With the approach of the final day of classes tomorrow and finals and commencement next week, I thought I would close out this year’s blog entries with a word of thanks to God and each of you for the tremendous year we had at Saint Vincent.

I will miss our seniors and I look forward to handing them their diplomas in 9 days. They make us all proud. The Honors Convocation highlighted the many accomplishments of these men and women and you can view some video on that gathering on our web site. Steven Leuschel was awarded the President’s Award, narrowly surpassing Jen DeLuca, Ashley Nord, Wayne Hooper and Val Rogers – any one of them could make a rightful claim on that Award. And countless other seniors distinguished themselves this year – in the classroom, in the Research Day presentations, in student internships, mission trips, service projects, athletics, club activities, theater and music, student government and countless other activities that make up the fabric of Saint Vincent life.

Coach Mike Tomlin, head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, will be our commencement speaker and we are excited about having him on campus 10 weeks before his team moves into our dorms and begins summer training camp.

Underclassman at Saint Vincent will return to our campus and meet one of the most diverse and gifted classes we have had. Today we passed the 400 mark in Freshman deposits and we expect the class of 2012 to be of a size similar to last year’s, as well as about 65 new faces of transfer students. We have capped the size of our student body because we don’t want to tamper with the high quality of life that students enjoy.

And our future was made even brighter today when we announced a new $40 million project to provide students a first class science complex. This is the most ambitious project in our College’s history. We also announced the second largest gift to the College in our history – a $7.6 million gift in honor of Sis and Herman Duprè made by their family and friends. This moves us closer to having a state-of-the-art facility on campus to house the Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computing. This is one additional way of growing into greatness – providing the best possible facilities for our faculty and students.

The College had some growing pains this year which I find quite healthy. It was good to have the team that accredits colleges (reaccreditation is required once every ten years) come to the College last week and issue a draft report that says that we meet all the standards for accreditation. They were very impressed with what they saw. There is a danger sometimes to dwell on the negative and ignore the far greater, more positive aspects of reality.

Jesus had an interesting way of describing this phenomenon when he said, “You strain out the gnat and swallow the camel.” I recall a meeting once where a man began his presentation by holding up a large white poster that had a small black dot in the middle. He asked us what we saw. Nearly in unison, we responded, “A black dot.” He corrected us – “No, you see a white poster with a black dot.” The lesson is that we can take for granted the many good things we have and simply focus on the black spots that we see from time to time. Reality at Saint Vincent goes beyond the obvious – record donations, record enrollment, more student opportunities for study abroad and service learning than ever before, and first class faculty, administrators and staff – to the sublime: the difference this college is making in the lives of our students.

I received a letter today from a graduating senior who wrote to thank me and the College “for making my educational experience over the past three years very rewarding.” This student continued, “I have grown in more ways that I could have imagined when I first arrived in August 2005.” In proof of this maturation, this student went on to critically assess the College’s strengths and weaknesses and offer concrete suggestions on how to improve things, especially our academic offering. His letter was well-written, well-argued, and a welcome reminder of what I term “the Saint Vincent difference.”

While it is true that the College has gone through a great deal of change in organization and administration – in my two years alone we have seen a change in nearly all senior leadership positions and this year we hired our student life and academic affairs chiefs – I firmly believe the changes are bearing fruit. So many members of the Saint Vincent College community are responsible for this year’s success – a good number have spent their entire adult lives in service of the College. And then there are newcomers like me. In effect, the lay employees on campus mirror the procession of monks who have been here for 162 years – new monks and older monks working together. Where would we be without our Benedictine monks who teach in our classrooms, live in our dorms, and shepherd our students?

I close this year’s blogs with a final quote from the student who wrote me: “I have loved my time here at St. Vincent and my experience has been largely positive. The personal attention of so many wonderful professors who challenged me and spent social time with me defined this experience. There are also of course the great monks who I have to thank as well as my incredible friends.”

I hope you have a great conclusion to this academic year and ace your finals and that the months ahead are all that you want them to be.

For you seniors, we will miss you. For the rest of you – see you next year!

God bless you.