Outstanding Faculty: The Heart of Siena Heights

From its earliest days, Siena Heights has been known for the quality and caring of our faculty: demanding and dedicated, wise and wonderful.

In 50 years as a women’s college, from 1919 through the 1960s, Siena teachers were almost all Adrian Dominican Sisters. Alumnae of those decades spoke (and still speak) with awe and affection of professors like Sisters Helene O’Connor and Jeannine Klemm in Studio Angelico; Sister Mary George in the business office; Sister Leonilla in the Little Theater; Sister Miriam Michael in the chemistry lab; Sister Ann Joachim in history class and on the basketball court.

As Siena Heights transitioned into coedu-cation at the end of the ‘60s, men appeared in the faculty as well as the student body. Fr. David Van Horn, who taught art for almost 30 years, was the first male teacher to become a long-time legend of the faculty. In 1979, a young John Wittersheim arrived in Studio Angelico and began teaching metalwork.

John’s death this spring, after 33 years in the sculpture studio and a one-year battle with bone cancer, reminded our community that Siena Heights continues to be blessed with teachers who are giants in and out of the classroom. Like so many teachers before him at Siena, John was a creative and committed mentor who guided and pushed, nurtured and nudged, critiqued, encouraged and demanded the best from his students. He will be sorely missed and long remembered.

Last fall’s Alumni Awards ceremony spotlighted two other long-time faculty whose impact on students has been tremendous: Doug Miller in theater and Sister Pat Schnapp in English.

With our 100th anniversary just six years away, Siena continues to be a teaching and learning community distinguished and defined by outstanding faculty. Our students take classes on many campuses—or on no campus except their computers; but they study with teachers who are as dedicated and bright as their faculty forebears. Let me share two recent examples:

Alexander Weinstein, a second-year member of the main campus English faculty who is a writer, editor, and director of the Martha’s Vineyard Creative Writing Institute, was the guest speaker at this spring’s “Dinner & Theater” alumni event. After a fabulous meal and before the Theatre Siena musical production of Little Women, he spoke about “Fact and Fiction: Writing Your Way to Creative Truth.” The dinner crowd can be boisterous—but Alexander captivated the group immediately. “The magic of fiction is that it often feels true,” he said, “sometimes even more than life itself.” Judging from the rapt attention he commanded and enthusiastic applause he received, this new professor may be a faculty legend in the making.

Mary Brigham ’97, this year’s outstanding teacher honoree at the Metro Detroit Center, teaches liberal arts seminars both on-the-ground in Southfield—and online for students who may be anywhere. She communicates daily with her online students, responding to discussions and papers, answering questions, clarifying assignments. But she, too, may be anywhere. This fall, Mary emailed from Dubrovnik, Croatia: “Here is one of the more challenging internet places I taught from last week.” She attached a photo of an internet café tucked off a narrow winding stone staircase (left). “It was exactly 188 stair steps up and the street kept going uphill beyond.” Wouldn’t Siena’s early profs have enjoyed teaching for Siena while traveling the world!

After 94 years, outstanding teachers are—still!—the heart of Siena Heights.

Jennifer A. Hamlin Church
Associate VP for Advancement & Director of Alumni Relations
(517) 264-7143
jhchurch@sienaheights.edu