Last week, we were fortunate enough to open a new building on our campus — the Jesuit Community Center. It’s quite a striking work of architecture, partly hidden from view by a line of beech trees at the base of Bellarmine Hall, but also oriented so that large windows from the common room look out onto the campus, Long Island Sound, the town of Fairfield, and the city of Bridgeport.
The building has a number of intriguing features — including a geothermal heating unit which literally taps hundreds of feet into the earth — where in the winter months, the temperature at 400 feet is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit— to heat the building during the winter. It also has a grass roof on a large portion of the main part of the house which will reduce the building’s heat signature, and work as natural insulation to save energy.
But the most significant dimension to this new building is what it says about the future of Fairfield University, and the role that the Jesuit community will adopt in the coming years.
We Jesuits have been operating schools and colleges since the 16th century, and there are currently 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. We do this because our founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, believed that God is educating us all the time, bringing our truest and deepest nature to fore through the experiences of our life. It was St. Ignatius’ conviction that his followers should primarily and practically be given to the business of “helping souls,” and what better way to help them than to actively participate in educating them, liberating them to an experience of their true potential.
Every age presents us with new challenges. Currently, like most universities and colleges founded by religious orders, Fairfield ( established in 1942) is faced with the question of how to maintain and reinvigorate our Jesuit identity at a time when there are fewer men entering the Society and able to serve in a University setting.
Of course, this question of how the Society of Jesus will evolve in the future is one that has been debated and considered for many years. The conclusion that we have reached is that our future as a Society will be even more profoundly based on “collaboration” with men and women of good will from all backgrounds, faiths, and orientations who share our values. In the future, we Jesuits will in many cases not expect to be at the forefront of many works and projects but instead, we will look to find ways to support others who share our dedication to the service of justice, and to the “helping of souls” through education, and in other areas of service where we are committed. The way that our former Superior General Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach expressed this was to see it as a shift of perspective from “How can lay women and men assist Jesuits in their ministry?” to “ How can Jesuits serve lay women and men in their ministries?”
That’s what our new building is all about. In effect it moves the Jesuit community — which had been housed on the periphery of the University — right into the heart of the campus. Already, many of the Jesuits live in the residence halls, but now the entire Jesuit community will literally cross paths with the students, faculty, and staff on a daily basis, and while the building was designed as a residence, it was designed with an emphasis on “collaborative” spaces, with large common areas to house readings, meetings, lectures, workshops, and so on and an inviting chapel that will no doubt become a place for spiritual reflection for the entire Fairfield community.
What I’m most excited about are the opportunities that our new building will create for greater interaction between the Jesuit community and our students. I think we’ll see the Jesuit community and the University community become increasingly interrelated. New friendships will develop, and new and unforeseen learning experiences will arise as well — both for the students and faculty, and for those of us in the Society.
Already, every day we move into a deeper understanding of what “collaboration” will mean for us as a Society and a University. Personally, I’m grateful that we’ve taken a decisive step to embrace our shared future in such a concrete and exciting way.
