Assumption University installs 17th president

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER - The first Jewish president of a Catholic college or university in the United States talked about the importance of diversity, inclusion and pursuing truth with friends in his inaugural address March 23.
Greg Weiner was installed as the 17th president of Assumption University on campus March 23 and presented with the president’s medallion and the institution’s original charter, which survived the 1953 tornado in Worcester. 
He was a political aide, consultant, writer and founder of Content Communications, LLC before coming in 2011 to Assumption, where he taught political science, and was promoted to provost and vice president for academic affairs in 2019.
At his presidential inauguration he was welcomed by a student honor guard, musicians, and speakers who praised his listening, leadership and outreach to students. He was prayed for by Bishop McManus; Father Dennis Gallagher, provincial superior of North America for the Augustinians of the Assumption; and Rabbi Aviva Fellman of Congregation of Beth Israel in Worcester.
In his inaugural address President Weiner expressed much gratitude - to his family (even descending from the stage to take his wife flowers) and to members of the university community and the broader community.
He focused on the value of a Catholic liberal education, which he said should be accessible at Assumption to everyone who wants it.
“In the words of Ex Corde Ecclesiae (Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution on Catholic universities) Assumption is both Catholic and a university,” President Weiner said. “Our Catholic identity expresses itself in the particular nature of the education we offer – one rooted in the pursuit of truth and an abiding view of the human person.” 
Some institutions focus just on professional preparation, and others retreat from the world, he said. 
“We reject that choice,” he insisted. “We believe there is no conflict between the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty on the one hand, and preparation for meaningful lives and rewarding careers on the other.” An economy cannot be sustained with well-trained workers, without well-educated human beings. A republic can’t be sustained with individuals who seek their own good, without citizens who contemplate the common good.
“In the coming years, a moral imperative for our university, our benefactors, and our extended alumni family will be to create and expand the scholarships that will make an Assumption education accessible to anyone who seeks it,” because it will transform such students, President Weiner said. It will transform them because Assumption builds each program of study on the foundation of the Catholic tradition of inquiry, which speaks to people of all backgrounds and faiths.
“None of us possesses the whole of truth,” he said, so we need friends with whom to pursue truth. “We welcome a rich and broad diversity of people and points of view. We seek to include every voice, to listen with special intention to those we are confident are wrong.” 
The new president stressed the importance of treating others with respect, including the respect you show when giving your reasons for disagreeing, and welcoming their reasons for disagreeing with you. That requires courage, he said.
If one member of the university community feels unwelcome or alone, we have not simply failed that person, but ourselves, he said.
President Weiner said that central ideas of a Catholic liberal education are that all human beings are made in God’s image and likeness, so they are oriented to use reason and speech to pursue truth, and faith and reason are reconcilable with each other.
He talked about the importance of mystery, of being in awe of all that transcends us. Assumption students are equally comfortable with certainty and mystery, he said. So, Assumption graduates are uniquely prepared for professional success and personal meaning and will be responsible in their jobs.

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