Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

As the newly appointed director of campus ministry and chaplain for Fordham University, Jesuit Father John J. Shea’s first order of business was to get rid of the office furniture.

“I said jokingly that this would be a perfect office if I were coming in to open a bank account,” said Fr. Shea, who replaced his desk and conference table with a couch and two plush chairs.

“This is where students can come in, feel relaxed, talk,” he said.

Fr. Shea, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Fordham, has previously worked at the university as a teacher in the psychology department, a psychologist in the counseling center, rector of Murray-Weigel Hall (a community of retired Jesuits from the New York Province) and associate vice president and then vice president for student affairs from 1989 until 1996.

He then continued his work in higher education, serving as president of John Carroll University and vice president for mission and ministry at the University of Scranton.

The last seven years, however, have found him in an entirely different setting. Since 2005 Fr. Shea has been the director of the East Asia Theological Encounter Program in Chiangmai, Thailand — a post he will continue to hold remotely. There, he instructed Jesuit scholastics on Eastern theology, taught English to Thai students (he speaks Thai fluently) and worked at a retreat house in Chiangmai.

“I’d wanted adventure, change,” Fr. Shea said of his experience in Asia. “I’d been in higher education for 26 years and just felt that I wanted to do something different. When this opportunity arose, I jumped at it.”

One of Fr. Shea’s goals at Fordham is to create a weekly meditation group, offering students a way to decrease stress while learning about a lesser-known practice of Christianity.

“There’s a whole tradition of Christian meditation,” he said. “It’s very much like Zen or Buddhist meditation. You sit quietly and don’t think, and if thoughts come, then you simply bring yourself back to focusing on breathing rather than going where your mind takes you. Over the years, you become much more at peace, and much more aware.”

Read more about Fr. Shea’s return to Fordham University.

Jesuit Father Gerard J. Campbell, who was a leader in higher education and served as Georgetown University president in the 1960s, died on August 9, 2012, at age 92. He was a Jesuit for 73 years and a priest for 61 years.

Fr. Campbell served as president of Georgetown from 1964 to 1968 and is remembered for promoting student service to residents in Washington, D.C.

According to A History of Georgetown University, “[Campbell] … pledged that Georgetown would play a wider community role under his administrations by fostering student volunteer activities in the city and providing educational opportunities and other services to the city’s residents.”

While at Georgetown, Fr. Campbell also reconstituted the board of directors to include its first lay members, and he created the first University Senate comprising faculty and administrators.

“We are saddened by the passing of a cherished member of our community and a former leader of the university,” said Georgetown President John J. DeGioia. “In the Jesuit tradition of men and women for others, Fr. Campbell recognized the growing needs of city residents and the ability of Georgetown students to help meet them.”

Fr. Campbell also served as provincial assistant for colleges and universities for the Maryland Province, director of Woodstock Theological Society in Washington, D.C., and professor at Saint Joseph’s College (now University) in Philadelphia and Loyola College (now University Maryland). [Georgetown University]

Jesuit Father Michael Sheeran, who served as president of Regis University from 1993 until the end of the 2011-2012 academic year, will become president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in 2013. He recently spoke to the Denver Catholic Register about Catholic higher education.

Fr. Sheeran said one of the greatest challenges Catholic universities will face in the next two decades will be finding the money to pay fair wages to faculty and staff at a time when state and even federal government aid is on the decline. He continued:

“As well, I hope everybody who is interested in forming the human person and not just in the retention of facts will support more government aid to education rather than less. After all, the rationale for government support of education is twofold: First, the preparation of workers the economy will need; second—and much more profound—the preparation of citizens capable of discerning, voting and even of making personal sacrifices to achieve the common good.”

When he left Regis, Fr. Sheeran said he advised his successor, Jesuit Father John Fitzgibbons, to continue to model a Catholic style that flows from the texts of Vatican II.

“It’s a Catholicism that invites rather than gives commands,” said Fr. Sheeran. “It remembers that today’s Catholics are much better educated in secular subjects than ever before in history. They expect to make up their own minds. Our job is to present the Catholic tradition in an attractive, persuasive way so our students can recognize and be drawn to the wisdom of their Catholic heritage.”

As to the advice he’d offer to students, he said, “I like to remind them that God made a good world and then invites us to co-create with him to help the world realize its potential. It’s the graduate’s vocation to take God’s good world and make it better.”

For more from Fr. Sheeran, read the Denver Catholic Register’s “Seven questions for Father Sheeran.”

Jesuit Father Terrence Devino, special assistant to the president and director of Manresa House at Boston College, has been appointed vice president and university secretary by the Boston College Board of Trustees, effective December 31, 2012.

Fr. Devino, who this year marked his 25th year as a priest, brings experience as a veteran administrator who has developed programs in the areas of campus ministry, student formation and vocational discernment.

“Fr. Devino knows Boston College well and brings substantial experience from his work here and from his previous assignments at Fairfield University and the University of Scranton,” said University President Jesuit Father William P. Leahy. “He will be an engaging presence among our students, faculty and alumni.” [Boston College]

Jesuit Father Gregory Kalscheur, an associate professor at Boston College Law School, has been named senior associate dean for strategic planning and faculty development in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In his new post, which he will assume in August, Fr. Kalscheur will assist in reviewing academic programs and in the school’s faculty hiring process.

Fr. Kalscheur, who will continue to teach a course in civil procedure at BC Law, said his job as A&S senior associate dean represents a “natural evolution” in his vocation and academic career.

“Undergraduate liberal arts is at the heart of the Jesuit educational mission,” Fr. Kalscheur said. “I see this appointment in A&S as connecting with my background as both a student and a teacher in the Jesuit tradition.” [Boston College]