Le Moyne College will be hosting the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) Conference of Arts & Sciences Deans for AJCU institutions in October of 2019.

The conference will take place on the first weekend in October.

The Association of Jesuit Institutions Dean’s Conference is an event that is hosted every year at a host Jesuit college where Dean’s of the school can get together and discuss their ideas and plans and the problems that they may be facing, says Dean of Arts and Sciences Kate Costello-Sullivan.

For the first time since Costello-Sullivan has been Dean of Arts and Sciences, Le Moyne will be the host school for this event.

According to Costello-Sullivan, the conference is being held at Le Moyne for the first time in more than 5 years. In addition, Costello-Sullivan said how the previous Dean also did not host the conference at Le Moyne, making this conference the first Jesuit Dean’s Conference at Le Moyne in over 5 years.

According to Costello-Sullivan, the topic of discussion for the conference this year will be to showcase the Manresa Program and the Athletic Center accomplishments.

“Those are the two things that are distinctively Le Moyne that we will be showcasing for our peers”, says Costello-Sullivan.

All costs for this conference will come from a conference fee and also different events happening within Syracuse at the time, according to Costello-Sullivan. The conference will, ideally, be self-funded, she says. The costs of those who are attending will also include shuttle buses, hotels, and other events during the time of the conference. Melissa Short, who is the assistant to the Dean and office services coordinators, is in charge of booking the hotel rooms and shuttle buses for the attendees.

“We still have to figure out the timing of shuttles back and forth and we have to get an itinerary for the people who are going here and there,” says Short.

There are normally between 70 and 80 people who attend the conference, said Costello-Sullivan. They will be a mix of Dean’s, Assistant Dean’s, and Associate Dean’s. Besides just the conference, events such as panels and trips to the Everson Museum of Art and Beak and Skiff Apple Orchard can be attended, which are currently being planned by Jeanne Darby, the Assistant to the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

According to Darby, the last conference that she attended was hosted in Chicago and they did not need to sell what their city was like. However, hosting the conference in Syracuse means they want to showcase what the city has to offer at places like Dinosaur BBQ in Downtown.

“I’m really excited,” said Darby. “And I hope that it’s beautiful fall days.”

Last year, the conference was not held due to the hosting school having to back out unexpectedly, according to Costello-Sullivan. So hosting the conference at Le Moyne is coming with some challenges. Costello-Sullivan was under the impression that she would be able to have brainstorming meetings on how to host the conference, however, that has now turned into her using the 2017 host school’s ‘template’ instead.

“The conference hasn’t met since 2017 so that does make you a little bit more eager to get it right,” said Costello-Sullivan.

The conference will be held in various locations across campus such as the Reilly Room and Grewen Auditorium, according to Short, and will span across the city of Syracuse as well.

Editors Note:

An earlier version of this article misnamed the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities