Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the World

Transforming the World and Being Transformed will challenge the reader as it articulates how Jesuit colleges and universities create an educational community inspired to transform the lives of our students and ourselves. This volume will contribute to our shared commitment to Fr. Pedro Arrupe's ideal of forming men and women for others, guided by a passion to seek justice in an unjust world. In his October 2000 Santa Clara address, Fr. Kolvenbach identified three areas in which the promotion of justice may be manifested in our institutions: formation and learning, research and teaching, and our way of proceeding. In regard to Formation and Learning Fr. Kolvenbach said: "Tomorrow's 'whole person' cannot be whole without an educated awareness of society and culture with which to contribute socially, generously, in the real world...Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering and engage it constructively. They should learn to perceive, think, judge, choose and act for the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged and the oppressed." With regard to Research and Teaching, Fr. Kolvenbach said: "The faculty's research ...not only obeys the canons of each discipline, but ultimately embraces human reality in order to help make the world a more fitting place for six billion of us to inhabit...[Needed is] a sustained interdisciplinary dialogue of research and reflection, a continuous pooling of expertise ...every discipline, beyond its necessary specialization, must engage with human society, human life, and the environment in appropriate ways, cultivating moral concern about how people ought to live together." In considering Our Way of Proceeding, Fr. Kolvenbach declares, "The first way, historically, that our universities began living out their faith-justice commitment was through their admissions policies, affirmative action for minorities, and scholarships for disadvantaged students; and these continue to be effective means. An even more telling expression of the Jesuit University's nature is found in policies concerning hiring and tenure. As a university it is necessary to respect the established academic, professional and labor norms, but as Jesuit it is essential to go beyond them and find ways of attracting, hiring and promoting those who actively share the mission."