News briefs: Spring 2021
Black Studies marks 25th anniversary
Providence College’s Black Studies Program commemorated the 25th anniversary of its founding during the 2020-21 academic year with a series of virtual events inspired by the theme, “Remembrance, Resistance, and Revolution.” Among the highlights was an event including alumni and students, “#PCBreakTheSilence.”
The celebration comes during a pandemic that has had significant impact on communities of color, and after nationwide protests last summer over racial injustice, sparked by outrage over police violence. As Dr. Zophia Edwards, assistant professor of sociology and Black Studies Program director, wrote in the Fall 2020 issue of Heritage, the program’s journal, “Black studies at Providence College remains needed now just as much as it was needed when it was started.”
In the 1990s, students and faculty advocated for the creation of the program to address gaps and structural problems in the College’s curriculum. In 1995, the Black Studies Program was established, offering a Black studies minor. Dr. Cyril Daddieh, professor of political science, was its first director.
Hear Edwards discuss the program’s history and future, student activism, and more on the Providence College Podcast: prov.ly/Black-studies-25
PC retains #1 ranking
Providence College was ranked #1 in the 2021 U.S. News & World Report annual college and universities rankings, “America’s Best Colleges.” PC was tops in the “Regional Universities – North” category with a perfect score of 100, tied with Bentley University. The College also was ranked #1 in 2020. This year, PC also was #1 for “Best Undergraduate Teaching,” #10 in “Best Value Schools,” and tied for #15 in “Most Innovative Schools.” The College’s 93% first-year retention rate was second-highest among the top 10 colleges and universities in its category.
Pair chosen Vision Award honorees
Dr. Saaid Mendoza, assistant professor of psychology, and Christina Roca ’21 (Stamford, Conn.), a double major in global studies and sociology, were chosen as the 2021 recipients of the College’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Vision Award. This annual award honors individuals or groups who exemplify the teachings, spirit, and principles Dr. King embodied: social justice, advocacy, equality, human rights, the promotion of faith, and freedom.
As a faculty-in-residence member for the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Mendoza provides educational talks across campus, consults on assessment initiatives, and helps oversee DEI training opportunities for students, faculty, and staff. He is the principal investigator of the Social Perception & Attitudes Lab, which trains undergraduates to conduct experimental research on intergroup biases.
Roca has been a dream coach for the Transitions PreOrientation program for the past three years, serving as a mentor for first-generation and students of color in their transition to college. She was a co-facilitator of a global service-learning course, Global Border Crossings in Tijuana, Mexico, during the spring 2019 semester and serves as president of the Providence Immigrant Rights Coalition student club at PC.
Trustees form diversity panel
The Board of Trustees has established a committee dedicated to overseeing the College’s diversity efforts. The Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, established in the fall of 2020, will ensure that the College’s commitment to those ideals, as defined by Catholic teaching and St. Dominic’s wide embrace of all people, informs all facets of the academic and social life of the campus community.
Members include trustees Andre E. Owens ’85, Christopher K. Reilly ’84, Rev. Francis Belanger, O.P. ’99G, and Maureen Davenport Corcoran ’79; faculty members Dr. Christopher Arroyo, professor of philosophy, and Dr. Alexander Orquiza, assistant professor of history; community representative Marta Martinez ’79, ’19Hon.; and students Joseph Adeboyega ’21 and Sabrina Mercado ’23.
College President Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G and Executive Vice President Ann Manchester-Molak ’75 are members, along with Jacqueline Peterson, special advisor to the president for IDEI, and Rev. James Cuddy, O.P. ’98, vice president for mission and ministry.
Panel to advise the president and cabinet on racism
College President Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G has established the Presidential Committee to Address Systemic Racism, which will advise him and the cabinet on effective practices and strategies to eradicate systemic racism and ensure the fulfillment of the PC200 Strategic Plan.
Members include Jacqueline Peterson, special advisor to the president for IDEI; Dr. Bret Cormier, associate professor of education; Dr. Maureen C. Outlaw, associate professor of sociology and of women’s and gender studies; Dr. Robert G. Hasson III, assistant professor of social work; Wendy McRae-Owoeye, assistant vice president for human resources; Pam Tremblay, campus minister; and students Beah Cyrus ’22, Haley Gervino ’22, and Ernest Frimpong ’22.
RCIA program overcomes pandemic
Students who were on track to receive the sacraments in spring 2020 through Campus Ministry’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program were successful despite being interrupted by the pandemic.
Five students in the Class of 2020 received the sacraments during the summer in their home parishes. In September, Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, D.D., bishop of Providence, confirmed 15 students in St. Dominic Chapel. In early November, Rev. Jordan Zajac, O.P. ’04, now visiting faculty in English and a former member of the Campus Ministry staff, was named the bishop’s delegate to confer the sacraments on 10 alumni in St. Pius V Church, across from campus.
It was a special moment for Father Jordan and the newest members of the Church. They had begun their RCIA training with him in the fall of 2019, then watched his priestly ordination via livestream from St. Dominic Chapel in May 2020.
