Franciscan Magazine
Franciscan University of Steubenville
Cover Story
Beautiful and Inspiring Christ the Teacher Hall
Beautiful and Inspiring Christ the Teacher Hall
A first look at Franciscan University’s newest academic and conference hall.
Autumn 2024 | Lisa Ferguson and Jessica Walker
The start of another academic year means a new class of students have made their way onto Franciscan University’s hilltop. But there’s another new face on campus: Christ the Teacher Hall.
At almost 111,000 square feet, Christ the Teacher Hall is Franciscan’s largest building to date. It’s nearly three times the size of SS. Cosmas and Damian Science Hall, Franciscan’s last major academic construction, which opened in 2000.
Christ the Teacher Hall’s name comes from Jesus telling his disciples, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am” (John 13:13).
“The beautiful Christ the Teacher Hall serves as a reminder thatJesus Christ is at the center of all we do at Franciscan University. It is a concrete sign of God’s faithfulness as we continue to form joyful disciples and to educate students who are fully prepared to live and work in every field and vocation,” says Father Dave Pivonka, TOR ’89, president of Franciscan University. “I am grateful to our many faithful alumni and friends for joining us in this mission through their generosity and prayers.”
Christ the Teacher Hall will educate minds, transform lives, and train joyful disciples for decades to come. Let us show you around!
Welcome, New Students
A spacious Admissions and Enrollment Management Center welcomes groups of prospective students and their families for campus visits and tours. Thirty-four offices house the team that greets our visitors and allow Admissions and Financial Aid counselors to provide individual attention for those discerning if Franciscan is the place for them.
Sacred Heart Chapel
Prayer has been poured into every inch of Christ the Teacher Hall. That’s not an exaggeration; 40 blessed Miraculous Medals were placed in the concrete floor. But the building’s spiritual heart is Sacred Heart Chapel. Sacred Heart Chapel houses Our Eucharistic Lord, offering students and guests a peaceful place to pray and spend time with Jesus. It can also host Mass for small groups.
On either side of the altar are statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. Beneath the drywall behind St. Joseph is even more prayer. There, construction workers wrote their prayer intentions as they were build- ing the space, says Joe McGurn, former executive director of Franciscan’s Physical Plant Services. McGurn retired in December 2023 after 35 years, but he continued to work part-time to shepherd construction of the new building, the 30th built or renovated during his tenure.
This chapel may be brand new, but it honors Franciscan University’s history. The name itself hearkens back to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Province of the Franciscan Friars, TOR, who founded and still operate the University. Colorful stained glass will be reclaimed from Christ the King Chapel, which is currently under renovation, and serve as a reminder of the University’s patron, St. Francis of Assisi.
Focus on Community
Student lounges on every floor offer panoramic views and lend themselves to collaborative and individual study while fostering the Catholic academic and faith community for which Franciscan has become famous. The same can be said of the 4,340-square-foot terrace and broad stairways overlooking east campus, which offer a lovely, versatile outdoor space for casual meetings and formal events.
Another popular student hangout is The Well, an indoor-outdoor café. The Well serves coffee and other beverages, freshly baked goods, On the Go items, and two new retail concepts—the Corner Mercantile Express offering a variety of sandwiches (including The Dentino sub, named for Student Life Vice President Dr. Daniel Dentino ’97) and Hello Bistro Express featuring signature salads.
A café-naming contest for students gave us the name, but Father Dave was quick to supply a deeper meaning.
“In John 4, it was at ‘the well’ that Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman, and her thirst was satisfied. I love the idea of The Well as a gathering place, where we meet each other, we are seen and we see, and our thirst for real community is quenched.”
Preparing Business Leaders
Also on the first floor, the Department of Accounting, Business Administration, and Economics is preparing the next generation of virtuous business leaders and entrepreneurs. The new business classrooms allow for increased technology. That means faculty can teach business principles in ways to reflect today’s market- place and better meet the needs of different learners.
“We now have over 500 business majors,” says Professor Doug Perry, department chair and executive director of the Leadership Institute. “The dedicated space in Christ the Teacher will offer our students a beautiful and inspiring space to accommodate our growth, to encounter each other, to grow in community, to embrace business as a vocation, and ultimately, to change the world through their work.”
One classroom is named in loving memory of accounting professors Dr. Edward Kelly and Dr. Thomas Kelly ’83. Father and son devoted their careers to educating Franciscan business students, with Thomas serving as department chair until his passing in 2023.
Thomas’ wife, Sandy, says, “He was extremely proud of all the accomplishments and growth of the department. He was very excited to have the opportunity to give input on Christ the Teacher Hall, knowing the department would have the best facilities possible for the faculty and students and their continued growth.”
Educating Engineers
Franciscan University’s engineering majors now have a permanent home on the ground floor. “The engineering and computing space of Christ the Teacher gives students the learning experiences and hands-on training necessary to graduate well-formed in their chosen profession and in their faith,” says Dr. David Collins, dean of the School of Natural and Applied Sciences.
This space includes eight specialized labs for networking, heat transfer and fluids, strength of materials, senior design, large projects, engineering, modeling and manufacturing, and a machine shop for working with traditional materials such as metal and wood. The state-of-the-art equipment will help the students hone their professional skills and gain the technical competence needed to excel in aerospace, manufacturing, technology, and more.
Listen to Witnesses
Up one level, the spacious Pope St. Paul VI Conference Center can accommodate seating for up to 500 guests, banquets for 325, and smaller audiences or concurrent conference sessions.
It was named for Pope Paul VI, whose important exhortation on “Evangelization in the Modern World” “beautifully speaks to the goal of Franciscan University’s Steubenville Conferences and academic events,” says Father Dave. “Paul VI’s quote, ‘Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses,’ perfectly describes the integration of faith and reason that’s at the heart of our Franciscan University mission and is visibly expressed in the academic and evangelization wings of Christ the Teacher Hall.”
Altogether Beautiful
Four walls make a building, but beauty is what makes it a home. With so many intentional design elements, Christ the Teacher Hall is truly a home for faith and reason on Franciscan’s campus. In fact, right outside the main entrance is a quote from St. John Paul II: “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.”
Entering the building, visitors are greeted by artwork depicting Jesus Christ as a teacher, created by artist and art professor Amber (Pitts ’17) Knorr. In his left hand, Christ holds the Word of God with the symbols for Alpha and Omega; his right hand is raised in blessing. Knorr says his cloak is dark blue to signify the mystery of his divine life, and his tunic is red to signify his human blood that he shed for us. In the four corners are the symbols of the Gospel writers since Scripture is how Christians come to know Christ.
Knorr’s artistic talent also graces an open stairway. Using oil paint and gold leaf, she painted a stunning 14-foot by 36-foot mural of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is depicted as a dove with golden rays emanating behind it, reflecting Franciscan’s mission to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Across the background are stars like those on the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe. An 8-foot globe rests at the bottom, illustrating Jesus’ commission to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19).
Other faith-filled elements around the building are more subtle. Outside, one hidden “Easter egg” can be found in a piece of decorative metalwork, which has cutouts of crosses and chalices. The exterior brickwork reveals crosses and medallions with the symbols for Alpha, Omega, Chi Ro, and the cross and Lamb.
But the best way to experience the full beauty of Christ the Teacher Hall is to come visit!
The Faithfulness of Noah
Inspired by a long-time donor couple’s devotion to Noah who “did everything just as God commanded him” (Gen. 6:22), a statue, a finial, and a board room tell the story of Noah and his ark.
A courtyard fountain topped with an eight-foot bronze statue of Noah holding the designs for the ark (shown in artistic rendering) indicates his exercise of both faith and reason in responding to God’s call.
The copper finial atop the central tower shows a delicate dove with an olive branch in its mouth, signifying that the flood waters had receded and giving hope to Noah and his family.
A third hint of Noah can be seen in the Board Room, whose ceiling artistically recalls the hull of the ark and the waves of the water.
All who ponder Noah’s role in salvation history and seek to do everything God commands may hope to inherit “the righteousness that comes through faith” (Heb. 11:7) just as Noah did.
Let There Be Light
Glass walls throughout Christ the Teacher flood the building with natural light, brightening minds and lifting spirits. Of note, the windows at the juncture of the academic and conference wings express the harmony between reason and faith, which do not compete but rather illuminate each other. As St. John Paul II wrote, “Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God … hence there can be no contradiction between them” (Fides et Ratio, No. 43).
The use of glass also reflects the mission of Catholic higher education to shine the light of faith and truth. Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Stephen Hildebrand describes the integration this way:
“This beautiful expansive new building is a physical representation of the core conviction that animates our whole University life: that our intellectual and academic life is not only not harmed by its integration into the life of faith, but also that it is purified, ennobled, and truer to its own self. The faith takes the good things that make up the stuff of our ordinary lives—nursing and health care, running a business, engineering—and orders them to the love of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and to the love of our fellow man. The faith brings divine light and divine love—this is written into the very structure of Christ the Teacher.”
“God has more for us as a University, and our alumni and friends see this and want to be a part of what’s going on at Franciscan.”
Forming Skilled Nurses
Terry and Barbara Caster School of Nursing
With more than 250 students in the Terry and Barbara Caster School of Nursing, the program had long outgrown its classrooms in Egan Hall. Now, these future nurses have triple the square footage on the top floor of Christ the Teacher Hall.
This nursing floor features an eight-bed skills lab and four SIM labs with nursing manikins, or lifelike patient simulators. These labs provide high-quality spaces for students to practice real-world nursing scenarios in a controlled environment. During SIM labs, professors can communicate with and observe students and debrief afterward in dedicated conference areas.
Terry and Barbara Caster School of Nursing
“The new space and updated equipment with Christ the Teacher Hall will provide the nursing faculty an opportunity to expand the program and better prepare more knowledgeable, Christ-centered leaders for the current health care environment,” says Dr. Amy Myers-Eisnaugle, chair of the Nursing Department. “The department is so thankful for this extraordinary opportunity to further cultivate and foster nursing students as an extension of God’s hand serving those in need, providing compassionate care, sharing the hope of Christ, and expressing God’s love to all.”
Blessed by Generosity
“God has more for us as a University, and our alumni and friends see this and want to be a part of what’s going on at Franciscan,” Father Dave says. “We’re so blessed by their generosity and buoyed up by their excitement. Christ the Teacher Hall would not exist without them.”
”To date, 2,232 alumni and benefactor gifts, from $3 all the way up to $20 million, have provided $53 million toward the building’s $59 million price tag,” Vice President of Advancement Bob Hickey ’96 MBA ’01 says.
“As a proud Franciscan alumnus, parent, and leadership team member, I couldn’t be more grateful for the outpouring of support for Christ the Teacher Hall, the centerpiece of our Rebuild My Church Campaign. It’s a joy for me to hear our donors’ Franciscan stories and accept their gracious assistance for our students,” Hickey says.
Christ the Teacher Hall contributors have a variety of reasons for generously supporting this transformative initiative.
Campaign chair and trustee emeritus Paul Michael “Mickey” Pohl and his wife, Kaya, say, “It has been a joy for us over the last 35 years to see Franciscan University grow into being one of the most faithful, exciting, and recognized universities in the world of Catholic education. This building—and what it will do for our students and the world—is an important ‘next step’ in that progression. We wanted to be part of that success story. As this wonderful University grows its enrollment, its programs, its quality, and its positive impact in the world, Christ the Teacher Hall is just a next logical step, providing a host of much-needed new ‘pieces’ as we build our University’s ‘mosaic’ of greatness in Catholic education.”
Mickey and Kaya Pohl tour Christ the Teacher Hall with Joe McGurn, retired executive director of Franciscan’s Physical Plant Services.
Ed Johnson, trustee emeritus, and his wife, Anita, also long-time benefactors, say, “We have been financial supporters for 30 years and feel very privileged to be part of this wonderful University! It is a tremendous light for the nation and the world! The Holy Spirit has had his hand on this school for years! The University only grows stronger each year academically and spiritually! This is our top ministry for donations!”
Trustee emeritus Joan Smith says she, her late husband, Bob, also a trustee emeritus, and their family have “supported Franciscan University for several decades because there is no institution of higher learning that develops the whole person with such love and authenticity.” About Christ the Teacher Hall, she says, “This new academic building is another step in the University’s growth. We know this beautiful place will enhance the campus learning experience and provide new and exciting resources and opportunities for students and faculty for many, many years to come.”
In more recent years, Dr. Donald P. and Mrs. Geri Martinez joined the Franciscan donor family after attending several Steubenville Conferences. Mrs. Martinez explains, “My late husband and I invested and conserved resources for decades with a plan to fund our Catholic values system in a significant way. Franciscan met all our parameters as a protector and perpetuator of the Catholic faith, especially where the young are concerned.”
Now, she and their son D.P. Martinez II say, “There has never been a more necessary time to prepare young men and women to take our Catholic faith into studies in sciences, business, and health care. This new, state-of-the-art building and facility will help attract students who will further our Catholic values and who are desperately needed in these fields.”
Other donors jumped on the chance to inscribe a brick for the lower courtyard of Christ the Teacher. Nearly 750 alumni, students, employees, and friends purchased bricks, with inscriptions ranging from memorials such as “Still Your Students Dr. Bob Doyle Prof. Engel-Doyle” to prayers like “Jesus, Mary, and St. Joseph, We Love You! Pray for Us!” to quips like “Don’t Stand Here Go to the Chapel.”
