Where are we? Status of our Environment:

Environment might be one of the most important treasures entrusted to us, but human beings do end up treating it recklessly. We have exploited it to the maximum and now the environment is reacting through natural disasters, water shortage, air pollution etc. Other outcomes of environment exploitation are complex diseases, ever increasing child-mortality, hunger, and poverty. In order to raise awareness about protecting our environment, which is our Mother Nature, every year June 5 is celebrated as World Environment Day designated by the United Nations. The day also reminds and enables us to be more responsible in the way we conduct ourselves and treat the environment with respect and reverence.

India is the global host this year and the theme is ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. It started in 1974 and since then the day has provided a global platform for like-minded people to reach out to each other. One million plastic bottles are purchased every minute. In Kenya, Africa plastic bags are banned – Before alighting the flight, announcement is made not to take any plastic bags with you. And you do not see plastic bags scattered around in Kenya.

Each year 1.7 million deaths of children under 5 years old are linked to the present environmental situation. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “warming in the Arctic, as indicated by daily maximum and minimum temperatures, has been as great as in any other part of the world.” The period of 1995–2005 was the warmest decade in the Arctic since at least the 17th century, with temperatures 2°C (3.6°F) above the 1951–1990 average. Some regions within the Arctic have warmed up even more rapidly, with Alaska and western Canada’s temperature rising by 3 to 4°C (5.40 to 7.20°F). This warming has been caused not only by the rise in greenhouse gas concentration, but also the deposition of carbon soot on Arctic ice. Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain in Tanzania (5,895 meter-altitude) has lost over 85% of its glacial ice since 1912. 26% of the ice that remained in 2000 was gone by 2007. Klimanjaro icecap might be all history by 2022 as some studies project.

Cf: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/world-environment-day-2018-live-updates-twitter-5202219/?#liveblogstart

Indian Context:

The environment of India comprises some of the world’s most bio-diverse eco-zones. The Deccan Traps, Western Ghats, Gangetic Plains, and the Himalayas are the major geographical features. The country faces different forms of pollution as its major environmental issue and is more vulnerable to the effects of climate change being a developing nation.

There are 350 species of mammals, 375 reptiles, 130 amphibians, 20,000 insects, 19,000 fishes and 1,200 species of birds in India. The Asiatic lion, Bengal tiger and leopard are the main predators; our country has the most species of cats than any other. Elephants, the Indian Rhinoceros and eight species of deer are also found.

Further, there are over 17,000 species of flowering plants in India, which account for six percent of the total plant species in the world. India comprises seven percent of world’s flora. Wide range of climatic conditions in India gave rise to rich variety of flora. India covers more than 45,000 species of flora, out of which several are endemic to the region.  [Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_of_India]

Although India still has low average income per person, the country is now the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the USA. At this rate, extinction is final and irreversible – We are killing off the species on which we completely depend for our own existence. Pope Francis urgently asks us to attend to an Integral Ecology in his encyclical Laudato Si’ (2015). He says that “the exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits”.

• He points out: “Consumerism has led us to become accustomed to the superfluous and the daily waste of food, which we are sometimes no longer able to value correctly, as its value goes far beyond mere economic parameters”.
• He challenges every human being: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are growing up? The question not only concerns the environment in isolation; the issue cannot be approached piecemeal.”

What needs to be done?:

Today we have 7.5 billion people on the planet and we are growing at an unprecedented and unsustainable rate of 225,000 new people per day, heading for 9 to10 billion by 2050. We have experienced this alarming population explosion in just the last 100 years of the entire 2.8 million year history of humans on earth.

This, compounded with our increasing ability to use energy and other resources through technological developments, and our unstoppable desire for material riches, has driven us to exceed nature’s natural checks and balances by a long shot, and the biosphere, which supports us, is greatly suffering as a result. We humans are clearly overwhelming the earth; our deforestation, relentless development of wetlands and grasslands, and extensive and unsustainable agricultural practices are crowding our whole ecosystems and driving species to extinction at an unprecedented rate.

Our use of fossil fuels is changing the climate. Consumerism is flooding the planet with accumulated waste, and also with new, potentially harmful materials. All this is transforming the Earth into an unlivable habitat for all of the species in the biosphere, including ourselves. Our domination of Creation and modification of earth and its atmosphere have defined a new epoch; since WWII we have single handedly modified the earth and its systems to such a degree that we are now in a new geologic period.

We cannot continue to pollute our air, water and soil and exterminate the biosphere and at the same time expect to be able to survive on this planet. We are completely and utterly dependent on the goods and services that are bequeathed to us by the biological diversity on this planet. In addition to providing 100% of our food and over 80% of the world’s medicines, the forests, grasslands and oceans grace us with the oxygen we breathe, consume our bodily wastes, regulate the water cycle and stabilize the climate.

Entire ecosystems continue to be plowed down, species are driven to extinction to make way for our kind, and our common atmospheric, geologic and oceanic resources have become open dumping ground for our toxic industrial waste. The poor and the indigenous continue to be exploited and left behind with smaller pieces of the pie.

Cf. TF statement on: Environment and Economic Justice –  (IAJU)Bilbao July2018

Think globally and act locally:

Our indigenous peoples are demonstrating varieties of adaptation and mitigation strategies across Asia. These successful cases are often based on the use of their traditional knowledge, innovations and practices with minimal support from outside. The success in their adaptation and mitigation strategies is contributing to the survival of their cultural identities, sustainable use and management of natural resources and ecosystem restoration.

To counter the disappearance of medicinal plants that is found in the forest areas, some communities have started ex-situ conservation in their backyards or in community gardens guided by indigenous healers in countries like Nepal, Malaysia and Vietnam. Some of this knowledge are documented and taught in community schools for knowledge transmission. Many indigenous communities in Asia have enhanced their food preservation and storage methods such as drying or smoking the food items. The indigenous knowledge offers new models for development that are both ecologically and socially sound.

Cf. Bioethics of Climate Change and Adaptation for Children and Youth Wellbeing at the African and Asian Regions – Paper to be presented by M. Selvanayagam and Francis P Xavier in Durban, Aug2018.

Action Plan:

We need to act and act here and now. Here are a few suggestions from the Task Force on ‘Environment and Economic Justice’ of International Association of Jesuit Universities (Bilbao July 2018):

• Teaching environmental and economic justice across the curriculum is needed. Not a single student should be graduating from our universities without a high degree of ethical, environmental and economic
• Conducting community-based research and action, with a global perspective should be carried out. Students could be engaged in this plan so that they can put to work what they learned, and practice what they should do in their professional There is need to create in them a global mindset and a desire to address large-scale challenges.
• Collaborating with our Social Centers in service and advocacy is highly recommended. Our Universities could provide answers to the social and environmental issues posed by our social centers, and work together with them in implementing Working together we can empower and educate women and impoverished communities, enabling the stabilization of the human population with this education, collaboration and outreach.
• Building a Campus Sustainability Ethic through living out Laudato Si’ is the need of the hour. Demonstrating love of each other and care for our common home is needed. We must embrace the practice of reduce, reuse, recycle, and share the wealth while also sharing the pain, poverty and
• Developing networks of faculty research and curricular resources toward strengthening those impactful areas of learning and action is a must. For example, some universities/colleges might have expertise in sustainable agriculture, while another might have a center on water conservation, or excel at community organizing, international law, or environmental
• In concrete, the Enviro-Club of Loyola College could practice a couple of concrete proposals:

1. You could promote the use of cloth bags over plastics. If we do not change, nobody or nothing will change;
2. You could use the rainwater as well as waste-water from RO plants or from water-purifiers for watering the plants in your kitchen gardens;
3. You could be careful not to waste food. If no food is wasted, no one needs to go hungry; and
4. You could plant trees in the campus, in the neighbourhood, and in the city for a better environment.

Finally, everything is inter-connected. Every action, decision, and purchase we make has a ripple effect both upstream in the supply chain, and downstream in the consumer or waste stream. The overall goal of Laudato Sí is to help all of us recognize the urgent need to become integral ecologists; to live as people who dare to imagine a healed Earth; and to be people who are ready to put their hands, hearts, and minds to the task of taking care of our environment as we are making a collective journey in this globe, which is our home.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Presidential Address:

Introduction:

The Jesuit Madurai Province has just celebrated her 50 years of golden service for the people of South India. Today we are happy to recall that 25 years out those 50 years have been spent in experimenting with consolidating in and making impact through academic autonomy in our campuses of higher education to impart a value education to all our students. As a Jesuit I am very proud that all the five colleges of the Jesuits in Tamilnadu are adorned with the status of five stars for academic greatness. I am delighted as all of our four Jesuit colleges of arts and sciences in Tamilnadu are autonomous colleges. This has been a great privilege to serve the people of Tamilnadu, nay the world! It has been as well a constant search for relevance and meaning in education aimed at the holistic formation of our students.

Spirit of Jesuit Education:

Ignatius of Loyola and his first companions had initially no intention of establishing colleges or universities when they founded the Society of Jesus in 1540. They saw themselves as itinerant preachers, lecturers on religious subjects especially to the uneducated youth, and helpers of the poor and the sick. However, they were all Masters of the University of Paris which led them to found as well as to accept the care of schools when unexpectedly an opportunity was offered or need arose. In time this became their characteristic work because they saw here an opportunity to form the mind and soul of an individual for his own benefit and the benefits of his fellow human beings. As you know, Jesuits, down the corridor of time, are known for their pioneering spirit. Their hall-mark is magis (that is, pursuance after excellence in whatever done). For them education is not a mere profession but it is a sacred vocation. It is not a business but a mission – a mission for the good of the entire society, especially for the economically poor, socially marginalized and broken. For them education is a means for upholding and safeguarding human equality and dignity.

Follow the Leader:

Our Founder, St Ignatius of Loyola, was the first one to found a school in Rome and announce it: Education gratis, (that is, education for free). Yes, a window of educational opportunity was opened to the poor and the under privileged by our Founder himself. Through education he empowered them to seek greater and better things for themselves and their fellow human beings. This tradition of using education to empower ordinary people has been carried out by the Jesuits all through the century. For example, in the 16^th century at the time when colonization was at its zenith in South America, people were justifying that the slaves in the plantation were not fully human, and hence they could be treated as sub-human beings. It was the Jesuits who opposed this view and they, in return, founded the Jesuit Republics (historically known as the Jesuit Reductions) where total democracy was practiced – The employees owned the plantation, and everything was decided by consensus or by a democratic process. The same pioneering spirit and working for the welfare of all human kind though education are effective even today by the Jesuits. We teach the values of human equality and dignity in our schools and colleges day-in and day-out. Today we also believe that education should facilitate social and religious harmony in India.

Paradigm Shift in Education:

Today, through integrated pedagogical paradigm (popularly known as IPP) which is the philosophical framework of the Jesuit education, we are able to keep up to the demands of the day. The system is this:

Context ® experience ® reflection ® action ® evaluation ® experience…®

In a given context of time and need, based on our previous experience and constructive reflection, we evolve an effective plan of action. Through periodic evaluation and after subsequent enrichment of our experience we proceed further with reflection followed by an enriched plan of action. This is a constant and cyclic process in our endeavour for excellence in education.

The Vision of Jesuit Education– Education is Formation:

The aim of our education is not imparting information – virtual universities and Internets do that. For that matter, anybody can impart information. What we need to impart is Value Education. What is Value Education? It is a formation, holistic as well as integrated formation, of our students. We call it ‘cura personalis’ – ‘care of the person’. It recognizes the full individually, including the intellectual, aesthetic, moral, spiritual, physical and social aspects of a person (Bannan Center for Jesuit Education). The students so formed would become the men and women for others and with others. They become the cause of social transformation. In a nutshell our students, so formed or transformed, would become the epicentre of social transformation. They will be men and women who care about others as much as they care about themselves.

New Elements to Formation – Emotional Maturity:

So far our educational system has been solely or mostly concentrating on intellectual formation, but today we need to add another important aspect to our formation, namely, the need to teach emotional maturity. Today’s youth are confused – Whom do they go to consult on further studies or choosing a profession? They often go to their classmates or the neighbours. Once they make a decision does anybody question them if it is the right decision? Not many. Even the parents, due to the mini-size of the family, are afraid of challenging or confronting their children. Thus, there is a lot with regard to unaddressed emotional issues which, if not addressed, would affect the effectiveness of their education. Emotional maturity is needed to know one’s worth in the society and to grow in self-esteem. But that is not all. One has to live in a society. We are living in a society where each one wants or demands his/her space – whether it is physical or emotional. Hence, to live in harmony in the society one should be aware of his principles of life – to respect the dignity and equality of others. We call this today spiritual maturity.  This is not religiosity or rituals but a system of values that teaches how to respect and tolerate others as they are. And it is also the driving force to live in social and religious harmony.

This is the path of evolution in education: from intelligent maturity to emotional maturity to spiritual maturity. This is the path that our higher education has treaded upon.

Review of Autonomy – Achievements:

Today we are gathered here to look back and count the blessings through our achievements:

1. We strengthened the semester system with continuous internal assessments. Assignments, mini-projects, viva etc are now a part of continuous internal assessment.
2. We added other elements in our otherwise strictly bookish and monotonous curriculum, such as the extension programme. In this programme, the students spend a stipulated number of hours interacting often with the people in the vicinity of the educational institutions. They get exposed to the hard reality of their neighbours’ living conditions. This experience frequently moves them to provide needed services for them. In other words, we have trained them to become leaders of service.
3. We have given them opportunity to learn from other faculty. For example, the arts students are given opportunity to take courses in science and vice versa. Thus, we are able to quench the thirst of students for knowledge through inter-disciplinary and extra departmental courses.
4. We provide Foundation Courses. Since our education is for life, through foundation courses, we teach our students how they could be catalysts of social as well as religious harmony. We teach them how to respect others socially and religiously. In other words we teach them to become prophets to lead the people out of the narrow mindedness of communalism and religious fundamentalism.
5. We promote broad-minded inter-disciplinary approach to Research which is people-oriented.
6. To meet the needs of our time we have restructured our curriculum to help our students not only to grow intellectually but also to acquire skills that are relevant for their chosen path. Thus, our students are able to leave our educational institutions anytime with the following scheme (as also suggested by Dr Arun S Nigavekar, the UGC Chairman, at the valedictory function of Workshop on Autonomous colleges organized by the Tamilnadu Council for Higher Education in July 2002):
7. In the first year one gets certificate in the respective subject.
8. In the second year he/she acquires a diploma.
9. In the third year under-graduate degree is awarded.
10. In the fourth year one gets post-graduate diploma.
11. And in the fifth year he/she is given a post graduate degree.

Above all, our students leave our institutions not merely with a certificate of academic achievements but also as men and women of great values such as honesty, integrity, character, competence, tolerance, and service mindedness to make their lives and those of  their less fortunate neighbours better.

Future Direction:

Looking ahead is very essential for any mission to be effective. Our mission to excellence in education is becoming more and more challenging. Today more than unemployment, unemployability is a more serious and urgent challenge that we face in our country. What have we done to solve that problem in our curriculum? Are we still providing yesterday’s solution for today’s problems? What about the inertia of our educational system as a whole? – Still we set only 35% as the passing minimum in the subjects. Are we inadvertently teaching that one needs to learn only 35% of life’s values to be successful in life? Institutions of higher learning should challenge this and replace it with a more demanding passing requirements (at least in the PG courses).

What’s next?:

As one observes the trend in the country, one realizes that in the future education may not be free in our country, or at least in our state. Then, what becomes of our academic autonomy? There are a few answers to this question:

1. The autonomous colleges could think of becoming Deemed Universities.
2. Some of our colleges could become centres of excellence.
3. The colleges could work on networking with other colleges and universities, if possible even with industries.

Job-security, especially the pension benefits of our faculty and staff, need to be considered in case an autonomous college becomes Deemed University. But at the same time there are possibilities for part-time jobs, industrial collaborations, and classical courses could even be converted into skill-oriented or job-oriented courses etc. Even if Deemed University is a remote dream the second possibility, namely, autonomous colleges becoming centres of excellence, is possible. One hears of the possibility in the near future that some autonomous colleges will be degree-offering colleges. In the process of creating centres of excellence we could work on collaborative teaching and research with other universities abroad or with industries within our country. Loyola Institute of Frontier Energy at Loyola, popularly known as LIFE, has an invitation to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from a couple of universities in the USA for collaboration. One of the proposals is that we could run courses on environment, but the degree would be conferred by the universities in the United States. When education becomes self-financing such networking would prove efficacious for our students.

Jesuit Vision:

Jesuits worldwide have taken a stand to empower the poor and the marginalized in  society. At the same time Jesuit educators are committed to excellence in education. Thus, today’s challenge for us is to strike a delicate balance between the quality of education and the empowerment of the poor, especially of the Dalits in Tamilnadu. It is a worthy struggle. As the cost of education is rising, due to self-financing courses, we try to keep to the ideal, through creating, strengthening and enhancing the corpus fund for scholarships to help out competent but needy students. We need to do this since we are convinced that our educational institutions are for the betterment and uplift of the poor in the society.

To summarize, Jesuit education relies on a spirit of cooperation, friendship and community among teaching staff, administrators, Jesuit Community, governing and managerial bodies, parents, students, alumni/ae and benefactors. Jesuit education pursues excellence in its work of formation and education. It prepares students for active participation in the local communities for the service of others. Jesuit education reviews itself and adapts means and methods to more effectively achieve its purposes. In short, Jesuit education seeks to take care of the ‘whole person’ for his/her own good and that of his/her neighbours (Characteristics of Jesuit education).

Conclusion:

Finally, let me close with the following food for thought. The ambient milieu for effective teaching is a relationship with the students. As Dr Patrick Manu says:

“If there is any profession, which is to maintain good relationship, it is the teaching profession. The truth of this matter is that our customers (who are parents) have entrusted into our care human commodities, which we have to nurture. To do this, we must maintain a good rapport with those who have entrusted to our care their precious commodities. Hence cordial relationship should be established with parents and also with students. Professionally, a teacher should establish a very good rapport with all and sundry.

Teacher should excel as professionals. They should also consider teaching a noble profession which has its own ethics and respect. After all the greatest names in history were written because of the efforts made by committed and selfless teachers” (New Frontiers in Education, Vol. Xxxii (1) 2002, p.26).

As we are gathered here, let us make it clear to ourselves our Vision of education, and how we as teachers, possessing the necessary skill and will, achieve it in reality. Learning from our experience, let us plan for an optimistic future. Wish you all the best for the seminar.

Francis P. Xavier, SJ

St Mary’s, Dindigul

(1555310103)

Presidential address: 25 Years of Autonomy, Loyola College, Chennai