June 15, 2004
Some Bad News
Today the students were informed so there is no reason not to blog about this, but Campion College of San Francisco is closing. I do not have all the details, but the Guadalupe Associates have decided to pull the plug. Since I do not know all of the situation with Guadalupe Associates, I am going to refrain from speculation, but they seem to be doing this in a way that is less than honorable, leaving the students without a place to go in the fall and faculty without jobs (and good luck finding something for the fall semester in mid-June).
I know a lot of people involved in Campion: students, family of students, and teachers and had a lot of respect for what they were doing. We were even trying to get our nephew there next year. This is a sad day for Catholic education.
Or perhaps not. I have often felt that Catholics should stake out positions in secular universities and not retreat from the world. At 18, with a good formation, a Catholic student should be able to take on the secular and even anti-Catholic world without danger to his own faith. Quite possibly this is a blessing in disguise.
Posted by erik at June 15, 2004 11:15 PM | TrackBackTo My Former Student:
We can debate whether or not it is "nice" to consider a collective action to be small-minded, but allow me to clarify a few points.
First, I use the term "small-minded" as a common language translation of the Latin _pusilanimitas_. Perhaps it should be considered "small-souled" rather than small-minded. I would not contrast pusilanimitas with being "broad-minded" but with being magnanimous.
Second, when someone else asked why I recommended a boycott, my response was to tell her to buy t he books she wants to buy, but to also consider using a library. What's mean about that. She wants to read books, and I tell her to read them?
Third, I also asked that people pray for the members of Guadalupe Associates. I am serious about this prayer request. Couple that with my observation that their actions are "small-minded", and I am basically saying that we should forgive them because they did not know what they were doing. Some people made a decision that I disagreed with, that did real harm to people in my care and in their fiduciary trust, and I was so "mean" as to state the why and how of what was wrong and then asked others to pray for them?
One last point: why would the Guadalupe Associates not allow the College to separate from the press?
Yours again in half-cocked, embattled digruntlement,
SC
Boycotting Ignatius Press isn't exactly broadminded.
I am a Campion Student, and I was taught all the things that Mr. Cordova said above. I cannot speak enough praises for the school. But since i was taught to be broadminded, and I was taught to learn what is it to be human: a) complicated b) driven by conflicting powers c) always in a lot more messy situations than they ought and d) fallible, fallen, and reliant on God's mercy. Exercising the faculties of a human being, which I now uinderstand and use better as a result of Campion College, I KNOW that this situation requires more than an emotional brush off. Erik is right, we know few of the particulars, and until we do, we probaly ought to hold off on insulting GA as being small minded, and boycotting as good a ministry as Ignatius Press, whatever their faults are in this regard.
But it is a sad sad day indeed. I would have given my life for Campion, because it gave me an understanding of life. But what is most grievious to me is the fact that the whole orthodox catholic world says "Hurray for Campion, it is what Higher Education needs!" but they don't back up that support. Where were the checks? Where were the students? Are the 14 who graduated this May, and the 10 in the freshman class the only ones who cared enough to risk it? I would risk it 20 times over if I could, but no one else? Had there been better support from the outside I am certain there would have been full support from GA.
Fitting that this should come about around the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom we were consecrated. THAT, alone, gives me hope.
Sad news indeed. I've often heard it said that a 1940 high school degree is the equivalent, in education terms, as a college degree now, and that a grammer school diploma in 1900 is equivalent to a high-school diploma in 1940. This suggests a great need for Catholic colleges, since Catholic high schools aren't giving us what they used to. A "well-formed 18-year old" is an oxymoron in my experience - and I speak from personal experience.
Posted by: at June 17, 2004 10:05 AMEven a well-catechized 18-year old, or at least most of them in North America, would benefit from a university-level introduction to theology, philosophy, and literature.
Campion was never about secluding the students and innoculating them against modernity as your post implies.
We offered the students a series of courses which showed them the amazing interrealted nature of the above-mentioned disciplines. We wanted them to exercize truly human powers and conder what it really means to be a human being. We never tried to have them flee the world--we gave them the opportunity to live in it and not have to be of it. We gave them the opportunity to be adult catholics.
Even the best confirmation program cannot and should not do or be that.
Faith formation is not the same thing as intellectual formation.
Pray for the small-minded souls at Guadelupe Associates and never buy a book from Ignatius Press.
SC