Recruitment of Jesuits to the Faculty

As a Jesuit, Catholic institution, Fordham University aims to create a community that is ever more diverse, committed, and deeply engaged in New York City and beyond. Grounded in the Jesuit tradition, we seek new ways to live out our mission in contexts very different from that in which Fordham was founded. Moreover, the Society of Jesus, the religious community that has helped sustain Fordham since 1846, itself shares in this attempt to respond to our times with creativity, confidence, and integrity.

Fordham University has been indebted to the presence and work of so many Jesuits throughout its history, and yet it has thrived, especially in the past 50 years, on account of a great variety of colleagues of diverse intellectual, philosophical, cultural, and religious commitments. We hope that all members of the Fordham faculty will find in our Jesuit, Catholic tradition opportunities for joyful and meaningful work.

We do not expect to return to a time when a large part of Fordham’s workforce consisted of members of the Society of Jesus. And yet we recognize that excellent Jesuit colleagues, while few, continue to search not only for employment as teachers and scholars but also for a way specifically to contribute to the mission and identity of places like Fordham. Some have, in fact, been our own students, yet many more come from more national or international contexts than ever before. We continue to seek out those interested in being fine colleagues, teachers, scholars, administrators, pastors, and citizens of the University.

At any point, the number of Jesuits finishing terminal degrees or otherwise prepared to enter an academic position at Fordham is not large. Yet those who are so prepared stand to make an important contribution to our shared purpose and to give unique witness to the kind of educational values Fordham has long embraced.

For this reason, the recruitment and hiring of highly qualified Jesuits is considered an institutional priority. In an effort to clarify and make more transparent processes by which that can be done, a protocol has been established as identifying basic “rules of engagement” for those entities at the University that may wish to recruit a Jesuit for a position. This document applies only to Jesuits considered for full-time academic positions, either tenure-line or non-tenure-line.

The protocol document is available from the Office of the Provost and the Dean of Arts and Sciences.