KEEPING THE FAITH ON CAMPUS: Where have all the religious gone?
Morey, Melanie M. & Holtschneider, Dennis H.
KEEPING THE FAITH ON CAMPUS Not just how, but who Melanie M. Morey Dennis H. Holtschneider While public attention and debate have focused on Ex corde ecclesiae, a major change in...
...The presidents and congregation leaders spoke of the key role religious had once played in instilling and nourishing the particular culture and spirit of their colleges...
...For some colleges, the process of becoming more "universally Catholic" has already begun...
...They could as easily apply to a diocesan-founded Catholic college as to a congregation-founded one...
...Both worried that the religious cultures of these institutions are now at risk...
...And the desire of many congregations for veto power itself reflects a lack of conviction about how well-prepared their lay colleagues are to steward the mission and religious character of the institutions...
...The shared-governance model is shifting as congregation membership declines...
...In a recent study we conducted about the relationship between religious congregations and colleges, Relationship Revisited (Association of Governing Boards, 2000), college presidents and sponsoring congregations identified important trends in governance and sponsorship at their institutions...
...Whether activities that primarily inform and teach about legacy can on their own form a self-sustaining Catholic culture seems unlikely...
...Thirty years later the same faculty members still represent diverse intellectual and faith perspectives, but the counterbalancing core of religious on campus has all but disappeared...
...Not all faculty at Catholic colleges and universities are Catholic...
...Tenured faculty are a more stable community, but one cannot presume they are necessarily disposed toward sustaining institutional Catholic culture...
...endowed professorships in fields related to the congregational mission or identity...
...It is hard to imagine that any Catholic college or university could attract and retain a majority of Catholic faculty members who have personally adopted the spirituality of the founders...
...Reserved powers guarantee authority and control to congregations by reserving certain decisions solely to members of the congregation...
...Some nontenured faculty may have real connections to the mission, but more often they are institutional transients...
...Memory alone cannot sustain a culture...
...This task may be complex given two trends our study observed around issues of governance...
...Those who are usually seek their spiritual nourishment in diocesanbased Catholic parishes, rather than from a particular spiritual subculture...
...In the late 1960s, most Catholic colleges became organizations independent from, yet structurally related to the religious congregations that founded them...
...Consortia of colleges with similar charisms have been formed to undertake these initiatives together...
...These new organizational structures are designed for congregational reaction rather than action in board and administrative initiatives (the most common being investing congregations with the power to approve or veto an initiative...
...Such characteristics are broadly Catholic...
...The final arbiters of whether a particular 1O congregation's spirituality is appropriate for laity will be, of course, the laity themselves...
...It is unrealistic for colleges or congregations to rely on these lay professionals to embrace and then advocate a religious culture when their future in the institution is tenuous...
...further away from the founding congregation, eventually becoming secular institutions whose only ties to congregation and church are historic and nostalgic...
...Most will not choose to take this path...
...On the other hand, congregational leaders can be far removed from colleges and have little or no experience in higher education...
...and (4) the education of the heart as well as the enlightening of the mind...
...Separate civil incorporation was sought for the colleges...
...Bylaws and statutes were written to create structures of shared governance, whereby the religious congregation maintained a percentage membership of the board and reserved some decisions to itself...
...With the exception of the tenured faculty, university education has a high turnover of staff, administrators, and, increasingly, nontenure-track faculty...
...If Catholic colleges and universities want their religious culture to continue into the future, they must construct serious and sustained formative experiences for the lay people who will be in charge of them...
...Any real solution to the problem must operate on the level of building and sustaining a vibrant culture without the direct involvement of religious congregations...
...These leaders hope that the laity are prepared to fill the role the religious once played in sustaining the unique religious cultures of these institutions...
...The task ahead for those colleges that wish to sustain a congregational culture, or even a more broadly Catholic one, is enormous...
...Most colleges, however, will likely become more universally Catholic...
...For a better understanding of this renegotiation of governance structures, a little history is in order...
...Most commonly, congregations reserve decisions on amending governing documents (69 percent), purchase and sale of property (67 percent), dissolution of the corporation (55 percent), mission and identity (53 percent...
...A likely scenario, however, is that a number of colleges will simply drift further and Melanie M. Morey is senior associate at Leadership and Legacy Associates, Belmont, Massachusetts...
...Congregations are accepting changes that replace broad influence with narrow control exercised at an evergreater distance...
...A few may find ways to protect the particular spirit of the founding congregation...
...There are Catholics of strong religious conviction teaching in state colleges, and that does not make those colleges Catholic...
...2) exceptional quality of liturgical life on campus...
...Catholic, noncongregational: Several respondents indicated their colleges are planning to become more universally Catholic, as a response to the aging of the religious congregation...
...D 21...
...Congregational traditions that are more amenable to and consonant with lay experience will have an advantage...
...Efforts and initiatives such as these are widespread...
...Certainly the research indicates that the outcome remains elusive...
...The spirituality of lay faculty is crucial...
...They will also need to become the bearers who nurture, sustain, and pass on the tradition...
...Since they were hired to enhance diversity rather than sustain congregational Catholicity, tenured faculty are less than likely to be key players in establishing a self-sustaining Catholic and congregational culture...
...Only a core of visible believers can leaven the culture of an organization...
...The religious congregations that founded, shaped, staffed, and still sponsor the majority of U.S...
...Therefore, the extent to which the congregation's charism is hospitable to the lay academic life will be an important factor in determining whether or not the transfer of this aspect of institutional culture is successful...
...The first is paralysis: 59 percent of leaders surveyed report that their institution has no plans to address the problems stemming from the disappearance of religious on campus...
...The Franciscan charism, for example, has always been attractive to laity, and many lay organizations steeped in these traditions have developed and flourished over the years...
...That is, they will shed the particular spirituality and culture that were characteristic of the founding congregation, and will adopt a more broadly based Catholic character...
...Private, secular: The possibility of secularization was mentioned by only 4 of the 175 colleges responding to the survey...
...Some colleges will become secular...
...All told, 25 percent of colleges we surveyed reported that they had changed their governance structures in the last five years...
...Most important of all, congregations turned over civil control of colleges to predominantly lay boards of trustees...
...Quiet conviction is not enough...
...They saw the possibility as undesirable but real...
...Colleges that choose to find common ground among different religious heritages will be forced to adopt a more universal Catholic culture and spirituality...
...They are the authors of Relationship Revisited, available from the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities, Washington, D.C...
...Some can be attributed to denial, but responses to the study suggest that complex interorganizational ties, commitment to an outdated model, and lack of confidence in the laity are keeping congregations and colleges from moving forward effectively...
...visits to the site of the congregation's founding and other places associated with its particular charism...
...Seven 11 of the colleges we surveyed had shifted from a one-tier board (a majority lay board with roughly 25 percent congregational representation) to a two-tier model in which a lay-staffed board is overseen by a second, all-congregational one, usually composed of the congregation's provincial leadership...
...Their hope may be misplaced...
...This type of change responds to the decline of congregational members, and ensures that congregational input depends less on the views of individual members and more on the congregation's overall provincial values...
...Certainly the waning of religious is not new and the contribution of religious is not an illprized legacy...
...There are numerous efforts currently underway to impart a college's religious heritage to lay trustees, faculty, and staff...
...Second, governance structures are changing in a way that may make the formation of lay leadership more difficult...
...If these institutions want a nonsecular future, they must construct serious and sustained formative experiences for their lay faculty, staff, and administrators...
...It is simply unlikely that the broad panoply of Catholic subcultures—Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Basilians, Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary, Xaverians, Apostles of the Sacred Heart, Dominican Sisters of Hope, Marianites of the Holy Cross, Salesians, and many others—can continue without the presence of the religious themselves...
...More important, they must create conditions under which lay people are both willing and able to embrace this process...
...and to make clear that reserved powers belong to the congregation and not to individual congregational members...
...These include orientation for new board members and employees...
...convocations, congregational award ceremonies, founders' days, etc...
...As a result, these congregation-sponsored colleges and universities (202 of the 230 Catholic colleges in the United States) are facing serious questions of identity and governance...
...In what way are they changing...
...Provincials favor increasing reserved powers for two purposes: to establish more control over campus life as the direct influence of members decreases...
...As a result they recommend against the expansion of reserved powers...
...A generation hence, both the religious and those who knew them will be gone, and the culture will then be based upon second- and third-hand stories...
...an additional 56 percent said they are currently in the process of changing them, or will be within the next year...
...KEEPING THE FAITH ON CAMPUS Not just how, but who Melanie M. Morey Dennis H. Holtschneider While public attention and debate have focused on Ex corde ecclesiae, a major change in Catholic higher education drifts along with little comment...
...Catholic, congregational: A number of colleges and universities may retain a strong congregationally specific identity...
...Catholic colleges and universities are aging and contracting...
...A Catholic culture requires a core group of witnesses at the center of the organization whose palpable belief makes it possible for others to feel free to explore their own religious convictions...
...When merging, Catholic colleges with differing congregational heritages either must find common ground or allow one heritage to dominate the other...
...The fact that 98 percent of leaders identify this disappearance as a problem but fewer than half offer policies or programs to address it is curious indeed...
...3) diversity among members of the religious communities working at the college...
...One institution's president described the college's congregational identity...
...Knowledge of Catholicism is not enough...
...At such institutions, however, the mere memory of the founding religious will not be sufficient to sustain this identity...
...What then is causing this policy paralysis...
...A more pervasive and controversial change reflects the congregation's desire to increase its so-called "reserved powers...
...Congregation members now have final authority over some specifically defined issues, but little power to initiate, influence, or otherwise actively infuse the campus community with their spirit...
...Many, if not most, congregation-sponsored colleges will follow this path...
...At present, 72 percent of Catholic colleges assign reserve powers...
...Consequently, tethering a college to a congregation's particular spirituality may only weaken its chances of maintaining any religious character...
...The ability to root a self-sustaining congregational culture at colleges and universities may well depend on the colleges' willingness to provide more job security among nontenured faculty and staff...
...The current effort to renegotiate and revise governance structures is, at best, a stopgap measure, and at worst, a diversion from the real task at hand...
...Dennis H. Holtschneider, CM., is executive vice president of Niagara University...
...The lay professionals who staff the college will need to internalize the spirituality and culture of the founding community...
...Our unique characteristics or attributes are the following: (1) warm, personal friendships between priests and religious and lay faculty and staff...
...Mergers and strategic partnerships taking hold in higher education will also drive this trend toward broad-based Catholicism...
...As congregations continue to wane, they will be less able to exercise the control structures to which they are now turning...
...Presidents, on the other hand, eschew congregational control in favor of congregational influence...
...Ninety-eight percent reported the disappearance of founding congregation members from campuses...
...If the college desires a Catholic culture, then it must look to create that core group within the organization...
...In terms of identity, the future without congregational sponsorship will likely take one of three paths...
...In the late 1960s and II the 1970s, with a core group of congregation members highly visible and involved in campus life, tenure-track faculty were recruited to bring a breadth and depth of diversity to campus life...
...Why should lay employees make a life-altering philosophical and religious commitment if the college is not willing to make a commitment to them...
Vol. 128 • April 2001 • No. 8
