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Over the past three years, I have been fortunate enough to
travel to several parts of the world where the College is active. |
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I made the journey with Tom Morgan, an associate professor of Languages and International Studies
who teaches Russian at St. Scholastica. He started and maintains the exchange program, and serves
as director of our Center for the Study of Peace and Justice. It was a moving experience on several levels. I saw firsthand how our friends and colleagues at the university must deal with severe budget shortages that limit their ability to maintain and improve the campus. Professors are not well paid; most do not have offices. Classrooms and computers are in scarce supply. Yet Russians are a tough people who stopped Napoleon and Hitler and managed to survive Stalin. They know how to deal creatively with adversity. Good teaching, thoughtful learning and solid research are taking place at the Pedagogical University. The people of Petrozavodsk have a warm, friendly, ferocious energy. Everywhere we went they offered their best food and drink to welcome us. Part of this is because practically everybody in Petrozavodsk seems to know and love Tom Morgan, but much of it seems to spring also from a genuine sense of hospitality and humanity that has persevered through adversity. The students are full of life and seem at least cautiously optimistic about their future. Our Russian friends are committed to learning and to self-improvement - traits that I believe will stand them in good stead as they transform their political and economic systems. Elsewhere in this issue you will read another story about learning and self-improvement. St. Scholastica is involved in a comprehensive Self-Study project. This is a critically important effort related to the continuing accreditation of the College by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. It is a long, arduous process. I am proud that over 140 faculty and staff members have worked hard to review every aspect of our College's life, to identify our strengths and our weaknesses, and to make thoughtful suggestions about how to address our shortcomings constructively. My staff and I have spent much time reviewing the reports of participants. What comes through in all of them is an evident love of the College, a commitment to our mission, and a dedication to our students and our future. I see in our College's efforts some of the same energy that animates our colleagues in Petrozavodsk. On the surface, the challenges to our two institutions may seem worlds apart. But the responses come from a similar commitment to preserving and passing on the wisdom that is all of humanity's inheritance. Enclosed you will find the annual report for 2000-2001. As always, it provides an accounting of St. Scholastica's financial strength and lists our current community of supporters. Our endowment took a hit from the stock market decline, as did every other college's. Even so, we had a strong showing and ended our fiscal year in the black. Thank you for your support!
Larry Goodwin President |
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