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Regis University president to retire
Father Michael Sheeran has led Denver’s Jesuit school for 18 years
By John Gleason
Jesuit Father Michael Sheeran, who has served as president of Regis University since 1993, will retire from that position at the end of the 2011-2012 academic year.
Father Sheeran, who first arrived to Regis in 1975 to teach, has overseen growth of the school, expanded academic programs and developed online educational programs that are among the largest in the nation. He hosted a historic meeting between Pope John Paul II and then-President Bill Clinton in 1993 and over the years, visits from 13 Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
He will be deeply missed according to Richard Kelly, chairman of Regis Board of Trustees.
“Father Sheeran has been a great president, leader and inspiration for Regis University and our community,” Kelly told the Denver Catholic Register. “Under his leadership, Regis University has flourished, expanding academic programs, making a positive difference through community service, promoting its Jesuit Catholic mission and developing learners into leaders for our world. I congratulate him on a job well done.”
Born in New York City, Father Sheeran graduated from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Mo., and entered the Society of Jesus. Ordained in St. Louis in 1970, he studied political science and philosophy and eventually earned a doctorate in politics from Princeton University.
Arriving in Denver 36 years ago, Father Sheeran began teaching history and political science at Regis University as well as serving as the director of Student Academic Services. Two years later he was named academic dean and in 1982 became vice president. The following January he was named the school’s 23rd president. During his tenure, the school has garnered a wealth of accolades.
Regis has earned a top school in the Western United States ranking for 16 consecutive years from U.S. News & World Report, gained recognition from the Templeton Guide as one of the top 100 schools in the nation for student character development, and was selected for the 2010 U.S. President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction.
When Father Sheeran became president, the student body of Regis was 7,500. That number has grown to more than 15,000 today. In addition, Regis academic programs have expanded, including partnerships with the University of Ireland, Galway; and with ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, Mexico, for the first online bilingual joint MBA degree program.
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| Photo by Brett Stakelin Pictured above: Jesuit Father Michael Sheeran, president of Regis University, visits with students earlier this year at the university’s original campus located at 50th Avenue and Lowell Boulevard in northwest Denver. |
Among the standout moments of his tenure, Father Sheeran related a tale he told at this year’s commencement exercises and the charge he gave to the graduates based on the meeting between now-Blessed John Paul II and President Clinton: two world leaders with radical differences, particularly on life issues.
“The pope was able to seize the moment with the president and come up with concrete things that the two could do together that would make a better world,” Father Sheeran said.
Witnessing the way the pope dealt with President Clinton was an example of how people can reach out to others in a way that is not confrontational but inviting, Father Sheeran said, and get them to look at the Catholic Church in a new way. This was the charge given to the class of 2011.
Father Sheeran also noted the innovative ways the university makes learning available, not only in Colorado, but around the world.
“We have a totally online program for academic courses for two refugee camps in Africa; a pilot program on that continent where we supply graduate degrees online in education, business and computing to a Catholic teachers college and to a small Catholic liberal arts college,” he said. “We’re trying to find ways we can up the level of education in the Catholic schools in Africa in a way that’s financially feasible.”
The university offers programs where undergraduate academic credits and degrees are available to seminarians through subsidized tuition; subsidized or free degrees are offered to Third World priests and religious sisters; and tuition discounts are made available to children of archdiocesan teachers and employees.
Regis provides funding for tutoring to students of Escuela de Guadalupe and to Arrupe Jesuit High School. Today, because of that outreach, 42 former Arrupe students attend Regis: five of them graduated from the university two weeks ago.
“I’m proud of what we’re doing for the Catholic Church in this diocese,” Father Sheeran said.
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