Visions And Values In Catholic Higher Education

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The specific concern in What We Hold in Trust comes to this: the Catholic university that sees its principal purpose in terms of the active life, of career, and of changing the world, undermines the contemplative and more deep-rooted purpose of the university. If a university adopts the language of technical and social change as its main and exclusive purpose, it will weaken the deeper roots of the university’s liberal arts and Catholic mission. The language of the activist, of changing the world through social justice, equality and inclusion, or of the technician through market-oriented incentives, plays an important role in university life. We need to change the world for the better and universities play an important role, but both the activist and technician will be co-opted by our age of hyper-activity and technocratic organizations if there is not first a contemplative outlook on the world that receives reality rather than constructs it. To address this need for roots What We Hold in Trust unfolds in four chapters that will demonstrate how essential it is for the faculty, administrators, and trustees of Catholic universities to think philosophically and theologically (Chapter One), historically (Chapter Two) and institutionally (Chapters Three and Four). What we desperately need today are leaders in Catholic universities who understand the roots of the institutions they serve, who can wisely order the goods of the university, who know what is primary and what is secondary, and who can distinguish fads and slogans from authentic reform. We need leaders who are in touch with their history and have a love for tradition, and in particular for the Catholic tradition. Without this vision, our universities may grow in size, but shrink in purpose. They may be richer but not wiser.

The Handbook of Research of Catholic Higher Education provides an important and timely overview for scholars and students interested in understanding this important sector of private higher education. More importantly, it is an important resource for those faculty, staff, and administrators interested in shaping the distinctiveness of Catholic colleges and universities. The Handbook provides chapters presenting a thematic overview of a particular element of Catholic higher education and in addition provides an extensive bibliography resource of further reading. While some of the chapters will appeal to those with specialized interests, e.g. legal affairs, finance, and community relations, the chapters on mission and religious identity, history, and the documents on Catholic higher education provide an important perspective on the challenges facing Catholic higher education and should be read by everyone involved in Catholic colleges and universities. The Handbook of Research of Catholic Higher Education is an important resource for understanding and shaping the distinctiveness of Catholic higher education.

In Realizing the Distinctive University: Vision and Values, Strategy and Culture, Mark William Roche changes the terms of the debate about American higher education. A former dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, Roche argues for the importance of an institutional vision, not simply a brand, and while he extols the value of entrepreneurship, he defines it in contrast to the corporate drive toward commercialization and demands for business management models. Using the history of the German university to assess the need for, and implementation of, distinctive visions at American colleges and universities, Roche's own vision benefits from his deep connection to both systems as well as his experience in the trenches working to realize the special mission of an American Catholic university. Roche makes a significant contribution by delineating means for moving such an institution from vision to implementation. Roche provides a road map to creating a superb arts and sciences college within a major research university and offers a rich analysis of five principles that have shaped the modern American university: flexibility, competition, incentives, accountability, and community. He notes the challenges and problems that surface with these categories and includes ample illustration of both best practices and personal missteps. The book makes clear that even a compelling intellectual vision must always be linked to its embodiment in rhetoric, support structures, and community. Throughout this unique and appealing contribution to the literature on higher education, Roche avoids polemic and remains optimistic about the ways in which a faculty member serving in administration can make a positive difference. Realizing the Distinctive University is a must read for academic administrators, faculty members interested in the inner workings of the university, and graduate students and scholars of higher education.

This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. This timely look at the state of Christian higher education in America contains descriptive, historical narratives that explore how fourteen Christian colleges and universities are successfully integrating faith and learning on their campuses despite the challenges posed by the increasingly pluralistic nature of modern culture. Written by respected representatives from seven major faith traditions -- Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Mennonite, Evangelical, Wesleyan/Holiness, and Baptist/Restorationist -- these narratives are also preceded by introductory essays that define the worldview and theological heritage of each given tradition and ask what that tradition can contribute to the task of higher education.

Catholic Higher Education in the 1960s is a series of cases that describes and analyzes the transitions made by representative Catholic institutions in their attempts to update their governance structures and maintain their Catholic identity in the midst of the post-Vatican II era. This book will be of interest to historians of education and Catholic education; to administrators and faculty in Catholic schools and in other religious-based institutions that seek to understand the dynamic of balancing their religious identity with their attempts at “reading the signs of the times.”

"Revisioning Mission: The Future of Catholic Higher Education" is both a "how to" book and a resource text. The first section describes the challenge of continuity that faces Catholic colleges and universities: Religious congregations which founded these institutions are no longer present on campus in numbers that allow them to preserve and nurture the Catholic culture and religious heritage of the congregation. New faculty, as well as all employees, will need a formation program to introduce or update their understanding of Catholic higher education, especially at their own institution. "Revisioning Mission" offers instructions on creating such a program through the development of learning communities. The second section provides a series of content essays that profile the spiritual life of students, explain the Catholic culture, Catholic intellectual life, adult spirituality, and discusses the founding religious congregations. The final essay, "The Mission Community," emphasizes the importance of university faculty, staff, and administrators forming a community that is committed to the continuity and development of the institution in the 21st century as robustly Catholic with the unique heritage of the founding religious congregation. Preserving and enhancing the value-added dimension of these colleges and universities is essential to their survival as Catholic institutions. "Revisioning Mission" provides extensive references and recommended readings for those interested in furthering their understanding of the future of Catholic higher education.

"A Catholic University: Vision and Opportunities describes how a Catholic vision enabled a small college to increase its size fivefold and to become a university. Entrepreneurial leadership enabled the College of St. Thomas (now University of St. Thomas) in St. Paul, Minnesota, to relate its religious convictions to opportunities to educate new publics and thus have an enhanced role in the community and the Church. Monsignor Murphy identifies what makes a university "Catholic" and how that identity is an integral driving force of a university."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved