There is a course on campus that has had a waitlist of nearly three-dozen students, and those who have taken it say it is worth the wait.

The course, titled Ignatius Loyola, provides students with insight into their Jesuit institution. It connects Ignatius’s life and method of discernment to the life of a college student, many of whom are on the cusp of major decisions.

For the past three years, the course has been full nearly every semester, according to the Office of Student Records. This fall, 35 students were on the waitlist for the course, on top of the 30 who were already registered, said the Rev. Ted Dziak, S.J., vice president of Mission and Ministry.

“It’s a class that students should be required to take,” said Jimmy Rose, business senior, who took the course with Dziak last year.

 The class fulfills an Advanced Common Curriculum requirement, but its relevance is what keeps students interested, according to Dziak.

“It gives them tools to figure out what’s important to them, to find answers to the questions of life,” Dziak said.

The Rev. Gerald Fagin, S.J., religion professor, began teaching the class in 1987, because he felt the need for a course on Ignatius Loyola at a Jesuit university.

“I was pleasantly surprised at the reaction,” Fagin said. “Students kept signing up.”

Dziak joined him in teaching the course five years ago. Now he and Fagin teach a total of three sections each year, or around 100 students. The course is open to students of all majors.

Fagin said he hopes that students leave his course understanding why a practical, well-rounded worldview is stressed at Loyola.

“You could be an atheist and do well in the course. It doesn’t demand belief, it demands understanding,” Fagin said.

Fagin and Dziak will both teach sections next semester.

Cherie LeJeune can be reached at [email protected]