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In the thirty-eighth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Robert D. Kelly, President of the University of Portland. Drawing upon his experience as a curricular and co-curricular educator, Kelly begins by discussing the state of community on college campuses and the ways that declines in its perception are linked to increases in students experiencing psychological duress. Drawn from the charisms of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Kelly goes on to describe how they seek to foster community at the University of Portland as defined by the concept of “residentiality” and an environment in which all community members are seen, known, and loved. Kelly then discusses how the charisms that animated the universities he attended impacted his education and vocational discernment process that led him from residence life to a university president. Kelly discusses his appreciation for the sense of community he found at the University Portland when he arrived and how he has sought to enhance it as president. He then closes the conversation by discussing the ways that institutions such as the University of Portland contribute to the Church’s efforts to fulfill its mission in the world.
Todd Ream: Welcome to Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. My name is Todd Ream. I have the privilege of serving as the publisher for Christian Scholar’s Review and as the host for Saturdays at Seven. I also have the privilege of serving on the faculty and the administration at Indiana Wesleyan University.
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Our guest is Robert D. Kelly, President of the University of Portland. Thank you for joining us.
Robert D. Kelly: Thank you for having me.
Todd Ream: Community is a word almost every campus uses, at least in its ad mission materials, orientation efforts, athletic programs, you name it, and it’s just about ubiquitous now in higher education. But over the course of the last decade and a half, however, community’s proven more difficult to find in American higher education, at least our students are telling us that.
Recent studies, for example, indicate that as many as two thirds of students report being lonely and not surprising, scholars are beginning to connect rates of loneliness with rates of psychological duress. Recent studies indicate that as many as one third report being in a state of duress at any given point in time. As a university president who began his career as a residence hall director, how do you define community?
Robert D. Kelly: I think that that’s a really great way to start us off. And when I think about community, I think about, you know, Paul writing to the Corinthians, you know, there, there is one body but it has many different parts. And all the parts make up that one body.
And I think about the community that we’re trying to create on campuses, be it in the classroom or in the residence halls at our Chapel of Christ the Teacher, just different locations, it’s really important that each and every person know that they’re an indispensable part. They play an indispensable role within that community as we’re trying to bring people together. Everyone has something to offer.
And so for us, we want our, you know, we’re a small, intimate community, but yet we have the attractions of like Division I athletics and all these really cool things that you see at really large institutions. I wanna make sure that every student, every faculty member every staff member knows that I am known. I am loved and I belong. So I’m known, I’m loved for who I am and all that I bring, but I belong here.
Todd Ream: In what ways is that sense of belonging that you seek to cultivate then at the University of Portland, reflective of its founding religious order in the Congregation of Holy Cross?
Robert D. Kelly: Yeah. You know, it’s funny, I just got back from I was in New Orleans at a, a, a talk of a number of presidents around higher education. And when I think about how we think about community, it is core. It’s core to who we see ourselves as Holy Cross. It’s certainly one essential other phrases within Holy Cross is to, to see how they love one another, to see how they love one another. And when the Blessed Basil Moreau, when he founded the whole community, he placed family at the core. And so there’s fathers and brothers and sisters and, you know, kind of everyone plays, so it’s very much like a family.
And so when I think about we have a model of residentiality and that’s how we phrase it, our model of residentiality on our campus. It’s our speaking culture. It’s kind of who we are. So you say hi to people when you pass them on the way, certainly. And that happens a lot of places. But do you stop to hear the response?
We have a thing on campus and I’ve worked at many institutions where you try to create this, where people come together, whether it’s grounds crew, faculty, student development administrators, academic advisors, we all come together in our Holy Cross dining room and everyone sits together and it’s a model that works. And I’ve worked at places that try to get the faculty club up and running, it doesn’t work. But it’s part of our DNA, part of our DNA that we’re gonna engage with one another and really know how they know, love one another, see how they interact with each other, because that’s a really important thing about who we are and how we communicate with one another.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Thank you very much. I want to ask for your sort of assessment as someone with a student affairs background then, and expertise about the data concerning rates of loneliness and psychological duress being reported by students. In what ways are the challenges you think that students are facing unique to what they’re experiencing in college, what they bring with them to college, or a mixture of the two?
Robert D. Kelly: That’s another really deep question, and, and I wouldn’t be surprised to be honest with you, if we were to aggregate some of this into the whole population and to see that, gosh, a lot of people are feeling lonely depressed in mental health how it plays a role and these things are all connected.
I certainly think that the pandemic and Covid had a lot to do with it, that people were kind of isolated into their own homes. I think we had a lot of time, maybe sometimes too much time interacting with just ourselves or our immediate family. But I also think, you know, social media as a huge role to play in some of this and the ways in which it’s like there’s the opportunity to have this social media, but then there’s the responsibility of being able to still learn how to talk and interact.
We have certain rules. You know, I have two children and we have certain rules in place about where a phone could be in the house. At what point could you get on social media and at what point could you then have access to an app or whatever the case might be? And so I think that, you know, some of these are we’ve created some poor habits that young people have and it turns into poor habits that adults didn’t have.
And I’ll also say I think we have a lot of major institutions that have let people down, and I think we have some people who behave badly on national stages that have let people down. And we’ve shown people that this is how you interact with one another. These things are okay and we have to care. We have to care about what’s going on for other people, and we have to know that we’re there for each other.
And so I think that what I try and do, or at least try and model, is that our distinctive community here at the University of Portland can be a place that’s an antidote to some of this, where faculty and staff and students are gonna feel supported, but they’re going to see examples of what that support looks like, and they’re gonna see examples and feel those things as they kind of go through their experience.
Are we accompanying each other— because accompaniment is the most important thing that we’re gonna be able to do— are we going together with people through times of success, and when everything is great and you’re getting lots of likes? But also times when there’s failure and hardship and stumble but you’re gonna get back up and you’re gonna be held accountable and we’re gonna keep moving forward together.
And I use the example of, I want people to hold me accountable, but think about what that means. When you hold somebody, it’s an embrace. And I think that that’s at the heart of what we’re trying to do. We are teaching people really tough things about the world and life and how to take their conscience and their character and their competency and bring that all together. But we have to walk with each other to do that.
Todd Ream: Thank you. I want to go back to one of the details you were talking about earlier, but it relates to this image that you’ve just painted of us walking together, how do we do so and create a sense of unity on campus without forging uniformity where people feel like they belong, they feel connected to one another, but they’re also capable of retaining the space to express themselves in their own created being in their own created way?
Robert D. Kelly: You know, and, and, and that’s an interesting one that’s, that’s that come up recently as people think that we’re, things that colleges and universities do to tear people apart or put people in different sections or factions.
And when I think about again Blessed Basil Moreau said, you know, we’re gonna cross borders of every sort. From the beginning of our founding to even think about the richness, the true richness of diversity, the true richness of sitting across from someone else.
When I was in graduate school, I met a faculty member and he had been educated at, at Georgetown, and he said something like, find the truth in what you oppose and the error in what you believe. Find the truth in what you oppose and the error in what you believe.
And I think that it goes back to my idea of we’re one body. We’re one group. And at the same time, we have many different parts. We have many different kind of intricacies and body parts and, and ideas, and it’s all coming from different places, but that tradition within Holy Cross reinforces that each person is made in the image and likeness of God. And so again, each person.
And so we start from a place of love and each person, and because we are Catholic, because we are Holy Cross, we can draw upon different things to go across borders and talk to people who are different and who might believe something different and it not be something that tears us down, but something that builds us all up. And that’s my model for how we kinda think about it. But there’s unity, but the gosh has such diversity in that unit.
Todd Ream: Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to ask you now about your own calling as an educator and how that process came to be in the formation process you’ve experienced over the course of your life. You earned an undergraduate degree in political science from Loyola University in Maryland, master’s in higher education from the University of Vermont, and a PhD in higher education from the University of Maryland. As a political science undergraduate, I first have to ask what happened on the way to law school, or perhaps more to the core of the point, at what point did you begin to discern education and higher education would prove central to your calling?
Robert D. Kelly: I will say that my parents placed a premium on education and they, in fact, put it up on pedestal. And I remember my mom would say things like, and I always, I went to Catholic schools growing up and she said, you know, my money, like the United Negro College Fund, her money was a terrible thing to waste, and so to make sure that I was being as involved as I could in terms of what a true education could really look like.
And so for me, I saw the transformative power and the impact of, of a transformative education on the lives of so many different people. And my parents want to make sure that that was in my life as well. So when I got to college, I was involved in lots of different things because I think you have to squeeze the sponge dry of everything that an institution’s gonna offer you.
But eventually I became student body president. As a political science major, I remember I would walk in the classes and I would say to a professor he would say, hey, you know, Dr. Kelly, you know, because he would always call everyone, doctor, doctor or senator or president. You would always, always. And he goes, I see you have a meeting with the faculty senate today, or you have this with the, the university planning and priorities committee. Well, you know, you could get out of class and go to that meeting, but I’d like to hear what happens at that meeting or we could stay on campus if you agreed to do some level of community service over the summer, you could stay for free.
And I remember, I was up late at night studying for the LSATs. It was the summer between my junior and senior year, and I kind of fell asleep and dozed off, and I read the same section of the book again. I fell asleep, dozed off, read the same section of the book again. And I went in and the next day to see the dean of students and said, I’m not sure about this law school thing because I kept falling asleep on some of the reading.
And, you know, one day I want a job like yours. I want a job like yours one day where you’re getting to meet great students. You’re having these aha moments with students, you’re transforming the institution. It’s new every day. And she looked at me and she said, we thought you’d get to that at some point, but have get there on your own. And she and so many other people when I was an undergraduate student, they were just such, such great models and mentors and truly took care of me.
And so as a student leader, I got to see how the sausage was made of higher education. And honestly, I thought right away, this is a place where I think I can make an important contribution to life. How do I get in there? How do I do it? And so that’s how I ended up in higher ed.
Todd Ream: Are there any other mentors or voices that spoke to you during those years or during your graduate years that helped contribute to that sense of vocation?
Robert D. Kelly: Yeah. I remember I wanted to do an internship in Washington, D.C. through a program there. But to do it, you had to have presidential approval of your institution. You had to sign off on a sheet. And I went in to meet with the president, he goes well, this looks like a great program. It’s something that you should probably do, and I have an idea. I want you to do something for me as well. And it was a program in New York City where you went and it was kind of this vocational discernment and vocation kind of a program.
And I realized at one point it was a program to bring people into the Society of Jesus. And I thought about it. I did. But I thought you know, there’s also some other things I want in my life. And so I really got to the point of thinking about vocation and, and how what I do in this line of being the head of an apostolic work for Holy Cross vocation is very much the line that I use with it. And regardless of what a person does, I always try to get students and others with whom I work to remember that you have to align the thing you do for a living that’s giving you some kind of a paycheck with what, where you find meaning and purpose and then you’re doing all right.
And so, you know, I knew I loved Catholic higher education. Whether I was gonna be like a general counsel or a president or a dean of students or a dean of an academic area my general philosophy was, I’m just gonna keep saying yes. And you say yes, and, and then you present yourself with these wonderful opportunities that you don’t close the door on anything. And again, you keep saying yes, you keep showing up and you keep trying to do your best job.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. You’ve mentioned Blessed Basil Moreau on a couple of occasions as someone whose work to which you’ve turned for inspiration and understanding. Are there other authors that have helped sort of shape your perspective of education, higher education, and your sense of vocation?
Robert D. Kelly: Oh gosh. I mean, there’s so many people. I mean, you know, I think so much, so much of who I am and was, was formed within, was, was in Jesuit higher education. And so I think it, it lends me nicely over to kind of a Holy Cross education with the Congregation of Holy Cross.
But you know, I, I read, I read a lot on issues around service and justice. I mean, a lot of stuff with Parker Palmer. I remember that experience of reading a lot of his stuff. Of course, as I mentioned, St. Ignatius of Loyola and, and, and letters and things like that.
But, but for me, it, you know, it’s so much about having guides and storytellers who’ve been at an institution who can tell you, tell you the stories that make up a place. It can help you to understand the ethos and the charism and, and the beauty and the joy, and also the pitfalls, and challenges of an institution. Because I think all of that, it’s woven together to create a tapestry of like, gosh, here’s how you get things done. But also, here’s how you are formed and here’s how you can be successful in this organization. If you listen to these stories and you, and you walk with these people who are storytellers and guides who are taking you down a path, I think that that’s one of the most important things that one can do.
So you certainly have to have a philosophy of life and things that can influence who you are, how you make decisions especially when times get tough or when you’re deciding in between two negatives or two positives. So you have to have a conceptual framework in, in your head.
But gosh, you know, philosophical writings of theologians and philosophers and certainly never, never do harm. These are all things that have played a huge role in my own development and my dissertation was really focused on ethics, so.
Todd Ream: Yeah, yeah, thank you. As I mentioned earlier, you began your career as a residence hall director at Colgate University in New York state in particular, but you eventually moved out of the hall as student professional, student development professionals often reference if, and encountered a variety of roles in institutions such as Seattle University and Loyola University also, but this one in Chicago.
Would you please describe the discernment process that led you to commit to service in higher education that included those roles, roles that also eventually led you to broaden your experience and expertise beyond the co-curricular realm?
Robert D. Kelly: One of my mentors in graduate school said to me, always write something, you know, submit something for publication, submit something to present at a conference. You gotta find ways to get out of your own head. And the way to do that is you gotta talk to other people and share what’s going on, in terms of your own thinking, whether it’s around maturity or whatever the case might be, you have to do that.
And so I remember always thinking like, even if it gets rejected or gets turned down, finding ways to engage in kind of the life of the mind and not taking it personally if someone doesn’t like something I’ve written. And so my wife and I, we’ve tried to write things together. That’s one of the hardest things ever to write something with someone that you love because you’re like you’re criticizing my use of my word choice here, and then it becomes personal. So you try to not take it ever, take it personal. But again, this goes back to my vocation of finding ways that I can influence higher education to make it better for everybody, to make the ecosystem of what we’re doing work.
You know, as I mentioned earlier, we’re trying to do something. We’re trying to do something that is truly revolutionary. When you think about American higher education, let alone Catholic higher education, the world needs what we are doing. The world needs more graduates from places like the University of Portland as an example. We need more of that because we are living in a world where sometimes it’s too easy to make the wrong choice, and we have to think more deeply.
And so again, I go back to saying yes, showing up leaning into kinda there’s a way in which we want to anchor. And we use that word really intentionally here at the University of Portland, anchor ourselves to something greater and bigger outside of ourselves and make the world a better place. And so we want our students to lead with a sense of action and purpose.
So you’re gonna get this great education, hopefully you’re gonna get a great job and contribute to your alma maters, wherever they might be. But you have to be called to act in a way that is courageous, just, loving, and inclusive.
And so for me, whether it was being a hall director, being a director of a center for ethics and standards, being an assistant VP, a VP, a chief of staff, an assistant to a president, as a president, all of those things play into making the world better. I am trying to do something outside of myself. And so vocation again, it goes back to saying yes, saying yes to everything that I possibly can and knowing that I have something to offer.
Todd Ream: Any of the roles that you filled over the course of your career leading up to your service now as president, did any of them provide you with a greater sense of vocational satisfaction, intrinsic satisfaction? And maybe that same sense of satisfaction occurred in a couple of different roles, but if possible, yeah, could you articulate what that is for you?
Robert D. Kelly: Well, I actually, I think that each, each role kind of prepares you for the next thing and kind of, you see, you have a new insight. So I’ll start, I’ll start from the beginning. Like my first job I was in the residence halls, and one, you see it all. You see it all for better or for worse. You see students at their best and you see them at their worst be at two o’clock in the morning or— I had a dear friend, he and I wrote a paper on, who you are or what you do when no one’s watching or when you think no one’s watching, so every job has kind of, just kind of gives you something.
So certainly the hall director, you just walk into it with a sense of love, a sense of love and zest and vitality for being with students. And that’s the, that’s the emotion. I love being with students. And I start the year off every year at our, at our president’s welcome, the convocation, telling the students I love each and every one of you. And that love is at the center of everything we’re trying to do around the educational experience for the students.
You know, I had a great experience when I was the director of a student ethics and standards program at the University of Vermont. We dealt with conduct— the academic side, the student behavioral side, and you got to see students and how they make sense of the world and how they’re setting building blocks for decisions that they’re gonna make later in life. That was so, certainly, so informative for me. Or even when I was a mission officer, the first time I became a mission officer looking at the, you know, the Catholic missions of the institution.
You, you hold all of these different things and each of these roles that I’ve played throughout my time, they’ve prepared me to certainly sit in, in, in this seat as president because I’ve seen it all. But it’s also what I’ve become to realize, is that there’s no single skillset or mindset that makes you most successful. What you need is lots of different experiences that I can then bring me with me to the table as president of the institution.
And so I probably know a lot about the issues of ethics and accountability. So I probably know a lot about that, but I know a little bit about a lot of different things and all of those things come together to help me, I think, to be the best version of a president that I can be. And so I want to be comfortable sometimes with the unknown. Like what I don’t know.
You know, you can’t freeze if you’re trying to solve a problem. You don’t have to answer everything about it, but instead you need to step into uncertainty and then tap into the values that help you make the best decision possible. And it might not be the best decision all the time, but when you can tap into, well, here’s what I know and here’s what I don’t know. And for right now, based on the information I have, given our values, given where we’re trying to go, this is where I think we can be.
And so all of my different experiences, again, being a hall director, a director of a center a dean of students, things different, different things like that helped me to understand tricky personnel issues tenure issues, the finance issues, intercollegiate athletics, student behavior, some of it comes naturally to me because I’m, I’m a curious person. But some of it I have to lean into because you, you, you want to get divergent viewpoints of people who are smarter than you who know something that you don’t all already know. But to do that, I think it’s critical for success.
Todd Ream: Prior to your appointment as President of the University of Portland in 2022, you served as the special assistant to the president at your alma mater, Loyola University, Maryland, where you had all of these roles that you just described seemingly, at least to me, sort of in your portfolio. And I remember reading the part in your bio that said at the end and more which sounds like to me, comparable to other duties as assigned as some of us have seen in our job descriptions.
But moving to now to the University of Portland in 2022, can you describe the discernment process that led you to accept that appointment and to move all the way across the country and yeah, and to serve as chief, chief officer?
Robert D. Kelly: Yeah well a number of years ago I was at an International Association for Catholic Higher Education. And we were in Spain and a president, not at, not at my institution, of another institution. He leaned across the table and said, you should think about being a college president. And in fact, I’m gonna retire. You know, and he mentioned one day and you should think about taking my job.
And I kinda like, looked across and I thought, oh, okay. I’ve never lived in that state, don’t really know much about that institution. But it was wonderful for someone to see in you maybe what you don’t see in yourself right away. And I began to apply for college presidencies. And I didn’t get the, the first one I applied for, I didn’t get it. And I made it all the way to the finalists round. And they went in another direction.
And I remember at the time, I wasn’t really that excited about that job. I wasn’t excited about that position that role at that institution, but by the end of it, I wanted it. So you begin to like fall in love with what you could do. Not so much fall in love with the position, because I do think some people go in that direction, but I was talking about falling in love with that particular role because of what I could do.
But again, I didn’t get it. And I was all in my emotions about it, and someone said to me, Rob, this is good. It’s good in life to not get everything you always want. I remember thinking, I don’t like this feeling. But when the University of Portland initially called, I, you know, I got the email and I had not thought I would consider moving back to the Pacific Northwest.
And I was at a conference of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and I was at the bar that evening and someone came up to me, looked at my name peg, and said, huh, so you are Rob Kelly? And I looked at the person and said yes should I be worried? And the person began to talk to me and said, you received a notice saying that you’ve been nominated for the University of Portland. And I thought, how do you know that? And the person said, oh yeah, I work there and I think you should think about it.
And we had a long conversation, and I went back up to my room and I read the position profile and all the materials again. I reached out to the search firm and I said, listen. Something just happened. I think it was providence, it was divine. And I am going to draft you a cover letter that I want you to consider. I want you to think about, and let’s see, let’s see what happens.
And I feel really called. I feel really called to one, do the work. It can be extremely challenging on some days. It is exceptionally rewarding and life-giving on others. As I mentioned earlier, I think some people are attracted to the idea of being president in the abstract. They like how it sounds. And I don’t think that’s ever a good idea. I think you have to be called to the actual work because there’s real work involved in it, that can sometimes feel backbreaking but also can be so just wonderful.
For me, picking up and moving across the country, my family needed to be involved in that conversation. And so it’s a lot to ask your family to uproot and move themselves one, across the country, but into a very public role. I go, I can go to a CVS or Walgreens or any place. And I remember I was in once and someone said, hey, can I help you? And I’m talking, and they’re like, what? What are you getting? What are you doing? And I’m like, what’s kind of a weird question for you to be asking me?
And they said I said I’m going out of town. Well, you’re coming back, right? And I said yeah. When you go on vacation, you actually do come back. That’s the point. And they said, well, I know who you are. You’re the president of the University of Portland. And it was the first time it had happened where I realized, well, there’s videos, biography, people think they know me because they’ve heard or they’ve seen some kind of interaction, and it’s thousands and thousands of them and one of me. And it’s a lot of pressure.
But I remain committed and I always said, you have to be committed to being joyfully engaged in the life of the work. And if you’re joyfully engaged the life of the work, you’re gonna be joyfully engaged in the lives of the people that you’re influencing, whether it’s the students, the faculty, and staff, bringing on resources for them to be the best versions of themselves.
And you certainly don’t do anything for the money or for the opportunities, but you have to pick your opportunities wisely, because you’ll be most successful in life when you can pick the opportunities wisely. Again, going back to my thing about storytellers and guides and people who, who’s gonna accompany you as you go throughout the moments of your life. So for me, that’s kind of how I think about the presidency and what I needed to think about before I was willing to say, I’m gonna accept any appointment. Can I be joyfully engaged? Can I be there, and can I be willing to do the work when it’s gonna be difficult and when it’s gonna be challenging?
One of the best things, and I’ll just end here, when students walk across the stage of graduation, they all say thank you. And I kind of go, I mean, some of them I know, but I don’t know all of them and I didn’t teach their class, but they’re, they’re thanking me. And I get to be the embodiment of all the ways in which people really wanna thank, pay tribute, honor, cherish the institution.
Now the flip of that balance is you also become the embodiment of all the ways people are not happy about it too. But I think they certainly balance each other and in many ways the really wonderful parts. It’s a beautiful thing.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. In what ways did your experience with the Jesuit charisms at the institutions you served, such as Loyola Chicago, Loyola Baltimore, Seattle University, in what ways did they compare with the congregation of Holy Cross charisms? And you mentioned that they help prepare you for understanding how a place could be animated, but in what ways are they different, and in what ways did you need to adjust in terms of your engagement with the institution and its culture?
Robert D. Kelly: Well, well just because it’s between us and it’s just you and I talking, I don’t tell my Jesuit friends and my Holy Cross friends this a lot, but there’s a lot of overlap in terms of how they, how they think about their work. I do think our Holy Cross family does an outstanding job of community and family really, really well. And there’s certain, there’s a certain level of warmth, that I have found to be systemic in places like Notre Dame or the University of Portland or Stonehill or Kings, that sort of thing.
I also think it’s also, it happens at other places as well as you begin to live into your charism, realizing that place, aspiration. These things play a role in terms of how they influence students and the faculty that you can attract. And so I certainly think that the charisms are, are are similar, but when I think about things that are I guess distinctly kind of impact my own leadership in terms of how I’ve been formed, the universities that I’ve chosen to be a part of where I think I have been probably most successful are places that are highly relational kinds of places where visibility matters.
As president, people like to see when the president shows up to a basketball game, the play that’s happening in the fine arts center, they like to see me in the Holy Cross Dining Room, they like to see me on social media. I try as much as I can to be somewhat appropriately present on, on social media. And so they, they want to see me there, but they, but it, they want to see and be in a place where ego isn’t going to go very far.
You know, the title, it helps. It’s not gonna go very far. And so prizing collegiality and warmth, professional humanity and professional humility, those are important things for me that I have picked up from but one being with the, being with the Jesuits as, as well as being with Holy Cross as well. And again, I find some of the ways of the charisms to be somewhat similar.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. As our time, unfortunately, is beginning to become short, I want to ask you about your understanding of the academic vocation. And in particular, what characteristics and or qualities inform that, whether the academic vocation be exercised by curricular educators in the classroom or co-curricular educators in spaces such as the residence hall or student center?
Robert D. Kelly: You know, for me it’s, it’s you know, there, there’s the, the, the, a critical value of education of an academic vocation is the belief that the truth will set you free. At its core, the truth will set you free. And I think you have to believe in your soul that the pursuit of knowledge, it’s human flourishing. It’s gonna lead to a better place, it’s gonna lead to making the world better. And I think that this is at the heart of the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Recently I visited a high school St. Francis near San Francisco and Silicon Valley. And I saw all these different kids and they would say, oh, well my educator said this and my educator, I’m like, who are you talking about? And as I asked more questions, they were talking about their teachers in the classroom, certainly. They were talking about the administrative assistant sitting at the desk in admission. They were talking about the person who cleaned the floors in the dining hall. They were talking about the person who was serving the food, that they see them all as educators and all as a part of the ecosystem of the people that are bringing them together.
So for me whether they’re in the classroom, outside the classroom, faculty, staff, administrators, no matter who they are, the idea of the truth setting people free, human flourishment, it’s all built in together and interwoven. And so I really value that about the Catholic intellectual tradition. And, and I think when we, when we double down, when we double down into who we are with our core being education, with it being nourished with the Catholic intellectual tradition, we’re leading to a good place. We’re doubling down in that.
We are not thinking about onboarding people anymore. We think about ever-boarding. So it’s this constant enrichment for the people with whom we’re working, launching retreat programs, articulating values, again, a place where everyone has something to contribute to the larger community, going back to your first question.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. In what ways then, is the health of this understanding of the vocation on a Church-related campus, such as the University of Portland, reflective and connected to the relationship that universities share with the Church itself? Is the health of the academic vocation dependent upon that relationship that the university where it’s exercised upon?
Robert D. Kelly: We have to remember that from the very beginning, the Church has always been committed to teaching. And on our campus we have a statue called the Christus Magister. And it’s Christ the Teacher, and it’s a beautiful statue on our campus. Everyone kind of has to walk, walk past it. And so at our core it’s about teaching.
And when the Church recognizes the challenges of Catholic colleges and universities in 2025, I think it allows us to have more grace and humility moving forward, but it’s critical that that’s who we are. We’re about teaching, we’re about fulfillment, and we’re about leading towards a path, again, go, going back to accompaniment and community. But it’s important that all these things come together.
And it’s gonna come together differently here at a Catholic college and university than it might at University of Washington, University of Oregon, University of Maryland, whatever that case might be. We’re doing it in a different way because we are committed to teaching, we’re committed to Christ being the ultimate teacher. And again, leading us towards more grace.
Todd Ream: Yeah, for our last question then today, in what ways can the university, the Church-related university and the Church be of greater service to one another moving forward in the years to come?
Robert D. Kelly: You know, I often think that I wanna make sure that the Catholic university is not just walking in parallel with the Catholic Church, but that we are truly intermingled and in conversation with one another.
When I think about what Catholic education does, when you think about it’s the largest educational system of education in the world, the same way you can look at healthcare. And yet sometimes, we can reduce what we’re doing to put people in boxes and factions, and yet, we’re all moving in the same direction. And we have to see ourselves as the Church.
And so for me I hope that we can give each other more grace, but to do that, we have to be in communication. We have to be in dialogue and we have to be forgiving of realizing we are all in different places and times and students, and the way that you’re gonna look at a healthcare system and the way you’re gonna look at a college and university, it’s going to be different than an elementary school, in a social service agency. It all comes together, but we are stronger when we’re moving in the same direction and trying to support one another.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Our guest has been Robert D. Kelly, President of the University of Portland. Thank you for taking the time to share your insights and wisdom with us.
Robert D. Kelly: Thank you. Thank you very much. This was enjoyable.
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Todd Ream: Thank you for joining us for Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. We invite you to join us again next week for Saturdays at Seven.
