In the desert of Iraq, our nation wages war, and Loyola’s campus has become a hotbed of activism.

From faculty down to students, President Bush and his administration have spawned a wealth of causes to support or fight.

Monday marked the first day of Jesuit protest on campus.

“You can jump on any bandwagon you want to, just jump on a bandwagon because that’s why we’re in college, that’s why we’re the youth of today,” said Anna Hall, former SGA president and music business senior.

Demonstrators took to the streets.

Several students in search of the Jesuit identity went camping in the Peace Quad to express their views on the war. These students are taking shifts staying in a tent and two people are sleeping in it until Easter.

Inside his new nylon home, Jeff Guhin, sociology senior, said he intends to become a visible witness for peace.

While protesters disperse back to their respective lives of CNN and crawfish boils, he will fast and contemplate along with the other people running the tent

“I think some students are apathetic because they don’t feel empowered to act; they don’t feel they have any reason to act,” Guhin said.

Only sparse trees and benches that line the quad separate Jeff and Iggy, the statue of the original proponent of contemplative action.

Their religious/social ideals remain inexorably intertwined. The statue stands as a copper testament to the university’s rich Jesuit tradition, steeped in a history of social justice.

In this year’s social justice bout, poverty is the major opponent.

Loyola University Community Activism Program and Guhin have localized their focus to better relate to the community they wish to serve.

“We’re trying to bridge the connection between the ‘what’ of service and the ‘why,'” Guhin said.

Bill Quigley, director of Loyola’s Law Clinic and activist, says he thinks that the members of LUCAP “are the most exciting folks on campus.”

“They do a very good job of critiquing the underlying need for the services,” he said.

Josh Daly, LUCAP member and music composition junior, said he finds that the organization’s and the Jesuit identity’s tradition of reflection leads to a greater understanding of self.

“We’re always contemplating our role in the world and what we’re supposed to be doing and putting ourselves in challenging situations,” Daly said.

Often, an organization shrouded in spirituality or religion can conjure notions of conversion and evangelistic recruitment.

“People outside of LUCAP have told me that we’re very difficult to approach because we’re very passionate about our beliefs,” Guhin said. “It’s critical in any movement to meet people where they’re at. It’s important to try things in the spirit of love and compassion.”

“If I didn’t believe love, or some desire towards love was inherent in a human being, I’d probably lose a lot of hope,” Guhin said.

In the ’60s, protesters put flowers in the gun barrels of National Guardsmen.

Since the advent of a possibility of war, LUCAP members and their compatriots have held hands, hugged and prayed twice a week at the Horsehoe in front of Marquette Hall in the shadow of “touchdown Jesus.”

“The prayer vigil in the horseshoe, actually that was [Guhin’s] idea,” said the Rev. Si Hendry, S.J., director of the Jesuit Center.

LUCAP and Guhin adhere to communal ideals of love, compassion and relationships.

According to him, the relationship begins with the disenfranchised and the marginalized.

But to come as a savior is to compromise the opportunity.

According to Quigley, the group’s philosophical musings lead to relevant action.

“It’s not an organization that says give me five bucks and I’ll raise awareness for this. They are in solidarity with these people,” Hall said.

Hendry said this sense and need for solidarity is one of the main concepts behind the Jesuit ideals concern for equal relationships.

“Justice is trying to work toward a society in which charity is not necessary,” Hendry said.

Quigley contrasts the notion of social justice with the financial structure of a private institution.

“True social justice work is with the poor, the oppressed and the disenfranchised and often brings you into conflict with the ‘haves’ because you’re supposed to be taking the point of view of the ‘have nots,'” Quigley said.

As president, the Rev. Bernard K. Knoth, S.J., is the most public Jesuit representative of the university.

However, his position takes on a Sisyphean nature in its amalgamation of spiritual and financial responsibilities.

“At a Jesuit school we’re supposed to use education for the public good,” Allison Drevitch, LUCAP chairperson and sociology senior, said. “We’re not going to school here to be millionaires and exploit others.”

“So there’s a tension between the interest of social justice and the interest of building an institution,” Quigley said.

According to Guhin, there is a lot of work left.

“Father Knoth is not living up to his potential in terms of social justice, but he’s not doing a bad job,” Guhin said. “I would like to see a curriculum that is really based on educating through justice.”

Quigley said that the Jesuits often find themselves in an ethical quandary in terms of the application of social justice from theory to action.

“They are very much trying to find out what does that mean, to put it into place, into action in classrooms, in institutions like universities,” he said.

Guhin envisions education and justice intersecting in the halls of academia.

He said he wants faculty members to challenge their students, to incorporate the underpinnings of social justice inherent in Ignatius’s brainchild and allow them to germinate in an intellectual setting.

“There should be a common thread of preferential option for the poor. It is a very basic Catholic idea. It’s up to the interpretation of the teacher and it’s important to maintain academic freedom,” Guhin said.

Last semester, Josh Daly painted his face and died for social justice, figuratively speaking, in the November 2002 protest of the institution formerly known as the School of the Americas.

He supports Jeff’s call for social justice to emerge in the classroom but wants to take it further.

“We as a university should push for Jesuit ideals in all that we do,” he said. “That means in the classroom and outside the classroom. That means a discerning spirit and a contemplative vision.”

For everyone involved in LUCAP, Loyola has provided a niche for the pursuit of Jesuit ideals and social activism.

“What I’ve done in LUCAP has nurtured my own thoughts and feelings about war and other things,” Daly said. “Seek your passion now, a lot of times you can find these other passions.”