Archive for the ‘Colleges and Universities’ Category

Jesuit Father Jean Turgeon, honorary professor in the department of mathematics and statistics at the University of Montreal, has been named Loyola University Maryland’s first Jesuit Chair, an endowed position for a visiting Jesuit teaching scholar made possible by contributions from the Jesuit Community at Loyola.

A small percentage of the $1.5 million endowment will fund the chair in perpetuity and bring in a new Jesuit scholar from another institution for one semester each year. The chair will have the opportunity to do research, attend conferences, network with faculty across departments, and deliver a public lecture. The chair will also teach one course; for Fr. Turgeon, it’s a history of mathematics class in the Spring 2012 semester.

“Accomplished outside experts like Fr. Turgeon bring new perspectives, new ideas, new life to Loyola,” said Jesuit Father James J. Miracky, dean of Loyola College, Loyola’s school of arts and sciences. “As a Jesuit, he understands our tradition and mission, and he’s rooted in our spirituality. I am confident he will make an immediate connection with our faculty and the rest of the Loyola community.”

Fr. Turgeon has taught at the University of Montreal since 1970. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Toronto and has published dozens of books, chapters, and articles in his career. Fr. Turgeon joined the Society of Jesus in 1956, was ordained in 1971, and took his last vows as a Jesuit in 1978. He is fluent in English and French.

Loyola actively recruits Jesuits who are in the early stages of their careers, and the chair, which reaches out to established professors, adds experience to that mix.

“While the Jesuit tradition at Loyola is still active and thriving within our teaching, scholarship, and conversations, we are constantly challenging ourselves to improve and we value having Jesuits on campus who have had the primary experience and learning associated with being a Jesuit,” said Timothy Snyder, Ph.D., vice president for academic affairs at Loyola. “With that experience, Fr. Turgeon will make vigorous contributions to conversations already taking place at Loyola.”

The Jesuit Conference is pleased to announce that it now features Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education on Jesuit.org’s Press and Publications page.

The goal of the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education and its publication of Conversations is to strengthen the Jesuit identity of our 28 colleges and universities. Each issue is written to stimulate the campus dialogue – through departmental discussions or faculty symposiums – on the pursuit of various ideals.

The following articles are excerpts from the current issue of Conversations magazine. An archive of past issues may be found here.

Dear Faculty, Ask for More
Experiencing The Spirit
How We Got Here
Seeking Work-Family Balance: Perils and Possibilities
So You Want to Be A President?
The Importance of Good Coffee

The opinions stated in the articles herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Jesuit Conference of the United States.

Feedback or comments? Click here to contact the editor.

The first step to aiding the poor is to stand with them, Jesuit Father Fred Kammer said in a lecture to Urban Plunge participants at the University of Notre Dame.

The Urban Plunge is a credit course offered to any student at Notre Dame by the Social Concerns Department. Its purpose is to demonstrate the problems of homelessness and poverty in the inner city. The core of the program is a 48 hour “urban plunge” during the Christmas vacation at a city near the student’s home. This plunge is preceded by several class periods and readings, and followed by another class period and a final paper.

Fr. Kammer’s lecture to the students, titled “Building Justice in the Cities,” addressed breaking the cycle of urban poverty. Kammer is currently is the executive director of the Jesuit Social Research Institute and has worked as the president of Catholic Charities USA.

“Making the invisible visible is the first step to compassion,” Kammer said. “Standing with the poor is a touchstone that gives us a wisdom that comes from the poor themselves and leads us to make judgments in favor of the poor.”

Kammer said taking a stand with the poor challenges our society’s dominant views.

“Standing with those who are poor introduces us to a new way of seeing the world around us,” he said. “This insistence on personal contact runs against our culture’s proclivity to see the poor as invisible or faceless.”

Kammer said once people make an initial commitment to stand with the poor, they might change the way they live their own lives.

“One of the first reactions that people have is to adopt a simpler lifestyle,” he said. “This choice is a stance appropriate to students.  Individuals who stand with the poor also stand with them in their career choices whether by choosing to teach in inner-city schools instead of the suburbs or doing social work in place of commercial law.

You can read more about Kammer’s lecture and the Urban Plunge program via this article in the university’s Observer newspaper. Kammer’s lecture can be found on video at Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concern’s website here.

Walk into the Jesuit Residence during lunchtime and it’s likely you’ll see the Jesuits hootin’ and hollerin’ with each other. Jesuit Father John Donnelly is no exception. He comes through the door that separates the Jesuits’ dining area from the lobby with a glass of beer in his hand.

“I left some of my remaining pizza back there in order for us to chat,” Donnelly says jokingly. “Now let’s talk.”

Donnelly sits in a reclining chair and begins to share the reasons why he became a Jesuit.

“In 1952 I graduated from Campion Jesuit High School and that summer I was doing a lot of reflecting on the fact that my friends were going into the seminary and then I thought, ‘Hey! That’s a really good idea,’” Donnelly said.

After traveling for educational purposes before his ordination in 1965, Donnelly found his way to Marquette University in 1971. He served as a full-time professor of history until retiring last year. Before Marquette, Donnelly served as a TA while working on his Ph.D. at UW-Madison. He described his time there as “rambunctious” due to the heated political times of the Vietnam War. Donnelly recalled a memorable Saturday morning while in the campus Jesuit house.

“I remember waking up and seeing the police with tear gas and their body protection on,” Donnelly said. “Each threw four (tear gas cans) in different directions to make sure no riots occurred that day.”

Donnelly said the history department at Marquette is refreshing in comparison to his few years at Madison. He prided the department on its respect and harmony.

“I am very happy to be a part of this history department,” Donnelly said. ”We are really blessed with mutual respect and honesty. It is one of my biggest joys here at Marquette.”

Donnelly said he’s taught five courses throughout his tenure here at Marquette: History of the Renaissance, World War II, History of the Reformation Period and the two introductory History of Western Civilizations classes.

Molly Edwards, a sophomore in the College of Communication, had Donnelly in Western Civilization. She said Donnelly’s class was dense in subject manner but brought to life by his relating material to present-day issues.

“The topic was 1700 to present day history and was really dry,” Edwards said. “But he knows an infinite amount of knowledge about it that astounds you.”

Edwards said Donnelly encouraged his students to take a passion about the history and use the ties to modern day history as a tool to create a more tangible connection. She was specifically a fan of a paper where she had to research a historical person. She chose Charles Darwin.

“It was 10 pages long,” Edwards said. “But I am glad I did it because it provided you with a bigger understanding on how people have an impact on society, and he related it back to the Jesuit ideal.”

[Marquette Tribune]

An astronomer by training, Jesuit Father George Coyne has devoted much of his life to researching the surfaces of the moon and Mercury, interstellar matter, binary stars and distant galaxies in order to gain a greater understanding of them. He has taught astronomy at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and has served as both director of the Vatican Observatory and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Now, he joins the faculty of Le Moyne College in Syracuse as their first Religious Philosophy chairman.

Coyne’s arrival comes at a time of exceptional student interest in the natural sciences and allied health fields at Le Moyne. Opening this month, its new science complex will house the physical, life and health sciences. This addition is a 50,000-square-foot building that will adjoin the reconfigured Coyne Science Center for a total of 105,000 square feet of academic space. The complex includes teaching facilities to accommodate large introductory-level classes and small upper-level classes, as well as cutting-edge facilities for faculty research and faculty-mentored student research.