To the Editor:
When I became aware that Loyola College was considering changing its name from Loyola College to Loyola University, I was initially saddened. Loyola College, after all, is where I spent my four years of undergraduate study. Loyola College is where I arrived on a warm August morning as a shy, nervous, uncertain freshman; it is where I departed on a rainy May morning as an educated, transformed, poised senior. It is where I took classes in all of the major disciplines, receiving a truly comprehensive Jesuit, liberal arts-focused education. Loyola College is where I was an editor for The Greyhound, a cantor in the Chapel Choir, a director of the Freshman Retreat, a volunteer with the since-renamed Center for Values and Service. Loyola College holds for me, as it does for many of its students and alumni, four years of experiences, memories and accomplishments.
Loyola University has no particular connotation for me. When I hear the words, I think of Loyola Marymount University, where one of my college roommates completed her graduate studies, or Loyola University New Orleans, ravaged by the effects of Hurricane Katrina. What Loyola College has in common with those schools, other than possessing St. Ignatius Loyola as its namesake, I can't say. I'm sure the students and faculty there, as do the students and faculty at all institutions of higher learning in this country, hold their university close to their hearts.
I have found, in the years since graduating from Loyola, that no matter where it is located, what its size, or what its specialty, there is something special about your college. There is something about living and working and achieving in community with thousands of fellow students, faculty, administrators and staff that makes college this incredible microcosm. There is an incomparable sense of pride, of devotion, of loyalty and of community.
Ignatius Loyola and his first Jesuit brothers bound themselves together as a community-one with shared faith, values and mission. Loyola College is founded on a similar mission. It envisions a singularness of purpose, a shared interest in the success and vitality of the institution. It is in this, Loyola's core value of community, where the heritage of the Sisters of Mercy and Mount Saint Agnes College is referenced. And perhaps the merging of two Baltimore Catholic colleges in 1971 is an argument as to why Loyola College should retain its name. Loyola continues to recognize and benefit from the gifts it received as a result of its joining with Mount Saint Agnes, not the least of which was its transformation from a male-only college to a co-educational institution.
I would, of course, be remiss if I did not mention another, equally important, core value. The constant challenge to improve calls us to be dissatisfied with mediocrity, to pursue improvement and excellence and to challenge the status quo. This value is certainly in line with the pending proposal to transform Loyola from a college to a university.
The desire articulated in this value to attract high-quality students, faculty, administrators and staff that will promote Loyola's core values is an integral part of Loyola's future growth and institutional success. It speaks to a commitment to improvement at both the individual and structural levels.
Perhaps the question is, then, to what extent we are willing to sacrifice the microcosmic communal aspect and history of Loyola to fuel its macrocosmic and future communal growth.
I certainly do not claim to possess the wisdom to answer this question. But it is my hope, and indeed my expectation, that Fr. Linnane, the Board of Trustees and the Loyola community at large will call on another of Loyola's core values -- discernment -- and evaluate its decision carefully, giving weight to both the microcosmic and macrocosmic benefits and detriments.
Loyola College, after all, is an exceptionally rare, impressive place -- one where all associated with it are the beneficiaries of an exceptionally rare, impressive education.
Laura Gleason, '05
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