 Good afternoon everyone. What a wonderful crowd. Thank you for being here this afternoon. My name is Tom Pellegrino. I am the Senior Vice President for Student Affairs. My role is to sit in and stand in for Dr. Nancy Delavalli, our Vice President for Mission and Identity, who unfortunately couldn't be here today, but wanted me to welcome all of you here today for this panel presentation. And it's great to see such a wonderful crowd. I'm going to be very brief in my welcoming comments. But first is certainly to thank Nancy, and also to thank Mary Crimmins. Where is Mary? Mary? Did Mary leap Mary? Thank you for setting this up today. They put a lot of hard work into what I'm sure is going to be a wonderful presentation. And what a perfect week to have a discussion on our mission and identity and the role of Jesuits past, present, and future. And I hope that you will get something out of this. This is not lecture format, although this will be moderated. There will be an opportunity for Q&A. And if you're like me, I'm going to be looking at the future piece. And this is about appropriation. What does this mean for all of us who are not Jesuits? So I am not a Jesuit, but I like to think of myself as an Ignatian leader. And so I will be listening to see what's my role in all this. And what am I to learn from this? And I'm really thrilled to have all of us here today. Let me introduce our moderator first for the discussion here today is Dr. Kirk Schlickding, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Chair of the Gerald Corrigan Chair in Humanities and Social Science. Dr. Schlickding will be moderating our panel today and our panel from left and right. Gentlemen, you're not shy. Another of you are shy. So maybe starting with Father Tony from the left, if you could introduce yourselves and tell the audience what you do here on campus, that would be wonderful. So is this the short and sweet one or my longer? This is the short sweet one because we're going to put Kurt up here. Rector of the Jesuit community and now an adjunct in visual performing arts, teaching 2D design, and in religious studies, finding God in all things. And I see one of my students here from there. Molly, you go. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Charles. Father Charles Allen, I've been here on this campus on and off since 1966, but most importantly since 1977, was an assistant headmaster and the later headmaster at Fairfield Prep and I'm now a university chaplain and special assistant to the president. Father Frank Hannafi, I'm an associate professor in the religious studies department. I'm also a resident Jesuit, so I live with the students in the residence halls and I'll tell you about that a little later. And I also teach here in the applied ethics program, business ethics courses. I'm Father Michael Doody. I didn't get the memo about the black suits. This is what I wear to work every day. I'm the director of restorative mentoring. I've been here since 2006, but before, previous incarnation, I was here in 1965 to 70, most of the time as an undergraduate. I also live in the residence halls and my work really as a director of restorative mentoring is dealing with mildly fractured halos. And you had another job when you first came here? I was director of campus ministry for six years. And I'm Father Mark Scalise. I have been here for 13 years. I arrived in 2004 as a professor in the film and television program up at the media center. And two years ago, I made a transfer across campus and I'm now the director of campus ministry. Gentlemen, thank you. I'll have the podium turned over to you. Thank you very much. Enjoy. Thank you. Thank you. It's really a pleasure to be here. What I plan to do is just I have some slides to share with you just to put a little historical context to where we are. But let me start with a reflection. I think we owe the Jesuits an enormous thanks for what they did. So that's the current Jesuits and certainly the Jesuits who were here when I came as a student in the fall of 1966. These were men who dedicated their lives to providing an education for someone like myself and then for the generations of students. Actually, there were generations before me. But the generations that have followed. And I think that's really something to celebrate. And I see two of my classmates are here. Jim Fitzpatrick and Joe Crachey. And I probably guess there's someone here who graduated before we did in the class of 1970. So let me just share with you a little context. We are celebrating our 75th anniversary and that really prompted us to think about where we came from, how this institution started. So last summer I had the opportunity to go out to St. Louis where the Jesuit archives are. And including the first records of this institution. And they're the records of Reverend James Dolan S.J. who was the first rector of the Jesuit community. And the records are certainly interesting to look at. And here is a foundation document. This is a letter to the Jesuits to Father Dolan from the Bishop of Hartford Maurice McAuliffe. And of course we name McAuliffe Hall in his honor. And this was to invite the Jesuits to come here to start the prep school. Not to start the university. And this letter was September 19, 1941. So if we think about a foundation document, this would be the foundation document of Fairfield University. The Jesuits had written to the bishop a number of times asking if they could come to start a Catholic high school. And in 1941 he invited the Jesuits to come. And he certainly mentions the founding of a high school. And then later adds the invitation includes the founding of the college in the same area. So this is how we started. And there's also a gilded edge tail here. What the Jesuits needed to find was some space to start Fairfield Prep with an eye toward building a university. And so they started to look, search for land and buildings in southern Fairfield County. They went to the city of Bridgeport down the Seaside Park. Some of you who know the area in Black Rock, there's a, there's a, on the top of St. Mary's. They looked there. They went to where the, up on Greenfield Hill where Fairfield Country Day is. They looked at that property, which was then the Fairfield Country Club. But they thought that that was too far from the bus route where many of the students, the prep would, would come. And then they find two estates, two adjoining estates. One is the estate of Oliver B. Jennings. And that is McCall of Hall and the east side of the campus. And Jennings wasn't, was an heir to his father's fortune. And his father was Oliver G. Jennings. And at one point, Oliver G. Jennings owned 10% of the first stock of standard oil. He was truly a wealthy person and his son built this estate. And the estate becomes available because he had died in 1937. And his family wasn't going to continue with the estate. And the second estate is the estate of Walter Lasher. And that's Bellarmine Hall. And Lasher was a Bridgeport industrialist. However, by the time the Jesuits arrived, he's bankrupt. And the town of Fairfield had in a sense taken over confiscate his estate, Bellarmine Hall, because he couldn't pay the back taxes. And the Jesuits eventually paid the taxes. So this is the story of how we end up where we are. And then there was, now remember that letter from Bishop McCullough came in September, came the Bishop's letter is September of 1941. And the Jesuits buy the property in December of 41. They didn't waste any time at all. They bought this property. And does anyone know the significance of this date? This is Pearl Harbor. And this was the Bridgeport Post, which was published on Sunday here on the east coast of the United States. Pearl Harbor had not begun. So that the next day, the headlines would have all been about Pearl Harbor. But there was this nice long story about the Jesuits coming to Fairfield in that Sunday edition. And then the prep opened in September of 1942. And of course, our first class arrives in 47. And the reason for that is the war, because the young men were serving in the armed forces. And then many of them who come to Fairfield in 47 are veterans of the Second World War. And I just have two more slides. This is our first catalog. This is the cover of the first catalog, volume one, number one. And this is in our archives. So Lisbysinski is sitting in the back. And this is all online. And it reminded me of the tuition. The tuition was $800. Now, it had really skyrocketed when Jim and Joe and myself arrived. It was $1,200. But that actually was a lot of money back in 1966. And then it's probably hard to see this. This is the first curriculum. And again, this is the legacy of the Jesuits. This is a curriculum that the New England province used. I'm sure this was the curriculum at Holy Cross. This was the curriculum at Boston College. So they didn't have to invent a curriculum. And it's hard to read. I think our students would be thrilled to know that you studied Latin and Greek. You did that. And you did philosophy for four years. And you did theology for four years. So the curriculum has evolved since this first curriculum. But I think what we also need to think about is there were hundreds of universities that opened in the aftermath of World War II. And our success was not fordained. It wasn't given. And I think Jim and Joe and I would describe when we first arrived here with five or six buildings. This was a modest enterprise. And we've had spectacular success. And I think that's another thing to celebrate. And I think that's another legacy of the Jesuits. They had a vision that this could be more than a small regional university. This could be a renowned national university. And so that's what we're also celebrating. So I'm finished. I think you're glad there's no quiz. But what we plan to do was to ask a series of questions of our panelists. And I'd like to start with one. In the spring of 1941, the Bishop of Hartford invites the Jesuits to open a high school. How had the Jesuits chosen their primary mission as one of education? And when young men were drawn to the Jesuits, were young men drawn to the Jesuits by this particular mission? And does this continue today? So I thought I'd start with that question. Charlie, why don't you take the first one? I'll take the first one. When Ignatius started the Society of Jesus, what, back around 1540, he had no desire to be a great educational group. But the one thing he knew is that he had to educate those Jesuits. He wanted to educate the Jesuits. And so he started a number of seminaries to educate the young men who wanted to join the Society of Jesus. Well, those seminaries worked out so well that they began to get all kinds of requests. Couldn't you expand it so that our young sons who have no desire to become priests can also come to one of those seminaries? And so, hey, they were willing to pay a tuition, we'll expand. And so the numbers kept growing. And so by the time you get to the United States, I believe the first Jesuits came, well, they started the first college at Georgetown in what 17, 78 was it? No, no, 89. They had a long tradition now of running schools for lay people. And so from Georgetown, you get Holy Cross, you get Boston College, it was only natural to start Fairfield University. Now, can I throw in my little thing I always like to say, we did not start Fairfield University to educate students. We started it to give jobs to Jesuits. Because if you were to take a look and you can come up to the Jesuit residents and look at the catalogs, if you go back to about the years 1940, 41, 42, every year something like 60 young Jesuits were coming out and they had to find them jobs. What's the old saying? We were too proud to beg and too lazy to lift. So they said the one thing we can do is teach. So let's open up another school. So we opened up Portland, Chevrolet and we opened up Cranwell in Lenox, Massachusetts and Fairfield Prep down here and then later Fairfield University. Do you want to continue with what I actually gave the first three minutes of my four-minute talk? I was a little worried they occurred that you were going to shut us off completely. But let me just, all I want to say is what I looked at was the first up until what, Michael Doody came here in 65, looking upon that as a year of incredible transition to look at those first 20 years or so and say, hey, what has really changed and what does that tell us about the future? Well, the first thing is I just implied is the number of Jesuits. We had too many of them back in 1942. Now we have too few of them. And so there's been a tremendous transition in terms of the number of Jesuits able to be assigned to a place like Fairfield Prep or Fairfield University. And that's certainly going to have implications for the future. When I came here to teach in 1977, I think there were about 85 Jesuits in the community, which would be about what five times what we presently have. So you can see how that's changing. Another point I would make, and Curt already mentioned it, the price of land. Was it Will Rogers? I always get Will Rogers and Mark Twain confused. By lots of land, they're not making it anymore. Well, when we came down here in 42, there was lots of land available and we bought up a big chunk of it. I always like to say it was Jesuits from Boston College who came down here in 42. And as they drove down, they said to each other, look, this will be the second university we've started. Let's do it right this time. And the one thing they knew from BC was don't be cheap when it comes to buying land. So they bought some more 200 acres. Nowadays, there is no way we're going to find another 200 acres of land available. But thank God in 42, we made that decision. But we'll have to live with the fact that now land is no longer as cheap as it once was. Third thing would be a continual change in the nature of the students. I like to say, Curt, help me out. A bell curve goes like this. What kind of a curve goes like that? A two-humped curve. Okay. Think of it, the students in terms of age as a two-humped curve, they start out a lot older than you might expect college students to be because they were getting back from the war. And thanks to the GI Bill could come here. Then the numbers, the age drops back to what we would consider the average college student. And then as you move into the 60s and 70s, the university begins to grow in terms of its graduate programs. And so lots of older students coming on campus. And then the last thing I would point out is probably you mentioned that a lot of other schools started out at about the same time. And the competition we now face, we wouldn't have faced in 1942, be it from public institutions, from other private schools, Sacred Heart University, I think started in 65, but a lot of other schools out there. So we have to really work to get those students. But that's my four or five minutes summed up in 10 minutes. Michael, why don't you pick it up from there? Alrighty. So I came here in, oh, it's here 1965 to 70 with most of a year out because I entered the Jesuits in 1968 after my junior year. And so why did I choose Fairfield? Well, I'll tell you, Fairfield wasn't my first choice. I'll be very honest with you. I want to go to Georgetown, but they put me on the waiting list. I was damn annoyed. So I accepted Fairfield and then Georgetown took me off the waiting list and I never wrote back to them. So for my preparation for today, I sort of drove around the campus. I looked at the names of all the, all the streets, McGinnis, Mahan, not Mahon, but Mahan, O'Neill Lieber, Rhea Lange, McCormick, Mooney, Porter, Lynch, Coughlin, Fitzgerald, Loyola, Bellarmine. I knew them all except the last two and Porter wasn't a Jesuit. She was from the nursing school, I think. There's one other that I missed. Walter's Way. Walter's Way. Who was that for? John Walters. John Walters. Okay. Yes, she was an economics professor when I was here. Good. So now I know that. The, the first, I didn't know Loyola and Bellarmine personally, but I've come to know them very well. Father Mahan, George Mahan, I want you all to pronounce that right. Not Mahan. It was the first Jesuit I met on campus. He was standing on the southwest corner of Loyola at the mailbox, which I didn't realize until today was still there. I, I, for 11 years I've been here, I didn't notice that mailbox, but I remembered it from when I was a freshman. The second person I met was Father Bill McGinnis, for whom I became a driver. I drove around his Buick Wildcat with the license plate FU777. No longer the license plate for the president. Probably good. I moved into Loyola Hall and my father, my grandmother and my mother came with me and my mother and my grandmother sat with Father Mahan in the lounge because women were not allowed in the residential part of the building. So in my, in my room there was a desk, a chair, a bed. I was allowed to bring a radio, a manual typewriter, a foot locker, two suitcases and I brought a record player which they really told me to take home or send home with my parents. Not allowed, there weren't enough plugs in the rooms. It's true. We were allowed to have little mats on the floor but not big because they could be moved because the cleaning ladies come in two or three times a week and dust mopped our rooms. And if you were really nice to the cleaning ladies, which I was several times a year, they would actually make your bed for you, which they did for me. I don't know if they did for you or not. No, well, you didn't lift them enough money. That's the problem. The Jesuits, I think, had probably less in their rooms. They all had a couple of habits and lots of books and some secular clothes, but not many. They really were poorer, poorer than we are now. I'll tell you, I have more clothes than lots of students, I think. I'm afraid, I'm embarrassed to admit it. I knew Fairfield was Jesuit when I applied and I had a second cousin who was a Jesuit, but I didn't really know what it meant then. What I learned pretty quickly, for one thing, it meant lots of Jesuits because the Jesuits he lived, every dorm on every floor had a Jesuit. Berkman's had the top floor Jesuits. Gonzaga had about 20 Jesuits. Bellarmine was full of Jesuits. And you can always tell the Jesuits, they didn't wear purple shirts those days. They all wore habits when I arrived. Every one of them wore habit all the time, except you see them at night in the dorm with something a little less formal. And I suppose Fairfield, as he would say earlier, sort of like a mirror image of all our universities, mostly Jesuit teachers, all male undergraduates from most of our schools still end, not the graduate schools. Most faculty were Jesuits, certainly here in some of the schools. And how did they get assigned to Fairfield? Did the Jesuits get assigned to Fairfield? They were sent by the provincial, told what they were teaching. There was no interview. All the department chairs were Jesuits, assigned by the provincial. The president was also the superior of the Jesuit community, and he was assigned by the general in Rome, the only one. It's embarrassing to say, but the words collaboration, mission, identity, those words were not in the Fairfield Jesuit community lexicon at the time. Lay faculty really were here, as I recall, to fill the gaps that couldn't be filled by Jesuits. And we were turning out more and more of them at the time, as Charlie tells us. So there was hope we wouldn't need lay people, I think, on the faculty joke. The Jesuits acted in local parenis in place of our parents, and they really meant that. So they were very parental. We had to turn as freshmen our lights out 11 o'clock, and Father Gallamelli would roam around the building to make sure your lights were out, and if they weren't out, you got in trouble. There was a curfew every night. If you wanted to be out late on Friday or Saturday night until 2.30 in the morning, you could get permission from Father Gallamelli, and he would get it if you had been well behaved. Otherwise, one o'clock, you were back on campus. Freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. There wasn't any distinction there. We were like sheep. We just obeyed. If you didn't obey, if you came in late or you did something else disappointing to Father Gallamelli, you were campus, which means on the weekend, on Friday and Saturday night, you could sign in with the lay prefect on every floor every half hour on a half hour from 7 until 1 a.m. And we just thought that was kind of normal. We did it without any questioning at all. We wore sports coats and shoes, no sneakers, no flip-flops, no shorts. We were very well dressed gentlemen. And I suppose the student body, if you took a list of it, it went like the Dublin and the Rome phone books. It was pretty clear where the backgrounds of the students were. It was Irish and Italian pretty much. Talk about Catholic. It was Catholic at all caps then. As good Catholic students, we had Mass Cards, which not someone's going to say Mass for you, but twice a week, during the week, we had to go to Mass in the chapel in the basement of Loyola. And if you didn't turn your card in and didn't go to Mass, then you had to move off campus. And it wasn't room on campus for everybody. So I went. Actually, I was very good. I went to Mass every day. There were several people who were excused, the two Egyptian princes, Baruch and Fouad Yunez, who were students here. They were Muslim, so they were excused. And some of the basketball players. Philosophy and theology, 15 credits in each area. Nothing esoteric like world religions. It was all very clear. I think it was a course in Vatican II at one point. There was a lot of Catholic energy and excitement at a time. Vatican II had just happened. And I was really enthused about it, as were most the students and the Jesuits. I remember we could have reconciliation services and we'd get general absolution without confession. That was kind of nice. That didn't last very long. We could be lectors. And we got communion at the Bush Beaches. Jesuits here and everywhere else were sort of cutting edge in theology and publishing. And some of them got reprimanded. I found it very easy to relate to the Jesuits. They weren't like parish priests. They did lots of stuff like George Gallirelli mopped the cafeteria in the Loyola Hall every night. He and Brother McElroy. Brother McElroy mowed the grass everywhere on campus. The brother was in charge of all the printing. Brother LaBelle was in charge of the switchboard up in Bellarmine Hall. Jesuits weren't too proud to do anything. It did whatever came along. And they lived, I'd say, very poorly. Father Gallirelli was the Dean of Men and the Director of Housing. It wasn't until 1970 that we got somebody in, Mr. Schrimf, Mr. Crow, to do those two of those jobs. So it was from the Jesuits who were really omnipresent and so generous with their time that I got my vocation. And I was one of five students that entered from Fairfield University, entered the Jesuits in 1968. And the place holds great memories for me. It's very close to my heart. I don't say that my time here was the golden age, but it was pretty golden time for me. I was very happy as an undergraduate student here and very happy the Jesuits took me. Then things turned upside down. Vietnam War became more and more pronounced. Draft was happening. People were going off to war and dead bodies were coming back from war. Johnson and Nixon were president. People got killed at Kent State, murdered Kent State. On campus here classes were canceled. There were protests and finals were canceled. There was a march on Bellarmine Hall one night. Father McGinnis came out by himself from Bellarmine Hall before the kids got into the courtyard and held them back, single-handedly. And they were very... He was surprising. Obitiately they turned back. And then things calmed down because we had the admission of women and it was very good for the place. Now the real reason for having women come, by the way, is not because we were so open-minded, it was because of finances. We needed the money. We needed the bodies. So and then collaboration really became a word and we said yes, it's important that we collaborate because the judges started to be fewer and fewer and the laypeople started to be greater and greater. And 35 years later when I returned in 2006, I was twice the man I was. I was 140 when I left, 280 when I came back. The place was very, very different. It's still Catholic. It's still Jesuit. And we have a mission now that is written down. There was no mission written down when I was a student here. What does it mean now to be a Jesuit school? I think we're slowly but surely discovering that and more to come. That's my thought. I hope I didn't take too long. First of all, thank you all for coming and a special thanks to, I see a few students here. So nice to see you. This is my second incarnation, if you will, at Fairfield University. I was here from 86 to 89 as a quote unquote younger Jesuit. I'm not sure what that means anymore, by the way. I did part of my regency training here. Then I went off to various places and studied. And then I landed back here in 1998 and I've been here since. In fact, I grew up in a small town not far from here. You may know of a little town called Monroe, Connecticut, about a 20 minute ride from here. And can anything good come out of Monroe? I'm not sure. I learned many. I learned daily from my Jesuit brothers and I learned from Father Allen listening to some of his wonderful presentations come up with three points. And Charlie does that much better than I. But I just would like to say three things about my present time here since 1998. The first is that I, for years since I've returned here, have been a priest and a teacher here. And that's a really big part of my life here. Being a priest and a professor and trying to figure out how those things work or sometimes don't exactly. And it's very life giving. Being with our students and with everyone here on campus, with colleagues. And I just find it to be a wonderful, wonderful. It's like I have a dual career track and I love both of them. And sometimes finding the time to navigate everything is not so easy. But the first thing I would say is I think my major engagement here at Fairfield has been to be a priest and a teacher. And it continues to be exciting and wonderful. And, you know, it's funny. The body isn't as spry and as sharp as it was in 1998. You know, what's the old saying? You can tell whether it's going to be a good day or bad day. How loud the first crack is when you step out of bed in the morning. And I teach at eight in the morning a couple times a week and a number of three days a week. And it's kind of like, you know, on my way over to that classroom at quarter to eight in the morning, it's like, we'll see how much longer I can keep doing this. But I continue to enjoy it. And it's wonderful. The second is I live in the university residence halls. I've lived in a number of places since I've been here. The old quote unquote, I'm not sure what the old Jesuit residence is anymore because we moved around. I used to live in Faber Hall, which is the former Jesuit residence. And then when Father Von Arks arrived here, he asked he wanted some Jesuits to get into the dorms. That was a model I think he was familiar with and which has been a tradition for many years in Jesuit education. So a couple of my brothers talked me into it. I wasn't so sure what I thought about it initially. I had various publication deadlines and other things I was involved in. But I did it. And Father Jim Bowler, who has been here for many years, who I believe left this past summer, was the final guy. He kind of twisted my arm a bit. So I landed in Costco Hall. And that has been a wonderful experience being with the students in the dorms. And I think one of the practical reasons is as I get older, my hearing is getting worse and worse. So I'm able to continue doing that. So I only hear about 10% what's going on in the building. And I've enjoyed, for example, and recent years have done masses for the students in the dorms. I run a, I say with all humility, a very well-received Dunkin' Donuts study break social during final exams. And I always feel a little guilty applying the students with sugar and caffeine during their exam period. But they seem to be very happy about it. A lot of conversations informally with students, which I have found over the years, continues to help and inform my teaching. You know, just being with students outside of the classroom, I feel like we're all struggling at this all the time. But to figure out where we all are, not to mention people we work with, but living as a resident Jesuit has informed my teaching a good deal, I think. And I think it helps me to figure out a little more about what being a priest is about in a university. So living with students. And I've enjoyed over the years working with many of the wonderful res life staff. As Michael was saying, you know, things are much more different and more complicated. And there's a whole professional system of how res life works. And they're great at it. And there's a nice communication that happens between us, which has been lovely. My third is I've been teaching here for almost 20 years and in the religious studies department. And I'm also doing some things in business ethics. I think another major part of my life here is being a colleague with faculty and trying to be a priest and just a personal friend and maybe on occasion a mentor to junior faculty and other faculty. A lot of folks come and talk to me. You know, Father Vin Burns who taught here for many years once said, faculty member once came to him about some personal issue in his life. And said, Father, you know, I'm embarrassed to talk about this and I'm not sure how to get into this with you. He says, oh, you have two things in your favor. I never repeat what I hear and my hearing's not that good. So back to the hearing thing again. I was serving for a while as chair of the person of the religious studies department. So I was involved in hiring a number of faculty and trying to mentor younger faculty. And I do a little of that informally these days. And that's been wonderful. Although it's also quite humbling because when I look at their CVs, the new folks coming in, I realized if I were applying now, they'd never hire me because the younger faculty coming in are so fantastic and continue to be fantastic. Thank you very much for coming today. And I really do look forward to our conversation this afternoon. So thank you. Take it away, Mark. So I'm next. Like Father Hanifi, I've also spent time in the classroom here. Actually, most of my time at Fairfield has been spent in the classroom. And I think when people who don't know Jesuits, maybe like I'm going to my 40th high school reunion this summer, when they would hear that I'm, you know, being a teacher and maybe teaching film and television, they're like, how does that fit with being a priest? That sort of priest professional combo has been a question. So what I'd like to do is actually as I dug up the dossier that I wrote when I was applying for tenure six years ago. And it sort of summarizes pretty nicely this dichotomy. The title of our talk was Fairfield as a work of the society, meaning a place where we do our ministry. And so if you just allow me here, as I apply for tenure and promotion and reflect on my years here, what strikes me is how much my membership in the society of Jesus has informed everything I do as a teacher, creative artist and academic colleague. Indeed, being a Jesuit is more than a mode or orientation, which I bring to those endeavors. I came to Fairfield in 20 and 2004 because it was and remains a very good place to exercise my vocation as a Jesuit priest. My Jesuit vocation influence is the roles, committees and activities in which I've chosen to become involved. And it shows an underlying unity to my teaching, my creative scholarship, and my professional service. So for the students in the room, all the professors when they come here in order to stay here for a long time need to demonstrate real competence as teachers in doing professional service and creative scholarship or scholarship and mine was creative. In my dossier, I reflected a little bit on Renaissance humanism and the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius as being very influential in the development of Jesuit education. And then I said, I continued everything I do is based on that background to help my students thrive as persons, to collaborate with my colleagues in a common mission, and to illuminate our shared humanity through my films. As a professor of film and video production, I want to expose my students to a lot of storytelling techniques, but also to get them to explore the human condition. It's a great way for students to ask big questions. Why are we here? Is there any meaning to life? Am I lovable? How should I live? These were not only the subjects and themes that I explored as a fiction and documentary filmmaker, but also what I tried to get our students to do. And some of them, Steve, I'm sure you could back me up on some of that. The characters and themes need not be specifically religious as long as they reflect the quest to live a genuinely human life. Such stories are inherently beautiful because they depict the human struggle to bring order out of the chaos of life. And in that way, participate in the ongoing creation of the world. And my service at the university reflects similar concerns and guided my decisions to work on committees, to chaperone campus ministry trips, and to live in a res life in student residence halls. And then just briefly to sort of elaborate what some of that extra service entailed. So I served as a mentor in the Ignatian Residential College for a lot of years. I was a faculty person in FYE. I lived in two different residence halls for eight years, four years in Campion and four years in Faber. I presided at Daily Masses and at the chapel. And then I chaperoned a bunch of campus ministry trips, to Ecuador, spring break trips to Bridgeport, New Orleans, South Dakota. Almost every year that I've been here, I've gone to the annual Ignatian family teach-in either in Georgia or D.C., and for several years to the March for Life. And even chaperoned a trip to World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008. And all of those activities beyond what I did as a teacher when the position for campus ministry became open, it made it a kind of a natural move for me to be able to go there. And the last thing that I would say is then because of the various things that I've done, up to the time that I went into campus ministry, in the Division of Student Affairs then I'm able to bring a lot of experiences to be able to draw on academics, residence life, the offices of student engagement, and campus ministry. So I have a lot of experience and then I know the people and I've worked with the people that I'm currently working with now. I'll stop there. I'm organizing my comments around the question, what will I remember of my first year here at Fairfield? I arrived on June 20th, 2016 at 6.30 in the evening late for dinner, but there I got just enough. By the end of that very first day, June 21st, Tuesday, I had a laptop that worked, courtesy of our IT staff, a stag card that swiped everywhere, courtesy of our student life people, and what was the third thing that I had? Oh yeah, a private meeting with Bishop Cagiano, courtesy of my predecessor, Paul Holland, in Bishop Cagiano's office who is a wonderful man. He has more energy in his pinky than I have in my entire being, marvelous. It was a delight to be with him and to know that I'm working and serving in his our diocese. By the end of the first week, I had gotten to know a number, already met a number of the senior staff, both in academic affairs and in student life, had been taken out to lunch once, which would happen periodically through the rest of the summer by a number of my new colleagues, and I had discovered where Yale New Haven Hospital is and where Bridgeport Hospital is in order to visit two of my Elling Brother Jesuits. By the end of the summer, I had been asked and had offered the homily on St. Ignatius Day, which was a Sunday, July 31st this year in Egan Chapel, and I guess I passed the test because Jeff von Arks asked me to speak to the trustees at their annual dinner during the dinner talk portion, and I spoke about actually a night in the life of Fairfield University that I had experienced about a week before, attending a number of different events and how impressive it was and what a great span of experience is that one evening held for me. By the close of the first semester, I had again gotten to know a good number of hospitals, a few additional ones, St. Vincent's and Carrollton in particular, to attend to two of my Elling Jesuit brothers, two other ones apart from the summertime. I was on the regular rotation of Egan Chapel, which is a delight and an honor to lead our prayer in worship of our Lord, and what else did I do? Oh yeah, I was on the search committee for our new president who was just announced yesterday, Mark Nemek. God bless him. He'll be a terrific leader. That was really the first semester. The second semester is what opened up the door even wider to me, and what I will remember most about Fairfield University in my first year are the students that I've finally been able to engage and teach and learn from in the 2D digital design course, the fundamental course, as far as I'm concerned, of any visual arts program, and the Finding God in All Things course in religious studies, which I find it a hoot that I am teaching a religion course in one of our schools. I never thought that would happen in a million years, but it's been great learning with the students as they plumb their own personal spiritualities by doing what? Engaging silence, making silent in their lives, by reflecting and praying just for a few minutes a day, by speaking about their lives with a spiritual director, and by writing down their thoughts on spiritual reflections. It's been marvelous to share that experience with them and to help them grow in the spiritual exercises, which, as we all know, and I hope a lot of you are discovering, is the foundation of what it means to be a Jesuit and a Catholic Jesuit. What will I remember most of my first year here at Fairfield University? That I am finding God in a number of fantastic people at every level of this school, people who have invited me into this campus life, into the life of our diocese, and most delightful for me, into the life of my Jesuit community that I share with my brothers. Well, I think then there's a logical follow-on question here. Charlie Allen, Father Allen, talked about a time when there were 85 Jesuits here, and of course the president would have been a Jesuit, as was every president we've had until the announcement a couple of days ago. So we're moving into a new year where the president of the university is not in fact a member of the Society of Jesus. Could I ask for comments? Eight years ago I led the presidential search at Canisius College for our first lay president. As it turned out, we didn't know it at the time, but it became John Hurley, who has served magnificently there. I think, Mark, did you say it was 12 now, lay presidents that we have in our schools? Yeah, I forget the exact number, but it's almost half. I would say our schools are in many ways more Catholic and more Jesuit for our lay leadership, and I say that not only speaking about the Jesuit colleges and universities, but also our high schools and some of our middle schools. They're more so Catholic and Jesuit because they're more intentionally Catholic and Jesuit because our lay leaders are asking that of us, and they're leading the way in creating that experience. And the Jesuits are catching on too. Well, let me ask another question about change here at Fairfield. When the university first is established, the Jesuit community is the university. So there was the Jesuit rector often was the president or would have served as a president. In the mid-1960s, the Jesuits began a process of assessing the governance of all of the Jesuit universities, and the deliberations they had a committee was the Jesuit committee on colleges and universities, which eventually led to the separation of the Jesuit community and the university, not just at Fairfield, but at all of the Jesuit institutions. And so, for example, no longer would the president necessarily serve as the rector of the Jesuit community. And the question I've always been thinking about is how difficult was those decisions for the Jesuits? And I think especially of those first Jesuits who served here, this was their life, this is what they gave their life to this institution, and then the institution changes. And it really changes rather dramatically when the community and the university separate. Just to sort of open up what Dr. Schluppding is saying, so prior to 1967, basically the Jesuits owned Fairfield University, and afterwards that was not the case. Michael and Charlie, I think you're the ones that would be able to speak to that the most. Well, of course, the Jesuits used to say, it's not that we own Fairfield University, it's Fairfield University owns us. And if anything had gone wrong with the university, it would be the ones that would have to pay for it. But I think more important was the fact that you people have heard that notion, Kura personalis, does that ever come up? Well, it's very hard to be both the rector of the religious community and the president of the college if you're trying to exercise true Kura personalis. How do you go into the president and say, I'm having a lot of personal problems, I'd like to talk to you. It's very complicated. And so separating the two was very, very meaningful. And I don't think there's much opposition amongst the Jesuits to that separation of the Jesuit community from the university. It's only that it happened at a time when a lot of other transitions were taking place, especially I think Michael mentioned the rebelliousness during the Vietnam years and just a lot of unhappiness. But a very small part of that effect, maybe not a part of it, was the separation of the two communities. If I might just add to that, it would seem to me that a big part of it also was what was happening in the Roman Catholic Church at the time with the Second Vatican Council and a whole brand new understanding of the church's relationship to the world. And I would, I think many people would argue that the place got a lot better in terms of academic quality and ability to recruit. And it just changed, not necessarily better but different. And it would seem to me that I would just propose that it's a tremendous opportunity for the lay community to really take ownership of an educational institution. In other words, that it's not only an individual Jesuits vocation, but rather it's the vocation, excuse me, of the entire community. And I think when people take more ownership of any institution, it's going to make it better ultimately. But I would also argue, you know, there was one school that refused to do it, at least initially, and I don't know if they loyal in New Orleans. In fact, the story was, I don't know, just very briefly, there's a Tom Clancy, a very well-known Jesuit in the southern province. Father Pedro Arrupe called him and ordered him under holy obedience to separately incorporate the two schools. And he said, Father, I'm not going to do it. You may be provincial. I think it's a really bad idea. If you want it done, you're going to have to come here and do it yourself. So for many years, interestingly, loyal in New Orleans, I think even, I don't know, are they still, I don't know what the- Oh, they finally, okay. But so they're just, your question is a very good one, I think, Herod. And that, you know, in some areas, they weren't happy about doing it. But I think most people in hindsight would say that it was the absolute right decision. And yeah, but- I got to know Bill McGinnis pretty well here when I was a student. He became very friendly. And Bill McGinnis was the president when I was here as a student and also the rector. Though there was a Jesuit superior named Joe McCormick, who really did take care of the core personalities of the community. And Bill just acted as president. And then eventually, he was no longer rector. But one of the things he did that was done at all our universities, sort of at the same time, was he caught on to the Harvard notion of there is such a thing as development, financial development. McGinnis started that whole program here. There was no office of fundraising at Fairfield when I first arrived. And nobody wants to be on a board of trustees where you have no control, no authority, you know, where the six or 12 Jesuits make all the decisions because they're the board. So that really enabled the university to start to expand. And you can see the impact here. You see the impact of Georgetown. You certainly see the impact of Bust College, which was almost bankrupt at the time. So it really started the university becoming professional in the sense that Harvard was a professional university. We were still sort of a family kind of school, you know, and it changed. What you saw, you were here when I was here. It changed dramatically and for the best. And that's why we've survived. A follow on question to that. So one of the struggles of the early university was a search for academic legitimacy. At the time this institution opens, anti-Catholicism was rife in certain venues, certain parts of America. And so the university wants to be accredited. And so there's documents in the archives about how was the university going to be accredited. And critics of Catholic institutions and the Jesuits raised the question of the centuries old debate between faith and reason. So for example, and this was part of the 60s, there in the library, which was just the basement of Canisius, there was a locked cage toward the back of the library. And in that cage were the books that were on the index. And the index was books one didn't read. And then one afternoon the students decided, well, the beer is not cold enough. So they went in and took the cage open and distributed the books in the library. So this then is I think an important question. How do we reconcile faith with, for example, our dedication today to academic freedom? It certainly being the director of campus ministry now, I will often enough get the questions and maybe you did when you were in the role. When something that either seems or is not consistent with Catholic teaching might be going on, and I'll get calls from parents or emails from parents, how could a Jesuit in Catholic school have somebody from Planned Parenthood speaking here, for example. Which I think Kurt is kind of also speaking, that sort of tension is speaking to what you're talking about. And so, first of all, what I answer is that, well, I make a distinction between Catholic elementary schools and high schools and Catholic universities. And to say that Catholic grade schools and high schools are more in the business of catechesis and really educating the students actually what the church teaches. And so it can be okay, maybe in that forum, to cordon off certain voices or points of view. But universities are not the same kinds of places. And the university is dedicated to the pursuit of truth. And the pursuit of truth in all kinds of ways, and from all kinds of places. Also to point out to parents that when students leave Fairfield, they are going to encounter all kinds of ideas and all kinds of points of view. And what better place for them to first encounter some of those ideas than in an environment as ours where there are all kinds of resources for them to really kind of struggle and grapple with the ideas that they're encountering and to try to make sense of them. And hopefully, in the process of that, to be able to come to a kind of owned understanding of their faith along with the other ideas that they've encountered at the university. Partly what I say. Eric called some years ago when I was in theology, we used a wonderful book by Richard Gula in moral theology called Reason Informed by Faith. And I've always thought of good universities and certainly Catholic universities to be places where that serious conversation can take place. And you know, where it can be a real conversation. And in my opinion, maybe this is too blunt of a way of saying it, but I think a perfect way of ruining a university is to take away intellectual freedom or academic freedom. It would be a really bad idea. But the way I think about it is that a place like Fairfield and other Catholic universities and many other universities, by the way, where people can think seriously about religious questions and not be afraid where developments in science may take them. And there's no stopping change in technological development in the world today. So I would, the way I think about it in terms of the church is that Catholic universities are places where the Roman Catholic Church can really engage the culture on very serious levels. And so, but yet at times there are conflicts and problems. But I would rather have those things worked out in a serious environment where you can have a real conversation. But there's much more I could say. But I've always gone back to that. It's a wonderful book by Richard Gula, Reason Informed by Faith, because at times there is conflict. But in the end, we have to take reason seriously, of course. Well, it's interesting too, Frank, because the title puts the emphasis on reason first. It's not faith-informed by reason. I think it's a mutual relationship. It's a good book. I'll put it in your box. He was at Berkeley, certainly when I was there. Yeah, yeah. He's used to living, yeah, I can't remember. Yeah. But it's, yeah. This is where the part of the presentation where you get five Jesuits in the room and seven opinions. I think they both inform each other, really, to be honest. Because we are thinking beings and we're hopefully also believing beings as well. And both things going on, you know. I think a lot of it has to do with how we think about our reason, whether we can trust it or not. But that's all the question. I may ask Dr. Lakeland to get involved here in a moment. Well, the follow-on to that then is, so if we move forward and the number of Jesuits doesn't increase dramatically, then how do we remain a Jesuit university if the Jesuits aren't a major presence, for example, on the faculty? So where are the Jesuits coming from as we go forward? I'm looking at them right now as I look across. And I say that a bit glibly, but I really, really mean that. The Jesuits of the future are not just the few of us up here who will be getting even fewer and not just Doug Gray sitting out there who will one day be ordained and may or may not come back here. It's each and all of you, male and female, across all of your different ages and places at Fairfield University, at all of the other 27 schools. It's what our offices of mission and identity are all about and what I hope our search going back to the last question, what that search for faith and reason together in all of our academic disciplines, every last one of them, because you can find God in all things even in mathematics and the sciences. It's because we search for the dialogue of faith and reason in the practice of our faiths, faiths, plural, and even those of you who do not profess a particular faith, we trust in your good reason and desire to be a good human person. And because we're Catholic and Jesuit and honor the dialogue of faith and reason, we will send you out away from this school and academic setting to go test the ideas in the real world and your internships in experiential learning exercises in the community and then come back to your classrooms, the very best of the classrooms to integrate it all, that Ignatian pedagogical paradigm that we're so darn proud of and rightly so. All of that growth and faith and reason and the progress of the Society of Jesus and Jesuit and Ignatian people, the Ignatian community, each and all of you folks, welcome aboard. I'm gonna jump in as well. So picking up on what Michael is saying, I think right clearly and we've been doing a lot of work on this over the years, the Ignatian charism, the Ignatian approach to education is certainly going to inform everything we do in the university going forward. I think it does open up a pretty fair question and I don't have the answer to it. I'm just gonna raise it. Can we have or can we call a place a Jesuit institution without any Jesuits in it or with one or two in it? Does it, like for example, when I was ordained in 1997, I worked at a small TV production company outside of Washington, D.C. There were five of us on the full-time staff. I was a Jesuit there. Certainly the work that I did there informed the kinds of projects and how we approached what we did, but we weren't about to say that that production company was a work of the Society or was a Jesuit production company. So I think it is an open and a fair question. Does there need to be a critical number of Jesuits to be able to call an institution a Jesuit something? If so, what might that number be? Again, I don't pretend to know the answer to that, but I think it's a fair question to ask. Ignatian formation programs of our trustees, of our colleagues, of our students, I think Mark will help to answer that. Take all those glorious ideals that I was just talking about a moment or two ago and face the real hard question that Mark was just posing. How do you really make it happen? It's in formation programs at different levels across our different constituencies in our schools. Students, faculty, and staff, and most especially, I would say trustees because the only thing that will keep our schools Catholic and Jesuit is if our trustees want them to remain so. They hold the fiduciary responsibility and the trust. I would maybe also add to that and suggest that it also depends on what the university community really desires with respect to this. St. Ignatius Loyola speaks a lot about desires and on one level this place and other Jesuit schools, they will change, but I think if there is a real desire to move it forward as a Catholic and Jesuit university, I think that there's many, many positive possibilities for that. And yet, and just to take the kind of maybe negative stance on that, if it doesn't go in that direction and in some places that might be the case, then I would say, you know, if people were to ask the question, well, what do Jesuits think about starting a school and then maybe leaving it? I would think that that's been a tremendous success also. Now, I'm hoping that isn't the case, but I mean, if you think about it, creating an institution as wonderful as a place like Fairfield University and seeing it move into the its future 100 or 200 years from now, what a tremendous achievement and a tremendous human institution in the world for that will affect the lives of thousands and thousands of people, and it will maybe take a different trajectory. I mean, certainly many universities around the world began with a religious founding and then moved in another direction. And whether that's good or bad, I don't know. I mean, but I think a lot of it really depends on the people who are here. And I agree, Michael, I think the trustees are crucial to it. But yet the students, many of the students who are here today, and the faculty, I know for many years we've talked about hiring for mission, and I think that's one area they can get very complicated and difficult and challenging because, you know, on one level, we're trying to hire the best professional we can. And his or her personal religious commitment or conviction really is not in the conversation. In fact, it's probably even illegal for that to be in the conversation. And so that's difficult. But I still would argue that there's tremendous possibility here and in many other places too. And it's positive. But I really think it comes down to desire. Well, so we're celebrating our 75th and I look at Father Allen, who's been here. And I wonder if each of you would want to identify a part of the university's history that was a defining moment for you and all of the change that's taken place over time. June 21st when I got my stag card. 2016. And no one's taken it from me yet. When I was living in Campion, my first year here, I went to say in November, someone slipped a note under my door. It was a young woman. She wanted to talk to me. I presume she wanted to talk about boyfriend problems. Well, it wasn't a sense of boyfriend problem. It was that her father was dying of cancer. And she was a freshman. And later, when she didn't return after Christmas, I called the home and they told me her father had died. And I got a group of students and we went up there, I forget the town, just above Hartford. And we went there to the wake. And I'll always remember not so much her reaction, but her mother's reaction. I think she was just so happy to know that there were a number of students who knew her daughter and would understand what she was suffering through. And so I think that's what makes us a true Catholic institution that people care for each other, above and beyond the classroom, whether it be at the time of the death or heck, I do enough weddings if I do any more Fairfield University weddings. But all the opportunities we have to impact the lives of our students in a religious way. I'm like Charlie, there was a student of mine in his name. Oh, yes, his name is now coming back to me. Alex Carrion, who was my student, you some of you may remember him. He died in his sleep one night. I believe he was a sophomore in the Ignatian College. And he was my student. And I remember noticing that morning that he was not in class. And I actually thought to myself, Oh, wonderful. Alex overslept. He did not oversleep. He died in his sleep that night. And I remember the way the university came together, faculty, students, staff, and especially the students. And we had a mass. And I remember greeting his mother, who flew up, I believe, from South Florida, or maybe Puerto Rico. And it was a very, very difficult day. But it made me realize the character and the religious commitment of Fairfield University and the wonderful people here. And that was a really memorable day for me. And there have been many others. I've been in Jesuit next year. I'll be 50 years in Jesuit. I believe it. And I've had a lot of different jobs ever since 1978. I've been director of something. And I've always been happy and successful. A little prickly on occasion. But the job that has given me the most joy in my life has been here at Fairfield University for the last five years, working with students who have issues that are assigned to see me and who go away with me or retreat. It's from them that I have received the greatest joy and watching them pull their lives together and then fix things in their lives. And watching them watch across the stage for graduation day has been a cause of great delight for me. Yeah. And I would certainly say making the move from the classroom to campus ministry has been a big turning point for me here. And that's one that's given me a lot of life for a lot of the reasons, same reasons that my brothers have said. I could say others, but that's certainly one of them. I was wondering, are there questions people would like to ask? And I'll call on a couple of people if you don't raise your hand. Yes, Tom. Pray. I had the chance actually already to do that, Tom. Being on the search committee, I had the pleasure and honor of dining with Mark Nemek the night before the finalist interviews. And at a certain point, I turned to him and he was talking about working with Jesuits. And I said, Mark, if you should become our next president, you have to remember two things working with us. You have to be patient with us and you have to push us. Don't hesitate to do either. I think I would really encourage him to spend time with students, go to athletic events, go to go to the plays, student awards, things. Get to know students, get to meet students. And I think he'll learn a lot and they'll learn a lot. I might encourage him if he has the opportunity to be able to take the Finding God in all things course. All kidding aside, prayer is always a good thing. But I would encourage him to the first year here, enjoy himself, meet people, engage folks in however he chooses. Certainly, there's no way any leader of any institution can do everything. But then maybe the second year, you know, make some choices about priorities and things you really want to focus on and go with those. And maybe have fun too. If I could say two things. First of all, a lot of people say, are you busy? I would have gotten married if I wanted to be busy. I would have had a couple of kids. My life is pretty quiet, Larry. You may not appreciate that, but my life is pretty quiet. But the second thing is in terms of education, you know, everybody wants to help others. Well, maybe the first thing you got to do is learn something that they need. It's what you study and what you learn. Michael was so wonderful visiting me when I was in the hospital. I spent more time in the hospital this past semester than I ever have in my life. And whenever a doctor came in, I didn't say, are you a good kind and generous person? I would say, where's your degree from? What do you know? You know something that I should know. It's that knowledge. That's why education is there, because we can improve our own lives and the lives of others with that knowledge. I think one of the things that Jeff on Arx focused on during his presidency was to really enhance and increase the diversity here at the university. And to that end, the amounts of money available for less well-off students has been really, really increased. And for the students of Bridgeport, Bridgeport High Schools, if they qualify academically to get into the university, their tuition is free. And I think that was a big step the university made. And I think during this current campaign, there's even more funds being made available and raised for the education of the less well-off. And I think that's really important for us. And I think it's a great gift from the university to the wider community. And I think the more we can do that way, the better. But I think we can be proud of what we've accomplished. Larry, your question is a great question. The one thing I would just comment on also is I'm very concerned about the cost of higher education. It's a gigantic problem. And it's not only here, it's a national problem. And I don't know if anyone has a single answer to it. But as Michael suggested, I wrote and called Jeff on Arx when became that scholarship to Bridgeport students was publicly announced. That gave me a lot of hope and encouragement. But it's a very complicated problem. Healthcare, it'd be very nice if our country could, I mean, that's a big part of the problem. But there are many other problems as well. And students are demanding more services. And they're very expensive, of course. And I don't know if there's a single answer to that. I almost wonder if there are one or two things you can try to do to help. But I don't think there's a grand solution to the problem. I mean, the economics of it are so complex. But was it what was the price when you came, Michael? When I came here, I remember my father writing out the check for it was a dollar per student who was here is $2,200 room board and tuition in 1965 for a year for a year board tuition $2,200. But the thing I always say is, every year, the percentage of graduating high school students that go to college increases. So despite all the problems, people realize they've got to have this. And I always say when I was going to a place called Boston College, it was $800 a year. Dad was making $80 a week. So my family was going to go without eating for 10 weeks. But the price has gone way up. But the amount of money that's there and available, if people are wise enough to find it, can be very, very helpful. I think the new president, if I recollect right, and Michael will certainly be able to speak to this way, but his education preparedness to come here as president is precisely because he has the means of education to make education more accessible and not more, more expensive. Michael probably knows more about it than I do. And he has the academic background, the economic training background, trained as a sociologist, but just his business and academic portfolio, I think speaks well to that. And he has certainly the vision for our school. And as he's shown for all of his schools and places where he's worked, looking bigger nationally, internationally in terms of drawing students and faculty. Yeah. Seemed to me, I'm sorry. I was just going to think. I was going to pick up on a thought that Charlie had just mentioned. I think underneath one of the things he was saying, granted that the economic costs always have to be kept down and managed, but an equally important challenge, if not more so, is keeping the value up. And that I think is where a Catholic and Jesuit school really has its vision and its mission focused. You want to listen to what our students, what our colleagues are really saying when they ask questions or what they just sit there silently and what their needs are. Listen to them and then bring the conversation around to what they truly believe in. And for us as Catholic and Jesuit educated people, it eventually comes to the Judeo-Christian tradition by and large, the Jesus story, the divine and God, the gifts of the spirit, and expanding outwards if they're not from a Judeo-Christian tradition to the goodness of human life and the common good. So bringing those conversations into any conversation and developing them as thoughtful, rational, faithful, servant leaders, that's where I think the answer is for us. It would seem to me also that the model of education is changing in the world and in America now that the traditional form of undergraduate education that we have in a wonderful place like Fairfield, I wonder how it will be different in 20 years or 50 years, that there may be new models discovered with technology and already underway that might help with some of the economic issues with online kinds of things. And to be honest, I'm not sure I know a lot about it or what I think about a lot of it, but the models are changing and some people think that this form or model of education is not sustainable. So we may have to look for brand new models or ways of doing it. And in a place like this, I think we can discover what those are and make them work, hopefully. We have a question here in the second row. I'm just curious if you guys could go back and... Good question. I always claim that every priest, certainly every judge, would should have two scenarios. What would I have done if I hadn't become a priest? Well, I would have gone to college. I would have married my high school classmate, beautiful girl, Jacqueline, whom I took to the senior prom. I would have gone to work in 1965 with IBM. I would have 20 years later left IBM as a vice president with a salary of about $500,000 a year. I had a house on Cape Cod. I had three lovely, highly obedient children who were all going to be extraordinarily successful. That's one scenario. The other is I would have graduated from BC with a math degree. I would have gotten a job as a teacher in the Boston Public School System just in time for the busing crisis. I would have ended up as an alcoholic. Jacqueline would have left me and my children on talking to me. I think I did pretty well. Ditto. There's not much he can say after that. But I think we all have dreams of what we would have done had we not done this. But we must be realistic. It maybe wouldn't have worked out that well. And I would maybe add, if I were to take the path that Father Allen described, I don't think anyone would have had me, would take me. I mean, I just, you know, oh gosh, really. Actually, I did do something else because I entered the Jesuits after I was a school teacher. And I probably would have stayed in that. One question in back. I think that's an excellent question. I think it takes a lot of creativity and a lot of dedication to begin to, again, I'm going to say listen to what our people, our constituents, our students, our faculty, our staff are really desiring, what they can contribute and to draw out the best in them. And it takes a lot of patience. What I recommended to Mark Nemek that night, waged right back on everyone here on the campus. It's a huge challenge that you raise. But if it's worthwhile, and I think it is, and if you're making some kind of effort, and I think each of us is, I would hope, in one way, shape or form, then we'll muddle on through and leave it to God to parse out and figure out the endurance of our Catholic Jesuit culture. But it is a dynamite question you're asking, and there are no easy answers. But I suspect that each of us here and many of you out there, if not all of you, are finding your way in that. Or otherwise, why be here at Fairfield? What's the point? I might add to that also, and I agree very much, Michael. It would seem to me that that question maybe can be looked at on two levels, one sort of corporately macro level across the whole institution. And then in parts of the campus, if you will, or kind of, I think there are parts of this campus or networks, if you will, whether it be campus ministry, whether it be the spirituality center, persons doing the 19th annotation retreat, I think there are many things happening in kind of parts of the campus that are absolutely extraordinary. But I think when we think of the really big question corporately, that gets very complicated and difficult, at least I think. So I personally think there's really a lot going on that is wonderfully gratifying and inspiring. But I think sometimes the connections aren't made between these different things going on, at least in my view. And this is a voice of a faculty person too, where faculty members can get very focused on their work and with the various obligations they have. And maybe I think part of it is the obvious thing too is people are really busy. And that, I think, complicates it. I know it does for me. And I'm a Jesuit trying to be here. It's really challenging at times. He's just gotten me thinking of something else. So Fairfield University, like Canisius College, like all the other schools, have very dedicated people in our campus ministry offices, very dedicated people, and our academic disciplines. The one thing though that impresses me about Fairfield University that I know Canisius College doesn't have, and they would love to have one. And I think many of the other 26 others as well. Fairfield University has the Center for Ignatian Spirituality. It is a jewel in the crown here. And anyone who wants to deepen his and her or her faith, whether it's Catholic or Christian or Buddhist or Jewish or Muslim, would do very, very well to spend some time there and to engage at least some, if not many of the programs, over your time here. The Center for Ignatian Spirituality, Dolan House. And while you're up there, say hello to Joe DeFeo and the Ignatian Colleagues program as well. But yeah, there's a great place to start right here at Fairfield. Well, what I'd like to do is I'd like to ask all of you to congratulate our Jesuit colleagues because they represent the men who preceded them and the Jesuits who were here the best. And thank you all for coming.