60 years.
60 years of growth.
60 years of success.
60 years of educating hearts.
“60 years old. That is a long time,” Dr. Joseph Romano, philosophy professor, said after a reading of Cabrini history as the celebration of the anniversary started.
Jan. 26, 2017 marked the kickoff to celebrate Cabrini’s 60th birthday. A celebration was held in Cabrini’s historic mansion. It was a joyous occasion bringing together faculty, staff, some of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, students and more.
Those in attendance not only enjoyed reminiscing fondly on all of their old Cabrini memories, but spoke excitedly about the future of the university and how it will continue to grow.
Cherishing the memories of the past
“When I was a student here, we were an all women’s college still,” graduate of the class of 1971 Nancy Gorevin Costello said. “We were only 94 in our class, which by today’s classes is really really small. But there were only 394 students total, so you got to know everybody.”
Nancy Costello came to Cabrini College as a freshman in 1969. Her class lived in Grace Hall for two years then moved into the newly built Woodcrest Hall.
“We thought Woodcrest was just the best thing. Our class never got a chance to live in the mansion because we were too big and the mansion did not have as many rooms. We thought being the first ones in this building [Woodcrest Hall] was neat and modern and at the time it was so exciting,” she said.
As a junior, Costello was president of student government and was inspired to start raising awareness of issues happening on the college campus. She organized a student protest in the courtyard of the mansion. It was a very peaceful protest as the students showed up with candles.
“We were seeking better food in the cafeteria, we were seeking change in curfews (to extend our curfew because we actually had to be in at a certain hour as quaint as that may sound), we were hoping to be able to have guys come visit us at the dorms for certain hours, so those were our big issues,” Costello said. “We felt very empowered by it, that we were standing up for our cause.”
At the time, Sister Regina Casey was president. She very graciously listened to Costello and her classmates’ needs and said she would take each one of their concerns into consideration.
“In the four years that I was here, I saw a tremendous evolution,” she said. “Cabrini College went from a school that could have been seen as more of a convent school [to a more progressive school].”
In the first six weeks of her freshman year, Costello experienced Mother Ursula Infante’s, the founding president’s, school policies.
“They would just close campus on Mondays. You could not go off campus; literally we were not permitted to go off,” she said. “It was Mother Ursula’s belief, and I respected that. She wanted us to prepare ourselves
for the academic week ahead, so therefore you just had to be in the academic mindset and ready to engage in your studies for the remainder of the week.”
After Mother Ursula left, Sister Barbara Leonardo came in as acting president. Costello saw she was very progressive and aware of changing trends in education, and the campus began to evolve.
After graduation, Costello always remained active with Cabrini and its alumni association. She was invited by Sister Eileen Currie to work for the college in the office of institutional advancement. Following that role, Costello was appointed director of the Mission Integration program, taking over for Sister Regina Casey, who she previously protested against.
Costello now works as the communications director for the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and is the website director.
“[With the 60th Anniversary], it is very edifying to see that the college began with 43 women, largely through the inspiration and the commitment of the missionary sisters, has now grown and prospered and is so diverse with men and women,” she said. “It has such a wide variety of academic offerings and majors, now more recently with the doctoral program. It makes me proud to look back and say we did it because many [Catholic universities] have closed in those years.”
This university will always be a part of Costello. She feels such a strong connection and great happiness for the campus and sees great things for its future.
“What is heartening is that in an age when many small liberal arts colleges, some of them Catholic some of them not, are having a struggle with enrollment, we are bucking those trends. There is excitement here. There is dynamism here. I think it’s the university status. I think it’s the sense of a diversifying campus.”
The importance of a Cabrini degree
“I firmly believe the imprint of Cabrini University is much larger than its 112 acres,” Steve Highsmith, a graduate of Cabrini College in 1988, said.
One of his best memories being at Cabrini involves the faculty he had while he was a student. Professors like Jim Hedtke really resonated with him. With every class he took, he connected what he learned in his classes to his everyday life.
“Their impact on me positively, intellectually and then understanding how to navigate the world, the decisions you have to make and what your challenges are going to be and how history informs all of that and just the other things you need to know, [the faculty] just really did a good job,” Highsmith said.
Being on campus is also one of his fondest memories. He would have time gaps in between his classes and just explore.
“To take that study break and walk throughout the campus and just be in this beautiful place, it was inspirational. So for me, it really resonated,” he said.
Cabrini has changed in that there are new buildings on campus and the demographics have changed since he was a student. Highsmith now works at Cabrini as the vice president of institutional advancement. He oversees alumni relations and fundraising efforts.
Highsmith feels Cabrini has evolved rather than changed.
“It is a maturing of what the original mission is. This idea of the education of the heart: being able to learn the things you need to learn to be successful in your career or job, but also to be able to learn those other aspects of what it means to be of personal faith, or a good person,” Highsmith said. “I think that the institution of Cabrini College, now University, continually gets better and better at being able to manifest what [the mission] means.”
The 60th anniversary, to Highsmith, is a wonderful mile marker that says Cabrini has come a long way.
“The integrity of the Cabrini degree continues to rise in importance and strengthen and I think that is a wonderful thing. I think Cabrini is going to be a leader in Catholic social teaching. It is also going to be a leader in education,” he said. “Cabrini’s future is bright, strong and one of leadership in the United States and quite frankly as part of the whole Cabrini charism around the world.”
Recognizing the spirit of Mother Cabrini
Sister Christine Marie Baltas went to Mother Cabrini High School in New York. After graduating high school, she became a student at Cabrini College.
“I did go here for one semester before I entered the community,” she said. “That was the second year the college was open. Just a small group of women here on campus, completely different situation [than it is now].”
Baltas’ background is in education. She taught at elementary and high school levels, as well as served as dean of students at Cabrini from 1981 to 1985. Some of her best memories are from being the dean. She really enjoyed the role, though it had its challenges.
“When I came back to serve as Dean of Students, we had the men on campus. That in itself was a big change,” she said. “For me, it was a big change because the oldest boys I had ever dealt with were eighth grade. I found [male] college students to be bigger in size, but still, in many ways, young boys.”
Now she graciously volunteers her time with Cabrini’s campus ministry. She does whatever she can do to help out and participate in events.
“For somebody like myself who can go back to the very beginning, [the 60th anniversary] is just a great time and reason to celebrate,” she said.
Baltas feels that the anniversary is a time to recognize Cabrini’s achievements in not only growth and development but also in the way that Cabrini is a place that feels like home.
“That is key. We do not want that to ever change. Numbers of students, number of buildings, they are all nice and they are good but we still have to make this a very welcoming place. A place where everyone knows your name,” she said.
She hopes that Cabrini will continue to be a place where the education of the heart is still upfront and the focus of the university. That the spirit of Mother Cabrini and her concern for the poor, the immigrants, the trafficked and all those people that the world could easily toss aside are helped.
“[I hope] that students leave Cabrini with a feeling of compassion, a sense of doing what is right. However life takes them, whatever road they go down, that the social justice matter that they have been exposed to in their time here will really be with them forever and that they will take the opportunities that come along and act on them,” she said.
Cabrini will always have a special place in her heart.
“I feel that we have been incredibly blessed with the people who are here on campus. Sister Grace and I live in the gatehouse and we often comment on how there are so many nice people here,” she said. “There are so many caring people, people who have really bought into the mission. It makes it a joy for us to be here.”
Cabrini continues to grow
“It is a great time to stop, pause and celebrate the accomplishments of so many who made the school what it is today,” President Dr. Donald Taylor said.
Taylor was very excited to kickoff the 60th-anniversary celebration. He feels this time
is a reminder that the school has evolved tremendously.
“Initially, the vision was that it was going to be an orphanage, and then it was going to be a two-year school and then it was going to be a four-year for women only,” Taylor said. “You have to keep evolving and changing and growing as an institution because if you don’t, you stay the status quo. To move forward, you have to be willing to change.”
Taylor has big plans for change to come in the next few years.
“We will have a campus center, that will have an auditorium for gathering, a theatre for concerts, TEDTalks, with all of the state of the art technology. We will have something like a Starbucks in that. The residential students will have a video arcade, bowling alley, mini cinema, all of the things they want to not be viewed as a suitcase campus.”
Furthermore,
“There will be space for interfaith prayer and the other activities of our student government and co- curricular programs. We will expand on-campus housing opportunities, not only for traditional undergraduates, but for graduate students, international students. We will have a completely renovated library, as well as have academic centers of excellence in areas like domestic violence and immigration studies. We will have finally solved our parking issue.”
While great changes are in store, Taylor and the rest of the Cabrini community are dedicated to preserving the 60 years that lead to such success.
“While remaining true to our Catholic Identity and the Cabrini charism it will be a decade of growth. However, we will continue to honor the work of the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart and their legacy.”
