Siena College - Saga Yearbook (Loudonville, NY)

Page 15 text:

Fr. Mark Kennedy, O.F.M., was appointed by the Provincial as the new president. Fr. Mark had previously been Lector of Sacred The- ology at St. Bonaventure College and had held the title of Lector Generalis, the highest distinction in the field of education that can be conferred by the Franciscan Order. The academic year was necessarily altered with the adoption of a temporarily accelerated curriculum. Three semesters of college work in each calendar year became the basis of this approach to the emergency. Because of limited enrollment only freshmen attended the day session; all other students were registered in the evening division. In 1943 registration declined to two hundred and' ninety- four. In the midst of the war, December, 1943, Fr. Maurus Fitzgerald, O.F.M., expressed poignantly the spirit of courage that pervaded the hearts of Siena men: Without our religion to strengthen us, it would be a terrific struggle to carry on in the face of such difhculties. We are consoled by the fact that we are not carrying our cross alone. With the knowledge that we are lighting for what we believe to be right, with a clear conscience, are we not captains of our souls? This was Siena; this was America in the war years. The growth of the College was intangible. The tradition was formed by her sons throughout the world. This crisis brought maturity to Siena men and to their College. SIENA GRADUATE, American serviceman, and casulty of Anzio Beach- head, Paul Gregware jests with the Friars. SERVICEMEN on leave often visited their former instructors.

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ON MAY 29, 1947, The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes was dedicated to the valor of the Siena war dead. As early as September 50, 1939, Siena Col- lege was approved as a Primary Flying School by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Under this program ground training was offered to Civilian cadets 0n the Siena Campus and Hight instruction at Albany Airport. When the charter was formed on October 1, 1939, twenty students registered. In 1942, to meet the war- time emergency the program was extended to include a naval combat pilot course of study. The naval students and future Army radio technicians participated in this accelerated cur- riculum from 1942-1944. During these years Siena received the for- mal approval of Catholic University and was awarded membership in the Middle Atlantic States Association Of Colleges. The six year term of Ft. Cyprian Mensing, O.F.M., was con- cluded on July 51, 1943.

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9 4L THE EXPANSION of the postwar years necessitated the erection of a temporary chapel. When the soldiers returned to the homes which they had defended, the colleges through- out the naton welcomed the students in ever- increasing numbers. In 1947, Siena became the largest college of general studies between New York City and Syracuse, with an enrollment of 2,752 students. Seventy per cent of the regis- trants were veterans. In order to provide class- room space prefabricated buildings were con- structed on the land adjacent to the gymnasium. When even these attempts failed, a hall in the 10 nearby town of Latham had to be rented. Though our halls here at Siena College were never closed all through the course of the war, thanks be to God, still our own present student body contains not only the natural growth from our High Schools, but a large percentage of veterans who were dreaming of Siena College and its halls while they were in the various battlefronts of our country in Europe, in Asia, and in the Middle East. These were the words of Rev. Mark Kennedy,