We are now at the point where faculty members are beginning to take initiatives and suggest programs for the Center to consider. Such ownership by the faculty of a mission-related project is ideal. A specific program that we are running for the first time in March is the Faculty Seminar in Augustinian History and Spirituality. It involves 10 to 15 faculty traveling together to Milan, Florence, Sienna, San Gimignano, and Rome. Presentations on the life of St. Augustine and the history and spirituality of the Augustinian Order, which began in Tuscany, are to be made by Augustinian scholars in those locations, as well as by two of our own faculty.
Emphasis is on an experience of community.
The College is underwriting the entire cost, and faculty stay at the Augustinian monasteries and friaries in Italy. One of the Augustinian friars on campus offers retreats for individual faculty or staff members, or small groups. The effect of this fiction is to surface what the professor values as truly important in her or his professional and personal life. We expect to do a thorough evaluation of such programs in another year or two. But for the moment the initiatives of the Center seem to be enriching the faculty, culturing and educating the community on Merrimack's distinctive heritage.