In the spirit of reflection, we pose these questions as an opportunity to extend the conversation. We hope that by offering these ideas, the discussion continues on your campus— with colleagues, with students, and with your community. The Ignatian tradition privileges the role of discernment—the examining of our inner desires for trends that lead us to joy, sorrow, consolation, and desolation. Ignatius believed that if we prayed with and tracked our desires each day, we might find the voice of God instructing us on how we ought to live and where we might find the most joy.
The same can be said of the work we all do at our Jesuit institutions: We are called to address real and pressing issues that may seem in conflict with our Jesuit mission. We must also discern the role Jesuit institutions play in the Catholic Church as a whole. These questions are meant to start the process; you may have others that are worth discussing at your institutions.
In what ways do we at our institutions perpetuate an academic sort of “clericalism,” in which we permit and enact “uncritical deference” and support academic “hierarchical superiority?” Can we name signs of a “doctorate-ism” or a belief that faculty deserve greater respect and privileges simply because they are members of the faculty or have more advanced degrees? To what degree does that affect relationships between faculty and staff?
The relationship between a diocesan bishop and a Jesuit college in his diocese can raise murky questions of identity. As a Catholic college, the institution would reasonably expect to interact with the ordinary in particular ways. But as a Jesuit college, the college’s Catholicity comes through a different vein than the diocesan. So how should a bishop and a Jesuit college view one another? What sorts of help or expectations between them would be reasonable and mutually beneficial? What sorts of expectations or relationship models would be inappropriate?
What positive steps can the university play in ways to address the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church?
What about these stories resonates with my own institution’s relationship with the bishop of the diocese we serve? What kind of working relationship does my institution have with our local bishop? What other models of interaction or collegiality might there be?
Has there been a productive creative followup to the MPE process? How is your institution planning on implementing the fruits of the process?
What can we learn from international practices as we expand our partnerships around the world?
In what ways can we encourage each other, as AJCU colleagues, to live and work in the spirit of our shared values? Do we do everything we can to boost each other up, as peer institutions that make up the AJCU?
Are Jesuit institutions competing too much for the shrinking pool of students?
Is there a continuing value to being all things to all students, or would all Jesuit schools benefit from focusing on two or three fields? What would your institution’s fields be?
How is your institution adapting and advancing the mission in these challenging times? In what ways do the current difficulties offer opportunities for my department or institution?