A Benedictine, Catholic liberal arts college
Last weekend, February 17 – 19, Saint Anselm College hosted more than 185 students as part of the American Mock Trial Association’s (AMTA) Qualifying Tournament. Twenty-three teams from colleges and universities all over New England competed in four rounds. Saint Anselm mock trial captain and club co-founder, Alyssa Hatem ’12, received the All Region Attorney award. There were also awards given for All Region Witness and 2012 Spirit of AMTA. [Read more...]
"At Saint Anselm, it is part of our educational mission to help students develop the skills and wisdom they need to live in and help lead our nation. Our New Hampshire Institute of Politics, founded more than 10 years ago, embodies that mission not only for our students but also the citizens of our state."
Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., President, Saint Anselm College
In the Granite State, it's all politics, all the time. Home of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, New Hampshire citizens and Saint Anselm students are presented with extraordinary opportunities to interact with the men and women who seek our nation's highest office. The 2012 campaign has moved on to South Carolina, and beyond, leaving New Hampshire to ponder the campaign that was. Here is our look back at campaign 2012.
New Hampshire's Saint Anselm College Comes Alive for Presidential Primaries
"At tiny Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire…the student body of 1,899 pulses with politics. Every four years, as the state heads into its first-in-the-nation presidential primary, the college is transformed into a hub of campaigning, town-hall meetings and high-profile debates. The gym becomes a press room, and campaign signs line Saint Anselm Drive. CNN blasts from televisions in the campus coffee shop, where display cases brim with political paraphernalia and students can be heard arguing over who will be the last candidate standing…" (Wall Street Journal, 1/6/12)
A visit by General David Petraeus to the college for a conversation in March 2010 (video) resulted in much chatter on whether the visit to the college was the precursor to a Presidential bid. Shortly after the four-star General's visit, he would be assigned as commander of the International Security Assistance Force and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan. Petraeus now serves as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Candidates, and soon to be candidates turn to Saint Anselm College and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics as "something of a proving ground" says Carl Cameron, chief political correspondent for Fox News Channel. Accordingly, it was no surprise to see many of the 2012 candidates visit early, and often.
A New Hampshire Town Hall Meeting
Gov. Rick Perry, Joined by AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
A Policy Address: Entitlement Reform
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
No Apology: The Case for American Greatness
Former Gov. Mitt Romney
Newt Gingrich Forum
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
America in Danger: The Mounting Financial Crisis and How Liberty Can Save Us
U.S. Congressman Ron Paul (TX-14)
Students participating in the EN330 "political communication" course were be invited by Fr. Jerome Day, O.S.B. to submit their weekly logs to the Saint Anselm College blog, offering a glimpse inside "America's Classroom" as we approached the 2012 New Hampshire primary.
"Who determines who the front-runner is in an election cycle? Is a candidate given the title of front-runner based simply on his or her credentials or is it based on how much fame they have obtained over the years? My naivety led me to believe that a candidate was given the title of front-runner based solely on his or her credentials and what they had done for America. However, through the start of this semester, I have begun to realize that it is the media who controls who the front-runner is in a presidential election." (Student Lyndsay Robinson 9/12/11)
Saint Anselm College was a media hub once again during the 2012 cycle, hosting nationally televised debates with CNN (June, 2011) and ABC News (January, 2012). You can click the date links for coverage from the Saint Anselm College blog, including video, behind the scenes student blogs, and more.
The college also sponsored a Lincoln-Douglas style conversation between Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich in November, 2011 garnering international attention for it's one-on-one style. (View our photo gallery)
New Hampshire, $1,000 and a signature is all it takes to get onto the primary ballot. In 2012, 44 candidates registered. 35 of these 'lesser known' individuals were invited to appear at the NHIOP. Each candidate made an opening statement and responded to questions, in a broadcast aired by C-SPAN.
Newt Gingrich made a swing through New Hampshire Monday, stopping at the college’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics to present his alternative to Social Security. Speaking to an audience of more than 200 students, faculty and staff, as well as members of the general community, Gingrich said he would give young workers the option of investing their payroll taxes in private accounts, rather than in traditional Social Security. Gingrich, who has been topping the polls nationally, remains behind Mitt Romney in all but one New Hampshire poll, which has the two in a statistical dead heat. Gingrich took questions from the audience and then met privately with about 20 Saint Anselm students.
This post was submitted by Barbara Leblanc.
“This is one of the strangest primary years we’ve ever seen,” said Washington Post journalist Dan Balz at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) Friday morning. “Almost nothing we predicted is playing out the way we might have expected.” He addressed an audience at the Politics and Eggs series attended by business people and members of the faculty and student body, and even a Parliamentarian from Belgium.
Washington Post reporter Dan Balz (photo by Bill O'Leary /TWP)
Balz, the co-author of The Battle for America 2008, discussed the ups and downs of various contenders for the Republican primary nomination and the American people’s current disenchantment with President Barack Obama.
This primary process started out much more slowly than in previous years, he observed. “We have had the most fluid Republican lineup any of us can remember. There was almost as much attention to people who decided not to run as to people who decided to run. In almost every case, there was a great deal of discussion and commentary about them that created another story, which was, ‘What’s wrong with this field?’”
He also stressed the importance of this election cycle’s primary debates, saying that “virtually every debate has been consequential and has had significant impact on people’s impressions of candidates.” Saint Anselm College hosted one debate in June and will be the setting of another Jan. 7, just before the first-in-the-nation primary.
This is in many ways a high stakes election and a crucial election, Balz noted, as it plays out against the backdrop of a terrible economy and dissatisfaction with the way things are done in Washington.
He pointed out that a lot of Republicans are still reluctant to embrace Mitt Romney, who has a strong organization in New Hampshire. A poll released last month by the NHIOP and the Institute of Politics at Harvard University put Romney 18 points ahead of his closest rival in New Hampshire, Herman Cain, at 38 percent to 20 percent. The institutes will issue a second poll shortly before the Jan. 10 primary.
“I don’t know yet how much affection there will be for Mitt Romney,” Balz said, “but the party doesn’t have to love its nominee. It has to believe they are capable of winning in the general election and rally around that. The passion issue is going to be created on the Republican side by President Obama.”
He said that even unlikely candidates are valuable to the process by creating discussion around certain issues. “Things always change when the voters begin to vote. Let’s remember that come January, something is going to happen that we don’t expect.”
Asked by a listener how social media is affecting this campaign, he said, “with Twitter and the rolling, running news cycle, journalists run the risk of getting out ahead of where the story really is.”
“Don’t be a buffet buffoon.” This was one of many entertaining and informative bits of etiquette advice students took away from dinner with Maureen Crawford Hentz, the manager of talent acquisition at Osram Sylvania.
Last week the nationally recognized talent manager and recruiting expert spoke to students about the proper dining etiquette, and gave them a few laughs as well. She advised the following:
The dinner was part of Professional Development Week offered by the Center for Experiential Learning. Students met with employers, internship sites, study abroad companies, and representatives from service learning sites.
Business dining etiquette will help students conduct themselves in a positive way in the corporate world. One attendee, senior politics major Burke Bero, knows the importance of etiquette. “In a professional setting, proper etiquette can make or break future job opportunities,” he says.
Employers want to see how individuals will represent their company to future clients. Hentz told students,“It is not about who can do the job. It is about who gets the job.”
It is at moments such as these when this place truly becomes the center of our campus, because it is here that we can we come with the deepest longing of our hearts for peace, and it is here than we can come with the sorrow, confusion, and anxiety of our hearts to ask our just and merciful God for his assistance.
As a campus community we have gathered to stand with one another in shock and sorrow for what has happened in our country today, to stand with one another on the side of faith, and to stand with one another on the side of peace and non-violence in our world.
–Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., president of Saint Anselm College
This is how Father Jonathan opened a special mass celebrated on September 11, 2001 at noon in the Abbey Church, after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Ten years later, we will mark the 10th year anniversary of that sorrowful day with a weekend of prayer and reflection.
We keep in mind the toll that 9/11 took on our community. Richard Keane '69 and Stephen Roach '86 lost their lives in the World Trade Towers that day. Since then, many of our alumni served and continue to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, where in 2009 Marine Captain Kyle Van De Giesen ’02 lost his life.
We invite you, members of the Saint Anselm community, to share your thoughts and your reflections on the anniversary. What does this date mean to you? How did the events of 9/11 and succeeding years affect your life, your country? What have you learned since then?
Please share your thoughts with your fellow Anselmians.
Saint Anselm College presents a series of events in Prayer and Remembrance, in recognition of the tenth anniversary of the attacks of September Eleventh. Members of the College Community are encouraged to sign a memorial book, attend an evening of peace service, participate in a Mass for peace and justice, or observe 9/11 during a candlelight service of remembrance.
Student Government Association invites members of the College Community to sign a memorial book in the main lobby of the Cushing Center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. An opportunity to leave names of loved ones to be remembered and read aloud at Sunday evening's candlelight vigil and thoughts, reflections, intentions and prayers.
Father Jerome, O.S.B., and the parishioners of Saint Raphael Parish invite the College Community to an "Evening of Peace" beginning at 7 p.m. The candlelight service will include Evening Prayer with Benediction of the blessed Sacrament. A reception will follow in the parish hall. Saint Raphael Parish is located at 103 Walker Street in Manchester.
A Mass for Peace and Justice will be celebrated in the Abbey Church at 7 p.m.
A candlelight Service of Remembrance will be celebrated at the Veterans' War Memorial on the Quad beginning at 8 p.m. Readings from the holy writings of world faiths will be accompanied by the reading of names of loved ones of the Saint Anselm College community at state of New Hampshire.
At 12 p.m. on September 11, 2001, the Saint Anselm community gathered in the Abbey Church for a special Mass. Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B. delivered the following homily at that time:
My dear brothers and sisters,
I have not had any more time than you have had to reflect on what has happened today. I come to you with thoughts from a heart as confused and anxious and your own may be.
When we gathered just a week ago here in this Abbey Church we did so with the joy and anticipation of another academic year beginning. We gathered to ask God’s blessing on us and our world. Today – just one week later — we have come with profound sorrow and grief as our nation has suffered unprecedented terrorist attacks that have taken the lives of as yet unknown numbers of innocent men and women. We know definitely that one of our alumni was in that World Trade Center Tower this morning – though we do not know his fate — and I ask your prayers for him, Stephen Roach, class of 1986, husband and father of three. We know that others connected to us work in that building as well. Whether they were there or not, we do not know, but please pray for them.
But this is a tragedy beyond Saint Anselm College. This is a tragedy for our nation that will change forever the way we are in the world. We can no longer say: not here, not us. For it has happened. And for all our lives we shall remember this day as the moment when our history and our lives changed.
Even as we see the awful images on the television screen, we may ask how this can happen in our age, in our country, in our world. How can this happen here – though for others it has been a way of life. There is no other answer than that evil can so take hold in hearts of human beings that it causes them to commit the most heinous acts of violence. There is no answer but that. There is no other answer than that the human heart can be so turned against another, that it causes the harm we see today.
On Friday we spent the day talking about the art of politics, about the replacement of war with dialogue, about the need for good people to do good things in our world…and today we see the effects of a different world view – one that believes that if I do not agree with you, I can do anything to cause you harm, to destroy you.
Jesus knew the human heart better than any of us ever will. And what did he say: not only “Do not commit murder” but “do not use abusive language towards one another,” “do not hold one another in contempt,” “do not leave your gift at the altar if you know that you need to be reconciled with your brother or sister.
Let us ask God today to remove from us even the traces of evil that could cause us to hate; let us beg his mercy on those who performed these awful acts; and let us pray for the victims and their families, that God will welcome those who died to the everlasting peace of his kingdom and that he will console those who remain the consolation only he can give.
Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B.
President of the College
Mass invoking God’s Mercy for the living and the dead on the day of terrorist bombing
September 11, 2001, 12 p.m. in the Abbey Church
Lisa Kennedy Sheldon '78 discussed the confusion set off by a government panel's new recommendations on mammograms. She appeared on NECN on Thursday, Nov. 19, during the news network's "Affairs of State" segment.
Sheldon says the panel's recommendations are surprising because they are an abrupt change from those set in place in 2002. Despite the new recommendations, she emphasizes that women should speak with their own health care providers to determine what is best for them.
Sheldon is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts College of Nursing and Health Sciences. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses focusing on oncology nursing and cancer care.
Fifteen low-income and refugee families living in Manchester’s Langdon Mill apartments have been tossing and turning at night, losing sleep for two years because of a bed bug infestation.
But they may soon rest easy, as volunteers from Saint Anselm College and other local organizations do not sleep well at night, even on summer vacation, knowing others are in need.
Six students, faculty, and staff have volunteered their summer vacation to help the 60 residents of 82 West Brook Street while their apartments are professionally cleaned. The volunteers live in the Manchester area and responded to an unusual summer plea from Meelia Center for Community Service director Dan Forbes.
“Eliminating bed bugs is always complex work, and it is further complicated in this case given the language barriers and refugee experience of the tenants," said Forbes. “This is why real community effort is necessary.”
The challenges are unique: the residents must move from their apartments bug-free into nearby temporary housing, then return to their cleaned, repainted, and refurnished apartments a week later. Many of their belongings, and nearly all of their furniture, must be destroyed to prevent re-infestation.
A language barrier complicates the Langdon Mill Campaign. When organizers and city health officials meet with families, instructions “have to be translated into four to five different languages,” Forbes said. Refugees hail from Russia, Somalia, Sudan, and Turkey, and they can find the displacement unsettling. Forbes describes volunteer commitment as an invaluable aid to these families.
“We believe success is far more likely if we have volunteers helping families with the preparation for the temporary move, visiting during their temporary relocation and continuing after reentry to reinforce the plan to prevent future infestations,” he told the volunteers.
The comprehensive plan is an approach that Forbes and his community counterparts hope will serve as a model for other low-income residents trapped in bug infested buildings throughout the city. The Meelia Center uncovered the plight of the Landon Mill residents when students contacted a refugee leader with donations from the college’s end-of-year Food, Clothing, and Furniture Drive. The response was, “We're desperate for the furniture, but can you put it in storage? The families are overrun with bed bugs.”
Last year, “we actually almost entirely furnished these apartments,” Forbes said. A system is in the works to provide for the furniture needs of residents through a safe donation program, preventing tenants from bringing in roadside furniture that may be infested.
Forbes expects to expand the Saint Anselm involvement in bed bug projects when the fall semester begins. He coordinates service learning for the college, and has found both interest among nursing students and need in the community.
“This is just one apartment building. Unfortunately many others in the city are also infested," he said. But with the dedication of Saint Anselm College volunteers, fifteen Manchester families will soon be able to sleep tight—and be safe from the bed bugs' bite.
The Langdon Mill Project has posted a list of needed items on their website, http://nhbedbugs.com/.
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