When Georgetown University engaged in the Mission Priority Examen in 2017 – 18 it had six stated priorities in regard to its Jesuit and Catholic identity: 1) student formation, 2) interreligious dialogue, 3) Ignatian spirituality, 4) inclusive community, 5) mission-based professional education, and 6) global engagement. After reviewing how these priorities were being lived out, the Peer Review Team “strongly endorsed Georgetown’s commitment to maintaining the vitality of these priorities into the future.”
The Self-Study produced by the university examined its strengths and aspects for improvement according to the proposed areas of review articulated in the document “Characteristics of Jesuit Higher Education.” These characteristics were: leadership’s commitment to the mission, the academic life, a Catholic, Jesuit campus culture, service, service to the local and global Church, Jesuit presence, and integrity.
The following are some of the comments of the Peer Review Team about the university’s review of these characteristics:
- “The Examen conversation allowed the university to affirm the good work related to mission that is already underway, while also identifying new opportunities to be more intentional, explicit, inclusive, and invitational in its efforts to live out the Jesuit, Catholic mission across the university.”
- “The Review Team believes there is value in being more explicit about how faculty members are central to advancing the Jesuit, Catholic mission of the university through their teaching and research.”
- The “ecumenical and interfaith programming and religious and spiritual services enrich the life of the institution and is engaging to members of the campus community from all faith traditions.”
- In regard to the work on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, “The way in which the university has engaged this legacy — as both an issue requiring honest historical examination by the scholarly community and as a moral and religious issue of central importance to the institution’s mission commitment to justice and reconciliation — was impressive and consoling.”
- “Georgetown’s location and history give it a unique vantage point from which to undertake initiatives related to interreligious dialogue, Catholic social thought and public life, global engagement, and religion, ethics, and world affairs.”
- “The Review Team commends the university for providing an extensive range of opportunities for members of the faculty and staff to grow in the practice of Ignatian spirituality.”
From its listening to members across the university community and evaluating what would be important for the current period, the MPE Self-Study Committee recommended that the university — while maintaining its previously-articulated priorities — focus especially on “1) a renewed invitation to faculty and staff to engage with the Catholic and Jesuit tradition, 2) the advancing of Ignatian Pedagogy, and 3) the creation and charge for a University Mission Advisory Committee.” The Peer Review Team expressed its view “that the articulated priorities are the most appropriate way for Georgetown to deepen its engagement with its Jesuit and Catholic identity and mission at this time.”