The Daily Signal - How Franciscan University of Steubenville Is Helping Students in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic

Episode Date: May 19, 2020

Franciscan University of Steubenville recently announced a new way it will help students: covering tuition costs for the fall 2020 semester for all incoming full-time undergraduate students enrolled in its on-campus programs. Father Dave Pivonka, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville, joins the podcast to talk about how and why Franciscan University chose to do this during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus he discusses what he thinks of Generation Z, and how to keep hope in these times. We also cover these stories: Attorney General William Bar said he does not anticipate a criminal investigation into President Barack Obama or Vice President Joe Biden in regards to a Justice Department probe, but says the investigation is looking at others.  Barr also said there are “significant ties” between al-Qaeda and the shooter, Mohammed Alshamrani, who last December killed three U.S. sailors and injured eight others at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio has concerns about whether the Judicial Conference’s Committee should determine if federal judges can be part of the conservative Federalist Society or liberal American Constitution Society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, May 19th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Richard Del Judas. Franciscan University recently came out with a very creative way to help students attend the university in the fall in the wake of the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus. It announced it would be covering tuition costs for the fall 2020 semester for all incoming full-time undergraduate students enrolled in its on-campus programs. Father Dave Pavanka, President of Franciscan University of Steubenville, joins me on the podcast to talk about how and why Franciscan University chose to do this. Don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now, onto our top news.

Attorney General William Barr said he does not anticipate a criminal investigation into President Obama or Vice President Biden themselves in regards to a Justice Department probe, but says the investigation is looking at others. The Daily Signals, Fred Lucas, reported on U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut, continues to look into the origins of the Russian investigation. And the Justice Department has said that the Michael Flynn unmasking request is one part of that probe. Trump told a Washington Post reporter during a recent news conference that, Quote, the crime is very obvious to everyone, referring to the Obama administration's involvement with the FBI's investigation of collusion during the 2016 election.

Here's what Barr had to say at the Department of Justice on Monday via the Hill. I have a general idea of how Mr. Durham's investigation is going. And as I have indicated, some aspects of the matter are being examined as potential crimes. But we have to bear in mind with the Supreme Court recently reminded us of in the Bridgegate case. As the court said there, there's a difference between an abuse of power and a federal crime. Not every abuse of power, no matter how outrageous, is necessarily a federal crime. Now, as to President Obama and Vice President Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don't expect Mr. Durham's work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man.

Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others. Barr also said that there are significant ties between al-Qaeda and the shooter Muhammad al-Sharmari, who last December killed three U.S. sailors and injured eight others at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. On Monday, Barr said, Thanks to the relentless efforts and ingenuity of FBI technicians, the FBI finally succeeded in unlocking Al-Shamari's phones. The phones contained information previously unknown to us that definitively establishes Al-Shamari's significant ties to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, not only before the attack, but before he even arrived in the United States. President Trump's firing of a State Department Inspector General late last week elicited a harsh state-state from a top House Democrat Monday. I have heard that there may be another reason for Mr. Lennox firing.

His office was investigating, at my request, Trump's phony declaration of an emergency so he can send weapons to Saudi Arabia. Representative Elliott Elyott Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote per the hill. Engel also wrote, We don't have the full picture yet, but it's troubling that Secretary Pompeo wanted Mr. Linick pushed out before this work could be completed. President Trump announced on Friday that he intended to fire Lennox, who had held the position of the State Department Inspector General since 2013. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi informing her of his decision, Trump explained that he had lost confidence in Lennox. Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio has concerns about whether the Judicial Conferences Committee should determine if federal judges can be part of the conservative federalist society or liberal American Constitution Society.

He is spearheading an investigation into a draft of the committee's code of conduct that would keep federal judges from being part of right- or left-leaning judicial organizations. In a letter from Jordan to the Office of the General Counsel for the Administrative Offices of of U.S. courts obtained by Fox News, Jordan wrote, The draft advisory opinion discriminates against the viewpoints of members of the judiciary who chose to associate with Federalist Society. Jordan, per Fox News, is calling on the office of the General Counsel to provide information regarding whether the committee unanimously supported the draft advisory opinion, why they felt the need to issue the new draft advisory opinion,

all drafts prepared, considered, or exchanged by the committee, as well as all minutes, notes, or other memorialization of all meetings having to do with it, and any information as to whether members of the committee are members of the Federal Society, ACS, or the American Bar Association. A vaccine manufactured by Moderna, an American biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the first vaccine to be tested on people in the fight against COVID-19. And it's showing positive results. Eight healthy individuals, ages 18 to 55, participated in the study and received two doses of the vaccine beginning in March.

All participants successfully created antibodies that were then tested in a lab with cells infected with the virus and the antibodies were able to stop the coronavirus from replicating her, the New York Times. Stephen Bancel, chief executive officer at Moderna, said in a Moderna press relief on Monday, that with today's positive interim phase one data and the positive data in the mouse challenge model, the Moderna team continues to focus on moving as fast as safely possible to start our pivotal phase three study in July, and if successful, file a BLA or a biological license application. The state of California is offering money to illegal immigrants in its coronavirus relief response. Every Californian, including our undocumented neighbors and friends, should know that California is here to support them during this crisis. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in an April statement.

We are all in this together. CNN reported that the 125 million coronavirus disaster relief fund is for illegal immigrants who are ineligible for federal stimulus checks and unemployment benefits due to their immigration status. Monday was the first day illegal immigrants can start applying to the fund. The Central California City of Atwater has declared itself a sanctuary city, saying businesses, nonprofits, and churches are free to reopen. Despite California's stay-at-home order, the Atwater City Council voted on Friday to reopen their city of about 30,000 people. Paul Creighton, the mayor of Atwater, said via ABC 30, that this is America.

You have the choice. It's time for the government to stop dictating another month, another three months, six months. When is it going to end? When everyone is bankrupt? Now stay tuned for my conversation with Father Dave Pabanka of Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he talks about how the university is helping students in the wake of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Conservative women.

Conservative feminists. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen, and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories and interviews that are a particular interest to conservative leaning or problematic women. That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and politics. Search for problematic women wherever you get your podcasts.

I am joined today by Father Dave Pavanka. He's the president of Franciscan University, which for folks who don't know or might not know is my alma mater. Father Dave, it's great to have you on the Daily Signal. It's my pleasure. It's good to talk with you, Rachel. Well, thank you so much for being here with us. So you recently came out with a very creative way to help students attend Franciscan University in the wake of the economic fallout caused by coronavirus. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Well, it'd be my pleasure, too. The reality is in it's actually all across the country is schools, colleges, universities were just kind of up in the air with what to do and how we can help students who are trying to transition, particularly freshman students, who are going to a new place, new environment, some new town, new cities, new states. And the word we were getting was a lot of people were anxious about moving. And that's obviously we have a university that is in small town in Ohio. And it's imperative that the young people are able to go to college and to go to university without fear, without trepidation, without anxiety. But the other part of it that was really difficult is just the financial implications that this coronavirus has had on so many families and not just families, but the students themselves. So we were continuing, it's a small, small Catholic college. in Studentville, Ohio.

And when I would make with my faculty and staff, I said, okay, we need to plan well, but there's no plan for a pandemic, a global pandemic in the entire world shutting down. I mean, there's no three ring binder. There's no app. There's nothing that says this is what you're supposed to do. So I just invited our faculty and staff to do as we should do.

And that is let's pray and just try to figure out what's the best way of doing this. And then I said several times, whatever we need to do, we have to make a step in faith, that we don't know what the future holds. nobody knows what the future holds. So it's going to have to be a step in faith.

Well, somebody from our business advisory board got back to me and they said, Father Dave, I think this would be a step in faith. What if we invited all of our new students to come to school here next year, next fall for free? I laughed. I said, that's ridiculous. That's not a step in faith that I was thinking about. But, you know, Rachel, Lomor, I thought about it.

I thought, you know, this may be exactly the right thing to do. So many families are anxious about what the future. is going to hold if we could take away that small anxiety about what having to handle tuition next fall, then we can do that. So what we decided is all freshmen and all transfer students, new transfer students, after grants and scholarships, we're not going to have to pay any tuition and the university will cover it. And their response has been fantastic. You know, just the number of people who have been really touched by, honestly, it's a step in faith for us as a university as well. We don't have these multi-billion dollar endowments like some universities do.

So it's a step in faith using part of that. But it's really what we think we're supposed to do. Well, thanks for sharing that. You mentioned how the idea was new to you, you hadn't been something you thought of. How did the larger leadership of Franciscan University's staff and others, how did they respond to that idea? You know, and that's the thing that's just such a great question.

And that's really what I was touched by. when I first approached, actually the director of our finance, I said, you know, this is what I'm thinking. And he said, two things. He goes, that might be what God wants us to do. And it also might be brilliant. You know, so we took a look of it of a step of faith, but also from a business perspective. And it turns out that it's, it's going to, God willing, it's going to work out great. Our board of trustees, 100% unanimous, said, you know, this is a great thing for us to be able to do for this new coming, for this incoming.

students. So obviously it couldn't have happened if our board of trustees wasn't willing to allow us to use some of the monies from our investments, but every one of them said this is a great thing to do. And it's interesting, Rachel, even you is an alumni. One of my concerns would be, well, what is the, you know, the returning students, although we're going to have a financial aid available, more financial aid available, and a grant that every student is going to get, but it's not going to be the same. And I was wondering, like, what are they going to think? And their response has been overwhelming. I mean, you're an example of the type of students that we had at university. They were excited. They were rejoicing. It's, you know, it's been really the response has been fantastic.

Well, you mentioned that there will be some aid for students who are returning. Can you go into that a little bit and explain how to work? Sure. That's a great question as well. So all of the students are going to get a certain number of a grant that every student will calling it the step in faith grant. So every student will get that. But the other that we're going to do is we are trying, you know, It's interesting. When people see something that inspires them or that they like, they say, okay, I want to support that. So we've had people writing us and giving us money. A really cool thing was two of our alumni's young couple, been married about five or six years, sent me a note. And they said, Father Dave, we're just so inspired by this. They gave a check for $2,400. And what that was, and you can do the math, was their stimulus fund. And they said, we want the university to have this to be able to help students come. So people are inspired by that.

So what we'll do is we'll create a fund that allows us to provide more financial aid for all of our returning students, particularly the families that have been impacted by COVID. You mentioned Father Dave that you've received a really positive response from the alumni like myself. What kind of response have you received from potential students who have been looking into Franciscan and have been given this news? Yeah. You know, I wish I could send you. I don't know if I could send you a link, Rachel or not. But we just received in, I received in my Instagram account yesterday, maybe 40 of the new students got together and they created this little montage video of talking about what this is meant to them. It just brings tears to your eyes. It's just the response has been beautiful. And we've had a lot of students who are applying who might not have been able to afford to come that have applied. So the response has been fantastic from just a personal point of view. but also for students being able to come to the university. So for those who might not be familiar, can you tell me a little bit about what makes

Franciscan University's education so unique? Yeah, I'll let you talk about it. Well, actually, we're both alumni. I'm an alumni of the university as well. What has been created here at Francis University is really like no other place in the country. It's a small Catholic college, about 2,500 students where we really put faith, we put the Lord, our relationship with Christ in the center, as well as an outstanding academic education, that we don't think the mind and the heart are opposed to one another.

They're actually, they work well together. So when we nourish the heart and nourish our spiritual life and our academic, our intellectual life, the human person really blossoms and grows. So we're a small school. We're faithful to the teachings of the church. We're a pro-life. If you've ever gone to the March for Life, you've seen, you know, thousand of our kids, are there, and we're really pro being faithful to the church and faithful to gospel. So it's just a

wonderful, wonderful place. As a university president, what are your thoughts on Gen Z who are beginning to go to college as opposed to millennials? And how do you compare these two generations that you've, you know, the millennials are, some of them are just, you know, graduating or have been out of school for a few years. And now as Gen Z is beginning to step onto campuses and become involved? Yeah, I think one of the biggest changes that we're seeing is honestly in anxiety. I think I think we're seeing it in our country is that they are they are so polarized and this is being experienced in them that they feel like they're being torn apart and not quite sure where they're going to land or what they should think and nothing is objectively true. Nothing is solid. Nothing is firm. And we have a young

particularly because of this most recent event where there's just a great deal of anxiety. And I think that every human person, honestly, particularly the young person, they're looking for something that makes sense, something that's firm, something that's solid, something that they can depend on. And I think that's one of the unique things that we offer at Francisco University is helping them discover that. So virtually all students this year who graduated either high school or college or even graduate work weren't able to have a commencement ceremony due to coronavirus. So do you have any encouraging words for them? Well, first off, let me say that we are going to have a graduation here at Francis University. I think, you know, you've got to celebrate. The human heart, the human spirit wants to celebrate.

So we're actually going to hold our graduation in August, the second weekend of August, because it's important for us to come together as a community again. Well, first of up, let me just also say that we can't minimize it. Somebody said to me, I was talking about the difficulties that high school seniors had, and they said, yeah, I mean, they're young, they're going to be fine. Okay, well, enough. But we can't dismiss that. That's significant.

I remember, you remember when you were a high school, graduated from, if that all would have been taken away, my last, I mean, my last year playing sports, that was significant. So what I would tell them is, you know, I'm obviously coming from a faith perspective, that anxiety, that sadness, that fear, that God really wants to meet us in the middle of that. And he's going to be able to bring us his peace, his presence. One of the things that I've encouraged people is to hope. The scripture tells us that hope doesn't disappoint.

When our things are just in our plans don't come out the way we think they should, we need to trust and hope that God has a better plan and that he's going to take care of us. And just realize that hope is believing not just what we're going through at this moment, but believing that the sun's going to rise tomorrow, that tomorrow's going to be a better day, that things are going to work. And that's what I encourage people to do is remember that. Well, thank you for that perspective. In your remarks about the initiative, you had mentioned how Franciscan's patron, St. Francis of Assisi, had a deep concern for those who are in need.

And can you talk about how this charism has influenced this initiative? That's just such a great question. You know, St. Francis of Assisi was born in 1184, and he wanted to be wealthy and powerful and influential. and through a series of experiences that he had, he came to understand that that was not the most important thing, that wealth and power and influence and prestige ultimately were fleeting. But it was in him reflecting on how Jesus was poor, he decided that, and came to understand that that's what God was calling him too.

And then what he realized, and this is just, I think, so important for the day right now, is that there was a whole population of people that he just didn't like to spend time with, and it was the poor and the outcast and the lepers at the time that he just didn't want to have anything to do with them. One day he was in the little valley outside of a CZ. He ran into a poor person who had leprosy and he embraced that person. And he realized that when he embraced the person, first off, that God was present in that person, but that person had value and dignity and beauty and worth. And had he not embraced that poor, that poor person who wouldn't have seen that,

that's what we're trying to do as friars is recognize that God is present in everybody. And we live in a world that's become so, so polarized and we want to demonize everybody else. And what I think our faith, what St. Francis reminds us is that the other person is still a son or daughter of God and they deserve respect and dignity and those who are less fortunate. If we can reach out and if we can help them, it's our responsibility to be able to do that. Well, for new students who are looking to come to Franciscan in the fall and they want to take advantage of this program, how can they do that? If you just go to our website, Franciscan.edu, there's the step in faith program. It's at the very top of it that they can just click on it and get all the information. Well, as we wrap up, Father Dave, on somewhat sort of an unrelated note, as a religious leader, someone who is mentoring people in the faith all the time, do you have any advice for people during this time of pandemic?

Well, one of the things that I've been thinking about, and it's sometimes we equate our faith with we have to go do things. We have to do this. We have to go there. We have to go to church. We have to go to Bible study. And one of the things that's unique about our Christian faith is that we believe that God came to us, that he comes to us in the infant, that the beauty reminds us of the beauty and the dignity of human life. It comes to us as a baby. It comes to us as our savior.

And I think that's one of the things the pandemic has invited us to is to allow God to come to us, to allow him to visit us. I love the story of the Good Shepherd where Jesus goes looking for the lost sheep. This has been an opportunity because we couldn't go. We couldn't go to church. We couldn't go out. We couldn't even go to work. Let God come to us and let people, you know, encounter us where we are. So that's been one of the things that I've encouraged people too.

Well, Father Dave, thank you so much for sharing this really important perspective. as well as for sharing about this new initiative at Franciscan. It's been such a pleasure to have you on the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you for joining us. It's my pleasure, Rachel. We hope you can come back and visit us sometime, okay? I'm looking forward to it. Thank you.

Bless everybody. And that will do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. We do appreciate your patience as we record remotely during these weeks. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcast, Google Play, or Spotify. And please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts and give us your feedback. Stay healthy and we will be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

It is executive produced by Kate Shrinco and Rachel Del Judas. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Fulia Rampersad, Mark Geinie, and John Pop. For more information, visitdailySignal.com.