Commission's second revision awaits approval
By KATIE McVOY
News Writer
A change to Saint Mary's Mission Statement awaits approval by College officials, leaders of the revision effort said recently.
If approved, the revision will represent the second change to the statement this academic year.
Last year philosophy professor Patricia Sayre and four other faculty members formed an ad hoc faculty committee that was created to work with the Commission for Mission, which was created to discuss the goals of the College. The committees have created yet another draft of a mission statement for the College.
"We were directed to work together on a statement," head of mission Sister Rose Anne Schultz said.
"It involved very, very modestly reworking the mission statement," philosophy professor and committee member Patti Sayre added.
Schultz confirmed that there is now another draft of the statement that is ready to be presented to members of the Saint Mary's community.
Jeff Breese, head of the faculty assembly, said the faculty will view the new draft of the statement on February 14.
With few adjustments, the new draft reads similarly to the original Saint Mary's mission statement that has appeared in the College's literature for years.
"Although [the changes] are modest as far as words go, they fix the problem," Sayre said.
The problem, according to Sayre, was exclusion.
"There are three different groups named in the new statement, faculty, staff and students," Sayre said. "Staff were not mentioned by name in the original statement; now they are."
Another goal of the mission committee was to shorten the page-length statement. The new draft presents the first paragraph of the old statement as the Mission Statement, and the paragraphs that follow explain the College's philosophy and purpose.
Although the new draft will be presented, it still needs approval.
"No decision has been made regarding the mission statement," Schultz said. "There is still need of consideration of this issue by faculty and other appropriate bodies before the president submits it to the Board of Trustees for approval."
Depending on the faculty's response, the statement will go before students and staff for discussion.
"There's no point in putting another draft before the students before the faculty has voiced its approval," Sayre said.
Schultz would not discuss the specific path the draft would follow before coming before the Board of Trustees.
"We have a process about how to go about this," she said. "It's important to be respectful of the proper channels. I do think that it is very likely that if this draft goes through, it would be acceptable."
Although the faculty will not discuss the new draft until February, the feeling is that the faculty will approve it.
"I think that very likely ... [the draft] would be acceptable," Sayre said.
Despite previous problems between the faculty and the mission committee, both groups are concerned about the new mission and the students.
"Our focus is a sense of unity, of the community coming together," Schultz said. "The focus of everyone's life here is the students."
"There is deep concern," Sayre added.
Schultz said that more information on the process of approval will be released next week.
In September the faculty rejected the draft proposed to them and threw their support to the original Saint Mary's Mission Statement.
"The faculty was saying that they did not support the new Mission Statement and the reasons [to change the mission statement] that were stated are not sufficient," Sayre said.
All News Stories for Friday, January 26, 2001
