The catholic campus: six presidents, on challenges of mission, identity

Catholic colleges and universities same issues as any school: rising costs and corresponding tuition hikes, student and faculty recruitment and retention, the academy's place in the world. But the 221 US. Catholic colleges and universities (with a total enrollment of more than 720,000) often have different ideas about how and why to address those challenges. They also grapple with the additional concerns of religious identity and how what they do connects to the larger church.

NCR recently talked with a half dozen presidents at Catholic schools across the country about what they see as the main challenges facing Catholic higher education. Their answers provide insights not just into the situation today, but into the history and future of Catholic higher education as well.

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

JACQUELINE POWERS DOUD

Mount St. Mary's College

Los Angeles

As the only Catholic women's college in the western United States, Mount St. Mary's student body reflects the ethnic diversity of Los Angeles: About 48 percent of undergraduates are Latina, 22 percent are Asian, 11 percent are African-American, and 18 percent are Caucasian. About 40 percent are first-generation college students.

Founded in 1925 and sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the school enrolls just under 2,500 students and has been awarded more Fellowships for Aspiring Teachers of Color by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund than any other college or university in the United States. A member of the board of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Doud is Mount St. Mary's first lay president. She took office in 2000.

Every capable and motivated young woman regardless of socioeconomic background should have an opportunity to pursue higher education at a Catholic college if she so chooses. Our big challenge is to provide needed financial aid. We tell our students they can do anything, so we have to make it possible.

One of higher education's biggest challenges is identifying and selecting Catholic college leaders who are conversant with and committed to the Catholic tradition. Current Catholic college and university leadership includes a whole population of former religious who benefited from formation in the Catholic intellectual tradition. There's not another generation quite like that. But as more laypersons are heading these colleges, it's important to identify and select people committed to the Catholic intellectual tradition in the context of Vatican II theology.

Attracting Catholic faculty--not just to philosophy and religion departments but to all fields--is a challenge as well. In the past, with so many sisters and priests on faculties, we took for granted that faculty members were literate about the Catholic intellectual tradition. Now Catholics are educated in all kinds of colleges and universities, and when they are searching for a job they're not necessarily looking to be at a Catholic college. They're looking for the whole package: time for scholarly work and opportunities in their discipline, as well as location and benefits.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

JACK P. CALARESO

Anna Maria College

Paxton, Mass.

Founded by the Sisters of St. Anne in 1946, Anna Maria College is part of the 13-college Worcester, Mass., Consortium (which includes two other Catholic institutions, Assumption College and College of the Holy Cross) that allows students to take classes at any of the institutions. Anna Maria enrolls approximately 1,500 students in more than 30 programs. Calareso took office last July. He has served as president of Ohio Dominican University in Columbus and Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa.

There are a handful of issues that we're all facing. The first is just fidelity to mission. Are we clear about our mission and what makes us unique? What's our identity and how is that manifested on our campus? How does it find its way into our curriculum, programs and services, policies, and procedures? Are we being true to our Catholic identity? If we're not, why do we exist? There are plenty of great colleges in the U.S. What do we expect our graduates to know and learn and do in their lives?

There's a general perception that Catholic higher education is quality higher education. One reason we have so many non-Catholics attending our schools is that there's an understanding that Catholic colleges teach and model good ethical and moral values. But we can't simply live off our reputations. Anna Maria is a small institution--we're less well-known than many other schools--but we're taking this issue of accountability very seriously: We have a responsibility to say, "This is what we say we do and this is how we do it." Learning objectives, goals, assessments, statistics, and claims about our programs all ought to be substantiated and transparent to the public.

As we graduate students into a world that's much smaller than it used to be, we have a responsibility to move aggressively away from simply a Western perspective and toward a global one. Students need to encounter other cultures and traditions through study abroad and other international and multicultural programs. They need to see how complex the world is.