Dear LMU Community,
As the academic year draws to a close, we want to share with you some updates regarding the progress of the Mission Priority Examen (MPE) and to express our gratitude to the community for your contributions to ensuring the enduring vitality of Loyola Marymount University’s mission.
We provide more information on the activities of the MPE committee and the process moving forward below, but first we want to start by acknowledging that our mission is a source of inspiration for members of our community but also, at the moment, of hurt for some. As we listened to you, we heard disappointment, frustration, and sadness about when the university does not live up to our stated institutional values; some among us are experiencing a loss of trust and community. But we also heard a deep and resilient commitment to our mission as a Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions, to the kind of education and student experiences we offer here at LMU, and to making our community more inclusive and equitable. And we heard hope for the future even as there is also uncertainty about the present moment. The MPE offers us the opportunity to identify priorities that can help us more fully live out our mission.
The Mission Priority Examen Self-Study Committee has been meeting since the start of this calendar year to carry out its charge of identifying two or three mission priorities that will guide the university over the next seven years. To inform our discernment of those priorities, we have relied on several resources, including:
- Foundational documents that articulate our mission, our Jesuit and Marymount educational traditions, and the charisms of our three religious sponsors;
- An environmental scan guided by Characteristics of Jesuit Higher Education: A Guide for Mission Reflection, which invited us to reflect on where mission is visible in our leadership; academic programs and student life; commitments to social justice, including racial and environmental justice; service to the local Church and engagement with our religious sponsors; and institutional policies;
- President Poon’s goals as shared in his inaugural address, including a reimagination of the teacher-scholar model informed by Ignatian principles; the advancement of equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice as a function of Catholic Social Teaching and Gospel values; and the fostering of Ignatian excellence through the promotion of Ignatian spirituality, Ignatian discernment, and Ignatian pedagogy; and
- Conversations between President Poon and our Jesuits West Provincial Sean Carroll, S.J.
From there, the committee formulated three questions that became the basis for a series of 28 listening sessions conducted among a range of stakeholder groups across the university during the month of April:
- How can LMU more distinctively embody its Jesuit and Marymount mission through its education, teacher-scholar model, and student experience in ways that enable us to respond proactively to changing needs?
- How can we better promote holistic formation and embody justice, reconciliation, and the life-giving mission of our Jesuit, R.S.H.M., and C.S.J. of Orange traditions for all members of our community, including those from historically marginalized groups, so that flourishing and thriving become the norm?
- How can LMU better serve the Catholic Church in Southern California, engage with local communities, and accompany the marginalized and most vulnerable?
The committee is currently reviewing the responses from those sessions along with feedback collected from 250 faculty, staff, and students who responded to the Strategic Plan and Mission Priority Examen Survey last month. We are immensely grateful to everyone who took time to join a listening session, complete the survey, or do both. Your input has been invaluable as we consider the many good options for mission advancement that lie before us and, in the spirit of the magis, discern from among them the path forward that best enables LMU to flourish.
Looking ahead, we anticipate spending the next few weeks distilling the results of the committee’s reflections and the community’s input into two or three mission priorities that are broad enough to remain relevant and meaningful for the next few years but narrow enough to result in concrete, transformative, and measurable action. These priorities will be articulated in a self-study report that will be made available to the LMU community around the start of the new academic year. Then, from Sept. 20-23, a visiting team of experienced leaders of Catholic colleges and universities will come to campus to engage members of our community in additional conversation about the potential for our stated priorities to animate mission at LMU effectively.
We will continue to share information about the progress and outcomes of the MPE in the coming months, and we thank you again for your active engagement in this act of institutional self-reflection.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth A. Drummond, Ph.D.
Director, Marymount Institute of Faith, Culture, and the Arts
Associate Professor of History
John T. Sebastian, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President for Mission and Chief Mission Officer
Co-chairs of the Mission Priority Examen Self-Study Committee