From The President’s Desk
Dear Mooney family:
Five weeks in and our students continue to show their mettle in the classroom, on fields of competition, and in their response to COVID. We crowned our homecoming King and Queen: Congratulations Steven Hiner and Tiffany Douthitt. Kudos to Erik Vargo for his technical wizardry in putting together the pep rally video. Thank you, Student Council, for adapting this year’s Ursuline Week to COVID protocols. I want to acknowledge. yet again, how nice it is to see students at games and to hear our band performing.
So, with another Ursuline Week in the books, here’s an update on Cardinal Mooney’s accreditation cycle. Principle Dr. Mary Anne Beiting and her administrative team are preparing for our review. This is a great opportunity for Mooney to review its curriculum, processes, Catholic identity, and reimagine its future.
Teaching our students is a great privilege and a greater responsibility. At Mooney we have the opportunity to contribute to the development of outstanding young men and women who have made a commitment to using their God given talents in service of others. Our role is not only to help them discover themselves through our college preparatory and faith formation program, but also to help prepare them for the challenges they will face as Christian leaders. Consequently, one of our central tasks is to show students how intellectual curiosity and creativity (Scholarship) blend with self-discipline (Discipline) and a deep commitment to service (Sanctity).
The intellectual demands placed on the modern Mooney graduate are unprecedented in our history. Today more than ever, our graduates must deal with complex technologies, advancements in science, rapidly changing political, social, and economic environments, complicated multicultural issues, and a host of other non-traditional issues. All of these demand intelligent, innovative, moral, and ethical solutions.
The demands we place on our students must be consistent with the time available to meet standards across our curriculum and extra-curricular programming. The accreditation process will help guide Mooney through the 21st. century. This accreditation cycle is critical to Mooney’s long-term viability. What will this look like?
To prepare our graduates for the world they enter and to ensure our viability we will need to:
- create top quality academic programs to rival benchmark schools;
- invest in space and partnerships to provide expertise and the infrastructure vital to contemporary secondary education;
- create multi/inter-disciplinary centers and programs to attract students and faculty;
- enhance our facilities to better recruit and retain students/faculty and increase future funding;
- improve the quality of the teaching and learning environment.Reclaim and clarify the role of our Catholic theology in adding value across the entire campus;
- enhance and better serve the student body;
- help build our Church and the city’s future through the development of its future leaders.
These initiatives are strategic in that they represent a manageable number of items that can be accomplished while having the potential impact to fundamentally transform Mooney. These initiatives and concomitant resource plan will be designed not simply to sustain programs but to accelerate our progress over the next months and years. It begins with our accreditation cycle.
Since being honored with the responsibility of leading Cardinal Mooney, I have met with administrative leadership, faculty members, alumni, benefactors, our Board of Directors, and Church leadership. Together, we have talked about the direction I will give Mooney over the next few years. We have also talked about how we can achieve that direction and what impact we will expect from altering the status quo.
These issues are fundamental to the 21st. century character of this institution. And, as you see, we are lagging. Cardinal Mooney has a rich and wonderful past, and its traditions are important. But the past cannot serve as our compass for the future.
There are singular moments in the history of our school — our founding period for example, that required daring, a willingness to move forward into uncharted territory, and bold investments in our future. I believe this is another of those defining moments.
Beginning with this year’s accreditation cycle, we will re-imagine what Mooney education can and should look like in the coming years.
Click here to download our full October 4th, 2020 bulletin (PDF Format)