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What’s the Plan at Wheeling U?

Editor, News-Register:

On Thursday, the 27th of May, I attended the West Virginia Black Bears baseball game against the Frederick (Md.) Keys. Before the first pitch a father, with his five very well-behaved boys, took seats in the row in front of my wife and myself.

As expected of one who has kissed the Blarney Stone twice, we struck up a conversation. The gentleman indicated that he was a graduate of the University of Virginia, with a Ph.D. in theology from Catholic University. He is a theology professor at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmittsburg, Maryland.

When asked and responding that I was a graduate of Wheeling (University), his reaction was immediate and emphatic: “They are no longer Jesuit.”

What a public embarrassment.

It has now been two years since “the troubles” emerged. It may be true that this administration did not create the crash. However, this administration has done nothing which I am aware to develop a meaningful plan to restore the luster and pride that once existed with the small, co-educational, Jesuit, liberal arts college on the banks of the Ohio River.

Over this time frame I have seen a barrage of email epistles from the school’s director — I refrain from the use of the moniker of university president — that report on the virus variations, extolling the excitement of slip and slide kickball and the “hawking” of beautification benches for a campus that belongs to Diocesan Real Estate Inc. and not the original, intended grantee.

As a comparison, let us look at the survival success of Sweet Briar College. On the verge of closing, the alumni gathered to save the school. Rather than closing, they are now featuring full page color photo advertisements for their engineering program in the Washingtonian Magazine.

My alma mater is involved in two significant litigation proceedings, each with taints of poor conduct. The school has been placed on probationary status. These — along with the return of the Jesuits — need to be the focus of this administration’s efforts, not slip and slide kickball.

My alma mater has not engaged its alumni with a meaningful purpose during this period of decline. This is not the time for alumni Zoom reunions, with souvenir pint glasses. It is time for an in-person alumni convention if the institution — as founded — is to be restored.

The alumni would be a primary source for the restoration and future success of the institution. Have they forgotten that these individuals are the brightest and the best … for they were educated by the Jesuits!

Clearly the alumni has been abandoned in this area of transition. The latest alumni directory bears a publication date of 2008.

There are several very basic questions that will reveal if the institution — as was intended — shall be restored.

– What is the plan for the prompt return of the Jesuit affiliation and the revival of a university quality, liberal arts educational curriculum?

– What is the number of legacy admissions — that being sons and daughters, nieces and nephews — of alumni?

– What is the balance due on the endowment loan? What are the means and the schedule for the loan being paid?

– What is the percentage of alumni donating to the existing program?

– What is the average size of those donations?

– What is the plan for the solicitation and securing of corporate, philanthropic, and research grants?

– Are you marketing the research/services that the university can provide?

The answers to these basic questions will reveal a great deal.

A former official of the institution — not a Jesuit — mentioned that there was something to be gained by “growing” nurses for the local hospital. No, kind sir, one grows fruits and vegetables; you educate individuals — in the Jesuit tradition — for a lifetime vocation in service to others. Isn’t that the founding principle of the institution?

Recently I had the pleasurable experience to host the traveling squad of the men’s golf team for 18 holes and a sports-pub styled meal after the round. These gentlemen, under the leadership of their coach, Joe Key, were gracious ambassadors for the institution. My heart aches for these students due to the limited and unaffiliated educational program that is behind them. These individuals deserve so much more, so much better. This administration is simply not delivering!

I shall consider the education that I received at Wheeling, then a Jesuit college, to be a blessing. My experiences were many and varied; my friendships lasting and deeply cherished. What is taking place now regrettably is an embarrassment.

William Francis Xavier Becker

Olney, Maryland

Wheeling Jesuit College, Class of 1972

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