Heart of the University, Faculty Retreat Series 2026 -2027

The Heart of the University Retreat Series gives faculty and administrators of all faiths the opportunity for input and guided reflection. The series is co-sponsored by the Office of Mission and Ministry and the Center for Vocation and Servant Leadership.

The first retreat, given by Gloria Thurmond, Ph.D. on the theme of Carriers of Meaning: The University Community – Communal Intersubjectivity, will be held on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Chancellor’s Suite, lower level, University Center and via Microsoft Teams. 

While the goal of a Catholic education is essentially directed toward the intellectual and moral development of the “person,” the educational process must take place through the involvement of others within the educational community. Through the experience of communal intersubjectivity, whereby each person seeks to care about and empathize with other persons, we engage in what it means to be human and to be educated. 

Through communal intersubjectivity, shared mutual awareness and understanding would be oriented toward the same values, goals and meaning that all members of the University community could then explore.

Gloria J. Thurmond, D.Min., Professor Emerita and GEM Fellow in the Praxis Program, recently retired from the Music Program and the Department of the Core. She continues to teach as an adjunct in both programs and serves as Program Director for the Jazz ‘n the Hall Concerts.

If you have any questions, please contact Linda Garofalo or Francia Peterson at [email protected].

RSVP to [email protected] by October 2, 2026. Click here for further information.

Categories: Faith and Service