July 6, 2017
July 2017
July 19, 2017
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Campus News & Events
The University Of Scranton Breaks Ground On South Side Athletics Campus
University of Scranton Athletics Wall of Fame Induction Ceremony – Class of 2016
University of Scranton Athletics Wall of Fame Reception – Class of 2016
Reverend Scott R Pilarz, S.J., To Serve Again As President Of The University Of Scranton
Reverend Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., the Next President of The University of Scranton
Reintroducing Reverend Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., the Next President of The University of Scranton
Luzerne County Community College and The University of Scranton Sign Dual Admission Pact
Scranton Orientation - Wish You Were Here!
Lectures & Schemel Forum
The Making of Mass Incarceration in America
New York Cultural Capital 1945-1965
The Greatest Question That Has Ever Been Presented to the American People
The People Formerly Known As Audience
Shared Paths, Divergent Courses: Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism Part 2
Putin’s Poker Game
The Odyssey by Homer: A History and Physical Exam
Isis in America: From Retweets to Raqqi
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Snapchat | Women's Lacrosse Game
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Snapchat | SpringFest 2017
Snapchat | Royal Rooftop Carnival 2017
Snapchat | Ozzie Brown, Track and Field Head Coach
Snapchat | Summer Orientation 2017
Snapchat |Study Abroad Bolivia
Snapchat | Study Abroad: Belgium
Snapchat | Study Abroad: Ireland
Snapchat | Study Abroad: Spain
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What's Happening on YouTube and Flickr
We have a lot of great new content on the University's YouTube and Flickr pages - if you haven't visited the sites recently here is what you missed this past semester!
July 31, 2017
Today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of The Society of Jesus and a man whose vision and commitment to the ministry of education shaped Western Civilization in profound ways. Ignatius’ educational vision of forming young women and men to be conscientious and caring citizens continues to animate the foundational principles of hundreds of universities, institutes, and high schools the world over: including The University of Scranton.
A few weeks ago, I had the great privilege of traveling to Spain, the birthplace of St. Ignatius, with twelve fellow pilgrims from our university community to experience the Camino Ignaciano (The Way of Ignatius). As we traveled the Camino across the beautiful Spanish countryside we visited many of the sites where Ignatius had profound experiences of God’s transformational grace.
The last of the Ignatian sites we visited was the Jesuit Church in Barcelona. This church is not more remarkable in appearance than any of the other neighborhood churches that dot Barcelona’s cityscape but it is special for one very important reason: it holds the personal sword that Ignatius famously laid on our Lady’s altar in the Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat. This moment was a metanoia experience for Ignatius and a clear indication that the once brash and bawdy soldier was laying aside his old manner of living in order to be formed anew in the image of God.
This dramatic moment in the life of St. Ignatius is displayed beautifully on our campus in Gerhard Baut’s statue Metanoia. In Baut’s powerful depiction of the scene, a supplicant Ignatius dramatically lifts his sword to the heavens, symbolically passing over to God all those burdens and sins that imprisoned his heart and cut him off from God’s life-giving grace. From that moment onward, Ignatius, and the world, would never be the same.
Moments of metanoia are not just reserved for the saintly, and as we Scranton pilgrims celebrated Mass in the presence of St. Ignatius’ sword I recalled the powerful moments of grace that moved among us as we traveled the Camino Ignaciano together. The holiness of the many sites we visited was palpable, but just as palpable was the holiness I experienced in the day to day encounters I had with my colleagues as we shared our own moments of metanoia.
Weeks later, as I sit in my room in Campion Hall and reflect upon Ignatius’ metanoia experience, I am overwhelmed with a profound sense of God’s grace moving through our entire university community. The same Spirit which inspired St. Ignatius in the 16th century still brings about on our campus metanoia big and small. I recognize God’s transformative grace in the laughter and insight of our students as well as the dedication our faculty and staff show everyday as they truly embody what it means to practice “cura personalis.” I see moments of metanoia in the efforts of our student athletes who strive for excellence in all that they do and also in the mediations carried out by our wonderful Residence Life Staff and RA’s who give so much of themselves in order to build community on campus. God’s grace is found in the dedicated folks that feed our bodies, protect us from danger, fix what’s broken, and clean up messes that aren’t their own.
Classroom discussions and laboratory experiments are often places where metanoia happens and transformative grace can even be found in papers that weren’t up to snuff yet were corrected with encouraging and thoughtful comments. When alumni come back to visit they often regale me with personal tales of metanoia that happened while they were on campus. They almost universally add that they wouldn’t be the person they are today had they not had the specific educational experience offered at The University of Scranton; a transformational experience inspired long ago by St. Ignatius Loyola and lived out today through the work of our hands.
As we celebrate the great Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola I ask that you remember your own metanoia experiences, so that in recognizing God's abundant grace at work in your own lives, you may come to know, as St. Ignatius did, the reality of God's abiding love for us all.
Blessings from all of us at The Jesuit Center.
Rev. Patrick Rogers, S.J. Executive Director, The Jesuit Center
Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola
On the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola by Rev. Patrick Rogers, S.J.
July 5, 2017
As the Disney ride proclaims, “It’s a small world after all.” That statement certainly holds true for Jim Brown ’88 and Katelyn Green ’17, who recently discovered they have much more in common than their University of Scranton educations.
While the Regional Networking Trips The University of Scranton President’s Business Council organizes are always occasions to remember for their student and alumni participants, they have rarely turned out to be life-altering events. A recent excursion to Boston, however, gave Brown and Green the opportunity to reminisce about a deceased alumnus they both care deeply for: Tim Green ’88, Katie’s father and Brown’s former housemate, who passed away suddenly in 1994.
How did these two members of the Scranton family, who had never met before the Boston trip, come to discover their unexpected bond, especially given the ubiquity of their surnames?
Apparently, it is a small world after all, especially in Scranton.
Although Brown grew up in Short Hills, New Jersey, a few hours away from campus, he was spiritually connected to The University of Scranton his whole life: His father, Thomas, grew up in the Hill section of Scranton and graduated from the University in 1955 before earning a master’s degree from Fordham University. Thomas was far from Brown’s only connection to a Jesuit education, however: His late uncle, Edward Brown, S.J., served with Joseph A. Panuska, S.J., in Washington, D.C., prior to Panuska’s tenure as University of Scranton president. When Brown was a child, he often visited his Scranton relatives, and when the time came to pursue a college education, Scranton’s proximity to his hometown and its emphasis on Jesuit ideals appealed to him.
Brown majored in finance and has worked for Bank of America and its legacy organizations since 1990. Today, he resides in Dover, Massachusetts, with his wife, Jean, and their three children: Kerrianne, Ryan and William. As the head of digital marketing for Bank of America, he regularly combines his love of finance and economics with his marketing, technological and management skills.
“Ensuring that we’re putting people in the right positions and the right spots to be successful … that’s the key to success, as far as I’m concerned,“ he said.
Brown met Green in 1984, when they were both first-year students living in McCourt Hall.
“He was full of life,” Brown said of the elder Green. “He lit up the room. You always wanted him to be around, no matter what you were doing.”
By the time they were juniors, Brown and Green, along with a few other friends, lived together in a house on Quincy Ave. After graduation, they kept in touch.
“We had annual gatherings,” Brown said. “A number of my very good friends from The University of Scranton still get together once a year.
“Tim was a big part of that the first few years out of school.”
After graduation, Tim met and married Christine, Katie’s mother, and the couple settled in the Buck’s County area, where Katie and her two older brothers grew up. Tragedy struck when Tim passed away a few short months before Katie was born.
“It was a sudden death,” Green said of his passing. “His heart was beating so fast it just stopped.”
Although Katie was primarily interested in the University because of her father’s connection to it, a visit to campus convinced her it was the right place for her.
“I fell in love with the campus,” she said. “The tour guides really sold me on it – it’s just a beautiful place.”
As a marketing major with a minor in operations management about to graduate in a few weeks, Katie was no stranger to the PBC’s regional trips, and she decided to attend the Boston outing to make a few connections and see the city. Brown, who has attended several similar functions over the years, nearly didn’t go as it followed another social engagement the same evening, but, ultimately, his commitment to his alma mater prevailed over his biological need for rest.
“I think what (PBC Executive Director) Tim (Pryle ’89) does with that group is fabulous,” Brown said. “I try to make it a point to go to that meeting in particular, when they make the visit
“Sometimes, some of those kids are really shy, so I was walking around speaking with groups of kids and handing out my business card. I was speaking with (Katie). We all have a nametag on with our graduation year, and at one point, she said, ‘So, 1988 – my dad graduated in 1988.’ I said, ‘Oh, no kidding?’ And she said, ‘Yeah – Tim Green.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?’ I literally paused, and what went through my mind was, ‘Wait a second – there must be more than one Tim Green. She can’t be talking about the Tim Green that I knew.’”
“He was completely taken aback by it,” Katie said. “He said, ‘I lived with your father.’ I was completely speechless – I didn’t know really what was going on (and was) trying to process everything that was happening. We pretty much talked about my dad the rest of the night until he left.”
“I was speechless for a bit,” Brown said. “When one of those life events happens, there are a million thoughts that go through your mind in about 10 seconds. That’s what was going on at that moment, but at the end of it, I was just very happy to have been there that night and to have met Tim’s daughter. The fact of the matter is I thought she had something special about her, believe it or not, before I even knew who she was. That’s why I was speaking with her – she seemed like someone who was very mature, was asking great questions and was very professional.
“I said to myself, ‘Of course you’re Tim’s daughter.’”
Although Green had heard a great deal about her father’s life from her family, Brown’s insight into his college days filled in some of the missing pieces she had wondered about her whole life.
“I didn’t know a lot about my dad in college since my mom didn’t know him then,” she said. “I learned … that he enjoyed Scranton as much as I did. It made me feel closer to him.”
The two exchanged contact information, and Brown soon sent Katie pictures of Tim that she had never seen before.
“I look a lot like my mom, but I didn’t realize I (also) look a lot like my dad,” Katie said. (My brother is) the spitting image of my dad, so it’s cool to see that I have some of that, too.”
And, given the “small world” reality of Scranton life, it didn’t take long for word of their meeting to spread like wildfire.
“I texted my other former roommates, and they were all amazed at the story I was telling,” Brown said. “They were all thrilled that she had persevered through some tough times and that she had gone to her dad’s alma mater.
“You never know (who you’re going to run into). That’s true in so many things. Every meeting, every discussion, every event – you never know what you’re going to get out of it.”
Alumni Spotlight: Jim Brown '88 and Katelyn Green '17
A PBC event connects an alumna with her deceased father's roommate
July 13, 2017
NASCAR has been my passion for many years and it is my dream to work in the sport upon graduation. This summer, I interned with Speedway Motorsports in Charlotte, North Carolina. Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI), headquartered in Charlotte, is a leading marketer, promoter and sponsor of motorsports activities in the United States. The Company, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates eight first-class racing facilities in significant markets across the country.
I began my internship with SMI in mid-May by helping to execute two NASCAR race weekends both at Charlotte Motor Speedway – The NASCAR Monster Energy All-Star Race weekend and the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend. During race weekends, I helped manage the race day experiences of several c-suite executives and corporate partners. I also assisted with the execution of the new NASCAR Trackside Live stage which featured many NASCAR drivers from the national touring series and a concert with the country music group Big & Rich.
Throughout the summer, I have helped the SMI national sales and marketing team by performing a variety of tasks. On a daily basis, I utilized Salesforce to update the team with sponsorship reports, television and digital consumption reports and industry news. I created social audience reports to examine platform follower growth on each of SMI’s tracks social media accounts. I also researched national athletic events in detail to investigate how brands leveraged their sponsorships in sports marketing campaigns.
I recently returned from Kentucky Speedway where I assisted my supervisors in executing another NASCAR race weekend. At Kentucky, I helped with a large hospitality setup in the infield that welcomed Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Danica Patrick and other motorsports personalities. I enjoyed learning how SMI performs at another property that they own.
I have had a very enjoyable experience living in Charlotte for the summer. It is a very young city that I believe will continue to grow as the years go on. Charlotte is the hub for everything motorsports related including NASCAR headquarters, race teams and marketing agencies. On the week leading up to the events at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the city hosted a festival called “Speed Street” that welcomed country music stars Billy Currington, Jake Owen, Granger Smith and The Cadillac Three. Most recently, Speedway Motorsports and the city of Charlotte have submitted a bid for a major-league soccer team.
I had many exciting moments this summer...
The most exciting was driving around Charlotte Motor Speedway with my supervisors in a brand new Chevrolet Camaro SS. We reached speeds upwards of 135 mph.
Other special moments included making conversations with NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon as he passed by my office in route to the television broadcast booth, transporting pace cars around the speedway minutes before the start of the Coca-Cola 600, attending the driver/crew chief meeting with celebrity Channing Tatum, and racing my supervisors (and unfortunately losing) at the local go-kart track.
Whether it be Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s notorious “Pass in the Grass” at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the 1987 All-Star Race or Tony Stewart’s final career win at Sonoma Raceway in 2016, Speedway Motorsports has provided venues for NASCAR history to take place. I am thankful for the opportunity to see the behind-the-scenes view and gain insights on how this company continues to be a leading innovator in NASCAR. It will truly be a summer that I will never forget.
‘From Scranton to Charlotte - 180 mph’
This summer, I interned with Speedway Motorsports in Charlotte, North Carolina. Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI), headquartered in Charlotte, is a leading marketer, promoter and sponsor of motorsports activities in the United States.
July 5, 2017
The University of Scranton hosted a reception on campus for participants in the Mentoring Young Minds program this spring. Through the mentoring program coordinated by the Campus Ministries’ Center for Service and Social Justice at Scranton, University students met weekly with children attending The Nativity Miguel School of Scranton.
Seated in first row, from left: Nativity Miguel School students Hailey Bittencourt, Wendy DeLaCruz, Ashley Vasquez Dominguez, Justice White, Lucia DeCarvalho, Sarika Mongar, Mandy Lahl, Aayusha Kefley, Destiny Tapia, Nirjhala Kadariya, Nikauri Fernandez and Nahisha Pokhrel.
Second row: Nativity Miguel School students Christopher Martinez, Partik Khadka, Nischit Pokhrel, Jorge Ramirez, Aaron Weikel, Dhiraj Baniya, Emmanuel Ramirez, Bryan Pulla, Justin Delgado and Xzerean Tassey.
Back row: University of Scranton students Samantha Fortino, Centereach, New York; Emily Ferrara, Morris Plains, New Jersey; Colleen Rohr, Audubon; Emily Errickson, Hazlet, New Jersey; Alexander Pinarreta, New Bedford, Massachusetts; Owen Drozd, Easton; Alexandra Turner, West Chester; Patrick Chapman, Yardley; Victoria Mulhern, Worcester, Massachusetts; Megan Fabian, West Seneca, New York; Kaitlin Kenyon, Centerport, New York; and Marcella Guilfoyle, Rockville Centre, New York.
Absent from photo were University students Emily Lang, Scranton, and Jordan McCauley, Farmingdale, New York.
University Students ‘Mentor Young Minds’ at Nativity Miguel School
The University of Scranton hosted a reception on campus for participants in the Mentoring Young Minds program this spring.
July 5, 2017
The University of Scranton’s two-day orientation sessions for students and parents of the class of 2021 took place June 19-20, 22-23, 26-27 and 29-30.
At the opening session, University of Scranton Interim President Herbert B. Keller, S.J., welcomed the incoming students to their “journey” at Scranton, one that he said will be “exciting, demanding and fulfilling.” A journey, he said that would be transformational in nature, inspiring selfless service to others. Father Keller also promised the incoming students will be supported with “personal care and attention” for which Scranton is noted.
Scranton’s summer orientation is designed to introduce new students and their families to the University’s procedures, facilities and support services, and to provide them with the opportunity to meet with faculty, administrators and staff, as well as each other. Student orientation leaders Richard Motter, Moscow, and Robert McGowan, Scranton, along with a team of University administrators, faculty and more than 50 student orientation assistants, acquaint the incoming class to the University community and region.
At the orientation sessions, incoming students complete chemistry, mathematics, foreign language and composition placement tests. They also meet academic advisors, attend presentations on support services and extracurricular activities, and participate in recreational and social events. Parents and guests learn about the new role they will play as they transition to becoming a parent of a college student and are briefed on the resources and programs offered by Campus Ministries, Financial Aid, the Center for Career Development and other departments at the University.
The members of the incoming class represent 16 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the Federated States of Micronesia.
The entire class of 2021 will assemble on campus for the first time at Fall Welcome Weekend Aug. 19-20.
See photos from our orientation sessions here!
Class of 2021 Begins Journey at Scranton
The University of Scranton’s two-day orientation sessions for students and parents of the class of 2021 took place.
July 5, 2017
Charles E. Kratz, dean of the library and information fluency at The University of Scranton, awarded the 2017 Library Research Prize for undergraduate students to Kathleen Reilly, Wayne, a history and philosophy double major with a women’s studies concentration, and the 2017 Library Research Prize for graduate students to Christina Gavalas, Franklin Square, New York, and Marjorie Toron, Marlboro, New Jersey, who are pursing master’s degrees in occupational therapy.
The University’s Weinberg Memorial Library inaugurated the research prizes in 2011 to recognize excellence in research projects that show evidence of significant knowledge of the methods of research and the information gathering process, and use of library resources, tools and services.
Reilly, a member of the Honors Program and the Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program, submitted her honors thesis, “Girls at the ‘U’: A History of Coeducation at The University of Scranton.” The idea for this project came from her duties as a work study student in the Library’s Digital Services Department, where she spent time scanning old newspaper clippings about the University. To complete her thesis, she spent “countless hours” researching primary documents in the Helen Gallagher McHugh Special Collections and University Archives, as well as on the computer gathering information from publications available via the Library’s Digital Collections website. In her application essay, she stated, “Because of the abundance of resources offered by the Weinberg Memorial Library and the support of the librarians, I was able to turn my idea sophomore year into a detailed, comprehensive history of an important part of the University’s past.”
Honorable Mention awards in the undergraduate category were presented to nursing major Mariah Ruther, Tinton Falls, New Jersey, who submitted her nursing honors thesis, “Metabolic Syndrome in Women Who Take Second-Generation Antipsychotic Medications;” occupational therapy major Kerry Ann Randall, Unionville, Connecticut, who submitted a literature review on “Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy;” and exercise science major Michael Ramsthaler, Florham Park, New Jersey, who submitted an informative essay titled, “Hazing: Breaking Laws and Breaking Teams.”
Gavalas and Toron submitted an “Historical Analysis of Low Vision in Occupational Therapy,” which they completed for the Leadership in Occupational Therapy course (OT 501). The assignment required them to find primary sources beginning with the founding of their profession in 1917. Their research gathering included locating items on microfilm and on databases far removed from occupational therapy. In their application essay, they said, “We can truly attest to the ‘golden gem’ of a library that we have access to, both on campus and online.” Coincidentally, the two also won the Library Research Prize in the undergraduate category last year. Gavalas serves as the graduate assistant for the University’s Leahy Community Health and Family Center. Toron, serves as the head resident assistant for the sophomore and junior region at the University.
An Honorable Mention in the graduate category was given to Katelyn Moyer, Allentown, Daniel Dolphin, Scranton, Robert Roncek, Barnsville, and Steven Roughton, Blandon, who are graduate students in the University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program. Their submission was a systematic review on “The Effect of Depression on Functional Mobility in Older Adults Following Hip Fracture Surgery,” which they presented as a poster at the Combined Sections Meeting for the American Physical Therapy Association in San Antonio, Texas in February.
For more information about the Library Research Prize, contact Bonnie Oldham, information literacy coordinator at The University of Scranton’s Weinberg Memorial Library, at 570-941-4000 or bonnie.oldham@scranton.edu.
Library Announces Research Prize Winners
The University awarded the 2017 Library Research Prize for undergraduate students and graduate students.
July 24, 2017
Survey finds money isn’t everything when it comes to a college education
About 90 percent of parents and students rated “preparing for a fulfilling career” as a very- or extremely-valuable benefit of a college education, according to a MONEY/Barnes and Noble college survey. MONEY magazine accounted for that statistic among the 27 factors evaluated for its 2017 ranking of the nation’s “Best Colleges For Your Money.” Scranton ranked No. 206 among the 711 U.S. colleges listed that MONEY determined to deliver the “best value.”
Scranton was among the 26 Jesuit universities, and was the highest ranked school in Northeastern Pennsylvania, in the list published online in July.
In addition to the widely-accepted measures used to assess “value,” such as graduation rates, affordability measures such as how much students and parents have to borrow, and measures of alumni success such as howmuch recent graduates earn, MONEY added a new factor to its ranking methodology this year – the percentage of a school’s graduates who consider themselves to be in “meaningful” jobs, as reported to PayScale.com.
MONEY’s ranking methodology also includes a “comparative value” score, which “assess howwell students at each school fare compared with those at other schools where the students who attend come from similar academic and economic backgrounds.” According to MONEY “by controlling for the types of students that colleges admit and seeing how well they do after graduation, the rankings judge how much of a contribution the college made to their success in the years in between.”
The methodology MONEY used to rank the colleges’ “academic quality” included the six-year graduation rate, the standardized test scores of incoming freshmen, the student-faculty ratio, among other factors.
The criteria used to assess “affordability” included an estimate of the “net price of a degree,” which assessed tuition, the time it takes for students to graduate, tuition inflation and the school’s average need, merit and athletic financial aid. The “affordability” criteria also looked at student debt, student loan default rates, student loan default rates adjusted for the economic and academic profile of a school’s student body and the affordability for low- and moderate- income students, among other factors.
The criteria MONEY used to assess “outcomes” included: salaries of alumni reported in PayScale early- and mid-career; their reported earnings at these points adjusted by major; and the “market value of alumni skills,” which is basedin the Brookings Institute’s calculation of the market value of skills commonly listed by alumni in their LinkedIn profiles. In addition to other factors, the “outcomes” criteria also looked at socio-economic mobility index that uses data from the Equality of Opportunity Project, a study that examines the percentage of students that move from low-income backgrounds to upper-middle-class jobs before the age of 34.
Colleges with graduation rates below the national median, that were in financial difficulty, or that had fewer than 500 undergraduates, were not included inMONEY’s ranking.
Scranton has been recognized for its value in other national rankings, which include U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, Niche.com and The Economist, among others.
About 90 percent of parents and students rated “preparing for a fulfilling career” as a very- or extremely-valuable benefit of a college education, according to a MONEY/Barnes and Noble college survey. MONEY magazine accounted for that statistic among the 27 factors evaluated for its 2017 ranking of the nation’s “Best Colleges For Your Money.” Scranton ranked No. 206 among the 711 U.S. colleges listed that MONEY determined to deliver the “best value.”
Scranton was among the 26 Jesuit universities, and was the highest ranked school in Northeastern Pennsylvania, in the list published online in July.
In addition to the widely-accepted measures used to assess “value,” such as graduation rates, affordability measures such as how much students and parents have to borrow, and measures of alumni success such as how
MONEY’s ranking methodology also includes a “comparative value” score, which “assess how
The methodology MONEY used to rank the colleges’ “academic quality” included the six-year graduation rate, the standardized test scores of incoming freshmen, the student-faculty ratio, among other factors.
The criteria used to assess “affordability” included an estimate of the “net price of a degree,” which assessed tuition, the time it takes for students to graduate, tuition inflation and the school’s average need, merit and athletic financial aid. The “affordability” criteria also looked at student debt, student loan default rates, student loan default rates adjusted for the economic and academic profile of a school’s student body and the affordability for low- and moderate- income students, among other factors.
The criteria MONEY used to assess “outcomes” included: salaries of alumni reported in PayScale early- and mid-career; their reported earnings at these points adjusted by major; and the “market value of alumni skills,” which is based
Colleges with graduation rates below the national median, that were in financial difficulty, or that had fewer than 500 undergraduates, were not included inMONEY’s ranking.
Scranton has been recognized for its value in other national rankings, which include U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, Niche.com and The Economist, among others.
Multifaceted Ranking Places Scranton Among Nation’s ‘Best College Values’
About 90 percent of parents and students rated “preparing for a fulfilling career” as a very- or extremely-valuable benefit of a college education, according to a MONEY/Barnes and Noble college survey.
July 7, 2017
A successful mentoring program matching University of Scranton students with Scranton School District students will return from hiatus under a new name with support from a $11,000 grant from the Margaret Briggs Foundation.
The Meg Cullen-Brown SMART (Scranton Mentors Actively Reaching Teens) Mentoring program, an initiative of Campus Ministries’ Center for Service and Social Justice at the University, will engage 20 high school freshmen who demonstrate high academic ability but also may have exposure to elements that could inhibit their future success.
The program was named after a beloved longtime University of Scranton administrator who died unexpectedly in May 2016. At the time of her death, Meg Cullen-Brown was the director of the Office of the Registrar and Academic Services at Scranton. She also was president of the staff senate and a member of 11 different University committees and was known for her devotion to non-traditional adult and high school student populations.
The program, which is free to the high school students, will match 30 University mentors to 20 mentees in teams of three mentors and two mentees. The mentors will train for 10 to 12 hours with professional staff members and graduate students before embarking on a series of eight interactive sessions that will cover topics such as studying skills, healthy relationships, career goals, social media, interpersonal and decision-making skills, adjusting to high school, building a support network and managing finances.
One program goal is to help the mentees establish a strong relationship with college students who can demonstrate the advantages of performing well in school and attending college. Studies have shown that students who make a positive connection with a mentor have a better chance at academic success.
Other goals of the program, which will celebrate ethnic, economic and other diversity, include increasing the capability of University students to serve as role models, familiarizing local high school students with a college atmosphere and inspiring them to maintain high grades, remain in school and aspire to higher education.
The program will re-launch this September with
The SMART mentoring program was implemented in 2014 and continued
In addition to the Margaret Briggs Foundation grant, the program is supported by individual, corporate and foundation contributions as well as the Meg Cullen-Brown Memorial Fund, established by her family and friends.
Pat Vaccaro, director of the Campus Ministries’ Center for Service and Social Justice at the University, developed and continues to oversee the SMART Mentoring program. She has worked directly with students for more than 24 years.
Members of the family of the late Meg Cullen-Brown met with University of Scranton representatives to plan for the fall start of The Meg Cullen-Brown SMART (Scranton Mentors Actively Reaching Teens) Mentoring program, a mentoring program that matches University of Scranton students with Scranton School District students. From left: Michael Brown; Ryan Brown,’16; Pat Vaccaro, director of the Campus Ministries’ Center for Service and Social Justice at the University, who will oversee the program; Michael Brown Jr. ’13 G’16; and Jake Brown ’21.
Mentoring Program Named After Meg Cullen-Brown
A successful mentoring program matching University of Scranton students with Scranton School District students will return from hiatus under a new name with support from a $11,000 grant from the Margaret Briggs Foundation.
July 19, 2017
The University of Scranton’s online Master of Accountancy degree program was ranked No.1 in the nation in a newly published list of top accounting programs by Best Colleges, an independent online higher education resource.
According to Douglas M. Boyle, DBA, associate professor and chair of Scranton’s Accounting Department and the program’s founder, “Our initial vision for the master’s in
James Boyle, D.B.A., assistant professor of accounting and the program’s director, credits alumni input, saying that “our successful alumni at Big 4 firms and major public and private companies continuously mentor our MAcc students and offer their real-world experience in helping to develop and refine our curriculum. As a result, our MAcc graduates are ready to excel and bring their careers to the next level in the marketplace.”
The Best Colleges website highlights Scranton’s innovative MAcc Bridge Program, which enables students who have a non-accounting bachelor’s degree to efficiently gain the necessary prerequisites which provide the foundation needed for success in the master’s program. Brian Carpenter, Ph.D., professor of accounting and the Bridge Program’s founder, said that “there is a growing demand for highly qualified accountants that projects well into the future. Providing a path for the best and brightest candidates to gain entry to our program ensures that we are graduating highly qualified professionals who also bring a very diverse skill set to the market.”
Best Colleges, according to its website, provides “independent evaluations of online colleges and degree programs based on publicly available data and research to highlight those schools that offer a high-quality, reputable education at a reasonable cost.” Best Colleges only ranks “four-year, bachelor’s degree-granting liberal arts college or university in the United States, with at least one top 50 ranking in another major ranking system in the last year.” Their Master’s in Accountancy Online ranking considered acceptance rates, retention rates, six-year graduation rate and loan default rates, among other factors.
Scranton’s Panuska College of Professional Studies offers online master's degrees in health administration, health
In January 2017, Best Choice Schools, an online resource for academic degree programs, ranked The University of Scranton No. 7 in the nation in its list of the “20 Best Online Schools for Accounting Master’s 2016-2017.” U.S. News and World Report also listed Scranton among the “Best Online Programs” in the nation in its 2017 publication.
Scranton’s Online Master’s in Accountancy Program Named Best in Nation
The University of Scranton’s online Master of Accountancy degree program was ranked No.1 in the nation in a newly published list of top accounting programs by Best Colleges, an independent online higher education resource.
July 12, 2017
The University of Scranton’s next president, Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J. ’H15, has joined Scranton’s Board of Trustees as of June 1.
Father Pilarz, who served as Scranton’s 24th president from 2003 to 2011, will return to Scranton after completing his term as president of Georgetown Preparatory School in Washington, D.C., at the end of the 2017-18 academic year. At Georgetown Prep, Father Pilarz led the community in a celebration of the 225th anniversary of its founding, guiding the development of a comprehensive strategic plan and working to secure the largest gift in the school’s history – a $20 million commitment to support building restorations and other strategic plan projects.
During his service as president of Marquette University, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 2011 to 2013, he spearheaded a strategic planning process and also guided the school into the newly configured Big East conference.
Father Pilarz was the fifth longest-serving president at Scranton and third longest-serving Jesuit president. During his previous tenure at Scranton, the University earned national recognition for academic quality, community
As a scholar, Father Pilarz has delivered numerous papers at scholarly conferences on various aspects of medieval and Renaissance literature. He has also lectured and published on topics related to Jesuit education. His book, Robert Southwell, S.J., and the Mission of Literature 1561-1595: Writing Reconciliation, was published by Ashgate Press.
He has received numerous awards for teaching,
Father Pilarz earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Georgetown University; a master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University; and a master’s degree in divinity from the Weston School of Theology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned a Ph.D. in English at the City University of New York. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1981 and was ordained a priest in 1992.
Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., Returns to University of Scranton Board of Trustees
The University of Scranton’s next president, Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J. ’H15, has joined Scranton’s Board of Trustees as of June 1.
July 10, 2017
The University of Scranton gave community leaders a preview of its new Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Crime, which combines faculty research expertise and criminal justice practitioner knowledge with state-of-the-art technology for extensive data analysis.
The center, housed in the University’s Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Criminology, will provide: education, certification and professional development in the latest scientific criminal justice techniques; analysis of data using various sophisticated modeling techniques that can then be applied to more efficiently utilize resources; and evaluation of the effectiveness of programming.
“The main purpose of the center is to help criminal justice practitioners more effectively navigate the challenging criminal justice environment, while engaging students in a unique, experiential learning opportunity that also serves our greater community,” said Michael Jenkins, Ph.D., associate professor of criminal justice and executive director of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Crime.
“By integrating this knowledge and expertise with real life cases by working with – and learning from – our local partners, we are providing our students with the chance to make a positive impact on people’s lives.,” said Rev. Herbert B. Keller, S.J., interim president at the University.
Through the center, University students will be able to minor in crime analysis or earn a certificate in crime analysis, crime prevention or criminal investigations. Students majoring in criminal justice who meet GPA and other requirements can apply for the University’s Student Analyst Program, which will allow students to work directly with criminal justice agencies and faculty on research, data collection and analysis.
“Actually getting into our partner agencies to gather data, learning about the field from the inside, and gaining expertise in the analysis of problems that face criminal justice practitioners will set our graduates apart from students in most undergraduate programs,” said Dr. Jenkins.
According to Dr. Jenkins, University faculty have already been working individually on initiatives with several nonprofit agencies, as well as the Scranton Police Department. The center will now provide a cohesive structure and additional resources to these efforts, as well as opportunities for new collaborations.
“What we have here in the city of Scranton and Northeast PA, is probably one of the best universities in the country and, on top of that, one of the best Criminal Justice Departments in the country,” said Carl Graziano, chief of the Scranton Police Department (SPD). “That is really something we have to embrace.”
Chief Graziano said the SPD is excited to partner with the University’s criminal justice department for the center. “You have a teaching facility that not only benefits the students, it’s going to benefit so much more,” he said.
The SPD and the center have submitted a proposal for federal funding for a new initiative that would offer treatment, without arrest, to low-level drug offenders. The center would collect data and evaluate effectiveness of program.
Criminal justice professor Ismail Onat, Ph.D., chief analyst for the center, provided a demonstration of some of the data analysis capability of the center, which applies the geographic and temporal elements from crime data to project the risk of specific crimes occurring within a neighborhood block.
In another example, Dr. Onat and Dr. Jenkins examined the overlap between crime victimization and socioeconomic disadvantage.
“Maps illustrate what we also find in our statistical analysis, when broken down by the census block group, hot spots of crime victimization overlap significantly with areas of concentrated disadvantage,” said Dr. Onat.
The center will also offer professional development training for those already working in policing, corrections, private security or other related fields. The first course officially offered through the center is July 26, on the principles and importance of using evidence-based practice. It is open to anyone working with those in or affected by the criminal justice system.
The University offers a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and minors in criminal justice and criminology. Scranton’s criminal justice program is certified by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS), an international association that fosters professional and scholarly activities in the field of criminal justice. The certification is designed to evaluate evidence-based compliance that meets or exceeds all academic standards set by the ACJS executive board for associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s level criminal justice programs. The certification is based on outcome assessment of evidence of a program’s quality and effectiveness.
University of Scranton Opens Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Crime
The University of Scranton gave community leaders a preview of its new Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Crime, which combines faculty research expertise and criminal justice practitioner knowledge with state-of-the-art technology for extensive data analysis.
