Butler, Francis J.

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Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 40 Re-creating Jesuit Higher Education: TheGeneral's Challenge Article 309-1-2011Forum: Teaching the Future Rich: How to BestGive MoneyFrancis J. ButlerFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationButler, Francis J. (2011) "Forum: Teaching the Future Rich: How to Best Give Money," Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: Vol.40, Article 30.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol40/iss1/30Conversations 57Forum=Ihave found Father Adolfo Nicolás’s talk in MexicoCity last spring a rich and inspiring framework forforecasting where Jesuit institutions may be plac-ing emphasis in the time ahead.. .   .   .   .   .  . . . While celebrating the progress of Jesuithigher education, Fr. Nicolás has encouragedJesuit educators to go deeper in the way students aretaught on Jesuit campuses; he has asked for more coop-eration among Jesuit institutions of higher learning onvexing questions facing the globe, like environmentaldegradation; and he has invited universities to thinkmore purposely about Jesuit higher education as a pointof dialogue in the often conflictive zone between faithand culture.Fr. Nicolás’ masterful reflections go to the core mis-sion of what Jesuit universities do as teaching, researchand service institutions. But his observations also provideJesuit educational leaders with an extraordinary take-home assignment. I am delighted that Conversations hasasked a number of us in the extended Jesuit family tothink about how Jesuit higher education might be rein-vented from our personal vantage point. As the father ofthree Jesuit university alums, I can’t resist taking up thispleasurable assignment by first imagining a Jesuit univer-sity free of tuition!However, as a trustee of a Jesuit university, and assomeone whose professional life is in the philanthropicworld, I appreciate the financial realities of running a first-rate school. So I will move on and re-imagine Jesuit highereducation from my experience these past three decades ofworking with Catholics of considerable wealth.I will begin by saying that Jesuit institutions do agood job these days of transforming students into reflec-tive, service-oriented adults. They graduate with degreesthat, as recent history has shown, put them often on atrajectory of leadership. Yet, it’s true also that numbers ofgraduates are leaving Jesuit campuses unready for thebalanced use of wealth or its sometimes disorderedimpact on their lives, families, and work.Just ten years after graduation, students from uni-versities like Georgetown, Santa Clara, and Fairfield forexample, can expect to be earning six-figure annualsalaries, and they will be in positions with supersonicupward mobility. For many, if not most, coping construc-tively with growing wealth and influence presents anarray of challenges—how to use this wealth as goodstewards—responsibly, justly, and in a way that con-tributes to the common good. That’s where the reinvent-ed Jesuit institutions of higher learning may have theirmost serious impact. Through more course work andplight and becoming very close to many campesinosthere. On brief breaks from his work with the poor,James Carney, S.J., would come back to North Americaand wonder with amazement at the preoccupation withconsumer goods that he saw. Students can come backwith similar critiques of their own lives. Study abroadprograms such as Casa de la Solidaridad in El Salvadormust be popularized and participation increased, so thatour students can have life-changing experiences.What about the ways in which suffering abroad isinduced and/or increased by economic, military andpolitical policies originating in our own country? This isa message that students are bound to hear if in theirclassrooms and their experience abroad they listen tothe voices of people writing their own history from theirown perspectives. It’s an essential part of a learningexperience that calls into question the uniformly compli-mentary versions previously learned of America’s histo-ry. Encountering a diverse student body within the class-rooms of Jesuit universities, venturing outside of thoseclassrooms into their urban contexts, and studying atJesuit institutions abroad are important stepping-stonesto personal growth. As individuals and institutions Iwant to encourage us to foster this growth more fully ■. Gail Presbey is in the philosophy department Universityof Detroit Mercy. Learn more about Fr. Carney athttp://liberalarts.udmercy.edu/clasaTEACHING THEFUTURE RICHHow to Best Give MoneyFrancis J. Butler1Butler: Forum: Teaching the Future Rich: How to Best Give MoneyPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 201158 ConversationsThe Who’s classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again”dramatically renders its vision of failed rev-olutions in its (yowled) final lines: “Meetthe new boss. Same as the old boss.” Inthis modest proposal for Jesuit universities,my inquiries do not quite add up to revo-lution, lest we make new bosses. Rather, they are an invi-tation to rededicate ourselves to the original vision ofIgnatius in light of the global realities we face together. Father Adolfo Nicolás’s address on the challenges toJesuit Higher Education Today (2010) beginswith the need for imagination. The compres-sion of space and time that is the essence ofmodern life stimulates our souls. New tech-nologies of information and mobility sutureus closer together, but in ways that are oftenvirtual and voyeuristic. The cataclysms of ourtime—wars, revolutions, disasters, financialmeltdowns—happen too quickly to digestfully. We hardly have time to know what tothink or feel when “the story” has changed. What to do, in light of the deluge?Perhaps we need to work our way to St.Ignatius’ cave, outside Manresa. The SpiritualExercises actively invite the imagination, tocreate, in Ignatius’s words, “mental representation.” The contemporary challenge for imaginative artists,intellectuals, educators, the curators of the soul is notonly to chronicle the present, but also to develop a cre-ative and critical understanding of how we find ourselvesat this time and place. And given that understanding, toask Leo Tolstoy’s question: “how, then, shall we live?”How can we live together, on this shrinking globe, withits finite resources? Critical thinking gets us only so far,Forum=Meet the Old Boss:Bringing IgnatiusBack into JesuitUniversitiesPhilip Metrespastoral ministry, our faculties and staff can take greaterdeliberate steps to create tomorrow’s wealth holders andgreat philanthropists who are in the forefront of chang-ing the world. We need curricula and formation programs onwealth itself and what it means for today’s Christian.Courses that would expose students to the responsibleuse of wealthfrom a Christianstewardship per-spective. Thisincludes espe-cially an immer-sion into the richtradition of Catholic social teaching and what it has to sayabout the responsible use of power and money. All of our students should be familiar with the histo-ry of modern philanthropy, its weaknesses and strengths,and how Catholic social principles could deepen its moti-vations and effectiveness. Students also should be famil-iar with methods of proactive giving, the organizationalstructures for today’s foundations, public policies thatfoster or inhibit generosity in society, giving trends andvolunteering. And more of our graduates should be pre-pared and encouraged to work within America’s founda-tions and not-for-profit sector as a career choice.The nation is undergoing a $40 trillion wealth trans-fer between generations, yet, are any of our Jesuit insti-tutions offering a major in philanthropy? If so, your pro-file is way too low.Fr. Nicolás calls Jesuit institutions of higher learningto a depth of thought and imagination in the Ignatian tra-dition that involves a profound engagement with thereal. Living in the wealthiest economy the world has everknown, we are challenged by the disquieting reality ofmassive global poverty and human need. Our Jesuit uni-versities and colleges would do well to think more aboutour students as future wealth holders, with the capacitythrough their giving to shape, in the words of Fr. Nicolás,“the future for a humane, just, and sustainable globe.” ■Francis J. Butler serves on the board of trustees of theUniversity of San Francisco. He is president ofFoundations and Donors Interested in CatholicActivities, (FADICA) a consortium of over fifty privategrant making foundations and charitable agencies.How to use wealth as good stewards2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 40, Iss. 1 [2011], Art. 30http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol40/iss1/30

Forum: Teaching the Future Rich: How to Best Give Money

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Forum: Teaching the Future Rich: How to Best Give Money

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