O'Pake Institute for Ethics, Leadership, and Public Service

Throughout its history, Alvernia University has aimed not only to develop students’ intellectual promise but also to foster their ethical and moral perspectives and emphasize their leadership potential. The O’Pake Institute for Ethics, Leadership and Public Service seeks to build on this tradition. Named after the long time Alvernia board member Sen. Mike O’Pake who died in December 2010 after serving nearly four decades in the Pennsylvania state senate as a champion for all those in need, the O’Pake Institute is expansion of the university’s Center for Ethics and Leadership, launched in 2006.

The Center for Ethics and Leadership has been a nucleus for dialogue on contemporary ethical issues, particularly as they involve the challenges of leadership. It has promoted interdisciplinary dialogue around social justice and Franciscan values, and the integration of teaching and scholarship into service-leadership for a sustainable future.
 
Moving forward, the newly O’Pake Institute will build on that work, with an additional emphasis on public service. The institute will house the many leadership programs of the university created for a range of individuals including honors students and other student leaders; those pursuing doctoral degrees in Leadership Studies; and professionals active in Leadership Berks. It will also support students and faculty engaged in community-based research and will sponsor programs and activities that address important community needs.

In addition, the O’Pake Institute will link members of the Alvernia and surrounding communities in efforts to foster civic leadership and public service and will highlight the university’s distinctive emphasis on ethics education.

The idea for a center focused on ethics, leadership and public service emerged from President Thomas Flynn’s campus-wide discussions during the fall of 2005. It became clear that Alvernia already valued ethics and leadership education—all undergraduate and graduate programs incorporate required work in ethics, and a new interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Leadership was being launched. There was considerable faculty enthusiasm for making ethics and leadership education a distinctive feature of Alvernia.

In April 2006, President Flynn announced Alvernia’s intention to develop both the Holleran Center for Community Engagement (HCCE) and a center for ethics and leadership. They would build on existing efforts and serve as catalysts for expanded faculty and student collaboration, while drawing on community resources and expertise. Through diverse programs and activities, the Centers would enhance Alvernia’s contributions to the community and its reputation.

On July 1, 2007, Dr. Gerald S. Vigna was named the center’s founding director. Dr. Vigna is an Associate Professor of Theology and served many years as Dean of Arts and Sciences. He charted a course for continuous dialogue among students and faculty around ethical issues and challenges for both leaders and followers.

On July 1, 2010, Dr. Spencer S. Stober was named center director. He has continued to use dialogue as a strategy for the center, also recognizing an ever-growing need for academic institutions to marshal intellectual resources and provide active service-leadership to sustain the world. Dialogue informed by Franciscan values with the university’s many communities around environmental and social justice issues is a first step. The integration of teaching and scholarship into service with our many communities to promote environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability is an important strategy to achieve the center’s goals.