WASHINGTON — Participants at the annual meeting of the
Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities had to know they were getting
down to brass tacks with the theme of this year's gathering: "Mission,
Myth, Money: Securing Catholic Higher Education for the Future."
Under that umbrella, it was not surprising that the workshops at
the recent conference at a Washington hotel pretty much dealt with financial
challenges such as: "Multiple Paths of Securing Money in a Hostile
Environment"; "Strategies to Grow Your Revenue and Enrollment";
"How to Secure Federal Grant Funding at a Small Catholic College";
and "Making Difficult Business Decisions Without Abandoning Your Catholic
Mission."
That's not to say the event only focused on economic challenges
though. The annual meeting — which brings together Catholic college and
university presidents and school leaders from around the country for
networking, workshops and keynote talks — also put a lot of emphasis on what is
unique in Catholic higher education: the mission or charism of each school with
traditions rooted in Catholic social teaching.
College leaders were encouraged to boast about their
accomplishments and diffuse misconceptions about their schools to keep
enrollment growing for the future.
The closing session tied a lot of these ideas together by
focusing on how Catholic colleges and universities reconcile their Catholic
identity and mission with society's market-driven forces and focus on jobs.
A frequent put-down of a liberal arts education — that it doesn't
prepare students for the job market — doesn't ring true for Carol Geary
Schneider, former president at the Association of American Colleges and
Universities and a fellow at the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, which
promotes higher education.
She assured the group of Catholic college and university leaders
that their students would be employable in today's job-focused market because
their college experience likely connected them with faith, more deeply with
themselves and others, and gave them leadership skills.
Schneider also pointed out there is no blueprint for how students
need to be prepared for the current job market because "jobs are changing
so rapidly they have to be ready for jobs that are not yet invented."
Father Larry Hostetter, president of Brescia University in
Owensboro, K.y., similarly stressed that Catholic colleges and universities do
more of the big picture of forming students which translates into graduates
bringing values to the workplace and maybe even healing divisions.
Brescia is a Catholic university about 200 miles south of
Covington, K.y. — so much in the news lately after the incident between
students, a Native American leader and a group of protesters and the mixed
reaction to that. Father Hostetter said he has been haunted by this situation
during the past few weeks.
The question it brings to his mind is: Are we doing enough as
Catholic educators to prepare students to deal with the divisions in our
society?
Both speakers at the closing address stressed that Catholic
higher education helps students make broader connections. For example, if
students have a service experience that alone isn't enough, they need to
reflect on it and be able to articulate to a possible employer what that
experience meant or how it changed them.
Doing that, Schneider stressed, can give prospective employees
the hiring edge in a job interview.