Universitas: the magazine of Saint Louis University

Fall 2010 issue of Universitas: the magazine of Saint Louis UniversityStained Glass Stories A PROFES SOR R EVEALS THE HISTORIES HIDDEN IN COLLEGE CHURCH’ S WINDOWS PAGE 12 The SLU Pri son Initiative Page 8 School for Professional Studies Page 16 Alumni Geophysicists Page 2 0 fa l l 2 010 Volume 3 7, Issue 1 Edi tor Laura Geiser (A&S ’90, Grad ’92) Contributors Marie Dilg (Grad SW ’94) John Gilmore (A&S ’88) Ashley Pitlyk (A&S, Cook ’10) Nick Sargent (Grad Cook ’10) “On Campus” news storie s University Communications Medical Center Communications Billiken Media Relations Cov er Photo Chad Williams De sign Art Direction: Matt Krob Universitas is published by Saint Louis University. Opinions expressed in Universitas are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the University administration. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs are welcome but will be returned only if accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Letters to the editor must be signed, and letters not intended for publication should indicate that fact. The editor reserves the right to edit all items. Address all mail to Universitas, DuBourg Hall 39, One N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 63103. We accept e-mail at utas@slu.edu and fax submissions at (314) 977-2249. Address fax submissions to Editor, Universitas. Postmaster: Send address changes to Universitas, Saint Louis University, One N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63103. World Wide Web address: www.slu.edu/pr/universitas.html Universitas is printed by Universal Printing Co. Worldwide circulation: 114,510 © 2010, Saint Louis University All rights reserved. F A L L 2 0 0 4 W I N T E R 2 0 0 5 St. Ignatius was by no means a traditional college student. He began his formal train-ing at the age of 33, alongside children, so that he could learn Latin. During those times, he survived on bread and water. He understood the value of education. As he wrote in his autobiography, he needed to “spend some time in study as a means of helping him to work for souls.” And five years later at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, he found more than advanced coursework. There, he forged lifetime relationships with his roommates, a fellow Spaniard named Francis Xavier and a Frenchman by the name of Peter Favre. Both men had heard of Ignatius, and both became part of his circle, which he dubbed “Friends of the Lord,” now known as the Society of Jesus. With Ignatius, the group began working to help everyone they encountered. Peter Favre described their mission: To “take care, take care never to shut your hearts against anyone.” As a Catholic, Jesuit institution, we are committed to offering all souls here fellowship, just as the Friends of the Lord did. This commitment affects our foreign students who themselves travel so far to attend our university. Every mile they travel illustrates their outstanding commitment to their own education and to SLU. Their passages from Nigeria and China, Belgium and Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua and so many other lands serve as markers of Saint Louis University’s stature in the global village of academia. This semester in St. Louis, we are educating more than 1,000 students from more than 75 coun-tries. And in Madrid, our international student population exceeds 600 this fall. These students call some 65 different countries home. Clearly, we are a global institution. Our international students, alumni and their parents define dedication. They defy expediency. And they designate quality. Their commitment deserves to be equaled in response. In the spirit of St. Ignatius, our new Center for Global Citizenship will do just that. This exciting project brings all of our internationally focused academic and support units under one roof. More importantly, the center will be a wonderful gather-ing place — the perfect place to build community and to connect our international and U.S. students. Along with our international services and programs, the center will house a lounge with access to media, including television outlets, from around the world. We plan to use technology to make the far corners of the globe more accessible with teleconferencing. With its vast, colorful display of international flags circling the building, we will make our center the table where we all gather to collaborate and connect with all peoples of all faiths and of all na-tions. (See the photo on page 4.) Our students and our alumni don’t leave SLU’s Jesuit values here. They take them along at gradua-tion, as I learned during my visit to Asia last spring and my stay in Spain this summer. While in Asia, I visited Thailand, South Korea and China, where I was warmly welcomed by our large and active alumni chapter there. It was per-sonally fulfilling to spend time with so many loyal SLU graduates. Similarly, in Madrid I met with many enthusiastic alumni. Clearly, SLU graduates have taken their Jesuit education to heart and put it to work, bettering the world. Both trips, along with our own programs and our new center, affirm our goal as Friends of the Lord to welcome the world to our doors. Lawrence Biondi, S.J. President { president’s message } features 8 Prison Reform SLU’s theology faculty run an innovative program offering classes and hope to prisoners. — By Nick Sargent 12 Stained Glass Stories J.J. Mueller, S.J., unlocks the history hidden in St. Francis Xavier College Church’s windows. — By Ashley Pitlyk 16 Lifelong Learners Students come to the School for Professional Studies for personal and professional enrichment. — By John Gilmore 20 The Alumni Underground SLU-educated geophysicists keep tabs on nuclear test ban treaty compliance. — By Marie Dilg depa r tment s { contents } 2 | On Campus 2010 Homecoming • Hurricane research • Archives online • Make a Difference Day • Public Health dean named • Arts at SLU 6 | Billiken News New softball coach • Basketball schedules 7 | Advancement News A conversation with Jeff Fowler, interim vice president for University advancement 22 | Off the Shelf Fifteen books from the SLU community 24 | Class Notes Catch up with classmates • Legacies: Freshmen and their SLU families • Alumni Spotlight 29 | In Memoriam Remembering those members of the SLU community who recently died 30 | Alumni Events Attend SLU alumni activities where you live. 32 | Perspective An alumna shares her experiences with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. 33 | the last word Letters to the editor 8 12 16 20 f a l l ’ 1 0 U N I V E R S I T A S 3 20 Chandeliers 67 Baptisms performed between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010 92 Wooden pews 108 Marriages celebrated between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010 667 Combined years of age of the three bells in the church’s bell tower 1,469 Active parishioners (non-students) representing households in 72 different zip codes BY THE NUMBERS: At St. Francis Xavier College Church GRAND RE-OPENING in spain SLU Board of Trustees Chairman Jack Pruel-lage (Cook ’62) and Madrid Campus Board of Regents President Doña Isabel Gómez-Acebo cut the ribbon at the grand re-opening of the lower level of Padre Arrupe Hall at SLU’S Madrid Campus in September while Frank Reale, S.J. (A&S ’74), vice president and rector of the Madrid Campus and vice president of mission and minis-try, looks on. The building recently was renovated and reconfigured to house enhanced engineering/ physics, biology/chemistry and nursing labs as well as three instructional spaces, including a computer classroom and a seminar room. SLU RISES IN RANKINGS U.S. News & World Report once again has recognized Saint Louis University as one of the finest Catholic, Jesuit universities in the United States. In the 2011 edition of “America’s Best Colleges,” SLU climbed to No. 86 among the more than 260 national universities in the coun-try — a list topped by Harvard, Princeton and Yale. The ranking placed SLU among the top five Jesuit universities in the country for the eighth consecutive year. Individual majors and programs also saw improved rankings this year: interna-tional business at No. 12; entrepreneurship at No. 14; and engineering at No. 38. In addition, Parade Magazine featured SLU in this year’s “College A-List.” The national publica-tion asked top high school counselors from across the country to recommend “outstanding colleges and universities that often fly under the radar.” SLU was highlighted for its pre-med program, combined bachelor’s and graduate degrees and business and accounting education. SLU also is recognized as one of the nation’s leading educational values. Both Barron’s Best Buys in College Education and the Fiske Guide to Colleges recently named SLU as a best buy in higher education. COMING HOME: Members of the class of 1960 celebrated their “Golden Billiken” reunion during Saint Louis University’s Homecoming Weekend, Sept. 24-26. The 50-year gathering was just one highlight of the weekend, which also featured campus tram tours, a tailgate barbecue, soccer game and fireworks. More than 3,000 alumni and families attended the Homecoming activities. Next year’s Homecoming Weekend will be Sept. 23-25, 2011. MAKING A DIFFERENCE On Oct. 23, a record 2,778 students, faculty and staff participated in SLU’s 2010 Make a Difference Day. Following a rallying speech by St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay (Law ’80) and a time of reflection, the volunteers headed to more than 120 local service sites that included schools, churches and community organizations. The volunteer ranks included many international students as well as parents of local SLU students. From painting to gardening to home building, schools took on a fresh look, community gardens were tended and Habitat for Humanity got a welcome hand. And SLU’s participation wasn't limited to those in St. Louis. Hundreds of SLU alumni in cities across the country took part in their local Make a Difference Day programs. Photo by Ángel García Lopez { on campus } 2 U NIVER S I T A S w w w. slu . e d u Freshmen Nicole Becker and Casey Munn at a Habitat for Humanity site in St. Louis. Photo by Steve Dolan Photo by Chad Williams 4 U NIVER S I T A S w w w. s l u . e d u f a l l ’ 1 0 U N I V E R S I T A S 5 ‘Kaleidoscope’ exhibition at SLUMA The Saint Louis University Museum of Art is presenting “Kaleidoscope: Works by Mexican Master Leonardo Nierman” through Dec. 31. Featuring paintings, tapestries and sculp-tures, Nierman’s work is a mixture of elements drawn from personal preference and experience. In it, he offers viewers a diverse interpreta-tion of landscapes, the discoveries of modern science and his own love of music. Nierman has had many exhibi-tions displayed internationally and in Mexico. His work has played a leading role in modern Mexican art, and indi-viduals, corporations, museums and galleries worldwide have collected his art. SLUMA’s hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. For more information, visit sluma.slu.edu. DEDICATED A building on SLU’s campus that houses hands-on educational workshops for learners ranging from middle school students to world-class surgeons has been named to honor Dr. Paul A. Young (A&S ’47, Grad ’53), who has taught at SLU for six decades. Dedicated on Aug. 10, Young Hall, 3839 Lindell Blvd., is home to Practical Anatomy and Surgical Education, which evolved from the Practical Anatomy Workshop, an initiative founded by Young’s son, Dr. Paul H. Young (A&S ’71, Med ’75), a clinical professor at SLU. t h e A R T S a t S L U 101 SLU NATIONS A flag display adorns Des Peres Hall, home of SLU’s new Center for Global Citizenship, which is slated to open in January and will bring internationally focused academic support units under one roof. The 101 flags, which also line the roof of the West Pine Gym, not only represent the home countries of SLU's international students, but also international locations where U.S. students and faculty travel to study, teach, research and complete service projects. The Center for Global Citizenship will bring together the office of international services, the international studies program and the English as a second language program. Photo by Chad Williams PROFESSOR FLIES INTO HURRICANE EARL FOR RESEARCH Most people flee hurricanes. Dr. Robert Pasken (Grad ’82) flies into them. Pasken, a SLU meteorology professor, was part of a NASA research team that flew into Hurricane Earl in August to collect data that could help forecasters better predict the intensity of future storms. The flying laboratory — a former passenger airplane outfitted with scientific equipment — enters the hur-ricane at about 32,000 feet. (Anything lower could tear the DC-8 aircraft apart.) As the plane crisscrosses the storm and enters in and out of the eye, Pasken and other team members drop parachuted devices that measure pressure, temperature and humidity as well as wind direction speed. Over the years, forecasters have employed these techniques to make more accurate predictions about a storm’s trajectory that emergency management of-ficials use to save lives. Pasken also has involved undergraduate and graduate students in the storm flights. This year, students Ash-ley Halbert, Michelle Hogenmiller, Evan Kerivan and Janel Thomas (A&S ’10) accompanied him. Although most of Pasken’s students won’t have the chance to join him on these missions, Pasken uses pictures and videos from his trips to demonstrate that meteorology is more than just looking at data in computers. LIBRARY DEBUTS DIGITAL ARCHIVE COLLECTION Pius XII Memorial Library has launched its newest digital collection, “Saint Louis University Yearbooks 1903-2005.” This collection of 95 yearbooks and graduate records from Pius Library’s Special Collec-tions is now available online and is full-text searchable. The SLU yearbook, known as The Archive, was published from 1913- 1941, 1945-1971 and 1981-2005. Between 1972 and 1980 the University instead published a “graduate record” or “senior book” that documented the senior class during its four-year history rather than the whole University for a single year. Schools and colleges within the University have occasionally issued their own yearbooks: School of Medicine (1907, 1944, 1981, 1985, 1987), School of Dentistry (1944) and Parks College (1972). In addition, the collec-tion includes the only yearbook printed by the Marion-Sims-Beaumont College of Medicine (1903), which became the SLU School of Medicine that same year. The collection is available at libraries.slu.edu/special/digital/yearbook.html. News Briefs Michael Barber, S.J. (A&S ’71, Grad ’72), is the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Barber is the dean of SLU’s Col-lege of Philosophy and Letters and has taught in the philosophy department for 25 years. From 2004-2010 Barber was SLU's Hot-felder Distinguished Chair in the Humanities. He also has received numerous grants and awards, including a 2010 Mellon Grant to help sponsor an international conference on phenomenology's relationship to other disciplines to be held next May in St. Louis. For the second consecutive year, Saint Louis University has been selected for G.I. Jobs’ list of “Military Friendly Schools.” The publication's 2011 list honors the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that are doing the most to embrace America’s veterans as students. Roland Corvington, most recently the FBI’s highest-ranking official in eastern Missouri, is now SLU’s assistant vice president and director of public safety and security services, leading a newly reorganized and renamed public safety department. Corvington's law enforcement career spans more than three decades. He also is a member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforce-ment Executives and the National Association of Chiefs of Police. Spanning more than three-dozen specialties, 144 doctors from SLUCare were included on St. Louis Magazine’s 2010 “Best Doc-tors” list. The list is based on the annual “Best Doctors in America” database, which considers more than one million peer evaluations to create a directory of approximately 30,000 doctors. Author and playwright Don DeLillo received the 2010 Saint Louis Literary Award on Oct. 21 from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. DeLillo is the author of 15 novels, including Under-world, White Noise, Libra and Point Omega, and three plays. His work has won many honors in the United States and abroad, including the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Dr. Adrian Di Bisceglie was invested as the inaugural holder of the Badeeh A. and Christine V. Bander Chair in Internal Medicine on Aug. 31. Di Bisceglie is chairman of the department of internal medicine at the School of Medicine and an internationally recognized expert in the field of liver disease. Benefactors Dr. Steven Bander (A&S ’75), who is a SLU adjunct faculty member in nephrology, and his wife, Patricia, created the endowed chair as a way to support SLU's growing national and international reputation. Dr. Shelley Minteer, a SLU professor of chemistry and the Col-lege of Arts and Sciences Endowed Professor, received the 2010 Tajima Prize from the Interna-tional Society of Electrochemistry. The prize is awarded to an electro-chemist under the age of 40 and recognizes Minteer’s contributions and breakthroughs in her research about biofuel cells and biosensors. Her work focuses on the develop-ment of efficient alternative energy sources, taking a bio-inspired approach to creating fuel cells as opposed to the common metal-based batteries. Her research looks at the efficiency of living organisms as they convert food/fuel to energy as well as methods to improve fuel cell performance and lessen the environmental impact of batteries. Dr. William Sly, a SLU biochem-ist for whom the genetic disease “Sly Syndrome” is named, received a prestigious international award in June for his lifetime contribution in re-searching a group of inherited and life-threatening conditions known as the mucopolysaccharidoses (or MPS). The Life for MPS award was given at the 11th International Sym-posium on Mucopolysaccharide and Related Diseases in Adelaide, Australia. Sly holds the James B. and Joan C. Peter Endowed Chair and is a professor of biochemis-try and molecular biology. Since his 1969 discovery of MPS VII, or Sly Syndrome, Sly has spent his entire research career investigating causes and possible treatments of MPS-related disorders. SLU professors receive international awards TREVATHAN IS NEW PUBLIC HEALTH DEAN Dr. Edwin Trevathan is the new dean of the School of Public Health, He joined SLU on Sept. 13. Trevathan succeeds Dr. Homer Schmitz, who had served as interim dean of the School of Public Health for two years and will continue to be on faculty as a professor of health management and policy. Trevathan directed the National Center on Birth De-fects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Last year, when H1N1 influenza loomed as a threat to public health, Trevathan took the lead in planning the CDC’s strategic response to protect the health of children. He also worked as an epidemic intelligence officer at the CDC from 1987 to 1989. Trevathan has had connections to the School of Public Health since 2002, with appointments first as an adjunct associate professor of commu-nity health, then as an adjunct professor. PANTANKAR NAMED VICE PRESIDENT, FROST CAMPUS Dr. Manoj Patankar (Parks ’92) is the vice presi-dent for the Frost Campus. He had served as interim vice president since August 2009. In addition to Frost academics, Patankar oversees the libraries, enrollment management, institutional research and the Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence, among other areas. Patankar first came to SLU as a student in Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology. In 2002, he joined Parks' faculty, and several administrative appointments followed. In 2007, Patankar was named dean of Parks College. A noted researcher, Patankar helped secure funding for the Center for Aviation Safety Research and co-founded the Safety Across High-Conse-quence Industries Conferences. He also is a widely published author. { on campus } MOCRA shows work of Rosen The Museum of Contemporary Reli-gious Art’s latest exhibition is “James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer,” on display through Dec. 12. With more than 100 pieces, the exhibition presents work from the 1950s to the present, offering viewers the opportunity to observe Rosen’s journey through paintings, watercol-ors, drawings and prints. It culmi-nates with a series of oil and wax/oil emulsion paintings that are homages to the religious art of the European past, painted with up to 60 thin lay-ers — “veils” — of oil paint and wax. MOCRA’s hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information, visit mocra.slu.edu. Fury, mixed media on masonite Photo by Chad Williams Frances, charcoal on paper 6 U NIVER S I T A S w w w. s l u . e d u f a l l ’ 1 0 U N I V E R S I T A S 7 Saint Louis University Billiken basketball teams are looking to capitalize on last season’s successes while facing some challenging opponents. Tickets for both men’s and women’s games are available by visiting www.slubillikens.com or by calling (314) 977-4SLU. { advancement news } Why should every graduate make a gift to Saint Louis University? Alumni giving is incredibly important. First, it shows that alumni remain connected to the University and that they want to ensure that the University grows and prospers. It also shows their desire to give back so that future generations of students can have the SLU experience. Secondarily, alumni giving makes up a very significant percentage of all of the philan-thropic giving to any university. We need that support to move SLU forward — particularly in