Aquinas College poised to enter new era

Sister Mary Sarah Galbraith, O.P.

Andy Telli, Tennessee Register

When Sister Mary Sarah Galbraith, O.P., is inaugurated as the 11th president of Aquinas College on Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, she will usher in what she hopes will be a new era for the college in its 50th year.

The keys to the new era are plans to offer for the first time on-campus housing and master’s degrees.

The changes to the college that would be triggered by the addition of on-campus housing would be like “night and day,” said Sister Mary Sarah.

“There is something that happens in residential life that is unique,” expanding possibilities for students, she said.

The college is considering plans that will allow the college to provide housing for up to 90 students beginning next fall while also working toward a long term solution that she hopes will be in place in the next five years.

Eventually, Sister Mary Sarah would like to house up to 600 students on campus. Currently, Aquinas has an enrollment of about 580 students, she said.

“With our plans for residential life, we hope to reach a national community that will draw people to this great city and this great diocese,” Sister Mary Sarah said.

The school is awaiting approval from accrediting agencies to begin offering a Masters of Science and Nursing that would qualify people to teach nursing, Sister Mary Sarah said.

The new master’s degree would be an addition to Aquinas’ nursing program, which is the college’s largest and best known in the community.

Tennessee currently is facing a shortage of nurses. “Who’s going to teach those nurses?” Sister Mary Sarah asked.

Aquinas’ proposed new master’s degree “is the college’s attempt to meet the demand for more nurses at its bottleneck,” said Bill Smart, director of liberal arts at the college.

The college also is working to launch two master’s degrees in its teacher education program, a Master’s of Education and a Master’s of Arts in Teaching.

The Master’s of Arts in Teaching degree would be for those who already have a bachelor’s degree in another field and are looking to become a teacher as a second career, Sister Mary Sarah explained.

“Our response on both of those have been really strong,” Sister Mary Sarah said. “We feel we’ll fill both programs quickly” once they are launched.

With the master’s degrees, she said, “We hope to reach a wider segment of the Nashville community.”

Being able to offer master’s degrees will move the college from its current accreditation as a level two school to level three, said Smart, and is an important benchmark for the school, which is one of only two Catholic colleges in Tennessee, the other being Christian Brothers University in Memphis.

The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation opened Aquinas in 1961 as a junior college. And its roots stretch back even further.

The Congregation had been established in Nashville after four Dominican sisters from Ohio arrived to open St. Cecilia Academy in 1860. In 1915, the Congregation established the St. Cecilia Normal School to train its novitiates as teachers for its primary apostolate of education.

The normal school became affiliated with the Catholic University of America in 1928, and in 1960 the Congregation decided to establish Aquinas Junior College for women on its Overbrook property on Harding Road in Nashville.

Besides continuing the mission of preparing Dominican sisters to be teachers, the new junior college also provided classes in general academic subjects to the students in nursing school then operated by Saint Thomas Hospital.

Aquinas’ first graduating class in 1962 included Sister Mary Evelyn, O.P., who would later serve as the college’s president in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as well as Sister Rose Marie, O.P., a former prioress general of the Congregation, and Mother Ann Marie, O.P., the current prioress general.

In 1962, the college became co-educational when two men with the Saint Thomas Nursing School enrolled.

Through the In the 1960s and 1970s, Aquinas added programs in various fields of study that included an associate degree in law enforcement that drew many Metro Nashville police officers until the department opened its own training academy, courses for business executives, and a series of allied health programs including training in radiologic technology, respiratory therapy and dental auxiliary training.

As the programs were growing, so were the facilities. In 1968, the college broke ground on a new library wing that included space for extra classrooms and chemistry laboratories, and in 1976 the college completed construction of a physical education building.

Aquinas had successful baseball and basketball programs and the basketball team won a junior college national championship in 1990.

Saint Thomas had closed its nursing school in 1970, and in 1983 the hospital collaborated with Aquinas to launch an associate’s degree nursing program, which opened with 28 students.

In 1993, Aquinas became a four-year college with the addition of a bachelor’s degree in teacher education. In the years since, the college has added bachelor’s degree programs in nursing, business administration and liberal arts with majors in English, theology, history and philosophy.

Sister Mary Sarah has been serving as Aquinas’ president since last June and has been impressed with the strength and quality of the faculty and staff, she said.

The college’s goal is to help students understand they are made in the image and likeness of God, “so they know they are meant to make a difference in the world,” Sister Mary Sarah said.

Accompanying that sense of that God has a plan for them, “is a great set of skills in their field of study, whether it’s nursing, business, teacher education or liberal arts,” she said.

With Aquinas graduates serving in schools, hospitals and businesses throughout the Nashville community, college officials often receive comments about the success of their alumni and their excellent preparation, Sister Mary Sarah said.

“The purpose of higher education is to return back to the community,” Sister Mary Sarah said. “It’s not something you keep for yourself.”

Mass for the Inauguration of Sister Mary Sarah Galbraith, O.P.,

as the 11th president of Aquinas College

4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012,

at the Cathedral of the Incarnation

Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., of Philadelphia

will be the main celebrantand homilist