00:10 - Hi i'm Carson data and today where you're at

00:12 - king's college in wilkes barre Pennsylvania

00:15 - king's college is a private catholic college

00:17 - and today pcn will be talking with the president

00:19 - to tell us a little bit more about it's history.

00:27 - And.

00:42 - Today we are joined by father Thomas looney he's the president here at king's college

00:46 - could you tell us how does king's college start

00:48 - what Kansas founded in nineteen forty six really by an invitation the bishop of the

00:52 - diocese of Scranton bishop have you

00:54 - contacted the congregation of holy cross who runs

00:57 - the university of notre dame in south bend Indiana

01:00 - and asked if there are priests in brothers who could become to found a college here

01:03 - in luzerne county

01:05 - it was already a college for catholic women misery accordion college

01:08 - the bishop wanted an institution to serve next

01:11 - to the congregation of holy cross accepted the invitation

01:15 - so the first priests and brothers at kings came from the university of notre dame

01:18 - the found kings to serve in those days the sons of poll my.

01:22 - College always wanted to support young men

01:25 - and now young women as well

01:27 - with

01:28 - affordable and accessible

01:29 - higher education in the catholic tradition

01:32 - until we were founded with that great desire our first building was several blocks

01:36 - from here down on northampton street it was

01:38 - an army surplus building which has been torn down

01:41 - but our first building on this campus was the administration building

01:45 - and i think the wonderful thing about that building is

01:47 - on the top of that building is the icon of king's college

01:51 - it's a statue of Christ the king

01:53 - one of the king's college presidents father Leo

01:55 - flood who served at the university of notre dame

01:58 - was a man who believed a lot in the power of images and every one knows that on the

02:02 - top of the golden dome at the university of notre dame

02:05 - is a statue of the blessed virgin Mary

02:07 - our lady

02:07 - our lady's university

02:09 - and so far the flood said

02:10 - well

02:11 - it's

02:11 - college of price the king so we should have a

02:13 - statue of Christ the king on the top of our building

02:16 - now ours isn't laden in gold as the statue of Mary is at notre dame

02:20 - but

02:21 - a local artist from Kingston.

02:23 - Crafted the statue

02:24 - and it was raised up on top of the building

02:27 - and it's really our iconic image right

02:29 - we are here the college of Christ the king to provide a great

02:32 - catholic liberal arts education with pre professional programs

02:36 - for young men and women.

02:38 - As part of our catholic heritage we've always provided

02:40 - places for prayer and men annotation on our campus

02:44 - the newest place is

02:45 - a building in fact built in eighteen seventy two

02:47 - by the presbyterian community here and looks very.

02:51 - A couple the bottoms had

02:52 - three children

02:54 - and those three children

02:55 - very tragically died in an epidemic

02:57 - back of the eighteen seventies and their

02:59 - parents wanted to build a church in the number

03:02 - so they built the memorial presbyterian church

03:05 - and when that congregation dwindled

03:07 - several years ago the college purchased that building

03:10 - the beautiful piece of architecture it's all stone structure

03:13 - and in that structure

03:15 - at the heart of it's sanctuary is the coal alter

03:18 - that i spoke about

03:20 - and that altar is the sign and symbol full of

03:23 - sacrifice

03:24 - of

03:24 - the love and the

03:26 - zeal and the determination that it takes

03:29 - to give oneself over to something really important in one's life

03:32 - like being a student studying preparing oneself for the future

03:35 - requires sacrifice giving of oneself

03:38 - and so

03:38 - we celebrate that beautiful church built in the eighteen seventies

03:42 - now overlooking our campus from north means

03:45 - north street

03:46 - as really significant for us

03:48 - that Cole alter is a precious symbol of who we are at king's college

03:52 - we've have expanded our campus right

03:54 - there was a time when we realized we needed to build residents halls

03:58 - our first residence hall was a former apartment building

04:01 - the Haiti Marion building here on kia it's now

04:03 - and in the early days

04:05 - that served as a dormitory and also as

04:08 - a office space for faculty

04:10 - and so we needed of course then as the college expanded we needed a science building

04:14 - we needed

04:15 - a place where students to come and learn the sciences as well as the liberal arts

04:19 - and so we built what is now the mulligan.

04:22 - Science center after

04:23 - and then later on we added on the parental science

04:26 - complex right because so many students were coming to us

04:28 - wanting to study and do premed but also

04:31 - a physician's assistant program which is one of the stellar programs we have here at

04:35 - king's college and so as the buildings expanded as our

04:38 - capacity to educate not just students from the local area

04:42 - but also from further the geographic reaches new York new Jersey Connecticut

04:46 - we built residence halls the first one holy cross hall

04:49 - is a building that has housed our male students for

04:52 - over fifty years

04:54 - for many years on top of that building the priests and brothers lived

04:57 - and the students weren't permitted to go there

04:59 - and the students had a way of speaking about it they called it heaven

05:02 - right

05:03 - because it was probably the tallest building

05:05 - but also was inaccessible to them were allowed up there

05:07 - so i'd have a little bit of mystique

05:09 - so the priests and brothers lived with the students in

05:11 - the residence halls that close personal relationship

05:14 - that's always been at the heart of kings

05:17 - and so holy cross hall was the place for our

05:20 - men to live

05:21 - and then a few years later in the nineteenth seven eighties

05:24 - we wanted to welcome women to the campus and

05:26 - so we needed to build a residence hall for them

05:28 - and so we built sf hall which is on main street here in roxbury

05:32 - for our for the women on our campus

05:35 - and of course as the college has developed we need further residents halls

05:38 - so we bought a former Margarita apartment building we bought.

05:42 - A former kind of printing

05:44 - edifice

05:45 - club.

05:46 - Building

05:47 - and we transform that into residents apartment style residence so students can come

05:52 - and live comfortably

05:53 - share a great life

05:55 - because at the heart of the college experience is also

05:57 - that living together with other human beings

06:00 - learning to share some space learning to figure out

06:03 - how do i negotiate

06:03 - life right and it's really important part of what we do.

06:18 - Now back in

06:19 - seventy two there was a flood that came to wilkes barre

06:21 - how significant was that flight for king's college

06:24 - it was extremely significant in fact i'm standing here by the water Mark where the

06:28 - floodwaters came up to in nineteen seventy two with the Agnes flood

06:32 - and that was between two of our almost brand new buildings at the time

06:35 - our campus center and our library and so the first

06:38 - floors of the library and of our student centre

06:41 - were totally demolished by the waters of the flood

06:44 - and it took a lot of work volunteers students faculty and so staff

06:48 - cleaning out those first floors of these buildings so that we could open in September

06:52 - of that year nineteen seventy two

06:54 - and so over the course of time these buildings have become really significant for us

06:59 - in fact when father Thomas O'Hara was president of kings

07:02 - our student center was expanded to include a third floor

07:06 - and

07:07 - while that process was happening

07:09 - the terrible realities of nine eleven happened

07:11 - and the destruction of the world trade center of new York city.

07:15 - Three of our alumni who worked in that world trade center

07:18 - died on that day

07:20 - and so when father O'Hara had this building reconstructed

07:23 - what he did was he named three of the rooms on the third floor of this building

07:28 - in honor of those alumni.

07:30 - Ryan Walsh

07:31 - Leonard Schneider and mister

07:33 - mister Fitzgerald

07:34 - an amazing testament to how kings cares for it's alumni

07:38 - even in the midst of tragedy

07:40 - and

07:41 - then our corgan library

07:42 - this past year

07:43 - that building which had not been touched since it was

07:46 - cleaned out in nineteen seventy two from the flood

07:49 - it was transformed into a new grand new student

07:51 - success center at the heart of our campus

07:54 - when kings welcomes a student one of the things we say

07:57 - is that we will walk with you we will accompany you so that you can be successful

08:02 - and this brand new student success center houses

08:04 - offices that will wrap services of care around

08:07 - our students a tutoring center for example

08:10 - an advisement center

08:12 - or writing center

08:13 - really at the heart of our campus to help each student to be successful

08:17 - the modern library is a new phenomenon

08:20 - and we're so proud of where we are right now it came with this phenomenal building

08:24 - and

08:40 - so we're outside the physical education center here on king's college campus

08:44 - could you tell us what's the history behind this building

08:47 - sure i think the history really starts with a philosophy so

08:50 - the congregation of holy cross who runs kings we believe in the transformation of a

08:53 - whole person through education and so we're really

08:56 - also focused not just on the mind and the heart

08:59 - but also on the physical well being of our students

09:01 - and so back in the nineteen sixties this

09:03 - scanlon physical educate one center was built

09:06 - provide our students an opportunity to play ncaas sports

09:10 - and to have recreational opportunities right

09:11 - here in the heart of the city on our campus

09:14 - in fact soon after the building was dedicated the first athletic competition here

09:18 - was which was a basketball game between the university of notre dame and king's college

09:22 - needless to say we didn't farewell but we put up a really great fight

09:26 - and that grit has been at the heart of

09:27 - athletics here at kings from the very beginning.

09:30 - About fifteen years ago we expanded this gym to an

09:33 - auxiliary gym the bride even more space for our students

09:36 - and we have about a mile from here the bachelor sports complex

09:40 - their

09:40 - football basketball field hockey

09:43 - soccer

09:44 - track and field real

09:46 - softball baseball are all played by our students in nc w a division three competition

09:51 - it's a great sports complex again providing our

09:54 - students an opportunity

09:56 - to develop leadership skills as part of athletic teams

09:59 - and also to have that reality of the health that comes from

10:02 - participating in sports in seeking to be

10:04 - in shape doing

10:06 - collaborating with others i hope you enjoy learning

10:08 - a little bit more about the history of king's college

10:11 - thank you so much for joining pcn today.