Dean's Blog
Dean David Mengel writes these posts for the weekly CAS Bulletin, sent to all faculty and staff of the College of Arts and Sciences.
October 21, 2021
Civility and beyondI had reason recently to attend a school board meeting, my second or third in the past two decades. A child I know was being recognized. It wasn’t anything like I had remembered....
October 14, 2021
Who once walked hereBefore this place was Cincinnati — even before it was Losantiville — other peoples walked here. Usually my mind turns first to the Adena, the Hopewell, and...
October 07, 2021
Week 8Week 8. Everyone's back from Fall Break. More than 87% of our students have been vaccinated. Seems like a good excuse for a concert. Feel free to supply your own tunes, if these...
September 16, 2021
The Spirit of JusticeThe sounding of the shofar. Student voices in choir. A reading in Hebrew from Deuteronomy.Then a homily medley: Rev. Abby King-Kaiser ("Confused, astounded, and amazed") and Dr. Norm Townsel (on...
September 09, 2021
Learning from our StudentsWe met this week for the first time since the spring -- or was it for the first time since February 2020?The CAS Student Advisory Board (SAB) meetings have become my favorite meetings of any month....
September 02, 2021
Answers, Solutions, Further QuestionsThanks to all of you who used last week's confidential survey to share with me your hopes and concerns about the year ahead. Like many of you, my own hopes were bolstered by Friday's...
August 19, 2021
That familiar feelingAre you feeling the energy on campus this week? For some of us, and for quite a number of our new students, it was the first time inside a classroom for more than a year.The dean's office joined...
August 12, 2021
Dawn greetingsAs the sun sets on the summer, the dawn of the new academic year rises. I hope that the past months have brought you a mix of good work, time with friends and family, and well-deserved...
April 22, 2021
Already. Not yet.The blooms of spring.Blanketed with snow.Student COVID cases you can count on one hand. Thousands of Ohio arms not yet vaccinated.Justice for George Floyd in Minneapolis.Another...
April 15, 2021
Quality workHow do people evaluate a university’s academic quality? And how do WE evaluate – and continuously strengthen – Xavier’s academic quality? As a few...
April 08, 2021
Say his nameTimothy DeWayne Thomas, Jr. (1981-2001)Twenty years ago this week, Timothy Thomas became the 15th Black man killed by a Cincinnati police officer in a six-year span.The death of this...
April 01, 2021
Happy New Year!Easter, the vernal equinox, the flowery bloom of new and renewed life all around, and — this year — the...
March 25, 2021
Walking and StandingStations of the cross.
A Catholic tradition inviting participants into imaginative co-suffering.
I’ll admit: artistic manifestations of this devotion rarely resonate with me.
But this...
March 18, 2021
Introducing Our CollegeLet me introduce you to the College of Arts and Sciences.Since joining it in 2003, I've come to know CAS as the liberal arts heart of our Jesuit Catholic, comprehensive university...
March 11, 2021
Stories of a YearOne year ago today, I joined a group of Xavier students visiting the Casa de Acogida Beato Juan Bautista Scalabrini in Lima, Peru.A few short-term residents of...
March 04, 2021
Richly deservedCan it be? Just over a year ago, COVID-19 prompted our mid-semester leap into remote learning and working.I've learned a lot in the intervening months. But more than anything else, I've learned...
February 18, 2021
Seasonal ReflectionsAt times over the past year, the pandemic's weight has seemed to flatten out the year's natural rhythms. So last week I welcomed my snow shovel's first good workout in a long time,* as a...
February 04, 2021
Fifty more"Where one banner was cut down, let us raise fifty more."Dr. Jamie Trnka
Banners against racism.Banners to support Black Lives.Banners against white supremacy.Banners to support justice.Banners...
January 28, 2021
Our Next ChapterOn Monday our president-elect, Dr. Colleen Hanycz, introduced herself to the campus. I was impressed. Yes, yes: I’m still an academic. No stars in...
January 21, 2021
Privileged In the midst of this whirlwind first week of the semester, my thoughts keep turning to my privilege.MLK Jr. Day now always invites me to consider the unearned privilege of my identities, and I did...
December 03, 2020
ArrivalsMost students have gone home, final exams are nearly complete, and many of us have left campus for the last time in 2020. A time of departures, it seems. And yet today I find myself thinking of...
November 18, 2020
Finish LineCincinnati Thanksgiving traditions? Don't forget the turkey trot, now in it's 111th year! (Or, as the copyright lawyers prefer, the Thanksgiving Day Race.)Yes, that too will be...
November 11, 2020
Names and FacesNames and faces. Of current and former students. And of family members.
That's who come to my mind on Veterans Day . They did again yesterday.
My uncle, drafted to Vietnam. My...
November 04, 2020
UncertaintyUncertainty. Division. Mistrust. Fear. Hurt. Discord.At this moment, after so many months of uncertain moments, common ground may seem elusive, even impossible. Red and blue? We...
October 28, 2020
Purple?Purple. I’ve been fond of the color since before I remember.That remains my best explanation for why a kid from Florida grew up rooting for a football team 1,500 miles...
October 21, 2020
Quarantine KittyQ the kitty joined our home in April. His mother, homeless, left him in a friend's barn.Ever since, Q the kitty has been caring for my family's mental health. We talk about mental...
October 14, 2020
The Seven-Month WallThat wall? Seven months after we "went remote"? Yeah, I feel it.But I can't quite figure out: did I run into it, or did it fall on me? Maybe you recognize the feeling. The marathon we've...
October 08, 2020
Our journeyNel mezzo del cammin di nostra semestre This week we reached the midpoint of our unlooked-for semester’s journey. The stories we all could tell! Plenty more lies...
September 30, 2020
ListeningAt this year’s Mass of the Holy Spirit—the ceremonial opening to the academic year at Jesuit universities—Rev. Nelson Pierce, Jr. exhorted us to...
September 23, 2020
Under the circumstances"Under the circumstances, of course." Yesterday I caught myself tagging on that phrase to my habitual "I'm doing fine, thanks."Immediately my contextualizing impulse seemed both absolutely...
September 17, 2020
Gourds and polls aheadThis week's cool weather heralds the arrival of autumn. None too soon.Decorative gourd season is already well under way in my household.My family is also making plans for the high...
September 10, 2020
What week is this? A new commonplace: the COVID-19 pandemic has distorted our sense of time. One day — and one week — runs into the next. Really? It’s week four of the academic...
September 03, 2020
The feast of St. GregoryToday’s feast of Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604 AD) brings that monk and pope to my mind—less for his remarkable life than for the disorienting, uncertain, and tumultuous...
August 27, 2020
Caterpillars, beetles, and philosophersHow did our students fill their summers?With caterpillar graphs and woodboring beetles. Reading French phenomenology and the diary of a soldier in the Mexican-American war.Measuring prosimian limb...
August 20, 2020
NineteenA century ago this week, the Nineteenth Amendment wrote women's suffrage into the U.S. Constitution. As several of our CAS colleagues recently wrote, this achievement--incomplete...
August 13, 2020
Story writingNext week many of us will have a conversation we've had many times before: the welcome-to-the-first-day-of-class talk.Yet we'll deliver it differently this year, won't we? Rather than walking...
August 06, 2020
Marking milestonesNinety years ago this week, St. Xavier College became Xavier University. Neither the end nor the beginning to our institution's story, this change nevertheless represented a milestone...
July 30, 2020
Good TroubleThe horse-drawn hearse carried the body of John Lewis across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday. It was not Lewis’s first time at that place.The occasion...
July 23, 2020
AdaptationsSluggish. Glacial. Imperceptible.That's how some people characterize the pace of change at universities.I challenge anyone who has been paying attention to our college over the past four months to...
July 16, 2020
ReturnWith just over a month before the first day of classes, our community has begun its phased return to Victory Parkway. I hope that you, like me, took (or will take!) at least a little time away from...
June 25, 2020
SummertimeOne of the glories of university life is the academic calendar. There are rhythms to our year and our careers, measured by times of intense activity interspersed with times of reflection.And as...
June 18, 2020
Planning for ReturnThese days St. Ignatius watches over empty stairs.But as June days lengthen towards the solstice, our thoughts increasingly turn to our gradual return to...
June 11, 2020
GratitudeIn many ways, the past weeks have been the most challenging of my four years as Dean. There's no question. Yet at the conclusion yesterday of the college's role in the university's effort to...
June 04, 2020
Not EnoughYet another unjust death. Yet another name to add to our tragic litany. Yet another angry reminder (for those of us who don’t experience it daily) of systemic anti-black racism, that...
May 28, 2020
Sustaining HopeEach month a member of the University Cabinet offers a prayer to begin the meeting. This week was my turn. I offered a prayer—a supplication, really—for wisdom and...
May 21, 2020
Worth CelebrationIt's true: we didn't celebrate the end of this academic year in quite the same ways as normal. We celebrated nevertheless -- and rightly so!Many of you joined us on Tuesday or Wednesday...
May 14, 2020
The Path AheadAs we walk forward together into our college's future, I find myself wishing that we could see clearly around the corners ahead. What exactly will we encounter over the next months and...
May 07, 2020
Made For This Moment?Last evening as I read Fr. Graham's message to our community, I was caught up short by our university president's suggestion that we--the members 0f Xavier...
April 30, 2020
Prospective welcomesThe thought makes me smile broadly: watching new students stream along the academic mall in front of Alter Hall. Eager, nervous, full of energy.Ready to experience what they've been anticipating...
April 23, 2020
Honoring Our Adjunct FacultyDear colleagues,Some are you are departmental fixtures, others new to us this semester—you, the more than one hundred adjunct faculty members who teach in the college we...