By BRIANA SPINA
Layout Editor
The College of Saint Rose celebrated its 100th birthday on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020, which Mayor Kathy Sheehan officially declared to be Saint Rose Day in the city of Albany. To commemorate the occasion on campus, Saint Rose livestreamed a video featuring words from Saint Rose President Marcia White, a reflective conversation between three Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, as well as a “pass the cake” segment with birthday wishes from students and staff. The video can be watched on the College’s YouTube channel under the title “Saint Rose Founder’s Day Celebration.”
The three sisters are all alumnae of Saint Rose who have stayed connected to the campus community throughout their lives. Sr. Sean Peters, who graduated Saint Rose in 1967 served as the Director of Mission Experience. Sr. Kitty Hanley, who graduated Saint Rose in 1961, was a professor in the English department for 20 years, dean of the graduate school for a brief time, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the past 20 years. Sr. Joan Lescinski, who graduated her undergraduate program in 1970 and her graduate program in 1974, was also a professor in the English department and has served on the Board of Trustees for the past 25 years.
Another Sister of Saint Joseph, Sr. Honora Kinney, did not appear in the video but watched the livestream along with students and staff at the Interfaith Sanctuary. After the video ended, she spoke to the small group about her experience at Saint Rose. She began her time at Saint Rose in the fall of 1957, and has remained involved ever since. Kinney taught in the history and political science departments from 1965 to 1997 and now works in the archiving department of the library. Through her decades at Saint Rose, she said that she has “seen it grow.” In comparison to other colleges, she noted that “not many places have that first building,” referring to Moran Hall.
Interim President Marcia White said in summary, “With that history and heritage, there’s nothing in your life you won’t be prepared for.”
The building can be seen as a testament to how far Saint Rose has come, and the legacy of Sisters of Saint Joseph lives on through service to the dear neighbor, according to Joan Horgan, Director of Spiritual Life. She spoke about how Saint Rose “connect[s] with the dear neighbor at the most proximate,” giving examples of “people sitting in front of Price Chopper, refugees and immigrants in our neighborhood, the food pantry across the street,” as well as “widening circles” in the greater Capital Region, country, and world.
“Some part of working with the dear neighbor is a piece of direct service of making meals, of building houses, of working in children’s after school programs, but probably another evolving piece [is]… what are you doing about the justice issues, like the larger issues impacting the dear neighbor?” said Horgan. “So, not just the ways that we can offer them assistance, but how do we speak up on their behalf? How do we use our power, our education, our privilege, our opportunities to make sure that other people’s lives are better?”
Student Elena Dochak said she feels a sense of pride at being able to carry on the mission of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.
“We still have a lot of the same core values that our founders had back then,” said Dochak.
Student Hannah Deetz described it as an “honor” to be part of the College’s centennial celebration, and expressed similar sentiments to Dochak.
“Even though we have this whole pandemic going on too, I think our perseverance to continue to move on and carry on kind of embodies the tough and the determined attitude of the Sisters of Saint Joseph,” said Deetz.
A point of coincidence that Horgan mentioned was that Saint Rose was founded just two years after the start of the 1918 influenza pandemic, and here we are a century later dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As I’ve been witnessing the Black Lives movement right now, I was thinking ‘what was it at that time—the upheaval created by that kind of health crisis—that pushed the envelope on the women getting the right to vote,’” said Horgan. “That was a fight that had been going on for 70 years, like, what was it about right then that people kind of had had enough.”
Horgan drew connections between the upheaval that the 1918 pandemic caused that fueled a major political movement, and how the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be doing just the same thing.
“There was a chaos in the world that pushed that forward and I wonder for us, you know, what is it about right now—the chaos of a pandemic—that is creating an extra energy that moves forward a movement like Black Lives Matter,” said Horgan.
Though the core tenets of the Sisters of Saint Joseph have prevailed, Horgan said that there have been many changes that the founding sisters “didn’t even imagine,” most notably the diversity that can be found on campus today and the evolving roles of women in society. She said that the Sisters of Saint Joseph had “grit” to be starting such a “new endeavor” 100 years ago, and today, women are “jumping in with both feet” in a way Horgan describes as “daring and courageous” and perhaps “surprising” to those freshman Rosebuds in 1920.
Deetz expressed that the old rules that the students had to follow stood out to her, and she reflected on the “transformative evolution” that has taken place at Saint Rose over the century.
“I was just so moved by it… and it makes me want to go and be like them,” said Deetz. “It makes me more inspired as a leader and as a woman to continue to grow and want to continue to make change in not only Albany but the world.”
Dochak said she, too, felt like Saint Rose and the legacy of the Sisters of Saint Joseph have prepared her to make a difference.
“I know I’m going to change the world because Saint Rose changed me,” said Dochak.
