Posted: 01/24/07

Faith as a deciding factor?
The role of Catholicism in choosing our next St. Michael's College president

Rachel Haven | fact checker
rhaven@smcvt.edu

 “A Catholic, residential, liberal arts college,” is the tag line St. Michael’s College uses to describe itself in its web site and in various publications.

With the announced resignation of St. Michael’s president Marc vanderHeyden on the horizon, and three finalists itching to be his successor, St. Michael's identity as a Catholic, residential, and liberal arts college will be in the hands of someone new.

With a history of Catholic presidents, St. Michael’s will once again be led by a Catholic, as all three candidates are of the faith and have either studied or taught at Catholic institutions.

John J. Neuhauser is currently serving as Academic Dean at Boston College, a Catholic university. He says he is confident he will be comfortable at the helm of a Catholic institution such as St. Michael’s.

As the president of Ohio Dominican University, a small Catholic liberal arts school, Jack P. Calareso has his master's degrees in theology and scripture.

Christine M. Wiseman has spent more than three decades in Catholic institutions, and has also served on the boards of three Catholic schools.

The search

The board of trustees formed a search committee in charge of narrowing the pool of applicants down to three possible candidates. The issue of Catholicism played a key role in the selection.

“It was important for us when we did the search,” says Trixie Schmied, a junior at St. Michael’s and the sole student member on the committee. “We looked for people that had a strong Catholic background. If we didn’t feel that would have been important then our pool of applicants would have been triple or quadruple the size it was.”

Although the candidates’ religious background wasn’t the deciding factor in the search, the board clearly preferred that the next president of St. Michael’s be Catholic.

“I don’t think that right now [a non-Catholic candidate] would be accepted,”
Schmied says. “They really would have had to bring something magnificent to the table.”

Emphasis on the president’s need to be Catholic could stem in part from Burlington Bishop Salvatore Matano’s statements made two summers ago at a confrence of Vermont preists. He suggested that St. Michael’s is too liberal and needs to become fully Catholic in all areas--including administration.

According to an Echo editorial written last by Jeff Morton, these comments sparked dialouge between the bishop and some members of the college and community, as Matano has the right to revoke St. Michael’s standing as a Catholic college. Following the suggestion by the board of trustees, vanderHeyden created a five-year plan designed to evaluate the college’s standing as a Catholic institution and determine whether the title is still fitting.

Feedback

The presidential search has sparked the interest of much of the St. Michael’s community, some of whom have been following the candidates closely. Joanne Nelson, director of Pastoral services at St. Michael’s, says that a Catholic president is important to St. Michael's identity.

“I think at the president’s level it’s really, really important to be a Catholic. That’s the number one leadership position here,” Nelson says. "In the position of president, I would support first and foremost, a person who meets all of the qualifications and is Catholic. That’s my preferred candidate.”

Nelson also says that she supports a dynamic candidate who will bring a whole range of positive qualities to the position of president.

“I think it needs to be a very well-balanced person,” she says. “I want someone that can really represent our institution well.”

Gatien Gaujac, a religion major and senior at St. Michael’s, says that he recognizes the importance of having a Catholic president, but says that isn't his primary concern.

“Being Catholic isn’t everything, but this is a Catholic school, so someone with a Catholic background or at least a knowledge and understanding of Catholicism should be in placed at the head,” he says. “But this also isn’t a parish; this is a college.”