A School/4

This past spring, I asked my students to write Saint Louis University President Lawrence Biondi about their experience at and hopes for the university. The following is from Molly Berendt, and I am happy to share it here.

May 7, 2008

Dear Father Biondi,

My name is Molly Berendt and I am a junior (soon to be senior) here at SLU. As I prepare my applications for several post-graduate endeavors, including law school, Teach for America, and the Fulbright Fellowship, I find myself reflecting on the undergraduate application process that I went through four years ago. I applied to 11 different institutions, and at the end of the difficult process, I chose SLU. Now what I want to tell you is why I chose SLU. I was attracted to SLU because of the commitment to community service and social justice. This has been my consistent response to anyone who has asked me how I ended up here. SLU is a Jesuit institution that places emphasis on forming men and women for others; I came here not only to learn how to be a better student, but how to be a better person. I wanted to be at a university that valued service and social justice as much as I did.

In high school, at Ursuline Academy of Cincinnati, I learned the true importance of volunteering and serving my community. I lived and breathed service, and I think the passion I developed and my ability to communicate that with others greatly helped me to receive the Presidential Scholarship here. My final choice for universities came down to SLU and Xavier University in Cincinnati, where I was offered one of five full-ride scholarships based on service and academics. They value service and social justice too, but I saw something special here at SLU. I am enormously thankful for the SLU community, and I have seen a genuine desire on the part of the students to participate in countless community service activities. I am happy I came here, but I have also been disappointed. I challenge you, along with students and faculty, to reflect on what our real purpose as a Jesuit institution is, and think about what steps we can take to ensure that each of us lives that ideal, not in theory but in reality.

We have huge service events such as Make a Difference Day and Relay for Life, numerous immersion trips all over the country and around the world, we brew Fair Trade Coffee in our coffee shops, have recycling locations at various locations on campus, and many of our graduates go off to do service work and change the world. I ask you: is that enough? What are we doing to contribute, on a larger scale, to ameliorating the injustices that are plaguing our nation and our world? What are we doing to fix the injustices occurring in our own backyard? This semester I’ve been interning at the Circuit Attorney’s Office, and I’ve seen firsthand what happens when people fall through the cracks. There are so many problems in our world that need to be addressed, and a university is the perfect place to begin, more so a Jesuit university dedicated to social justice. Are the clothes our athletes wear made in sweatshops? Do you know what countries make our athletic garments? Do you know the conditions of the workers toiling hour after hour for a few cents a day? This is just one example of something within our reach; we can take the first step and put pressure on corporations to improve working conditions in their sweatshops. We should have students and faculty partnering to do more - it’s our responsibility. We are in a privileged place, and we have the power to achieve great change.

I wholeheartedly believe in this quote by Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” We have plenty of thoughtful, committed students here at SLU, but they are disorganized factions in dire need of leadership and support. We have plenty of passionate, selfless students ready to devote their entire lives to service, but we do not have adequately efficient outlets for them. I offer a personal example to clarify: freshman year I joined several social justice campus organizations, but most lacked effective organization, leadership, and support from the administration. I decided my efforts were in vain, and left the organizations to spend my time in other ways. Students come up with great ideas, but for the most part, the groups remain composed of dreamers instead of doers - there are too many obstacles in the way.

I know that Chartered Student Organizations (CSOs) are student-initiated, but what if the administration and faculty paired with students to address significant issues of our time? What if the administration was able to agree on (say) three issues facing our society which they felt SLU, as a Jesuit institution, should work towards ameliorating? The students would have ideas given to them from the top, ensuring their support, and students would be encouraged to rally around these issues. There would be a direct, efficient outlet for student energy, passion, and determination. Students and faculty would work together. Administrative and faculty support is essential, because these injustices will take longer than four years, the average time a student is here, to fix. This is a long-term goal, change, and process. Think tanks could be formed around each issue and then the necessary steps would be taken to translate plans into action. We would start small, and constantly grow, as our goals were reached one by one. I foresee SLU working with other Jesuit universities across the nation and across the globe. Maybe each Jesuit institution could choose one specific issue, or maybe they could band together to tackle one or more. What is stopping us? I know universities have to run themselves like a business, but what do we stand for? We’re being hypocritical if we pretend to stand for social justice but we sit here and let injustices take place all around us. We are not doing enough.

As I’ve been writing this letter, I have talked with several other SLU students. There are so many who are just like me, itching to change the world, but we need help. We need your support and your blessing. More than that, we need a change of vision. We need to transform this university into a haven for social justice-minded individuals, people bent on making a difference. It’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day life and we end up forgetting what we’re really here for. I know you’re busy. I know it’s an enormous task to run a university. I’m sure you would love to make some of the changes I envision, but the question is how? It’s impractical in today’s society, I know, but that’s just it. We need to step back and ask ourselves what we’re really doing here. If we’re really committed to social justice, then we need much more than an Alpha Phi Omega chapter on campus. Our university needs a makeover, a new mindset and focus. Do we care about the environment? Sweatshops? Homelessness? Poverty? Equal opportunity in education? What do we care about? What is our university doing as a whole to live out the Jesuit mission? Right in the middle of our mission statement it says the University, “Maintains and encourages programs which link the University and its resources to its local, national, and international communities in support of efforts to alleviate ignorance, poverty, injustice, and hunger, to extend compassionate care to the ill and needy, and to maintain and improve the quality of life for all persons.” What is our university actively doing to alleviate poverty and injustice?

SLU is a great place, but we can do better - we have to. Who better to take on these challenges than our university, full of eager, ambitious students? This is a challenge, and something I hope you will take the time to think about. It’s easy to dismiss things as idealistic, but what I have in mind is possible, it’s just out of our comfort zone, and it would be difficult. I can envision great change starting here, but someone has to take the first step.

Thank you for your time. This is a great university, I am proud to be here, and my drive to do more comes only from love for this place and the people here. We can achieve great things if we step back and reject what society tells us we “should” do, and instead think about our Jesuit mission and what our hearts, minds, and souls tell us we have to do.

Sincerely,

Molly Berendt