Does Service and Volunteering Affect Catholic Identity?

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-122
Author(s):  
Andrew Herr ◽  
Jason King ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Identity ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Link Service

While many believe that service should be connected to the religious identity of Catholic colleges and universities, little research has been done to see if this is in fact the case. To test this commonly-held belief, we surveyed students at and gathered information about twenty-six different Catholic campuses in the United States. We find no correlation between students’ frequency of service and their perception of Catholic identity. In addition, we find that students perceive their school to be less Catholic the more institutions link service to Catholicism. The only characteristic of service that is positively correlated with Catholic identity is the percentage of service learning courses offered. In other words, students do not see anything intrinsically Catholic about volunteering, but rather that Catholicism means that you should volunteer more. We believe this suggests how Catholic colleges and universities can link service to their Catholic identity.

scholarly journals Theorizing a Catholic Hispanic-Serving Institution (C-HSI) Identity Through Latinx Theological Lenses of Lo Cotidiano and Traditioning

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-42
Author(s):  
Gina A. Garcia ◽  
◽  
John DeCostanza Jr. ◽  
Jaqueline Romo ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Identity ◽  
Student Diversity ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Hispanic Serving Institution ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Hispanic Serving

As the students entering U.S. colleges and universities become increasingly diverse, the number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI's) continues to increase. Catholic colleges and universities, similarly, are seeing an increase in student diversity on campus, with an emergence of Catholic HSIs as well. As the number of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States that are HSI-eligible increases they must grapple with what it means to be both Catholic and Hispanic-serving. The purpose of this article is to propose a U.S. Catholic HSI (C- HSI) identity that brings together the extensive literatures on Catholic identity and HSI identity through the lens of decolonial theory and Latinx theologies. We argue that in order to effectively serve students of color who have intersectional identities, Catholic HSIs must intentionally recognize the ways of knowing (epistemologies) and being of these groups, which includes a collective understanding of the theo-political, social, historical, and economic forces that have subjugated them since before the founding of the present day United States and long before the founding of the first Catholic institution in the country. Building off the Catholic Identity and Mission Models (CIMA) currently used by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities to assess mission integration, we propose a C-HSI model.

scholarly journals Defining Catholic Higher Education in Positive Terms

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Identity ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic History

Debates about Catholic higher education in the United States sometimes focus too much on what Catholic colleges and universities should not do, rather than what they should do. This article attempts to reframe those debates away from the negative expressions of Catholic identity (i.e., denying guests a right to speak on campus based on their stance on abortion) and toward more positive expressions, like promoting scholarship on Catholic history, culture, and theology. It reviews some key academic literature that approaches Catholic identity from this positive, proactive perspective, and attempts to categorize that literature into common, identifiable themes.

International Sister Students Today

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-168
Author(s):  
Mary Johnson ◽  
Mary L. Gautier ◽  
Patricia Wittberg ◽  
Thu T. Do
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Women Religious ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Religious Institutes ◽  
Support Resources ◽  
The Impact

This chapter provides demographic data on international sisters who are currently studying in the United States. It describes how U.S. Catholic colleges and universities and institutes of women religious collaborate in providing education for these sisters by using two types of qualitative data. The chapter includes interviews with administrators of Catholic universities and religious institutes. It also includes some data from the survey of international sisters who are students in the United States. The chapter describes pathways to the universities and the types of support resources that international sisters receive from universities and religious institutes. It describes the impact that international sisters have on fellow students and, upon their return, on their home countries.

The Church and Catholic Higher Education

Horizons ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
The University ◽  
Public Church ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue

AbstractRecurrent debates about the church and higher education in the United States involve differing understandings of the nature and purpose of the church as well as differing understandings of the university. Catholic colleges and universities remain important but underutilized resources for the American church as it pursues its mission. Institutional, communitarian and servant models of the church must be examined more rigorously before they are used to prescribe changes in higher education. None is without problems. In a pluralistic and free society, a public church,” self-consciously mediating the tensions between Christian integrity, Catholic unity, and civic responsibility, provides an altogether appropriate stance for Catholic colleges and universities as well. It points not to a neat resolution of outstanding difficulties but to ongoing dialogue among the publics to which both church and higher education must address themselves.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Theologians and the Mandatum

Horizons ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-337
Author(s):  
M. Theresa Moser
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
The Social ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Hard Place

AbstractThe title of my reflections is “Between a Rock and A Hard Place,” which I think aptly describes the situation of Catholic theologians in the United States since the bishops' meeting of November 1999. The imagery refers to the rock of Peter, the hard place to the problems the mandatum raises for ourselves and our Catholic colleges and universities. My question is: What can the social sciences tell us about our present dilemma? First, I will look at the history of the problem as we have experienced it in the U.S. Next, the bishops' document is now in the hands of the Roman Curia, so I will look at the role of that institution. And finally, I will review quickly events to date in the light of evidence from the social sciences and suggest a possible strategy to deal with the situation in our U.S. context.

Winning the Argument and Moving the Fight: The Legacy of a Grassroots Humanitarian

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Mary Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Winning Strategy ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Trade Offs

The author of this article argues that the two-decades-long litigation struggle was necessary to push the political actors in Mississippi into a more virtuous than vicious legal/political negotiation. The second and related argument, however, is that neither the 1992 United States Supreme Court decision in Fordice nor the negotiation provided an adequate riposte to plaintiffs’ claims. The author shows that their chief counsel for the first phase of the litigation wanted equality of opportunity for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as did the plaintiffs. In the course of explicating the role of a legal grass-roots humanitarian, Coleman suggests lessons learned and trade-offs from that case/negotiation, describing the tradeoffs as part of the political vestiges of legal racism in black public higher education and the need to move HBCUs to a higher level of opportunity at a critical juncture in the life of tuition-dependent colleges and universities in the United States. Throughout the essay the following questions pose themselves: In thinking about the Road to Fordice and to political settlement, would the Justice Department lawyers and the plaintiffs’ lawyers connect at the point of their shared strength? Would the timing of the settlement benefit the plaintiffs and/or the State? Could plaintiffs’ lawyers hold together for the length of the case and move each piece of the case forward in a winning strategy? Who were plaintiffs’ opponents and what was their strategy? With these questions in mind, the author offers an analysis of how the campaign— political/legal arguments and political/legal remedies to remove the vestiges of de jure segregation in higher education—unfolded in Mississippi, with special emphasis on the initiating lawyer in Ayers v. Waller and Fordice, Isaiah Madison

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