Outside Presidents Hall, some of the 1,500 members -- a record -- in the Class of 2021 were going through orientation on the Seton Hall University campus in South Orange one recent day.
As I entered the solemn halls, I examined the life-size portraits of past presidents, mostly priests, all men.
Suddenly, Dr. Mary Meehan emerged and extended her hand, saying, "I'm Mary."
The first woman president of the oldest, and perhaps largest, diocesan Catholic university in the country invited me into her spacious office for a conversation on her historic, albeit interim, appointment.