There have been some emails and stories circulating around about Ave Maria University, Tom Monaghan, and supposed broken promises, including something reportedly written by a current faculty member of the college in Michigan. Now the university responds:
[Disclaimer: Fr. Fessio, the chancellor of AMU, is also the publisher of Catholic World Report magazine, of which I am the managing editor.]
http://manwithblackhat.blogspot.com/2004/06/ave-maria-chronicles-let-pizza.html
With respect to Fr. Fessio and Mr. Healy, what does it profit the Church to close AMC when at last it appears there might be a way to keep it open? Isn’t it better to have two schools than one?
Why was the offer made to Madonna without consultation with the board? Why make an offer to sell AMC to Madonna scant weeks after agreeing to give Newman College supporters a chance to prove themselves? Why not wait to see whether Newman College could come up with the time and money?
It is obvious to me that Mr. Healy knowingly made an offer to Madonna intending to undercut the efforts of faculty and staff to find backers and a proposed board for Newman College. Faced with a full plan for the closure of AMC on one hand, and a partial and tentative plan for Newman College on the other, which would board members at the next meeting aquiesce to?
As for the faculty who have moved to Florida&88230;well, yes, many were enthusiastic at the opportunity. Others were just smart enough to see where the future (and their salaries) lay. The original, and the most committed of our professors are in MIchigan. Well, except for Dr. Riordan, whom we love and would forgive anything.
Mr. Healy and Fr. Fessio look at AMC and see cash for Florida. That is the beginning and the end of it. Perhaps originally, when the idea of going to florida was hatched, that was the only option. But it is not now, and it is not the christian option, and it is not the right option.
AMC students do not want Madonna degrees. They do not want Madonna having a say in their classes. They especially do not want Mr. Healy and Fr. Fessio deciding that since AMC students have classes available from Madonna that they can cut our math classes. Or our science. Or history, or whatever other classes they decide we can just as well take at Madonna. They do not want someone deciding that, since they can use EMU and and Madonna’s libraries, we do not need a library of our own. After all, they already tried to steal our books. They are in a hurry to sell or merge AMC because they want to take the computers and books (they already tried, illegally) and sell off buildings as they seduce students to Florida.
Money talks. Apparently louder than the Holy Spirit.
Bleahh.
Bleahh indeed…
Update on AMC & AMU: Part 1 of 2
Michael Rose’s Cruxnews.com and the Ave Maria College parents’ website (http://www.geocities.com/aveparents) are posting more testimony from various people including faculty and staff currently or formerly affiliated in one way or another with one or another of Tom Monaghan’s educational Mr. Peter relates his experiences and those of his family with the adminstrations of the Institute and the College (although more with the College). Based on his experience and knowledge as a civil lawyer that lawsuits are difficult, expensive, and uncertain of outcome, he reluctantly concludes, “If my son is not allowed to graduate from Ave Maria College, with a degree from Ave Maria College, based on courses taken at a functional Ave Maria College, we will sue. Period.”
Update pn AMC & AMU: Part 2 of 3 (too long for two installments)
Cruxnews also has some letters (http://www.cruxnews.com/articles/letters-03june04.html) responding to its earlier article “Is Tom Monaghan dismantling another Catholic college?” (http://www.cruxnews.com/rose/rose-28may04.html). One of the letters is from a former theology professor of the former Saint Marymember of professor of Ave Maria College
(http://www.geocities.com/aveparents/AveFacultyLetter_Page1.html) on some of the problems surrounding any proposed merger between Ave Maria College and Madonna Universitymenable with his request (or order?) to transfer the computerized system and many books (except for a small basic collection) from Michigan to Florida, but after seeking legal advice (not from Mr. Healy, who is also a lawyer), she sends him a long e-mail with much Maria College] Parents group: http://www.geocities.com/aveparents/AveParentsLetter4.html