Put the Catholic Jesuit Identity Up Front - Article 8 - can we have it all?

Sep 29, 2026

Discusses faculty and administrative hiring for mission within Catholic Jesuit higher education, arguing that “mission” must be operationally defined beyond a purely religious understanding. Proposes that institutions balance the ideal and the possible by shaping realistic position descriptions and clarifying how candidates can advance the university’s goals. Emphasizes that articulation of Catholic and Jesuit character and commitment to excellence must appear early in job postings and be reinforced through campus visits and orientation to support effective recruitment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Put the Catholic Jesuit Identity Up Front

Hiring for mission and academic excellence

Balancing the ideal and the possible

Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education | Volume 41 Faculty Life Issues | Article 8 | | --- | --- | 9-1-2011 Put the Catholic Jesuit Identity Up Front: Hiring for Mission and Academic Excellence, can we have it all? Robert J. Niehoff Follow this and additional works at: [http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations](http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations) Recommended Citation Niehoff, Robert J. (2012) "Put the Catholic Jesuit Identity Up Front: Hiring for Mission and Academic Excellence, can we have it all?,"Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: Vol. 41, Article 8. Available at: [http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol41/iss1/8](http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol41/iss1/8) Niehoff: Put the Catholic Jesuit Identity Up Front: Hiring for Mission and Put the Catholic Jesuit Identity Up Front Hiring for Mission and Academic Excellence, can we have it all? By Robert Niehoff, S.J. F or over 20 years, faculty and administrators have addressed the issue of hiring for mission in the context of a Catholic Jesuit University. For years, much of the energy in these conversations focused on defining the scope and meaning of our institutional mission, and yet the definition of mission was not really very clear. In discussing hiring for mission, far too often mission was seen to encompass only the religious mission and identity of the institution. Within a Jesuit University our mission clearly includes our Catholic and Jesuit identity but is not limited to that. Every institution is grounded in its history and traditions which help define its mission. For instance, for many of us, our institutional founding and early mission focused on educating the children of Catholic immigrants and later educating first generation college students became more of a focus. Since the 1970s our institutions have focused on academic excellence as seen in research agendas and graduate programs. The discussion of hiring for mission then at times began to be a tug of war between excellence and ‘mission’ defined in religious terms. The problem is that excellence is clearly demanded by all aspects of our missions. It is not my goal to discuss the definition or development of our institutional missions. It is, however, crucial that each institution develop a more robust operational definition of mission in order to foster more meaningful “hiring for mission” discussions. While the hiring process for administrative and leadership positions in our institutions significantly influence our missions, much of our historical discussion focused on faculty hiring. Both faculty and administrative hiring experiences provide the basis for my comments here. In this brief reflection, I intend to explore the intricacies of the search process, which I believe might help make our hiring for mission discussions more useful. An important point - and one thing often forgotten in this discussion - is that all hires are choices between the ideal and the possible. Every search committee, at its best, attempts to determine the candidates who will most effectively advance the university’s goals. Some of the clearest examples of unrealistic position descriptions I have seen are the unrealistic presidential position descriptions that many institutions produce. We all know that no one can perform all of the demanding functions excellently, as the position descriptions require, even on his or her best days. The posted position description is the first stage of the hiring process and this is the point at which many prospective candidates begin to self-select regarding their willingness to engage the institutional mission. In the position description the institution (through an individual, a department, or a committee) describes itself and the specific contribution of an ideal selected candidate. In every case, possible candidates evaluate themselves against the criteria in the job description and their knowledg

FAQs

Why does the author say mission is often misunderstood in hiring for Jesuit universities?

The author notes that many conversations narrow mission to only religious identity, even though Jesuit university mission includes Catholic and Jesuit character as well as the institution’s history, traditions, and broader educational focus.

What does the author mean by “all hires are choices between the ideal and the possible”?

The author argues that search committees must evaluate candidates against role requirements that cannot realistically be met perfectly, especially when position descriptions demand many demanding functions at once.

Where should Catholic and Jesuit identity and commitment to excellence be emphasized in the hiring process?

The author emphasizes that job descriptions should address the Catholic and Jesuit character and excellence commitments up front, so candidates begin self-selecting appropriately and can better understand the mission before and during recruitment.

Sep 29, 2026

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