My fellow Jaspers,
I’m sorry.
We may have never met, but we know each other. We’re not too different, you and I. At one point, we were both 17-year-old high school seniors. You remember the day as well as I do. Who can forget that first glimpse of those arches leading onto our quad? Those sprawling stairs leading to our most charming chapel, the scent of wooden pews a century old? Sitting, staring, starting to realize: this is it. This is the place for me. My home for the next four years, and perhaps my heart’s home for longer still. Then, a few weeks or months later excitedly coming home from school to find that envelope among the mail on the mantle. We smiled, we shouted, and perhaps we sobbed. A dream come true: admission to Manhattan College.
But why, you ask, am I sorry?
I’m sorry because the Manhattan College that I knew and loved is no more. I’m sorry that you are experiencing a Manhattan College that is but a shell of its former self. I’m sorry that the decisions made by the administration of the college – past and present – have placed a most unfortunate, indelible mark on what should be the most important and formative years of your lives; six schools stripped, spun, and smashed into three, departments merging, programs being closed, and your professors – the Lasallian lifeblood of this college so special – bought out and laid off.
It is for all of these things and more that I am sorry. Jaspers deserve better. To be a Jasper is a badge of honor. A Jasper is hungry in mind and spirit; primed by a Lasallian education for a life and career of service, wherever that life takes them. Jaspers pay it forward, and we remember from whence we came.
To the administration of the college: I am devastated by the choices made over the last month, and I am embarrassed to hear them being done in the service of students. “Streamlining”? “Laser-focus”? “Efficiency”? How are any of these things Lasallian? How are buying out professors and cutting nearly two dozen of those who remained, closing programs and courses, combining departments, and stretching faculty thin of any benefit to these young people and their families who have so entrusted you to make them “career ready professionals?”
These acts are the very antithesis of what the college stands for. To say it is short-sighted is an understatement. In 2024 and beyond, it will be the institutions – educational or otherwise – which invest in their people that will survive and subsequently thrive. Indeed, it is in the minds of those professors who were bought out or laid off that the key to the college’s survival lies. Why? Because it is the Professors who know the students; their wants, needs, hopes, and dreams. I know because I have experienced it firsthand.
Dr. Rosemary Farley, Sr. Joan Harnett, Dr. Helene Tyler, Dr. Angel Pineda, Dr. Ira Gerhardt, Dr. Marvin Bishop, the entire Manhattan College Department of Mathematics, Br. Robert Berger, Dr. Brian Chalk, Andy Bauer, Geoff Mattoon, and – God rest his soul – Fr. George Hill are the reason why I have found success in my career. Without these people, I’d be nowhere.
I ask of this administration but one thing: reconsider what you are doing, and consider the precedent this will set.
To the Jaspers who have made it this far: stay strong, stay active, and stay informed. Your alumni are here to support you.
Yours,
Greg Zajac
BS Mathematics, 2016
MS Applied Mathematics & Data Analytics, 2017
As ne of the younger brother of Father George Hill, and the father of three Manhattan College graduates as well as a niece, I am mortified by the callous and foolish manner the problems of this great school are being euthanized by the executives in charge. I do not believe this is a ‘leadership team’. Leaders are honored by those who follow them for their thoughtful and respectful manners that they use in directing others. This has been a muddled mess from day one. And to berate the vision of Brennan ODonnell in his time is ridiculous. It was a different time (Covid’s instantaneous changes that were required cost this institution and its students dearly).
We as Christians have the honor of caring for others. We have the responsibility to create a better environment for these students and their lifeblood, namely the faculty and staff that have made this school a great Christian institution. Instead of pulling down those great souls, you need to raise them up! You should always remember the premise of Father Thomas Merton … Love is its own reward. The best to all, Tom Hill.
I am one of the younger brothers of former chaplain, Father George Hill. Three of my sons have graduated from Manhattan College, as well as a niece. I claim the honorary title of “Jasper” for my years as a member of this Christian community.
To consider blaming former President Brennan O’Donnell and his leadership staff for the mess we all see from the present executive staff is ludicrous. Manhattan, as all institutions, faced the Covid disaster that took lives and bled the life out of these institutions as MC. The simplicity of facing disaster upon the psych of a complete institution and without immediate fiscal resources to address such is truly self explanatory. We are already forgetting some aspects of that mess. Its part of the psychological healing process.
Instead of positively reaching out to alumni, family, friends and the community for investment in sustaining this great institution, and building community among its Christian foundation, the executive staff opted for blame, the negative reaction of laying off the lifeblood of MC’s sustained heart (faculty, staff and administration) and the preponderance of pointing at former mistakes of others during a human disaster. Its time to build here, not disassemble portions of this institution.
I want to see leadership (aka the present executive staff) in this circumstance carry out the responsibility to help others, to build our community in a positive way and to safeguard the future of the college through investment and not divestiture. All of this will create a positive reaction of others to the decisions of executive guidance and that guidance should be based upon Christian principles. Those principles are a basis for this college to exist, and for all our love and loyalty.
Tom Hill
Dear Greg and the Quadrangle student team:
Your written words are filled with sentiment and passion. I value your superb effort to share your thoughts with love and hope versus anger and pessimism. Thank you. Dr. Barbara M. Vallera 1-30-24.