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Minutes of AJCU-EAO Annual Meeting
Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
August 21-22, 2007

Day 1 – August 21, 2007
Arrivals
5:00 PM Registration
6:00 PM Gathering/Pre-prandials
7:00 PM Dinner
8:15 PM Welcome remarks

  • Fr. Joel E. Tabora, S.J., President of Ateneo de Naga University and Chair of the AJCU-EAO opened the meeting with a prayer. 
  • Welcome remarks were given by the following:

Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, S.J., President of the Ateneo de Manila University, host school of the 2007 Annual AJCU-EAO Meeting
Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., President of the JCEAO

  • Welcome and Overview of the AJCU-EAO meeting was presented by Fr. Joel E. Tabora, S.J.
  • AJCU-EAO, CEO Sharing

1. Sanata Dharma – Shared by Mr. Augustinus Suppratiknya

  • Sanata Dharma has succeeded in organizing a series of lectures in theology for lay people through the following endeavors:
    • Crowned intellectual pursuits with a form of enrichment inspired by the Jesuit tradition in theology; gathered around 60 participants consisting of university teachers from Sanata Dharma and from other schools.
    • Planned to provide similar courses regularly every year with topics usually focusing on national issues as well as life related with the Church.
    • Organized 12 short lectures on different canonical issues in the society
  • In cooperation with St. Mikhael’s ATMI, Sanata Dharma pursued studies on the roots of the Jesuit tradition and education
    • Started by trying to study history of Jesuit colleges and universities
    • Hoped to publish a study on higher education
  • They met with ADMU Director for Mission and Identity to learn on how to organize leadership and Ignatian spirituality workshops to be implemented in the coming years.

2. The Beijing Center – shared by Fr. Ron Anton, S.J.

  • TBC as a service organization promoting Chinese language and culture has reached full capacity in most of its programs:
    • Undergraduate programs accept 120 students each semester
    • In addition, 75 university courses and short-term programs (5days - 6 weeks) are also being offered every year, all of which are doing very well.
    • Opened its 4th Program for the 25 provincials; offered programs for scholastics all over the world
  • TBC’s Research center is doing very well and recently published its 5th book.
  • Its Library completed a collection of early history of China and the west:
    • A thousand volumes in English about China before the founding of its People’s Republic
    • 5 sets of different collections totaling to about 17,000 binds just on China

3. Loyola School of Theology – shared by Fr. Jose Mario Francisco, S.J.

  • LST offers Church and civil degree programs in theology,  ecclesiastical baccalaureate; various programs of masters degrees and PhDs
    • Subscription of about 350-400 students every semester;
    • Composed of members of religious congregations and diocesan seminarians and sizeable number of lay people
      • One fourth (¼) of its total population are international students from Asia, Africa and Latin America; most of them are from international religious congregations that have set-up their formation houses in Manila.
  • LST has six (6 ) strategic directives:
    • Asian Mandate
      • Mandate from superiors from East Asia and Oceania
      • Make LST more Asian in content and methodology
        • Three (3) year program approved and funded
        • Every year, they send and invite faculty members to and from other theological centers within the region
        • They hold theological fora on various fields centering on how such can be taught in Asian context
    • From Father Provincial of the Philippines
      • Challenge for LST to put itself at the service of the Jesuit educational network in the Philippines
      • It also attempts to make efforts systematic – sending faculty to give talks and workshops to different universities
    • Greater involvement  and theological reflection on social issues in the Philippines
      • Teamed-up with groups in social development work to hold fora and other appropriate activities
    • Improve quality of learning
      • Looked at program to make them lay-friendly
      • Recruit better trained faculty
      • Smaller class size for better interaction with students
    • Improve management systems
    • Improve financial standing
      • Generate more income for scholarships and  professorial chairs and better control of budgets

 4. Sogang University – shared by Dr. Hyeonshik Cheong

  • Sogang University has acquired a sizeable investment for improvement of its physical structures and purchases of land
    • Construction of a $90M project –underground campus with a big parking lot and a shopping arcade and a dormitory for 900 students and 50 professors within a 60 thousand square meter area.
    • Bid to purchase of a reclaimed area where the government is putting up an economy zone
  • Inspired by last meeting, Sogang emphasized improvement of quality of education through the following:
    • Internalization program - collaborates with ADMU and many other Asian universities
    • Hired 30 new faculty members
    • Raised standards for promotion and renewal of contracts for existing faculty to promote research
    • Preparing for Accreditation for Engineering School
    • Certification program for School of humanities – voluntary program for students
    • Expansion of Campus Ministry Office
      • Now directly reports to the President
      • Handles volunteer center
    • Funding (US$10 million) for research on Humanities
      • Developing some ideas on how to effectively use the fund
    • Donation of US$2.5 million for globalization fund from an alumnus
      • Sending students to Philippines, Europe, USA, Japan, China, Thailand, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, 
      • Recruiting students from Cambodia on full scholarships
    • Maintains status in the Korean government-sponsored survey on customer satisfaction of service industry organizations in which Sogang remains number one (1) for five (5) years.
    • Adapts to relevant issues relative to changes of Law school system in Korea.

5. Xavier University – shared by Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, S.J.

  • For many years, XU has been good in teaching and extension but seemed lacking in the area of research
    • The past two years’ effort has been directed towards stimulating research
    • Faculty are de-loaded from teaching work
    • Establishment of an Awards system
    • Promoting of certain fields : education, livelihood
  • Having a College of Agriculture and vocational technical school, XU also began advocating PRODUCTION
    • Partnered with ATMI
    • Exploring Bio-fuel production
  • XU Created Governance and Leadership Institute catering to local government officials
  • XU has also made effort toward Internationalization
    • Referred to Dr. Dulce Dawang – point person for International relations
    • Signed a MOA with universities in Seoul

6. Ateneo de Zamboanga University –
    shared by Fr. Antonio Moreno, S.J.

  • ADZU is the youngest Jesuit university as well as the smallest
  • Fr. Moreno, S.J. just assumed office as president
  • They have a total of 3,800 students,15 -19% of which are Muslims
  • ADZU Enrollment has gone down in the last 4 years
  • The most popular course is Nursing; next are management and accountancy. The College of Liberal Arts services other colleges. The College of education is the smallest
  • In partnership with Calgary University, ADZU opened a New program in the School of Medicine where they adopt a different approach in teaching using minimal lectures  and going to communities using Tele-health strategy
    • Effective in encouraging medical professionals to stay in the region
    • Similar program was being done in Cambodia with their help
  • ADZU preparing for Re-accreditation visit in February
  • They were now consolidating social outreach units
    • Clarify peace and development agenda for the region
    • Come up with framework for social development
  • ADZU has new infrastructure – 2 campuses

7. Ateneo de Davao University –
    shared by Fr. Antonio Samson, S, J.

  • Major accreditation visit of most undergraduate programs was held last year
    • architecture and Nursing were the only programs not accredited
  • ADDU Enrolment going down (5% in grade school last year)
  • ADDU Law School to put up a law journal
  • ADDU  has volatile labor situation

8. Ateneo de Naga University – shared by Dr. Rebecca Torres

  • ADNU has substantially achieved its Corporation Plan in areas of Academic Programs, Instruction, Formation
  • The University Research Council was aligned with the ranking system to promote research
  • The University Social Involvement Council was created to consolidated the different extension units to create significant impact in areas of concern defined by the council (Health and Nutrition, Good Governance, Livelihood, Religious Education, Teacher Training, Environment, Disaster Response Management and Housing)
  • The University Ignatian Formation Program has been systematized following a framework that addresses developmental stages of faculty and students
  • They created the International Programs focusing on China
    • Initiatives to forge collaboration with the Fujian Provincial Educational Association for International Exchanges
    • Mandarin was made as part of the curriculum in business management programs

9. Ateneo de Manila University – Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, S.J.

  • New Building in ADMU was being constructed to house social sciences and Confucius Institute
  • ADMU started school of medicine and public health
    • Emphasis on public health
    • Degree in medicine and MBA
  • December 2009 – 150th anniversary of ADMU.  With this in mind, they have decided to focus on the following themes:
    • 2007 –excellence
    • 2008 –spirituality
    • 2009 – social concern

10. Elisabeth University of Music –
      shared by Prof. Yuji Kawano

  • EUM experiencing decreasing enrollment
    • 440 undergraduates
    • 60 graduate systems
    • 140 part-time lecture
  • Most of the Christian faculty members are near retirement and those who will be left are not Catholic/Jesuit.  Replacement is difficult.
  • EUM renewed cooperative agreement with the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music in the Philippines
  • EUM has high-profile government assistance
  • EUM cannot afford to employ a lot of staff and professors

 

Day 2: August 22, 2007

7:00 AM Breakfast
Continuation of CEO Sharing

  • CEO sharing for those who were not able to share during the first day was continued.

11.     ATMI – shared by Fr. Agus Sriyono, S.J.

  • They have a total of 488 students
  • Current Focus of ATMI: Job placement
  • They have established Training centers, production units for the students
  • They have established International projects with Japan, Thailand and India
  • ATMI emerging as a model technical school
  • Their focus for the future are the following:
    alternative energy, medical technology, business development and ethics, training center

12. Fu Jen University- shared by Fr. Dan Ross, S.J.

On Fu Jen University:

  • Fu Jen has 27,000 students
  • Their students Top in medical board exams
  • They are currently building their own hospital: has a budget of one hundred million US Dollars

On China:

  • The Chinese Government wants to gain position on everything, including education
  • Chinese government wants to promote global schools using different strategies:
    • Internationalization of faculty
    • Using English as a medium for teaching subjects
    • Increased scholarships to foreign students by 40%
  • By 2010, China plans to have 100 million foreigners to study the Chinese language and culture
  • At present, they have established over 85 Confucian institutes in different countries including institutes in two Jesuit schools: Ateneo de Manila in the Philippines and St. Joseph University in Peru.  The Chinese Government wants to have a hundred (100) Confucian Institutes established.
  • Fr. Ross, S.J. mentioned several Jesuits involved in Chinese schools:
    •  Fr. Ron Anton of the Beijing Center
    •  Fr. Stefan Rothner, S.J. of the Center for International Business Ethics and the Beijing Oriental University.
  • Fr. Ross shared about the interesting trend of Chinese schools moving towards internationalization citing his experience with Sun Yat Sen University.  He shared something about his meeting with the Dean of International Relations of this school and said that they asked his help in finding them an American Jesuit who was willing to teach English in their university.
  •  Fr. Ross also reported that 22 young Chinese scholars were now doing research on Christianity in China
  • He also expressed the Province’ effort to build a research institute in Yunnan University in Southern part of China. 

13. SOPHIA UNIVERSITY – shared by Fr. Sanji Yamaoka, SJ

  • Sophia has a good reputation as a university in Japan
  • They are now doing fund raising in preparation for their anniversary
  • Sophia has a new building for the Faculty of Science and Technology
  • Sophia would like to put emphasis on its Catholic identity: new professors’ orientation to the Catholic mission and identity
  • Sophia was losing its niche and special reputation for internationality, since other universities have meanwhile developed excellent policies. Sophia needs more effective policies e.g. hiring; involvement in worldwide Jesuit network.
  • They were experiencing a new emerging problem: how university cares for its students e.g. problems with teachers, parents (“helicopter parents”)

8:30 AM Wrap up of CEO Sharing

  • Wrap-up of the CEO sharing was presented by
    Ms. Maria Felda Alarkon, from ADNU

9:00 AM Talk of Fr. Paul Locatelli, S.J.

  • Fr. Joel Tabora, S.J. introduced the Guest Speaker, Fr. Paul Locatelli, S.J.
  • Fr. Paul Locatelli, S.J. gave his talk on the “Jesuit Universities and the Pursuit of Social Justice in a Global World” with a prepared power point presentation.

10:00 AM Break
10:30 AM Conversations

  •  Conversations based on the talk of Fr. Locatelli followed.

SUMMARY OF CONVERSATIONS

1. WE HOPE TO EXERT MORE EFFORTS TO WORK TOGETHER

  • We affirm the need for internationalization of our universities and forging  solidarity at the global level, and it is the role of the Secretary of Higher Education to lay the foundation for this;
  • The mode we are exploring is individual institutions collaborating on common projects, e.g. Ateneo de Manila and Sogang;
  • The important factors we have seen are the following: forging relationships, developing awareness of the Jesuit network among heads/directors of institutions;
  • We can explore the following possibilities and suggestion:
    • Exchange programs for students given the extensive movement of young people across countries;
    • Meetings of the North East group and the South East group (due to similar cultures, concerns, priorities);
    • Sharing of best practices;
    • Meeting of Jesuit business schools (Ateneo de Manila to host in 2010);
    • The Messina commons as a possible model  
  • We agree that a meeting of directors of international programs be held in Ateneo de Manila, to be jointly organized by Ateneo de Manila and Sogang
  • WE HAVE A COMMON CONCERN FOR THE INTEGRATION OF OUR MISSION WITH OUR CATHOLIC CHARACTER, GIVEN THE GREAT CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN OUR REGION
    • We have a common social justice problematic: issues of migration, economic divide, etc.;
    • We have common issues on religion (e.g. secularization), globalization,  inculturation;
    • We are concerned with formation: sharing our identity and character with our lay partners, evangelization, integration of Gospel values with the secular, IT culture;
    • We affirm our Jesuit worldview as preparing our students for life and citizenship, not just for career; we form “professionals-for-others” (Ateneo de Manila); we help our graduates in the practice of ethical leadership and decision-making, and in discerning how their work and career can contribute to the world;
    • We address Islam as an important area of concern in our region through efforts at understanding religion and culture, fundamentalism, conflict; and through intra/inter faith and culture dialogues (e.g. schools and centers in Indonesia, Mindanao-Philippines)
  • WE REFLECT ON OUR RESPONSE TO THE SOCIETY’S REGIONAL PRIORITIES (AFRICA AND CHINA)
    • Africa has emerged as a “priority” region of the Society, and we need to continually study and discern this given that China is exploiting Africa;
    • In Africa, the following were among the identified areas of concerns: Peace studies (addressing conflicts among ethnic groups), Leadership (developing leaders in the villages), agricultural development;
    • China is extremely important to the world, an economic and educational power; and is strategically important to the Society; the world cannot ignore China;
    • In EAO we have already engaged China, e.g. knowing Mandarin as crucial, institutes; engaging with Africa is more remote for us;
    • India is an emerging power too.
  • WE PLAN FOR THE FOLLOWING
    • Meeting of Directors of International Programs
    • World Meeting of Presidents
    • AJCU Meeting next year
    • Meeting of Northeast and Southeast groups
    • Discuss how we can relate with bigger networks (e.g. ACUCA, ASEACCU) and with other apostolates (e.g. social apostolate, JRS)
  • In preparation for the World Meeting of the Jesuit University Presidents they have agreed on the following:
  • Meet in 2 groups – Northeast and Southeast
    • Two-tiered meeting; come together;
      • 1st day for two tiers (separately)
      • 2nd day for plenary (combine 2 groups)
    • North group – Japan, Korea and Taiwan
  • Identify priorities in education
  • Tentative date: August of 2008
  • Engaging bigger networks of the universities
  • Fr. Nebres’ invitation to join ACUCA

12:00 Noon - Lunch
  2:00 PM - Wrap up of Conversations

  • Bro. Karel San Juan, S.J. gave the wrap-up of the conversations.

3:30 PM – Break
4:00 PM – Business Meeting

  • Fr. Tabora, S.J. facilitated the business meeting.

BUSINESS MEETING (August 22, 2007)

  • Approval of the Minutes of Annual Meeting in Sogang University
  • The Organization of Jesuit Campus Ministers
  • Approval of LST as regular member of AJCU-EAO (Majority vote required)
  • The inclusion of LST as an AJCU-EAO regular member was unanimously approved by the eight (8) principal participants who were present. 
  • Notes on: www.ajcu-eao.org
  • Fr. Tabora, S.J. presented the AJCU-EAO website.  He went through its features and sections.  He acknowledged all the contact persons who regularly updates the website with news articles from their school and also encouraged all member schools to visit and contribute to the website.
  • Host and Venue for the next Annual Meeting
    • ASSEACU will be in Bandung, Indonesia
    • Fr. Paulus Wiryono Priyotamtama, S.J., President of Sanata Dharma University said that they were willing to host the event in cooperation with ATMI. 
    • Fr. Nebres, S.J. suggested exploring Jesuit Institutions in Jakarta which was nearer to Bandung than Yogyakarta.
    • Fr. Priyotamtama, S.J. said that he will coordinate their sister school in Jakarta and will just furnish the members with concrete details regarding this when it was finalized.
  • Theme and Speakers for the next meeting
  • They have agreed that the details of the theme and speakers for the next meeting be communicated to the members when finalized.
  • Financial Report and Approval of Budget, 2007-2008
  • Fr. Tabora, S.J. presented the 2006 financial report as well as the 2007-2008 proposed budget of the AJCU-EAO.
  • Fr. Locatelli, S.J. said that he would forego the $1,082.00 US Dollars allocated to him as reimbursement for his travel.
  • Fr. Tabora, S.J. thanked Fr. Locatelli for his generosity.
  • Without any objections and corrections, the 2006 financial report and the 2007 Proposed AJCU-EAO budget was approved.
  • Closing Comments
  • Fr. Tabora, S.J thanked everyone and gave the closing remarks.
  • Group Picture Taking

5:00 PM – Eucharistic Celebration

  • Mass Celebrant – Fr. Agus Sriyono, S.J.

6:00 PM – Dinner / Concert by the Bukas Palad Choir

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© 2006 Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities - East Asia and Oceania (AJCU-EAO)