New Video Highlighting Catholic Relief Services Faculty Learning Commons

Catholic Relief Services debuted a new video highlighting the Faculty Learning Commons program. The CRS Faculty Learning Commons (FLC) is an online learning community and curricular resource that highlights the latest strategies for global relief and development with special emphasis on the application of CRS’ justice lens and opportunities for building global solidarity. This semester’s theme is peacebuilding.

The video features Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love from The Catholic University of America and student Basira Knight sharing their experience with the Faculty Learning Commons in the classroom. It showcases how to utilize these resources to create a globally engaged classroom experience.

Catholic Social Teaching Conference

Please note that the event has been postponed. An alternative date will be announced shortly.

Catholic Social Teaching is the tradition of thought in which the Church seeks to advance justice in the world by engaging social, cultural, political and economic realities in our day. Thus, CST is both fitting and essential to the mission of Catholic higher education, particularly in the education and formation of its students.

To that end, CST can be a powerful tool in preparing students for the ethical and moral dimensions of professional practice and good citizenship. Many Catholic institutions of higher education strive to incorporate CST across the curriculum. While this can be a challenging responsibility, it can be done in a manner consistent with the educational and accreditation standards of each academic discipline.

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies (IPR) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) invite faculty from all disciplines to attend our conference this spring, and share learning modules on how to integrate Catholic Social Teaching in their classrooms.

The conference will be held on Friday, May 20, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Participants may be able to stay at the Theological College located across the street from CUA.

Call for Proposals

Faculty are invited to submit an outline of a Learning Module that you are currently using or plan to use in one of your courses. Format of the Learning Module is as follows:

• Title of the Learning Module
• Curriculum Content Area: Indicate the course in which the learning module takes place, and where the course is located in the curricula (e.g., undergraduate, graduate, core course, elective)
• Materials: Identify the reading materials students need to review to enhance their learning. Indicate any additional materials that would be useful to the instructor.
• Overview and Context (1 paragraph): Provide an overview of the learning module, and the context in which it is expected to be presented (early stages of a peacemaking course or class on Human Rights).
• Prerequisites: Indicate any coursework or other prerequisites for this Learning Module.
• Lesson Plan/Assignment/Activity (1-2 pages): Provide the learning objectives and detailed instructions for how an instructor will carry out the learning module, including the time-frame for the activity. At least one of the learning objectives should be related to cultivating a deeper understanding of one or more of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

Participating faculty will be grouped by academic discipline to share and get feedback on their materials.

Submissions should be sent to Linda Plitt Donaldson, donaldson@cua.edu by April 1, 2016.  For more information, please see the ACCU website.

University of Notre Dame to Host Summer Institute for Faculty Teaching Peace

The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at The University of Notre Dame and the The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) will co-host the 8th Annual Summer Institute for Faculty in Peace Studies Program Development, entitled Teaching Peace in the 21st Century from June 13-17, 2016.

The Summer Institute seeks to gather academics hoping to launch peace studies programs at their colleges or universities, strengthen or develop a new dimension to a peace studies program, or take a peace studies program to the next level of design and rigor.

Directed by George A. Lopez, former Vice President of USIP and the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies at Notre Dame, the Summer Institute has hosted over 250 attendees since its inception.

The deadline to register for the Summer Institute is March 31, 2016, with early decision registrations due February 29, 2016. Register now to reserve your spot!

Roundtable on the Encyclical Planned for Fall 2015

The Institute of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago has been working to unite 28 U.S. Jesuit colleges and universities as a common voice on climate change. Nancy Tuchman, Founding Director of the Institute of Environmental Sustainability, recently announced that a school colloquium on the Encyclical is planned for September 9th, 2015.  The Institute plans to collect reflections on Pope Francis’s Laudato Si from students, faculty and staff, focusing on their personal reactions and how they can respond to the encyclical’s call to action.

 

Courageous Voices: Heeding the Call to Community

At the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM), faculty-mentored community clinics set an example for students to respond to the needs of the community by active participation. UDM runs 17 community clinics (including law, dentistry, and counseling), making these services accessible to those who are unable to afford them. The Law School is one of the few programs in the country that require students to work in the clinic, directly carrying out the school’s mission of experiential learning and service to others.  In 2013-2014, the dental clinic provided 67,395 patient visits, including partnering with the Society of St. Vincent DePaul to run a free dental clinic, and providing services to underserved populations such as children in the foster care system and veteran.  The counseling clinic provides no-cost services to the community, including personal counseling, family and child counseling, addictions counseling, court ordered counseling, career counseling and group counseling.  In all of these clinics, students work directly with those marginalized by poverty, gaining a lifelong appreciation of the importance of ministering to those in your own community.

Over the next few weeks, we will continue to release short stories about the courageous voices of our member colleges and universities.  Stay tuned to hear about how students, faculty, and staff are responding to Pope Francis’s call to social justice and a culture of encounter.  If you are still curious about how Catholic colleges and universities are promoting social justice on campus, read the original blog post on the Courageous Voices series, or check out ACCU’s inventory of promising practices, which includes many examples of our members engaging with Catholic Social Teaching.

CRS Seeks Research Consultant

Catholic Relief Services’ five year strategic plan features a goal of engaging 10 million Catholics in the United States by 2018.  Our college/university audience is a key segment of focus within this strategy.  While our CRS University outreach (http://university.crs.org/) offers an array of programs/resources to engage faculty, students and administrators, there continues to be an expressed desire for a deeper, first-hand encounter with our overseas work. CRS would like to be able to respond to these multiple requests, but only if the encounter with overseas work leads to concrete results that support and are in alignment with the overall CRS strategy.

CRS proposes to examine the feasibility of this concept with the intent to develop a model of a short-term, outcomes-intensive international field study/immersion program for the academic audience we serve.  The program will be designed with faculty participants in mind; however it should also be designed with some flexibility so that the model could be used for other university participants, such as staff, administration, and select students.

To accomplish this, CRS seeks a highly qualified and experienced consultant who can conduct this research, design a proposed program for a potential Solidarity Bootcamp Initiative (SBI/A), participate in the pilot immersion experience to test and refine the proposal, and revise the proposal accordingly.

The primary outputs from this consultancy would be:

•  A proposed design of a recommended program model that would provide a cost-benefit analysis to CRS agency leadership and examine the capacity, resources, and staffing  required to support this program.
• A summer 2015 pilot immersion experience based on the proposed program model for the consultant and selected academics to an overseas CRS program-site (likely Ghana, West Africa).

Please share this Scope of Work with those you think might have an interest and ability to might be a good fit for this temporary contract position. Click here for more information.

Please direct candidates to send a statement of interest and their resume or CV to louis.charest@crs.org by December 1^st, 2014.

New Online Library of Interfaith Resources

Interfaith Youth Core is excited to announce the launch of our new online library of interfaith resources. Visit ifyc.org/resources  to access over 50 different resources, including downloadable documents, videos, podcasts, and more. The library also includes a customizable search option for individuals to filter by topic and audience type, including students, faculty, and staff.