2014 - The year in review

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December 15, 2014

Although 2014 wasn't a presidential election year, it was a big year for items associated with presidents at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University.

Let's start with the obvious news — Mary Dana Hinton was inaugurated as the 15th president of CSB on Sept. 21 at Escher Auditorium.

At SJU, Tyler Brown was named a Truman Scholar, an honor named after the 33rd president of the United States, Harry Truman.

And, five CSB and SJU students and three graduates received awards from the Fulbright Program. The program's namesake, J. William Fulbright, was the youngest person to serve as president of the University of Arkansas before he entered politics and served for many years in the United States House and Senate representing Arkansas (a young intern and then a clerk by the name of Bill Clinton worked for Fulbright while he was a senator).

Here's a list of some of the top news stories at CSB and SJU in 2014. Listed first are highlights for both institutions, followed by two separate lists for CSB and SJU. All items are in chronological order.

CSB and SJU Year-End Highlights

May 15 - Five seniors and three graduates of CSB and SJU received awards from the Fulbright Program. It is the most Fulbright awards CSB and SJU have received in a given year. SJU senior Dan Schmit received a Fulbright grant to conduct research in Austria. Four other seniors received Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) awards - CSB's Heather Beckius (Brazil), Melissa DeOrio (Turkey) and Rachel Mullin (Malaysia), and SJU's Alex Van Loh (Germany). Three CSB and SJU graduates also received Fulbright ETA awards - Lizzy Baden (2012 CSB graduate, Indonesia), Joe Berns (December 2013 SJU graduate, Germany) and Sarah Reisdorf (2013 CSB graduate, Brazil).

July 2 - CSB and SJU were named a "Best Buy School" by the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015. The list included 44 institutions - 22 private and 22 public. There were no other Minnesota colleges or universities on the 2015 list. This was the fifth time CSB and SJU have been recognized as a Best Buy from Fiske (2002, 2003, 2011, and 2012 editions). Fiske's ranking is based on quality of the academic offerings in relation to the cost of attendance.

Sept. 9 - CSB and SJU were once again highly rated in national rankings of liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. SJU tied for 73rd and CSB tied for 89th among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the magazine's 2015 college ratings. Both schools improved by several spots from their 2014 rankings. The magazine also listed SJU in a tie for sixth on the "Up-and-Coming" list of national liberal arts colleges. The U.S. News rankings also included a list of schools with outstanding academic programs commonly linked to academic success. CSB and SJU were recognized for the quality of their study abroad program (there were no numerical ratings in this category).

Nov. 12 - Both CSB and SJU held their largest 24-hour fundraisers in school history, with 1,653 donors contributing to the two schools. CSB sponsored the "$100K in a Day" challenge, with a goal of raising $250,000 in 24 hours. A total of 848 donors contributed $285,376.02. Eleven challenge donors came forward with a $125,000 matching grant donation to support current scholarships, while the remaining donors could choose to give to a preferred destination. SJU sponsored the "Give SJU Day" challenge, with a donor goal of 500 in 24 hours. A total of 805 donors raised $184,392. The money raised by SJU will fund scholarships for SJU students. The challenge was offered by a group of 13 donors who pledged an additional $100 for each donation made, regardless of amount.

Nov. 17 - CSB and SJU were highly ranked in three different categories according to Open Doors 2014, the annual report on international education published by the Institute of International Education (IIE). CSB and SJU were ranked No. 3 among baccalaureate schools, with 563 students who studied abroad during the 2012-13 school year, the most recent data measured by the IIE. CSB and SJU were ranked No. 4 among baccalaureate schools, with 362 students studying abroad in mid-length study abroad programs during 2012-13. CSB and SJU were also ranked No. 20 among baccalaureate schools hosting international students, with 249 international students studying at CSB and SJU during the 2013-14 school year.

Nov. 22 - CSB and SJU won the first Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge. CSB and SJU totaled 162,880 activity points to easily outdistance second-place Michigan Tech University. Ten schools competed in the eight-week challenge. During the competition, participants - students, faculty, staff, alumnae/i, parents and friends of CSB and SJU - could self-report their outdoor activities through an interactive online platform. The challenge aimed to reverse a drop in participation in outdoor activities among young Americans. CSB and SJU won a prize package including a scholarship for an outdoor program assistant, a custom gear library and an outdoor campus festival.

CSB Year-End Highlights

Jan. 19 - The CSB dance team successfully defended its national championship in the Open Class Pom Division at the 2014 Universal Dance Association College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship in Orlando, Florida. CSB topped second-place Orange Coast College (Costa Mesa, Calif.), third-place Minnesota State University Mankato and fourth-place St. Cloud State University. CSB's team of 18 members also placed fifth in the Open Class Jazz Division. The Open Class Pom Division competition began with 12 teams on Saturday, Jan. 18. Six teams advanced to the final round, with CSB resting first after the preliminary round.

Jan. 29 - The dynamic coaching duo for the CSB basketball team, head coach Mike Durbin and assistant coach Denny Johnson, won their 600th game as a coaching tandem with a 68-58 victory over Hamline University in St. Paul. "Being at a place for 28 years, having a job at such a wonderful place for 28 years, has been great," Durbin said. "More important are the 300-plus alumnae that have played in the program. The relationships that we have with players from that first season, and the relationships we have with athletes from last year, truly does span three decades. There's a lot of satisfaction when you see student-athletes raise their families and move to another place in their lives."

Feb. 11 - CSB was ranked No. 21 in the Peace Corps Top Colleges 2014 rankings, which recognized the top 25 volunteer-producing small colleges and universities across the country (defined as less than 5,000 undergraduate students). CSB had 11 alumnae serving overseas as Peace Corps volunteers as of Sept. 30, 2013. CSB moved up 23 spots from its 2013 ranking, when it was not listed in the top 25 among small colleges and universities. Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., ranked first among small colleges and universities, with 22 graduates currently serving. Volunteers serve a 27-month term in the Peace Corps - three months of training, followed by 24 months in the field.

Aug. 7 - CSB was awarded a $149,133 grant through the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation to help create more paid internship opportunities for junior level CSB and SJU students. The grant will support a total of 33 paid internship positions at CSB and SJU. The award money will be divided into five part-time paid internships in the spring of 2015, and 28 full-time paid internships in the summer of 2015. The program creates 23 new paid internships and will convert 10 existing unpaid internships to paid internships. CSB was among 40 colleges and universities to receive a Great Lakes Career Ready Internship Grant.

Sept. 21 - Mary Dana Hinton was inaugurated as the 15th president of CSB at Escher Auditorium. The ceremony was the formal beginning of her presidency (she actually started her position July 1) and was a celebration of the mission of the college. Hinton gave an address entitled "Become Illuminated." She received her Ph.D. in religion and religious education with honors from Fordham University, a master's of arts degree in clinical child psychology from the University of Kansas and a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Williams College. She previously served as the vice president for academic affairs at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y. Hinton's inauguration capped a series of events beginning Sept. 17 at both CSB and SJU. One of the more popular events of the weekend was an Illuminated Run and After Party for students, faculty, staff and families Sept. 19 at CSB.

SJU Year-End Highlights

April 16 - Tyler Brown, a political science major from Sioux City, Iowa, was one of 59 students from 52 U.S. colleges and universities named a 2014 Truman Scholar. The list of scholars was announced in Washington, D.C., by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, president of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. Brown was chosen from a group of 655 candidates from 293 institutions across the U.S. Truman Scholars were selected by 17 independent selection panels on the basis of their academic success and leadership accomplishments and their likelihood of becoming public service leaders. Brown is the third SJU student to receive the honor, and the first since 1998, when Brendan Kelly was named a Truman Scholar.

April 27 - The SJU rugby team captured its second consecutive National Small College championship with a 37-25 win over New England College Sunday, April 27, at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado. It was just the third time in the tournament's history that a team has recorded back-to-back national championships. Rugby is a club sport at Saint John's. A total of 215 teams competed for the National Small College championship, which is based on men's enrollment (schools must have fewer than 4,500 male students to compete in this division). SJU senior full back Joe Thompson was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Dec. 2 - The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) at SJU was awarded a $500,000 three-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to support HMML's development of an online Reading Room. The online Reading Room will allow registered users to browse over 25,000 digitized manuscripts from libraries in the Middle East, South India and Africa. The virtual Reading Room, part of the HMML project to create an online environment for manuscript studies, will be the largest and most comprehensive online collection of manuscripts ever created. The HMML's mission is to identify, digitally photograph, catalog and archive endangered manuscripts belonging to threatened communities around the world.

Nov. 29 - A banner year ended for the SJU football team with a 21-10 loss to Wartburg in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs. The Johnnies, who finished the season 10-2 overall, captured their first MIAC title since 2009 and advanced to the playoffs for the first time since that same season. Junior running back Sam Sura rushed for a school record 1,769 yards and was named the MIAC's Most Valuable Player. He was also a semifinalist for the Gagliardi Trophy, named after former SJU coach John Gagliardi.

Dec. 19 (projected) - The solar energy farm at Saint John's was expanded to include two types of panels. The original panels, installed in 2009, rotate with the sun, tracking it across the sky from east to west. The expansion added another 616 panels that are fixed at a 35-degree angle to the sun and don't move. The Saint John's solar farm already generates about 5 percent of the electricity used by the campus. Once the expansion is complete, on a sunny day, it could produce 30 percent of Saint John's energy needs. It also will create an opportunity for experts and students to study and compare two types of solar panels to see which is the most cost effective.