BY QUIN WELCH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Bellarmine University officials announced the addition of two former St. Catharine College programs after the Catholic university located in Springfield, Kentucky, closed its doors at the end of July.
Interim President Dr. Doris Tegart announced in separate emails this summer that Bellarmine would absorb St. Catharine’s radiation therapy program and its wrestling program. Although Bellarmine capitalized on St. Catharine’s closing, Tegart said the Bellarmine administration tried everything it could to keep the school alive.
“They were what I consider our sister school,” Tegart said. “We tried to work several partnerships out with them, but we just weren’t able to. Timing was a big factor. Could we keep them alive and run them as a branch campus? Could we facilitate a lot of their programs up here? But it really just got down to timing, and we had to act so quickly.”
When Tegart and the Bellarmine board of trustees decided that they couldn’t ultimately save the school, they decided to make a move to absorb the programs. Bellarmine officials announced the addition of the wrestling program on June 14, bringing the sport to campus for the first time in the history of the school. Tegart said the administration decided to bring in the wrestling program for a variety of reasons.
“This makes us the only D-II (school) in Kentucky with wrestling. We’re always looking to have more males on campus, because we only have about 37 percent males in our freshman class, for example.”
Bellarmine Sports Information Director John Spugnardi said 11 wrestlers transferred from St. Catharine’s. Three students already enrolled at Bellarmine joined the team, in addition to four freshmen.
“They had about 40 at St. Catharine so we expect them to grow,” Tegart said. “I think when students from area high schools find out that we have a D-II wrestling program, a lot of them will choose to come here because of wrestling.”
Bellarmine was able to hire St. Catharine’s head wrestling coach Spencer Adams and assistant coach Gary Canter. Dr. Cindy Gnadinger, the former president of St. Catharine who is now working as a consultant to Bellarmine, said the program will have an impact going beyond the wrestling mat.
“I think it will be a wonderful addition to our campus,” Gnadinger said. “They would do service work for the campus and service work out in the community. They would plant flowers on our campus. The fall mums were all planted by our wrestling team. I hope that will continue here.”
Bellarmine officials announced the addition of the radiation therapy program on June 20. The program is the only one of its kind in Kentucky, and Gnadinger said she is excited Bellarmine will offer the program to interested students.
“It’s a wonderful program that treats cancer patients,” Gnadinger said. “We had a grant that helped us get the state-of-the-art facilities.”
One of the most impressive parts of the program is the Virtual Environment Radiotherapy Training (VERT) 3-D simulator. The machine allows junior radiation therapy students to “replicate real life clinical scenarios in a completely safe and relaxed environment,” according to an email Tegart sent to the Bellarmine community. Tegart said the university was able to get the machine, one of only 10 in the country, at a very cheap price due to St. Catharine’s closure.
“I don’t know the number that it cost, but it was at a fraction of the going cost,” Tegart said. “We got it at a cut, cut, cut rate.”
Two former St. Catharine faculty members, Carol Scherbak and Tom Rally, were hired to Bellarmine’s Lansing School of Nursing and Health Sciences to run the radiation therapy program. Dr. Myra Stockdale, also formerly of St. Catharine’s, was hired to teach physical therapy classes and to lead an athletic training program Bellarmine hopes to launch in coming years, Gnadinger said. Scherbak said she’s felt welcomed in her short time at Bellarmine. She even shared a story about a positive first encounter with facilities employees.
“My first experience with anybody on campus was when I put everything in my office and several boxes of books in my truck. I pulled up in front of the building, and a couple of minutes a later the gentlemen from facilities showed up with their dollies and they were like, ‘Good morning! We’ll get this taken care of real quick!’”
Although only two former St. Catharine’s programs have been absorbed by Bellarmine thus far, more may be in the works. Tegart spoke of her desire to add St. Catharine’s famous Berry Farming and Ecological Agrarianism program, which was founded by farmer and Kentucky activist Wendell Berry.
“I would love to have the Berry farm here on campus. Understandably, they want that in a rural setting in Kentucky,” Tegart said. “I would love to get into that program. So, we’ll see.”
Even if Bellarmine is unable to land the Berry program, Tegart said she feels happy with what she considers a sad situation for those at St. Catharine.
“We wish we could have done more with that situation, but we feel pretty proud of at least taking two official programs, one a sports program and the other an academic program.”