Franciscan University of Steubenville community celebrates start of a massive building project
OFFICALLY OPEN — The Carapellotti family looks on as Franciscan University of Steubenville President the Rev. Dave Pivonka, TOR, left, and Paul Carapellotti cut the ribbon celebrating the official opening of the new Trinity Health System Field and Carapellotti Fieldhouse. -- Linda Harris
GROUND BROKEN — Ground was broken Friday for the new, $50 million Christ the Teacher Academic Building and Conference Center. Among those turning the first shovels full of dirt were the Franciscan University of Steubenville President the Rev. Dave Pivonka, TOR; the Rev. Joe Lehman, TOR, minister provincial and chairman of the FUS Board of Trustees; Mickey Pohl, chair of the university’s Rebuild My Church campaign; David DeWolf, vice chair and a 1999 FUS graduate; Joe McGurn, FUS director of physical plant services and Christ the Teacher project manager; Lou Ferraro, co-president of Rycon Construction; Chrissy Jungers, dean of the School of Professional Programs and professor of clinical mental health; Tom Gentile, president of the FUS Community Relations Board; Catherine Recznik, nursing department chair and associate professor of nursing; Jared Johnson, student government president, and Bob Hickey, vice president of advancement and a 1996 graduate. -- Linda Harris
OFFICALLY OPEN — The Carapellotti family looks on as Franciscan University of Steubenville President the Rev. Dave Pivonka, TOR, left, and Paul Carapellotti cut the ribbon celebrating the official opening of the new Trinity Health System Field and Carapellotti Fieldhouse. -- Linda Harris
GROUND BROKEN — Ground was broken Friday for the new, $50 million Christ the Teacher Academic Building and Conference Center. Among those turning the first shovels full of dirt were the Franciscan University of Steubenville President the Rev. Dave Pivonka, TOR; the Rev. Joe Lehman, TOR, minister provincial and chairman of the FUS Board of Trustees; Mickey Pohl, chair of the university’s Rebuild My Church campaign; David DeWolf, vice chair and a 1999 FUS graduate; Joe McGurn, FUS director of physical plant services and Christ the Teacher project manager; Lou Ferraro, co-president of Rycon Construction; Chrissy Jungers, dean of the School of Professional Programs and professor of clinical mental health; Tom Gentile, president of the FUS Community Relations Board; Catherine Recznik, nursing department chair and associate professor of nursing; Jared Johnson, student government president, and Bob Hickey, vice president of advancement and a 1996 graduate. -- Linda Harris
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STEUBENVILLE -- The Franciscan University of Steubenville community celebrated the start of a massive building project Friday as well as completion of Phase 1 of the new Trinity Health System field.
Micky Pohl, board of trustee emeritus and chair of the Rebuild My Church Capital Campaign, told the crowd that had assembled for the ceremonies, "We have to do a bit more."
"We surpassed our $75 million goal surprisingly quickly," Pohl said. "But now we're in a different economy: A recession is upon us, the cost of everything is increasing. But with your help, we can and will reach our new targets."
Pohl described it as the "most ambitious capital campaign in our history."
"This ... will allow us to get to the next level with new programs, new scholarships and new resources," Pohl said. "We must be financially prudent, but when we meet God we do not want him to tell us we were too timid or we didn't trust him enough."
The celebration began at Trinity Health System Field, where the Carapellotti family joined the Rev. Dave Pivonka, TOR, president of the university, in cutting the ribbon.
Before that, though, Pivonka announced the new fieldhouse would carry their name, "a sign of our great gratitude to the Carapellotti family and the 75-year friendship and the support they've given Franciscan University of Steubenville. "
"Since its founding in 1946, many people have helped make this little College of Steubenville into the world-renowned University of Steubenville that it has become," Pivonka said. "As we celebrated our 75th anniversary this past year, we've also celebrated those whose love and sacrifices contributed to our success."
He said the Carapellotti family exemplifies that love and sacrifice, "supporting the school in many ways, since its beginning."
"We at the university have spent many weeks, many months praying and discerning about what we would call this what would be an appropriate name for it. We settled on the Carapellotti Fieldhouse, feeling there could be no greater blessing."
Pivonka said Trinity Health System Field reminded the crowd Franciscan's student athletes "are playing for something greater than themselves."
"It's not just about winning, although winning's important," he said. "It's not just about competition, but competition is important. Ultimately, it's about giving glory to God that has given us a great many blessings."
Trinity Marketing Director Laurie Labishak said it seemed like a natural partnership.
"We work with Franciscan on a variety of programs, including the nursing program and we have a clinic here on campus," she said. "It was a natural partnership of two large Catholic entities in the community."
"We're really excited," she added. "It means a lot of things for our community. Trinity plans to have events up here at the field -- we're looking to possibly do a combine and bring local schools in and have scouts, we're looking at possibly bringing partners in with Special Olympics to bring Special Olympics back to Jefferson County. There's lots of different things, we see opportunity at this field."
Officials say the $50 million Christ the Teacher Academic Building and Conference Center, to be built by Egan Plaza, will include more than 110,000 square feet of learning space, "making it the largest building on campus."
With two wings -- one targeting academic needs, the other spiritual needs -- it's the first new academic building built on campus in two decades. University officials say it will help Franciscan respond to ever-increasing enrollment gains and allow them to expand business, engineering and nursing programs. There will be a new welcome center for admissions, new boardroom, a conference center, tiered lecture hall, state-of-the-art nursing skills lab and eight specialized engineering laboratories.
Chrissy Jungers, dean of the School of Professional Programs and professor mental health counseling, said the project is a "solution to a real need we have for more space on our campus."
"We've busy, we are looking to the future," Jungers said. "But I think we have to acknowledge that today is different -- today stands out in the 75-year history of Franciscan University."
Jungers said Franciscan has "not yet reached our fullest potential as an academic and faith community. We're still imagining who we yet we can become."
"It's an opportunity for us to recommit ourselves to searching for faith, searching for reason, in light of the truth we already know," she said.
"It means we as a university are alive. We haven't reached our fullest potential."