Is it morally allowable for the Univeristy of San Francisco to cut it's MA Theology Program?

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This is absurd sir! Absurd! It is my University, and belongs to all who have attended it.
You may like to think so, but it really ain’t so. You might have gone to school there, true. You are free to give donations or not to the university, but the legal control remains in the hands of a few people who will make the decision. They may look at your (name removed by moderator)ut, but in the end, you have no legal right to decide whether or not the program will be cut.
BTW, if you are a Red Sox fan, why don’t you go to the sister school in Boston, Boston college, which has a Ph.D. program in theology? You would not be that far from Fenway Park.
 
We live in a time when many Catholic Universities seem to have forgotten that they are Catholic.

In 2001 USF rewrote their mission statement in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th and they claimed in this new mission statement that the school would dedicate itself to promoting religious education and understanding. While you might scratch the surface of religious understanding during the four years it takes to get a BA in Theology, the MA Theology program at USF, which is actually quite unique because it’s a weekend program, which means that students can have jobs and support their families while continuing their studies, goes along way in moving the school towards realizing their mission statement. It’s only been eight years since the new mission statement was written, but it already seems to have been forgotten.

I think it’s important to remember that the point of religion and religious education isn’t to bring in bucket loads of money. In fact the cost of religion in everyday life may seem rather high to a lot of people in our secular world. I’m not sure why it’s so easy to excuse the school from it’s religious responsibilities. Maybe it’s because we’ve become numb to the idea that many people do pick and choose the Church teachings that they feel like following and our Catholic Universities, from Notre Dame to Georgetown to USF to my own alma mater Saint Mary’s College of California, haven’t done much better lately.

Yes, the program at USF costs money. However, since it only employs three professors each quarter, which is one professor for each cohort group in the program, it isn’t an astronomically expensive price tag that is going to drive USF into the ground. Particularly if you consider the fact that each professor only teaches one day a week. They pay three professors for one day a week’s work. It’s probably one of the least expensive programs in the college at that rate.

If you add another fact that hasn’t been mentioned here, which is that the new applicants were told that the price tag for the program was going to go up, and yet they still submitted their applications, you eliminate part of the argument about the program closing for financial reasons. Of course that argument wasn’t made because the president refuses to speak to anyone about the program, rudely canceling the appointment to talk about it with the head of the program face to face and instead informing him via email of his decision. I guess his time is just to important to waste on niceties like courtesy and manners.

Someone said that we don’t have all the facts. That’s true. Because the President is refusing to communicate the facts with us. But the facts that we do have seem to indicate that the program, which fulfills a basic part of the Universities mission statement, is worth saving. Maybe it’s easy to give up and say “yes, cancel the program…” because we’re so used to simply giving up on Catholic Universities these days. Or at least we’ve learned not expect much from them.

I think that we might get better results if we held them accountable for their actions. After all, they do claim to be Catholic.
 
You may like to think so, but it really ain’t so. You might have gone to school there, true. You are free to give donations or not to the university, but the legal control remains in the hands of a few people who will make the decision. They may look at your (name removed by moderator)ut, but in the end, you have no legal right to decide whether or not the program will be cut.
BTW, if you are a Red Sox fan, why don’t you go to the sister school in Boston, Boston college, which has a Ph.D. program in theology? You would not be that far from Fenway Park.
Your logic is muddled. According to your logic those who protested against slavery in the ante-bellum period really should not have because they were not in the power to change anything in congress, the presidency, nor the supreme court. Also wasting their time would be the civil rights advocates in the 50’s and 60’s in the US who certainly did not have the power to change the law by their protests alone. Nor should those loudmouths at Georgetown or Notre Dame even bother speaking out because in the end it is the president of the universities decision how their campus is run.

As for going to USF over BC, I go to school where I want. It’s fun to watch the Sox win in Fenway. I’ve done it tons of times. Now I’m going to enjoy my team winning at AT&T Park as well as the Oakland Collesium.👍
 
For those interested about the mission statement of the University of San Francisco here it is in full:

At its quarterly meeting on September 11, 2001, the University of San Francisco Board of Trustees approved a new Vision, Mission, Values Statement for the University. Articulating a shared vision and mission for the University has been a priority for USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J., since he took office on Sept. 15, 2000. “It is important for the University to agree on who it is and where it wants to go before determining a strategic direction,” Fr. Privett said.

The statement, more than a year in the making, had been passed before the University community for review and comment before the trustee action.

The University of San Francisco will be internationally recognized as a premier Jesuit Catholic, urban University with a global perspective that educates leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world.

The core mission of the University is to promote learning in the Jesuit Catholic tradition. The University offers undergraduate, graduate and professional students the knowledge and skills needed to succeed as persons and professionals, and the values and sensitivity necessary to be men and women for others.

The University will distinguish itself as a diverse, socially responsible learning community of high quality scholarship and academic rigor sustained by a faith that does justice. The University will draw from the cultural, intellectual and economic resources of the San Francisco Bay Area and its location on the Pacific Rim to enrich and strengthen its educational programs.

The University’s core values include a belief in and a commitment to advancing:
Code:
the Jesuit Catholic tradition that views faith and reason as complementary resources in the search for truth and authentic human development, and that welcomes persons of all faiths or no religious beliefs as fully contributing partners to the University;

the freedom and the responsibility to pursue truth and follow evidence to its conclusion;

learning as a humanizing, social activity rather than a competitive exercise;

a common good that transcends the interests of particular individuals or groups; and reasoned discourse rather than coercion as the norm for decision making;

diversity of perspectives, experiences and traditions as essential components of a quality education in our global context;

excellence as the standard for teaching, scholarship, creative expression and service to the University community;

social responsibility in fulfilling the University’s mission to create, communicate and apply knowledge to a world shared by all people and held in trust for future generations;

the moral dimension of every significant human choice: taking seriously how and who we choose to be in the world;

the full, integral development of each person and all persons, with the belief that no individual or group may rightfully prosper at the expense of others;

a culture of service that respects and promotes the dignity of every person.
The following initiatives are key to the University’s achieving the recognition as a premier Jesuit Catholic, urban university:
  1. Recruit and retain a diverse faculty of outstanding teacher-scholars and a diverse, highly qualified, service-oriented staff, all committed to advancing the University’s Vision, Mission and Values;
  2. Enroll, support and graduate a diverse student body, which demonstrates high academic achievement, strong leadership capability, concern for others and a sense of responsibility for the weak and the vulnerable.
  3. Provide an attractive campus environment and the resources to promote learning throughout the University:

    Learning resources that enhance curriculum and support scholarship

    Technology solutions to enhance learning and improve service

    Facilities to support outstanding educational programs
  4. Continue to strengthen the University’s financial resources to support its educational mission.
 
Your logic is muddled. … I go to school where I want. :
Not true. People can’t always go to whatever school they want. You have to be admitted and many people are not admitted to where they want to go.
It is not your school, and they will admit those who meet their qualifications. And they are legally free to cut back on the programs as they see fit.
 
Re
The core mission of the University is to promote learning in the Jesuit Catholic tradition.
How much overlap is there between the Jesuit Catholic tradition and the tradition of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church? 😃
 
Not true. People can’t always go to whatever school they want. You have to be admitted and many people are not admitted to where they want to go.
It is not your school, and they will admit those who meet their qualifications. And they are legally free to cut back on the programs as they see fit.
I said “I” not everyone. And I wanted to go to USF. I have been admitted and I attend it. It is my school and if I see anyone clearly heading into sin I will comment on it. USF is clearly heading into sin, as Joe pointed out, and as a Catholic I have responsibility to admonish the sinner wether they be an individual or an organization.

Secondly, this is a moral theology question not a legal question. Many things that are a legal right are not moral rights. Abortion being one of them. Legally, you are right in that I have no ability to change the Universities decision. Though that is a extremely short sighted view point Bobzills. It takes any effect that my protests might have on the members of the board of trustees, or perhaps and God wiling, the president of the University himself. Morally speaking my position is right and USF has really screwed up their priorities.

Let’s pray that they get it right.

~RSF
 
Re How much overlap is there between the Jesuit Catholic tradition and the tradition of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church? 😃
I hope that the head of the Jesuits is as disappointed in this failure to provide Catholic leadership as the head of the Congregation of the Holy Cross is with Notre Dame.
 
I find it odd that the biggest argument against canceling the program seems to be a disagreement about the semantics about “who” the school belongs to.

On the one hand I don’t see a problem with calling me alma mater “my school” (that would be St. Mary’s College of California in my case) and from the constant trickle of letters that they send me they seem to want me to continue to think of it as “my school.”

I think a bigger (and better) argument would be that every member of the Church can consider Catholic Universities to be “their schools.” After all, these Universities purport to be Catholic. They put themselves forward, into the public eye, as representations of Catholicism. Thus they are held to a high standard (as we all should be).

Isn’t that why everyone is so upset about Obama speaking at Notre Dame and Georgetown’s actions when they put a piece of plywood over the crucifix when he came to speak? Because we are Catholic the actions of these schools does, in a way, reflect on the Church as a whole. And we are the Church.

USF certainly has the legal right to cancel the program. But as we all should know by now, just because something is legal in this great country, doesn’t make it right. USF is going against their mission statement. They’ve forgotten their priorities. It may not strike each and every one of us as morally wrong, but it’s certainly not in keeping with the goals of any truly Catholic Institution.
 
USF is clearly heading into sin, as Joe pointed out, and as a Catholic I have responsibility to admonish the sinner wether they be an individual or an organization.
As far as I know a person can commit a sin but I don’t see where an organisation such as USF is guilty of sin if they cut back on a program because of budgetary problems.
 
That’s the whole point Bob!

The University is even stronger now that it has been ever! Stronger than it was in the WW2 days when most of the students went off to war. Stronger than in the depression era. Stronger than at any point in it’s history. During this economic hardship the former employed are going back to school, meaning that attendence would be up. Also Obama, whom I am not a fan of, has guarenteed that there would be more funding for students to get thier degrees.

Also there has been no natural or economic disater that has hit San Francisco they way Detriot or New Orleans have been hit. Yet Mercy in Detroit still has thier MA program as well as Loyola in New Orleans. In fact our University is thriving so much it is actually expanding in several areas. It has only cut back in one area. Theology.

The Univeristy, in this program, employes 3 professors per term. That’s it. Most of which are not tenured. This program isn’t exactly costing them a great deal of money. In fact, based on the number of incoming students that they would of had next year they would have most likely been in the black for that year of the cohort. That next’s years class could offset for the 1-2 person shortfalls in the other two classes seems to have been overlooked. Also overlooked was the possibility of turning around the program by increase in advertising in the Bay Area and elsewhere. This is a program that can meet the ideals that Fr. Privett wished. He just never set the requirements to the head of the department and did not give the department any way of meeting those requirements.

I wouldn’t say USF was guilty of sin if cutting the program wasn’t contrary to the overall health of Catholicism and against the mission statement of the University. Given that this program is integral to the mission of the school and Church it is clear to me that they are sinning.

God Bless!~RSF

~RSF
 
I hope that the head of the Jesuits is as disappointed in this failure to provide Catholic leadership as the head of the Congregation of the Holy Cross is with Notre Dame.
They appear equally disturbed. I suspect it is causes them almost as much cdisappointment as a lukewarm cup of coffee at breakfast.😦
 
The only option, it is apparent to me, is to hold both to task for thier inability to mantain a Catholic Identity and to pray for them.

Does anyone else see a solution to the problem of Catholic Universities in the world losing thier heritage?
 
As far as I know a person can commit a sin but I don’t see where an organisation such as USF is guilty of sin if they cut back on a program because of budgetary problems.
Haven’t Notre Dame and Georgetown shown us that this is possible?
 
The Univeristy, in this program, employes 3 professors per term. That’s it. Most of which are not tenured. This program isn’t exactly costing them a great deal of money. In fact, based on the number of incoming students that they would of had next year they would have most likely been in the black for that year of the cohort. That next’s years class could offset for the 1-2 person shortfalls in the other two classes seems to have been overlooked. Also overlooked was the possibility of turning around the program by increase in advertising in the Bay Area and elsewhere. This is a program that can meet the ideals that Fr. Privett wished. He just never set the requirements to the head of the department and did not give the department any way of meeting those requirements.
You keep making this claim that the theology department isn’t costing the school money based on the number of professors they employ or the number of potential students they have. Unfortunately the tuition doesn’t directly go to these departments for their use and in some cases the department may be using more money than they actually bring in. I think to properly evaluate the financial state of the department would require access to figures we aren’t privy to at this point.

ChadS
 
The head of the Theology Department says to make this program break even they need to have 10 people in each cohort year. My cohort started with 11 and has dropped to 9. Next years incoming class as of March was 13 which most likely would have gone up another few as applications were still coming in. The incoming cohort would have offset the other classes that were below the 10 students or break even mark.

Don’t make this more complicated than it is. Even if 2 of the 3 cohort years still is costing the school money the 3 would have remedied that. Not to mention that this is a vital program to the schools mission. It shouldn’t be closed because it isn’t making money. If there was any reason to close this program it should have been because there were no interested potential students. This clearly was not the case here.

The American Papist has weighed in on this.

catholic.org/

Scroll down the page and you’ll see the USF article.
 
Who should pay for it then? If it is losing money, would you be willing to chip in 50 or 100 thousand dollars a year to help out?
I believe you missed the point.

The point is that while the program isn’t bringing in piles of money it isn’t losing money either. The program needs ten students to break even. The incoming class had 13 students. Thus, they weren’t losing money on the program, although you certainly couldn’t say they were making money either.

The program is self sustaining so it’s ridiculous to cancel it for financial reasons. It’s certainly not the drain on the school you make it out to be.
 
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