Early career In 1960, he was ordained as a Jesuit priest at Woodstock. He completed his Jesuit
tertianship at
Münster,
Germany, in 1962. He served in this position until resigning in 1998. During his sixteen-year tenure as the president of the University of Scranton, Panuska led the university through a period of great growth and expansion, including physical improvements to the campus; a significant increase in the number of faculty members; and increasing the academic excellence and standing of the university. When he became president, the university had not built any new buildings for about fifteen years. Panuska led the university in a construction campaign, beginning with Redington Hall, a student residence, and culminating in the construction of 15 new buildings and renovation of existing facilities, at the cost of around 110 million dollars. In order to fund these ambitious and visionary building projects, he led the university through two successful fundraising campaigns, the Second Cornerstone and the Campaign for Scranton: Shaping the Future of a Jesuit University. The expansion of the physical plant was accompanied by an equally significant growth in the university's academic quality. During Pansuka's tenure as president of the University of Scranton, the student body expanded, its faculty increased, and more academic programs were put into place. Dr. Richard Passon, the university's former provost and academic vice-president, stated that "We determined that, because of their specialized nature, our programs in these fields should be organized within a separate division." Each of these fields involves the preparation of students for a professional field, requires internships or apprenticeships, is subject to frequent evaluation by various external agencies, and necessitates the licensing or certification of the student in order to allow them to practice the profession. Additionally, "there is a growing interest among students in the health care and human resources fields, and in fact a revival of interest in education, ... a need for professionals in these fields," requiring the greater focus of a separate academic division. In this way they come to understand the service aspects of their prospective careers in personal and comprehensible terms. Since its founding, the College of Health, Education, and Human Resources, later renamed as the Panuska College of Professional Studies, has greatly expanded to include both graduate and undergraduate programs in the fields of Community Health Education,
Counseling and Human Services, Education,
Exercise Science and Sport,
Health Administration, Human Resources, Nursing,
Occupational Therapy, and Physical Therapy.
Campus improvements and new buildings During Panuska's tenure as president of the University of Scranton, he oversaw a period of considerable improvement and construction on the physical plant of the campus. In addition to renovations to many existing structures, 15 new buildings were built on campus at a cost of over 110 million dollars paid for with the help of two large and highly successful capital campaigns, the Second Cornerstone and the Campaign for Scranton: Shaping the Future of a Jesuit University.
Microsurgery Lab In 1983, the university constructed a microsurgery lab, a collaborative effort between Mercy Hospital and the university. Microsurgery, conducted underneath a microscope, permits surgeons to perform sensitive and delicate procedures which could not be done otherwise in areas such as ophthalmology, gynecology, urology, neurosurgery, cardiac and general vascular surgery, plastic surgery, and
orthopedic surgery. The lab gives local surgeons the opportunity to develop their abilities to perform such procedures while also allowing students to conduct research and gain invaluable experience.
Rev. John J. Fitzpatrick, S.J. Field In 1984, the university completed construction on its very first athletic field in the school's ninety-six history, which began in 1982 after the university acquired the land from the Scranton Redevelopment Authority. The land had previously been used as a rail yard for the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad. The facility was designed as a multi-sports complex, complete with a regulation-size field for men's and women's soccer along with other sports and intramurals. Fitzpatrick founded the club football team (which played between 1967 and 1978) and offered pre-game prayers at many of the Royals' sporting events. Purchased for $100,000, it was the last house on the block of Clay Avenue that the university bought, after McGowan House, Blair House, and Luzerne House (demolished in 2010). It housed 15 female students, It is named for
St. Aloysius Gonzaga, patron of youth. the gift of an anonymous faculty member. It served as a faculty residence, guest house, and facility for meetings and social gatherings. It was demolished in 2007 and the sophomore dorm Condron Hall was built on the site. Hill House was named in honor of Rev. William B. Hill, S.J. Rev. Hill spent one year teaching at the university as an associate professor of English in 1946 before returning in 1969 to serve as a professor of English. Rev. Hill served in a number of positions at the University of Scranton until his death in 2002. In addition to teaching English, he was the department chair from 1973 until 1975, the academic vice president from 1975 to 1978, special assistant to the president from 1987 until his death in 2002, the chaplain of the board of trustees, and the chaplain of the Pro Deo et Universitate Society. In 1984 on marking his fifteenth year of service to the university, it named the house in his honor.
William J. Byron, S.J. Recreation Complex In 1985, the university began construction on its newest building, a new physical education and recreation complex. Completed in 1986, the William J. Byron, S.J. Recreation Complex is a three-level structure which connects to the Long Center, the facility for intercollegiate athletics. It contains three multi-use courts for basketball, volleyball, tennis, and one-wall handball as well as a one-tenth mile indoor running track, a six-lane Olympic-sized swimming pool complete with diving boards and an electronic scoreboard, four 4-wall racquetball courts, a gallery which overlooks the swimming pool and the racquetball courts, two aerobics/dance rooms, men's and women's locker rooms, saunas, and steam rooms. Panuska spoke about the importance of the new recreation complex, stating that it would help the university offer more "health-related activities" and to serve the recreational needs of the student body, including the intramural program. In addition to dorm rooms, the building also contains numerous study and lounge areas and Collegiate Hall, a large conference room for study, assembly, and ceremonial functions, The buildings of Redington Hall form a "U" that is open to the south to take advantage of the year-round sunshine and look out on South Scranton. The west wing contains Collegiate Hall, angled to face the Commons. Father Panuska asserted that Redington Hall "represents a significant improvement to the living and working environment of [the] campus," in addition to "provid[ing] adequate housing for [the] residential students." It houses 242 sophomore students. It was renamed Rock Hall to honor the late Rev. Joseph A. Rock, S.J., a well-known and respected educator at the University of Scranton. The university's President Panuska noted that "the growth of the university, both in terms of the beauty of its campus and the achievements of its students, was in no small measure due to the efforts of Father Rock, ... [as] his contributions to the university as a teacher, administrator, counselor, and friend were exceptional." while the assembly area was to accommodate smaller social and cultural affairs – including lectures, dinners, dances – to relieve the over-scheduled Jefferson and Eagen Auditoriums. The Chapel is named
Madonna della Strada ("
Our Lady of the Way") in reference to an image of the
Virgin Mary enshrined in the
Church of the Gesu in Rome and serves as the primary site for the university's major liturgical services, including the regular Sunday masses. During the 1980s the university also acquired two other churches. In 1986, it acquired the Immanuel Baptist Church at the corner of Jefferson and Mulberry, which houses the university's Performance Music Programs. In 1987 it acquired the former John Raymond Memorial Church at Madison and Vine, which serves as the Smurfit Arts Center with studio space for the Fine Arts department. The university's efforts were cited in a 1988 edition of
Inspired, a bi-monthly publication devoted to the preservation of historic religious buildings. It originally served as the home for the university's student publication offices, which included the Aquinas student newspaper, the Windhover yearbook, and the literary magazine Esprit. The housing crunch resulted from the city's crackdown on illegal rooming houses, as well as concerns about security and the conditions of off-campus houses, which all led to an increasing demand for on-campus housing. In 1990, the university converted the Hopkins House into the Service House, a themed house meant to bring together students, faculty, and staff with an interest in community service “to act as a catalyst to expand the university’s already considerable involvement in volunteer work” through getting as many people involved as possible and coordinating the volunteer activities of the other student residences. Before it was acquired by the university, Hopkins House was the home of Terry Connors, the university photographer for over four decades. In 2007, Hopkins House was demolished in order to make room for the construction of Condron Hall, a sophomore residence hall.
Houlihan-McLean Center In 1986, the University of Scranton acquired the former Immanuel
Baptist Church at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Mulberry Street in order to house the school's Performance Music Program, which includes the university's orchestra, bands, and singers, as well as to serve as a site for musical and other arts performances, lectures, and special liturgies. The church was built in 1909 in the
Victorian Gothic style. In 1984 it was vacated when the congregation merged with the Bethany and Green Ridge Baptist, and was acquired by the university. After its purchase the building underwent extensive renovations and restoration, including plaster repair and floor refinishing, painting and carpeting, extension of the stage, electrical re-wiring, new lighting, a new sound system, refurbishing the organ, pressure cleaning and restoration of the building's masonry, and the installation of a new roof. The main floor of the building houses the Aula, a concert hall which can seat approximately 650 people; the Atrium, a large space which can be used as a recital, reception, or lecture hall that can seat 400 people and formerly served as the church's Sunday School; the Wycliffe A. Gordon Guest Artist Hospitality Suite; and the sound control room. The Nelhybel Collection Research Room is on the top floor, along with the organ loft and organ chamber. Houlihan-McLean features an historic 1910 Austin Opus 301
symphonic pipe organ, one of only a few surviving examples of early 20th-century organ building. The 3,157 pipes, some as large as 17 feet long and weighing 200 pounds while others are smaller than a pencil, were transported to
Stowe, Pennsylvania, to be cleaned and repaired by specialists at Patrick J. Murphy & Associates, Inc. On January 30, 2005, President Panuska celebrated the restoration by blessing the organ which was then heard for the first time in decades, as concert organist Thomas Murray performed selections by Vivaldi, Schumann, Grieg, Mendelssohn, and Elgar. in addition to a cafe and lounge. Hyland housed the bookstore until it was moved to the
DeNaples Center in 2008. The site of Hyland Hall was previously occupied by Lackawanna College, prior to its move to 901 Prospect Avenue. Since 2001, Hyland has also been home to the university's art gallery, which had been located in The Gallery, demolished in 2001. Hyland's exhibit space is roughly double the size of the old gallery, with a wall of windows, a cathedral ceiling, and moveable walls to enhance the ambiance of the environment, as well as an adjoining workshop and classroom space for lectures and workshops. In 2004, the art gallery was named in honor of Hope Horn, a vibrant force in the arts community of Scranton and prolific painter and sculptor; she'd bequeathed her estate to the University of Scranton to support art and music education.
Harper-McGinnis Wing in St. Thomas Hall In 1987, the university completed construction on the Harper-McGinnis Wing, a two-floor, 14,000 square foot structure connected to St. Thomas Hall which houses offices for the Physics and Electronic Engineering Department's faculty as well as numerous laboratories including a modern and atomic physics lab, an electricity and magnetism lab, a very large system integration lab, and a computer-assisted-design lab. At the time of its completion, the advanced technological features located in the Harper-McGinnis Wing allowed the university and its professors to be on the cutting edge of modern technological research. The wing was named in honor of Dr. Eugene A. McGinnis, a long-time physics professor at the university, and Dr. Joseph Harper, the chairman of the physics department.
Loyola Hall of Science As part of the "Second Cornerstone" campaign, a fifteen million dollar expansion and improvement project, the university extensively renovated Loyola Hall in 1987. Loyola Hall was constructed in 1956, as part of a major campus expansion. Built at a cost of $1,205,000, the reinforced concrete structure featured a porcelain enameled steel "skin" brickwork as well as aluminum mullions along its exterior. At the time of its opening, the ground floor was dedicated to engineering, the first floor to physics, the second floor to biology, and the third floor to chemistry. The penthouse accommodated the university's radio station (WUSV) and its equipment, including a steel radio tower, later dismantled in 1974. When the building was first constructed, its ultra modern design, technologically advanced features, and ability to house all of the science departments in one building made it a vital part of the University of Scranton campus. Before the construction of Loyola Hall, engineering students had to go elsewhere for the final two years of their education because the university lacked the proper equipment to teach them. An additional floor and a twenty-foot extension of Loyola's east wall expanded the floor space of the facility by more than 14,000 square feet. The new space provided room for additional chemistry laboratories, classrooms, research areas, and computer facilities for faculty and students. With the construction of the Loyola Science Center in 2011, Loyola Hall was functionally superseded. The science departments, classrooms, and laboratories formerly housed in Loyola Hall were moved to the more modern, technologically advanced, energy-efficient, and safer Loyola Science Center. In addition to the
Byzantine Rite chapel in the building, the Center was designed to house a 15,000-volume library, office, social area, and a cloister garden. Construction was begun in 1987 and completed later that year. The Center for Eastern Christian Studies was renamed
Ciszek Hall in 2005 in the memory of
Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J., a native of northeastern Pennsylvania and a candidate for sainthood who spent twenty-three years ministering in
Soviet prisons and the labor camps of
Siberia. Currently, Cisek Hall houses the university's Office of Career Services, a chapel which celebrates service in the Byzantine Rite, and a library containing 15,000 books.
St. Edmund Campion, S.J. Hall Campion Hall, opened in 1987, is the university's residence building for the Jesuit community. It is named in honor of
Saint Edmund Campion, S.J., a 16th-century Jesuit pastor and scholar who was
martyred in England during the
persecutions of Roman Catholics for defending his faith, and it provides living and working accommodations for thirty Jesuits. The two-story building also has an interior garden, an office, kitchen and dining facilities, and a chapel in addition to a flexible design with four discrete sections, such that the building could adapt to the changing needs of the Jesuit Community at the university. Before the construction of Campion Hall, the primary residence for the Jesuits at Scranton was the Estate, the former Scranton family residence given to the university by the family in 1941. It provided living accommodations for seventeen of the university's thirty-six Jesuits in the 1980s. The building of Campion Hall, estimated at $1.7 million, was financed entirely by the university's Jesuit community. This was one of the three church buildings acquired by the university in the 1980s (supra). Built in 1906, the Romanesque building contains one of the tallest bell towers in Scranton. The main floor of the small but remarkably designed structure, which contains 7,200 square feet of floor space, is used as a studio-art facility for the Fine Arts program.
John R. Gavigan Residence Hall In 1988, the university under Panuska began construction on a new, four-story residence hall as "part of [the university’s] continuing effort to provide high-quality on-campus student housing." Housing 236 students, the facility accommodates four students in each suite, and features lounges on each floor, study rooms, and a kitchen as well as a study area for its residents on the top floor which features two-story-high glass windows with views of the campus and of the city. The building, named the Gavigan Residence Hall, is dedicated to John R. Gavigan to honor his thirty-eight years of service to the university and his devotion to the institution's students.
Gannon Hall, Lavis Hall, and McCormick Hall Gannon Hall, Lavis Hall, and McCormick Hall, referred to as "GLM," comprise a 47,500 square foot, 220-bed student residential complex for first-year females. Each four-story residence hall features a large lounge on the first floor and smaller lounges on the upper three floors as well as a kitchen on the first floor of each building. The three buildings are connected on each floor by an enclosed walkway. The dorm rooms are the traditional, with communal bathrooms on each floor and two people per room. The university developed Nevils Beach, an open, recreational space, into the new dorm complex. Gannon Hall was named for Rev. Edward J. Gannon, S.J., a member of the philosophy department for 22 years before his death in 1986. Gannon founded the Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Program and served as the editor of
Best Sellers magazine and moderator the
Alpha Sigma Nu honor society. Lavis hoped that his scholarships would provide students with the opportunity to concentrate on their studies and not be overburdened with outside work. In October 1990, the university's board of trustees voted to name the building after him, as Rev. Panuska put it, "out of respect for his many years of spiritual leadership in our Diocese, and in gratitude for the Diocese's and his personal friendship and support of the University." The twenty-foot wide brick walkway, lined by trees, benches, and landscaping, runs through the center of campus. In 1991, under Father Panuska, the University Commons was extended on the 300 block of Quincy between Linden and Mulberry, which had been closed to vehicular traffic and owned by the university since 1987. This pedestrian pathway, named Royal Way, serves as an official entrance to the university and the GLM (Gannon-Lavis-McCormick) student residences. At the time of its construction, the 24-foot-wide Royal Way was paved in z-brick and featured landscaping with trees and shrubs. The Mulberry Street entrance to the Royal Way featured a campus gate, a gift from the University of Scranton Classes of 1985, 1990, and 1991, The sculpture has since been moved to the opposite side of the University Commons, in front of the Long Center.
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library Completed in 1992, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library was designed to replace the Alumni Memorial Library, which proved unable to serve adequately the growing student population, to house the vast library collections, and lacked the necessary wiring for modern technologies. More than double the size of the Alumni Memorial Library, Weinberg has five floors which can seating up to 1000 users at cubicles, tables, group study rooms, and lounges. It also holds the library's collections numbering over 330,000 volumes. On the third floor, there are a number of administrative offices as well as two large classrooms which are used for classes on learning about the library and its services. The fourth floor has a large reading room with a stained glass window and comfortable, quiet environment, with tables and couches. The fifth floor is the Scranton Heritage Room which is a large open hall featuring views of the city, the surrounding mountains, and the Commons, as well as thirty-nine panel paintings by Trevor Southey depicting art, religion, and science in the
Lackawanna Valley and worldwide. Throughout the year, the Heritage Room hosts various exhibits including displays of artifacts and documents from the university's archives and special collections, showcases of faculty scholarship and university alumni authors, and the library's Environmental Art Show. It also serves as the venue for many campus and community events such as lectures, receptions, student award presentations, Game Night, and the library's annual Book Sale. The Pro Deo Room is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In order to accommodate the growing needs of students for more 24-hour study space in the library, the library built a new space in 2010 which contained more than one hundred study spaces for students at cubicles, tables, and couches. This study space was renovated in 2014. Renamed the Reilly Learning Commons, the study room is now an interactive space with high end technology, group study rooms, and areas designed to enhance collaboration. The Learning Commons houses a lecture capture room to practice presentations and record them digitally, two writing center offices, technology support, and iMacs. In order to raise the $13.3 million needed to build the Library, the University of Scranton launched the "Gateway to the Future" Fundraising Campaign. During his speech at the Gateway to the Future Library Kickoff, Panuska underscored the importance of building a library which could adequately serve the needs of the university community, stating: In late 1989,
Harry Weinberg, a former Scranton businessman and long-time benefactor of the University of Scranton, made significant headway in the fundraising goal by announcing a six-million-dollar donation to the university, with five million dollars going to the library and the other one million going to the school's Judaic Studies Institute. In order to honor the significant contribution of Mr. Weinberg, the new library was named for him and his wife. Before becoming home to the Weinberg Memorial Library, the site was the home of Worthington Scranton until he moved to the Estate in 1899, at which point the house was converted into the Hahneman Hospital, relocated in 1906 to the current Community Medical Center site. Until the construction of the Weinberg Memorial Library in the 1990s, the site housed asphalt playing courts. the McDade Center also houses the 300-seat Royal Theater where the University Players stage their productions. The building's other features include a computer writing and instruction lab, a seminar room, a small screening room for film classes, and an office for
Esprit, the university's Review of Arts and Letters. "The Doorway" consists of 18 framed images fabricated variously of steel plate, perforated steel, round steel bars and wire cloth which each represent experiences in the human journey towards truth while the grid itself represents a matrix of inner-connectedness. In 1992, several years after Crawford's wife died, Lackawanna County purchased the estate to serve as the Juvenile Detention Center. Originally, the university planned to renovate and restore the property, where it would relocate the Admissions and Financial Aid offices as well as a combinations switchboard and a visitors area. Its decision to demolish Crawford House ignited fierce opposition from local historical organizations, such as the Lackawanna Historical Society, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the Architectural Heritage Association who believed the house "represent[ed] the lifestyle of a coal baron of the late nineteenth century," and was therefore significant for Scranton, a city founded on coal. The new location in Alumni Memorial Hall "significantly enhance[d] educational and research facilities" for the Psychology Department, as John Norcross, chairman of the Psychology Department, remarked. Originally, the renovations also provided space for the offices for Institutional Research, Learning Resources and Instructional Development, which was later renamed the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence and relocated to the fifth floor of the Loyola Science Center. The buff, iron-spot building was considered cutting edge at the time, with glare-reducing thermo-pane glass, noise-reducing solid brick walls, radiant heating and cooling, and humidity control. Using a digging rig brought in from Texas, contractors sunk 33 steel casings into the ground, each more than 40 feet long, and then poured concrete through them to form pillars in order to support the structure.
Roche Wellness Center The Roche Wellness Center, located at the corner of Mulberry and North Webster, was acquired in 1992 and opened in 1996. Originally built in 1986 by pharmacist Alex Hazzouri, the Wellness Center previously housed Hazzouri's pharmacy and drugstore as well as a restaurant named Babe's Place. In 1989, Alex Hazzouri was arrested and arraigned on drug-trafficking charges and his pharmacy was closed indefinitely, as the government seized the building. After the investigation was closed, the government auctioned off the building in 1992. It was purchased by the university for $500,000. Beginning on August 2, 1993, it served as a home to the Scranton Police Department's Hill Section precinct station. It was constructed to expand on-campus parking, with designated areas for students, faculty, staff, and guests. Additionally, the
parking garage contains the offices of the university's police and the offices of parking services. The 1,500-square-foot facility houses research laboratories, offices, and the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute. The building was created to speed up the process of finding and treating viral diseases and cancer as well as to be able to engineer a patient's immune system to avoid these diseases and to develop DNA probes that could possibly seek out a defective gene that is responsible for cancer. It contains the most advanced proteomics laboratory in the region. The university responded to the need for a local mosque for the growing number of Muslim students, as previously Scranton had no mosques, The Mosque was also equipped with an upstairs apartment where two members of the Muslim Student Association lived and served as caretakers of the facility. In 2007, the Mosque, along with several other properties, was razed in order to establish a site for the sophomore residence, Condron Hall. The university then purchased and renovated a house at 306 Taylor Avenue for use as the new mosque, which is open to the public for prayer and reflection.
Mary Eileen Patricia McGurrin, R.N., M.S.N. Hall Construction on McGurrin began in 1997 while Panuska was serving as president, although it was finished after he had resigned from the presidency. Completed in 1998, McGurrin Hall houses many of the departments in the J.A. Panuska College of Professional Studies, including Education, Nursing, Counseling and Human Services, and Health Administration and Human Resources. The departments of Exercise Science, Occupational Therapy, and Physical Therapy, also part of the Panuska College, are housed in the adjacent Center for Rehabilitation Education. McGurrin's four stories include classrooms, laboratories, teaching instruction labs, and counseling suites as well as the Panuska College of Professional Studies’ advising center and administration offices. When it was built, McGurrin was outfitted with the latest, most advanced technology in its labs and media-based equipment to deal with instruction in electronic media. A member of the American Nurses Association, she was a registered nurse who served on the staff of Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia following completion of her training. She died of cancer in 1995 at the age of thirty-nine. In loving memory of his niece, McGurrin's uncle, Bernard V. Hyland, M.D., made a significant contribution to the Campaign for Scranton, which helped finance the building named in her memory. Faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students from the Panuska College of Professional Studies, along with Pennsylvania licensed staff members, work together to fill gaps in health, wellness, and educational services offered to marginalized and underserved populations. The Center provides a multitude of services to those with special needs, children and families, senior citizens, the homeless, and the uninsured, which include the University of Success, the Alice V. Leahy Food and Clothing Pantry, the Edward R. Leahy, Jr. Center Clinic, "Peacemakers After School," and "Growing Stronger." The Clinic also provides physical therapy and counseling services. "Peacemakers After School" is a program for children between the ages of 9 and 13 and "Growing Stronger" is a program for area senior citizens. ==Other achievements and notable events==