As I contemplated the title of your conference and what part Brescia University plays in it—I meditated on the leadership role Brescia is called to exert in our diocese. Leadership is a word that holds a lot of hungers. Brescia and Mt. St. Joseph attempted to discover and feed many hungers over the past 80 years. Our leadership's greatest hunger challenge is the formation of adult Catholic citizens for the next generation.

Two particular characteristics of leadership that I will address this evening are Preservation and Transformation. A very brief history of Brescia will demonstrate our mission to preserve Angela Merici's charism and mission of education. We have committed to a preservation of Catholic and liberal arts values—we provide a long view in a nearsighted world.

Transformation will be demonstrated in our growth, present endeavors and future goals. Critical thinking based on gospel values earmark the challenge we present to question our perception of the world, to stand outside our personal world, to read the signs of the times and to adapt. That transformation theme has been our guiding principal.

Although Brescia University has just completed a year of celebration for it's 50^th Anniversary— Brescia, as a link with the present Church in Western Kentucky, has a much longer history. The charism of St. Angela Merici inspired the foundation of the Ursuline Sisters in 1535 at Brescia, Italy. For the next 300 plus years the Ursulines and their mission of education and protection of family life spread throughout Europe and finally to America. In the early 1900's the Mount St. Joseph Ursulines founded Mount St. Joseph Junior College for Women at Maple Mount.

Angela, the woman of VISION that she was, advised us to read the signs of the times and to adapt. Therefore it was with her council that we Ursulines responded to the request of Owensboro/Daviess County citizens in the 40s to offer classes in Owensboro. To accommodate men returning from World War II with Veteran educational benefits. The class offerings grew in Owensboro and we closed our campus at the Mount. In 1950 Mt. St. Joseph was incorporated as Brescia College, a Catholic, co-ed, liberal arts institution of higher learning. Initially, Brescia was staffed only by Ursulines. Early on, we were joined by our beloved Fr. Saffer. Later we began adding part-time laymen to the faculty. Brescia today has 49 FT faculty and many PT faculty and staff.

At its official founding in 1950 Brescia had 2 buildings. It now owns 33 properties encompassing most of 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th Streets from Frederica to Allen Streets, 7 residential buildings on St. Ann Street and the Lechner Graduate Center on the NW corner of 7^th and Frederica.

The first graduating class in 1953 had 4 students. The 2000 class numbered 157. Brescia is proud of its 5000 alumni, 53% of whom make financial contributions to their alma mater. (To appreciate this 53% participation you need to know that the national average is only 28%.) Brescia's alumni occupy important positions in their parishes, schools, healthcare, business world, social services and as public officials. Some are priests and some religious of many orders. Financial contributions are measurable, but the other contributions of our alumni are more difficult to itemize. Throughout these 50+ years Brescia, OSUs and the Diocese of Owensboro have worked together to make this growth possible. We are grateful to all of you who have contributed to this growth. (Every student you help us recruit is equivalent to a $10,000 donation.)

Our mission statement is: Brescia University is a co-educational Catholic institution founded by the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. The University offers Associate, Baccalaureate, and Master's Degrees as well as certificates through semester and time-shortened programs of higher education in the Ursuline tradition. Brescia emphasizes the liberal arts and prepares its students for rewarding careers and for service to others.

Brescia takes its present mission seriously. We have read, studied and dialogued on Ex corde Ecclesiae. We work very closely with our extremely supportive Bishop. One of my first official acts as president was to change the status of Bishop McRaith from an ex officio non-voting trustee to a voting member of our Board. We are indeed cognizant and appreciative of his council and we're committed to serving the Church, especially in Western Kentucky. Brescia is blessed to have 2 diocesan clergy (Frs. Leonard & Larry) and a St. Louis diocesan priest Fr. Pat Ryan on our faculty. Even with the decrease in Ursuline members, Brescia still has 14 Ursulines and 3 Benedictine Sisters on faculty and staff.

One of the signs of the times is the increasing role of the laity in the mission of the Catholic Church. Brescia makes every effort to recruit and retain quality faculty/staff who support Brescia's mission. We are proud of our faculty members and their many accomplishments. Their goal is to prepare our students to take their place in society as informed citizens interested in peace, justice and service to others.

Reading the signs of the time Brescia has introduced a weekend college to accommodate working adults. Later we introduced an innovative Master of Science in Management. The MSM teaches more interpersonal and managerial skills than the more traditional MBA.

In the last several years Brescia has focused on more active recruitment of traditional age residential students. Before, we relied too heavily on commuters. After the community college and WKU drastically cut into that population we saw the need to adapt. We are happy to report a 15% increase in resident students this year. To accomplish this awesome task we have done a lot to improve our appearance, our reputation throughout Kentucky and our educational offerings.

We won approval from the city to close the section of 7^th street which ran through campus, purchased neighboring property and razed much of it to create landscaped parking lots, some campus, and a $2 million student apartment complex. We have completed a $150,000 renovation of our science labs, installed 12 multi-media classrooms, automated our library, produced campus- wide network connections, and updated two computer labs.

In 2000 Brescia was recognized by several accrediting agencies for outstanding academic programs and sound financial management. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools reaffirmed our accreditation as a university level institution. The Kentucky State Department of Postsecondary Schools reaccredited our education programs. Both of those agencies scrutinized our plan to offer a masters of education in curriculum and instruction and granted approval. The Council of Social Work Educators granted Brescia full approval for our bachelors in Social Work. The University of Louisville is so pleased with successful graduates of our social work program that they invited us to join them in a collaborative MSW program. They offer their MSW at Brescia using our faculty and facilities. Our BSW grads bypass a year of work in pursuing this MSW.

Brescia, in the Ursuline tradition, has always been strong in its Catholic identity. Yet, it seemed to me that we could do more to promote our Catholic image. Eight goals of the President's Strategic Plan specifically related to our Catholicity are:

1) Renovation of our campus chapel to enlarge it, make it more of a student worship space and to make it the focus of our improved campus. The renovation is 90% complete and its use has increased considerably. We have daily liturgies at noon and a Thursday evening Mass. On Sunday we have 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. liturgies.

2) The Paul VI House of Discernment was opened in August 2000. Brescia purchased a house within a block of the university and it houses 4 men interested in the priesthood. About 20 men and women students gather at the house at least weekly to discern their future and the meaning of religion in their lives. The program is growing and we hope to add a house of discernment for women. We are indebted to Fr. Larry Hostetter for his leadership in this program.

3) The Bishop's Scholastic Challenge was initiated in the Summer of 199 to attract young Catholics to our campus. It is a week's program somewhat like the Governors Scholars Program but has a very Catholic dimension to it. We really need your help to promote this program since the young people need to be nominated by a priest. Fr. Leonard directs this program and writes to you each year about it. The students have an opportunity to interact with Bishop McRaith and several other diocesan priests. They take academic classes in various disciplines from our finest faculty. The Bishop's Scholastic Challenge encourages high school students to attend college and introduces them to Brescia, the only Catholic university in our diocese.

4) BOSCO. With the assistance of a grant Brescia was able to reach out to Catholic students who attend KWC, OCC, and WKU-to bring them on our campus for liturgies, retreats, bible study, etc.

5) Brescia is proud of its Ministry Formation Program. (I think you are going to hear more about this program from Fr. Pat later.) We believe that this major furthers the kingdom, especially in western Kentucky and southern Indiana. We are pleased with the support the diocese gives to this program. Since the Evansville Diocese does not have a Catholic college we are happy with the collaboration and success of our off-campus classes there. You will also hear later from Dr. Ray Lord and Dr. Frances Brown about their on-going Newman dialogues.

6) To encourage Catholics to attend Brescia we have introduced a matching scholarship fund for Owensboro Diocesan parishes. Brescia will match the amount (up to $1,000) a parish wishes to offer a parishioner to attend Brescia. Thank you, Fathers, for those of you who have been so supportive of this program. We think your parishes and the diocese will be blessed.

7) We thank the Bishop, Sr. Joseph Angela and you, our priests, for permitting Brescia alumni and staff to come to your parishes to speak for Brescia. We believe that this policy will facilitate your being able to easier support Brescia but it also lets us showcase successful alumni in the hopes of recruitment.

8) The Catholic School Excellence award honors a student from each diocesan school and gives them an extra $1,000 scholarship incentive. This year we have several attending Brescia who were recipients of $1,000 to $3,000 in these Catholic School Excellence scholarship awards.

There are several major goals and challenges in Brescia's strategic plan for the future. One is the Catholic Identity which I have already addressed. So many Catholic colleges have closed or lost their identity because they didn't provide for the sponsoring order's reduced numbers. Our Strategic Plan does plan to provide for Brescia's Catholic future as the OSU's numbers decrease. Our by-laws call for the Ursuline Superior and Assistant to serve on the Board of Trustees. Presently we have five OSU's on the Board and plan to continue that policy. We have an Ursuline (Sr. Annalita) as Director of Mission Effectiveness to assist us in promoting Catholic and Ursuline influence in all areas of Brescia life. The Ursulines also have residual powers, and a realistic plan to provide monies for OSU lay replacements. Brescia belongs to the National Association of Ursuline Educators which assist us in planning for the future.

Another challenge is financial support for Brescia's mission. We might label this the goal of the Incarnation. We do have faith in the Divinity of Jesus and that he became one with us. Just as Christ became man, a human, Brescia has to have the human (concrete way to promote it's ministry). If we are faithful to our mission we believe Jesus will assist us in reading the signs of the times and acquiring the money to sustain our mission. We are now engaged in the quiet phase of a major gifts effort. So far in the last 3 years, we have $6 million in cash and pledges. We have also doubled our endowment from $4 million to $8 million in the last 4 years. (We still have a long way to go, especially when you compare our $8 million to Berea's $600 million ) Keeping all this in perspective, in the last 4 years we have increased full-time faculty from 34-50; operating budget from $6 million to $7 million; payroll from $2.4 million to over $3.5 minion. The total annual budget is now $9 million. The total net assets are about $20 million.

Technology is another challenge and one very much tied to finances. I call it our big black hole. Although we still have the traditional blackboards, we have to be innovative in our teaching methods. We have made expensive and great strides in multimedia classrooms, computer labs, all dorm rooms wired, software systems for classes and offices. We are trying to purchase a digital language lab, new phone system and explore new majors. We are investigating distance learning capabilities to send our MFP classes out to remote areas of the diocese.

In the last few years Brescia has matched the average salary of independent college faculty in Kentucky. Our challenge now is to continue to recruit lay faculty who are qualified in a variety of disciplines and can have a positive attitude toward our Catholic identity. This is an additional financial challenge. Not only can we no longer rely simply on the OSU contributed services but we must also pay them a salary which is commensurate with lay faculty because their successors may be lay teachers. Beginning this academic year, Brescia has begun paying the OSU's 35% of our salaries. Each year the percentage will increase. This is a justice issue to provide for our aging members.

To further provide for Brescia's future, this month we plan to purchase two buildings and a parking lot. We just received a $300,000 grant to initiate the building of another $2 million student apartment building which will be where one of these buildings is. The office building and parking lot are on Frederica and will allow us to increase our visibility and provide a better home for Admissions so they can be more effective in recruiting.

Since Brescia is recruiting more international students we have just begun an ESL (English as a Second Language) program to attract and facilitate foreign students' progress at Brescia. We also have en endowed fund now for students travel to Mexico and other foreign countries. We provide practicum experiences in New Mexico (Spanish) and to Florida for marine biology.

A $150,000 science lab renovation was just completed, including state of the art molecular biology equipment which will bring Brescia into the cuffing edge of DNA manipulation and other projects to improve quality of health.

Brescia began with the meager resources of the Ursuline Sisters. With continued assistance from them, the diocese, and other donors, Brescia has grown in students, property and financial resources. We believe that Brescia's reason for being is its Catholic mission but without academic excellence we would do the Church a disservice. That's why it is so important for Brescia to be the best liberal arts university in the Ursuline and Catholic traditions. We are open to your suggestions and constructive criticism. We value and depend on a close working relationship with you, our co- ministers.

I invite your comments and questions. There are many here tonight who can assist me in portraying Brescia-trustees: Bishop John, Fr. Joe Mills, Srs. Rose Marita and Joseph Angela; faculty: Frs. Leonard Alvey, and Larry Hostetter; past faculty: Frs. Dick Meredith, Martin Mattingly, Tony Shonis and Brian Johnson.

Continuing Education for Clergy, Diocese of Owensboro

© 2001, by the authors, all rights reserved.