By Brian Owens, The Courier
St. Stephen’s University and Park Hall, its big yellow house on Milltown Boulevard, have been a fixture in the community for 50 years, educating generations of students from around the world in the liberal arts and international studies with a Christian perspective.
But the institution has undergone some major transformations in recent years. In 2023, after years of slowly declining enrollment and the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The university’s leaders took the difficult decision to suspend the undergraduate program and narrow its focus to graduate studies, delivered mostly online.
That has allowed the university to grow, even as its students are less visible in the community.
“Some people may have the impression that we had shut down, but the graduate program is growing rapidly,” SSU Principal Bradley Jersak told The Courier. “We now have up to 150 part- and full-time students and with our first summer school in full swing, including some students taking single courses, the student body has swelled to 170.”
That’s more than ever attended in-person, added Peter Fitch, professor of Christian history and theology and one of the school’s founders.
The students are a diverse group, ranging in age from 30 to 65, and attending remotely from across Canada and the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Many take their courses part-time, working around employment and family commitments.
The graduate program has three areas of focus: Theology and Culture; Peace and Justice; and Reconciliation Studies, which is focused on Indigenous issues. In addition to the online portion each course includes a short 7–9-day residency in St. Stephen and a two-week international study trip to Northern Ireland (for Reconciliation Studies the trip is within Canada).
High-profile support
The university’s transformation has been aided by support from an unexpected source: former tennis star Andre Agassi.
Jersak was introduced to Agassi several years ago by a mutual friend, the novelist William Young.
Agassi, whose personal foundation is a major fundraiser for education, was quite taken with SSU’s philosophy and course offerings and encouraged them to apply to the foundation for support.
That was unusual, as the foundation normally supports primary and secondary education in the United States, so asking a Canadian university to apply was an honour, Jersak said. “Something about us was exciting to him. He liked that we attract activists, but train them not to be angry.”
The foundation provided US$50,000 in matching support last year, and increased that to US$100,000 this year. Agassi is also auctioning off a tennis lesson for couples with himself and Steffi Graf – contact the university if you want to put in a bid.
Agassi’s support has been a boost not only for the university’s finances, but for morale as well. “It’s enjoyable to have someone of that stature and character telling us he believes in us,” Jersak said.
Evolving faith identity
While SSU is a Christian institution its faith identity has frequently been in flux.
From the beginning it was non-denominational, which required a change to New Brunswick law to allow it to grant degrees – the previous rules only allowed for religious institutions with a specific affiliation.
“We’ve always been a little bit of a renegade,” said Fitch.
But over the past 15-20 years the changes have become more pronounced as the school grew away from the traditional conservative Christianity that tends to dominate religious institutions in North America, said Fitch, for example through strong support for and acceptance of the LGBTQ community.
“Our programs are still Christian, but it’s a different kind of Christianity than I grew up with,” said Fitch. “We still have a religious vision, but one that sees God everywhere and wants to build towards good.”
A lot of that growth has been led by the students themselves, said Fitch. “Each class had something to teach us, and we couldn’t think the same way as before,” he said.
SSU has partnerships with a Catholic college in Saskatchewan, and a college in Bethlehem with many Palestinian students. The university welcomes both students and faculty from a variety of religious backgrounds, including Jewish and Muslim scholars.
“We try to teach our students to transcend the left/right political spectrum and all that hostility and us/them stuff,” Jersak said. “And focus on how they can go out into the world and be bridge builders.”
Community connections
The residency section of each program allows the university to remain connected to the local community, albeit with a lower profile. “Our presence is reduced because of hybrid learning, but we will flood in and out several times a year,” Jersak said. And many faculty and staff still live in and around St. Stephen.
But that means the university has less use for Park Hall, its imposing home on a hill in downtown St. Stephen. There are no plans, however, to give it up.
Instead the university is looking for ways that it can be of greater use to the community at large, according to Mark Anderson, SSU’s director of operations.
Ganong has used the former undergraduate residences to house some of its foreign workers.
Portions of Park Hall have been rented out to Dr. Jill Corning’s foot clinic, as well as the Willow Centre, a counselling service for survivors of sexual violence.
“We love to share the building with people who are helping people,” said Jersak.
The building’s many classrooms, meeting rooms, large dining room – which can seat up to 70 people – and a commercial kitchen which can be used for on-site catering are also available for rent for community events.
St. Stephen’s annual Chocolate Fest holds its “chocktail hour” event there each year, and it is also used for retreats and conferences, including a poetry conference planned for this September.
“We hope that continues to grow and we can get more community involvement,” said Anderson.
Jersak hopes that as the university’s transformation takes hold that it will become better known in the local community again. “I see Park Hall and even SSU as more than our academic programs,” he said. “It’s a long-time presence in the community that still connects as best we can.”
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