Jesuit, Catholic Higher Education: Some Tentative Theses

In the pages that follow, I have tried to suggest certain reflections around the general and troubled topic of the Jesuit, Catholic university. I do so because I suspect that a central problem for many administrators of such institutions lies within the vagueness or even chaotic understanding of this governing issue: what it is that they are administering. What do you mean by a Jesuit university ?. Is it basically the same sort of thing that any Catholic university is--something clear enough in purpose, however imperfect in realization; but at the same time something variant, in that the Jesuit university is staffed in part by a different religious coterie and marked by a particular historical tradition, so that one speaks primarily about Jesuit presence when one talks about these institutions