The three Vincentian universities in the United States–Niagara University, St. John’s University and DePaul University–have announced a new collaborative effort to develop successive generations of lay leaders to support their institutions’ Catholic and Vincentian identities. The program, Vincentian Mission Institute: Leadership in Higher Education, will include select faculty and staff leaders from each institution who will participate in an intensive three-year continuing education program.

DePaul, founded in Chicago in 1898, and St. John’s, founded in 1870 and located in the New York City borough of Queens, are respectively the largest and second largest Catholic universities in the United States. Together with Niagara, founded in Niagara Falls, N.Y. in 1856, they currently educate more than 47,000 students.

The institutions want to be able to assure that future generations of students, especially first-generation college and immigrant students, as well as those who come from groups traditionally under-prepared for and under-represented in higher education, will continue to receive the benefit of a quality and transformative higher education rooted in the Vincentian tradition.

The three presidents of these universities, the Rev. Joseph Levesque, C.M., of Niagara, the Rev. Donald Harrington, C.M., of St. John’s, and the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M., of DePaul have issued the following joint statement: “As we look with pride at the present generation of lay leaders at our institutions who are so imbued with a dedication to Vincentian higher education, we are confident that a program such as the Vincentian Mission Institute will enable each of our institutions to face our futures secure in our Catholic and Vincentian identity and focused on serving our students in the tradition of Saint Vincent de Paul.”

The program will address the distinctive nature of Catholic and Vincentian higher education with a strong emphasis on Vincentian history, spirituality and service.

Work in the program will be conducted through a mixture of campus- and online-based classes with occasional weekend and extended sessions over the three-year period, including a Vincentian heritage tour of France.