October 15, 2016
Dominicans an enduring presence at PC
The Dominican presence at Providence College is distinct and remains a proud hallmark of the institution’s 100-year history.
Forty Dominican friars live in the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas or in other campus residences. Thirty of them serve as administrators, faculty members, staff members, or chaplains.
The administrative leaders include the president, the executive vice president/treasurer, the vice president for mission and ministry, the associate vice president for mission and ministry and associate treasurer, the dean of undergraduate and graduate studies, and the associate dean of admission. Three of the administrators also hold faculty status and are among 23 Dominicans who teach. More than one-half of the Dominicans teach theology, but they also teach biology, economics, history, philosophy, psychology, theatre arts, and film.
Seven Dominican priests who attained degrees from PC serve their alma mater in administrative or faculty roles.
Shepherds to alumni
The chaplain’s role at the College extends to another integral population that lives entirely off campus: our 55,000 alumni.
In Rev. John S. Peterson, O.P. ’57, Rev. J. Stuart McPhail, O.P. ’61, and Rev. James F. Quigley, O.P. ’60, the National Alumni Association (NAA) has three Dominican leaders who not only studied at PC but who have served the College community for more than 125 years combined as teachers, administrators, and priests.
Father Peterson, the association’s national chaplain since 2006, is a former faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies, now theology. He also has served as assistant to the bursar, as the first director of the then-Office of Student Financial Aid, as College treasurer, and as an assistant dean in the Office of Admission, before beginning work with the NAA.
Father McPhail, who has been the NAA associate chaplain for the past four years, is an adjunct faculty member in theology and served as vice president for student services for nearly 20 years.
Father Quigley returns to assist the NAA in a chaplain’s capacity for the second time in recent years.
From 2005-2011 and from 2012- 2016, Father Quigley served in Rome as the Father Carl J. Peter Chair of Homiletics at the Pontifical North American College, the largest American Catholic seminary in the world. In between those assignments, he assisted Father Peterson in his role as NAA chaplain. A former associate professor of theology, Father Quigley served as College executive vice president from 1989-1993.
A sisterly presence, too
Dominican sisters have long been a part of the fabric of PC, serving in multiple facets of campus life, including as professors, ministers, and advisers.
Currently, three sisters work at PC: Sister Leslie Ellen Straub, O.P. ’83G, associate professor of anthropology, who has taught for 46 years; Sister Carolyn Sullivan, O.P. ’02G, assistant director for tutorial services in the Office of Academic Services, who is in her 23rd year; and Sister Anne Frances Klein, O.P., campus minister in the Office of the Chaplain/Campus Ministry, who came to PC in 2014.
