Curing Cernera’s SHU Flu

Maybe the next president of Sacred Heart University won’t be so cold to the state’s largest city.

Linda McMahon, a board member and Gary Rose, a political science professor, are both on the search committee to find a replacement for Anthony Cernera who bailed out in a huff after a long tenure as president of Sacred Heart University.

We’re hearing a lot about the search for Cernera’s replacement, but not much about his abrupt departure. The guy is president for 20 years and then one day says see ya, sayonara, adios, ciao, I’m outta here. No explanation, no nothing. What gives? Whatever it is it cannot be good.

But with Rose and McMahon on the 15-member search committee could a pol be a possibility as president? It would have to be a Catholic pol. What would Bishop Lori, also on the search committee, think about that? And must the candidate be pro-life?

Cernera had a strange relationship with Bridgeport which houses SHU’s dorms and a boatload of students in North End residential units. The school is located in Fairfield proper, but you can spit across Park Avenue and hit Bridgeport where students reside in a growing student population.

Remember when SHU was just a small commuter college started by the Diocese of Bridgeport? No more. Cernera guided the school through explosive growth but took a largely elitist position when it came to embracing the city whether educationally, politically, governmentally. Talk to folks in Bridgeport’s business community and they’ll tell you he wasn’t involved.

Maybe the new prez will be different.