It was approximately 10 months ago that Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota made the difficult decision to cancel our 9th annual International Lasallian Research Symposium which had been scheduled for Oct. 23-25, 2020. As it turns out, that decision proved to be wise and timely.
We write today to announce that we are planning for an in-person symposium to be held, as we mentioned a year ago, Oct. 1-3, 2021, in Minneapolis. It gives us great joy to be in the initial planning stages for this event, and we ask you to “reserve the date” and pass this information on to your colleagues. Invitations for paper submissions for the symposium will be sent in the coming couple of months, and confirmations of acceptance of papers for presentation will be made shortly thereafter.
As it has in the past, the organization of our symposium is housed in our School of Education — so fitting, given that Saint John Baptist de La Salle is the Patron Saint of Teachers — and you will be hearing from them with additional details. We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce our new Dean of the School of Education, Michael Lovorn, Ph.D., an accomplished leader in education and administration, who comes to Saint Mary’s from the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Buffalo, N.Y. There, he served as assistant dean for global engagement, director of the International Graduate Program for Educators, and director of sponsored programs.
We are grateful for the assistance and cooperation of the International Association of La Salle Universities and its officers and members, as well as for the support of Brother Timothy Coldwell, FSC, General Councilor, and Christian Brothers Conference and its professional staff. As always, we are also grateful to Brother Robert Schieler, FSC, Superior General, for his encouragement and affirmation of our efforts.
We look forward to meeting many of you in Minneapolis in October 2021!