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May 2022
Dear Faculty, Staff and Students in the Klingler College of Arts & Sciences,
As our academic year draws to a close, we have an opportunity to look back and to
look ahead. We consider how the path we have taken prepares us for what lies ahead.
We can reflect upon what we have accomplished and what remains to be achieved. This
particular year has been a special one, as we have celebrated the Ignatian Year, or
the 500th anniversary of the fateful cannonball injury that set Ignatius of Loyola on a path
that would lead him to become a priest and found the Society of Jesus as well as the
400th anniversary of his canonization.
For all of us, this year has presented its cannonball moments, large and small, dramatic
and ordinary. Throughout this past year, we have encountered many reasons for joy
and gratitude. I remain so grateful to work with all of you—students, staff and faculty—to
promote Marquette’s mission. Our accomplishments in research this past year have been
particularly striking. Although the final numbers are not yet in, our research expenditures
as well as grants received will demonstrate that this has been a phenomenal year.
Faculty members continue to garner major fellowships, publish in high-impact venues
and participate in high-profile national and international conversations. Our college’s
teaching excellence was demonstrated once again in so many ways, including through
the Teaching Excellence Award presented to our English department colleague Dr. Gerry
Canavan at the recent Père Marquette celebration. The community-engaged work that our faculty, staff and students continue to do remains
much in evidence; hardly a week goes by that I don’t learn about some new way in which
you are working to make our community better. Thank you.
Among our many wonderful students, I’d like to highlight this year’s outstanding senior,
Maddie Anderson. She is a history major with minors in anthropology and studio art.
Her Marquette education included an opportunity to conduct research at the Milwaukee
Public Museum on Native American artifacts. Following fieldwork this summer in Alaska,
she is headed to graduate school. Maddie’s multiple interests across disciplines demonstrate
that in Arts & Sciences, the difference is in the “and.”
That “and” is shorthand for our emphasis in Arts & Sciences on integration. As Pope
Francis notes in his encyclical Laudato Si’, everything is interconnected. Our call is to pursue integration in our relationship
“with God, with our neighbor and with the earth itself” (47). To this end, we must
become increasingly aware of “our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a
future to be shared with everyone” (202). To change the world, we must first be willing
to change ourselves. We can pursue this work with hope: “Rather than a problem to
be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise”
(13).
Such lessons for me have been reflected in many meetings with our wonderful alumni
over the past year. So many of the themes that I hear from alumni are the same: many
of their lifelong friends are those they made at Marquette; their Arts & Sciences
experience set them on a path to a fulfilling life and career; when they encountered
challenges as students, the Marquette community was there to surround them with support;
they feel deep gratitude for the faculty and staff members who guided their academic
journey. I truly hope that those of you who are graduating now will similarly stay
connected with the Marquette community. A great way to do that is to become involved
with alumni clubs across the country and around the world.
One of my favorite passages to share with graduating students is a line from Seven Sacred Pauses by Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB: “Believe the truth about yourself no matter how beautiful
it is.” As you go forth to Be The Difference, please know that you will always have
a home right here at Marquette. We hope you will stay in touch. We look forward to
celebrating your future accomplishments.
As always, please feel free to contact me with questions, concerns or suggestions. I appreciate hearing from you and exploring
ways we can all work together for the common good.
Dr. Heidi Bostic
Dean, Klingler College of Arts and Sciences
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