In light of recent decisions made at this university, I wonder if anyone who actually makes decisions at this school knows about the five principles of Jesuit education.
Among the five is a commitment to remaining “Open to Growth” and “Committed to Justice.” Our school often fails to practice either of these.
Even before freshmen arrive on campus, we are forced to take StrengthsQuest, a questionnaire grounded in the pseudo-science of positive psychology, which sets out to prove that happiness leads to objectively good things, some of which the Jesuit identity does not concern itself with, like wealth.
Positive psychology focuses solely on the good qualities of people. But part of being open to growth is recognizing our flaws and working on them. Did StrengthsQuest tell any of us our weaknesses? No.
The decision by the university to rely so heavily on StrengthsQuest encourages a lack of self-awareness on the part of its students. The university should instead encourage us to look at the qualities that each of us possess, good and bad, and work on those while still recognizing our individual strengths.
Our commitment to justice is still more lacking. We have stood by idly while the Sodexo employees have fought for better wages. Part of the Jesuit identity is recognizing the intrinsic value in every person, not just viewing the Sodexo workers as people who do not have privilege to the fundamental right of human dignity.
Rev. Pedro Arrupe delivered an address to alumni of Jesuit institutions to talk about the apparent lack of justice in the Jesuit community. Arrupe cited, among other things, two ways to cultivate justice through love: “A firm determination to draw no profit whatever from clearly unjust sources” and “a firm resolve to be agents of change in society; not merely resisting unjust structures and arrangements, but actively undertaking to reform them.”
Our school has failed miserably committing itself to doing justice. As a Jesuit institution we must recognize that a consumer society sometimes conflicts with a just society.
We can do better, but our reluctance stems from our inability to be an agent of change and our lack of knowledge about the systemic problems of Western culture.
Only through empathetic understanding can we feel called to do something for these people, but many of us have fallen into complacency with the injustices of society and do nothing to rectify the situation of the less empowered.
The pope himself clarifies, “In seeking to promote human dignity, the church shows a preferential love of the poor and the voiceless.”
As Christians we cannot simply seek profit to fit in with society. Instead, following past and present popes and Arrupe, we must seek human dignity, which this institution could use some serious improvements on in order to fit into the Jesuit identity.
Chris Backers is a philosophy sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected]
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