By Abby Kozal, Culture Editor
Aquinas Academic Building in winter – Photo by Abby Kozal
As students returned to campus for the start of the Spring 2025 semester, many were shocked to find that Professor of English and Department Chair Dan Mancilla had left the college.
Multiple students discovered his departure on the first day of the spring semester when they checked their class schedules for Monday and found the word “Unavailable” where their instructor’s name should have been. News quickly spread through word of mouth among the campus with most only finding out from their friends and classmates. They had not been sent any sort of notification beforehand and had to head to class with no idea who their new professor would be.
Some faculty members had not been informed of Mancilla’s departure either. It left many members of the community worried.
“I’m honestly devastated to hear that Dan has left AQ,” said Aquinas Writer’s Guild Vice President Sophia Lentine. She was scheduled to have a class taught by Mancilla on the first day of the spring semester.
“He was a really good professor,” said Lentine, “but I think he could have made a positive impact as head of the English department. I hope that whoever will be taking over his position is just as great.”
Mancilla’s departure is one of many changes that has occurred to Aquinas’s English department over the past few years. Longtime Professors of English Jennifer Dawson and Michelle De Rose both retired at the end of the last school year. By the end of this spring, two other English professors, Rebecca Coogan and Daniel Brooks, are set to retire as well.
Laura Standel, a senior at Aquinas, was meant to have Mancilla as a faculty advisor for her senior capstone. “One week before the semester starts I get an email from Dr. Mancilla saying he was no longer a professor at Aquinas College,” said Standel. “While other professors are interested in my project, none of them have the time to be my supervisor as they all have their own responsibilities.”
Standel shared that she believes Mancilla’s departure is “putting a heavy weight on the English department’s shoulders.”
While Mancilla taught many writing courses at Aquinas, he was also the faculty advisor for The Sampler, a student-led publication for creative writing. Aquinas has yet to find a faculty member to cover this position.
Screenshot from Sampler submission site still listing Mancilla under contact information – Photo by Abby Kozal
Aquinas has hired Jason Stevens to take over Mancilla’s Catholic Writers and Creative Nonfiction classes. Stevens is an alumni of Aquinas, having graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English. He has previous teaching experience at both Cornerstone University and Calvin University.
Despite these changes, Standel has hope for Aquinas’s English department in the next coming years. “I hope the department can take this opportunity to strengthen its educational programs with new professors who are ready to teach literature and writing students,” Standel said. “I am still figuring out how I can complete my capstone in order to graduate this spring, but I know the professors we do have will help me find a way.”
The Saint 