President Julie Sullivan said Monday that parents of prospective students have contacted her about the Rev. Michael Keating, who is on leave from the university after being accused of sexual contact with a minor before he was hired.

Sullivan spoke to faculty, staff and some students in the Woulfe Alumni Hall for her third “brown bag lunch” session, a series intended to help develop initiatives for an upcoming strategic planning process. She mentioned parents’ phone calls about Keating in a preface to the discussion.

Sullivan said she told the parents that the university is legally independent of the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis, where Keating served as a priest, and St. Thomas has not been named in any lawsuit. Keating is not living on campus during the duration of his leave, and he is responsible for his financial and legal obligations, she said.

Sullivan said the archdiocese has started its own investigation and is following its own protocol for the situation. She added that St. Thomas has hired a third party to start an internal investigation, and some faculty policies about background reviews and reporting potential threats will come under review.

“It’s really to ensure that our campus is as safe as it can be,” Sullivan said. “Most of these policies don’t have anything to do with the allegations. These are really policies that we should just have.”

According to Sullivan, administrators originally slated Catholic identity as the discussion topic for the session but then shifted the focus given the recent allegations involving St. Thomas and the archdiocese.

Sullivan said there will be another opportunity to discuss St. Thomas’ Catholic identity as a part of the strategic planning process.

During the remainder of the 45-minute gathering, Sullivan led a discussion about defining and furthering excellence at St. Thomas.

Sullivan said she hopes to have a strategic-planning steering committee appointed by the end of November with the objective of starting to implement initiatives by the fall 2014 semester that will contribute to the overall strategic goals.

The event was also shown live on the Minneapolis campus. Attendees brought their own bag lunch to the conversation and were encouraged to voice opinions at any point of the get-together.

A common theme suggested by audience members was expanding local and national awareness of St. Thomas, and integrating interdisciplinary activities inside and outside of the classroom. Many also said St. Thomas should focus on teaching students to pursue excellence in communities beyond the St. Thomas campus.

Others mentioned the need to develop stronger connections with alumni for mentoring, fundraising and recruiting purposes.

Junior Genevieve Herkert was one of the few students at the luncheon. Herkert, who came to St. Thomas from Seattle, expressed to the group that having employers beyond the Twin Cities area recognize St. Thomas is important to her.

“We have to keep focused on our students,” Sullivan said. “What will make it successful is letting us know where you see success, and we should continue building on those strong points.”

Anastasia Straley can be reached at stra0669@stthomas.edu.