October 22, 2021

Update from the President

Dear Wheeling University Community, 

Today, we began welcoming parents, alumni, and friends to campus for Homecoming and Family Weekend. One very special guest I am happy to see back on campus is Fr. Jim O’Brien, S.J. It has been a few years since he has been able to visit, and I know our alumni, faculty, and staff are happy to see him and have an opportunity to talk to him. What a gift it is to have Fr. O’Brien join us for the weekend. Tomorrow, we should prove to be a very exciting day filled with activities and sporting events.

The Sunday schedule has an addition – our Rugby team will play Alderson Broaddus at home at 3 p.m. Additionally, during tomorrow’s football game, the Rugby team will be selling 50/50 raffle tickets. Proceeds will go toward travel costs associated with competing in the National Collegiate Rugby Championships held in Houston, Texas, the weekend of December 10-12.

The Wheeling University Baseball team is hosting a Home Run Derby Friday, October 29th!  Anyone interested can sign up with any of our players and even swing on the field under the lights! In addition, you can sign up in person during Saturday’s Tailgate at the Cardinal Baseball tent.

Hats off to all that participated in our Fall Fix-Up Campus Beautification earlier this week. Your efforts keep our campus looking beautiful. A special thank you to Fr. Richard McCouch, S.J., for beginning our day with a prayer and to Fr. Hadi Sasmita, S.J., who led the group in reflection at the end of the day. I am always humbled by the generosity each of you give in your time and talents.

In November, junior and senior Business/Accounting students have been invited to attend the West Virginia Society of CPAs Northern Chapter annual President’s Dinner and Student Night. The local chapter uses this night to introduce local colleges to accounting firms from the Wheeling area. It is also an excellent opportunity for our students hone their social skills, to network with representatives from the accounting firms and a chance to secure an internship and jobs. A special thank you to Dr. Neeley Satzer, Chair of the Business Department, for arranging this outstanding opportunity. I am glad Wheeling University is being reconnected to our community that provides opportunities to our students.

We launched our annual fundraising efforts in September and are pleased to share we have seen a significant increase in donations and are grateful to all of you for the support of Wheeling and its students. While so many universities are struggling following the destruction of COVID, we are blessed to see our university continue to see success.  Next month we will participate in Giving Tuesday on November 30th. Thanks to a few generous alumni, we have already secured $30,000 in matching funds for that day.  Any contribution you make that day will have an opportunity to be matched. Soon you will begin to see some advertisements for Giving Tuesday, and we will launch a special giving web page closer to Giving Tuesday. The new giving site features messages from members of the Wheeling Family – students, faculty, Jesuits, and alumni. Additionally, the giving site is equipped to accept gifts through ApplePay, Venmo, and Paypal – to make donating that day even easier for our benefactors. We’ve put a significant amount of time and effort into modernizing the University over the past two years and increasing the ease of donating by using digital payment vehicles is another step in the right direction. More information about the Day of Giving will be provided throughout November. I encourage you to mark this day on your calendar and consider making a gift that day. Your generous contributions provide bright, promising, hard-working students the opportunity to fulfill their educational goals and make their own mark on the world. Your donations enable Wheeling University to continue providing a quality, Catholic education, ground in Ignatian traditions, to the young men and women entrusted in our care.

We are so excited to welcome our families and alumni to campus for the weekend. I hope everyone enjoys the events we have planned and spending time with one another – something we have not been able to do in more than a year.

I am looking forward to a great Cardinal weekend!

Ginny R. Favede, President
Wheeling University