Plea for letters

October 2, 2010

Dear MAT students and alums,

Most of you have probably received and read the latest MAT Newsnotes, sent to you by Sr. Catherine with her letter explaining that she was denied tenure this year and will necessarily be leaving St. Kate’s at the end of the term next June.

Many students and alums are now gathering support by writing letters to the four principal players, viz., Sr. Andrea Lee, Dr. Alan Silva, Mr. Mark Chronister (chair of the board of trustees), and Ms. Colleen Hegranes.

I’m writing to you today as a MAT student, and likewise encouraging you to write your own letter to these people, and offering my thoughts based on questions some students and alums have had regarding what exactly to say in those letters.

 I am attaching Dr. West’s document on the process that Sr. Catherine took in applying for tenure and the events that followed. Also, I am sending a list of the names and mailing addresses of the four principal players. (I am going to hand-address my envelopes, I don’t know, it might look more personal.)

I hope that our individual, personal letters will reflect our scholarship, respect, professionalism, and honesty, tenets that Sr. Catherine taught us in her classes. I also hope that our truest feelings will emerge as we write our letters and that we find within us the exact words that express our deepest and best thoughts, hopes, and decisions surrounding the administrators’ denial of Sr. Catherine’s request for tenure. We will win their hearts by telling them how we felt about their decision, how we feel about Sr. Catherine, and how she more than lives up to the excellent standards exemplified by the university in their mission/vision statement as well as the statement in the section titled “Educating to Lead and Influence.” (see link below)

If you feel as strongly as I do about their decision, and you have been wondering whether to support the university in the future, either with donations or by bringing new students to the school, I think that the administrators need to hear that as well.

Here are a few links to some of the things I have been highlighting:

·         Facebook page with Dr. West’s letter: http://stkatesvoice.blogspot.com/2010/09/full-story-from-dr-west.html?spref=fb

·         Facebook page with key players names and addresses: http://stkatesvoice.blogspot.com/2010/09/list-of-key-players-and-their-addresses.html?spref=fb

·         Facebook page with a copy of the recent MAT Newsnotes: http://stkatesvoice.blogspot.com/2010/09/voice-from-theology-students.html?spref=fb

·       St. Kate’s webpage with our mission/vision statement: http://www.stkate.edu/pages/aboutstkates/mission_vision.php

·         St. Kate’s webpage with the “Heritage” statement “Educating to Lead and Influence:” http://www.stkate.edu/pages/aboutstkates/leadership.php

·       St. Kate’s webpage , Sr. Andrea Lee’s page. There is a lot of good stuff here. Check out her speeches, especially the one from May 2008:  http://www.stkate.edu/pages/president/index.php

If you know of any students or alums not included in this mailing, please forward this.

The more people who send letters to the Key Players, the more chance we will have at the possibility of a reversal. You know, miracles do happen.

Also, if anyone desires to gather to pray, to support each other, I would strongly encourage that you do that with your friends and classmates. We are grieving, but we are also taking action. And we are a fantastic community, our MAT students and alums!

The faculty contact for supporting Sr. Catherine is Dr. Tom West. His contact info is in the Newsnotes.

Peace and joy,
Kathy Berken

The list of the key players and their addresses

When the Board made their decision they had formed basically an ad hoc committee. Below are the key players with their addresses:

Names and Addresses: SCU Administration and Board

1) Mr. Mark Chronister, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Members of the Executive Committee of the Board

Chair’s and Trustees’ US Postal Service address:

Mr. Mark Chronister, Chair

St. Catherine University Board of Trustees and

Members of the Executive Committee of the Board

c/o Office of the President

St. Catherine University

Mail Stop #F-23

St. Paul MN 55105

2) Sr. Andrea Lee, President

Lee’s US Postal Service Address:

Sr. Andrea J. Lee, IHM

President

St. Catherine University

Mail Stop #F-23

St. Paul MN 55105

Lee’s E-mail address: ajlee@stkate.edu

3) Ms. Colleen Hegranes, Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs

Hegranes’ US Postal Service address:

Ms. Colleen Hegranes

Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs

St. Catherine University

Mail Stop #F-36

St. Paul MN 55105

Hegranes’ E-mail address: cahegranes@stkate.edu

4) Dr. Alvin Silva, Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences:

Silva’s US Postal Service Address:

Dr. Alan Silva

Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Science

St. Catherine University

Mail Stop #4026

St. Paul MN 55105

Silva’s E-mail address: ajsilva@stkate.edu

The full story from Dr West

Sr. Catherine Michaud’s Tenure Case: A Factual Account

In the fall of 2009, Sr. Catherine began her request for tenure by submitting her self-evaluation to the departmental peer evaluators. After a thorough evaluation they recommended her for tenure. Their recommendation went on to the chair, Dr. Russ Connors. He thoroughly evaluated her and recommended her for tenure. He then passed on his and the peer evaluators’ evaluations and recommendations to the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC), who thoroughly evaluated her and recommended her for tenure “without qualification.” In late January of 2010, they sent their evaluation and recommendation to Dr. Alan Silva, the Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences. He rejected the recommendation of the Department and the FPC on the grounds of an insufficient number of peer-reviewed publications and presentations. He did not contest her excellence in the areas of teaching and service.

Sr. Catherine appealed Dr. Silva’s decision. He rejected her appeal. She then appealed the decision to Ms. Colleen Hegranes, the Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs, who rejected her appeal. She then appealed to Sr. Andrea Lee, President of the University, who rejected her appeal. Finally, she appealed to the Board of Trustees, who in a brief letter on August 27 informed her that they had rejected her appeal.

Losing the appeal means that Sr. Catherine will receive a terminal contract to teach this coming academic year. And thus, in June of 2011, she will lose her job. SCU, like most universities, has an “up or out” policy: faculty members whose request to move up to tenure is rejected have to move out after one more year.

At one point, the Administration, perhaps realizing that turning down Sr. Catherine’s request for tenure could prove to be controversial, offered what we in the Department have to come to call the “one+two terminal contract,” that is, she would get the one year granted to all those turned down for tenure plus two more years, and then be terminated. In exchange, she would stop her appeal and withdraw her request for tenure. It would be as if she had never made a request: the whole process would retroactively cease to have existed. What would exist is the certainty that by June of 2011 she will have lost her job.

Sr. Catherine turned down this offer. She believed that the Administration had not provided a compelling reason to overturn the recommendation of the Department and the Faculty Personnel Committee. She believed that she was worthy of tenure. Furthermore, this offer precluded her from applying for a sabbatical leave for which she was eligible in 2011–12.

She made a counter proposal. She would drop the appeal and withdraw her request for tenure if the Administration would offer her one+four terminal contract with the right to apply for a sabbatical leave. Sr. Andrea rejected this proposal.

Sr. Catherine also proposed that she be allowed to return to the rolling contract she was on before she attained her doctorate and before she went on track leading to tenure. Such contracts are for three years and offer the possibility of renewal. Sr. Andrea rejected this proposal.

It was not easy for Sr. Catherine to make these proposals, for she believed she deserved tenure.

And we in the Department believed she deserved tenure. At each stage of appeal we wrote letters on her behalf. From the beginning we acknowledged that the number of publications and presentations to peers was not as high as one would wish (though it was not negligible). We made and re-made an argument we call “holistic,” that is, an argument that looks at the whole person, weighing both strengths and weaknesses against the needs of our students and our department, and considering the circumstances affecting a faculty member’s performance in all areas. The Administration rejected this argument for a holistic appraisal, claiming that they only tenure those who are peak performers, who are “excellent” in every respect, who have no area where they come up short. We find their claim bogus: our University has very few tenured faculty members who are peak performers in every respect. We also reminded the Administration that Sr. Catherine is a peak performer as a teacher—teaching is supposed to weigh 50–60% when evaluating someone for tenure or promotion. She is also a peak performer in her service to the University—service is supposed to weigh 10–20%.

But all our arguments were of no avail.

The Board of Trustees names and positions

I find some of these names very curious:

Officers of the Board

Mark Chronister, Chair Partner, Retired PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP	Karen Rauenhorst, Vice Chair Community Leader
Jean Wincek, CSJ, '62, Vice Chair  Province Leadership Team Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet	Joanne Jirik Mullen '83, Secretary Attorney at Law

 

Trustees

Maureen Hooley Bausch Executive Vice President Mall of America	Jean Delaney Nelson '80 Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Securian Financial Group, Inc.
Rebecca Bergman Vice President, New Therapies and Diagnostics in Cardiac Rhythm Disease Medtronic, Inc.	The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt Archbishop Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
William Britt Vice President Cargill Incorporated	Michael O'Boyle President UnitedHealth Networks
Barbara Dreher, CSJ Executive Director of Development Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Louis Province	Colleen O'Malley, CSJ '63 Professor of Graduate Education St. Mary's University of Minnesota
The Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn Archbishop Emeritus Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis	Anne Schmidt Otterson '55 Community Leader, San Diego Area
Margaret Ford '82 Attorney at Law Smith, Gendler, Shiell, Ford & Maher, P.A.	David Page President and CEO, Retired Fairview Health Services
Margaret Gillespie, CSJ '65 Province Leadership Team Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet	Ann Buckingham Ryan '75 Community Leader
Mary Heinen, CSJ '58 Director of Advocacy Carondelet Life Care Ministries/St. Mary's Health Clinics Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet	John Spillane, Jr. Chair of the Board National Purity, LLC
Margaret L. Kvasnicka, CSJ '61 Director Sarah's, an Oasis for Women Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet	Teresa Sterns '80 President Sterns & Associates, LLC
Andrea J. Lee, IHM President St. Catherine University	Linda Thrasher '88Vice President for Public Affairs Mosaic Company
Joan Mitchell, CSJ '62 Publisher, Good Ground Press Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet	Sandra Vargas '91 President and CEO Minneapolis Foundation
Susan Schmid Morrison '60 Community Leader

A Voice from a Theology student & the MAT Newsnotes

St Catherine University has been lucky to have an incredibly stimulating Theology Department. Considering its size and the fact that we are a women's Catholic college in a Church run by males.

Recently some actions of the administration have aroused frustration among the students. Example--read the following letters that speak of developments within the theology department.

MAT Newsnotes

SPRING/SUMMER 2010

Saint Catherine University

2004 Randolph Avenue

St. Paul, MN 55105

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dr. Catherine R. Michaud, CSJ

Dear M.A.T. Students and Alums,

This issue of the Newsnotes that I would normally have sent to you last spring has been awaiting the confirmation of some very important changes for the Master of Arts Program in Theology and the Theology Department for the

years ahead. The first of those changes, which is a reason to celebrate, is the appointment of Dr. William (Bill) McDonough as coordinator of the M.A.T. Bill officially assumed his new position and moved into the M.A.T. coordinator’s office (Whitby 219a) on August 15. He has taught in the M.A.T every sixth semester, alternating with Dr. Russ Connors to teach the Christian Ethics course. It is my privilege to assist Bill during his first year as head of the M.A.T. He is off to a wonderful start and he will be an excellent, conscientious, and caring leader. If you have the opportunity to do so, please join me in welcoming Bill to

his new position. It has been my great joy for the past seven years to serve

as director—finishing off the term of my predecessor and then serving two three-year terms of my own.

As far as my own future at St. Catherine’s is concerned, please read the letter in the next column by Dr. Tom West, Acting Chair of the Theology Department from January till Sept. 1. Many of you already know that Dr. Russ Connors, who

had only begun his sabbatical leave in January when he learned that he had cancer, is on medical leave this semester. He is waging a determined and courageous battle against the cancer found in his colon and liver. His doctors

took swift action and the rest of us who love him are praying for his healing. Russ writes his own reports on CaringBridge [russconnors] if you would like to be in

touch with him. Russ completed three terms as Theology Department Chair and has passed his gavel to Dr. Vince Skemp to whom we are most grateful for so generously agreeing to serve as Department Chair.

Finally, with new leadership in the MAT Program, you should be prepared for the next issue of the MAT Newsnotes to arrive in October with a new “look”!

Dr. McDonough is available in the afternoons before M.A.T. classes begin at 6:00 and by appointment. Do not hesitate to contact him or stop by his office: Whitby 219a; X6072 [email: wcmcdonough@stkate.edu].

LETTER FROM THE THEOLOGY DEPARTMENT CHAIR DR. THOMAS WEST

September 7, 2010

Dear Students and Alums of the Master of Arts Program in Theology:

I am writing this letter as the outgoing acting chair of the Theology Department. As the acting chair I was involved in Sr. Catherine Michaud’s request for advancement to tenured status here at St. Catherine University.

In the fall of 2009, Sr. Catherine began her request by submitting her self-evaluation to the departmental peer evaluators, to the Chair, and to the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC). All thoroughly evaluated her and

recommended her for tenure. In late January of 2010, the FPC sent their evaluation and recommendation on to Dr. Alan Silva, the then Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences. He rejected the recommendation,

denying her tenure. Sr. Catherine appealed the decision to Dean Silva. He

rejected her appeal, as did Ms. Colleen Hegranes, the Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs, and Sr. Andrea Lee, the President of the University. Finally,she

appealed to the Board of Trustees, who rejected  her appeal. Losing the appeal means that Sr. Catherine‘s contract to teach this coming academic year is terminal. And thus in June of 2011 she will lose her job.

Sr. Catherine began teaching in the graduate program after completing her doctorate in 2003. And many of you came to know her outside the classroom in her capacity as MAT Director. I know from talking with you and reading your

evaluations of her teaching that many of you have found in her an inspiring educator and a holy woman who has had a transformative effect on those fortunate enough to know her.

So I thought you should know about this decision to deny her tenure.

If you wish to raise questions, make comments, or procure more information, feel free to e-mail me at thwest@stkate.edu; or write me at St. Catherine University, Mail #4222, St. Paul MN 55105; or call me at 651-690-6065.

Sr. Catherine can be reached at crmichaud@stkate.edu; at SCU, Mail #4157; or at 651-690-6712.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Tom West, Professor of Theology