University president-elect Julie Sullivan will be the first layperson in St. Thomas’ history to head the university, but despite the shift in leadership, her promotion will leave the leadership structure of St. John Vianney Seminary and the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity mostly unchanged.

The Rev. Michael Becker, SJV rector, said the seminarians are undergraduate students at St. Thomas, and the building serves as a dorm on campus. He said the seminary has a partnership of sorts with the university, rather than being owned by St. Thomas.

“The dorm itself is actually owned by the archdiocese, whereas the ground that it’s on top of is owned by (St. Thomas). So there’s a kind of wedding there,” Becker said.

SJV employees do not work for current president the Rev. Dennis Dease, and will not work for president-elect Sullivan, although cooperation and partnership is important between the two organizations, Becker said.

“We’re the employees of St. John Vianney Seminary, not of St. Thomas,” Becker said. “So Father Dease would not be my boss, or of the other staff here, but at the same time, he is an authority that governs this campus on which we reside, and so there is a necessary cooperating relationship where we would want to honor his and other staff members’ requests, and hope in turn that they would also support us in our endeavors.”

Sophomore SJV seminarian John DeLozier said one thing he would like to see change in SJV is the amount of communication between the 126 SJV seminarians and the new president.

“I don’t know exactly what all goes on, but I just think hearing from the president more often (would be preferred),” DeLozier said. “We (seminarians) are a fairly significant population of the student body.”

Becker said maintaining St. Thomas’ Catholic identity with new leadership may be a challenge.

“That immediate and intimate connection with the archbishop has always been the case,” Becker said. “But with the (sitting) archbishop no longer the ex officio chair of the board, and a lay woman now becoming president, those ties are not as immediate or implicit, it requires more communication and work.”

However, Catholic identity is not completely dependent on the president of the university, Becker said.

“It’s how does this community pray, how does this community teach and hand on the tradition, the doctrines of our faith, how do we share that with others evangelistically?” Becker said. “Catholic identity is more than just the president, but the president has a huge impact on it.”

DeLozier said while he was surprised at the announcement of a layperson as president, he thinks Sullivan will benefit the university.

“I think that both Father Dease and Dr. Sullivan are called to do great things for this university,” DeLozier said. “Once I started learning more about (Sullivan), I basically realized that she can do a lot of great things for this university as well.”

Becker said he does not expect to frequently interact with Sullivan, as that hasn’t been the case with Dease. However he said he would be interested in inviting her to the seminary to “experience life in the seminary, join us for Mass, a community meal,” and to meet the men of SJV.

St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity

Located on St. Thomas’ South Campus, the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity have maintained an affiliation agreement with St. Thomas since 1987. Like SJV, the leadership of the school will remain unchanged as Sullivan takes office.

“(The affiliation is) kind of a unique legal construct, if you will, because it allows the school to be just that. It’s not a department at the university. We are an actual school,” Rector Monsignor Aloysius Callaghan said.

St. Thomas and the SPSSOD have three mutual representatives on each other’s board of trustees. Callaghan serves as an executive vice president of the university and sits on the staff of the president. He also serves as staff to the academic affairs committee of the university’s board.

“My particular responsibility is the oversight of this school, so I do my best to attend all presidential staff meetings, and be as much a part of the life of the university in that sense as I can,” Callaghan said.

SPSSOD also has a relationship to the St. Thomas Board of Trustees. Degrees given out at the Seminary and School of Divinity are offered in the name of St. Thomas, which St. Thomas’ board oversees.

According to the affiliation agreement, “While the University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees has a responsibility to ensure the academic integrity of the degrees offered in its name, it looks to the Rector/Vice President and the The Saint Paul Seminary Board of Trustees to exercise stewardship, leadership, and oversight of the entire SPSSOD.”

Callaghan said the presidential switch will not create much change for SPSSOD because of the separate governing bodies.

“We have a board here, separate and distinct from the board of the university. The archbishop is the head of that board, and I report directly to him,” Callaghan said.

When Sullivan steps in to the presidential role, Callaghan said he is looking forward to showing her the “vibrancy” of the school.

“A woman president coming in with a background like Julie Sullivan, I would see as just another strong point in the way we can collaborate in the work of the (Catholic) Church,” Callaghan said.

Electing a lay woman as president was a first for the university, and Callaghan said women are an “integral” and “essential” part of the affiliation between St. Thomas and the St. Paul Seminary and School of Divinity.

“With the way (Sullivan) has spoken here, we have heard about her desire to make it a strong Catholic institution … it corresponds to what (Pope John Paul II) said, ‘Holy women are an incarnation of the feminine ideal,’” Callaghan said. “I think what will be good about that, as a good, strong leader, she will show what the feminine ideal is.”

Gabrielle Martinson can be reached at mart5649@stthomas.edu.