Mission and Identity: The Role of Faculty

Abstract

Although Catholic universities face a number of challenges in an increasingly unsettled economy, the situation also provides significant opportunities for Catholic universities to highlight the central importance of their Catholic identity in order both to recover their deepest commitments and to realize an advantage in an increasingly competitive market. The most fundamental requirement in responding to this opportunity is a renewed focus on the role of faculty reflected in new approaches to recruitment and hiring for mission, and in the development of new faculty development programs that provide sustained opportunities for faculty to explore the implications of the Catholic university’s commitment to the unity of knowledge and the ultimate complementarity of faith and reason. These commitments will require a new institutional resolve but offer very significant rewards.