The leading Catholic comprehensive university in the nation. As Friday's designation convocation neared completion, Fr. Linnane resounded a triumphant note in his closing remarks, proclaiming proudly that it will be "fact": Loyola University will become the leading Catholic comprehensive university in the nation.
A comprehensive university is defined as an institution offering a range of degree programs that include the liberal arts, in addition to such professional fields as business and education.These institutions focus primarily on undergraduate education just as the liberal arts colleges do, but grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. With Friday's convocation ceremony, Loyola puts to rest a year's worth of anxiety and anticipation, controversy and endorsement. Should anyone doubt that Loyola College is, indeed, Loyola University Maryland, they need only take a look at the bridge spanning North Charles Street.
That's the "easy" part. The change happened. Now comes the more nuanced second step: appropriately discerning what, exactly, becoming the leading Catholic comprehensive university in the nation means. Examined on the basis of a school-by-school comparison, Loyola doesn't win: no law school; no medical school; no teaching assistants; no vast sums of money invested in professor and graduate research. But perhaps that isn't - or shouldn't be - the aim of touting such a bold declaration. Because, to some degree, the statement isn't incorrect. A university comprises multiple colleges focused on different academic disciplines. School of Education; The Sellinger School; The College of Arts and Sciences - check. Then what's with all this "leading Catholic comprehensive" business?
For our purposes, maybe a school-by-school comparison is the wrong approach. Maybe the phrasing more so represents a call to arms, so to speak; a lofty goal to strive and work for; a constant and consistent reminder to not settle for mediocrity in an all-too-often mediocre world. The deeper meaning, it would appear, counts for more than the superficiality of the face value. Taken in that context, then, Loyola College has been Loyola University all along. And Loyola University continues to be Loyola College.
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