Reflections from Rob Vischer

Dear alumni,

A few years ago, Pope Francis gave a homily that sticks in my mind. As he celebrated Easter, he spoke of the temptation to “think that dashed hope is the bleak law of life.”

I don’t know what the past year has brought to your life, but if it’s anything like mine, amid the joys and triumphs, there are ample disappointments, losses, anxieties, and other reminders of dashed hope. But dashed hope does not have the final word. Pope Francis explained: “God asks us to view life as he views it, for in each of us he never ceases to see an irrepressible kernel of beauty. In sin, he sees sons and daughters to be restored; in death, brothers and sisters to be reborn; in desolation, hearts to be revived. Do not fear, then: the Lord loves your life, even when you are afraid to look at it and take it in hand.”

God’s love becomes unmistakably clear on Easter, and that is the hope we celebrate. But it need not end once Easter is over.

Easier said than done, I know. We all face professional challenges, family tensions, health issues and a world steeped in turmoil and tumult. I bring with me a fair bit of anxiety about the future. Your anxiety levels may be somewhere above zero, too.

My prayer for all of us is that we have the occasion to see our lives as God views them, if even for a moment, and to be convinced beyond doubt of that “irrepressible kernel of beauty.” I don’t expect this recognition to erase all of my worries about the future, but it might help give me a perspective rooted in self-awareness and gratitude.

One important path of self-awareness for me has been to appreciate the extent to which my own work is made possible only by the diligent efforts, generous sharing of gifts, and good cheer of many, many people.

As President of the University of St. Thomas, I am acutely aware of how our community is built upon the goodness and hope of so many, including you, our beloved alumni. You mentor, you support, you come to games, you share your concerns and ideas, you open doors of opportunity for the next generation. You are an irrepressibly beautiful part of what it means to be a Tommie, and I can’t thank you enough for proving that at the end of even the bleakest day, connection and community will always shine.

I pray that this Easter season shines with God’s blessings on you and all those you love.

With warm regard,

Rob

Dear alumni,

In this month’s alumni newsletter, we focus on the many ways that our St. Thomas community lives out the theme of “Bridging Passions, Illuminating Futures.” From current students to our exceptional alumni, Tommies use their varied gifts to create a better future for all. As a university, we aim to do the same, and I can’t think of a more appropriate example of this theme than our new speaker series, “Finding Forward,” and its upcoming featured speaker, Justice Alan Page.

Finding Forward is an evolution of St. Thomas’ long-standing First Friday speaker series, which began in 1991 and has consistently featured outstanding leaders, changemakers and philanthropists. This new series aims to build upon that strong foundation, while delivering expanded topics to a wider audience.

The series is being co-hosted by St. Thomas and the Star Tribune with events held in person on our campus and livestreamed online by the Star Tribune. The name "Finding Forward" speaks to the series’ goal: engaging experts on issues that are prone to partisan debates, areas where the inability to find common ground results in gridlock and an unwillingness to see competing perspectives. Put another way, with Finding Forward, we hope to be able to bridge passions and create a brighter future for all.

Our next Finding Forward event will take place on Thursday, March 14 and I hope you’ll join me as I share in conversation with someone who truly embodies the notion of bridging passions and illuminating the future, Minnesota Viking Star and Minnesota Supreme Court Justice, Alan Page.

From his days as a member of the storied “Purple People Eaters” Justice Page was not content to limit his passions. During his NFL career, he earned All-Pro honors six times, and was voted to nine consecutive Pro Bowls – all while going to law school. In 1971 he was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player and in 1988 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. After graduating from law school, Justice Page worked as an attorney for a law firm in Minneapolis, then served seven years as an attorney in the office of the Minnesota Attorney General.

He sought election to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1992 and won, becoming the first African American on the court and one of the few associate justices ever to join the court initially through election, rather than appointment by the governor. When Justice Page was reelected in 1998, he became the biggest vote-getter in Minnesota history. He was reelected in 2004 and 2010 and served until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2015.

Nowadays, Justice Page is just as well-known for his philanthropic work as he is for being the man who bridged the NFL and the judicial bench. Since its founding in 1988, the Page Education Foundation has awarded over $16 million in grants to more than 8,000 Page Scholars. Those Page Scholars have volunteered nearly 500,000 hours, working with 50,000 children across Minnesota – illuminating the future, indeed.

On March 14, Justice Page and I will discuss leadership and collaboration in an age of polarization. The event is free and will be available via livestream; you can find event details and registration for either the in-person event or livestream on our Finding Forward website. I hope to see you there.

With warm regard,

Rob

Dear alumni,

Innovation has been at the heart of St. Thomas’ mission from its earliest days. “I seek no backward voyage across the sea of time, I will ever press forward,” said St. Thomas founder, Archbishop John Ireland. “I believe that God intends the present to be better than the past, and the future to be better than the present.”

In today's technology-forward, social-media-driven, easily distracted world I believe it’s more important than ever to keep Archbishop Ireland's message in mind: Innovation with a mission, innovation not for innovation’s sake, but for the sake of our communities and the world.

It is with that in mind that I am thrilled to share with you the opening of our brand-new campus facility, the Schoenecker Center, a dazzling 130,000 square foot facility dedicated to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics). This building will bring together engineering students with passionate student musicians, it places science labs a stone’s throw from an art gallery. It puts into practice the theory of interdisciplinary learning. Students and faculty from widely different fields will learn from each other and inspire each other to take on different perspectives, methods and inquiries. It will be a hub of innovation – and purpose.

Because while interdisciplinary learning is a highly sought-after skill by employers, and while STEAM training is critical to career success in today’s world, there will be so much more that comes out of the Schoenecker Center than high-powered careers. At the Schoenecker Center, students will tackle the greatest challenges facing society. They will explore their gifts and find their vocation. They will innovate toward the common good for generations to come.

I can’t wait for you to see it, and I hope you’ll join us at our official public dedication and blessing of the Schoenecker Center on Wednesday, May 8. We will be offering tours and interactive programming, including the opportunity to “choose your own adventure” throughout the facility and experience a bit of what interdisciplinary STEAM learning looks like. We will share further details as we get closer to the date.

As Tommies, we “ever press forward” and I am deeply grateful to you, our beloved alumni, for joining us in that journey.

With warm regard,

Rob

Dear alumni,

Over the past few months, higher education has been in the headlines as students, faculty and administrators have grappled with the boundaries of campus free speech policies. As weighty geopolitical issues persist and as another election season looms, I write to remind our community of our university’s commitment to free expression.

St. Thomas seeks to promote an environment of robust discourse, open inquiry and free expression where a wide range of perspectives and ideas can be shared and critically examined. This commitment underpins the concept of academic freedom and is central to St. Thomas’ mission of advancing the common good. The commitment is also consistent with our Catholic identity and convictions, which call for the pursuit of truth and meaningful dialogue directed toward the flourishing of human culture. We expect community members to treat others with dignity, civility and respect. This shared expectation enriches free expression by creating an environment where all community members feel welcome to share, explore and challenge ideas.

We encourage students to express their ideas and beliefs on any subject. The university does not prohibit speech by students, faculty or outside speakers because the opinion or viewpoint is disagreeable, unpopular, offensive or causes discomfort to members of the community. The willingness to listen and tolerate a range of opinions contributes to academic discourse and inquiry. Students are encouraged to evaluate ideas and arguments, not by seeking to suppress speech, but by candidly, rationally and respectfully challenging ideas they oppose.

There are limits to free expression on campus, of course. St. Thomas does not tolerate speech that constitutes harassment, defamation, obscenity or threats of violence. Student expression cannot obstruct university operations or unreasonably interfere with the rights of others to engage in their education or work, and the university may reasonably regulate the time, place and manner of expression to ensure it does not disrupt the ordinary activities of the university. For example, students may not block an entrance to a university facility or express their views in a way that prevents others from listening to a campus speaker. In addition, the university may act to ensure that our institutional values are reflected in campus programs even if not every speaker is aligned with university values.

Our success in building the culture to which we aspire at St. Thomas will not depend only on rules and policies. Many key questions will never be addressed by institutional regulation. We have to answer these questions ourselves, in our day-to-day interactions: Beyond our readiness to express our views, are we ready to listen to those who disagree with us? Can we resist the increasingly common tendency to choose sides and then treat that choice as the end of moral reflection on the matter? Can we help one another walk in the shoes of those on all sides of our society’s most pressing questions, particularly those who are too easily marginalized? Can we build bridges across the various divides that mark our world, not through arms-length pronouncements but through the painstaking process of mutual understanding? It requires long, difficult work to permit your story to shape my story, but it is work that has never been more important.

I aspire for St. Thomas to be a model of respectful, spirited and rigorous engagement regarding issues that matter in a world that is sorely lacking such models. I hope you share that aspiration, and I appreciate your help in making it a reality.

With warm regard,

Rob

December 13, 2023

Dear alumni,

I’m a Christian who has always struggled with doubt. A lot of the stories that make up the foundation of my faith still produce a skeptical reaction in my mind, as I can’t shake the question, “Do I really think that happened the way I’ve been taught it did?” Christmas is one story, though, that’s been easy for me to believe. It’s a story that aligns with my experience of the world.

If I were writing the story of God taking human form, the story would probably include golden castles, spectacular displays of power, and a righting of all earthly wrongs. But that would be my conception of a God who expected to be experienced and honored from afar, not a God who desired fellowship. The God-with-us (“Immanuel”) of the Christmas story is found on the margins, in the disappointment, in the pain. That’s the only place where a God who desires authentic relationship with us could be because that’s where we are. And it’s where God still is. The Christmas story makes sense to me because it’s God connecting with us in the tangled mess of our real lives, and expecting us to do the same with one another. That newborn in a feeding trough with a teenage mom? That’s where God is. As Mother Teresa put it, being contemplative in the world means seeing “the face of God in everything, everyone, all the time.”

Amid a troubled world, there is still beauty, joy, and goodness to be found. And our university is proof of that every day. Our professors and mentors connect with students. Our community outreach programs impact young and old. We advance knowledge. We make a difference. Has 2023 brought pain and disappointment? Absolutely. Will there be pain and disappointment in the year to come? Yes, and that’s precisely where we’re called to be, knowing that God is already there.

I pray that the coming season brings unmistakable reminders of God’s love for you.

With warm regard,

Rob

November 8, 2023

Do you know a student who should come try purple on?

As alums, you know the special pride of being a Tommie. And as we continue our journey from being a small Catholic liberal arts college to being a comprehensive Catholic university with national visibility, I hope that you’ll help us find the next generation of Tommies.

More than half of our students tell us that it was a recommendation from a trusted adult that was the most influential factor in choosing to attend St. Thomas. This makes you, our alumni, our most valuable partners in helping St. Thomas continue our longstanding commitment to excellence. We have launched a new Tommie Network Pipeline webpage where you will find abundant resources for and about potential students. You’ll find everything from quick facts to a brochure that includes information on academics, financial aid, campus life and much more.

There is no greater ambassador for the power of a St. Thomas education than our alumni. You lead lives of purpose and passion. You embody care, curiosity, and dedication. And you have personally experienced the power of St. Thomas to enrich and empower students. I encourage you to check out the Refer a Student webpage, talk to the young people in your life, and if you know an interested student, please complete and submit this form.

I will also be visiting several alumni communities throughout the U.S. in the coming months. If you live in or near these areas, you will receive invitations to the events, and I hope to see many of you there. If you live near campus, I also invite you to visit campus. Meeting St. Thomas alumni is one of my favorite parts of the job, and I look forward to connecting with you in person.

With warm regard,

Rob

October 10, 2023

Dedication to community is one of the markers of St. Thomas as a university. From the time you march through the Arches to decades beyond, we are dedicated to centering relationships and connection; that means listening to your questions, incorporating your ideas, and partnering with you for a lifetime of success.

It is with this in mind that I ask you to take our alumni survey when it is released tomorrow. This survey gives you the opportunity to share your insights and experiences with us. It is a way to let us know what matters most to you as a Tommie alum, what peaks your interests, what programs you want to support, and what kind of news feels the most relevant. In short, it will help us understand how we can best meet your needs.

You will receive an email with a link to the survey tomorrow, and I hope you will take a few minutes to participate. Your voice and opinions matter deeply to us. By sharing your thoughts, you will help us determine what is working, and where we need to change tack. Your guidance equips us to become the St. Thomas we have always been called to be: a community that inspires the same deep sense of belonging among current students as we do among alumni who graduated five, 10, or 50 years ago. Your perspective is key to our forward momentum – thank you.

With warm regard,

Rob

As we begin a new school year, it’s an ideal time to reflect on the strength of our university community. What marks our community? What guides us? What type of community do we aspire to be?

Just a few days ago, our new freshmen marched through the arches. Moments before they took their first steps as Tommies, I told them that they were joining a community marked by kindness and a concern for others, of care and service. They are values that I see reflected each time I meet our alumni; they are values which have guided this university for almost 140 years, and which I see loud and clear in Pope Francis’ third papal letter, “Fratelli Tutti.”

Pope Francis has shaped my own vision of leadership – perhaps more than any other person – and as we prepare for the year ahead, I would like to share a few observations from Fratelli Tutti and encourage us to live them out in the year to come.

• Dialogue is difficult but essential: Pope Francis writes that dialogue “calls for perseverance; it entails moments of silence and suffering, yet it can patiently embrace the broader experience of individuals and peoples. . . . [when our conversations] revolve only around the latest data, they become merely horizontal and cumulative. We fail to keep our attention focused, to penetrate to the heart of matters, and to recognize what is essential to give meaning to our lives. Freedom thus becomes an illusion that we are peddled, easily confused with the ability to navigate the internet. The process of building fraternity, be it local or universal, can only be undertaken by spirits that are free and open to authentic encounters.”
• The parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us to “shoulder the inevitable responsibilities of life as it is.” Faced with “so much pain and suffering, our only course is to imitate the Good Samaritan,” as to do otherwise “would make us either one of the robbers or one of those who walked by without showing compassion for the sufferings of the man on the roadside.” We must remember that “a community can be rebuilt by men and women who identify with the vulnerability of others, who reject the creation of a society of exclusion, and act instead as neighbors, lifting up and rehabilitating the fallen for the sake of the common good.”
• We are all responsible for keeping real people at the center of our work: “Solidarity finds concrete expression in service, which can take a variety of forms in an effort to care for others. . . . In offering such service, individuals learn to ‘set aside their own wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, before the concrete gaze of those who are most vulnerable . . . . Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, ‘suffers’ that closeness and tries to help them. Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.’”
• Our respect for the dignity of others must be unconditional: “At a time when various forms of fundamentalist intolerance are damaging relationships between individuals, groups and peoples, let us be committed to living and teaching the value of respect for others, a love capable of welcoming differences, and the priority of the dignity of every human being over his or her ideas, opinions, practices and even sins” despite the “forms of fanaticism, closedmindedness and social and cultural fragmentation [that] proliferate in present-day society."

The Pope reminds us that a community's success is not to be measured by statistics or rankings. It is to be measured by how well we acknowledge, appreciate, and love each person we meet. This is the kind of community we must work to build every day at St. Thomas. I am so grateful for how you model these values as alumni and contribute to our forward progress.

With warm regard,

Rob

When I decided to start moving back toward academia from legal practice, I knew I needed to produce scholarship before I went on the teaching market. I lived in Chicago near DePaul University at the time, and I went to the campus to begin my research. I still remember how energizing it felt to walk through the library reading room and back into the stacks, armed with a list of call numbers and a bunch of half-baked ideas. I felt like a student again.

As we prepare for a new academic year, I can’t help but remember that feeling I had in the DePaul library that day – surrounded by opportunities to learn new facts, ideas, and ways to understand the world. That excitement and love of learning hasn’t gone away in the years since. I’m still a student because life at a university is a life of learning and I learn something every time I step onto campus.

There’s a growing stack of faculty-authored books on my desk, and our recent faculty scholarship presentations exposed me to new ideas about the future of microgrid research, the importance of values in entrepreneurial collaboration, the impact of bias in the use of social media for job searches, what quantum mechanics can tell us about the life of cells, and what’s happening at our excavation of an ancient agricultural villa in Croatia. And every day, staff colleagues give me windows into their expertise on data analysis, sustainability, inclusive hiring, budgeting, athletics compliance, construction management, and a million other topics.

And our students! I learn so much from them. When they open their lives to us, our own view of the world expands. I wish there was some way that our entire university community could sit in on every class in which there are student research presentations. Those moments – when our students are figuring out how to explain their newly found insights to the broader world – are at the heart of what it means to be a university.

As we look forward to the 2023-24 school year, we have so much to be thankful for, including being part of an incredible community of learners – from students, to staff, to you – our alumni – we are constantly learning from each other: our rich diversity of life experiences and areas of expertise, our perspectives and insights.

As 1,500 new undergrad students march through the arches in a few weeks, they’ll remind us of what St. Thomas has been for 138 years, and what we aspire to be for centuries to come: a community of learners.

As alumni, you know that St. Thomas is among the most beautiful universities in America. Whether you’re gazing out at the main quad on a quiet winter day, walking near the grotto on South Campus, seeing the sun beam through the law school’s glass-enclosed atrium, worshiping in the majestic Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, or watching nervous and excited students march through the arches for the first time, there is beauty all around us.

During my inaugural address, I announced a university-wide initiative aimed at deepening our appreciation for the ways in which we cultivate beauty, truth, and goodness at St. Thomas. This initiative is aimed at moving away from the trend of universities becoming more transactional, focused simply on providing necessary job skills as efficiently as possible. Efficiency is important. Preparing our students for professional success is important. But what makes us distinctive, what makes us St. Thomas, is that we are also called to help focus on transcendental values, values that transcend human limitations.

Beauty is at the heart of our mission. Every day, we aim to help our students recognize that our endeavors cannot be evaluated solely in terms of a cost-benefit analysis. When we fully understand how we are wired, what we’re created for, we know, as Dostoevsky observed, that beauty will save the world.

Research is confirming that beauty is essential to our well-being. A University of Michigan psychologist recently found that a high appreciation of beauty promotes recovery from depression and anxiety. And a UC Berkeley psychologist observed that the experience of awe in response to beauty helps us push back against self-absorption by getting us to recognize our place in a much bigger world. Put simply, appreciating beauty is good for us.

In the coming year, we will be developing the Beauty, Truth and Goodness initiative. Through a series of discussions, performances, and experiences, we’ll explore ways that all of us in our unique roles can nurture these values, and we hope to have robust alumni participation! More to come . . .

Dear Alumni,

As we prepare to celebrate a new chapter in the 138-year history of St. Thomas – and only our fourth presidential inauguration since 1966 – I want you to know who you’re inaugurating.

When I was eight years old, my dad left. It was a day tailor-made for feeling alone and forgotten, but my most vivid memory is our house suddenly being filled with lots of people. It turns out my mom had called down to our church, and the pastor had asked from the pulpit for the congregation to pray for our family. A large portion of the congregation got up in the middle of the service and drove over to our house to be with us. They weren’t a trained crisis intervention team; they were just regular people from a small church in a small town whose faith compelled them to be present in a moment when the world felt very broken. They didn’t make everything better. My parents’ marriage still ended. But they introduced me to the ministry of presence. And as a Christian, they provided me with an unforgettable example of what it means to be the hands and feet and voice and even the tears of Jesus.

My life since then has been blessed in so many ways (including a great relationship with my dad), but it has also – like most lives – been marked by times of wrenching pain and loss. This shapes my leadership in a couple of ways:

• I am not a leader who musters enthusiasm by portraying everything as shiny, happy, and unfailingly positive. In my experience, when we attempt to convey joy by distracting ourselves from the reality of the world, we’re left with a joy that is neither meaningful nor sustainable. We strive for joy through the travails of life, not by pretending the travails don’t exist. In higher education, we are surrounded by reasons for joy, but the joy must be sought with resilience and resolve.

• If relationships are not at the center of everything we do, we’ve lost our way. I enjoy impressive achievements as much as anyone, but I’m more interested in the culture we’re building. I talk about the culture of encounter so frequently because I honestly believe that’s our most pressing priority. Do we show up for each other? Would a visitor notice the ministry of presence at St. Thomas? Whatever progress we’re making on our strategic plan, how are we demonstrating that we care for our students and our colleagues?

Here is my pledge to you: I will convey the reality we face, good and bad, and not sugarcoat it. We have lots of reasons to be excited about the future, and we also have to be clear-eyed about the challenges. I will be accessible and available to you. And whether or not you agree with decisions I make, I will do whatever I can to ensure that you understand who I am and what I stand for.

I am honored and excited to lead this university because the mission of St. Thomas is built for the world that I (and probably you) have experienced. A Harvard survey conducted a few weeks ago found that 41% of young Americans (18 to 29) describe persistent feelings of being “afraid, as if something awful might happen,” and 47% report that, for at least several days in the past two weeks, they felt “down, depressed, or hopeless.” And just this past week, the U.S. surgeon general issued a report warning that loneliness is among our nation’s most urgent health challenges. The lifting of COVID lockdowns didn’t change the fact that young adults remain the loneliest age cohort in America, according to Gallup.

To me, these statistics confirm that our mission has never mattered more. Like other universities, we are committed to preparing our students for professional success. But that is not – and can never be – the extent of our aspiration. In a world of turmoil and tumult, we will bring community. In a higher ed market that has become more transactional, we will bring formation. And in a world brimming with reasons to despair, we will bring joy.

I hope you can join me for our inauguration celebrations on Friday, May 12, as we look to the future.

With warm regard,

Rob

Dear Alumni,

It can be tempting to conclude that St. Thomas is playing catch-up in the higher education market. Especially when we look at other nationally known universities, they have a head start on us in some areas – they started their colleges of health, schools of law, Division I athletics programs, and other initiatives decades before we did.

But we are not playing catch-up. We are not trying to replicate what worked 50 years ago or 10 years ago. We are working to be the St. Thomas that the world needs now and into the future. The fact that we may have spent more time as a small college than other schools did is actually a great gift. We have the opportunity to do something new – in all of these new initiatives, we can utilize our gifts, resources, expertise, and traditions and build them in alignment with the world’s needs. And that’s what’s happening – we can go down the list of all our new programs and identify their distinctives and why those distinctives matter. This journey is not a distraction from our mission – this journey is an affirmation of our mission, it’s a commitment to ensure that our mission is relevant and vibrant for our grandchildren’s grandchildren.

In fact, I think on some of the matters that matter most, we have a head start on much of higher education. A recent article in Inside Higher Ed argued that “colleges have a role in cultivating hopefulness” in a generation of students for whom hope is in short supply. Or consider the cover story in the current issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, which laments the struggles today’s students face and the tendency of the college experience to exacerbate those struggles. As the article’s author explains:

[A]s many students continue to exhibit debilitating levels of anxiety, hopelessness, and disconnection – what one professor termed ‘militant apathy’ – colleges are struggling to come up with a response beyond short-term solutions. The standard curricula in higher ed – and the way it’s discussed as primarily a path to economic success – can exacerbate those feelings. Students are told the main point of college is to move up the economic ladder, so no wonder it feels transactional. And the threat of failure must seem paralyzing given the high cost of a degree.

But what if students believed that college was more than that? That it was a place to discuss the big questions bouncing around in their heads, learn a vocabulary to describe what’s happening around them, engage with the messiness of the world, and navigate their place in it. That it was meaningful.

We do – and must continue to – deliver a strong economic return on the investment our students make in a St. Thomas education. But that has never been the extent of our aspiration. The “more than that” has always been at the heart of our mission. We take vocation seriously, and we believe that each of our students is equipped with unique gifts and has the potential to make irreplaceable contributions to our world. We know that human flourishing requires attention to body, mind, and spirit. This whole-person formation has never been more urgently needed than it is today.

If other schools are going to play catch-up on this front, they’re going to have to pick up the pace. At St. Thomas, we’ve been on a journey to deliver “more than that” to our students for 138 years, and we’re not slowing down.

With warm regard,

Rob