Still, and always, St. Kate's

CECILIA KONCHAR FARR, PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH

Even when I came to the College of St. Catherine 15 years ago, it was no small liberal arts college. It was, centrally for me, a women's college, steeped in tradition, clear about its values, attentive to the needs of women in an urban community.

That College of St. Catherine ain't goin' nowhere, as I used to say growing up in Pittsburgh. Ungrammatical, but true. Our college isn't going anywhere; the College of St. Catherine, the one the Sisters of St. Joseph envisioned and that the present faculty cherishes, will continue because, to paraphrase Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck, "we know who we are." We are a comprehensive liberal arts institution, set firmly on a Catholic foundation, with a mission to educate women. As long as we remember and tend to that, our College of St. Catherine will remain.

But my ungrammatical phrase is also true in the second sense — the College of St. Catherine isn't going nowhere; it's going somewhere. After years of service to the college, I anticipate the change to University with optimism. St. Kate's doesn't stagnate. We move (inevitably, sometimes stumbling) forward. The years I have been at the College have been years of remarkable change and growth, years that required nimbleness and creativity of the faculty and administration.

I have had great fun envisioning with my colleagues an innovative core curriculum, a list of carefully articulated liberal arts goals, a thoughtful expansion of our women's studies coursework, the Assistantship Mentoring Program (AMP) for meaningful mentoring of students, new models for faculty leadership, and a raft of novel courses in a lively English Department that continues to attract terrific students and faculty.

So I say: Bring on St. Catherine University. It more accurately represents the complex place we have become. I'm not worried, because our College of St. Catherine ain't goin' nowhere.