University of St. Thomas President Rob Vischer participated in a Religion News Service panel exploring how Catholic universities navigate questions of mission, identity and relevance amid shifting student demographics and financial pressures. The discussion, titled “What Makes a University Catholic?,” brought together national voices in higher education to examine how institutions can uphold a distinctly Catholic mission while serving increasingly diverse campus communities.
From the discussion:
Paul O’Donnell: Rob, I want to start with you. In many ways this entire series grew out of a conversation we had earlier this year, when you raised a central question: In what sense is a school like St. Thomas, or any Catholic university, Catholic today?
Your university was founded nearly 150 years ago by a Catholic archbishop. It is named for Thomas Aquinas and continues to operate within the Catholic intellectual tradition. Given that history, what makes you ask the question, “How is St. Thomas a Catholic school?”
Vischer: It is an important question and one we should keep asking. Historically, Catholic colleges could define their identity demographically. Catholic students attended and Catholic faculty taught. That model has shifted. At St. Thomas we have about 10,000 students, and fewer than half identify as Catholic. Our faculty represent many faith traditions.
So what makes us Catholic today. One formal answer is our relationship to the Church as a diocesan university. But the deeper question is how our Catholic identity is experienced as relevant by the students who walk onto our campus.
At St. Thomas, we are committed to equipping every student for lifelong flourishing. That aspiration is broader than job preparation alone. We are very good at preparing students for careers, but we also need to lift our gaze, to borrow a phrase from Pope Leo, and place questions of meaning and purpose at the center. We do this through a Catholic lens at the institutional level. Students do not need to personally approach it from a Catholic perspective, but this lens remains part of our identity.
This generation of students, who according to recent studies are among the loneliest age cohort in America, connects deeply with ideas such as vocation, accompaniment, and the culture of encounter. These themes resonate and they are rooted in our Catholic tradition.
O’Donnell: When you talk about those core values, how do they show up in academic life? Are they introduced in specific courses, or do they appear across the curriculum?
Vischer: It is complex because universities do not operate as command and control organizations. They resemble a thousand flowers growing in different pots, some blooming faster than others.
One example is our First-Year Experience course, which every undergraduate takes. We are incorporating more focus on formation and on the virtues into that curriculum. We also introduced an initiative to present the four cardinal virtues to all undergraduates each year through the First-Year Experience and through other programs.
A student does not need to be Catholic for the cardinal virtues to enrich their development as a person. But using them as a framework is a clearly Catholic contribution to the educational experience, one that we aim to make accessible and meaningful for all students.
