Jo Ann Rooney, JD, LLM, EdD, President of Loyola University Chicago, welcomed faculty to the 2020 Faculty Convocation in pre-recoded remarks Oct. 2, 2020.
Welcome to the faculty convocation. Even though this tradition, where we honor faculty and start a new fall semester, is familiar, our gathering this year in a virtual environment is anything but traditional. In keeping with that spirit, rather than providing a longer address, I am going to set the stage and then turn the program over to our provost, Norberto. His first seven months with us have been anything but traditional, and now as he begins his first full academic year, it is so important for him to be able to share his thoughts and academic vision with the entire university faculty. As we emerge from this current pandemic, focusing on how best to thrive not merely survive, sharing this academic vision for the future is particularly relevant, timely and necessary.
Let me begin by thanking you once again for everything you did throughout this past spring and for your work over the summer preparing for this fall and making the academic experience for our students, exceptional. This pandemic is calling on all of us to reimagine nearly everything. We need to think differently, work differently, and, for us at Loyola Chicago, clearly define our place as an academic and research leader post-pandemic. What you have done during the last six plus months to transform our university has been nothing short of astounding. It highlights our ability to adapt and not be held back by thinking that there is only one way to accomplish our goal. While we may have wished for a return to campus, in person, this fall, and none of us joined the university to be sitting, isolated, behind a computer screen or a plexiglass partition socially distanced from everyone, offering classes remotely and keeping our residence halls closed, at least through the fall semester, was the right decision for us – prioritizing the safety, health and security of our community. As we consider our options for the spring semester, we will continue to share information with you and continue to solicit your input and feedback as we have done throughout the spring and summer.
The greatest challenges and opportunities facing us are not centered on making adjustments for this year and continuing to make very difficult decisions. Resilience has been part of Loyola Chicago’s ethos since the beginning and, working together, we will get survive this pandemic and the accompanying economic crisis. The greatest challenges and opportunities before us begin by acknowledging the upcoming disruption to higher education that is not something theoretical in the future but is facing us now. Defining our future, unlike the health crisis, is within our control. However, we must be willing to challenge ourselves to disrupt the known and familiar, setting aside our temptation to think in terms of “we have always done it this way”, embrace ambiguity, take calculated risks and step outside of our comfort zones.
How are we willing to truly transform ourselves to accept the post pandemic reality? How are we going to break down long established boundaries and barriers to define what it means to tackle the greatest social needs using an interdisciplinary approach to address systemic racism, discrimination, economic and health care disparities, criminal justice reform and other vexing issues? How will both our graduate and undergraduate academic programming be impacted to reach more students desiring an education that prepares for the future, to expand our research activities aimed at creating new knowledge and solutions, to focus our community engagement where we embrace working at the margins?
This academic year is not one where we can sit by in a holding pattern until this all goes away and we go back to normal. The reality of the next normal is that it will not look like the past, As we complete our next strategic plan this year, building on Plan 2020, we owe it to our Jesuit mission, to focus on the future needs of others and our society and adapt accordingly. Supporting both cura personalis and cura apostolica, all of us must consciously commit to the disciplines of personal and communal examens and discernments to connect our faith that does justice with the call to action where it is most needed. Only then will we be able to set aside individual interests and find the strength to risk embracing the big ideas for the greater good. In years to come, it will not be our responses during the pandemic that we will be remembered by or that will have a lasting impact on our future, it is how we work now to define our forward course post-pandemic that will change our trajectory. I look forward to working with you.
Thank you again for all you do for our students, our university and our community.