By Jacob Barkman
Staff Writer
Each one of us belongs to a very distinct community: The College of Saint Rose. What exactly is this community? What makes it distinct from others? More importantly, what does it mean to be a part of that community? What does it mean to each one of us, both individually and as a part of the whole?
In 1920, a group of sisters associated with The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, along with Monsignor Joseph Delaney, started a Roman Catholic college for women with a liberal arts curriculum in Albany, NY. They purchased the building now known as Moran Hall at 979 Madison Avenue. In 1949, the college added a graduate school to provide master’s degrees that admitted both men and women.
The college became fully co-educational in 1969 and began offered male housing in the 1970s. Think about those facts. This college was founded on women leadership. In the 1920s. These sisters were leaders in social justice and community service, following their profound desire for union with God and the “dear neighbor.” Within a society, both American and Catholic, that had emphasis on men, these women pushed back against adversity.
First we are founded by women, for women. Then we integrate a graduate program for men and women, a program that cultivates a society of men and women as equals. Then our full program becomes co-educational and men and women work together at all levels of the college, as equals.
Fast forward to 1991. The college starts an interfaith advisory board named the Sidney and Beatrice Albert Interfaith Lectureship Board. This board contained religious and non-religious faith leaders from around the Albany community. Their task was to further interfaith dialogue, understanding, and acceptance in the community and to focus everyone on social action. A few years later, in 1997, the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary opens on campus. It opens as a space designed by students, to be a space for students to explore their own spirituality and gain appreciative knowledge of the beliefs and spirituality of the “dear neighbor.” This furthered the mission of the Sidney and Beatrice Albert board and helped the college lead the Interfaith Action in the Albany area.
Fast forward one more time to the current College of Saint Rose. Take a look around campus.
There’s still that sense of calling to social action on campus, in the all around student life. We have clubs dedicated to community service and social action, like the Knights of Service, a community service club, and Better Together, our interfaith dialogue through service club.
Clubs like Environmental Club seek to raise awareness about the need for care of the earth, our truest “dear neighbor.” Even our student government, the Student Association, places huge emphasis on service with their large events like PB & Jams, St. Baldricks Day, and Stuff the Van. Our academics follow suit, with the addition of an environmental science degree to respond to the need for government officials that understand the changing nature of the our environment.
Our generation is one bringing about the change. We have opportunities to impact the world’s largest social justice issues, and some of us are taking them. But the problem is, we all need to be taking them. Look at the protest that is happening in Hong Kong, look at the widespread interfaith movement, look at the environmental movement, they all have one key thing that we all need to relate to, and that’s the fact that it is our generation who are leading them. Others are doing.
And because we are a part of the College of Saint Rose community, we have a duty to ensure we take them ourselves. In following with the heritage of the college, the prophets of the Hebrew Bible all held their leaders accountable. They led people to hold all leaders of all lands accountable for their actions, and accountable for their people and the problems of their people.
So that’s what it means to be a part of the community of The College of Saint Rose. It’s a community of shakers and movers, leaders, and free thinkers. It has been that way since before the start, and will never lose that distinct niche. It’s the job of the college to put out people who hold those in charge accountable, challenge the norm, and push for social justice, and so far it has done just that.
But that means that you, having chosen this small, independent, non-denomination, liberal arts institution, have entered into that prestigious group of leaders. You have interviewed, applied, been accepted, and chosen this distinct and special group. The worst thing to do is reject this identity.
By accepting it you become another great shaker and mover, leader, thinker, and motivator. Empower yourself. Make campus what you want it to be, and lead it there yourself. But remember that you are part of a community of collective leadership, and in the face of adversity we will always come together for the better.
