Campus News
New Artwork Unveiled at McCreless Gallery
The oldest known image of St. Leonard in the Western Hemisphere and a hand-carved wooden triptych are on display in the McCreless Art Gallery at the university's J.E. and L.E. Mabee Library.
Visitors gathered to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the library's dedication and to get a glimpse of the newest additions to the building's extensive art collection. At the event, Dr. Terry Dicianna, UIW provost, explained that a wall was added to the building to accommodate the portrait of St. Leonard, and he joked that soon the library would have to build a new wing to house all the artwork.
The depiction of St. Leonard (1320), the patron saint of prisoners of war, is a full length portrait showing the saint holding manacles and a Bible. The rendition was originally part of a fresco that was transferred to canvas near Siena, Italy. The painting was at one time part of a collection owned by William Randolph Hearst.
Fresco is a painting technique in which colored pigments are painted directly on fresh lime-plaster. It is the oldest known form of painting and during the Renaissance era it was regarded as the “Mother of all Arts.” Michelangelo used this technique when painting the Sistine Chapel.
The university also unveiled a St. Anthony of Padua with Sts. Paul and Mary Magdalene (1550) triptych in the form of a portable altarpiece used for private devotions. The center of the three-piece panel depicts a simultaneous narrative as two separate episodes. In the background, St. Anthony, a Franciscan monk, is seen kneeling in prayer. In the foreground, he is receiving the vision of the Christ child. St. Anthony carries local significance as he is remembered as the namesake of the city of San Antonio. Spanish explorers stopped here on his feast day, June 13, 1691, and named the river and settlement after him.
The painting of St. Leonard and the triptych will join the growing collection which includes as a centerpiece a Studio Botticelli entitled Madonna del Libro, which was unveiled at the opening of the gallery in fall 2006. The goal of the collection assembled by Dr. Glen and Andrea McCreless is to share the arts with society's younger generations.
Wordstock Welcomes Students
All of San Antonio was invited to help celebrate the back-to-school season at the annual Wordstock festival in September. The celebration helped kick off another record enrollment year at the University of the Incarnate Word, welcoming 6,007 students with a stellar music lineup and outstanding food, drinks and games.
Students joined their families, university employees, alumni and the rest of the city to enjoy three of the city's own hometown favorites, southern rock group Flywood, classic crooners 5 Star Band and the eclectic group Window, which provided the musical entertainment for the full evening of fun. Besides the great music, visitors also enjoyed a variety of food and beverage booths. There was fun for the whole family, with a moon bounce and air slide for kids and a rock-climbing wall for adults.
All proceeds from the event benefited the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the San Antonio Educational Partnership and the University of the Incarnate Word Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Feik School of Pharmacy Receives Blessing
With the cutting of a large red ribbon by John Feik, the Feik School of Pharmacy building was officially opened Oct. 17, after a dedication ceremony and blessing by Archbishop Jose Gomez.
Sr. Teresa Stanley (from left), Dr. Arcelia Johnson-Fannin, Rita Feik, Dr. Louis J. Agnese Jr., Emily Thuss, John Feik and Dr. Terry Dicianna celebrate the opening of the Feik School of Pharmacy.
UIW president Dr. Louis J. Agnese Jr. was very clear about his expectations from the pharmacy students in attendance at the dedication ceremony.
"I expect you all to graduate, and I expect a 100 percent pass rate on that exam," he said.
After the ceremony, guests drank champagne as they toured the 56,000-square-foot facility.
The students are “delighted to be here in a place they can call home,” said Dr. Arcelia Johnson-Fannin, the founding dean of the Feik School of Pharmacy. The first class of 75 pharmacy students had been using rental space in the Medical Center until the building opened.
The Feik School is the first pharmacy school in Texas at a private university. The building is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to provide students with an optimum learning environment. Each classroom is equipped with an audiovisual conferencing system, and the building's multimedia center makes worldwide teleconferences possible.
The pharmacy school also contains a pharmaceutical care laboratory that will provide opportunities for the multidiscipline teaching of pharmacy students and also will allow the school to offer pharmaceutical care to the community.
On the first floor of the building is a pharmacy museum, which showcases techniques and tools spanning from 1860 through 1960. Displays show visitors how pills were made and how prescriptions were filled. The museum also boasts a 1923 desk from Walter's Drug Store, and the centerpiece is an original counter used by pharmacists.
Pharmacy Students Receive White Coats
UIW's Feik School of Pharmacy's class of 2011 took their first step toward a professional career during the program's annual White Coat Ceremony.
After the students were presented with white lab coats featuring the UIW pharmacy school emblem by their professors, they took the Oath of Professionalism. The event symbolized the commitment of the first-year students pledging their devotion to providing the best patient care possible.
Jim Martin, the executive director for the Texas Pharmacists Association, spoke at the event. Almost half the 96 students are first generation college students.
Campus Heats Up on Arizona
UIW began not only a new school year, but also a whole new campus this fall in Goodyear, Ariz., by becoming the state's first full-service Catholic university.
In October, the bishop of Phoenix, the Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, others from the diocese and a group of Catholic business people attended the start of Heritage Week at UIW. During the visit, the group became acquainted with the spirit and heritage of UIW and learned more about the university's commitment to the local community.
The visit was also the kick-off of the fundraising campaign to build a 20-acre campus at the Goodyear City Center. The goal is to have the fundraising complete and to break ground in no more than three years, said Dr. Cyndi Wilson Porter, the dean of the virtual university and coordinator of the Goodyear Project. For now, students are attending classes at a temporary location at Desert Edge High School.
The project's first phase established the School of Extended Studies, which caters to working adults. The adult programs are offered in an accelerated eight-week format, and students can choose from a Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Arts with several business tracks, and an MBA or MAA program.
All undergraduate degree programs have UIW's liberal arts core curriculum. They also have professional components that prepare students for a variety of different career fields, in addition to allowing students to transfer in previous coursework, minimizing the loss of credits.
UIW hopes to gain full diocesan approval to proceed with plans to also develop two single-sex high schools in collaboration with St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Community.
Meet the Mission - UIW community follows path of giving
Dr. Harold Rodinsky, assistant professor of psychology (top), Michelle Cruz (bottom), and others help organize the Meet the Mission event.
Students and faculty began the new school year by following in the footsteps of the university's founding congregation, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.
About 40 faculty members and 250 freshmen donated their time and effort to the San Antonio community during UIW's Meet the Mission event. For the fourth consecutive year, the day of service, which is part of the UIW Meet the Mission program, encouraged employees and students to reach out to the San Antonio community by helping others in need and thus remembering the foundation for which the university was established in 1881.
This year, the UIW group teamed up with 25 nonprofit agencies including Travis Park Methodist Church, the SAMM Shelter, the Salvation Army, the San Antonio Food Bank and the San Antonio Children's Shelter. The group also visited a number of agencies that the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word have historically supported including St. Peter - St. Joseph Children's Home, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Mary Magdalen Church. To reach their citywide destinations this year, most of the groups took VIA buses, which not only allowed the university to save on fuel costs, but also helped students learn about San Antonio's public transportation system, something that many of them had never experienced.
School of Optometry will fill need in Texas
The UIW School of Optometry is in development with a projected opening for the Fall 2009 semester. The first class is expected to graduate in 2013.
The Faculty Senate, the Graduate Council and the Board of Trustees all have approved the concept of the school, and the curriculum likely will go before the faculty in Spring 2008, said Provost Dr. Terry Dicianna. The school will accept 64 students, and Dicianna said he anticipates two or three applicants for each available seat.
Tuition will not be determined until the budget for 2009 is created, but it likely will be on par with the School of Pharmacy, Dicianna said.
The health industry is the No. 1 industry in San Antonio, Dicianna said, and he expects the new optometry school to “further enhance our image” in the community. There is a need for more optometrists at the national, state and local levels, and the school will provide a variety of employment options for graduates.
When the school begins, UIW will have “the only faith-based school of optometry in the U.S.,” Dicianna said.