A Directory of Service Programs on Jesuit Campuses in the United States

Preface

Meeting in Santiago, Chile in November 1997, the presidents of Jesuit higher education institutions around the world pledged to pursue two special initiatives: to foster Ignatian identity and to foster service programs in our schools. Interestingly, the apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex corde Ecclesiae, also challenges us to pursue these same goals.

This Directory of Service Programs, read in conjunction with its companion piece, Mission and Identity Activities at the Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States, provides good evidence of the seriousness and success with which the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States are pursuing those initiatives and responding to that challenge. The record is indeed impressive.

Service learning, in which service activity is combined with reflection and classroom analysis, is becoming a staple in the academic life of our schools. Local, national, and international immersion experiences enrich the lives of students, faculty, and staff, and, in many cases, "spoil them for life." A wide array of programs link our schools with their surrounding communities in helping ways, from AIDS ministry to caring for the elderly, sick, and handicapped; to tutoring and mentoring elementary and secondary school children; to fostering civic pride.

Faculty link their expertise with community needs; students join in national programs like Habitat for Humanity, America Reads, and AmeriCorps. Very importantly, students, faculty and staff join together to make service a significant part of their lives. Increasingly, our alumni join in these programs, or start their own.

All of this bears testimony that we are indeed educating "men and women for others," as we profess to do. The large number of post-graduate volunteers from our campuses is further evidence of the value and importance of the service programs recounted here.

The purpose of this directory is not to boast of what is being done, but to make it possible for those involved in service programs to share ideas and contacts with one another, so that they can be even more effective in making service a core component of Jesuit education today.

One fear in publishing this directory is that it does not do justice to all that is happening on individual campuses. Every effort has been made to gather the information in manageable form, but it has not been easy. Different schools organize their programs quite differently, and varying amounts of detail were reported to us. Judgment calls had to made on how much detail should be included.

It was thought best not to wait until a "perfect" report was possible, but to publish this very fallible account before the information was out of date. I want to thank all those who submitted information, and apologize in advance for any gaps in the narrative which have resulted from defective editorial judgment.

As with the companion piece, Mission and Identity Activities, it is my hope that this directory of service programs will encourage more communication and sharing among those making success stories happen in Jesuit higher education today.

Charles L. Currie, S.J.