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A Participatory Annual Meeting
Significant Topics Explored:
Name Change to University, School of Health,
Association's Strategic Plan, Alumnae Ideas for Future
The 91st Year of the Alumnae Association
Monday, May 12, 2008
WELCOME & PRAYER
President Yvonne Houle-Gillard '91 greeted everyone and thanked the many alumnae who had worked through the 2007-2008 year; volunteers were offered a small token of appreciation.
Then Vice President Catherine Bendel '81 led the group in prayer, praising and thanking God for all that we had and asking God for a "woman-centered appreciation of how we may serve You."
| HIGHLIGHTS
(click on your interests)
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THE CHANGE TO UNIVERSITY,
President Andrea J. Lee, IHM
 Sister Andrea Lee gave a thorough explanation of why the St. Catherine's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to move to the designation of "university."
She explained the long research process conducted by the Task Force -- composed of Trustees, alumnae, staff, and faculty. The move from college to university classification was unanimously approved of by the St. Catherine trustees because they felt it:
- was a more accurate and honest designation, since there are numerous masters and graduate programs, with more to come
- would increase visibility and marketability of the institution nationally and internationally (internationally "college" means secondary school)
- would expand opportunities to do what what we already do
- is how St. Catherine's is already classified by some rating groups.
Sister Andrea alluded to the designing of a new institutional structure with areas of focus being arranged in schools, such as the School of Health. This development builds upon our core mission to be the most comprehensive educational institution for women in the nation and the world. Sister Andrea also reinterated a dedication to academic excellence and the three legs of St. Catherine's mission: to be a women-centered, liberal arts, Catholic educational institution. For more...
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SILENT AUCTION
AND RAFFLE
 
 
BUY A REUNION RAFFLE TICKET FOR
A MEXICAN RIVIERA CRUISE!
Also offered at the meeting were raffle tickets, $25 apiece, for a chance at a cabin for two for a seven-night cruise with Sister Andrea Lee, alumnae, and friends in January 2009. YOU CAN STILL GET YOURS! Only one hundred tickets will be sold for this stupendous opportunity to set sail on Holland America's lovely ship, the Oosterdam, from Sand Diego to Bahia Magdalena (cruising through a whale nursery with whale watching and narration), Mazatlan, Puerta Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, and three days at sea, from Saturday January 10 to Saturday, January 17, 2009. The raffle winner will receive a double occupancy cabin valued at $1618, complete with meals, room service, entertainment, shipboard activities, fitness center, taxes, and fees. For your raffle ticket, contact the Alumnae Association at 651-690-6666 or alumnae@stkate.edu. The drawing will be made on Reunion Saturday, June 21, 2008.
This raffle prize is a gift of Sunny Bach Wicka '55 (thank you, Sunny!). All alumnae and friends are invited to join the trip -- for a brochure, contact Sunny at Cruise Central sunnywicka@comcast.net, 800-700-4700, 612-926-1400. |
THE NEW SCHOOL OF HEALTH,
Margaret McLaughlin, Dean of Health Professions, and Tone Frank Blechert, Associate Dean of Health Professions
Dean Margaret McLaughlin and Associate Dean Tone Frank Blechert
Why a New School of Health?
Opening the presentation, Dean McLaughlin provided some of the "whys" behind the School of Health by first exploring the etymology of the terms being used. College has its origins in the Latin word collegium, which means a group of people living together under common set of rules. McLaughlin explained that once CSC initiated Weekend College, we had already begin evolving beyond a single set of rules.
University comes from "universitas magistrorum et scholarium", which is a community of teachers and scholars dedicated to research, teaching, and education -- to searching for, discovering, and communicating knowledge. In essence, a university then is a "community of communities." Finally school is generally considered a clustering of disciplines within a university, or as the Merriam Webster states historically: "a group of scholars and teachers pursuing knowledge together that with similar groups constituted a medieval university."
It is with concepts such as this in mind that St. Catherine's decided to cluster the health professions into the new School of Health, which will maintain a base in the liberal arts in the teaching of health care. This year, the School of Health became the second largest health care educator in the state of Minnesota, second only to the University of Minnesota Duluth. With 21 professional and preprofessional majors and programs, St. Catherine's is arguably the most comprehensive health care educator in Minnesota.
It 2007-08, the School of Health encompassed:
- 850 two-year-program students
- 815 four-year-program students
- 343 graduate-program students
Of the students enrolled,
- 37% were parents
- 46% were the first in their families to attend college
- 34% were multicultural students
So the School of Health is continuing the tradition of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in seeking to offer education to all women, including the most vulnerable and underserved. Men are also included in many School of Health programs, especially the graduate programs.
The School of Health will likely be joined by a School of the Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, and other proposed clusterings of disciplines as the new structure unfolds.
How Will It Be Different from Other Schools of Health?
Associate Dean of Health Professions Blechert noted how the St. Catherine's health programs have already been leading the industry in many ways, citing some of the trends in health care that have required new thinking and teaching approaches, which CSC has been applying and will strengthen in the new organizational structure. The emphasis of the School of Health will be to:
- create and nurture partnerships with the health care providers
- attend to the growing knowledge base through technological management and access to health information (informatics)
- address chronic health needs
- teach empathetic listening skills for better patient care
- emphasize overall wellness over crisis medical interventions
With the new clustering of disciplines into the School of Health, the faculty will be more easily able to develop partnerships and learning communities of academic and pracitioner excellence that will instill and support core competencies:
- relationship-centered care
- interdisciplinary teams
- employ evidence based practices
- apply quality improvement processes and standards
- utilize informatics (application of technology and statistical information to manage and access information).
Deeply Rooted in the CSJ Legacy
The two presenters noted that this new school of health will follow in the legacy of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in terms of justice, community partnerships, teaching, the liberal arts, and an emphasis on women as the "keepers of societal health."
From the time of their first coming to Minnesota, the CSJs have established partnerships in the community for the health of all. In 1852, before statehood, there was a cholera outbreak in St. Paul. The four CSJs in Minnesota approached Bishop Cretin to donate funds (part of his family inheritance), Protestant businessman Henry Rice (of Rice Park fame) to donate land, and Ojibwe Chief White Cloud (Wabanaquot) to donate lumber for a hospital. Until it was built, the four teaching sisters turned their log cabin school into a hospital and became nurses.
"Being healthy is about justice"-- about access to care, resources, education, and a healthy environment. For this reason, the new School of Health will also work to be a strong voice for reform, justice, and empathetic vision in the fields of health care and education in local, national, and international professional and political circles. The new School of Health will maintain its roots in the liberal arts because they "teach us about being human."
 HONOR STUDENT
BROOKE VETTER
As a Montanan, Brooke Vetter ‘08 came to the campus ready to be disillusioned. Quickly homesick, she wanted to pack up and return to where she felt she belonged. Instead, four years later, she prepares to graduate with a degree in biology, weighted with honors, from Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Gamma Pi to the Dean of Students Award to that of an Antonian Scholar, with numerous other awards in science and technology thrown in.
She explained to the Alumnae Association members that the turning point in deciding to stay came during her Reflective Woman course, where Vetter engaged in in-depth discussions with women from different places and majors. It was within this group that she began to acquire the close-knit community she had left behind in her small Montana town. A particularly life-changing essay in the course was “Claiming Your Education,” by Adrienne Rich, where Rich advocated that one must take responsibility for challenging oneself to become educated in a full way.
This concept struck a chord so deeply with Vetter that it expanded into a full composition when she took an honors course called “Literature and Social Structures.” This class plunged her into waters completely out of her comfort zone. The use of literature to explore social pressures and analyze experience opened up new options in thinking for Vetter and inspired her to greater leadership. From this point on, she became active in the Student Senate and the Minnesota Public Research Group (MPRG) on campus, which uses research to investigate and positively influence social structures and public awareness, and she took on other leadership roles.
For her honors project, she worked with Professor Pelegrini to investigate whether people who mimic the facial features of others as they listen are more empathetic to others or not. Such a project required crossing scholarly lines again, from psychology and personality testing to biology and neuroscience to technology and statistics to qualitative interpretations of experience.
As with any original research adventure, Vetter ran into unforeseen obstacles and problems, yet she persevered. In the end, she concluded that there was no statistical correlation between mimicking facial expressions and empathetic listening. But in the process of discovering this, she learned that she’d like to pursue a graduate program in neuroscience . . . and St. Kate’s, this learning community so far from her homeplace, has prepared her well.
 CONCLUSION
Executive Director Ruth Haag Brombach thanked all who attended, along with the Alumnae Board Members, staff, and the many volunteers who achieved so much in 2007-08. She noted that the measure of a College (or university!) is its graduates, and the alumnae of St. Catherine's continue to shine and show how outstanding they are and how extraordinary this community is!
After a rousing "Hymn to St. Catherine" sung by the alumnae led by members of the College Choir, Ruth invited everyone to partake of the delicious buffet and continue the many conversations among friends.
| ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION BUSINESS
Thank you to parlimentarians Helen Farrell Kennedy '42 and former association president Colleen Curran '75 who served for this meeting. Secretary Lezlie Ott Marek '80 took roll, and the minutes from the 2007 annual meeting were approved.
 Some members of the Alumnae Association Board: Executive Director Ruth Haag Brombach, Secretary Lezlie Ott Marek, Treasurer Rita Pomroy, and Vice President Catherine Bendel.
TREASURER'S REPORT
Treasurer Rita Pomroy '05 offered the Treasurer's Report. She emphasized the growing number of alumnae each year -- 1100 -- and how this phenomenal growth stretches the Alumane Association resources and funding. Though the Association has appropriate assets, it is currently using some of its saved resources to meet budget goals each year. That is why it is a key goal in the Strategic Plan to raise more funds for expanding budgetary purposes. The Alumnae Association has had many successful fundraisers this year and is undertaking a number of new ones, including the:
- 5K Walk/Run -- THE DEW DROP DASH -- on Reunion Sunday and
Nominating Committee Chair Lezlie Ott Marek with committee members -- Mary Kraft, CSJ, SP '65, Kathleen Curran SP '80, Denise Goggin Andersen SP '71, Rose Hennessy Allen SP '00 -- recommended the slate of new board members for election:
- Mary Emery Shearen SP '75, for secretary
- Anne Bisanz Hannahan SP '73, for third quarter representative
- Connie Knowles SP '88, for third quarter representative
- Carol Eiden SP '90, for fourth quarter representative
- Alison John Schaub SP '95, for fourth quarter representative
- Shilpa Seshadri SP '01, for fourth quarter representative
This slate of candidates was soundly voted in, and we thank each of them for joining the board.
Board Members Who Completed Their Terms
We thank those members who are leaving the board, having served well:
- Theresa McHugh Palmersheim SP '72
- Janice Dwuznik Nitti SP '93
- Student Eryn Schneider SP '08
 PRESIDENT'S REPORT
President Yvonne Hourle Gillard thanked the hardworking staff, board members, and volunteers of the Association and outlined the numerous achievements made towards meeting the ambitious goals and strategies of the 2007-08 Strategic Plan of the Alumnae Association. 
The strategies and achievements included:
1) Increase visibility of services to alumnae and give special attention to programs and services that build alumnae community.
- Cell phone drive with YWCA, collecting over 350 used phones to benefit threatened women and children
- 90th Anniversary Celebration and Christmas Open House
- Historic Trip to Williamsburg, home of the first Phi Beta Kappa
- International and Multicultural Alumnae Group (IMAG) gatherings
- Lifelong Learning Classes and Programs
- Conversation with Books, on the St. Paul campus, with the CSJs at Bethany, in Golden Valley, in Phoenix, and with Friends of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
- Booked for the Evening Children's Books Event
- KATIES CONNECTING events in the Twin Cities
- Chapter events in various locations
- Memorial Masses
- St. Paul Campus Reunion
- Minneapolis Campus Open House
- Fall Nurses Gatherings
- Alumnae Awards
- Special event with the Marine Corps to honor Alumnae Award Winner Marie Proulx SP '39 in San Diego
- Weddings Reunion at Our Lady of Victory Chapel
- Alumnae librarians professional networking breakfast and other networking events
2) Build a bridge between the students and the Alumnae Association that fosters and promotes the Association as a personal, professional, and educational resource.
- Alumnae panel discussions for students interested in graduate school or careers in chemistry, biology, medicine, and international teaching
- Welcomed seniors to Alumnae Association after graduation practice with a special tote bag filled with information on the programs and services offered by the Alumnae Association
- Connected those students who requested mentors with alumnae in their desired career fields
- Connected those students who requested interviewees for The Reflective Woman course with appropriate alumnae
- Donated of goodie basket to annual student charity ball
3) Strengthen the relationship of the Alumnae Association with the College of St. Catherine (now university) by bringing the talents of our alumnae volunteers to its service
- Publicized Leadership Forum and Northern Star Breakfast events in our calendar postings and supported them by inviting alumnae and friends
- Publicized on our web site and in our Calender of Events additional college programs and events, such as those of the graduate school, International Institute for Women Entrepreneurs, Weekend College, etc.
- Aligned our Strategic Plan with that of the College
- Worked with Admissions on recruitment projects
- Coordinated alumnae volunteers to write letters to over 1,000 prospective students
- Offered alumnae representation on Task Force considering the change from College to University
- Helped plan College's Phi Beta Kappa celebration
- Suggested venues and hospitality for College's Choir Great Lakes Concert Tour
- Reviewed the College's Strategic Plan for New School of Health and worked to support and publicize it
4) Identify means for expanding financial resources of the Alumnae Association to enable continued delivery of alumnae programs and services to the healthy and growing group of alumnae.
- Cooking for the Community events with Sociale Gourmet
- Silent Auction and Raffles at Annual Meeting
- Alumnae Favorite Recipes Cookbook
- 5K Walk/Run over Reunion
- Continued sales of ornaments, scarves, posters, notecards, and other Alumnae Association products
5) Evaluate our vehicles of communication to alumnae for the purpose of increasing effectiveness.
- Vastly expanded the use of web pages to communicate information on events, highlight the inspiring work of alumnae, and connect alumnae to each other and the College.
- Expanded the use of email communications
- Assisted College in conversion of alumnae records into new College database called Banner, which will eventually offer increased abilities for alumnae to contact each other
- Increased contributions of articles about alumnae to the College Webzine @stcatherine
- Worked on redesign of format and use of the twelve pages allotted to the Alumnae Association within SCAN, with continued planning and input on overall magazine
- Continued responsiveness to all email, phone, and mail inquiries, comments, and suggestions
- Increased ability to communicate in a timely manner the vital information of births and deaths
- Continued to explore new ways to communicate effectively, efficiently, and in a timely manner
After presenting her report, Yvonne asked all attendees to fill up the flip charts at their tables with answers to questions and suggestions for the fall 2008 Strategic Planning Retreat for Alumnae Association Board Members.
Part-time Alumnae Office Staffer Karen Brill
with President Yvonne Houle-Gillard.
GENERATING ALUMNAE IDEAS
 Responding to Yvonne's request for alumnae input, each table got to work discussing and providing answers to the Alumnae Association's questions on flipcharts. The five questions were:
1) What is the Alumnae Association doing well (examples of meeting your needs and expectations)?
2) Where could we improve? What other needs and expectations could be addressed?
3) Should we explore the option of annual dues? Do you have any other fundraising suggestions?
4) What classes and offerings would you like to see in our Lifelong Learning Program?
5) Other Comments?
Over twenty tables of alumnae tackled these questions together, offering a variety of great suggestions and ideas. A few members said, "Usually we come to these meetings to listen. It is great to be asked what we think."
To see a sample of their feedback and add your own ideas and comments, please click here.
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Alumnae Enjoy the Buffet and Desserts and Each Other's Company
| LIFELONG LEARNING
ALUMNAE ART EXHIBIT
The Lifelong Learning Program has often offered popular classes in sketching, water colors, and botanical drawing. This year, as a new feature, the committee displayed some of the works by alumnae in these classes. There will be a Lifelong Learning Watercolors Class this summer and an Adventurous Scholar Trip to Door County. For more on the classes offered to alumnae through the Lifelong Learning Program of the Alumnae Association, click here.
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HYMN TO ST. CATHERINE
St. Catherine's Student Choir Sings with Alumnae
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