The mission of Boston College, as a Jesuit and Catholic university, includes the intellectual, social, moral, and spiritual formation of its students. What role does the faculty—a group that includes people of different faith traditions as well as atheists and agnostics—play in this formation? Clearly as professors we see ourselves as educators of the mind. But do we have a role in shaping the heart and the spirit as well? How would we go about the whole person education in the classroom, assuming we're inclined to do so? In his 2000 speech at Santa Clara, Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. said that the "real measure of our Jesuit universities lies in who our students become." Do we know what we want our students to become? What role do we play, as teachers and mentors, in their journeys?
The Common Room faculty retreat is an opportunity to gather with colleagues and discuss the vocation of teaching in a beautiful and peaceful setting. The Snowy Owl Inn, located in New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest, offers large and comfortable rooms, fireplaces, and wood stoves in the public common spaces, a heated swimming pool, and nearby cross-country and hiking trails and downhill skiing. Family members are invited to join us at the retreat, and there will be plenty of time for casual conversations, recreation, and window shopping in Waterville Valley village.
Contact Burt Howell for more information.