By Rachel Konieczny
Staff Writer
Expanded listening sessions for faculty members are taking place this week and next to discuss the possibility of a strategic alliance with Hilbert College.
Teresa O’Rourke, the executive director of the strategic alliance study, is leading the confidential sessions with faculty to answer questions and consider suggestions to the proposed alliance.
Hired in August using a John R. Oishei Foundation grant, O’Rourke has been in contact with St. Bonaventure and Hilbert College concerning the strategic alliance and its benefits for both Franciscan schools. For the listening sessions at Bonaventure, she listens to concerns and suggestions raised by the faculty and delivers a report to Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., university president, and Dr. Carol Fischer, associate dean of the School of Business and St. Bonaventure accounting professor, who are both involved in the strategic alliance.
There will be additional meeting dates for the strategic alliance listening sessions.
In the several sessions that she has led so far, O’Rourke said the overarching question raised is how a strategic alliance might benefit St. Bonaventure.
“I ask the staff what they think are the challenges, concerns and advantages of pursuing a strategic alliance,” O’Rourke said. “I’ve found that what works best for a discussion is a conversation among the entire group, not a one-way conversation.”
Carole McNall, assistant professor of journalism and mass communication, went to a listening session last week.
“Teresa O’Rourke was explicit early on in mentioning that this is simply a listening session and that there would be few answers to questions raised,” McNall said. “It was interesting to hear the views from the other programs regarding the strategic alliance.”
Although she noted that it is too early to tell how the alliance might benefit the journalism and mass communication program, McNall said she is hopeful about the possibility of new majors and programs for the communication department.
Dr. Christopher Stanley, professor of theology, said he would be attending the session on Thursday, Nov. 20. He discussed his expectations and thoughts on the session and the proposed alliance.
“It will be interesting to see (O’Rourke’s) perspectives for the implications and the time frame of any potential arrangements,” Stanley said. “I am going to the session to be informed on any new information on the strategic alliance.”
Stanley mentioned that Hilbert College currently has no theology department, and he hopes that if the strategic alliance is approved, teleconferencing would be a possibility between classrooms. For the present, he agrees that the biggest concern is the financial impact that Hilbert College would have on the Bonaventure community.
St. Bonaventure and Hilbert College first began discussing the feasibility study between the two schools in October of last year. This study will determine the potential pros and cons of the proposition. The two schools began a relationship over 20 years ago when St. Bonaventure opened a graduate studies center on the Hilbert campus. Since then, relations have grown and culminated in the alliance study.
“In my opinion, St. Bonaventure and Hilbert College are very forward-thinking,” O’Rourke said.
She emphasized her belief that the strategic alliance must provide educational benefits for students.
“In this case, one plus one must equal more than two, and the winners are the students,” O’Rourke said.
