Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Project, in May 2019 undergraduate student Erin Luck interviewed Andrés Javier Matallana Bríñez, coordinator of institutional identity for the Center for Institutional Identity and Construction of Community at Javeriana University (La Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) in Bogotá, Colombia. In this interview, Bríñez discusses Jesuit identity promotion and formation at Javeriana University.

Could you tell me about the Center for Institutional Identity and Construction of Community and your role at the Center?

Before I begin talking about the center, I want to begin by talking about the Vice Rectory of “Medio Universitario” so that you have a little more context as to where we are at this moment. The rector (president of the university) has five vice-rectories in order to administer the university. There is an Academic Vice-Rectory, an Administrative Vice-Rectory, a Vice-Rector for Research, a Vice-Rectory for Extension and Inter-institutional Relations, and a Vice-Rectory for the University, or “Medio Universitario.” At other Jesuit universities, it might be called the "Vice Rector for Mission and Identity" or "Identity and Welfare.” The "university environment" is a very Xavierian concept that comes from Cardinal Newman. [Former university rector] Father Borrero took this idea and adapted it to the Javeriana University. This idea of the university environment forms all things, not solely the educational curriculum. Identity, welfare, and mission are in themselves a part of the curriculum.

The activities here, which would normally be called as extracurriculars, are contained within the curriculum for us. You can participate in volunteering, student groups, cultural groups, and a wide variety of other activities. This is part of this educational commitment of our university. It is part of our curriculum. The Vice Rectory of Medio Universitario ensures that this can flourish at our university. The Vice Rectory of Medio Universitario has five centers. This is the Center for the Promotion of Identity and Construction of the Community. There is also the Psychological and Health Advisory Center, the San Francisco Javier Pastoral Center, the Javeriano Sports Training Center, and the Cultural Management Center. Each one has some particular functions. We at the Center for the Promotion of Identity and Construction of the Community are dealing with the promotion of the educational principles of the Society of Jesus at the university and of the construction and establishment of the Xaverian educational community. We have different lines of work, and we try to make that a reality.

On the webpage of the center, you can find all the information about the Center for the Promotion of Identity and Construction of the Community. We have the Program for Culture and Habitat, which is responsible for the management of Javeriana’s relations with the environment. We work on issues of preservation of the common home. As a Catholic Pontifical University of the Society of Jesus, this challenge is ours. We do many activities to realize this goal.

We also have the Program for Culture for Peace. In a country like Colombia, culture for peace and the culture of the citizenry is supremely important; we dedicate ourselves to it. The Program for Inclusion and Diversity is how we guarantee and promote a space for everyone regardless of sexual orientation and gender. We strive to be an an educational community that is inclusive and recognizes diversity. This centers around the student groups of the university. There are some cultural groups and a cultural center. 

We also have a center for students from outside of Bogotá. In the United States and Europe, it is very common that people live on their own when they finish high school. We in Colombia are not like that. Culturally, the people of Colombia live with their parents until the moment they get married. Thus, you could live with your parents until you are 20, 25, or maybe 30 years old. The process of moving to another city to study is quite tumultuous and is a process of particular adaptation. About 10 percent of the university comes from cities other than Bogotá, and it is on the rise. We need to support people who arrive in Bogotá because it is the largest city in the country and very inequitable. There are bigger cities like Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Cali, but many are much smaller. When you are from a small city or a town outside Bogotá, you feel that the city will erase you. For the people it is very difficult to arrive. They do not know where they are located. They do not have friends and do not know where to live. Therefore, we support these people.

The Center for Institutional Identity and Construction of Community handles two areas: identity promotion and identity formation. The formation programs take more time but are much deeper in nature. Programs are administered in small groups of 20, 30, or 50 people. This allows the groups to delve deeper into the topics being discussed. This formation, or training, is done for students, employees, administrators, and teachers. We could do it for graduates, but we are a small office. For alumni or graduates who already studied at the university, there are more programs in promotion than in formation. However, we focus on students who are on campus.

The issue of promotion is an issue with greater scope but less depth. We celebrate the day of the university through a giant celebration in which everyone participates. There is the Javeriana week, the week of Ignatian Charism, and the important days for us like the day of San Francisco Javier and the day of San Pedro Claver. We also provide materials and events during the induction to new students, so that new students can better understand the university. We provide context for the history and the symbols of the university. We form new students under the auspice of these themes and promote the identity of the university.

In formation, we have a lot of really cool programming. Cardoner: Sense Javeriano is a course offered by the university. It is an experience, administered by “the hand of the rector” to form the identity to employees, administrators, and professors in management, particularly in the various fields of the university and the ways of proceeding that stem from the Society of Jesus. It is offered once a semester with various sessions both outside the university and on campus. Right now, we are in the eighth session; it has been offered now for four years. It has become one of our flagship projects. Formation of Xavierian and Ignatian leaders is how we train our students.

Could you tell me a bit more about the Week of the Ignatian Charism and the type of programming that would happen during a week like this?

The Week of Ignatian Charism is an opportunity for people to know other works of the Society of Jesus. You go to the university, listen to the Jesuits, and learn that Jesuits have more than just universities. The Jesuits have spent a lot of time in Colombia and the world. We also want to change and revolutionize the model by recognizing the contributions of the Society of Jesus to knowledge in general such as science and art

In the last version of the week, a Jesuit priest came who was the director of the Astrological Observatory at the Vatican. He is an expert in astronomy, and he came to tell us how one could be both a scientist and a Jesuit. There are many people who would say that faith and reason come into conflict, and a faithful scientist cannot exist because it is a contradiction. He came and explained because he is an expert in the science issues. On another occasion, for example, Father Montes came. He is a Chilean Jesuit who is super young, very good-looking, and sings like a pop star. The Jesuits are not only in pulpit. They can develop in different ways.

We want to show a different side of the mission and the missionary. There is a Jesuit who is living right now in Africa; he wanted to come here to talk about his experiences as a missionary. We also have mission programs with the Pastoral Center. The Week of Ignatian Charism showed that you can be a missionary and contribute as a young person. In many ways, the old style of missionary service caused conflicts in the world. We need people in places close to vulnerable populations with the possibility to do interesting jobs. These themes are explored during the Week of Ignatian Charism, which recognizes other contributions of Jesuits.

In your opinion, what are some of the factors or values that are the most important for building community at Javeriana?

We have worked effectively in the center to try to identify the Javeriana identity. There is no document in the Javeriana that lays out the identity of the Javeriana. If there are documents that explain to us what our identity is, we also differentiate the identity of the university.

The identity of Javeriana comes in part from its nature as a pontifical university. That means several things. We have an excellent relationship with the Vatican. We have the possibility of giving three ecclesiastical titles in the name of the Pope: baccalaureate in theology, baccalaureate in philosophy, and degrees in canon law. Only certain universities in the world are pontifical universities. The deans of these schools usually have the approval of the Holy See. The rector of the university is also elected from the Holy See and comes from Rome. This gives the university a certain identity as a pontificate.

We are a Catholic university and that also gives us a specific way of functioning based on the indications of the church. We are not the only Catholic university in the country, but we do function in the style of the Jesuits and are a university of the Society of Jesus. The Jesuit identity comes to the university from the teachings of Ignatius of Loyola, the general congregations, and what the Society of Jesus mandates as an institution for the administration of its universities. We mold their institutions as our own, but that is our Jesuit identity. We also have a very Xavierian identity which comes from the mission, educational projects, and foundational documents of the university. The value of these documents is very specific to us. However, we also share values with other Jesuit universities such as care of the whole person, Magis, and the pursuit of excellence for greater service. There are many more such as service, excellence, justice, and solidarity. 

What role do service and social justice have in the community of Javeriana?

At this point, I would like to share the mission of the university: 

“The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana is a Catholic institution of higher education, founded and run by the Society of Jesus, committed to the educational principles and orientations of the founding entity. It teaches, researches and services with excellence, as a university integrated into a country of regions with a global and interdisciplinary perspective, and proposes: The integral formation of people to excel for their high human, ethical, academic, professional quality and for their social responsibility. The creation and development of knowledge and culture in a critical and innovative perspective, for the achievement of a just, sustainable, inclusive, democratic, solidary and respectful society of human dignity.”

Thus, service is fundamental in order for us to form in Javeriana. We search for excellence to serve the human community, our Colombian society, and the world. The ultimate goal as a university is contributing to the improvement of society. Everything that we do is to that end. The campus, the professors, and the curricula are all for this purpose.