Reflections Magazine Issue #78 - Spring 2013 | Page 23

Column

find us on facebook—search for shu alumni

from the alumni office

Outstanding Faculty:
The Heart of Siena Heights
From its earliest days, Siena Heights has been
known for the quality and caring of our faculty:
demanding and dedicated, wise and wonderful.
In 50 years as a women’s college, from 1919
through the 1960s, Siena teachers were almost
all Adrian Dominican Sisters. Alumnae of
those decades spoke (and still speak) with awe
and affection of professors like Sisters Helene
O’Connor and Jeannine Klemm in Studio
Angelico; Sister Mary George in the business
office; Sister Leonilla in the Little Theater;
Sister Miriam Michael in the chemistry lab;
Sister Ann Joachim in history class and on
the basketball court.
As Siena Heights transitioned into coeducation at the end of the ‘60s, men appeared in
the faculty as well as the student body. Fr. David
Van Horn, who taught art for almost 30 years,
was the first male teacher to become a long-time
legend of the faculty. In 1979, a young John
Wittersheim arrived in Studio Angelico and
began teaching metalwork.

John’s death this spring, after 33 years in the
sculpture studio and a one-year battle with bone
cancer, reminded our community that Siena
Heights continues to be blessed with teachers
who are giants in and out of the classroom. Like
so many teachers before him at Siena, John was a
creative and committed mentor who guided and
pushed, nurtured and nudged, critiqued, encouraged and demanded the best from his students.
He will be sorely missed and long remembered.
Last fall’s Alumni Awards ceremony spotlighted two other long-time faculty whose impact on students has been tremendous: Doug
Miller in theater and Sister Pat Schnapp in
English. Read about them on pages 24-25.
With our 100th anniversary just six years
away, Siena continues to be a teaching and learning community distinguished and defined by
outstanding faculty. Our students take classes
on many campuses—or on no campus except
their computers; but they study with teachers
who are as dedicated and bright as their faculty
forebears. Let me share two recent examples:
Alexander Weinstein, a second-year member
of the main campus English faculty who is a writer, editor, and director of the Martha’s Vineyard
Creative Writing Institute, was the guest speaker
at this spring’s “Dinner & Theater” alumni event.
After a fabulous meal and before the Theatre
Siena musical production of Little Women, he
spoke about “Fact and Fiction: Writing Your
Way to Creative Truth.” The dinner crowd can
be boisterous—but Alexander captivated the
group immediately. “The magic of fiction is that
it often feels true,” he said, “sometimes even more
than life itself.” Judging from the rapt attention
he commanded and enthusiastic applause he
received, this new professor may be a faculty
legend in the making.

Mary Brigham ’97, this year’s outstanding
teacher honoree at the Metro Detroit Center,
teaches liberal arts seminars both on-the-ground
in Southfield—and online for students who may
be anywhere. She communicates daily with her
online students, responding to discussions and
papers, answering questions, clarifying assignments. But she, too, may be anywhere. This fall,
Mary emailed from Dubrovnik, Croatia: “Here
is one of the more challenging internet places
I taught from last week.” She attached a photo
of an internet café tucked off a narrow winding
stone staircase (above). “It was exactly 188 stair
steps up and the street kept going uphill beyond.