Faculty member Rodger Narloch to receive third annual Collegium Visionary Award

Rodger Narloch, associate professor of psychology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, will receive the third annual Collegium Visionary Award.

The award will be presented to Narloch by Tom Landy, Collegium founder and director, and Joyce Gawlik, assistant director of Collegium, at 3:30 p.m. Monday, April 25, at the Founders Room (room 170), Quadrangle Building, SJU, followed by a reception. The event is open to the public.

The Collegium Visionary Award is meant to celebrate and advance the work of Collegium alumnae/i. Collegium encourages leadership to promote Catholic mission on member campuses, scholarship to advance the Catholic intellectual tradition or to bring other traditions into fruitful dialogue and innovative teaching to bring the summer colloquy to life for students.

Narloch, a 1991 graduate of SJU, joined the CSB/SJU faculty in 2000. He has master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

He first participated in Collegium in 2004. Narloch served on the national board of directors from 2006-15, serving twice as board chair and twice as vice-chair. For seven years (2007-10 and 2013-15), he served as a mentor at Collegium.

While at CSB and SJU, Narloch has shown a strong commitment to student advising and mentoring. In 2004, he received the colleges' Advising Award for Social Science, and in 2006, he received the Robert L. Spaeth Teacher of Distinction Award. His mentorship has resulted in 18 student presentations at national psychology conferences and two peer-reviewed articles co-authored by his students.

Narloch was department chair for nine years at CSB and SJU, and has served on a dozen committees related to Catholic and Benedictine mission, including his current role as co-chair of Strategic Directions 2020: Enhancing Student and Faculty Understanding of the Catholic and Benedictine Traditions.

In the last two years, Narloch has taken steps to help department chairs and psychology faculty throughout the country think about ways mission can enhance their work. A recent article, "Cultivating Sacramentality Through Administrative Work: Guidance from St. Benedict on Being a Department Chair," summarizes many of the values he holds dear: respect for the variety of religious views of his colleagues; a desire to be welcoming to all as if they were Christ; and a desire to listen before judging.

Both CSB and SJU belong to Collegium, a 65-member national organization of Catholic colleges and universities founded in 1992. In July 2002, Collegium became part of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, which includes over 200 schools in the U.S. and Canada. 

The organization hosts an annual Colloquy, which alternates among three host sites including SJU. The group last visited SJU in summer 2015.