Brothers Welcoming Sisters

The transept of the Saint Vincent Basilica is brightened by a stained-glass triptych of Saint Benedict presenting his Rule to Saint Scholastica. As the late afternoon light illuminates the gold of the tabernacle, the mosaic narrates a story of brother and sister meeting to discuss matters both secular and spiritual—sometimes well into the night. 

Although the two shared a family and vocation, they were separated by gender norms of the time—the brother required to return to his monastery where no women were allowed, the sister retiring to a convent a few miles away. Yet they kept a promise to each other to meet once a year to affirm their faith and to draw inspiration from one another. 

Their conversations near Monte Cassino, as described by Gregory the Great, have become a beacon across history, enlightening the notion that the sharing of insights between men and women is fruitful and godly.

For seventeen decades, as the first Benedictine institution of higher education in the United States, Saint Vincent has striven to reflect the light of that beacon. As one of a group of single-sex Catholic colleges during that time, its regional reputation was tightly entwined with its male-oriented houses. Throughout those years, SVC benefited from its association with the prep school, archabbey, and seminary. Many monks served as professors and administrators, and the chancellor was always the archabbot. 

However, with the ripening of time, reputations can evolve to be hardened and delimiting: in the 1960s and 70s, students who declared to high school mates that they were attending college at Saint Vincent were often asked whether they were planning to become priests. These were the days of “Saint Vincent Classic,” an all-male residential campus whose graduates were long known to excel in academics and athletics. 

It was in January of 1982 that Saint Vincent officially welcomed the light of Scholastica. Acting on a study instituted in 1977, and taking into account financial projections and possible effects on a longstanding cooperation agreement with Seton Hill, the Board of Directors deliberated about opening the College to women students. 

Fr. Cecil Diethrich, then president of the College, reported that members of the board voted “without dissent” to move ahead with the venture. He and three abbots oversaw the research phase and transition process from ’77 through ’83. While some of the “old guard” representing Saint Vincent Classic had misgivings about such a dramatic change in the history of SVC, the brain trust withstood voices holding out for tradition, certain that the shift would strengthen the academic reputation of the school. 

Wheels turned quickly after the vote. Sister John Miriam Jones, director of coeducation at Notre Dame University, was brought on as a consultant. By mid-1983, SVC had a new president, Fr. Augustine Flood, and a dean of coeducation of its own, Kathleen Yorkis, as all facets of the College—administration, faculty, and student government— plunged into the emprise. 

On Monday, August 29, the first day of the semester in the new era, all segments of the campus community shared a picnic lunch in Melvin Platz followed by a “grand toast” to the “new beginning.” Students unveiled a large “birthday” cake that was eight feet long and four feet wide, with 137 candles marking each year since the College’s founding. A band added to a festive atmosphere before a thirty-minute fireworks display concluded the celebration. 

Timothy Q. Hudak, current chair of the Board at Eckert-Seamans, was SVC’s student government president in 1982-83. He remembers that a confab involving him, John Mizner (co-chair of freshman orientation) and Dean of Students Fr. Tom Devereaux drafted the phrase “A New Beginning to an Old Tradition.” Hudak recalls that the switch to co-education catalyzed a maturity and growth in the existing student body that made the transition really smooth and easy. A mitigating factor was that fifty women were transfers—students who likely came to SVC with experience on other coed campuses, helping to tone down any culture shock. Hudak remembers that the first women were overwhelmingly fantastic additions to the student body and building for the future. 

Ruth Shedwick-Bryant from Ford City was an inaugural member of the 1983 freshman class. SVC came into her purview after her sister enrolled at Seton Hill the year before. Ruth, now a VMD, remembers that it was strange to be around so many guys and was impressed that most of the guys had also attended prestigious Catholic high schools with courses in Latin and Greek, philosophy and theology, thus raising the academic bar. Her competitive fires were stoked, and she graduated magna cum laude. By the time of her senior year, the guys felt like brothers to her in an atmosphere where gender didn’t matter. 

Kim Grewe, an English major and current PhD, recalls that so many professors were instrumental in her growth as a person and scholar. She remembers the quiet, sacred spaces of the campus and appreciates SVC providing her with a great foundation for cultivating an open mindset and embracing diversity—characteristics that led to her present status as a national voice in open education and open pedagogy within the community college system in the US. 

Perhaps the vibrancy of coeducation at Saint Vincent is best seen between the boundaries of court and field. Saint Vincent’s women’s athletic teams have hoisted over a dozen championship banners and multiple undefeated seasons, while always being “in the hunt.” The recruiting and coaching genius of Kristen Zawacki created a strong basketball tradition, with twenty-five 1,000-point scorers and ten who can claim the title “All-American.” 

Women’s volleyball, coached by Sue Hozak since 1985, boasts a long string of playoff appearances and championships, led by four All-Americans. Likewise, women’s soccer has chipped in three All-Americans. Bearcat softball has posted, with one exception, winning records for the last ten years, winning two PAC tournaments in that time. And women’s bowling has been at or near the top of the league since its inaugural season in 2017, while cross-country has placed a dozen national qualifiers since 1987. 

Today, the Benedict and Scholastica window streams its mosaic light in two directions: into the Basilica, and outward across the campus, where men and women continue to take up intellectual and spiritual work alongside each other, as they have for the past four decades—with devotion, collaboration, and eloquence.