of St. Ambrose—of Bishop McMullen and Father Schulte and all who have come after them—still lives and breathes on this campus. In the two months since I have moved here, this fact has been reinforced countless times by every Ambrosian I have met.
This cohesiveness of purpose in an institution is not as common as one might think. Regardless of differences of opinion or approaches to solving problems, never can it be doubted that Ambrosians care about this university and its students, care about doing their very best for them. It is for this reason, when I learned that the campus community wished me to lead this university—well, it was one of the most joyous days of my professional life.
So—here we are at a juncture, poised between the past and the future. Much has been accomplished since Bishop McMullen and Father Schulte provided St. Ambrose with our “great and lasting beginning.” Much about St. Ambrose has endured and become stronger across the 125 years. Yet, as William Shakespeare says, “We know what we are, but not what we may be.” We cannot rest upon our laurels, not when the world is facing challenges that are growing ever more complex.
It would be very easy for us to say that the droughts and tsunamis of the political and economic climate will always be part of life, to say that the best that we can do in academia is to teach our students how to make a living and to take care of their families. Undoubtedly, it is true that a college education is becoming required for people to secure good jobs, and for businesses, government and organizations to grow stronger and better. And I assure you that the vitality of our community and way of life here in the Quad Cities will be determined by developments and opportunities in higher education within sight of where we work and live.
Even so, I am certain, as I look out upon you all, that you are driven by an even greater purpose. I would submit that the work being done on our nation’s college and university campuses is the most important we can do for the advancement of our society and our world. For you know, as do I, that the foremost responsibility of institutions like St. Ambrose is preparing our graduates “to take their places in the world as Christian men and women,” as Father Schulte so aptly put it, enriching their own lives so that they may enrich the lives of others.
And not just the world of today, but also the world of tomorrow, whose outline is but dimly defined, except that we know that it will be different and it will demand change of us all.
What remains constant, what remains uncompromising in its ability to make a real and lasting difference, is education. It is what former South African President Nelson Mandela, a great advocate for peace and justice, calls “the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Our own Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, once wrote, “Wisdom is the foundation, and justice the work without which a foundation cannot stand.”
For us—today’s St. Ambrose—the challenge lies in how to educate our students to participate and lead in ways that succeed for everyone in this rapidly evolving landscape of the twenty-first century.
So I invite each one of us here today to accept a calling: to become more Ambrosian. I challenge us to look around at the world we live in and determine how St. Ambrose can continue to lead.
We first must find ways to support well the tremendous and continuing growth of the past decade through expanding our quality facilities for student residential space, classrooms and office space, and recreational facilities.
We must find ways to increase the diversity of our campus community to reflect the diversity of the world around us.
We must, as well, find ways to increase our awareness of and contributions to the global community. St. Ambrose must make international experiences a part of every student’s education here—through travel and study abroad and the increased presence of international faculty and students on campus; through further broadening of our curriculum and our intellectual “backdrop” of Western civilization to better incorporate the rich contributions of Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East and Asia to the human community.
We must find ways to continue and expand the tradition of volunteerism and civic contribution by our faculty, staff and students, who last year gave the gift of self through more than 20,000 hours of service in the Quad Cities and elsewhere. Even then, we must reach ever higher so that St. Ambrose University is recognized as a leading contributor to the health and strength of the Quad Cities.
Most of all, in this, as in all our ideals, we must challenge ourselves to seek out more ways for the Catholic intellectual tradition, with its emphasis on peace, justice and the dignity of every individual, to pervade every fiber of our university life.
And the best way to fulfill this very challenging vocation, which has in fact chosen us, is to open Ambrose and ourselves up to the world. Only with open hearts and open minds will we have hope of opening the hearts and minds of others. As we say here, let us all “Bee the difference”—the difference that helps our world resemble much more the Kingdom of God.
My friends and colleagues, this is our future as much as it is our heritage.
I leave you with the words St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, that we “walk by faith, not by sight.” This is the very essence of vision. And we are in a unique position at St. Ambrose. For the “far-eyed vision” and mission with which this institution was founded—the need for scholarship informed by faith, and faith informed by justice—still has the power to inspire us today.
I promise you, this will be the most challenging and fulfilling mission you will ever undertake. And so long as we walk it together, we will succeed.
Thank you.