Living Mercy: Reflecting on the Vocation and Values of Salve Regina University

With this collection of essays, we honor the vocation and spirit of mercy that has enlivened and guided Salve Regina University for the last 75 years. Inspired by the accomplishments of the past and looking forward to the call of the future, these essays provide a starting point for University-wide conversations to support Salve Regina in discerning how it will move into the increasingly complex challenges of the future. Salve\u27s tradition of mercy is rooted in the example of Catherine McAuley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 19th-century Dublin, Ireland. It is a model of faith expressed through action and maintains that each person is called to and capable of contributing to the common good by responding to the needs of the day, to respond to the suffering and injustice of each era.Attending to this spirit of mercy that continues to guide our University, this project considers how the six core values of Salve’s Strategic Compass – purpose-driven education, respect and dignity for all, mercy community, integrity, faith and spirituality, and compassionate service and solidarity – relate to our shared mercy, Catholic heritage, and the mercy vocational paradigm. Exploring how to re-root and re-frame these values, we approached the project as a vocationally oriented narrative. This type of narrative focuses on the call and vocation, as well as the patterns of meaning that shape the unique identity of an institution in its founding and how the institution has evolved and changed in response to the claims and context of social and historic dynamics. Thus, these six essays are harmonized by a three-fold critical-creative structure that attends to the dynamic experience of the call and spirit of mercy modeled in the founding of the University, how we presently live this call, and envision the challenges and possibilities that lie on the horizon. We employed the perspectives of Foundations, Living Presence, and Horizons to frame an analogical exploration of the unique character, actions and ideals that have inspired and sustained the vocation and mission of Salve Regina University, and may be creatively transferred to shaping the horizon for future generations of students.Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Salve Regina University, we invite readers to reflect on this collection of essays and then to join the conversations that are to follow as we continue to discern the path forward as Salve takes its next steps into the future.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/fac_staff_ebooks/1006/thumbnail.jp

Salve Regina University Act on Climate: Strategic Plan for the University to Reach State Carbon Neutrality Goals

In order to become more sustainable and meet the mandate set by the 2021 Rhode Island Act on Climate law (RI General Law §42-6.2), Salve Regina University must work to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. Action to meet these standards begins now and must be continually built upon to ensure that Salve Regina University, as leader in Rhode Island, is always working for a more sustainable future. Throughout the Spring 2022 semester, students of the BIO-140: Humans and Their Environment course instructed by Dr. Jameson Chace have researched ways in which Salve Regina can begin on the path to zero greenhouse gas emissions today. By focusing on change in the areas of energy, transportation, food, financial investments, and sequestration, Salve Regina can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of today for a more sustainable tomorrow. Recommendations are broken into three time periods. Action for today to achieve by 2030 include improving energy efficiency, installing the first electric vehicle (EV) parking/charging stations, increasing carbon sequestration, reducing beef in the campus diet, and assessing the carbon impact of university financial holdings. Actions to be initiated soon and to be achieved by 2040 include shifting away from natural gas heating when system renewals take place, increasing EV parking to meet rising demand, during turnover replace current university vehicles with electric or hybrid, continuing with sequestration efforts on campus, begin phasing out high carbon diet items, and by 2040 the university investment portfolio should be carbon neutral. If carbon neutrality can be reached by 2050 the most challenging aspects of campus life that need to change will require planning now and thoughtful implementation. The class in 2022 envisions a campus in 2050 where solar lights illuminate campus and buildings through the night, all university vehicles and most faculty and staff vehicles are electric and are found charging during the day at solar powered charging stations, dining services in Miley supports community agriculture and includes incentives for meatless and low carbon meal plans, the university has become a leader in low carbon/green market investing demonstrating how careful planning can reap high returns, and carbon sequestration on campus grounds has maximized such that off campus carbon offsets are established with local land trusts to complete the carbon neutrality goals. In doing so no only will the university be recognized as a state-wide leader in climate action, but will also be a global leader in working towards a world that is more harmonious, just, and merciful.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/bio140_arboretum/1033/thumbnail.jp

Salve Regina Arboretum Ten Year Plan to Reach Level III Accreditation

The Salve Regina University Arboretum, located in Newport, Rhode Island is currently registered as a Level II arboretum and is intertwined with the city of Newport Arboretum. The university now has intentions to reach Level III status, as part of a ten-year plan. This plan was developed by the students of the Spring 2018 BIO 255: Conservation Biology course, instructed by Dr. Jameson Chace, Associate Professor of biology at Salve Regina University. As part of a curriculum geared towards civic engagement, the class focused on creating and optimizing strategies that can be applied to the ten-year plan. These strategies were applied to the plan categorically: a team to inventory the current tree collection; a team to develop formal educational programming; a team for informal educational programming; a team to establish goals for conservation initiative related to the arboretum; a team dedicated to research related to arboreta; and a team to develop a list of species of special interest to add to the arboretum in the coming years. In the following document, each team’s strategies for the ten-year plan are outlined. Each of the components of this plan incorporate means to fulfill the conditions to meet Level III arboretum status so that the arboretum can apply for official registration. The aforementioned teams were tasked with designing a foundation on which to work up from. This includes formal educational programming to be applied to classroom settings and informal educational programming which can be applied to community outreach-based settings. The teams that worked to strengthen the arboretum’s mission of conservation focused on researching trees that can fit into the current landscape while providing some sort of benefit to the surrounding flora/fauna. Further, many of the species of interest, such as the chestnut, hold historical value to the greater Rhode Island region. In all, the Salve Regina Arboretum must achieve a total of 500 unique species of trees and woody plants as part of its efforts to apply for Level III status. In addition to the programming and research performed so far by the student teams, the arboretum must also hire a curator to manage the programming and to oversee the arboretum as a whole. Additionally, the arboretum must continue to actively collaborate with other arboreta and should encourage scientific research. It is important to recognize that the Salve Regina University Arboretum has already been utilized in the field of microbiology and has gained some attention at the university as a resource for further research and investigation. This ten year plan, along with resources within in it, is designed to provide a list of potential guidelines and ideas that can be applied for the arboretum’s benefit and growth. The Salve Regina University arboretum is a continually growing and developing part of the greater Newport, Rhode Island community, and will continue to strengthen its mission and that of the university which oversees its success.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/bio255_arboretum/1000/thumbnail.jp

Long View From the Front Range: A Century of Avifaunal Change in Colorado [video]

Jameson Chace, associate professor of biology and biomedical sciences and environmental studies at Salve Regina University, will share his sabbatical research. Drawing from field notebooks, museum collections, published and unpublished field studies and volumes of notes and records from amateur bird watchers, Chace documented a century of bird population and community change in Boulder County, Colorado from 1894 to 2010. Chace will present how the needs of a growing human population, change in landscape and conservation efforts have impacted the avifaunal community during this time period

A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Social Implications of Gold

This thesis was designed as a comparative study of social functions of sport between the United States and Japan. Specifically, the study collected data of the different cultural uses of golf within each country. Local golf pros, of contrasting golf clubs, were interviewed to determine the social differences of a golf course between social classes. Data for the comparison study of the Japanese culture was collected by examining articles which discuss the tremendous golf phenomenon in Japan. The information gathered about Japanese golf was positively related to the theoretical process of hegemony. These findings sharply contrasted the many types of American golf course, both public and private, which assure that golfers of any social or skill level can find an appropriate golf course

Living Mercy: Reflecting on the Vocation and Values of Salve Regina University

With this collection of essays, we honor the vocation and spirit of mercy that has enlivened and guided Salve Regina University for the last 75 years. Inspired by the accomplishments of the past and looking forward to the call of the future, these essays provide a starting point for University-wide conversations to support Salve Regina in discerning how it will move into the increasingly complex challenges of the future. Salve\u27s tradition of mercy is rooted in the example of Catherine McAuley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 19th-century Dublin, Ireland. It is a model of faith expressed through action and maintains that each person is called to and capable of contributing to the common good by responding to the needs of the day, to respond to the suffering and injustice of each era.Attending to this spirit of mercy that continues to guide our University, this project considers how the six core values of Salve’s Strategic Compass – purpose-driven education, respect and dignity for all, mercy community, integrity, faith and spirituality, and compassionate service and solidarity – relate to our shared mercy, Catholic heritage, and the mercy vocational paradigm. Exploring how to re-root and re-frame these values, we approached the project as a vocationally oriented narrative. This type of narrative focuses on the call and vocation, as well as the patterns of meaning that shape the unique identity of an institution in its founding and how the institution has evolved and changed in response to the claims and context of social and historic dynamics. Thus, these six essays are harmonized by a three-fold critical-creative structure that attends to the dynamic experience of the call and spirit of mercy modeled in the founding of the University, how we presently live this call, and envision the challenges and possibilities that lie on the horizon. We employed the perspectives of Foundations, Living Presence, and Horizons to frame an analogical exploration of the unique character, actions and ideals that have inspired and sustained the vocation and mission of Salve Regina University, and may be creatively transferred to shaping the horizon for future generations of students.Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Salve Regina University, we invite readers to reflect on this collection of essays and then to join the conversations that are to follow as we continue to discern the path forward as Salve takes its next steps into the future.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/fac_staff_ebooks/1006/thumbnail.jp