University Commons Renamed After Passionate Supporters

Funding from Barbara Naclerio and her late husband, Richard, supports faculty research

Sacred Heart University’s University Commons is now Naclerio Commons in honor of Barbara Naclerio and her late husband, Richard, longtime supporters of faculty research. The name change means all room numbers that once began with UC now begin with NC. The auditorium is now called the Naclerio Commons Auditorium.

The Naclerios met SHU President John J. Petillo years ago in an airport, before the latter assumed his current post. “We were so impressed with him then,” Barbara Naclerio recalled recently.

The couple’s granddaughter, Elizabeth D’Onofrio ’12, attended SHU at the time, and the Naclerios had seen the school. They thought highly of it, but they had no idea how Petillo’s leadership would transform the University in the years to come.

Watching SHU evolve into a world-class institution inspired the Naclerios to fund faculty scholarships through the end of the decade. Barbara Naclerio said her husband especially wanted to do something for the faculty.

“Richard always said, ‘They’re the ones on the ground, teaching and molding young people,’” she said, and so the couple established the Richard and Barbara Naclerio Faculty Scholars Program in 2013 to support and facilitate the work of emerging academic leaders.

The Naclerios shared the University’s vision of cultivating academic excellence through innovative research. Their scholarship program offers monetary awards to tenure-track faculty in good standing from across all disciplines who have demonstrated their interest and capability in conducting scholarly research of benefit to the academic community and their field of study.

“We’re so proud to support professors at an institution that grows and continues to become better and better,” Naclerio said.

The Naclerios also made countless other donations to the University over the years, during which time another grandchild, Matthew D’Onofrio, attended as a business major, graduating in May.

“We are so proud to be associated with Sacred Heart, and we are so pleased with how they’ve made us and our grandchildren feel,” Naclerio said. “We just love watching it grow, and it’s exciting to see what’s going to happen next.”