In the “Inferno” Dante describes the Nine Circles of Hell where those guilty of grave faults face fierce demons and their own foolish sins. The aftermath at Wheeling Jesuit must feel like hell for board members and the Jesuit trustees who launched the sacking of their president, Fr. Giulietti. With no plans in place to develop the college into a viable school on their own, the results of the action continues to fester and slowly destroy the school. Those of us who watch find it unbelievable that such foolishness could actually happen at a Jesuit college. Maybe its Jesuitness is all past history as it must face the inevitability of a sale.
Leo Cleary
Pittsburgh
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WJU has struggled financially its entire existence. It has no endowment to speak of. Historically, it survived by relying on faculty who worked for free and administrators (mostly female) who worked for slave wages. Unfortunately, the Jesuit order in the U.S. is running out of capable priests and there are not many lay-persons willing to work for a pittance any more. On top of that, the City of Wheeling and the whole Ohio Valley are suffering tremendous economic adversity and dwindling population. WJU's problems go far beyond the mishandling of Fr. Giulietti's firing. Steubie U up the river in survived by inventing a new niche identity for itself (as a haven for right-wing evangalistic conservatives). WJU needs to change or it will probably not survive in the long term The question is, what is it going to change into, and how can it get there? Most of the negative posts here add nothing of value.
ReplyDeleteAnon. (9/13/10, 2pm) notes that WJU has “no endowment.” President Giulietti initiated an extensive campaign which had already raised over ten million dollars, but those pledges were zapped when President Giulietti was fired by McAteer/Shea and the three blind mice (Stockhausen, Gleeson, and O’Donnell). Steve Haid wrote on 10/18/9 (posted in this blog on 11/7/9) that “at least five million dollars otherwise committed to the endowment has been withdrawn [and that those] who created this calumny will surely reap what they have sown.”
ReplyDeleteAnon. asks, “What is [WJU] going to change into, and how can it get there?” Begin by recruiting Catholic students from Pittsburgh and other Northern cities rather than Bible-Belt Protestants. In the early years, Wheeling College thrived on such a student body. Many families throughout Big-Ten states are looking for a small liberal arts Catholic version of Knox College. Get back to basics.
What Anon. calls “negative posts [that] add nothing of value” comprise the principal news source for alumni and community members to obtain information about the growing list of WJU scandals. McAteer, Shea et al. have stonewalled our every request for answers. Wheeling J.U. should be about open inquiry and truth seeking. If you want smoke-and-mirror happy talk, listen to the short-skirt-and-pompom brigade of Helm, Haller, et al. tell about their presidential search escapade.
Help! WJU is my daughter's first choice school and I found this website and this information is disturbing. From the outside this looks like a nice catholic university and it concerns me and I'm not sure that this is the best place for her now. Does anyone know how the campus/student life is on campus now? Isn't the major issues over and things will just go back to normal now?
ReplyDeleteThings are a long way from being back to normal. The same individuals are doing the same things. Using federal funds as nothing more than their personal cash cow. In the end, the University will pay.
ReplyDelete"Normal" is a relative term at WJU. The university has been awash in bad politics for over a decade and the recent debacles are best described as the logical outcome of these problems. With that being said, WJU could be a great school for your daughter if she's the right "fit." In spite of the university's many faults, hundreds of students successfully pass through the institution every year, while many others transfer out.
ReplyDeleteThe trick here is to delve deeper into the university's culture (and this should be true with any school). Studies show that the vast majority of students who visit the campus matriculate after they see the attractive campus. A large percentage of those students will have left by the end of their sophomore year. If your daughter is curious, independent and strong-willed, Jesuit may not be the best choice for her. If on the other hand she is a decent student who flourishes in a structured environment and she is comfortable allowing others to make decisions for her, then this might be the place (many college students these days relish the kind of structure once scorned by students in the 70s and 80s, so the latter comment is not intended to be a slight).
To the above anonymous parent of 9/23/10, 9:01pm -- It is what it is; caveat emptor. Godspeed to your daughter.
ReplyDelete