The Ignatian Compass

Loyola’s aim is to become the leader in defining, promoting, and advancing Ignatian citizenship. The University will begin by cultivating a campus-wide ethos of Ignatian citizenship, promoting thoughtful and active civic and global engagement among all members of our community.

Ignatian citizens think of themselves as part of something larger, as responsible for the betterment of our shared world; as men and women who think and act for the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged and the oppressed. Now more than ever, our world needs Ignatian citizens; Loyola is called to act and we are uniquely poised to do so from a position of strength and responsibility that is based on our mission and core values.

Establish the Ignatian Citizenship Commons

• Identify or build space for the Commons
• Hire faculty across several disciplines to add curricular and research strengths
• Create a faculty fellows program for visiting faculty and/or postdoctoral fellows
• Engage in programming, student research, experiential learning, and internships; incentives for faculty teaching development and research; additional graduate fellowships
• Seek budgetary resources for formational and mission enhancement for employees

Seek, embrace, and promote diversity, equity, and inclusiveness

• Establish a President’s Advisory Council for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Create a senior leadership position for diversity, equity, and inclusion

Foster responsible and active citizenship on campus, and on local, regional, national, and global scales

• Augment the University’s experience with ACE; generate a strategic plan for global engagement
• Develop a plan to increase international student enrollment

Jesuit education is not an end in itself, but a pathway to help guide each student. It offers structure yet flexibility and freedom, encouraging personal growth and student-directed study. Teachers, rather than merely delivering knowledge, serve as guides full of wisdom and experience.

Much as St. Ignatius urged that the Spiritual Exercises should be adaptable to those who undertook them, Jesuit education must be adaptable to students’ individual needs and to the time in which it is delivered—with an eye toward preparation for the future.

Although Loyola’s vision is to be a leading liberal arts university, that liberal arts identity is threatened. In recent years there has been a considerable decline in the number of Loyola students majoring in arts and sciences and an increase in those in the school of business. The needs of today’s students and local, national, and global job forecasts show that Loyola must require undergraduates to plan carefully in order to link liberal arts education with their career goals. Hence, career planning must be an essential characteristic of undergraduate education at Loyola.

By renewing Loyola’s commitment to the educational ideals of Ignatius, the University will make a compelling case for the integral synergies between the liberal arts and career and vocational planning. We will reiterate that initial call of Ignatius and ensure that the education we provide remains deeply committed to the liberal arts, offering students the foundation they need for any and every opportunity they will encounter. At the same time, we must ensure that they gain knowledge and experience through interdisciplinary connections among the liberal arts, STEM, and business, to help them graduate with a deeper understanding of how to respond to the needs of current times.

A Loyola education in the Ignatian tradition prepares students not solely for their first jobs, but for their careers, for a lifetime of contributing to the workplace and to society.

While remaining strong in its commitment to the liberal arts, the University must explore opportunities to strengthen the curriculum, weaving together vocational discernment and the power of a liberal arts education and poising each student to be an Ignatian citizen

Place greater emphasis on graduate programs and their curricula, locations, delivery modes, and availability of programs, and to the distinct graduate and adult student experience

Implement necessary technology enhancements; infuse digital pedagogy into curriculum

• Expand experiential learning opportunities for undergraduates
• Enable ongoing pedagogical faculty development, including establishing a Center for Faculty Development
• Support a Digital Learning Commons housed in the Library to promote digital scholarship and teaching initiatives
• Increase summer course offerings and programs, including support for staffing and infrastructure resources for hybrid/online programs
• Provide greater resources and support to graduate students in the Writing Center, Library, etc.
• Assess the need for existing graduate centers and the potential for a downtown Baltimore campus

Make career outcomes a distinctive feature of the graduate, undergraduate, and alumni experiences

• Consider the location, staffing, and technology of The Career Center; emphasize career discernment; develop a more robust network of alumni to serve both students and alumni; extend and improve the data collection of career outcomes; identify methods for campus departments to collaborate and share data

Generate a unified student experience devoted to health, wellness, spirit, and traditions

• Develop holistic initiatives for all students; provide additional resources for students from diverse backgrounds and identities
• Tie traditions to important academic moments for students, and inspire and support students to create opportunities to grow spirit and start new traditions

Building on St. Ignatius’ belief that people should meet others where they are, The Ignatian Compass will expand opportunities to engage the Loyola community more fully, one individual at a time, by increasing connections and collaboration. The members of Loyola’s community are the University’s greatest resource, its most passionate supporters, and the most likely people to spread the word about the value of a Loyola University Maryland education. To inspire and nurture an Ignatian Culture of Engagement at Loyola, we must build the infrastructure to support engagement, inform and influence our stakeholders, involve our community, and promote a culture of philanthropy to advance, individually and collectively, Loyola’s mission.

An Ignatian way to build a culture of engagement is to examine and embrace our University’s core values and beliefs, inspiring members of the community toward deeper engagement with those values and the ideals they represent. As Ignatian citizens, we are called upon to strive for the greater good, and to educate and empower members of our community to engage in meaningful ways with one another and the world around them. We must align or create organizational structures, innovative programs, and sustainable services, fostering critical collaboration that will move us forward as one community with a common purpose.

Build a new University Engagement Center

Generate and promote new and exciting ways to engage alumni, who can and should play an increasingly important role in the life of Loyola

• Increase opportunities for alumni and prospective family engagement by enhancing programs and services, upgrading technology, and expanding its alumni network
• Build resources for much-needed scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students
• Invite alumni and parents to participate more in Loyola’s career planning efforts and to network more

A shift in culture is necessary for Loyola’s employees to embrace their roles as Ignatian citizens

• Create a University-wide mission education program for employees
• Establish a University-wide mission integration activity or day of service for the entire campus community; enable employees to receive paid time off for approved service initiatives, retreats, or immersion trips
• Examine opportunities to strengthen employee compensation, rewards, and recognition; performance management processes; and professional development opportunities

Maximize the impact of intercollegiate athletics on Loyola’s brand

• Target athletics resources toward sports where Loyola can best compete; to enhance school spirit; to increase alumni engagement; and to improve the University’s profile and admissions demand

In addition to defining what it means to be an Ignatian citizen, the marketing and communications team will develop campaigns and core messages with particular focus on young alumni successes.

To live out his vocation and give his order a strong foundation, St. Ignatius had to ensure that the Society of Jesus had the financial support it needed to travel and share the Gospel with the communities the Jesuits served. As he pursued his studies, he relied on the support of others, made prudent decisions, and trusted that God would provide. To make sure the Society of Jesus could have a significant impact on the world and grow, he surrounded himself with brother Jesuits—a group united in mission and vision and faith.

Returning to its Ignatian roots, Loyola will strengthen its vitality through a unified mission and vision as a university. As a community, we will embrace the Catholic sense of subsidiarity, appropriately aligning authority with responsibility. Loyola will place decisions in the hands of those who are closest to the issues, empowering them to make decisions that best serve the members of the community; this, in turn, will put the University in the best position for the future by ensuring that we have reached optimal operating efficiency through cost reductions or reallocations. While adhering to that sense of subsidiarity, the University will also need to embrace the Jesuit openness to undertaking new opportunities and the constant challenge for self-improvement. The pace of change requires that today’s educational institutions become agile enough to be a leading contributor to the knowledge and service that advance social justice around the globe. With greater financial stability and vitality, Loyola will be better prepared to serve today’s students and tomorrow’s—and to live out the mission St. Ignatius embraced.

Create the necessary shift in institutional governance structures

• Empower deans and chairs with oversight responsibilities and accountability for academic programs
• Examine Loyola’s shared governance model to identify opportunities for a more efficient, flexible way to approach decisions

Through establishing a culture of philanthropy, the University will increase its endowment

• Continue to seek ways to foster a culture of environmental sustainability
• Identify and realize new and varied sources of revenues to lessen the primary dependence on its traditional undergraduate student population