International Higher Education, May 1995

Some Critical Issues Facing Jesuit Higher Education Today

Our own enthusiasm about the future may depend on how much we feel that the higher education institutions we now call "Jesuit" still retain their Jesuit identity. While some people in our institutions may care little about Jesuit ideals, many others do identify strongly with Jesuit education, and still more will want the university or college to retain its identity as a "Jesuit" school. But what do we mean by Jesuit education? To answer that, to establish Jesuit identity, we must link our work in education with the Ignatian spirituality that inspires it.

Here let me mention but a few Ignatian themes that enlighten and give impetus to our work in higher education: the Ignatian worldview is world-affirming, comprehensive, places emphasis on freedom, faces up to sin, personal and social, but points to God's love as more powerful than human weakness and evil, is altruistic, stresses the essential need for discernment, and gives ample scope to intellect and affectivity in forming leaders. Are not these and other Ignatian themes also essential to the values a Jesuit college or university endorses? And in so doing Jesuit education challenges much that contemporary society presents as values.

Each academic discipline within the realm of the humanities and social sciences, when honest with itself, is well aware that the values transmitted depend on assumptions about the ideal human person that are used as a starting point. Our institutions make their essential contribution to society by embodying in our education process a rigorous, probing study of crucial human problems and concerns. It is for this reason that Jesuit colleges and universities must strive for high academic quality. This amounts to something far removed from the facile and superficial world of slogans or ideology, of purely emotional and self-centered responses, and of instant, simplistic solutions. Teaching and research and all that goes into the educational process are of the highest importance in our institutions because they reject and refute any partial or deformed vision of the human person. This is in sharp contrast to educational institutions that often unwittingly sidestep the central concern for the human person because of fragmented approaches to specializations.

In addition to rigor and critical analysis, there is something we can and should do together. When working on his essay "The Idea of a University," John Henry Newman demonstrated that the very name universitas highlights the fact that the university is not a place where there is merely a quantitative accumulation of knowledge or simply a conglomeration of faculties and institutes. In a university each scientific discipline is seen to be insufficient in itself to explain the fullness of creation. Thus a qualitative integration of inquiry is sought that can lead to an appreciation of more comprehensive truth. How far this is from the view that portrays the university as merely an administrative umbrella for unconnected fields of research.

It is a pity that an interdisciplinary approach, the only significant way to heal the fracture of knowledge, is still considered a luxury reserved to occasional staff seminars or a few doctoral programs. Of course, an interdisciplinary approach is not without problems: it runs the risk of simply overloading students, of teaching them relativism, of inadmissible violation of the methodology of individual disciplines. But a love of the whole truth, a love of the integral human situation can help us to overcome even these potential problems.

Just being practical, today the key problems that face men and women on the brink of the 21st century are not simple. What single academic discipline can legitimately pretend to offer comprehensive solutions to real questions like those relating to genetic research, corporate takeovers, definitions concerning human life - its start and its end, homelessness and city planning, poverty, illiteracy, developments in medical and military technology, human rights, the environment, and artificial intelligence. These require empirical data and technological know-how. But they also cry out for consideration in terms of their impact on men and women from a holistic point of view. So they demand, in addition, sociological, psychological, ethical, philosophical and theological perspectives if the solutions proposed are not to remain sterile. Continually developing capacities to control human choices present us with moral questions of the highest order. These questions are not solved in an undisciplinary manner, for they embrace human, and not simply technical values. Every day of the week, there are debates about the beginning of life and preparation of instruments to end it. Are we preparing our students to know, to really believe because they know, that just because some technological advance is possible for us, we are not thereby justified in its development and its use. Do we challenge the leaders of tomorrow to reflect critically on the assumptions and consequences of 'progress'? Do we challenge them to ponder both the wonderful possibilities and the limits of science? Do we help them to see that often significant civil financial decisions are not merely political manifestos but also moral statements?

This concern for a more holistic inquiry should be true of any college or university. But in a Jesuit educational institution, teaching and research ought to be inconceivable without the integration of different forms of knowledge with human values and with theology. In a Jesuit college or university the knowledge of the whole of reality remains incomplete, and to that extent untrue, without the knowledge of the humanizing Incarnation of God in Christ and the divinizing of men and women by the gift of the Spirit.

Our universities of course must do this precisely as universities following our heritage and tradition. This heritage and tradition promotes a culture that emphasizes the value of human dignity and the good life in its fullest sense by fostering academic freedom, by demanding excellence of schools and students that must include moral responsibility and sensitivity, and by treating religious experience and questions as central to human culture and life. The aim here is Ignatian and clear: the greater good.

Concrete means to achieve such an integrated program might be sought in the substance and methodologies employed in the core curriculum or in significant capstone courses for senior students on social, cultural, and ethical responsibilities - and in that contemplative capacity for God and the world that lies at the very center of their human existence.

In this enterprise, it is important to remember that we are part of an international apostolic order. We live in an era where global thinking and action are the immediate future. International business conglomerates multiply, rapidly adapting to the world community; airlines are fast becoming "world carriers," the media are beaming programs around the globe. We cannot remain limited to parochial or individual enthusiasms. Will we really help to form men and women for others in the world community of the 21st century if we do not adapt to the changing international culture? And this is a corporate responsibility, with all of us participating in some way according to resources and interests, and with a genuine desire to help others.

A number of Jesuit colleges and universities have made strides in international collaboration. I know of international student and faculty exchanges; some institutions have campuses abroad. These are signs of the typically Jesuit impulse to incorporate a global dimension into our educational programs not as occasional special events, but as part of the fiber of what it means to be Jesuit colleges or universities. Such international consciousness can only help to equip our students for life in the global village. But I believe that we must intensify these efforts even in areas of cooperative research because the need is great.

The service of faith and promotion of justice remain the Society's major apostolic focus. It is urgent that this mission, which is profoundly linked with our preferential love for the poor, be operative in Jesuit institutions. It must, in whatever suitable form, be expressed in our institutional mission statements. Words have meaning; if a college or university describes itself as "Jesuit" or "in the Jesuit tradition," the thrust and practice of the institution should correspond to that description. It should be operative in a variety of ways. The recruitment of students must include special efforts to make a Jesuit education possible for the disadvantaged. But let it be noted, and let there be no misunderstanding: the option for the poor is not an exclusive option, it is not a classist option. We are not called upon to educate only the poor, but also the disadvantaged. The option is far more comprehensive and demanding, for it calls upon us to educate all - rich, middle class, and poor - from a perspective of justice. We should challenge all of our students to use the option for the poor as a criterion, making no significant decision without first thinking of how it would impact the least in society. This has serious implications for curricula, for development of critical thinking and values, for interdisciplinary studies for all, for campus environment, for service and immersion experiences, for community.

Our mission today clearly has implications, too, for staffing. It is obvious, and has been obvious for many years, that our educational institutions could not survive without the presence and assistance of many dedicated lay people. We have been blessed by God with many lay people who have shared our vision and our principles, and have worked in our institutions with real dedication. As time goes on, however, we need to do more - in the selection of professors, administrative staff and members of Boards, and especially in ongoing formation for both Jesuits and lay people in order to create an educational community united in mission. All too often we have seen cases where new lay colleagues are welcomed into Jesuit faculties solely on the basis of academic or other professional credentials. Unless there is a prior clarity concerning a statement of the mission of the institution, and a prior acceptance and commitment to foster this mission, it seems unrealistic to expect that we can hope for an institution to continue "in the Ignatian tradition." And growth in understanding and commitment needs to be cultivated through faculty seminars, discussions and the like, as well as through individual conversations and friendships. Clearly, opportunities for closer involvement in sharing in the spirit and mission of the institution should be offered through colloquia, retreats, and liturgies for those who are open to and desirous of them. This is not a case of too few Jesuits needing to seduce the laity into acting like Jesuits. That thinking is not worthy of us. Rather the many views of all members of the higher education community who follow Ignatius with their own perspectives must come together to affect the university's life and developing Ignatian tradition.

In briefly describing some issues that confront us, it becomes clear that the challenge Jesuit universities face is not easy. But it has always been a hallmark of the Jesuit tradition that we work at the growing edge of human and apostolic developments. This is rooted in the motto of the Society of Jesus, which rejects complacency and mediocrity. It calls us all to work for others to the greater glory of God, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.