The administration’s
reaction to the
‘brawl heard ‘round
the world’ at this
year’s Crosstown Shootout has
been telling. Twenty ba-ga-zillion
official statements, countless
news stories and the absurd
hour-long reflection sessions
revealed that our administration
seems to believe that the identity
and character of this University
is defined by the actions of
basketball
players —
students who
hardly have
the typical
Xavier
experience.
They seem
to think our
basketball
program
has become
the thermometer for our Jesuit
ideals. When it fails to live up
to those standards, that’s when
they actually make an attempt to
revive and reflect on our Jesuit
education and what it means
to be a Xavier student. Or is it
that our administration is much more worried about losing the
money and notoriety that comes
with a basketball team like ours?
Their efforts to teach us that “as
a Jesuit, Catholic university, the
behaviors demonstrated are not
becoming of its students and
is in conflict with the mission,
values, and standards of Xavier
University” seems like nothing
more than an attempt to salvage
the public relations nightmare
of having young men fighting
on the court of a Catholic Jesuit
University — rather than resolve
threats to our Jesuit identity.
If they were truly looking
to reinvigorate the Jesuit ideals
of this University, I ask, where
were the official apology statements
to the student body when the administration refused to
fund Academic Service Learning
semesters — that it still advertises
— even though students
expressed a clear desire for such
programs? Where are the reflection
sessions for a student body
that displays the Nike swoosh as
a positive addition to its school
spirit and defends such a human
rights violator in the public forum?
Where are the letters to the
alumni and news sources apologizing
for
decisions
being
made that
decrease
the actual
identity
that defines
this
University
as Jesuit and
Catholic? I
understand that the Crosstown
fight was seen on national television
and that the rest go generally
unnoticed, but Xavier University
should hold itself accountable for
the threats that such ‘invisible’
transgressions pose to our Jesuit
identity. You were appalled and dumbfounded
that a fight would occur
at one of the most heated and
tension-filled games of a basketball
season at a Jesuit Catholic
University? It is more appalling to
me that the same Jesuit Catholic
University proudly displays a
brand that “is in conflict with the
mission, values,
and standards
of Xavier
University,”
that our administration
has
refused to provide
programs
that embody
the ideals of
solidarity and
justice — the
actual defining
points of a
Jesuit education.
Even
more so, it
shocks me that
our University
would consider
reducing the Core, the foundation
of Jesuit education, in the name
of efficiency and to deify what
apparently matters more: basket ball, buildings and business.
If the ‘brawl’ desecrates
Xavier’s Jesuit identity as much
as the reaction to it made it
seem, then I have been grossly
mistaken as to what exactly a
Jesuit identity is. Pride in one’s
athletic programs can be found
at any other university with a
half-decent
sports team.
The defining
characteristic
of being
a Xaviereducated
student is
having an understanding
of
our obligation,
in whichever
career we
choose, to live
a life oriented
toward service,
love and
justice. The
incident at the
Crosstown
Shootout was unfortunate, but
it is only an indicator of greater
issues threatening our Jesuit
identity.