Things St. Mike’s Celebrated in December and January

Now that we are well into 2022, we’d like to take a look back at some of the events we were celebrating at St. Mike’s in December and January of this academic year.

  • With the help of the Vice-President’s Working Group on Indigenous Awareness, the University of St. Michael’s College has begun to consider the priorities from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action on which we would like to focus. The working group received a list of suggested priorities and ideas from various departments, including the Dean’s Office, Campus Ministry, Facilities, Kelly Library, and more. The group has met to discuss these and plan to move forward with prioritizing the Calls to Action in our community.

The cover of "170 Years of Service: A Collection of Essays on the History & Mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto" edited by Elizabeth M. Smyth & Linda F. Wicks
The cover of 170 Years of Service.
  • A working committee has been struck under the leadership of Campus Ministry director Sonal Castelino to begin the process of engaging in Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality. Listening circles will be held in the coming weeks.

  • St. Mike’s welcomed Melodie Buhagiar and Lisa Gleva to the community. Melodie serves as the Director of the President’s Office and Secretary to Collegium. Lisa is our new Executive Director of Advancement.

  • For Let’s Talk Day on January 26, SMCSU and the Dean’s Office held an online Mental Health Seminar, and then offered a virtual screening of the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

  • Congratulations to recent Faculty of Theology MDiv graduate Maria Drossos on her appointment as Director of the Metropolitan’s Office in Boston.
A group of students pose outside St. Basil's on a cold day with Fr. Morgan Rice. Everyone is wearing medical masks and winter coats. They are surrounded by boxes of donations.
Donations collected during the St. Mike’s Christmas Drive.

  • Our friends at Regis College celebrated doctoral candidate Erica Siu Mui Lee, who recently passed her doctoral dissertation defense titled “Exploring the Contributions of Bernard Lonergan and Peter Phan to A Christian Trinitarian Approach to Religious Pluralism” with no corrections.

  • In collaboration with U of T’s Campus Security, Campus Ministry collected 12 boxes of winter accessories for St. Basil’s Out of the Cold and $1,580 in gift cards for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Joe Maiato
Facilities’ Joe Maiato
  • Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, Joe Maiato rallied his Facilities and Housekeeping colleagues and ran also ran a fundraiser for the local Out of the Cold. The generosity of his department helped him raise $595! Well done, Joe!

  • Students, faculty and staff came together—outside—to celebrate with a Christmas Festival in early December. A good time was had by all—and perhaps a Beaver Tail or two…

  • As well, two socially distanced dinners—the Commuter Christmas Dinner and the Residence Formal—were held to celebrate the end of term.
The logos of Regis College and the University of St. Michael's College

Boards Approve Regis St. Michael’s Federation MoA

On October 20, 2022, the Regis Governing Council and USMC Collegium each approved the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Regis College and the University of St. Michael’s College, and authorized the respective board chairs to sign on behalf of the governing bodies.

Learn more about the agreement: https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/regis

June 17, 2021

The governing bodies of Regis College and the University of St. Michael’s College have authorized the Steering Committee, co-chaired by Dr. Peter Warrian, CM and Dr. Don McLeod, CSB, to develop a Memorandum of Agreement, in consultation with appropriate legal advice, to guide a federation of the two institutions. Approval was based on a report and recommendations produced by the Committee over the past nine months, and comes following a joint session of the Governing Council of Regis College and the Collegium of the University of St. Michael’s College.

The goal is to have an MoA ready for examination and approval by the Governing Council and Collegium by September/October 2021.

The Steering Committee will now strike an Implementation Committee and engage with a legal team to work on the MoA.

Since the Steering Committee was struck in September 2020 it has been working diligently to develop proposals in response to its mandate:

  • to forge a world-class centre of excellence in Catholic theological study whose mission is to promote teaching, research, and formation to serve the needs of the Church and society, here in Canada and globally;
  • to consult all stakeholders (including the administration, the faculty, staff, students and alumni/ae, of each institution, as well as the sponsoring religious orders/ congregations);
  • to continue and cultivate a cordial relationship with the Archdiocese while keeping the Cardinal informed of plans and ongoing developments;
  • to orient governance of Regis and St. Michael’s to a deepening union for the sake of enhancement of their mission.

Regis College is the Jesuit Faculty of Theology at the University of Toronto and one of North America’s leading Roman Catholic ecclesiastical faculties. St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology is the graduate division of the University of St. Michael’s College, a Roman Catholic university established by the Congregation of St. Basil and federated with the University of Toronto, offering both basic and advanced graduate degrees.

For more information, visit: stmikes.utoronto.ca/regis

The Regis-USMC Steering Committee has received all sub-committee reports. The reports represent an enormous amount of hard work, and have contributed to significant progress toward our objectives. The Steering Committee has struck a drafting committee to prepare a report that will be presented to both the St. Michael’s College Collegium and the Regis College Governing Council in mid-June 2021. 

the logos of the University of St. Michael's College and Regis College

“The whole is greater than the part, but it is also greater than the sum of its parts.” (Pope Francis, encyclical Fratelli Tutti (3 October 2020), # 145.

We write to inform our communities that representatives of the Board of Regis College, and the Collegium of the University of St. Michael’s College, have met recently to explore a mutual desire to renew long-standing discussions regarding a closer institutional relationship between the two Catholic institutions.

We are pleased to report that these very fruitful meetings have led to the establishment of a Steering Committee that will oversee, on behalf of the two governing bodies, the formulation of an alliance between Regis and St. Michael’s. The work of the Regis-USMC Steering Committee and its anticipated sub-committees, and the deliberations of the respective governing bodies, will be guided by the following shared principles:

  • The commitment to forge a world-class centre of excellence in Catholic theological study whose mission is to promote teaching, research, and formation to serve the needs of the Church and society, here in Canada and globally;
  • The commitment to consult all stakeholders (including the administration, the faculty, staff, students and alumni/ae, of each institution, as well as the sponsoring religious orders/ congregations). The continuation and cultivation of a cordial relationship with the Archdiocese, while keeping the Cardinal informed of plans and on-going developments;
  • The commitment to orient governance of Regis and St. Michael’s to a deepening union for the sake of enhancement of their mission.

David Sylvester, PhD
President and Vice-Chancellor
University of St. Michael’s College

Thomas Worcester, S.J., PhD
President
Regis College