Arrivederci, Brother Rob
Jenny Erasmus
Issue date: 10/18/06 Section: News
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Brother Rob leaves on November 11, less than a month from now, and will be gone until the end of March. For these five months he will live in Rome with a group of 30 international Christian Brothers. Together they will be studying LaSallian spirituality. Brother Rob is one of only three American Brothers attending the event, as well as the only Brother from Manhattan College.
In March, he will return for just one month before taking off again, this time for an even bigger trip.
Brother Rob will again be traveling to Rome in the spring. However, this time he will be with a larger group of about 50 Brothers, again from all over the world, and the overall experience will be much different. His time will be spent with a general chapter of Brothers who meet every six years. Brother Robert's second trip to Rome begins in April and ends in early June.
When Brother Robert was specially invited to partake in this excursion he said it took him no more than five seconds to decide he wanted to participate. It is the chance of a lifetime.
His feelings about leaving Manhattan College for such an extended period of time are mixed. "I'm excited about meeting Brothers from all around the world," he said, "but I also regret that I am not going to see this class graduate and I'm just going to miss good people. It's going to be tough."
It's going to be tough for Manhattan College, too.
Freshmen recognize Brother Rob as that intimidating Jasper Idol judge from this summer's annual Freshman Orientation play. Others know him as a teacher, a colleague, and a friend.
For the past nineteen years Brother Robert has been a familiar face on the college's campus. A teacher of Religious Studies, Vice President for Student Life and the self proclaimed "owner of Jasper," Brother Rob is an influential part of Manhattan College.
There are a few things he will not be missing so much. Bother Rob says he is looking forward to waking up in the morning and not seeing a stack of write-ups underneath his door on the fifth floor of Jasper Hall. "Every year I think I've seen everything-until the next year," he says.
For the entire time Brother Rob has been a Brother at Manhattan College he has been the Resident Director of Jasper Hall.
The shelves in Brother Robert's room are plastered with pictures of every RA group from 1988 to today. "I could blackmail alumni between now and the end of the world," he joked.
Brother Rob is looking forward to the change. He has been to Rome once before, but he has never been given the opportunity to do something like this. "All the Brothers that have gone, the Brothers at Manhattan College and other places that have gone on this before, they said it is life-changing in terms of meeting Brothers from Africa, Asia, [and] South America."
Will he be back next year? He's hoping.
We hope so, too. We hope that Brother Rob has a safe and wonderful trip. We're hoping to see him next fall back in Jasper 501, writing up freshmen and ruling Jasper for at least the next 6 years.