Siena College - Saga Yearbook (Loudonville, NY)

Page 8 text:

1n the humble beginning, the college pos- sessed no name of its own. It was called the Loudorwille extension of St. Bonaventure C01- Iege. The Dean of St. Bonaventure, Fr. Cyprian Mensing, O.F.M., transferred his residence to Loudonville and assumed the actual adminis- tration of the extension. Fr. Plassman, the pioneer of the schools foundation, directed the search for a patron for the Franciscan college. On June 17, 1958, the University of the State of New York granted to the college a pro- visional charter as a liberal arts institution. On this document can be found, for the hrst time, the designation chosen by the Friars for their college e St. Bernatdine of Siena. The titular protector of this infant college had been called a second Paul the Apostle by Pius 11. St. Bernardine had been born of a noble family at Massa in 1380. Responding to the call of Christ he distributed his patri- mony as charity and at the age of twenty-two received the habit of the Franciscan order. Scholar, missionary, sociologist e all of these titles were conferred upon this eminent fol? lower of St. Francis. His eloquence brought the Word of God to auditors. His wisdom quieted social disputes. His love inspired Chirst- like actions. Blessed Albert 0f Sartiano gave a tribute to this medieval scholar who taught the people with wonderful wisdom and dis- cernment and labored to maintain them in their good disposition. Bernardine the Saint who guided the city of Sierra, was thus wisely chosen as patron and leader of this Liberal Arts College.

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SIENA COLLEGE: 1937-1962 THE TASK of Christian education was inaugurated in St. Francis Hall, The Friary. Ninety-five students took their places in the small classrooms of a flve-room house on the bright morning of September 21, 1937. One hundred and fifty feet before the door of this white, colonial building stretched the United States Highway 9. The students, however, who occupied the rear of the building viewed a typical rural scene that embraced fields and barns. The Garrett Estate, as this fertile farm land was called by the residents of the town- ship, had been purchased by the Province of the Holy Name of Jesus the previous spring. Seven priests and two brothers entered the newly designated St. Francis Hall and began the great work of Franciscan education in the diocese of Albany. The intangible cornerstone of Christian learning was thus laid on this brisk, autumn morning, a cornerstone which would support the educational insititution of St. Bernardine of Siena College. An enterprising Bishop of Albany, The Most Reverend Edmund Francis Gibbons and a fore- sighted Franciscan, Father Thomas Plassmann, had made this first day of class possible when, in April, 1937, they completed negotiations for the establishment of a liberal arts college on thirty-eight acres of farmland four miles north of the city of Albany. To establish a college in Central New York State in those turbulent times was a bold venture; yet both men realized the pressing need for a Catholic institution of higher learning in the Capitol District.

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THE DETERMINATION of the first faculty and student body heralded rapid expansion. AS PRESIDENT and Dean, Fr. Cyprian Mensing, O.F.M., proved to be an administrative pioneer.