NEW MAN AT NEUMANN
CHRIS DOMES TAKES REINS FROM DR. ROSALIE MIRENDA
ASTON » The Neumann University community gathered Friday to celebrate the inauguration of its sixth president, Dr. Chris E. Domes, as 900 administrators, faculty, staff, students and special guests packed the Mirenda Center for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development.
Domes became leader of the 2,800-student institution on July 17, following the retirement of Dr. Rosalie Mirenda, who had been at the helm since 1996. Domes has spent 31 years in higher education and most recently was president of Silver Lake College of the Holy Family in Manitowoc, Wisc., but his path to Delaware County began during his undergraduate years at St. Bonaventure University.
“May the Franciscan tradition and education be strengthened and encouraged under his leadership,” the Rev. Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia, said during his invocation. “May the administration, faculty, staff, but most of all the students of this university, become witnesses to peace and goodness in the world.”
Even Aston Commissioner Carol Graham offered her best wishes to the new president.
“Aston is your home too,” she said. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”
Domes said he sees his role as one of a servant leader in the Franciscan legacy.
“Neumann University does an exceptional job of helping our students see the hope and the joyful optimism of all that we have in our life,” he said. “The Franciscan sisters have instilled in us that God is present everywhere.”
He said to him, leadership is not a pyramidshaped hierarchy.
“I sort of look at it in the opposite direction,” he said. “I think as the leader, you’re actually at the bottom of the pyramid not at the top – that as a servant leader and a person, you are there to lift other people up.”
Part of that is why he can be seen hosting meetings and connecting with students in the residence halls, with the athletic teams or in the dining facilities.
“It’s not about me, it’s about those I serve and those I work with and the students we serve here at Neumann certainly motivate me,” Domes said.
At the ceremony was a decades-long friend who served as a mentor and helped guide him during his conversion to Catholicism, the Rev. Dan Riley.
Riley first met Domes when he was a freshman at St. Bonaventure University and even then, his leadership potential was evident.
“He was just befriending people, just engaged them, saw the best in others,” Riley said. “He has natural gifts for helping people discover themselves because he went through his own self-discovery.”
The Franciscan explained how as a young man, Domes lived with the community at Mount Irenaeus.
“We had a wonderful intimacy in our community and he, in some ways, set that tone,” he said.
“May the Franciscan tradition and education be strengthened and encouraged under his leadership. May the administration, faculty, staff, but most of all the students of this university, become witnesses to peace and goodness in the world.” — The Rev. Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia, said during Dr. Chris Domes’ invocation
As he watched his protege now step forward to lead an institution of higher learning, Riley said Domes had the insight and the dynamism for this role.
“It’s a new day in education, in Franciscan education,” Riley said. “As Franciscans, our arms are wide open, it’s not like, ‘Come on, you’ve got to become one of us,’ it’s ‘Come in and become who you are.’”
Domes has even had an impact on students in his short time.
Rayanna Williams, a senior nursing student, said she first met him in the summer as she returned from a service trip in St. Lucia.
“Instantly, when I first met him, the first day, he was very welcoming and I felt (it was) very easy to talk to him,” she said. “It didn’t seem that he was higher than us, it seemed that he was on a personal level.
“It was really nice to be able to talk to somebody about Neumann and how our experiences are and it seemed like he really cared,” she said.
Curt Yenchik, a junior studying biology, met Domes a few weeks ago at a Presidential Ambassadors meeting.
“I didn’t know what to expect from a president,” he said. “It’s such a personal level, it’s unbelievable. It’s just like you’re talking to another person.”
The students spoke of how there had been a special meal for residents.
“He made sure to make it a point that he had one for commuters,” Yenchik said.
Domes’ humility was on display Friday even in an event centered around him.
“I’m excited to share with you as I begin my journey as president of Neumann University with a profound sense of optimism,” he said. “We have come together, not to celebrate a person or an office but an institution.”