Historic SDU and PWC Documents Highlight a Legacy of Learning
One of the more important documents in the history of higher education in Prince Edward Island has just been added to the PEI Special Collection in the Robertson Library at UPEI. The document is Sister Bernice Cullen's 1941 Bachelor of Arts degree, the first degree ever granted by St. Dunstan's University (SDU). Before 1941, SDU was affiliated with Laval University and degres were granted in the name of that renowned institution. The fact that the first SDU degree was awarded, with honours, to a woman, at a time when relatively few women attended university, makes it all the more remarkable.
Sister Bernice Cullen is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha. Her SDU degree is part of a larger gift that she has made to the Robertson Library's University Archives that includes her certificates and diplomas from both St. Dunstan's University and Prince of Wales College (PWC).
"We are pleased to receive these important pages in the stories of our University's two forebears, and of Sister Bernice Cullen," says Simon Lloyd, UPEI's Special Collections Librarian.. "The fact that this impressive gift includes Sister Cullen's certificates and diplomas from both PWC and SDU is not only a tribute to her exceptional quest for knowledge, it is also a powerful reminder that Prince of Wales and St. Dunstan's were not, in fact, two solitudes, and that there were many students and faculty who, like Sister Cullen, participated in the lives of both institutions."
Before attending St. Dunstan's, Sister Cullen had already established herself as an outstanding scholar at Prince of Wales College. She twice won the Frank R. Heartz Prize, as the top student in both her first and second years of study, and, in 1933, won a high honour third-year diploma, the highest academic attainment possible at PWC at that time.
"Sister Cullen's first- and second-year certificates carry the signatures of her professors, including such well-known figures as Samuel Robertson, JD Steele, J.H. Blanchard, and Eleanor Lowe. Seeing the names of so many educational leaders and#150; not least Sister Cullen herself and#150; together on a single page forcefully illustrates how the legacy of learning passes from one generation to the next," explains Lloyd. "The certificates, and the third-year diploma, also record the marks Sister Cullen achieved in each course. Anyone familiar with the famously tough marking at PWC would surely be impressed."
After graduating from PWC, Sister Cullen taught in local schools. In 1935 she became a professed member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha, and in 1941 she completed her Bachelor of Arts at SDU. By the time she had finished her studies, she was one of the best-educated women in Prince Edward Island. She received her doctorate in Sacred Doctrine from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana in 1958 and joined the faculty of St. Dunstan's, to teach Religious Studies, in 1966. She remained at the University for 13 years, seeing the amalgamation of SDU and PWC through its founding years. Now in her nineties, she remains devoted to her congregation, her community, and her Alma Mater.
Sister Cullen recently attended a special ceremony at UPEI to recognize the historic importance of the documents she has donated to the Robertson Library. Claire Trainor, conservation technician with the Archives Council of Prince Edward Island, had used her expertise in archival best practices to 'relax', unroll, and press the documents, safely preparing them for display at the ceremony. Special Collections Librarian Simon Lloyd expressed the University's appreciation of the gifts.
"Taken together, these and other documents in the collection provide a unique and valuable insight into the outstanding Island education of an outstanding Islander," he said. "On behalf of the Archives' users, we thank Sister Cullen for her vision and generosity in entrusting this legacy to us."
In 2000, Sister Cullen was recognized as an important contributor to the development of post-secondary education in PEI by being named among the first group of and#145;Founders' to be honoured by UPEI. The University also recognized her, together with the other members of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha, through an honorary degree in 2005.
