A Conversation About USF’s Soul
USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. called for reflection on the university’s work and bestowed prestigious awards on two veteran USF faculty at the Fall Convocation Aug. 25.
The convocation marked the first time faculty and staff were invited together. Normally the fall convocation is addressed to faculty only.
Fr. Privett used the occasion to reiterate USF’s mission, “educating leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world,” as a humanitarian as much as a religious invocation, and as an enterprise that depends on cooperation between people.
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“It is precisely that sense of obligation to do what we can do...that is the key to realizing our full humanity in a rather inhumane world,” Fr. Privett said.
Citing the administration’s retreat to El Salvador this summer as an experience in “planting our feet in the midst of innocent suffering,” Fr. Privett called for an academic rigor that holds the university accountable for its education and also combines wisdom and ethics with knowledge. “My hope is that this year will begin a sustained conversation about our Jesuit Catholic character,” he said. (complete text of his speech >>)
Also this year, Patricia Schulz, professor of biology, and Andrew Heinze, professor of history and director of the Swig Judaic Studies Program, were awarded the Sarlo Prize and the Ignatian Service Award, respectively.
Schulz, a faculty member since 1978, is credited with winning grants to bring two electron microscopes to campus—equipment worth about a quarter of a million dollars each—and for being a “flexible, approachable, sympathetic, and sincere” teacher. The Sarlo Prize, awarded annually, recognizes excellence in teaching based on the university’s ethical values.
“I enjoy advising my students carefully and encouraging them,” Schulz said. “It’s a very satisfying part of my job.”
Heinze was lauded for bringing the kind of interfaith dialogue to USF that the second Vatican Council encouraged. Heinze became head of the Swig Judaic Studies program in 1997, organizing immersion programs to Israel and bringing important speakers to campus as part of the Swig Lecture series.
“My work has meant a lot to me in encouraging honest conversation between faiths,” Heinze said.
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