Led By Community
At the spring faculty meeting, he didn’t speak about the remarkable growth of the campus during his record 23-year run as president. Under his leadership, the University of Dayton has grown into one of the nation’s largest Catholic universities, a thriving residential university with a national and international reach. In the decade between 1990 and 2000, applications soared more than 60 percent, and college entrance test scores now stand at an all-time high. The University of Dayton has earned a national reputation for its use of technology in education and ranks among the 20 top wired universities in the country.
This was his chance to boast a bit. Instead, he reminisced about his father, “a good German disciplinarian” from a working-class family in Sandusky, Ohio. He attended the University of Dayton on a football scholarship and learned the value of a caring teacher from “Doc Wohlleben” who allowed him to make up the chemistry labs he skipped for football practice on Saturdays while he corrected papers.
“He was a demanding teacher, but at the same time, he was concerned about his students and he reached out in his own unique style with care and compassion,” Fitz said, recalling the tears in his father’s eyes when he told him how the professor enabled him to stay in school. “He demonstrated how important building community on campus is to how we educate at UD.”
Fitz closed his last address to the faculty by talking about the importance of forgiveness, love and trust. To their surprise, he asked faculty for forgiveness.
“We can’t grow as a community without forgiving one another,” he said to a crowd more attuned to hearing him talk about budget or curriculum issues. “As I have accepted the responsibility for leadership, I have grown in the realization of how my actions have negative consequences for individuals. You can do what you believe is the right thing for the institution and its common good, but those actions sometimes hurt individuals.”
These words linger in the air long after they’re spoken. How often do leaders talk about their humanity?
During his tenure as president, Fitz has guided the University of Dayton with an extraordinary blend of strength, compassion and, above all, faith. He is the longest serving president in UD’s 152-year history and under his watch, UD has become known nationally as one of the strongest Catholic universities in the country and locally as a partner in addressing issues ranging from child protection to neighborhood redevelopment to aircraft safety.
In an age when the typical college president serves seven years, Fitz has outlasted his peers despite the absence of a priest’s collar (he’s the first Marianist brother to lead the University of Dayton since the death of Brother Maximin Zehler, S.M., in 1872) and on top of personal adversity. A dozen years ago he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a nonfatal yet sometimes debilitating disease of the central nervous system.
Faith and Works
As Fitz moves on to the next chapter in his life, he pauses to reflect upon the power of faith.
“The very essence of this work of leadership is faith,” he said. “Thomas had faith because he touched the wounds. Can we have the power and strength to touch people today, the dispossessed, the poor?”
He will trade his platform as president for a new calling that allows him to share the lessons he’s learned with students and faculty working in the University of Dayton’s new Center for Leadership in Community.
“Through the work of the center, students and faculty will work shoulder to shoulder with people trying to rebuild Dayton’s neighborhoods and improve the quality of schools,” he said. “We’re trying to create an environment where students are excited about volunteer service. We have a responsibility beyond our jobs. We have a responsibility to build our communities.
“Everyone needs to see their life in that way.”
For more information about The University of Dayton, please go to The University of Dayton website.
© Copyright 2002 Catholic Exchange
A Servant-Leader
When Fitz, 60, steps down on June 30, he will enroll in a six-month spiritual renewal sabbatical program at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. In January, he will return to campus to teach classes and work in UD’s Raymond L. Fitz, S.M., Center for Leadership in Community.
Humble and unpretentious, Fitz is known as a consensus builder and a planner. An engineer by training, he champions servant-leadership.
“We challenge students to learn beyond what they thought they could,” said Fitz, a 1960 University of Dayton graduate who’s spent four decades on campus in roles ranging from a professor of engineering to executive director of the Center for Christian Renewal. “You’re not given an education for yourself. There’s a social obligation to make a difference in society and the community in which you live. How do we deal with the least advantaged in our communities? How do we deal with world issues, like hunger?”
What drives him? It’s not money. As a Marianist brother, he’s taken a vow of poverty and shares a modest house in the student neighborhood with other Marianists. It’s not the limelight. He’s the first to tell you he’s an introvert.
“It’s the generosity and love of the people on this campus,” he said. “There’s a generosity and community spirit that’s contagious. The faculty, staff and students here are an energizing force. …The faculty keep challenging students, ‘What are your dreams made of?’ If it’s just economic success, that’s not enough.”
When Fitz sees the statues of Mary, the mother of Jesus, on UD’s campus, he’s reminded why he joined the Society of Mary. In her, he sees “a faith that is generous and willing to risk the new, a faith that journeys with others and offers a warm welcome, a faith that is in solidarity with the poor and the powerless.”
He remembers being struck by the story of the Marianists. “Here was a group of men who, through the work of education, wanted not only to prepare women and men to be successful in careers but also to prepare them to influence their social settings — their professions, commerce, politics and education,” he said. “The Marianists wanted to raise up generations of leaders in every sector of society who would form communities that would make a real difference in the world.”
