Dean's Blog
Dean David Mengel writes these posts for the weekly CAS Bulletin, sent to all college faculty and staff.
Posts from previous academic years
March 24, 2022
Reckoning togetherYesterday I was reminded — and cheered — by the return of something I hadn't realized how much I've missed since the start of the pandemic: a thought-provoking lecture by a...
March 17, 2022
Green dayI hope you found some time over the break to refresh yourself in preparation for the final, frantic quarter of the academic year.As for me, I finally joined my family's daily word-game...
March 01, 2022
AshesAshes appeared again on campus yesterday. As the CAS Student Advisory Board members reminded us recently, the first sight of ash-crossed foreheads can be baffling to many among us.If we...
February 24, 2022
Wars and rumors of warsTroops crossing borders of a European democracy? Before dawn broke in Moscow this morning, Russia's boss declared his invasion. I'm trying to understand how we got here. Yes, I...
February 17, 2022
GileadI left Monday's college meeting with an unexpected word on my lips. No, not "cookie." That was in my pocket.It was "balm," a word that feels awkwardly round in my mouth.You put it there....
February 10, 2022
How this endsPeople have likened pandemics to wars. They've mapped pathogens' spread as if they were invading armies.I know something about this.Yet plagues are not wars. They have...
February 03, 2022
Tyger Tyger, burning brightWorking from home on the morning of the university’s first ever “remote day,” I find myself pondering the meaning of animals. Not the meaning of Q...
January 27, 2022
It's been a whileAgain this year, I find myself describing Cincinnati to faculty candidates who -- like me back in 2003 -- have never before visited the Queen City.
Until this week, though, it never...
January 20, 2022
Signs of brighteningMore than 25 years ago, BBC weather reports introduced me to a term the English use to distinguish among grey, damp winter days: brightening."Expect brightening tomorrow...
January 13, 2022
Today and tomorrowBright, bracing weather welcomed us back to campus in 2022. After some well-deserved rest over the holidays, January's crisp mornings invite us to look forward. As you know, this week...
December 02, 2021
PrivilegedYeah, I know. Just by looking at me, you can tell I'm privileged.But as I write my final CAS Bulletin post for 2021, I am struck by one of my less visible privileges.It has been and remains my...
November 18, 2021
Looking back, looking aheadAutumn colors, shortening days, and the final campus classes until the new year. Already? Some of us began this week on a cold morning in the warm company of those who came before us,...
November 11, 2021
Wasson wonderingsWhat if middle-age nostalgia about college life partly reflects the remembered joys of living in a walkable community – the first and only time that many in our...
November 04, 2021
Odilo's soulsIn the midst of a busy week, Tuesday felt eerily quiet on campus as we set aside time for voting (congratulations to our very own Emily Franzen of Norwood!). In...
October 28, 2021
Inauguration day!More than a few times over the past several years, I've joined peacock processions of gowned delegates honoring another university's new president.Just last weekend, I represented Xavier as...
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 23, 2021
SeasonsThe return of autumn this week put a smile on my masked face.The change of seasons always has that effect. Maybe because I grew up in Florida, where we only had two seasons: warm and too warm.I...
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 26, 2021
Changes, hopes, uncertainties"How is the beginning of your semester going?"At yesterday's all-day diversity and inclusion training for some campus leaders, I must have been asked that half a dozen times. To this...
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...
May 13, 2021
EmergingLike emerging from the darkness into the light, like taking a deep, cleansing breath.
That's how it felt, watching graduating CAS students walk -- really walk -- across the Cintas stage on...
May 06, 2021
AccomplishedAs exam week gives way to final grading, I want to recognize and thank you all for the heroic work that everyone in CAS has done over the course of this academic year. What a year!You -- the CAS...
April 29, 2021
New choicesIt’s been a year of new constraints. What we must wear. How we cannot gather. What we may not risk. And now this! “If you are fully...
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...