Building a Future of Hope: 2021 Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education Conference

BY ISN PERSONNEL | July 2, 2021

Over six days over three weeks in June 2021, more than 800 participants from all twenty-seven Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States as well as thirty partner schools and organizations gathered virtually for the three-year commitment of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities’s Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Conference on Higher Education .

The Georgetown University event originally scheduled for June 2020 has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event consisted of six plenary sessions, followed by live question and answer sessions with plenary speakers and an exam hosted on Zoom. Participants also had access to poster presentations on a variety of topics related to justice in Jesuit higher education.

The ISN staff have put together these highlights of the event:

Plenary session 1: Welcome and opening reflections by Br. Arturo Sosa, SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus

Andria Wisler, Executive Director of the Center for Social Justice, Research, Teaching & Service at Georgetown University welcomed the participants and formulated the gathered in the context of the pandemic and the race count of last year and asked: “How would we have recognized the remnants of white supremacy beneath our feet in our own proceedings?”

Br. Mark Bosco, SJ, Vice President of Mission and Service at Georgetown University then offered an opening prayer, followed by introductory remarks from Georgetown President John J. DeGioia.

Next, the participants heard from the thirty-first and current Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ. In his remarks, Father Sosa recognized the fruitful journey of the Conferences on Commitment to Justice over the past twenty years and offered inspiration and invitation to all the congregation, to use universal apostolic preferences as guides in work to guide students towards a more hopeful future.

Plenary Session 2: Spirituality and Justice in Jesuit Higher Education

The second plenary session included the presentation by Br. Thomas Smolich, SJ, International Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service.

Fr. Smolich asked participants to reflect on how Ignatian spirituality calls the Jesuit network today to act and educate for social justice. He explained what righteousness rooted in faith can mean today. Ms. Smolich explored the challenge of what “ministry of the faith” means in the age of secularism and fundamentalism and invited participants to reflect on what a return to the edge and a missionary recapture mean in our world today.

Plenary Session 3: Racial Justice

Dr. Kaye Whitehead, Associate Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at the Loyola University Maryland, radio host of Today with Dr. Kaye on WEAA 88.9FM, and the founding director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice moderated a panel discussion examining the call to address systemic racism in society and culture.

Panelists included Keesha Middlemass, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the undergraduate program in Political Science at Howard University; Mélisande Short-Colomb, Community Engagement Associate at the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University; and Yohuru Williams, Ph.D., distinguished university professor and professor of history and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas.

Panellists discussed how race and racism are embedded in our society, the reality of privilege and power, and why white supremacy is so detrimental to all of humanity, including whites. Dynamic discussions revolved around the question of what it takes to dismantle the structures and pillars of white supremacy, what it means to constantly reaffirm yourself as an anti-racist, and offered ideas to make it easier for students and others to get started on this path .

Plenary session 4: Immigration

A panel with José Arnulfo Cabrera, Director of Education and Advocacy for Migration, Ignatian Solidarity Network; Joan Rosenhauer, Executive Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service / USA; and Joanna Williams, CEO of the Kino Border Initiative, examined key aspects of the reality of immigration. The panel was moderated by Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Leadership Studies at the University of San Francisco.

Panelists represented three Jesuit works, each with a unique lens that overlapped with a common Jesuit mission. The discussion included stories from each organization about the realities of life for migrants, illustrating the importance of the work of accompaniment and justice for migrants, including in the context of Jesuit higher education.

Plenary Session 5: Women in Management

In 1995 the 14th decree was written in the Jesuit General Congregation 34: “Jesuits and the situation of women in church and civil society”. DR. Margo Heydt of Xavier University provided the context for the decree – and how women contributed to it – based on their scholarship work. Three women leaders in the Jesuit Network – President Tania Tetlow (Loyola New Orleans), Vice President Student Affairs Michele Murray (Holy Cross), and Vice President Mission Integration Stephanie Russell (Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities) – then responded to three to questions inspired by the anniversary of the Decrees:

• How would you characterize the current state of women’s leadership in higher education among the Jesuits?
• What do you think are the main challenges in advancing women in Jesuit higher education?
• What is your biggest dream for leading women in Jesuit higher education?

Plenary Session 6: Environmental Justice

In the final plenary session, Dr. Nancy Tuchman, founding dean of the Institute of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago, on the importance of environmental justice in the commitment of Jesuit universities. She helped clarify how environmental justice is linked to a host of other justice issues that affect the human family, especially those most marginalized in our global community. She asked the participants to imagine the possibilities for their institutions, “Praised Universities ”, which help to model integral ecology and to educate new ways in the future.

source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/building-a-future-of-hope-2021-commitment-to-justice-in-jesuit-higher-education-conference/