The president of Saint Anselm College told the Student Government Association senate on Sunday that a shift in college governance does not mean a shift in the college's mission or identity.

“I think people look at it and say, ‘I think they're giving up their Benedictine identity,’ which is the furthest thing from the truth,” Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., said.

The college recently announced plans to change governance -- who owns and rules the corporation -- and to legally separate the college and monastic community. A governing board for the college will be assembled of Benedictines (eight members, including the college President and monastic Abbot) and up to 32 lay persons. The monastic chapter, recently run by a Council of Elders -- the same 8 Benedictines who comprised the Governing Board -- will be reviewing their own governance structure.

In his speech and presentation to the full senate, Fr. Jonathan detailed the history of the college, highlighting a tradition of involving advice and expertise from outside of the monastic community.

“There have been other people beyond Benedictines since the very beginning,” he said.

A pivotal moment came in the 1950s, Fr. Jonathan said, when an accreditation and self-study of the college resulted in the formation of the Board of Trustees. The group first met in June of 1957 but was limited to advisory capacity in part due to Church law, which forbade lay people from governance roles.

Several considerations were part of the decision this year to separate the college and monastic community, Fr. Jonathan explained.

“It arose from several sources both within and outside of the monastic community,” he said, especially crediting the “advice of the closest advisers on the Board of Trustees.” Both the Church and accreditation agencies encourage involvement of “a variety of talent” in governance.

The monastic community, he said, was also faced with demographic shifts within their own ranks; within the last thirty years, the average age of the monastic community has risen from 45 to just months shy of 60 years old, and while the size has shrunk from 55 to 24.

Fr. Jonathan explained what he said is a complicated and technical subject using a Power-Point presentation and charts. Since being granted a charter in 1889, the corporation has been legally known as The Order of Saint Benedict of New Hampshire. The owners of the corporation are the members of the monastic community who have professed solemn vows; currently, about 20 of the 24 Benedictines legally own the corporation. The governing responsibility is in the hands of 8 Benedictines, legally titled the Board of Trustees (but known as the Governing Board and distinguished from the advisory Board of Trustees).

The new structure will “put a firewall between the two corporations,” Fr. Jonathan said. Among other purposes, the distinction will financially protect both the college and abbey of any financial obligations of the other.

By the end of March -- just over a month away, Fr. Jonathan acknowledged -- the abbey will separate and form a new legal corporation. The college will retain degree granting authority, and will change the name of the corporation from The Order of Saint Benedict of New Hampshire to Saint Anselm College. The members -- owners -- will continue to be the monastic community, although their control over the college's governance will be limited to fundamental issues of mission and long-term planning.

A new trustees board will be formed, including eight Benedictines and up to 32 others. Fr. Jonathan said the membership has yet to be determined, but will likely include between 20 and 25 lay persons initially. The chairmanship will no longer lay in the hands of a Benedictine, and the monastic community will be led by a Council of Elders that could include monks who will not serve on the college's board.

The 450 acres of campus has been subdivided, and the monastic community will hold 75 acres under the new structure. The college will own all of the current property with the exception of the plots home to the abbey church, monastery, the cemetery, two homes adjacent to campus, and a wooded area beyond the cemetery that is adjacent to the observatory. Should the monastic community, for financial or other reasons, need to sell any property, the college would have first right of refusal.

Fr. Jonathan said that several tasks remain, including legal paperwork to retain the Order's name, contracting for utilities and services shared by the monastery and college, and the formal transfer of assets. He said that the college is moving in the right direction, but acknowledged that some do not approve of the changes.

“There will always be people who think we are doing the wrong thing,” he said, but “this has not been the work of some little Benedictine cabal.”

The community has learned much about itself through exploring the charter and bylaws, Fr. Jonathan said. A requirement that the college president be chosen from the monastery has never existed in writing, he said, although “it now says that the president -- whenever possible -- will be a Benedictine.”