FAIRFIELD — A lawsuit seeking to prevent Fairfield University from opening a branch campus in Bridgeport hasn't deterred the university from announcing its leadership team for the proposed Fairfield Bellarmine campus.
The new two-year associate’s degree initiative is anticipated to open in the fall of 2023 at the site of the former St. Ambrose Parish on Boston Avenue. The hiring announcement comes as John Ricci, a longtime Bridgeport municipal employee and political insider, still has an ongoing lawsuit to stop the college from being opened in that location.
In a release, the university noted the program is a part of the its partnership with the Diocese of Bridgeport “Pathways to Higher Learning” program and aims to serve students in the Bridgeport community "to prepare them for transition to a bachelor’s degree program at any four-year institution, or for employment."
"The program will be grounded in the liberal arts and the Jesuit tradition of caring for the whole person," the university said. "Fairfield Bellarmine will focus on professional preparation and enhanced academic support for talented but traditionally under-represented students, who will benefit from mentoring, including peer tutors."
The university said the Rev. Kevin O'Brien, who currently serves on the board of Catholic Charities of Fairfield County, has been hired as the vice-provost and executive director of Fairfield Bellarmine. It said he has worked in Jesuit higher education, but also has a long-time association with the Jesuit Refugee Service, which assists migrants and refugees across the world.
Nakia Letang has been selected as the college's director of admission, the university said, noting Letang has been with Fairfield University for 17 years and most recently worked in admissions as the head of the university’s multicultural affairs recruitment initiatives.
"She serves in the Bridgeport community through her extensive church involvement, which has been rooted in the East End for over 60 years under her family’s leadership," it said.
The university said Pejay Lucky has been appointed as the assistant dean of student success. According to the school, Lucky has most recently served as Fairfield’s director of student diversity and multicultural affairs, and was also a key contributor to the university’s inclusive excellence initiatives. A Bridgeport native, it said, he has also served as the university's associate director and assistant director of residence life.
The director of development for Fairfield Bellarmine will be Anissa DeMatteo, the university said, noting she has led fundraising efforts for the Fairfield Awards Dinner, which is an annual benefit for the Alumni Multicultural Scholarship Fund.
Lastly, the university said Wendy Mendes was hired as the director of student wellbeing. It said Mendes is a licensed professional counselor, with a national board certification, who has earned a certificate in clinical anxiety treatment.
The university said its writing and math center staff will be involved in the Bellarmine campus, adding students will "be actively engaged in planning and forming a student government, clubs, athletic activities, and social and faith-related events" at the Bridgeport campus.
"Students will have the opportunity to participate in University clubs, activities and intramural and club sports, as well as have access to facilities on Fairfield’s main campus," it said.
In a statement, Jennifer Anderson, the university's vice president of marketing and communications, said Fairfield University must continue to advance access and opportunity in order to continue being a university of national prominence.
"Fairfield’s commitment to providing access for talented students remains ever strong as we continue to increase our financial aid – over $100 million in this coming year alone," she said. "In addition, we continue to do outreach to help prepare students for college, like our Camp Montmarte program for Brooklyn Jesuit Prep nativity school, hosting the whole school on our campus for four weeks this summer."
Anderson said Fairfield has expanded the academic immersion and extension programs for first-generation students and students of color. She said it has also just welcomed its first cohort of company scholars, which is a program offering "full funding and enhanced programing to a select group of high achieving, first-generation, BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) Jesuit high school and Cristo Rey graduates."
Anderson said Fairfield Bellarmine will offer and underwrite associate’s degrees as a bridge for students eligible to receive Pell grants to attend college.
"Our mission is to offer a rigorous two-year associates degree grounded in the liberal arts and the Jesuit tradition of caring for the whole person, with a strong focus on professional preparation and enhanced academic support for talented, traditionally under-represented students," she said. "Fairfield is well-underway planning for the opening of Fairfield Bellarmine in the fall of 2023."
Along with the initial appointees for the leadership team, Anderson said recruitment has begun and renovation plans are in progress.
"The leadership team for Bellarmine brings both deep expertise in their respective roles, and familiarity with the local region, and we anticipate ongoing organizational appointments to be made," she said.
Ricci, reached by phone on Thursday, said he still feels that what the university and diocese is proposing is an "overuse" of the property. As an owner of an adjoining parcel, he said he feels it will have an adverse effect on his property values. He said the fact that Fairfield University is moving forward with hires for the school signals to him that the university believes his lawsuit has no merit — but he and his lawyer disagree.
Ricci for years ran the municipal airport, then the public facilities department until his resignation in early 2019, and was a close ally of Mayor Joe Ganim.
Ricci’s lawsuit, filed in August in state Superior Court, seeks to overturn the zoning commission’s July vote to change the St. Ambrose site at Mill Hill and Boston avenues from an RX1 zone — residential, office and low-intensity commercial/production uses — to a P2 zone for civic/institutional facilities.
That alteration allows Fairfield University and the diocese to launch their proposed two-year, affordably-priced Bellarmine commuter college at the site. The partners had earlier this year tried to open Bellarmine at the diocese’s North End headquarters on Jewett Avenue, but withdrew that application in May in the face of neighborhood opposition and after the municipal law office concluded existing zoning there prohibited a college use.
Ricci owns a three-family home on Ridgefield Avenue built in 1914. His lawsuit claims zoning commission members’ July decision was “illegal, unlawful, arbitrary and in abuse of (their) powers” and also “did not adequately address the impact the change of zone will have on the surrounding properties, such as traffic and parking.”
But Attorney Raymond Rizio, who represents the diocese, has argued that the zoning commission did not specifically authorize the Bellarmine project, just the zone change to make the land consistent with similar properties around the city.
With lawsuit pending, Fairfield U. staffs Bridgeport campus - CT Insider
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