Archive for the ‘Colleges and Universities’ Category

Jesuit Father Richard Salmi, president of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala.,  had spent very little time in the south before his appointment in 2009. He recently spoke with the local Fox news station, where he said that at first he felt like a stranger in a strange land.

“I never saw grits until I moved here, but then I discovered shrimp and grits, which I have to say has converted me,” says Fr. Salmi, who came to Spring Hill from Loyola University Chicago. “One of the things I love about the south is just how warm and friendly people are. The city has been so welcoming.”

Fr. Salmi, originally from Cleveland, first became interested in the Jesuits at Ohio University.

“My freshman year in college was the year of the Kent State killings and the Vietnam War protests, and so it was a turbulent time for America. I had a Jesuit as an instructor at this big state school. I looked at the Jesuits and saw all the good works they were doing all over the place. I was going to save the world and certainly the Jesuits were going to help me do it,” he recalls.

Fr. Salmi made a weeklong retreat with the Jesuits to discern whether he should become a priest or join the Peace Corps. He chose the Jesuits. “ I like the idea that as a Jesuit you could be a doctor or a lawyer. You could have a profession in addition to being a priest,” Fr. Salmi says.

“Social justice has always been at the core of what we are about, and we’ve always been on the cutting edge in the cusp of justice issues,” says Fr. Salmi.

Looking toward the future for Spring Hill, Fr. Salmi says the institution needs to look at “what we are doing to enable Hispanics to come to Spring Hill and how are we going to speak out for the undocumented folks and how do we stand for the Dream Act.”

Watch the full feature on Fr. Salmi below.

The Interview: Fr. Richard Salmi

Jesuit Father Don Doll has been a photographer — his second calling — for 50 years. The New York Times Lens blog recently examined the connection between Fr. Doll’s first calling to the priesthood and his calling to photography.

Fr. Doll began taking photos while working on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota in 1962. He said that after taking photos for over two years, he became discouraged because he “still hadn’t taken a decent picture.”

He considered giving up photography and went for a walk in the South Dakota prairie to think about what his mission as a Jesuit should be. “I heard a loud voice saying: ‘Stay with photography. It’s the first thing you really loved doing. Stay with it. Don’t worry if it takes 10 years,’ ” he recalls.

Fr. Doll stuck with photography, and his work has been published in National Geographic magazine and three books. His newest publication is an autobiographical book “A Call to Vision: A Jesuit’s Perspective on the World.”

Grandmother Therchik, a Yupik Eskimo, enjoyed a moment with her grandchildren. The bonds of kinship are powerful in Eskimo society. Courtesy Don Doll, SJ.

Fr. Doll has used photography to promote Native American culture. “I learned to respect another culture, because we were immersed in it,” Fr. Doll said. “And I really learned about the values that the Native Americans have of sharing and their sense of generosity with one another, and how they honor you.”

In 1974, Fr. Doll returned to the Rosebud Reservation as a documentary photographer. He said he often prayed before releasing the shutter. “I used to pray that I could really make photographs that portrayed how special they are and something of the empathy they had and that God has for them,” he explained.

During a 30-day retreat, Fr. Doll discovered a link between prayer and photography. “I said: ‘Oh my god! Prayer is just like photography, where you have to let go of what you want to happen or what you think’s going to happen. You have to let go of your preconceptions and I think that same thing applies to photographing. You have to let go of your suppositions of what the picture is or should be and just be present in the moment.’ ”

Read the full story about Fr. Doll on the New York Times website and watch the Creighton University video that celebrates the photography of Fr. Doll below.

Jesuit Father C. Kevin Gillespie was inaugurated as the 27^th president of his alma mater, Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, on Oct. 12, at an event attended by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

Fr. Gillespie graduated from Saint Joseph’s with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1972, making him only the second alumnus to become president of the university. The first was also a Gillespie: Jesuit Father Cornelius Gillespie, who served in 1900-1907 and again in 1908-1909. Fr. C. Kevin Gillespie isn’t sure if they are related, but his parents and Cornelius Gillespie were both from Donegal, Ireland.

As president of Saint Joseph’s, Fr. Gillespie said he looks forward to working with this generation of students. “We’re exposing them to a global way of being in the world for the 21st century that has a confidence, a depth and a potential,” he said. “We’re inspiring students toward an education that’s global and that involves citizenship with values, virtues and sacrifices.”

Fr. Gillespie said that when he was a student at St. Joseph’s he learned about global citizenship through a service trip to Colombia. “It raised my consciousness to see the poor, to see people coming up from the Amazon and Chocó Rivers, and it raised the question: Why them, not me? Why do I have the chance for an education and not them?”

Fr. Gillespie said that Saint Joseph’s taught him to pursue questions in a quest for meaning in life. “I’m still questing, but I have confidence that meaning can be found,” he said.

After graduating from Saint Joseph’s, Fr. Gillespie went on to earn a master’s degrees in psychology from Duquesne University and in divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology Berkeley. He holds a Ph.D. in pastoral psychology from Boston University.

Prior to his appointment at Saint Joseph’s, Fr. Gillespie served as associate provost for University Centers of Excellence at Loyola University Chicago, where he oversaw five academic centers. He succeeds Jesuit Father Timothy R. Lannon, who is now president of Creighton University in Omaha. Read more about Fr. Gillespie in this SJU Magazine article.

Jesuit Father David Collins

What do you get when you mix a dorm filled with undergraduate students and a Jesuit-in-residence? An opportunity for Ignatian spirituality. At Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Jesuits-in-residence serve as mentors to students. For instance, Jesuit Father David Collins, one of the university’s Jesuits who lives in a student dorm, holds open houses every week so that students can stop by to talk.

“It’s an unstructured way for students to come up and, in fact, raise issues that they want to talk about,” Fr. Collins said. “The advantage of putting so much emphasis on an unstructured open house is that it allows themes to be set by students.”

Fr. Collins, a history professor, said the experience of living in a residence hall allows faculty to interact with students they might never otherwise meet.

Jesuit Father Dan Madigan

Jesuit Father Dan Madigan, from Australia, is in his first year as a Jesuit-in-residence on campus, and for him the experience offers a chance to broaden his understanding of American college life.

“I was very interested to meet resident assistants — that was an eye-opener, because I didn’t go to a school like this,” Fr. Madigan said. “I went to undergrad in Australia, and we always go to state university as commuters, so we don’t have the sense of 24/7 residential contact.”

Like Fr. Collins, Fr. Madigan likes that he can meet a more diverse group of undergraduates — and give students the opportunity to get to know a Jesuit.

“We make a lot of the fact that this is a Jesuit university, but many students never get to meet a Jesuit,” Fr. Madigan said.

Jesuit Father Matthew Carnes

Jesuit Father Matthew Carnes is a chaplain-in-residence for the first time at Georgetown this year, but he has previously been a Jesuit-in-residence at Santa Clara University in California, and he has big plans.

“I’m going to lead a secret Jesuit tour,” Fr. Carnes said. “Essentially, at nine at night we go with flashlights to different historical sites, get keys to see secret places around campus and finish up with ice cream at my apartment.”

The Jesuits say that dorm life is no more chaotic than is typical for a college community.

“Other than when the Yankees won the World Series, I’ve never been kept up at night,” Fr. Collins said. Read more about the Jesuits-in-residence at The Hoya website.

When the new academic year started at Marquette University in Milwaukee last month, it was missing one of its most well-known Jesuits. Jesuit Father John Naus served the university for almost 50 years before he retired over the summer.

Known for his sly humor, former Marquette president Jesuit Father Robert Wild said Fr. Naus was perhaps the best known and most beloved Jesuit at Marquette for the past 49 years.

Ordained a priest in 1955, Fr. Naus served Marquette in academic, administrative and ministerial capacities for nearly five decades.

Smiling builds trust, Fr. Naus told the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, so he tried to make others smile with silly antics on the first day of class.

In the 1970s, students at the residence hall where Fr. Naus lived and was chaplain for 28 years bought him a clown suit to wear and named him Tumbleweed. This prompted Fr. Naus to attend the Barnum & Bailey clown college in Venice, Fla. Fr. Naus went on to perform as Tumbleweed at children’s hospitals and nursing homes, and he spent the last class of his courses teaching students how to make balloon animals.

His philosophy classes were challenging but popular. “He was mesmerizing in the classroom,” said James South, chair of Marquette’s philosophy department. “The biggest thing we had to manage was the sheer demand for his classes,” which were the first to fill.

Fr. Naus is also famous at Marquette for his weekly 10 p.m. Tuesday Mass, which would attract more than 200 students. That was “the happiest hour of my week for 28 years,” Fr. Naus said.

Read the full profile of Fr. Naus at the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel website.