Jesuit Education
Five Characteristics
Loyola University Chicago is a Jesuit Catholic University where ethical and spiritual values are central to the educational process. These values are informed by the traditions of American higher education and animated by the contemporary ideals of the Society of Jesus. Loyola is a pluralistic and diverse institution including nine colleges and a nationally-ranked Medical Center. We welcome students, patients, faculty, and staff from many neighborhoods, nations, religious backgrounds, and ethnic traditions. The Jesuit tradition of education has a distinguished history spanning five centuries. Loyola University Chicago is one of 28 Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States. Here are five "characteristics" that uphold the Jesuit standards of education, and which undergird the experience of teaching and learning at Loyola University Chicago.
1. Passion for Quality
The primary feature of a Jesuit education is a passion for quality. Jesuit universities set demanding standards for both students and faculty. Jesuit education has, in every age, pursued and delivered educational excellence. This commitment to excellence animates Loyola's Ignatian heritage, Catholic identity, and Jesuit mission.
2. Study of the Humanities and the Sciences
Jesuit universities are dedicated to education in the humanities and the sciences, although specific courses of study may vary. This is the purpose of Loyola's Core Curriculum. We want our students to be able to think and speak and write; to learn about history, literature and art; to have their minds and hearts expanded by philosophy and theology; and to have a solid understanding of math and the sciences.
We want to prepare students for living as well as for working-that is the merit of a liberal arts education. With today's demand for specialized technological training at the peril of the arts, Loyola's brand of liberal education becomes all the more important. We need business leaders who read Shakespeare and computer scientists who understand the history and roots of our civilizations.
3. Questions of Ethics and Values
A third characteristic of Jesuit education and so of Loyola University is its constant evaluation of ethics and values. We address these issues to enhance the personal strength of character and professional quality of our graduates. It is today, as it has always been, important to combine personal integrity and business ethics. In recent years, this pursuit has taken on new urgency. Spurred by papal encyclicals and the pastoral letters of the American Catholic bishops, Jesuit institutions want to focus attention on the great questions of justice and fairness that confront our age: economic inequity, racism, and unemployment in our own country, the global imbalance of economic resources and opportunities, and poverty and oppression in the Third World, among many others.
These are, clearly, complex issues, which do not have any certain and universally-accepted solutions. But as a Jesuit university, we feel compelled by our tradition to raise these questions for our students, not through sloganeering and political maneuvering, but in a way that is conducive to higher education: through research, reflection, and creative action. A key element in the Jesuit tradition is its emphasis on the process of "reflection on experience." Such a review process provides a firm basis for logical and ethical action.
4. Emphasis on Religious Experience
A fourth characteristic of Jesuit education is the importance it gives to religious experience. Loyola University prides itself on being a "home for all faiths." The experience of searching for God is vital and must be integrated into the educational process. We want to provide students the opportunity to grow in both knowledge and faith, in belief and learning. As a Catholic university, we try to broaden this crucial horizon of faith for all our students, whatever their religious traditions might be. Faith in God is not an obstacle to learning-in fact, belief can often sharpen and focus one's intellectual search. Prayer and liturgy are no threat to knowledge; they help form and strengthen an educational community in the fullest sense.
5. Care for the Individual
Jesuit education is person-centered. No matter how large or complex the institution, each individual is important and is given as much personal attention as possible, both in and out of the classroom. For so many faculty and staff at Loyola University and at our sister institutions, teaching and patient care are much more than jobs - more, even, than professions.
They are ways of life. This is true not only for members of religious orders but for lay men and women of different religious backgrounds who look on their work of teaching and administrating as a way to share in God's handiwork as service to others in the ministry of higher education and health care.
A hallmark of this person-centered nature of Jesuit education is that it must always lead to action. We must share what we receive-our learning and our life experience are not for us to hoard for ourselves. Rather, we are to use our learning, our leadership, our values, and our compassion in service to a world desperately in need of life and hope. We are to make a difference as persons for others; we are challenged to be leaders in the service of all.
Loyola's Mission Vision and Purpose
