Scott R. Pilarz, S.J. Inaugural Speech (cont'd)

In my meetings with members of the Marquette community, I have learned how every group thinks they own the place. And that is a great thing. Students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni, they all unabashedly love Marquette. There is an incredible sense of gratitude and awe for how far Marquette has come since 1881. And born of that gratitude are high aspirations and hopes.

Marquette is also animated in a special way by the spirit of the man for whom it is named, Jacques Marquette. Jacques Marquette was fearless in facing the future and welcoming what was to come. Imagine the risk of leaving family and the comfortable environment of France in the 17th century to come to North America. Jacques Marquette is an excellent example of St. Ignatius Loyola’s commitment to the Magis — a restless desire for God’s greater glory and the well-being of the world. Jacques Marquette was never afraid of the new, and therein gives us direction as we steer the university’s course in the second decade of the 21st century. Let me hazard a metaphor — after all I’m an English professor. Jacques Marquette was obsessed with discovering the Mississippi River. He was convinced that making its map would enhance human experience and open opportunities for the spread of God’s good news. So what is our Mississippi River? What keeps us up at night at Marquette?

Without meaning to sound presumptuous, let me suggest two goals which I have been hearing about from every corner of this campus for over a year now: access and a new excellence. When Archbishop Henni scraped and saved enough resources together to open Marquette College in 1881, he was creating an engine of opportunity for the people of this Diocese, for newly arrived immigrants from Europe. Ever since, Marquette has proudly educated students who were the first in their families to earn a college degree. And perhaps nothing has a more profound effect on a family. I have experienced this first hand as the first Pilarz ever to graduate from college. Again and again, I have heard from members of the Marquette community how proud we are that nearly 25 percent of the students we welcomed a few weeks ago are the first in their families to do the same. This Marquette tradition must continue if we are to be true to our mission. And this will require efforts on our part to provide resources and support.

This commitment to access might seem in tension with the drive to new excellence. If it is, it is a tension we must embrace. For Marquette to remain authentically Marquette, access and excellence cannot be viewed as an either/or proposition, but rather a both/and situation in order to serve God’s glory and future generations of students.

Since its start, Marquette has ever made strides in the direction of excellence. It has grown from a small college into one of the world’s most sophisticated Catholic and Jesuit universities. Together we stand at a critical juncture for Catholic and Jesuit higher education. As you’ve heard referenced earlier, in April of 2010, the Superior General of the Jesuits challenged educators from around the world to re-found Jesuit higher education. He wants us to do that in the context of what he described as “the globalization of superficiality.” He fears that our students and, in fact, all of us are losing the ability to engage with the real. And he is convinced that the antidote is “depth of thought and imagination.” And in our tradition, depth of thought and imagination must involve “a profound engagement with the real.” In his words, “Picture in your mind the thousands of graduates we send forth from our Jesuit universities every year. How many of those who leave our institutions do so with both professional competence and the experience of having, in some way during their time with us, a depth of engagement with reality that transforms them at their deepest core?” That is a question that should keep us up at night at Marquette.

Similarly, the Superior General hopes that we will rediscover universality. He asks, “[How] can we get beyond the loose family relationships we now have as Jesuit institutions and re-imagine and re-organize ourselves … in this globalized world… Isn’t this the moment to move like this?” Yet another question to disturb our sleep.

The more universal good is what prompted Ignatius to accept responsibility for universities. And Marquette, given its size and scope and place of pride along the spectrum of Jesuit universities, has particular potential to spread the benefits of Jesuit higher education more universally in today’s world. Marquette has important work to do on the national and the global stage.

The sacred work of a university in which we are privileged to share is always rooted and grounded in what Ignatian educators refer to as learned ministry. This reflects our unwavering commitment to the centrality of arts and sciences in our curriculum. Jesuit universities were born in the context of early modern humanism. And [they reflect] the insight of Ignatius that teaching and research offer opportunities to encounter the mystery of God and simultaneously to make our world more gentle, more just. New excellence for Marquette will require resources of us. And our work must always be informed by Father General’s final challenge to us as a Jesuit university. We need to ask, he says: How do our students and faculty become “ voices for the voiceless?” How do they become “sources for human rights for those denied such rights [and] resources for the protection of the environment?” How do they become “persons of solidarity for the poor?” How can such questions not keep us up at night at Marquette?

Today we honor two individuals who have spent many sleepless nights constructing answers to the very questions we just heard. Through his work at the University of Central America, Dean Brackley has kept alive the witness of the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador. He has articulated the Jesuit universities’ need to engage, explore and affect social reality. In his essay entitled, “Higher Standards for Higher Education,” Dean asserts, “When the university gives priority to suffering and the conditions for liberation and takes a stand with the poor, then it is committing itself to greater academic excellence, not less. It is committed to coming closer to the truth.”

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