For the past two decades, Seattle University professors from the Albers School of Business and Economics have taken a select group of graduate students and Seattle U alumni on an eight-day intensive trip to the Dolomites, an iconic range in the Italian Alps often referred to as the ‘Pale Mountains’. This year, for the first time since the program began, excluding years impacted by COVID-19, the program was not selected as an education-abroad opportunity.
The Dolomites Study Tour has been offered by Albers as a part of the Global Leadership and Social Dynamics Emotional Intelligence Course. The program was started in 2003 by former Albers professor Bill Weis and his colleague Nils Peterson, but was taken over by adjunct professor Hartley McGrath upon Weis’s retirement.
The program evolved over the years, but its main focus was helping people become better leaders by learning how to improve relationships and practice empathy, particularly in the world of business.
“You can have all the technical skills in the world, but if you don’t know how to be in a relationship with others, you won’t get very far. This class is about the human connection you can’t learn from a textbook. In our current epidemic of loneliness and disconnection, we risk training students for a world of isolation if we don’t provide them with these tools,” McGrath said.
In an email to The Spectator, the Dean of Albers, Dan Turner, commented on the rejected proposal.
“These were difficult decisions, and they do not reflect on the quality of the course, the faculty members, or Albers’ commitment to values-based, transformative education,” Turner wrote.
Turner stated that the declining of the program proposal was due to enrollment numbers.
“In deciding which proposals to fund this year, we considered recent enrollment trends and how many students each tour typically serves. Proposals that consistently reach larger numbers of students and that serve both undergraduate and graduate populations were prioritized so that limited funds could benefit as many students as possible,” Turner wrote.
McGrath feels that discontinuing the program in 2026 goes against the values that Seattle U strives to uphold. In a heartfelt post on her LinkedIn page, McGrath expressed her disappointment.
“We often discuss Jesuit values and Cura Personalis, but when we cut programs that foster deep connections and global perspectives, we lose the heart of what makes this community and SU special,” McGrath wrote.
The post garnered a large reaction, with 14,000 impressions and 44 comments written, predominantly from program alumni, expressing how deeply this trip impacted them.
One alumnus, Anh Pham, commented on McGrath’s post, explaining that the program was one of the factors that drew him to Seattle U.
“This is so upsetting—one of the things which has helped me succeed in my career since my time at SU in the MBA program, is having learned how to lead with emotional intelligence. It is what made the program stand out from other MBA programs in the region and nationally in my opinion,” Pham commented.
Pham wasn’t the only former attendee to voice support under McGrath’s post. Many other former students shared experiences of the trip, its impact on them and their regret that current students might not get to experience it.
“This course changed my life and still impacts me today. When I talk about Seattle University, this course is the thing I share about,” Melissa Keightley, another alumnus of the trip, commented.
When asked about the mass response to her post, McGrath said that she felt encouraged and affirmed.
“I think I know the impact this course has, but I wanted to see if that was actually true. The LinkedIn response didn’t just affirm it. It amplified it. It really proved to me the reach of this program is far beyond what happens in Pigott,” McGrath said.
The program included classroom sessions in which students studied works by authors specializing in emotional intelligence, such as Brené Brown and Chade-Meng Tan. It also focused on cultural intelligence, self-awareness and peer coaching. In addition to the classes and workshops, program participants practiced morning yoga, went sightseeing and spent time in the beautiful alpine landscape.
McGrath thinks the most beneficial aspect of the program was how it allowed students to foster connections in a divided world through encouraging empathy and compassion. It is these qualities, she argues, that make a good leader.
“[The program provided] learning tools that you can take with you into your relationships outside of that setting, into your work or into your personal lives, where you can be a better partner, a better leader, better boss, a better colleague,” McGrath said.
McGrath believes that although the program has historically been tied to business and marketing students, it could be adapted to partner with other schools outside of Albers. She is even open to bringing the program to a different university entirely, although she still hopes the program will be chosen by Seattle U in the future.
As a former Redhawk, McGrath says that Seattle U holds a special place in her heart and that she wants to continue supporting other alumni and students through this program.
“We shouldn’t be putting our most signature, alumni-supported experiences on a shelf; we should be championing them as a way to develop a leader who knows how to truly connect,” McGrath said.
Turner emphasized how, through the other programs that Albers offers, students will still have access to rigorous and transformative international learning experiences. One of the programs that Albers will be offering this summer is a ten-day intensive trip to Sansepolcro, Italy.
A correction was made on Jan. 22, 2026: This article was updated to correct three errors. Hartley McGrath’s title (she is an adjunct professor, not an associate professor) and to correct the spelling of Nils Peterson and Bill Weis’s names (previously Mills Peterson and Bill Weiss).
Corrections are made during production when errors are identified in time, so not all corrections may appear in every edition.
