By Debra K. Mooney
Decades ago, at the Office of Human Resources meetings to welcome the newly hired to our campus, I used a visual demonstration to introduce the vital role that they will play in carrying on the Jesuit Catholic identity of the university, given the declining presence of Jesuits. First, I showed a clear bowl filled with about 1000 cinnamon red hot candies representing the university’s full-time faculty and staff. Next, I dropped in 10 to 12 Tic Tacs signifying the Jesuits (nowadays, I’d be dropping 3-5 candies). I stirred them up, and the “Jesuits” disappeared. I commented on how it highlights the importance of the contribution of these new hires to securing the future of Jesuit higher education, the world’s largest network of schools, colleges, and universities dating back over 450 years.
Today, I offer the same call to my recently hired colleagues but not as the main and front-end missive. Ensuring the future of the Jesuit tradition and identity is noble, but it is an outcome. This happens when each person feels personally engaged, energized, and empowered by the mission, and each knows that they are a critical part of the community. This sense of genuine connection is primal and in dispensable to a person’s well-being, happiness, and engagement. Consequently, I now emphasize the university’s appreciation that they have chosen to share their gifts and talents at our campus and how they sincerely belong at this institution rather than the call to continue a tradition. In other words, the intention is “look at what the tradition can do for you” rather than what you can (or even need to) do for the tradition.
In this article, I have been invited to share my experience in “Doing Lay Mission Formation Well for the Care of the Jesuit Endeavor.” I believe effective formation is less about specific programs and knowledges, albeit important, and all about effectively communicating how people can – and will – find meaning and purpose in their work through the institution’s Jesuit mission and identity. This belief is underscored at orientation. In fact, I consider it the goal of orientation and on-boarding, accomplished through five key messages offered directly and indirectly to the newly hired:
The Mission is not an add-on – instead, the hopes, desires, and dreams that they have for their career and their vocation will come to fruition through the mission.
They are not invited into the mission – Yes, I say that, “You are NOT invited into the mission.” I pause for (theatrical) effect and finish the comment with “you are the mission, identity, and culture of the university.”
They are full members of the campus family (even if it is their first day on campus) – because everyone can connect to the mission and Jesuit identity in meaningful ways that align with their spirituality, faith, professional expertise, personality, interests, and personal worldview. This, of course, piques their interest and curiosity in figuring out in what ways this is true for them.
Their unique talents are (eagerly) desired – Because everyone animates the mission in personal, distinctive, and novel ways, when pooled together it makes a campus, our campus, a better, richer, and deeper mission-centered institution. In other words, diversity is sincerely valued and honored. If the candy demonstration was performed today, I would instead use an array of colorful M&M’s.
They are leaders in the mission (again, from day 1) – At Xavier, new faculty and staff are informed that the provincial assistant for higher education stated that we have a “deep bench” with regards to mission engagement. Continuing with the metaphor, they are told that this flows from the fact that, on our campus, bench players get playing-time and so much so that they earn a varsity letter. As a result, they should consider themselves a varsity-letter-holder in mission. While this metaphor is surely lighthearted, the essence is profound.
Certain features at orientation help to reinforce the five points and deepen the sense of belonging. The first is that mission orientation should be solely about the Jesuit mission and identity. Of course, there are on-boarding processes and meetings offered through human resources, academic affairs, and at the department level. Effective mission orientation is complementary to those in order to provide the necessary breadth and depth of essential understanding. Second, faculty, staff, and administrators should participate together to reflect the common mission of educating students. Third, because a culture is a group of people with a shared language and set of values and behaviors, defining mission vocabulary is essential. This refers to the commonly used Ignatian and Jesuit terms – and not only the lesser known Latin words and phrases, that is, cura personalis, magis, but also familiar words, such as solidarity, service, and reflection. The context and meaning in which these words are used at our Jesuit universities is not always understood, and a simple explanation is powerful. It is for this reason that the late Fr. George Traub’s Do You Speak Ignatian?: A Glossary of Terms Used in Ignatian and Jesuit Circles is so popular.
Finally, the most important orientation feature is that the presenters represent the full breadth of the campus family. As much as possible, they should not be the president and campus mission officers. It speaks more to have an assistant professor of mathematics describe the ways she fosters social justice education in her classes, a Jewish academic advisor outline the mission statement, a groundskeeper offer the opening prayer, and a computer technologist highlight the life of St. Ignatius Loyola and historical points in the founding of the university. New hires see themselves through the various speakers, the variety of M&Ms. In short, a sense of belongingness and mission consciousness developed at orientation lays the critical foundation for deeper engagement.
It has been said by Sister Jeanne Knoerle, S.P., that “the identity of an institution lies not in what anyone says about it from time to time but in what everyone does about it every day .” In summary , a culture of care for the Jesuit endeavor emerges from a collective of individual connections to the mission begun at orientation. In other words, cura apostolica flows from a culture in which everyone can say “I belong. I am valued. And I make a difference every day.”
Debra K. Mooney, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist, is the Vice President for Mission and Identity and founding director of the Conway Institute for Jesuit Education at Xavier University.