STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY

Welcome to the new Devereux e-newsletter. This electronic communication, exclusively for members of the prestigious Devereux Giving Society, will be sent each March and September and will highlight the people and places of St. Bonaventure.

The St. Bonaventure University Board of Trustees met March 13 and 14 for its first quarterly meeting of the 2009 calendar year. Among the agenda items was the preliminary budget for 2009-10 and the associated three-year budget projection. With the Board's approval of our preliminary budget plan, I am writing to provide you with an update on the status of St. Bonaventure University, particularly in view of the national economic challenges.

Throughout the budget development process, we have kept two primary goals in mind:

1. assuring for our students an extraordinary learner-centered educational experience; and
2. enhancing the impact of your philanthropic commitment to St. Bonaventure University.

While we anticipate a very difficult budget year in 2009-10 due to declining returns on our endowment, decreasing support from the State of New York, and increasing health care and utility costs, we have made the following decisions to ensure that your gifts and student tuition dollars are directed to the areas that are most critical to the student learning experience:

•  Faculty and staff salaries have been frozen.
•  The healthcare benefit for employees has been changed to a high-deductible plan.
•  Thirteen senior administrators have agreed to a salary cut.
•  Expenses have been strategically reduced in a number of areas.
•  Capital investments in a planned energy savings project and a major construction project have been delayed until the economic climate is more conducive.

At the same time, we are investing in academic program areas that show opportunity for growth. We have also received word of three grants: two that will significantly support the enhancement of technology and science equipment in the coming year and a third that will support faculty and student study abroad in Ireland through the Fr. Mychal Judge Center. These and other decisions are guided by our strategic plan, Becoming Extraordinary 2012, that will ensure we are investing in academic and co-curricular programs that have the greatest potential to position the University for continued growth and viability for the next 150 years.

During these difficult economic times and always, your continuing support of St. Bonaventure University remains our single most valuable financial resource. Clearly, we would not be able to withstand the challenges before us if it were not for the philanthropic support of our alumni and friends. Thank you for investing in the future of St. Bonaventure and the opportunities we provide for our students whose Bonaventure experience is helping them become extraordinary and compassionate leaders of the future.

Sincerely,
Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., S.T.D.
President

WORDENS' LEGACY LIVES ON IN AWARD

For almost half a century, Dr. John Lorimer Worden Jr. and his wife, Léone E. Worden, offered their knowledge, care and assistance to St. Bonaventure University and the community at large.

Their children, the most intimate witnesses to the Wordens' contributions to school and community, have set up a special endowment to ensure their late parents' gifts continue to serve in the twenty-first century.

In 2004, five years after their mother's passing, John L., '60, Lorenz M., '64, Robert L., '67 and Margaret S., '71, altered an award she created to honor her husband. They renamed it the John L. and Léone E. Worden Memorial Award for Academic Excellence in Biology, an annual gift of a research grant to a junior biology or bio-chem major who demonstrates one of the highest GPA's in the first five semesters of their curriculum. The grant will be available in the student's senior year.

"My parents' collective effort, represented in the award given in their names, lies in the realm of research," said Robert Worden.

Dr. Worden joined the faculty in 1933, when the institute was St. Bonaventure College.  He was named professor emeritus in 1973 when he retired from full-time teaching.  He taught undergraduate and graduate courses in zoology, histology, embryology, comparative anatomy, cellular physiology and related subjects.

He also served as premedical adviser and chairman of the Biology Department (1937-1947), registrar (1939-50) and secretary of the graduate school (1941-55), and served as the school's acting dean (1943-44). He spent time on the Committee of Recommendations (1934-50), serving as its chairman from 1937 to 1945, the Committee on Research and Development (1955-73), the Graduate School Reorganization Committee (1938-40), the Graduate Council (1940-50; 1969-73), the Committee on Admissions (1950-51) and the Committee on Modern Language Requirements for Master's Degree.

Dr. Worden researched hydroponics, microscopic photography and invertebrate serology. He participated in nationally and internationally recognized research projects, including secondary recovery of oil in Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania.  He also served the New York State Department of Health's Emergency Medical Training Program for Cattaraugus County.  Additionally, Dr. Worden conducted fungicide research that contributed to NASA's Apollo lunar program.

"Although these latter two were not university jobs, he maintained an office in Butler Gymnasium to perform them, thus introducing hundreds, if not thousands, of paramedic personnel to the SBU campus and its facilities," Robert said. "He was performing these duties on campus right up to the day he died (in 1979)."

Dr. Worden married Léone Borer in 1933 and settled in Olean. Léone worked as an artist and served as a volunteer and a faculty wife. Robert Worden said his mother helped Dr. Worden as much as anyone.

"Although following her own interests as an artist and volunteer worker, she accomplished much and provided my father the freedom and encouragement to pursue his academic work," he said.

The Wordens' commitment to the university and each other impressed their children.

"We children lived the Bona's experience through our parents' work and social activities," Robert said. "As we grew up, we witnessed a lot of hard work, love and devotion to Bona's by both our parents."

Robert said he remembered going to the university as a child and playing there with his siblings.

"When our father conducted his Saturday morning classes and other duties, we would explore the labs, play outside in the then-extensive woods and fish for coins in the three fountains on campus," he said.

Robert recalled another fond memory from his time at the university as a student.

On Sept. 15, 1963, Dr. Worden introduced Robert to his lab assistant, then-student Norma Chue '64. The two have been married for the past 42 years.

"It was only by chance that we met on my first day of college and Norma's first day of her senior year, but it was inevitable that we would meet," Robert said. "My father was definitely a co-conspirator in our relationship, and we are forever grateful for that."

The Wordens' influence extends beyond their immediate family. After their deaths in 1979 and 1999, respectively, Robert said former students, faculty members, trainees and friends filled the Doyle Hall chapel.

Robert said 19 friars celebrated Dr. Worden's funeral Mass. Of those, Fr. Dan Hurley, O.F.M., served at Léone's funeral two decades later.

Léone set up a memorial fund to a student in his or her junior year, the undergraduate year her husband taught. The children included her name in the award after her death and made it an endowment for the junior biology or bio-chem student proposing the best undergraduate research project and demonstrating one of the highest grade averages in their first five semesters. They also added Dr. Worden's research papers to the university's archives in 1999, donated to the renovations to De La Roche in 2007 and put his name on the door to his longtime office in De La Roche.

Robert said his parents would feel honored with their legacies.

"I think they would be pleased to know that we and future generations will remember their contributions to SBU," he said. "They were loving parents whose offspring returned this great love by developing and endowing this award."

Tim Gross, '11, a journalism/ mass communication major, is the sports assignment editor for The Bona Venture, the University's student newspaper.

ST. BONAVENTURE EDUCATION REMAINS AN EXTRAORDINARY VALUE AT AN AFFORDABLE COST

For 150 years, St. Bonaventure students have come to appreciate the incredible value of what they have learned inside and outside the classroom.

But price tags matter, especially in uncertain times. Please share the good news of Bona's affordability and extraordinary value.

St. Bonaventure's tuition and expenses remain very competitive, actually lower than many orther high-quality private education institutions in Western New York and beyond.

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST!

New York Governor David A. Paterson awarded St. Bonaventure University a State of New York Executive Chamber Citation on the occasion of the University's 150th Anniversary.

Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., president of the University, accepted the citation from Mary Kramer, '80, legislative director of the New York State Assembly, on March 3, at the Universal Bonaventure Celebration in Albany, NY.

View photo and full text of the citation

SAVE THE DATE

The Devereux/Seraphim breakfast is held each year as part of the Reunion Festivities.  Please save the date Saturday morning, June 6, 2009 for this year's breakfast.  If you have any questions, please contact Kathleen Ryan at kryan@sbu.edu, or (716) 375-2308.

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST DEVEREUX DONORS

+ indicates deceased members