Today 2019 officially ends, and for Detroit Mercy it was a year to remember.
But just in case you don’t, we’re listing the top stories of the year, determined by number of times it has been read since it was posted.
The School of Architecture was in the news a lot, earning a No. 1 rating nationally by DesignIntelligence, an independent business dedicated to the success of organizations in architecture, engineering, construction and design. The ranking was in the category of Architecture Programs most Hired From. There was also a lot of interest in the change in the School’s dean from Will Wittig to Dan Pitera. These stories ranked No. 1 and 3 respectively for the year.
Sandwiched between those two stories was a love story we ran on Valentine’s Day. It came to us in a letter that accompanied a donation to the school. It was made by Mary Jane Gerow in honor of her late husband Clare Gerow who died the previous year. The two met in Physics class in 1951, and…well go ahead and read it here. She writes it best.
A former president of Mercy College of Detroit and a Sister of Mercy was in the news last year when she was named to a list of Michigan Women Who Changed History and that story was the fourth most-read story on this blog this year. Agnes Mary Mansour was also an alumna of the College she ran for 12 years beginning in 1971. Read a short bio of this remarkable woman.
Stories Nos. 5 and 6 were features on members of the Class of 2019. Mary Margaret Payne was the valedictorian and was looking forward to answering a call to religious life and Tavala Lucio talked about how Detroit Mercy changed her life’s trajectory.
No. 7 was the story of something that can only happen at Detroit Mercy. After several members of the women’s softball team were unable to attend graduation because they were finishing a dream season, they had a private family ceremony with President Antoine M. Garibaldi.
No. 8 was one of the first stories we posted this year and told of the largest gift ever made to the University — $6 million from the estate of Arnold Jarboe ’54, to endow a faculty chair in the College of Business Administration.
The ninth most-read story last year was particularly good news for alumni who want to continue their education: The University reset the tuition on most advanced-degree programs. Because of that, enrollment in those programs have grown.
No. 10 was also a feature on an alumna who is making a difference in the city of Detroit. Annie Mendoza ’14, ’16Â says her success is being built on the strong foundation she received at Detroit Mercy.
Other great news came at the beginning of the year when we announced that we had reached our $100-million goal for the Campaign for University of Detroit Mercy a full year ahead of schedule and when we announced earlier this month that we had reached more than $111 million. Taken together, these stories were also among the most read of the year.
We want to thank those of you who have supported the blog over the past three years — with more than 64,000 hits since we started, we know it fills a need of connecting alumni to the University. Keep coming back, and remember, you can subscribe to the blog and you’ll know whenever we add a new post.
Here’s to a happy new year!
