To the Editor:

I send congratulations and best wishes to The Maroon leadership and staff as we begin the 2023-24 academic year. Days before classes started, it was wonderful to see the first edition of the new year in news racks around campus.

Kudos also should go to your cartoonists and the editorial staff for the technically excellent cartoons on the inside cover of the new issue. They are visually complex, interesting, and amusing—Loyola and The Maroon at their best.

However, I feel compelled to question your treatment of the construction of the Chapel of St. Ignatius and Gayle & Tom Benson Jesuit Center. The cartoon distorts the actual situation inside the fences, and your lead article states wrongly that “little progress has been made.”

Your assessment from the sideline would come as a surprise to the contractors and dozens of construction workers who have sweated out the hottest summer in the history of our city doing the work of building the first intentionally designed student-focused worship space in Loyola’s history. I’ve been here all summer watching their steady, arduous labor.

The early work on any new building is the most important and least gratifying of all the work that goes into a project. Pile driving, foundation work, and plumbing aren’t sexy. The most exciting times in building the chapel are just ahead.

The workers whose labors you casually dismiss have made great strides while campus was less populated this summer, and the construction timeline remains on track with the schedule envisioned earlier this year. Their work now will change the lives of students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding community for decades to come.

I value the hard questions The Maroon reporters ask Loyola’s leadership and faculty on a regular basis. In this case, however, starting with some level of appreciation for the vision, planning, and hard work going into this project might have served everyone a little better.

Sincerely,
Chris Wiseman ‘88
Vice President of University Advancement