1983 Holiday Saint Benedict's Today

              
Prepare students for the Information Age 

Our two colleges have economic, cultural impact 

This year's Homecoming/Reunion weekend set for June 22, 23, 24 

A highlight during the banquet is the Mass in the Sacred Heart Chapel. Miriam Hof. new core curriculum which incorporates the by Donna Scherer Zitur presentation of the Outstanding Alumna staff resident and former vice-president for academic requirements of both institutions. alumnae association president Award. An ad hoc committee is currently student development. was the homilist and 
Events to come: CSB/SJU Stand-Up, Carroll, 
studying the criteria for the award, but I do reflected on what coming home means. 
lA. Jan. 10; CSB/SJU Stand-Up, Bahamas. 
invite you to send to the Alumnae Office Brunch was seNed following Mass in the 
Homecoming/Reunion weekend this year Jan. 22; CSB/SJU Presidents' Luncheon. 
recommendations of alumnae you know and Gathering Place. 
is June 22, 23, 24 and the Homecoming St. Cloud, Feb.; and CSB/SJU Young Alum 
believe to be outstanding. Please explain More than 40 CSB and SJU alums gathered Dance. Medina Ballroom. Sat., April 14th. 
Committee has already met to begin prepara�your reasons for the nominations. 
at the Sheraton of NapeNille on Sun., Oct. 23
tions for the event. On Friday we will have More details about these events will be 
a mini-retreat to lead into the weekend's We continue to sponsor some activities in for Mass and brunch. The alumnae spanned forthcoming. 
celebration. Saturday's schedule is a full one. 

cooperation with SJU. This fall at their Home�the years with representatives from the class coming we co-sponsored a reception for of '31 to the class of '81. Br. Justin Lombardo. I wish you a blessed and happy holiday including panel discussions. the picnic, class 
Young Alums after the football game. On director of the joint core curriculum project. season.
pictures. and the banquet. On Sunday, we 
Sunday we invited CSB and SJU alums to explained how the colleges are designing a 
will close the weekend with Mass and a 
brunch. 

Editor's note: The following address was given by S. Colman O'Connell, director of planning, to the governor's Commission on the future of Post-Secondary Education in Minnesota. 
I want to thank you, on behalf of St. John's University and the College of Saint Benedict. the two local Benedictine institutions of higher education which I represent. for this opportunity to discuss the role these colleges play in Minnesota Higher Education, and to share some of our hopes for the state's continued support of private colleges like ours. 
The College of St. Benedict and St. John's University join with St. Cloud State University and the St. Cloud Area Vocational Technical Institute in making significant contributions to central Minnesota and to the state as a whole in educating citizens who are taking leader�ship roles in their communities and professions. Moreover these colleges are making direct contributions to the economy of the state. 
As educators we are more comfortable speaking about the transcendant values of education's contribution to society than about education's dollar value. We do believe. of course. that education is valuable for more basic reasons than economic ones. We know there are goals for ourselves. for our state. and for our country which are more impor�tant than material wealth. But. in addition to fulfilling educational goals. these two colleges do make significant impact on the economy of this region and state. Let's look for a moment at the key facts about that impact as revealed by a state-wide economic study in 1980. 
1. 
Together we employ over 850 persons. teach over 4.000 students. generate more than 90,000 visitors each year. seNe over 11 .000 alumni within Minnesota and over 7,000 alumni outside the state. 

2. 
We draw more than 817 out-of-state students to central Minnesota every year with a net influx of revenue to Minnesota of over $5 million. 

3. 
The total annual economic impact of the two institutions is over S 195 million. 


Our purpose. however. is not economic, but educational seNice. The colleges are particulary strong in the sciences. arts. nursing, business. and education. The two colleges offer one of the strongest study�abroad programs in the country; each year about 250 students study overseas in England, Ireland, Germany, France. Italy, and Greece. 
In addition to seNing students. the colleges have become unusually strong cultural centers which seNe the larger civic community. Last year 56,000 persons attended 1 7 5 separate events in the Benedicta Arts Center for concerts. lectures. gallery exhibitions, films, seminars. During the same year 60 cultural events on the St. John's campus (debates. concerts. recitals. lectures. conferences) attracted over 15,000 participants. This summer over 80 events such as girl's basket�ball camps. workshops for corporate executives. retreats for married couples, and conferences for parish ministers will be held at St. John's University. 
I have combined the description of our offerings quite deliberately. since the two insitutions have a unique bilateral arrange�ment whereby all courses on either campus are open to students from both campuses. Total cross-registration represents a sharing of resources. which is an efficient way to enrich the experiences of our students. 
Moreover. these two private colleges have also cooperated with St. Cloud State Univer�sity in .such programs as the Tri-College Great Issues Program and the Tri-College Asian Studies Program. Students from the three colleges enjoy the privilege of registering for courses on the other campuses. We are looking forward. for example to cooperating with the new Engineering-Computer program which the leg(slature has just funded at St. Cloud State. 
Our sincere hope is that the Commission on the Future of Post-Secondary Education in Minnesota will do everything possible to maintain the strong dual system of public and private education which has characterized the state and which is the envy of other states. We favor as much diversity in that dual system as is possible in order that every citizen can find the exact kind of program which will best suit his or her needs. 
We want to join the chorus of voices re�minding law-makers that the critical economic resource of the future will be information rather than capital; brains rather than oil or steel. Only the most highly educated citizenry 
. 
\ 
r 
will be equipped to cope in the Information Age which already characterizes our society. At the very heart of that Information Society will be. not merely computer technology but institutions whose mission is to educate the citizens. to assist them in using information to acquire knowledge. competence. and the wisdom necessary to insure that the humane dimensions of our culture are enhanced at the same time that technology flowers. The value-laden education. which is the special heritage of colleges like St. John's and St. Benedict's. plays an important role in a society intent upon achieving such goals. 
We also urge your continual support of the Shared Responsibility Model with its ability to give scholarship and grant monies to the neediest students of Minnesota. 
We remind you that currently only three percent of Minnesota's appropriations to higher education go to the four-year private colleges. While that three percentage repre�sents a small portion of the state's total budget for higher education. it represents an important portion of each of the private college's budgets. a proportion for which we are very thankful. The return to the state from that investment is many fold. So long as citizens are willing, as the current students in the private colleges are willing, to bear 84 percent of the cost of their education (while their brothers and sisters in the public sector bear only 25-35 percent of that cost) and so long as donors to private colleges are willing to supplement the student's contribu�tion. the state will continue to enjoy those manifold returns. 
It was encouraging to learn this spring of the legislature's clarity about this very issue of saving dollars for the taxpayer when they said: "The legislature has found and hereby declares that private colleges in Minnesota have the capacity for educating significant numbers of Minnesota residents and that providing for that education of Minnesota residents in private institutions rather than in state-supported institutions results in a savings of tax dollars I" 
In urging your continued support for private as well as for public education. I have been happy for the opportunity to speak specifically of the contribution of St. John's and St. Benedict's to central Minnesota: of the educational seNices they provide students, the cultural opportunities they offer the larger civic community, the economic impact they have on the region and state. and the tax saving that result by educating students at these colleges. 
Samt Benedtct's Today 1s published four t1mes a year by the alumnae and publiC Information offices of the College of Sa1nt Bened1ct. St Joseph. M1nnesota SBT 1s ed1ted by Conn1e Cross. d1rector of public 
Information, and des1gned by Chuck Dewey. ass1stant d1rector of public Information Knst1 Fuller. admiSSions commun1cat1ons coordinator. IS a staff wnter and Barb Carlson, director of alumnae and parent relations, IS 
Saint Benedict's Today 
a newsletter for alumnae and fnends of the College of Sa1nt Bened1ct the alumnae news reporter 
Page 2, Saint Benedict's Today