00:08 - Hi i'm Carson Devitt with PCN and today's history and culture short we're in the

00:11 - Northwestern part of Pennsylvania

00:13 - at Mercyhurst university

00:14 - which overlooks lake erie

00:16 - and we have a ton of history to talk about so let's go explore it

00:51 - Mercyhurst was first founded it was only a

00:53 - girls college could you tell us how do we get from

00:56 - the girls only college to a coed university.

00:59 - So in the nineteen sixties under the

01:01 - leadership of president Caroline Herman

01:04 - a lot of things about the university change

01:06 - she was the first president of the university that was also not

01:10 - mother superior of the order

01:12 - she was a chemistry professor first

01:14 - and rose through the ranks

01:16 - she also instituted a board of trustees that were all

01:19 - non-religious to help expand the university.

01:22 - She also did a capital campaign

01:24 - that built the library

01:26 - and

01:27 - also zurn for a science center she wanted

01:30 - to build out science we started cancer research

01:33 - there is a belief by one of the sisters who worked

01:36 - here that vitamin d could be a cure for cancer

01:39 - and then in 1969 she saw that the only way that we could compete

01:44 - on a more national scale is that we

01:47 - introduced

01:48 - men to the college

01:49 - so in nineteen sixty nine the first group of male students

01:53 - started to come in and matriculate here

01:56 - From there we also

01:57 - started more sports teams.

02:34 - And then we start to expand our program offerings the first master's program we

02:39 - offered was in criminal justice then we continued to

02:42 - expand from there and in two thousand and twelve we became

02:45 - a university.

03:03 - we're inside of this beautiful chapel here at Mercyhurst

03:06 - university

03:07 - and faith plays a really big role here could you tell us a little bit about that.

03:11 - Yes so the sisters of mercy founded Mercyhurst university

03:16 - we are currently in Christ the king chapel as you see

03:18 - behind me there is a mural that was painted in the forties.

03:22 - The mural was done by the Rambusch company of new York

03:26 - The chapel itself is built nineteen thirty three

03:29 - it was a donation from

03:31 - James O'Neil the O'Neil sisters his sisters were here as sisters of mercy

03:37 - and they went to him

03:38 - in France in the 1930s

03:41 - asking for a donation for the chapel

03:44 - he pledged that he would give one hundred and

03:45 - fifty thousand dollars to build the chapel

03:54 - the chapel also has a secondary chapel called Queen's

03:56 - chapel

03:57 - that was built a few years later and that was on the benefit of

04:00 - the O'Neils

04:01 - who really wanted

04:03 - the chapel

04:33 - And then that's the library

04:36 - you can see the gates from here

05:10 - so we came up to the fourth floor of the library and

05:12 - this view here with lake erie in the background

05:15 - is one of the main reasons that this location was chosen for the university

05:19 - could you tell us who made that decision.

05:21 - Mother Borgia Egan the founder of the university made the decision

05:24 - in consultation with the

05:26 - the president of the time of Boston college

05:29 - who said the best thing to do for a university is find

05:33 - land that overlooks a lake.

06:13 - So we're in the cyber education center here

06:16 - and it looks very futuristic in here i mean you

06:18 - have the white walls the lighting the classrooms

06:21 - and i feel like we talked a lot about the history and the founding of Mercyhurst

06:25 - university but i want to give you an opportunity

06:27 - to talk about where are you guys headed

06:29 - and sort of what does the future look like for mercyhurst

06:32 - so we were founded on the core of liberal arts education

06:36 - that is still at the heart of what we do

06:39 - but we also know that

06:41 - students need to be prepared for the digital future

06:44 - and in order for them to be prepared for the digital future

06:47 - they need to have degrees in

06:49 - what's coming up

06:51 - so our motto here at the university is carpe diem

06:54 - Seize the day

06:56 - but in the.

06:57 - Mid

06:58 - two thousand and fifteen ish

06:59 - we started offering data science

07:02 - and

07:02 - recently AI

07:04 - and of course cyber security

07:06 - cyber security is one of our biggest and fastest growing programs

07:09 - and that's why we're in the cyber education center

07:35 - so Mercyhurst

07:36 - is celebrating in twenty twenty six their centennial

07:38 - of their founding what are you guys doing to celebrate.

07:41 - We are doing multiple things there's going to

07:43 - be a celebration starting in May going all the way.

07:46 - Into

07:47 - September twenty twenty seven.

07:50 - We're going to celebrate our opening with the big homecoming event

07:53 - we're going to have a timeline going down old main hallway

07:56 - that will showcase

07:57 - everything that we've done over the last hundred years

07:59 - along with the last hundred years of American history because it's also the two

08:03 - hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the united states.

08:05 - We're also going to have

08:07 - a ten part docu-series that we've done that will talk about the history

08:10 - of the university that'll be shown on YouTube.

08:18 - Thank you guys so much for watching i hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more

08:21 - about the history of Mercyhurst university on PCN.