By Lois Rogers | Correspondent

For the first time in its 107-year-long-history, the gold medallion signifying the office of president of Georgian Court University was bestowed on someone other than a sister of Mercy.

Dr. Joseph Marbach, former dean of the college of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University, was inaugurated the ninth president of the Lakewood institution on October 16, amid a day of festivities that included a Mass celebrated by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M.

“Be the kind of leader who is a servant of those we ask you, today, to lead at this Catholic university,” Bishop O’Connell told Marbach during the homily. “Never fear that identity; never apologize for or compromise it; never turn your back on what it demands of you and this university.”

Marbach, the first male and lay person to lead the school, brings to the job experience from many years in academia, including being a professor of political science, provost and vice president for academic affairs at La Salle University in Philadelphia. He will be charged with developing the strategic vision and growth of the university.

There is a “unique opportunity to define our niche in the marketplace,” said Marbach in his opening address, “and to tell our story by ensuring that our students answer their calling. We must continue to embrace our Catholic identity, inspired by Mercy tradition and the five Mercy core values.”

“As the only Catholic university serving Central and Southern New Jersey, we have a unique opportunity to define our niche in the marketplace and to tell our story by ensuring that our students answer their calling.”

‘A Lamp of Learning and Light of Faith’

The day began with Mass, celebrated in the health and wellness center arena, featuring broad participation from across the Georgian Court community.

In his homily, Bishop O’Connell noted his own twelve years of service as the president of The Catholic University of America, Washington. He encouraged Marbach to “lead this Catholic university, to seek, to know and to lift truth high so that Georgian Court University might be for all who teach here, for all who work here, for all who study here, ‘a lamp of learning and light of faith.’”

“These beginning days of your presidency are the time for you to develop your vision for the future of Georgian Court University,” the Bishop said. “A vision, however, cannot be formed or fashioned in isolation. A good leader looks first before he leaps; a good leader listens first before he speaks; a good leader learns first before he teaches.”

Following the Mass, the inauguration ceremony featured a mix of tradition and enthusiasm, as hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and supporters gathered to formally welcome the school’s ninth president since its founding in 1908.

In his greetings and invocation at the beginning of the inauguration, Bishop O’Connell quoted from Cardinal John Henry Newman’s famous treatise, “The Idea of a University.” A university, he said, provides “the education that gives a person a clear, conscious opinion of their opinions and judgments, truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them and a force in urging them.”

“President Marbach, may you lead such a place here at Georgian Court University, the only Catholic university or college in our Diocese,” the Bishop said. “As we anticipate the Holy Year of Mercy announced by Pope Francis, may this community of scholars be a witness to the mercy embodied in its long and noble tradition and may it always serve the truth that remains its fundamental purpose.

“In the words of the Psalmist, may Georgian Court University be a place where ‘mercy and truth meet,’ and may all of us who surround you today with joy-filled anticipation and with congratulations, support you in the task of making that meeting possible.”

“Value-added, value-based”

In his inaugural address, Marbach recognized the legacy of his predecessors. Several Sisters of Mercy who had served as president, including Sister Maria Cordis Richey, Sister Barbara A. Williams, and his immediate predecessor, Sister Rosemary E. Jeffries, were present for the ceremony.

“Our university is what it is today because of the leadership, vision and dedication of these three sisters in particular, and the whole community of Mercy Sisters who have served Georgian Court,” Marbach said.

“Today, we must renew our commitment to answer the call – the call to transform lives through higher education by encouraging our students to pursue their passion in an environment infused with the Mercy core values of respect, integrity, justice and service.”

Georgian Court has not been immune to the challenges of economic difficulties and declining enrollment which have beset so many colleges throughout the United States. Despite these changes, Marbach said, “there is reason for optimism, and I find that reason primarily in Georgian Court’s Catholic identity.”

To help address those challenges, Marbach announced the establishment of scholarships for students graduating from Catholic high schools and scholarships for any student active in his or her parish. He humorously “confessed” that he’d “stolen this idea from Bishop O’Connell, who established similar scholarships when he was president of The Catholic University of America.”

He stressed that Georgian Court would strive to prepare students with programs for success in the “next phase of their lives.” These “value-added, value-based” programs, he said, will ensure students have the “tools they need to pursue their callings in many ways by: being a welcoming community; reaching out to traditional and nontraditional students; partnering with two-year institutions and expanding relationships with local high schools – especially Catholic high schools.”

Miriam Hunte, president of the student government association executive board, led the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance. In remarks that followed, she called the day a “sign of the strength of our university that we continue to evolve while never losing sight of our core mission to transform lives.”

This quality, she said, “will enable us to exist for another 100 years and beyond.”