ORCHARD LAKE, Mich. — Ave Maria University had two goals when it took over St. Mary's College in 2000: to save it financially and to improve Catholic higher education by developing a curriculum in line with the vision of Pope John Paul II.

Now, three years later, Dominos Pizza founder Tom Monaghan's Ave Maria has ended its relationship with the school in order to put its finances toward the creation of a new campus near Naples, Fla. Monaghan had hoped to build the university on Dominos Farms property in Ann Arbor, Mich., but was turned down by the township.

The pullout has affected hundreds of students, faculty and staff, and the reaction has varied from confusion and disappointment to understanding and optimism.

In the meantime, Madonna University in nearby Livonia has stepped in to absorb St. Mary's, which was founded in 1885 by a Polish priest, Father Joseph Dabrowski. It will become Madonna's eighth college.

Sister Rose Marie Kujawa, president of Madonna, said it will retain the courses unique to St. Mary's, especially the integrated Catholic core curriculum, for which many students and faculty came to the school from all over this country and more than 20 other countries.

“I am confident that over 200 of St. Mary's 370 students will transfer to Madonna, and I am hoping for 300, “ she said. “As far as the faculty, we had them all fill out applications as soon as possible, and we have hired over half of them. The transition has been difficult, but I sense more optimism every day.”

“The greatest challenge is with scholarships,” she continued. “Our policy is to only offer them if we know where the money is coming from. We won't be able to offer as many, or as much funding, as St. Mary's did, but we are working with private donors to try to get more funding for the students than is currently available. We hope to know by June 18 how many donors will step up to the plate.”

To assist the transition to Madonna University, Ave Maria has pledged $1.2 million during the next three years mainly to support the core curriculum. The money will go toward technology, a new library, faculty support and some scholarships.

But it is the overall decrease in scholarship money available that has left many of St. Mary's students in limbo, waiting to hear when and how much funding they will receive so they can decide if they will be able to afford to stay at the school.

Josip Golub came from Croatia on an $8,000-per-year scholarship and says he won't be able to continue his senior year if that is substantially reduced.

“Nobody has told me or the other students yet how much, if any, money we will receive,” he said. “They say they will let us know as soon as possible. I am not losing faith, but I am concerned and worried.”

“Ave Maria pulled the rug out from under us so suddenly that it left us in a tailspin,” said Sarah Summerlin from Louisiana. “There is a great sense of sadness and confusion, and not many positive feelings toward Ave Maria. There was something great happening on this campus, but now an opportunity has been lost. We don't see the same thing continuing at Madonna. Though much of the curriculum will carry over, the teachers who have a heart for it won't be there.”

And for Molly Cameron, residence director at St. Mary's, it's more of the same.

“This is a small school, and we have worked hard on building a Catholic program,” she said. “Though Madonna has done the best they can, we are afraid that the mission and commitment will die out. And it looks like those who do receive scholarships will only get about one-eighth as much as before. That's especially hard for international students who aren't allowed to work off-campus and can only work 20 hours per week.”

Some of the St. Mary faculty have been hired by Madonna, some have found jobs elsewhere and some, like Kelly Bowring, are waiting, just like their students. Bowring, who taught sacred theology and catechetics at St. Mary's, was interviewed by Madonna in early May but so far has not been contacted about a job.

He sums up his feelings this way: “When I was hired three years ago, I was given reassurance by the administration that this was a stable situation, and that they would take care of me and my family of seven who moved here from Corpus Christi, Texas, regardless of how things developed with the merger.

“The news that Ave Maria would no longer support St. Mary's came as a shock to all of us here. Ave Maria University did not notify St. Mary's of the separation until mid-December 2002, and faculty did not find out until January. Anyone in academia knows this is too late to begin looking for an academic position for the following year.”

To this, Nick Healy, president of Ave Maria University in Florida, responded, “at the time of the agreement, it was made clear that we could exit after three years if the deficit was becoming more than projected, which it did. Our decision was strictly a financial one. The charge about competition is absolutely not true. We are still giving money to Madonna. Why would we fund our competition?”

He was addressing the charge that Ave Maria pulled out of St. Mary's College was the success of St. Mary's in drawing students to its core curriculum and catechetical institute — thus becoming a source of competition to Ave Maria College and Ave Maria University in attracting students.

Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, which monitors the orthodoxy of Catholic higher learning institutions, gave the school the benefit of the doubt.

“It's a sad situation as far as the human toll, especially for all the families and students who relocated,” he said. “At the same time, I don't think Tom Monaghan would deliberately leave St. Mary's in a position where its Catholic identity could be gutted. We will be watching closely to see that as a part of Madonna University, St. Mary's will retain its Catholic flavor, curriculum and identity.”

Another organization affected by the separation of Ave Maria from St. Mary's is the Institute for Pastoral Theology, which was under St. Mary's so that any master's in theology studies degrees offered by the institute would be accredited. It also serves five other colleges in the nation. According to David Twellman, an associate director of the institute, it is in negotiations to continue at Madonna.

“The vision that Tom Monaghan has is wonderful and is something we should pursue,” he said. “Sometimes change is necessary and is set in motion by things not under our control. We are prepared to face the adversities. And we have found that when the situation is explained to our students, they are happy and as optimistic as I am.”

Bob Horning writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.