Chairman's Message

Jim Manhardt Capital Campaign Chairman Dear Friends, I have been a part of the Franciscan University community for about 20 years, first as a parent, then as a donor, and later as a member of the Board of Trustees. Now, I’m honored to be chairing this very important campaign. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of people thank me for my involvement with the University. But many don’t seem to understand that it is an honor to help this school and a privilege to be a part of something that is doing so much good in so many places for the Catholic Church, the country, and the culture. As a parent and a grandparent, I worry about where our culture is heading. Today you see so many young people who hardly have a chance— the values they pick up in the schools and from the media, not to mention the pressure from their peers, are just

When you walk into the chapel here, it’s packed with 18-, 19-, and 20- year-olds. They’re not there because anyone’s making them go, but because they want to go. They love Christ, and they love the Mass. Then you talk to them and see the smiles on their faces and the twinkle in their eyes. They’re good kids, pure of heart and wholesome, and they have so much life in them.

For a lot of these kids, it wasn’t always that way. They faced the same kinds of pressure growing up that their peers at other schools did. But here, they’ve encountered a different kind of peer pressure, a pressure that lifts them up and calls them on to lives of virtue and service.

Then, in the classrooms, they learn how to excel in their chosen professional field, and they learn how to work for God’s glory. They learn how to integrate faith and reason, and their minds are formed according to the great Catholic intellectual tradition that gave rise to Western Civilization.

And that’s what these kids are going to do. That’s what graduates of this university already are doing. They’re taking all they’ve learned here at Franciscan University and giving new life to a Church and a culture that have been attacked by the modern world. They are rebuilding Western Civilization.

The graduates of Franciscan University are the future of the Church. And you can’t say that about the graduates of most schools, not even most Catholic schools. So many universities have wavered and lost their identities. Not Franciscan. They know who they are, and they have never wavered in their support for the Church or their faith in the Lord. That’s what sets Franciscan apart from all these other schools, and that’s why their graduates are transforming the culture. When I look at where this world is going, I know I need to take a stand. Because of who they are and because of what they’re doing, I have chosen to stand side by side with Franciscan University. God has blessed me with resources of time and money, and I am giving them back to him by giving all that I can to this school.

I invite you to take a stand as well. Join me in supporting Franciscan University of Steubenville and become a part of this new, life-giving renaissance in Catholic higher education.

In Christ,
Jim Manhardt
Campaign Chair