November Newsletter: Universal Apostolic Preferences

• President's Post
• November 22 Webinar Opportunity
• Recognition and Awards Committee Update
• JASPA 2020 Five Year Summer Institute Updates
• Moment for Mission 
• November Blog: Susan Haarman, Loyola University Chicago

President's Post

November is here, and it’s a month of note in several ways.  We are preparing for Thanksgiving with its focus on gratitude, togetherness, and far too much food.  We are ramping up toward final exams on our campuses, and it’s a time of stress and challenges for many of our students. Yet on our Jesuit campuses, there is more to November than all of this. The wonderful website ignatianspirituality.com offers us an eloquent invitation to remember and recognize those who have come before us in advancing our distinctive spirituality and approach to education:

There are dozens of Jesuit saints and many more named blessed, not to mention the many unofficial saints—men and women—who have lived Ignatian values in inspirational ways. We remember these Ignatian holy people in a special way on All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and the feast of All Saints and Blessed of the Society of Jesus on November 5.

In this month of remembrance, we certainly call to mind St. Ignatius and his early companions, and the modern-day Jesuits who continue to enliven our campuses and our understanding of ourselves and our mission.  We think of the founders and visionaries who brought each of our institutions to life in unique times and circumstances. We also remember the pioneers of the Student Affairs field, both nationally and within the Jesuit network.  One of my favorite quotes is from early Student Affairs pioneer Esther Lloyd Jones, who served as a faculty member, scholar, and author from the 1920s through the 1960s.  In her 1954 book “Student Personnel Work as the Deeper Teaching”, she made the point, in reference to our impact with students, “it is not what is imposed, but what is absorbed, that persists”. 

Lloyd-Jones’ words have stayed with me, and they resonate for me with our Ignatian mission of student formation – of seeking not to impose something on our students, but to invite them to internalize and integrate what they are learning.  She is a founder in our field broadly, and we can remember the founders of our Jesuit student affairs tradition as well – we will focus on their contributions at our Summer Institute in Chicago next July.  So, all these founders situate our work in the 475-year-old Jesuit educational tradition, the 100-year-old student personnel/student affairs field, and the decades of JASPA tradition on which we stand and pursue our work. 

My reflection on thinking through this history, and the gifts of these people, is that we begin our work in 2019 with a treasure chest of approaches, of language, and of understanding – from all our founders.  I am grateful for these treasures, and for the work and commitment of all my JASPA colleagues, in this season of Thanksgiving.

Todd Olson, Phd
Georgetown University
JASPA President

November 22 Webinar Opportunity

One student’s study abroad is another one’s home:
Global Exchange Residential Learning Community Webinar
Friday, November 22 at 12 PM (EST) / 9AM (PST)

REGISTER HERE

Global Exchange provides an opportunity for domestic University of Scranton students and International and Exchange students to live together and make connections across many cultures.  Throughout the semester, each apartment is asked to host an event in their apartment to share food, traditions, and customs from various cultures.  In addition, Global Exchange participants are specifically invited to many special events on campus, including an annual evening retreat at the University’s lakeside retreat center. Hear how the Residence Life Office and the Office of International Student Services partnered up to develop this program over the past four years and learn about ideas on how you can immerse your international student population in the general campus community. Student Learning Outcomes and assessment data will be shared.

Presenters: 

• Maria Marinucci, Director of the Cross Cultural Centers, The University of Scranton
• Réka Shayka, Assistant Director of Residence Life, The University of Scranton

Recognition and Awards Committee Update

We are excited to recognize members of the JASPA community who are creating innovating ways to integrate our Jesuit values into student affairs work on their respective campus. The purpose of the JASPA Community Impact Awards are to highlight a program, service, publication or institutional commitment that embodies the values of Jesuit higher education. Awardees are selected monthly to showcase best practices integrating Jesuit mission and identity to inform our student affairs work.

September Community Impact Award: 
The Milestone Fair
(Loyola University Maryland)
               
October Community Impact Award: 
Being a Bronco
(Santa Clara University)

The nomination form for the November Community Impact Award can be found here. Nominations for this month are due on Friday, November 22, 2019. If you have any questions about the nomination process or would like to join our committee, please do not hesitate to reach out to Dr. Mark Harrington, Chair of the Recognition and Awards Committee, at harring4@canisius.edu. We look forward to highlighting the awardee in next month’s newsletter.

The JASPA Annual Awards winners will be announced at the JASPA 2020 Summer Institute at Loyola University Chicago. Please be on the lookout for the nomination process in future e-newsletters.

JASPA 2020 Five Year Summer Institute Updates

We would like to thank all of our incredible members who submitted program proposals for workshops, educational sessions, and lightning round topics! Be sure to watch your inbox in early December when notifications will be sent out. We appreciate everyone who took the time to submit. #JASPA2020 is bound to be an enriching, developmental, and engaging program!

Registration for the Institute will go live in January 2020. Details will be made available on jesuitstudentaffairs.com. Be sure to give JASPA a follow on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram for updates!

— The JASPA 2020 Five Year Summer Institute Programming Committee

Moment for Mission

On September 30, James Martin, S.J., had an audience with Pope Francis, which was covered in America, the Jesuit Review and the National Catholic Reporter.  Reading the accounts of this meeting reminded me of how our campuses work to create a place of welcome to all – the outcast, stranger, migrant and refugee.  I am reminded of a hymn that has become an important part of our campus-wide liturgical celebrations All Are Welcome.

As you read the lyrics to the song, All Are Welcome, by Marty Haugen, reflect on and cherish the opportunities we have to extend hospitality and welcome to all members of our community.

All Are Welcome
Marty Haugen

Let us build a house
where love can dwell
and all can safely live,
a place where saints and children tell
how hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions,
rock of faith and vault of grace;
here the love of Christ
shall end divisions.
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house
where prophets speak,
and words are strong and true,
where all God’s children dare to seek
to dream God’s reign anew.

Here the cross shall stand as witness
and as symbol of God’s grace;
here as one we claim the faith of Jesus.

All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where love is found
in water, wine and wheat:
a banquet hall on holy ground
where peace and justice meet.

Here the love of God, through Jesus,
is revealed in time and space;
as we share in Christ
the feast that frees us.

All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house
where hands will reach
beyond the wood and stone
to heal and strengthen, serve and teach,
and live the Word they’ve known.

Here the outcast and the stranger
bear the image of God’s face;
let us bring an end to fear and danger.

All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house
where all are named,
their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured,
taught and claimed
as words within the Word.

Built of tears and cries and laughter,
prayers of faith and songs of grace,
let this house proclaim
from floor to rafter.

All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.

Jeanne Rosenberger
Santa Clara University
Past President, JASPA

November Blog Post: Susan Haarman, Loyola University Chicago

“But can you just tell me what you think I should do?”

It is my least favorite question from students - and the one that most often came from students that I was closest to.

I served as a campus minister for 11 out of the 16 years I’ve been in higher education. It was deeply challenging and deeply rewarding work, but by far what amazed me the most was the sort of “instant trust” that students would often give me. They would see that title, “Campus Minister,” underneath my name on the shiny plastic name tag I was wearing to an event and that was all they needed. They shared their struggles, hopes, ambitions, and fears with me - often blindly trusting that I would not only help hold these experiences with them, but also provide essential insight. I poured my heart and soul into that work, but that trust always felt like a gift I had not earned.

As a result any time a students would ask me one of those “Big Questions” (What should I do after graduation? Is this the right major for me? Should I be in a relationship with this person?), I could feel my heart pound and my mind start to race.  What if I say the wrong thing? What if I make assumptions, forget my privilege, or misread a situation and say the WORST possible thing - something that is not just unhelpful, but actually makes things worse? These questions would plague me as I sought to support my students. It took a reminder from a mentor that my role was as a campus minister at a Jesuit school to get me out of my head. My mentor said, “You don’t need to help students make decisions, you need to help them discern.”

Discernment in the tradition of Ignatian spirituality is a way of approaching decision-making. Rather than a clinical calculation of pros and cons, discernment asks us to reflect on where God or our deeply held values may be calling us when we approach an important choice. Taking time for self-reflection and careful attention to emotional responses are also key elements of Ignatian discernment. It recognizes our lived experience as one of the most valuable sources of knowledge and wisdom in our lives and an arena through which we experience God most authentically. 

But discernment is more than simply making a choice. Discernment happens when you are choosing between two goods, not between a good choice and an unhealthy one. While this nuance may not make choosing any easier, it can remove a great deal of the anxiety our students may feel around it. Reframed as things to be discerned rather than problems to be solved (with only one correct answer), the Big Questions our students face become invitations to further clarify their values and dynamically imagine how they want to live in the world. You cannot “pick wrong” in Ignatian discernment, because each pathway is another opportunity to experience grace or learn about yourself or the larger world. Discernment helps us not only make decisions, but also to live into them with open hearts and minds towards what comes next.

The Jesuits recently released their new Universal Apostolic Preferences - a sort of strategic plan for the religious order and the works it sponsors. One of the four preferences was promoting the Ignatian process of discernment. A recent document about the preference said, “We accompany people as they discern complex choices in the social, economic, cultural and political spheres. We will help to create environments that favor free personal processes, independent of social or ethnic pressure.” This language reminds us of the need for the work of student affairs professionals to create holding spaces for students - environments when they experience the acceptance and support needed to ask themselves the hard questions about what they want and what the world needs from them. Student affairs professionals are integral to helping support students in their discernment because of the spaces that we create for them. We ask students to listen and to trust the deepest parts of themselves. Our work should constantly invites students to take the time to think about their own identity, value their experiences, and ask the questions

In the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius tells spiritual directors to let the “Creator deal with the creature”. It’s a reminder for directors to have the humility, love, and perspective to know when to get out of the way and let a person deal directly with God. Helping students discern was how I “got out of the way.” I was able to hold those sacred moments and unearned trust from students precisely because I knew that if I was helping them in the hard work of discernment, I could stop worrying about my own inadequacies. Work became less about what I could say to students and more about how I could help them live into their Big Questions.

Susan Haarman has spent 18 out of the last 20 years either being educated at or working for a Jesuit institution. She's the associate director of the Center for Experiential Learning at Loyola University of Chicago where she runs the service-learning and faculty development programs. Her expertise is in ethical service immersions, Ignatian spirituality, and having excellent TV recommendations.