October 01, 2021
Father Sicard’s inaugural address
Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G
Inauguration Speech
October 1, 2021
Bishop Evans, Father Letoile, Father Shanley, Governor McKee, Mayor Elorza, Dr. Armstrong, college presidents and representatives, trustees, corporation members, members of the cabinet, Dominican brothers and sisters, alumni, faculty, staff, students, friends, and my family: Thank you all for being here today. I am humbled by your presence.
On a personal level, I can’t tell you how honored I am to be here in this role today. As many of you know, I was the first person in my extended family to even attend college. I came from rather humble beginnings in Fall River. My parents were never educated beyond high school, but they wanted so much more for my sisters and me. And I will always be grateful for how hard they worked to make a PC education possible for me. I’m sure that they are in heaven, beaming with pride!
When I was preparing this speech, I was reminded of a saying from St. John Paul II which perfectly captures the theme of today’s celebration. The late Pope wrote, “Remember the past with gratitude. Live the present with enthusiasm. And look forward to the future with confidence.”
In remembering the past, it is not my intention to walk you through a history of Providence College, or even to go through the high points. That would take way too long! But I will point out that, while the Dominican Friars established Providence College at the invitation of Bishop Harkins, we were not his first choice. Harkins approached the Jesuits long before he came to us. With Boston College to the north, and Holy Cross to the west, the Jesuits nixed this idea, referring to the establishment of a Catholic college in Rhode Island as a “needless and doubtful venture.” More than one hundred years later, I am grateful for the persistence of Bishop Harkins, and his enthusiastic vision of establishing a Catholic college in Rhode Island, and especially grateful that he invited us.
When I speak about Providence College, I often point out that the college is not simply named after the City of Providence. Rather, it takes its name from the notion of Divine Providence—the firm belief that God provides for us; that He guides the people and events in our lives; and that all the good that comes to us is part of God’s loving plan. That has certainly been my experience, and I daresay, the experience of our students, faculty, and staff.
Like a lot of our students, I fell in love with Providence College from the first moment that I stepped on campus. I was determined to do well, and I was successful academically. I was always grateful for the opportunities that PC provided me. Like generations of students who came before me, and generations who came after me, I received an outstanding education from faculty (both lay and Dominican) who were brilliant and who genuinely cared for us. It was here that I discovered my love of accounting from committed teachers like Gus Cote, Ray Bagley, and Peter Bongiorni; here that I developed friendships that I will always cherish; and most importantly, here that I discovered my Dominican vocation.
Ironically, it was tragedy in my senior year that cemented my vocation. I refer here, of course, to the Aquinas fire that took 10 of our female students shortly before Christmas in 1977. The outpouring of love and support that we received from the faculty and from the Dominican community were as strong as the shock and grief we felt. Those of us who were here during that time will never forget the compassion of luminous people like Father Jack Reid, our chaplain; Father Reg Peterson, our president; and so many others. It is with the deepest gratitude that I remember these experiences (joyful and sad) and honor the giants from our past, both lay and Dominican—many of whom were still around when I returned to PC as a Dominican in 1997. Some are still here today!
They and the generations who came before them laid the foundation for the present — a present that we should and do, in fact, live with enthusiasm. There is so much that continues to distinguish us. Our Catholic and Dominican mission and identity define who we are and how we approach the sacred work we do here — that work of helping our students to flourish and to live meaningful personal, professional, and spiritual lives.
Uniquely, Providence College is the only undergraduate institution in North America founded and administered by the Dominican Friars, continuing a centuries-old intellectual tradition. In a recent meeting I had with the exec board of the Friars Club, I suggested to them that when they lead tours of prospective students and their families, they should point out that the Friars have been in higher education for more than 800 years and that we’re really good at it!
Thanks in large part to the wisdom and vision of my predecessor Father Brian Shanley, Providence College has become even more nationally recognized. To put it colloquially, “We are a hot school.” Though rankings aren’t everything, I can’t deny how thrilled I am that we have once again been ranked #1 in our category (with a perfect score of 100) by U.S. News and World Report.
While many other schools of our size are struggling to attract quality students, we continue to enroll some of the best and brightest, largely because of our ever-improving academic reputation. This we owe to our dedicated and brilliant faculty — outstanding researchers and scholars (the finest in their fields), men and women who are generous in their service to the college and our students, and passionately committed to teaching and scholarship.
I always have admired the commitment of our faculty, and my admiration for you grew even stronger as we battled, and continue to battle, the COVID-19 pandemic. Your willingness to pivot to new remote methods of teaching allowed us to remain open last year, to keep our campus safe, and to continue to provide a quality education to our students whose lives were upended. I know how excited you and our students are to be back together in person. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you; and as president, I pledge to do everything in my power to support the invaluable work that you do.
Your love for and commitment to this institution, along with that of our dedicated staff, administration, alumni, benefactors, trustees, and the outstanding qualities of our students allow us to live our present with enthusiasm.
When future generations look back at the years leading up to and following our centennial in 2017, they will see them as the beginnings of a new “Golden Age” of Providence College. Notice that I said the beginnings of a new Golden Age. While we should remember our past with gratitude and live our present with enthusiasm, we should never allow ourselves to become complacent, or to settle for where we are institutionally. We will constantly strive to improve, and as St. John Paul suggested, we will look to the future with confidence.
I am often asked about my vision for Providence College. Because of my long, long affiliation with PC as a student, as a Dominican, as an administrator, and now as president, I have a lot of ideas. I was deeply involved in creating PC200, our most recent strategic plan. And while there are new and exciting initiatives in the plan, it is important for us to revisit it often, if for no other reason than that our world has changed since the pandemic. While we will retain and implement the best of PC200, we will work tirelessly to enhance and improve it.
I treasure the traditions and the qualities that have defined us for more than 100 years, and these will continue to provide the framework by which we define ourselves in the future.
First and foremost is our identity as a Catholic and Dominican college. In even more robust ways, we will define and present ourselves as unapologetically Catholic. Our goal is not to be a fortress for the devout, but rather a place of joyful welcome to every one of our students, faculty, and staff who, through their experiences of our community, will come to know Truth and to know the tender love of God.
We are extraordinarily blessed by a robust presence of Dominican Friars on our campus. Nearly 40 of us serve in academic or administrative roles, and more than a quarter of the Dominican Community is less than 40 years old. This level of religious presence and engagement is uncommon at contemporary American Catholic colleges and universities, and because of record numbers of religious vocations to the Province of St. Joseph, the Dominican presence will continue to thrive here. I am so grateful to my Dominican Brothers who engage wholeheartedly in this special ministry.
I am equally grateful to the lay faculty and staff who participate so joyfully in our mission, so many of whom were drawn to PC because we are Catholic and Dominican. The cultural and religious diversity of our faculty in so many ways has enriched the experience of our students. We will continue to recruit diverse scholars and students who are drawn to and supportive of our mission — people who will thrive here.
I sometimes hear of faculty and staff who feel called to share in this work, but don’t quite know how. One of our major goals has been, and will be, to find new and creative ways of better defining and engaging others in this mission, something the Jesuits do so well. One of these is our soon to be released Mission Book, prepared by Father Cuddy, our vice president for mission and ministry. As I write in the introduction, the concepts in this book “describe what we mean when we speak of an education that is both Catholic and Dominican, one that seeks truth, one that celebrates the relation between faith and reason and what it means to pursue these ends in a loving, diverse, and inclusive community.”
I remain firmly resolved in my commitment to our ongoing efforts toward becoming the Beloved Community that we aspire to be. Inspired by the communities in the early Church and by the extraordinary vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., our shared goal of becoming a community informed by justice, charity, and mutual love and respect, and the efforts to achieve this goal are our response to a sacred call from God.
I am inspired by the understanding and continually growing collaboration between the Offices of Mission and Ministry and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in addressing and responding to our challenges. I have asked them to continue to work closely together and to engage a variety of campus constituencies (including me), and to draw from a multitude of resources, including the Sacred Scriptures, best practices at other colleges and universities (particularly Catholic colleges), and from the richness of Catholic teachings that inspire and challenge us to be the best that we can be.
I recently created a presidential commission to work with me in developing a comprehensive statement on what it means for us specifically as a Catholic and Dominican college to be the kind of community God calls us to be, with a goal of overcoming some of the divisions that continue to afflict us. As members of a Catholic and Dominican college, we should not rest until every member of our community feels the love, respect, and dignity to which we are all entitled as people created in the image and likeness of God.
As we are learning through an ongoing brand development project, most students are drawn to PC because of our stellar academic reputation, which is why I have saved this portion of my inauguration speech until the end. While more and more institutions are questioning the value of a liberal arts education, our commitment to the liberal arts will continue to define who we are institutionally. As we recently announced, Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest and most prestigious academic honor society for the liberal arts and sciences in the United States, has granted a charter to the college, and we will begin inducting students as members next spring. PC is now among an elite group of 290 institutions with this distinction — less than 10% of American colleges.
We will continue to emphasize and celebrate the deep connections between the liberal arts and our outstanding professional courses of study to ensure that our students flourish and are prepared to live lives of meaning and purpose now and when they leave Providence College. As stated on our web site, a PC liberal arts education will continue to be an education in the human experience – one that is grounded in the ages but essential for success in the modern world. We will continue to strengthen our core curriculum, at the heart of which will remain our signature and ever-improving Development of Western Civilization program.
Simultaneously, as we continue to move into our second century, we are exploring new and innovative courses of study that will appeal to talented and diverse students and faculty. One of our goals is to continue to gain even greater national recognition as a premier Catholic institution of higher learning. The only way to do this is to build and expand on what we are offering currently, in response to prospective students’ interests and to the changing needs of our society.
I look forward to working with the faculty in exploring new academic programs that complement our existing offerings. Among the most exciting opportunities will be in health-related fields that leverage the recent investments we have made in improving our science facilities. According to U.S. News and World Report’s 2021 best jobs, 15 of the top 25 are found in health care occupations, including nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants, and medical and health services managers.
Like the rest of our students, those who choose a course of study in the health sciences would benefit from PC’s strong core in the liberal arts, as well as our holistic approach of educating our students in mind, body, and spirit. Programs in the health sciences would enable us to leverage existing academic programs and faculty expertise, provide numerous new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, and allow us to capitalize further on our outstanding science programs.
A number of faculty have expressed interest in and support for these new initiatives, and Admission reports that we lose a number of students who otherwise would choose to matriculate here except for the lack of such programs, particularly nursing.
Most importantly, programs like this that focus on the care of others, and a respect for the dignity of every person would flow naturally from and would support the Catholic and Dominican mission of Providence College of service to God and neighbor. As we know, attending the sick is one of the Corporal Works of Mercy!
While we are still in the earliest phases of exploration, I am excited by the support of the cabinet and many of the faculty and trustees, and I am energized by the possibilities. I also look forward to exploring mutually beneficial partnerships with other Catholic colleges, as well as exchange initiatives with Dominican scholars from around the world, one of the key initiatives in PC200.
In addition to enhancing the academic offerings, I intend to continue to improve our existing facilities and begin new construction, continuing the work begun by Father Shanley. We owe this to the students of today and tomorrow, and our next major new project will involve construction of a residence hall near Glay Field. In gratitude for his immense contributions to Providence College, this new facility will be named after Father Shanley.
Finally, we will continue to support and celebrate our athletic programs, which from our earliest days have been a part of the fabric of the college and of the city of Providence. We owe a debt of gratitude to our Athletics staff, our coaches and our student athletes who bring, and will continue to bring such honor to our school.
It is my firm belief that the introduction of new programs, the construction of new facilities, and the modest increase in students will not change who we are as an institution. We will continue our traditions of treasuring and supporting the Humanities and will remain deeply committed to retaining the close relationships between faculty and students that have always defined us.
As I enter into my second year as president, my love for PC continues to grow, and my vision continues to unfold and develop. I want this vision to be imaginative and “cutting edge.” In a homily I shared with the Dominican community on my first day as president, I prayed for the grace to lead the college with wisdom, strength, and humility. This will continue to be my prayer.
As we move on with this celebration today, we do in fact remember the past with gratitude; we live the present with enthusiasm; and we look forward to the future with confidence.
God bless you and God bless Providence College.
