Advance Magazine Fall 2011

Quick Facts Grew up in midtown Manhattan. Performed his undergraduate studies at Williams College in Massachusetts. Graduated from Harvard Law School in 1956. Served as Staff Judge Advocate in the U.S. Air Force before receiving his religious calling. Entered the Franciscan Third Order Regular (TOR) in 1957 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1964. Graduated from St. Francis Seminary in Loretto, Pa. Led Franciscan University as president for 26 years beginning in 1974, then as chancellor for 11 years. Helmed the university while its enrollment grew steadily from 1,000 students in the early 1970s to over 2,400 undergraduate and graduate students in 2008. Named President Emeritus upon retirement on June 30, 2011. Now resides at the motherhouse of the Franciscan Friars TOR Sacred Heart Province in Loretto, Pa.

For 37 years, Father Michael Scanlan has been a dynamic and influential presence at CCCU affiliate institution Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, serving as president then chancellor.  He retired from the university this summer. During his 26-year tenure as the university’s president, he transformed it from a struggling college on the brink of bankruptcy to a university that is hailed as an international leader in Catholic higher education. He also spearheaded a spiritual revolution at the university. The school is now known for its fidelity to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, its infusion of Catholic values into academic and residence life programs, and its commitment to excellence in education.

You are known for leading Franciscan University of Steubenville through challenging financial times. What kept you hopeful when it looked like the college wouldn’t survive?

At the bleakest times it was the mission of the school that sustained me. We’re empowered by the mission. We can pray, and God will give us the blessings and direction for what we can do. If our mission is founded in the Lord, then He will give us insights on what to do and He will give us insights on what’s distinctive about our mission.

(The then-named College of Steubenville was heavily in debt when Father Scanlan was elected president in 1974. The largest dorm had a “For Sale” sign in front of it, which Father Scanlan personally took down—not because he had already found new financial resources, but in order to dispel the sense of gloom on campus.)

What exhortation would you give to other CCCU administrators and faculty as they navigate higher education’s present challenges, which include uncertain economic times for colleges and their students?

Constantly live out and follow your mission. Emphasize the distinctives of your mission. For Franciscan University, it was stressing loyalty to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  The commitment to Jesus should be at the center of your mission.  Emphasize that there is real life based on real truth and that there is a way to live that out while you are a college student.
What pitfalls should college leaders guard against during seasons that are particularly uncertain or precarious for their institutions?

During my tenure as president, especially early on, I was aware of the pressure on almost all Catholic colleges and universities to blur the college’s Christian character and become more like a secular school. Almost all the Catholic colleges and universities I knew were abandoning or soft-pedaling their Christian character. They wanted to succeed professionally. Eventually, though, this leads to increasingly permissive, individualistic, hedonistic campus life and a loss of mission.

You don’t need to always join the pack. Don’t panic and simply become like everybody else. I would rather emphasize that you take a fresh approach and fresh proclamation of the mission. Find ways to stir up the mission. It constantly needs to be renewed, through student life activities, through academic convocations, through special studies in the classroom, through chapel. In each aspect of university life, find a way to breathe new life into the mission of the school. Make the mission fresh each and every year.

What do Christian colleges offer that is unique and important in our current cultural milieu?
We are surrounded by a culture of relativism. Anything goes. There are no rules, morals, or boundaries.  As a result, we have this broken world with so many unhappy people.  Christian colleges offer a way to grow in holiness and in academic preparation that many students want (though they may not fully realize they thirst for it before they step foot on your campus). Increasingly, it’s what parents want for their children.

My first year as president I attended every group function on campus, every dance, sport event, every club, and I immersed myself in the classroom environment. I even ate in the cafeteria with the students. I kept an open door and saw students whenever they dropped by. I observed the students and how sad and lonely they were and how they were looking in all the wrong places for companionship. I’ve often said that the loneliest person on earth is a college freshman away from home for the first time.

I observed all this, and then I prayed for hours and hours each day. Then I began to implement programs to combat this loneliness and the destructive patterns it caused. I sought to establish a genuine faith environment on campus that was true to our Franciscan, Catholic tradition.
One of those programs was to establish Faith Households for the students. These were small faith-sharing groups where the students came together in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, establishing true friendships that would hold them. The households established their own covenants, which included service projects, and forms of shared prayer. The establishment of these households was crucial to building up the faith life of the campus.

(Today more than 750 students belong to over 40 separate men’s and women’s households that range in size from 5 to 35 members.)

How important was reclaiming or redefining mission/identity to Franciscan University’s turn-around under your leadership?

It was absolutely essential.  We had to connect the mission of our university with the real life of the students. For us, that meant establishing the households and stirring up the faith life on campus in other ways—with praise and worship, with spiritual talks, and by establishing theology as the queen of the sciences and increasing its importance in the Catholic liberal arts curriculum.

You also absolutely have to hire good leaders.  They’ve got to share in the mission and the excitement of it; they can’t just look good on paper. I made it part of my job, no matter how busy I was, to personally interview every new faculty member and many administrative and support staff positions.  This was to insure we were hiring people committed to the mission.

Remember, you have to first “stir it up” among your leaders.  You and your team have to be excited and on the same page if you want the students and those enquiring about your school to see what is distinct about it.

How can CCCU colleges maintain their identities even as they offer online learning, satellite campuses, and other competitive tools that disperse students from the traditional, physical campus community setting?

It is more difficult, but they need to emphasize some form of distinctiveness and, I would suspect, some form by which students would have a presence on their campus, regardless of how much or little time is spent there.  Their time on campus should include, as much as possible, learning and experiencing in some way the values and vision of your school—not just the completion of required courses.

In conclusion, from the perspective of years in Christian higher education, what other words of wisdom or challenge would you offer CCCU faculty and administrators?

Believe in who you are.  Stir up the excitement of your calling and pass on the excitement to students and those enquiring.   Don’t get lost in looking the same as others look. Establish your Christian identify and boldly proclaim that identity.

I’d like to add that I found it necessary to pray every day. Withdrawing into prayer was crucial for my ministry as president. From my prayer time, I experienced being sent forth as a disciple of the Lord Jesus to my official work as president.

 A Scripture passage I often thought about when I prayed was Matthew 21:21: “If you have faith and never doubt…even if you say to the mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will be done.” This passage seems to point to one aspect of faith—that faith involves risk. Faith means stepping out and relying on the Lord Jesus Christ.