St Francis College - Motus Yearbook (Biddeford, ME)

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college students today, and most institutions are at a peak enrollment. The report con- tinues, America's well being and security directly depends upon our capacity to culti- vatetexcellence in our educational institutions. Based upon the Findings of an exhaustive study by the Education Researches Services, Inc., the Franciscan Fathers administering the policies of Saint Francis desire to improve the amount and quality of all facilities in order eventually to accommodate the number of students t800l which will permit development of a sound, fully accredited liberal arts under- graduate curriculum. They desire to do this and yet remain small enough to retain the friendliness, intimacy, and devotion to purpose of a small college. In order to attain these goals, from the standpoint of added physical facilities, a ten year program has been drawn up during which time the following new buildings must be con- structed: nine residence halls, a library, class- room buildings, on arts center and auditorium, a monastery and chapel, and a gymnasium and field house. We the members of the class of 1963 have much to hope for in the future of our school. We shall never forget our soiourn at Saint Francis during which time we took on new physical, moral, social, intellectual and spirit- ual dimensions. We are proud to belong to the history of Saint Francis College. We shall be forever thankful to the Franciscans who have dedicated their lives to make such an institu- tion of higher Catholic learning accessible to us. We are grateful also to the other faculty members who gave of themselves in an eftort to transmit to us the richness of the cultural and social tradition into which we were born. We thank all of our teachers for giving to us the independence, as it is spoken of by Aristotle, which is granted to men by intelli- gence and wisdom as the perfection of a human being. The class of 1963 hopes that in the near future the day will come when Saint Francis College will have taken its place among the foremost institutions of higher learning, wherein, to quote John Henry Cardinal New- man, All branches of knowledge are, at least implicitly, the subiect matter of its teaching; that these branches are not isolated and in- dependent one of another, but form together a whole or system; that they run into each other, and complete each other, and that, in proportion to our view of them as a whole, is the exactness and trustworthiness of the knowl- edge which they separately convey. -FRANCIS P. LEBEAU Current plan for Future development, June 1962. Construction of the new building tSaint Francis Ham in 1949. 19

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18 9 Presentation of the College Charter, 1953. left to right: Mr. Harold D. Carroll iApostolic Syndich Reverend Norman Thibodeau tHigh School Principal,,- Reverend Frederic Belanger v'fxrst CoHege Presidentl; Governor Cross; Mr. Napoleon Nadeau xBiddetord representative in the Maine Legislature1. Foundation at the new building, circa 1949. From a humble missionary settlement, estab- lished in 1933 on the banks of Saco Bay, Saint Francis, by 1943, had grown a iunior col. lege. Further development was inevitable and the year 1953 witnessed the granting of a Senior College Charter. It is for these reasons that we the graduates of 1963, feel it neces. sary to include this section in MOTUS 1963: to celebrate this triple anniversary of Saint Francis College. World War 11 ha1ted plans for the erection of new living quarters and a gym. Only through a community etctort, in the Iiterai sense of the term, was Saint Francis able to overcome the dimcultiest Neighboring houses were obtained and converted to serve academic purposes. During these same trying years the Fathers, Brothers and students channeled their physical energies to the leveling and landscaping of the athletic Field and the campus. Construction of Saint Francis Hall began in 1948 and was completed in 1950. This new hall served many purposes. 1t provided housing for 200 students, served as a dining room, included twelve classrooms and a gym- nasium. With these added facilities, Saint Francis College was empowered by the state legislature to grant the degrees of Bacheior of Arts and Bachelor of Science. In the sixth month of 1954 Saint Francis First awarded diplomas to its graduates. Because of the rising cost of maintaining both College and High School and because of the urgent need fOr higher Catholic education, the Franciscan Fathers decided to devote all of their resources to expand the College and de cided to eliminate the High School. Saint Francis College High School had its last grade uation in 1960. The new development program which was drawn up in 1961, under the guidance of educational consultants, underlined the urgent need for more land in order to assure ade- quate expansion. The College acquired the adjoining Stella Maris property and adjacent parcels of land thus extending the campus to 130 acres along the Saco River. After underv going considerable remodeling this summer, Stella Maris Hall now houses the Friary, the Library and the Administration. The necessity for this expansion is witnessed by a Rockefeller Foundation report on educa- tion which states in part: Education and col- lege administrators are greatly concerned with what they describe as, 'the coming tidal wave of studentsf This it is estimated will, within a decade or 50, deposit six million students on the doorsteps of the Nationis institutions of higher learning. There are some three million

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20 Commenting on the apathetic curriculum of Theology on too many Catholic college cam- puses, a friend of mine once said, If theology is the reason for setting up separate colleges, then the Catholic college, no m'atter how strong it may be in the humanities and sciences, fails if its theology fails. This statement in no way implies that educa- tional experience should be made subservient to the development of virtue. Saint Francis Col- lege or any other Catholic College will be able to justify its existence as a Catholic college only by first being a good college. Although God has destined that we someday become citizens of heaven, the fact remains that He also has willed that, while on earth, we live as citizens of earth bringing all things under subjection by the sweat of our brows. Only if the inculcation of virtue and the transference of knowledge be brought to a harmonious blend will any Catholic institution develop psychologically whole and spiritually holy individuals. Education essentially prepares man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created. The Theology curriculum must catalyze the conquest of the internal and spirit- ual freedom to be achieved by the individual Christicn-the man who must think, fudge and act constantly and consistently in accordance with right, reason and faith in Christ. For many students, fulfilling their Easter duty and attending Mass on Sunday is the extent of their participation in a religion which they find not too inconvenient. For altogether too many the power of the living Christ has been vulgarly and gratuitously debased to the pose ture given an ordinary historical figure. Catholie cism has become merely a part of their social inheritance devoid of belief in a personal God. Yet a Catholic college graduate must be con- ditioned by the dogmatic norm of his Catholi- cism. He must be able to extricate himself from the flagrant materialism that is so characteristic of contemporary American society. He must be able to pierce through the isolation of scholarly theses on disciplinary measures of the Councils, the penitential practices of matrimonial law or administrative organization, to the world of union with God through worship in Christ. As in other Catholic colleges, the theology program at Saint Francis College is presently being challenged by these very pressing de- mands and it will prove itself equal to the task only if, in the spirit of Christ, it adapts itself to the modern intellectual atmosphere which has undergone significant changes. The challenge confronting the community of scholars at. the Second Vatican council is quite the same as that confronting the Division of Theology at Saint Francis: they must be committed to the scientific investigation of truth and to the maintenance and extension of knowledge and its application to life both private and public.