Criminal justice faculty member Jeffrey Tomlinson was interviewed on the November 22 episode of  NBC10@Issue. NBC10 is the Philadelphia affiliate of NBC.

Click here for the link to the episode.

Six ACCESS students at DeSales University were named the recipients of the school’s Center City Allentown Revitalization Scholarship.

Jessica Gonzalez, a human resource management major, Latia Hill, a nursing major, Madelyn Salado, a biology major, Sue Stout, an undeclared major, Maria Tolentino, a marriage and family studies major, and Denise Wright, a nursing major, are residents in Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) and all received scholarships to enroll in or continue taking ACCESS classes.

To apply for the scholarship, the students completed an application and wrote an essay outlining their educational goals and addressing a question about the downtown Allentown revitalization and how their participation in this program would help them effect change for the future of Allentown.

“Once I become a nurse, I plan to give back to my community,” wrote Wright in her essay. “I want to make sure that Center City residents are aware of different things with their physical and mental health.

“I know in my heart that I can benefit from this scholarship because I am driven by my eagerness to make a change and make a difference in Allentown.”

With this scholarship, DeSales University seeks to help the residents in the NIZ who wish to pursue a college education, overcome common barriers such as juggling a job while taking classes, navigating the college admissions process, and choosing a program of study. 

The goals of the scholarship program are not only to increase the number of ACCESS students who live in the NIZ, but also to increase college graduation rates for NIZ residents.

The scholarship is funded by a grant from the Harry C. Trexler Trust with a partial match by the City Center Investment Corporation.

“We are deeply grateful to the trustees of the Harry C. Trexler Trust and Center City Investment Corporation for awarding scholarship funds to the DeSales University ACCESS Program,” said Deborah Booros, M.P.A., dean of lifelong learning. “Our adult learners are extremely busy working, raising families, and volunteering for their communities. They are committed, hard-working individuals, very deserving of and thankful for this honor.”

DeSales University, in Center Valley, Pa., is a private, coeducational, four-year liberal arts university affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Founded by the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales in 1965, the 480-acre suburban campus is located 50 miles north of Philadelphia and about 90 miles south of New York City. A total enrollment of nearly 3,000 includes undergraduate day and evening students and graduate students. DeSales has approximately 100 full-time faculty members and offers more than 35 bachelor’s degrees and eight graduate programs in a wide range of disciplines. 

About the Harry C. Trexler Trust
Harry C. Trexler was an entrepreneur, agriculturalist, and philanthropist who spent his lifetime accumulating businesses and wealth. Generous in life, his philanthropy continues through the private foundation established with the estates of Harry and Mary (Mosser) Trexler. The growth and vitality of the community in which the Trexlers lived and prospered is supported by the Trexler Trust. Since 1935, the Trust has aided the work of Lehigh County charities by providing them with nearly $140 million in funding. 

About City Center Investment Corporation
City Center Investment Corporation is a visionary real estate development and management company dedicated to regenerating great American cities by combining the best new and existing cultural, commercial, and residential properties. Launched in 2011, CCIC is led by a highly successful, award-winning team of innovative national developers and real estate sales and marketing executives. This dynamic group has experience creating and managing award-winning lifestyle communities, garden apartments, urban spaces and revitalized historic high-rise properties. The company is headquartered in Allentown, Pa.

On Wednesday, November 18, the student resident advisors announced the creation of an award named after Fr. Alexander Pocetto, OSFS, retired senior vice president at DeSales, and the first dorm proctor when the school opened in 1965.

Pocetto was the guest speaker at the monthly resident advisors meeting where he spoke about the challenges about being a full-time faculty member and being responsible for students living away from home. “I never caught who put the firecrackers with the long fuses in the toilets,” he said.

After his talk, two resident advisors, Owen Roff (left) and Wesley Strickland (center), presented Pocetto (right) with the award named for him that will be given to a resident advisor who, in part “invites their residents, their staff and the wider university family to ‘live well.’ The Salesian leadership virtues of humility and gentleness are exhibited in this resident advisor’s every day interactions and service to the university community.”

“Bringing together the pioneer resident advisor and the current staff was a beautiful testament to the rich tradition of our university,” said Mary Colleen Romendio ’15, residence hall director, Tocik and Aviat Halls. “Fr. Pocetto gives all of us a real and honest account of our university’s past while also instilling hope for our future—what a way to celebrate 50 years.”

 Jimmie DeLoach demonstrates makeup techniques at the 2015 CayFilm, the Cayman International Film Festival. Photo used with permission.

 On Thursday, December 3, from 12:30 until 4:00 p.m., Jimmie DeLoach, a master hairstylist and makeup artist for the film, television, and theatre industry, will present a hands on makeup effects workshop in the Schubert Theatre at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the DeSales University campus.

DeLoach’s workshop will feature a realistic-looking arm with a compound fracture, complete with protruding bone, as well as a transformation from human to zombie.

DeLoach has worked on many film and theatre projects in the Cayman Islands. His U.S. film credits include Deliverance, Gator, and King. Since 1983, he has been responsible for makeup and hair for the Theatre Macon’s annual production of The Nutcracker in Macon, Georgia, as well as more than 60 plays at Macon Little Theatre and Theatre Macon, Georgia. His background in chemistry led him to create his own formula for a sunless spray tanner.

DeLoach currently works at La Mer Spa at the Marriott Beach Resort at Seven Mile Beach, Cayman Island, as a hairstylist, colorist, and airbrush makeup artist.

The DeSales University Division of Performing Arts is pleased to announce the annual Gaudeamus Concert to be presented at 8 PM on Sunday, December 6, Monday, December 7, Friday, December 11, and Saturday, December 12, in the Connelly Chapel on the campus of DeSales University. Tickets are $5 for regular admission and $3 for students and seniors.

“DeSales University has always produced very fine choral ensembles.  And under Ben Durham’s leadership, student membership has grown and the quality of the ensembles is outstanding,” says John Bell, head of the division of performing arts. “We take great pride in the fact that these students come from a real cross section of the campus population: students majoring in chemistry, political science, nursing, business, etc. It’s a real treat to see how these talented students devote themselves to the discipline and focus required for really high-quality choral performance.”

Under the direction of J. Bennett Durham, this special holiday concert features the University Chorale and the Schola Cantorum, chamber choir. “This year’s program includes choral classics accompanied by a string quintet, along with heartening arrangements of familiar carols and a handful of rousing spirituals,” says Durham. “The lush warmth of the string instruments will also enrich our singing of some favorite traditional Christmas hymns. I hope the evening brings a measure of comfort and joy to the campus and community.”

“Ben Durham programs a wonderful mix of sacred music and readings to help us reflect on the true meaning of the season, but he also sprinkles in a sampling of holiday favorites to rouse the Christmas spirit in us all,” adds Bell.

Seating is limited in the Connelly Chapel and, because of the usually high demand; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at the door. To order tickets, please call the Labuda Box Office at 610-282-3192 or order online at www.desales.edu/act1.

Adjunct faculty member and former United States attorney Seth Weber was interviewed by WFMZ regarding the federal investigation into the City of Allentown.

 See the video above and click here for the expanded story.

Please join with the Schubert family, the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales, the DeSales University community, and with lovers of beauty everywhere in mourning the passing of Rev. Gerard J. Schubert, OSFS from this earthly life. 

May he now rejoice in the presence of God and enjoy the full blessings of Beauty Itself. 

Rev. Gerard J. Schubert, a professed member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales for 65 years, was the son of the late Frederick and Mary Schubert, was born in Philadelphia in 1929. He attended St. Henry Parochial School and Northeast Catholic High School.

He received a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins University to study civil engineering, but after one year heard the call to priesthood and applied to the Oblates in June 1949. He entered the seminary and made his first profession of vows on September 12, 1950. Father Schubert was ordained to the priesthood in 1959 at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Wilmington, Del.

Father Schubert earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 1955, his master of arts in theological studies and a master of fine arts in speech and drama from The Catholic University of America in 1960 and 1964 respectively. He earned a Ph.D. in theatre from the University of Denver in 1970. 

From 1960 to 1965, Father Schubert was chairman of the English department and head of the drama program at Salesian High School in Detroit Michigan. At the University of Denver, Father Schubert served as the production manager for the theatre program as part of his graduate fellowship.

In the fall of 1967, Father Schubert participated as an actor and company manager for the United Service Organization (USO) during a 10-week European tour of the production of Brigadoon. In the summer of 1971, he was appointed a special observer of directorial techniques and company management of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-on-Avon, England. 

In 1969, Father Schubert began his career at DeSales University as chair of the performing and fine arts department, a position he served until his retirement in 1998. In that time he produced more than 200 theatre productions and 32 dance concerts. He directed more than 40 productions and acted in several, including his three-time portrayal of Sir Thomas More in the Robert Bolt play A Man for All Seasons.

In 1992, Father Schubert founded the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University. Before retiring in 2001, Father directed Shakespeare productions including Macbeth, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar. The Festival has been recognized as the Official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and has grown to entertain more than 34,000 patrons each summer.

The Lehigh Valley Health Network created a video about its street medicine program, an outreach program that offers care to the local homeless population. DeSales University graduate Brett Feldman is the director of the program and a graduate of our physician assistant program.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of DeSales University, the Salesian Center for Faith & Culture is offering our first-ever MOOC, a massive open online course, on the Everyday Spirituality of St. Francis de Sales. The MOOC will be offered during the 2016 Lenten season, February 10 through March 13 and will be entirely free. For information regarding the MOOC visit us at www.desales.edu/salesianMOOC or contact us at 610.282.1100 x 1244.

The course will delve into the spirituality taught by St. Francis de Sales and will cover such topics as Salesian Pedagogy for a Devout Life; Living out the Will of God, and Everyday Spirituality Every Day. The course will be led by Fr. Thomas Dailey, OSFS.

Fr. Dailey is the founding and current Director of the Salesian Center for Faith & Culture and holds the Blessed Louis Brisson Chair in Salesian Spirituality at DeSales University. He is also a professor of Theology in the Division of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at DeSales.

Established in 2000, The Salesian Center for Faith and Culture’s mission is to promote the interaction of faith and culture, in a mutually beneficial engagement, through academic initiatives that focus on the authentic integration of social concerns and gospel values. The Salesian Center supports intellectual activity in research studies, dialogue events including public forums and lectures and partnership programs. For information about The Salesian Center for Faith and Culture, visit our website at www.desales.edu/salesian or call 610-282-1100, ext. 1244.​

Making decisions about expanding plants, handling international logistics, or taking out business loans is all in a typical day for DeSales MBA students. They may sound like CEOs, but in fact, these students are participating in the Business Strategy Game (BSG) , an international competition in which students are given a company to run. Decisions like those mentioned above, along with other critical business decisions, influence how well their simulated business does; and just like in the real world, their business can thrive or falter.

 The Business Strategy Game is the central focus of the capstone course taken by every DeSales MBA student. It illustrates perfectly the real-world focus of the DeSales MBA degree, where emphasis is on practical skills, as they relate to learned theories and business principles.

"Each week I learned more and more about how to integrate all of the functional knowledge I had learned in the DeSales MBA program.  I learned things like pricing elasticity, the benefits of a large market share, and total quality management with the labor force,” says recent graduate, Cindy Mitman. “Production, distribution, marketing, finance, accounting, and operations pieces all came together to run a successful business.” 

And successful she was. After beating out her classmates at DeSales, Cindy was invited to participate in the Business Strategy Invitational (BSI) with students from around the globe in 216 teams representing 18 industries.

Participating in the Business Strategy Invitational was certainly a roller coaster ride,” she said. “The most challenging part about the Invitational was the fact that it spans 10 years in 2 weeks — forcing you to make quick decisions each night. For the Business Strategy Game in class, I had the luxury of reviewing reports and testing scenarios over a week between each year [in the game] versus one night.”

 Those quick decisions paid off. In the end, she placed third in her industry worldwide – quite a feat!

Cindy credits much of her success to the teaching and mentoring style of her capstone instructor, Ed Luttenberg, and the way in which the Capstone experience calls for practical decision making in a simulated environment.  “I truly enjoyed each time I played the BSG/BSI and learned that different strategies can be successful when they are executed well,” she says. 

 DeSales MBA is proud of Cindy and her accomplishments and is looking for ways to make the Capstone class even more relevant.  Kudos to Cindy and Ed Luttenberg for jobs well done!

In 2011, DeSales was recognized as the Lehigh Valley Green Campus Sustainability Award Winner by the Delaware Valley Green Building Council.

My plane had just landed from Chicago and as we taxied toward the gate, I took my phone off airplane mode and saw that I had a text message. It was a picture of a beautiful newborn girl with a message from one of my patients. It said simply “thanks for saving my daddy’s life.” I felt my breath caught in my throat. I had taken care of John a few years ago when he and his fiancé were about to get married. Because of his cancer diagnosis they put the wedding on hold and he went through treatment. His fiancé was by his side for the entire 6 months. Thankfully, he went into remission and stayed there, hopefully cured. They went on to get married and a few years later, they told me they were expecting. And now they wanted to see if I could come visit them. I was privileged, overjoyed and incredibly humbled. I had wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. At times like these, I remember why.

Thus began a letter of consideration by Dr. Usman Shah for the Eastern Pennsylvania Healthcare Executive Network (EPAHEN) - Hal Dolenga Emerging Leader Award.

The EPAHEN - Hal Dolenga Emerging Leader Award is presented to a current DeSales MBA student who works in healthcare who demonstrates evidence of current/potential leadership success, and is a member of good standing in the community.

Dr. Shah, currently an attending physician in Hematology & Oncology at Lehigh Valley Hospital Network in Allentown, has been an oncologist for the last nine years. Shah is actively engaged in, and passionate about, improving cancer treatment programs at LVHN. He serves on the LVHN Institutional Review Board which reviews clinical trials for approval and ensures patient/subject safety as the trials proceed. He also enrolls patients in leading edge national and industry sponsored clinical trials. Through these and other patient interactions, Dr. Shah developed the insight which has inspired some of his ground breaking research. Shah has also developed and led a multidisciplinary clinic for patients with pancreatic, liver, bile duct, and esophageal cancers – a favorite project and a true labor of love.

Two years ago, Shah decided to pursue his MBA at DeSales University with a concentration in healthcare. “My primary motivation was to understand the business and economics of medicine and I could not have made a better choice,” Shah says.

Dr. Dave Gilfoil, MBA program director, recalls that Dr. Shah was a clear standout in his accelerated business foundation course. “He seemed to balance a genuine caring for the patients with the need to improve the oncology patient’s journey and the financial impact on the patient and/her family. Indeed, Dr. Shah’s impressive resume speaks to his expertise, caring nature, and drive to be impactful in many ways. He is a natural for the Dolenga Leadership Award and the EPAHEN board is blessed to have him.”

“I am truly honored to be nominated for this award. My experience at DeSales over the last two years has been nothing short of exceptional,” says Shah.

Congratulations to Dr. Usman Shah on this achievement! DeSales MBA is proud to call him one of our own.

DeSales University will hold its mid-year commencement on Saturday, January 23, at 11:00 a.m., in Billera Hall on the Center Valley campus. During the ceremony, Rev. Bernard F. O’Connor, OSFS, president of DeSales University, will confer degrees upon 147 graduating students for January 2016.

In addition to the January 2016 degree recipients, DeSales awarded 238 degrees to students in September 2015. Because there is no formal ceremony in September, the September graduates may take part in the January commencement.

Kevin F. Flemming (pictured right), president and CEO of the INTEGRITY group of companies, will deliver the commencement speech.

Flemming joined Integrity Personnel, Inc. in 1997 and was appointed president of the Lehigh Valley-based staffing company in 2004. He founded IntegritySBS, a business process outsourcing company in 2008. He has been closely involved with economic development and workforce policy in the region, serving two terms on the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Flemming holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from DeSales University and has been a long-time supporter of the DeSales community. He is a member of the DeSales University President’s Council, member of the board of the Forum for Ethics in the Workplace, and serves as chairman of the Societas Award for Responsible Corporate Conduct.

During the ceremony, Michael and Wilhelmina Laroche will receive the DeSales Medal.

The DeSales Medal is the highest nonacademic award conferred by the University in recognition of the outstanding contributions to the development of the University through personal service as well as financial support. Recipients of the DeSales Medal are well respected in the community at large and have been distinguished for the witness they give to the ideals most highly prized by St. Francis de Sales.

“Mike and Wilhelmina Laroche are living examples of the ideals most highly prized by St. Francis de Sales,” said Fr. O’Connor. “Both are ardent supporters of DeSales University who truly live a life of Salesian spirit and inspiration.”

Michael Laroche, a 1975 graduate of DeSales, is the district manager of the Social Security Office in Stroudsburg, Pa., and Wilhelmina Laroche is a retired elementary school teacher.

In 1995, Michael was ordained as a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Allentown. Assigned to Holy Trinity Church, he coordinates the RCIA program and assists with liturgies and sacraments. He also served as a board member of the Allentown Central Catholic Music Parents, coordinating trips for the band.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in politics, Michael served as alumni board secretary and a class representative. He was the 1980 alumni chair of the school’s annual fund and previously served as the chair of the alumni advisory board for the Salesian Center for Faith and Culture.

In Spring 2016, the DeSales MBA program will offer an International Business course to MBA students that includes a trip to Lima, Peru, and Universidad Peruana de Ciensias Aplicadas (UPC) in Cusco. While in Peru, students will meet with select companies from a variety of Peruvian industries and visit historical and archaeological sites such as Machu Picchu. The course is appropriate for all concentrations.

Interested? Contact DeSales MBA: 610-282-1100 x1450 or click here for a detailed course description.

DeSales Free Clinic (File Photo) 

DeSales University received a Community Partnership grant from the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation that will be used to purchase medical supplies for the University’s student-run Free Clinic that serves homeless men in the City of Allentown.

The supplies will include inhalers and nicotine replacement materials, which are crucial because the homeless population has a high incidence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and asthma.  Without regular medical care and inhalers, patients cannot manage these chronic conditions. Both conditions are worsened by smoking and nicotine replacement therapy would help patients with smoking cessation.

“This grant has come at the perfect time as we head into a long winter where chronic lung illnesses get worse,” says Corinne Feldman, PA-C, assistant professor of physician assistant studies and executive director of the clinic. “Many of these inhalers cost $300-$400 per inhaler and our patients have no means to pay that cost. The nicotine replacement tools will really help us facilitate smoking cessation in many of our patients.”

The DeSales Free Clinic at the Allentown Rescue Mission, opened by the DSU Physician Assistant Program in 2007, provides completely free primary and acute care, laboratory services and medications to the men seeking shelter or enrolled in a recovery program at the Mission. DeSales nursing students also participate at the Clinic offering screening procedures.

The Clinic has served more than 1,537 individual patients from 2007 to 2015. More than 50 local physician assistants, doctors, and health providers who act as preceptors, providing student supervision, and who volunteer alongside the students support the Clinic. In 2014, the direct care at the Clinic equated to over $110,000 in free medical care based on Pennsylvania reimbursement rates.

The Lehigh Valley Community Foundation promotes philanthropy in order to improve the quality of life in the region and strives to be a major force in the development of philanthropy the region. The Foundation promotes and encourages collaboration among area philanthropists, and is a source of information and expertise regarding charitable giving.

For more information about the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation, click here.

I had a rather startling encounter with my younger self when recently I opened fund-raising pitch from the university. In the upper left hand corner of the flyer headlined “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” was a photo of what we then referred to as a “folk group.”

This one was made up of three young men, all students of what then was called Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales, and a young woman. The group was called The Valley Company, a nod to the actual location of the college. The photo is of the group’s first performance following months of rehearsals. For the record, if memory serves, the year would have been 1968, it would have been the spring semester, and the setting was the stage in what was then the basement of DeSales Hall, which, with two dorms (Conmy and Tocik) and “the round house,” (Wills Hall), constituted the whole of the campus. During normal hours the stage was used by a visiting professor whose lectures on world history could have been packaged as a cure for severe insomnia. I also recall the image of one of the Oblates, a biology teacher, lecturing there and bounding about the stage, a model of a DNA molecule in hand.

At the time, on the hill above the main campus, only the left parentheses of the then DeSales Seminary had been built, and it curved around one side of a chapel. 

Everywhere, sidewalks stretched out to structures that existed only in someone’s imagination.

In 1965, the year before I arrived, several cornerstones still were on skids on the sidewalks waiting to be inserted into gaps in the buildings. The quad, which drifted down from DeSales Hall to the dorms, was repeatedly reseeded only to have the next rain wash the effort down the slope into what I believe is the northwest corner of the big square defined by sidewalks. The grass grew very thick in that corner.

“Yesterday, today and tomorrow” echoes the Pauline phrase about the Master that ends in “forever” in some translations and was, coincidentally, one of the readings the weekend the fund-raising letter arrived. I had to smile about the intimation that today, 50 years after the doors were first open, there is still about the Salesian endeavor in Center Valley an easy exchange, presuming the reference was intentional, between the language of faith and the wider culture. 

I hope some things, especially the element of community – one of the flyer’s bullet points -- have not changed in principle. I wouldn’t know about “the winning spirit of our athletic teams,” another bullet point. I don’t think we had any at the time, and if we did, I doubt they won much, except in spirit.

In hindsight, the decision to found a college smack in the middle of the 1960s  was either horribly naïve or a noble act of hope and courage. The decade to some has become the symbol of a kind of libertine excess and mild anarchy that seeded all that has gone wrong since. To others, it was a time of liberation and creativity, the beginning of an Aquarian age, a bit of astrological gibberish that somehow translated into freeing humans from the ties of old and unnecessary strictures and conventions. Both, of course, are caricatures, each holding some truth about the age’s dynamism and its destructive tendencies. Daily reality lay somewhere in between.

One revolt on campus I recall was against the requirement that we wear coats and ties to class and dinner. (Some of us had figured out a way of keeping coats, shirts and ties together on a hanger so that getting into it all at once was similar to pulling on a bulky sweatshirt.)

The requirement was dropped the second semester of my freshman year, the start of 1967, a year and half into the college’s existence.

In the spirit of that era, one of The Valley Company’s performances was at a rally, held on the roof of the lobby (if I recall correctly) of Conmy Hall, against the Vietnam War. But that mild showing of disapproval was as radical as it got in Center Valley, where the sunsets were so beautiful they could cause heartache. 

Perhaps it was heartache over the sheer loneliness and isolation of the place. At times it felt a world away from all the thunder of that decade. We might read about Berkeley and Columbia and, God help us, even Notre Dame. We in the valley, however, could only imagine and wonder. Free love and hippiedom may have been sprouting elsewhere. We wished in vain in those years for the mere appearance on campus, to use Kazantzakis’ phrase, of “the female of the species.”

I wasn’t aware at the time, but the difference of this place went far beyond its geography and the collection of underachievers and otherwise misfits, as well as the overachievers who couldn’t afford elsewhere. Some had just drifted in, I suspect, with the flow from Oblate high schools to the order’s new and only college.

The real difference for me, someone from the far Northwest reaches of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, was exposure to Salesian spirituality, though I would not have called it that at the time. Here was a coherence, a whole world view, if you would, fashioned within and through the greater reality of Christian experience over centuries.

I was running constantly into the mid-20th century interpretation of a saint, heavily influenced by both the French and the Italian versions of the Renaissance, formed in faith by the Jesuits and practicing a kind of evangelical Catholicism in the teeth of the Reformation. All the while, he was giving up privilege yet conversant with the world at so many levels. The Oblates in Center Valley in the mid 1960s taught Christian humanism, an approach to living that engaged in a Salesian conversation with the world, not a fear of the world or a strategy to keep the world at bay. What we rather heard – and it was startlingly new for some of us who had known only the rote religion of archdiocesan exam preparation – was a call to holiness regardless of one’s state in life.

What happened on that sparse and isolated campus nearly a half century ago, my encounters with the giants of that era – Bernie Donahue, James Finnegan, James Longelaan, Gerard Schubert, Alexander Pacetto – would thread through a lifetime.

The weave that began in that long ago has become more pronounced in its color and dynamism with the papacy of Francis. I recognize themes of generosity and mercy, of a Catholic identity that can’t be outlined in a list of orthodoxies or measured by juridical calculation. And I’ve had to smile at times at my Center Valley memories, as their dimensions seem to fill out anew in the fresh air of this papacy, and say to myself, “In important ways, those founders were well ahead of their time.” 

The only way I’d make a university brochure these days is in a throwback photo. My academic past was, to put it in imprecise terms, checkered. But I have to think there is something notable in this coincidence: The brochure was the second memory jolt of a given week. Just a day or two before the brochure arrived I discovered, sorting old files, a 1984 letter from Fr. Pocetto, then vice president for academic affairs. I had written something endearing about the college in a local paper and he wrote to thank me with a proposal.  “I checked your permanent record,” he said. “It seems to me that it is possible for you to finish your degree here. You have completed a total of 34 courses out of the required 40 courses.” He went on to tell me that I wouldn’t necessarily have to take another six courses, that I might take some “challenge exams for credit” and engage in something called “the portfolio assessment method.” 

A generous offer, but the demands of a growing family and a journalism career that took me to New York shortly after receiving that letter means I never satisfied the remaining six course requirement.

It’s okay. Things have worked out well. Those sunsets and my first immersion in Christian humanism have hung around for a long time.

Apparently someone at the other end has diligently kept the institution’s scrapbook. It was pleasing to be reminded of the connection. I also recalled another Oblate who was backstage that evening.  Leon Bolich, then treasurer of the college, had given us some valuable coaching on the whole matter of performance. I’ve lost track of the whereabouts of Ursula King, the young woman in the photo. It is too bad the image is silent. She had a magnificent voice. One of the men, Tom Klein, on the left with guitar, a most gentle soul, died in 1994. He was 45. And the other in the center, Dan Wyatt, a dear friend still, was a French major at the time. He went on to earn an advanced degree in sacred music and became a distinguished church musician who has served the Catholic community in that capacity for decades.

I may even respond to that flyer.

About the author:
Tom Roberts is an almost member of the class of ’70. He is editor at large for National Catholic Reporter and the author of The Emerging Catholic Church: A Community’s Search for Itself (Orbis, 2011) and Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith (Orbis, 2015)]

The Salesian Center for Faith & Culture will host the 11th annual Heritage Week at DeSales University, a series of events celebrating the legacy of St. Francis de Sales, patron of DeSales University.  All the events, except for Sunday’s Mass, which will be celebrated in Connelly Chapel, will take place in the DeSales University Center on the DeSales campus in Center Valley.  All events are free and open to the public and run Sunday, January 24, through Thursday, January 28. No tickets are required.

The lineup of speakers for Heritage Week begins with the Mass of St. Francis de Sales at 8:00 p.m., on Sunday, January 24, in Connelly Chapel at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pa. Our guest homilist will be The Most Reverend John O. Barres, D.D., bishop of Allentown.

On Monday, January 25,at 7:00 p.m. we welcome Dr. Brian Nester, president and CEO of Lehigh Valley Health Network; John Nespoli, president and CEO of Sacred Heart Health Care System; and Richard A. Anderson, president and CEO of St. Luke’s University Health Network, for a Forum on Biomedical Ethics on Healthcare and Culture.

Tuesday, January 26,at 7:00 p.m. we welcome Prof. Robert P. George, J.D., D.PHIL, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and professor of politics at Princeton University and the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom with a Seminar on Law & Society.

On Wednesday, January 27,at 7:00 p.m., our special guest speaker will be John Allen Jr., associate editor, The Boston Globe, who will conduct a Town Hall on Social Communications on Catholic Media and Communications.

The week closes on Thursday, January 28,at 8:00 p.m. with the Wayne R. Kraft Memorial Lecture on Faith and Culture. Rev. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., CEO of Salt & Light Media and liaison at the Vatican Press Office, will discuss The Joy of the Gospel by Pope Francis.

For more information, contact the Salesian Center for Faith & Culture at DeSales University at 610. 282.1100 ext. 1244, salesian@desales.edu or visit us at www.desales.edu/salesian.

Established in 2000, the Salesian Center for Faith & Culture’s mission is to promote the interaction of faith and culture in a mutually beneficial engagement, through academic initiatives that focus on the authentic integration of social concerns and gospel values.  The Salesian Center supports intellectual activity in research studies, dialogue events including public forums and lectures and partnership programs. 

Junior and senior accounting students from DeSales University will provide tax preparation assistance free of charge to senior citizens and those with lower incomes beginning Monday, January 25, through Friday, April 1. The program is part of the United States Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Students are required to pass a test given by the IRS, in order to receive certification to participate in the program.

This marks the sixteenth consecutive year that DeSales students have participated in the program. Since it was first offered, DeSales students have completed more than 3,700 tax returns for more than 1,650 Lehigh Valley taxpayers.

To schedule a VITA appointment, individuals can call (610) 282-1100, ext. 1868. A DeSales student will return the phone call and provide assistance accordingly. Individuals needing assistance should bring all printed tax information and all documents pertaining to federal, state and local taxes with them to their appointment.

The program is sponsored by the IRS and supervised by Dr. Christopher R. Cocozza, division head of DeSales University’s Division of Business and associate professor of business. Cocozza has served as VITA coordinator at DeSales since the program was initiated at DeSales in 2001. Cocozza holds a bachelor's in accounting and law degree from Fordham University and a master's of law from New York University. 

The DeSales University ACCESS Program was named a Leader in Adult Education for the 2016 Who’s Who in Business, Lehigh Valley.

Now in it’s 32^nd year, the Who’s Who in Business survey is designed to identify and recognize business leaders in the Lehigh Valley. An independent market research firm conducts an objective and unbiased survey of Lehigh Valley residents.