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Loyola Marymount University

Founded in 1911 and located in Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount is the only Jesuit/Marymount university in the southwestern United States. It is institutionally committed to Roman Catholicism and takes its fundamental inspiration from the traditions of its sponsoring religious orders. Loyola Marymount has always been, above all, a student-centered university.

Loyola Marymount understands and declares its purpose to be:

• The encouragement of learning
• The education of the whole person
• The service of faith and the promotion of justice

Structure

The Vice President for Mission and Ministry is concerned with University-wide initiatives touching on Catholic identity and Jesuit /Marymount heritage, e.g., recruiting and hiring for mission. He provides staff support for the Board's Catholic Mission and Identity Committee. He promotes conversation between the already-established Faculty and Student Affairs Mission and Identity Committees (these groups promote mission awareness through programs organized for their respective constituents). He also works collaboratively with the Vice President for Intercultural Affairs and represents LMU at the annual AJCU meeting for Coordinators of Mission and Identity.

The Director of Campus Ministry and the Director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality report to the Vice President for Mission and Ministry. Just as Campus Ministry is charged with pastoral outreach to students, the Center for Ignatian Spirituality was established (through gift from the Jesuit Community) to share our Ignatian charism and promote spiritual growth among faculty and staff.

Orientation Programs

In past years, a month or so into the fall semester new faculty were treated to a day of reflection (sometimes away from campus) on the Catholic identity and Ignatian ethos of the University. As successful as the day often was, it seemed to separate mission and identity concerns from the ordinary orientation to the life of the University. So in recent years we have tried to weave the mission and identity piece into the August orientation days prior to the beginning of the fall semester. Our hope has been to create a sense of lived and shared responsibility for mission and identity by including junior as well as senior faculty and administrators among the presenters and panelists. The success of the new approach has varied from year to year as we contend with various pressures, e.g., to shorten the overall length of the orientation and to allow more time for Human Resources presentations on benefits, sexual harassment training, etc. These concerns will be factored into the planning for Orientation 2007.

On the Student Affairs side, there is a daylong orientation at the beginning of the fall semester, organized in part by the Student Affairs Mission and Identity Committee. Otherwise, all new staff participate in a six-hour orientation that includes a segment on the history and Catholic/Jesuit/Marymount mission and identity of the University. Additionally, from time to time mission awareness programs are included in the menu of staff development workshops offered by Human Resources.

On-going Educational Programs

The premier faculty program is the Annual President's Institute on the Catholic Character of Loyola Marymount. Up to twenty faculty participate in this weeklong seminar each summer; cumulatively, over 150 have participated in the ten Institutes held since 1996. Each year we send 10 people to the annual Western Conversations meeting where they interact with colleagues from the other Jesuit universities in the West. The group is mainly faculty, but in recent years has included a few professional staff. We also send one faculty participant each year to the week-long summer Colloquy on Faith and the Intellectual Life sponsored by Collegium, a national consortium of Catholic colleges and universities. In June 2006, four administrators and three faculty participated in the Paris Conference on "The Vocation of the Teacher in the Ignatian Tradition."

The Student Affairs Mission and Identity Committee organizes an annual "Into the Streets" program for members of its Division. The aim is to deepen experiential awareness of the needs of under-served communities and to provide a context for reflection on faith doing justice. Also, each year the Student Affairs M&I Committee organizes programs to help members grow in their understanding of the charisms of LMU's sponsoring religious communities.

Integration of M&I into Curriculum and Academic Programs

Recently, we have established three annual curriculum-development grants in areas relating to faith/justice and three annual research grants in faith/justice. Special consideration is given to proposals that seek explicit connections between faith and justice. Curriculum development grants are also available for the recently implemented Catholic Studies Program. With many voices speaking out on behalf of themes related to Ignatian pedagogy, the core curriculum is undergoing its first major overhaul in nearly two decades.

Spiritual Exercises

Among its other programs, the Center for Ignatian Spirituality offers "The Spiritual Exercises for Busy People" (19^th Annotation Retreat). Currently (2006-07) 20 faculty and staff are making the Exercises in this way; 14 did so last year. Additionally, in February 2007, 50 people (including some spouses) participated in the annual weekend faculty-staff retreat Besides the CIS-sponsored retreats, we regularly send faculty and staff to the bi-annual California Province Retreat for Partners in Mission and to the annual Magis retreat for faculty and administrators, held at John Carroll University in 2005 and 2006 and scheduled at Fairfield University in 2007.

In the summer of 2006, six of the previous year's CIS retreatants joined the director and assistant director at the Seattle University Ignatian Spirituality Conference and returned to campus determined to bring their positive experience of Ignatian spirituality into practical application in their areas of expertise.

Publications, Audio-visual Materials Developed and/or Used

Each year the Center for Ignatian Spirituality makes available to new faculty an attractively printed and illustrated booklet entitled Loyola Marymount University: The Ignatian Tradition. In addition, in fall 2006, all faculty and staff were given a handy tri-fold on how to make an examen, but entitled "How Busy Persons Find God in All Things." The flyer proved so popular that additional copies had to be printed.

CIS launched its web pages on the LMU website in May 2003 in order to make Ignatian spirituality information readily available to faculty and staff. Contents include a weekly spirituality article by the director, as well as inspirational quotations offered by faculty and staff and descriptions of campus locales where they go for quiet prayer and reflection. There are also links to other Ignatian spirituality sources.

Evaluation of Effectiveness