Catholic Identity Maintained by Senior Administrators at Jesuit Universities

Jesuit Catholic higher education in the United States is immersed in two seemingly incongruent missions: the advancement of the educational apostolic mission of the Catholic church and the advancement of U.S. secular culture. Understanding how Jesuit institutions have engaged the Catholic identity is becoming a concern because colleges need to identify how they stand out in the higher education market. How the Catholic identity is expressed at Jesuit institutions has come into question. To understand this phenomenon, "Catholic identity maintained by senior leaders at Jesuit universities" explores three research questions: What does it mean to be a Catholic institution in a 21st-century Jesuit context, and how is that embedded in the culture of the institution? How do senior administrators support and foster the Catholic mission of the institution? Does the institution and senior administrators distinguish between Catholic and Jesuit, and if so, why? The study was conducted using a case-study method and cross-case analysis. Data were meticulously gathered through Zoom interviews with senior administrators (i.e., presidents, vice presidents, deans, and campus ministers) at three Jesuit colleges and universities across the United States. Additionally, the findings were enriched by archival materials, such as presidential speeches, institutional reports and documents, mission statements, university publications, and local newspapers. The analysis was used to identify commonalities and differences between the schools in how the Catholic identity of the institution is lived out in a daily cultural setting and how senior administrators understand themselves to be making progress or not on the question of identity that is at the heart of the mission. Three themes emerged from the study: rootedness, encouragement, and accessibility, and contribute to how senior administrators understand the question of Catholic identity. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]