A Letter from Dr. Jake Bucher

"Hope is an Action"

I had the opportunity to join colleagues from around the world at the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) assembly this summer, and of many helpful sessions, one particularly impactful session was our keynote address from Fr. General Arturo Sosa (Access Fr. General's Talk). I continue to reflect on his words, but come back to some of my initial reactions, which are the inspiration from considering hope as an action, and related – mission as an action.

Hope is an inherently active effort; hope without action is optimism. I have always said that three key things to resilience are alignment with mission, optimism and efficacy – and I’m now wondering if that has been incomplete, as mission and optimism lack effectiveness without efficacy, and efficacy is only achievable through action. Perhaps, in other words, I am considering that optimism is a passive outlook that something might change, whereas hope is the active initiative to work towards that change.

It is this mindset that I enter our academic year, I am hopeful for Regis and in that hope is an accountability for action. I am hopeful that we will get to a sustainable and viable operating structure while maintaining our quality and impact, and am ready and accountable to the continued work to get us there. I am also hopeful that we will persist through the continued attacks on higher education and am ready and accountable to help us navigate our responses so that even a strategic retreat does not turn into a surrender of our values and support for students.

The summer often provides a cleansing for the academy; we try to let go of the pains and frustrations from the prior year and enter the coming year with excitement and optimism. Thus far 2025 has not provided much reason for either excitement or optimism – but there is hope. While perhaps not an unprecedented time in the totality of history, at least within all our lifetimes, we are in an unprecedented time for higher education. But I ask you to join me in the hope of Regis’ resilience, because that resilience is not an optimism that things will work out; it is in the work that we will do. It is our active commitment to and alignment with mission, it is our commitment to collaboration and accompaniment which produces efficacy, it is our willingness to be witnesses of hope for our students, and it is our ability to evolve to fit the times rather than wait for the times to come back to us.

My hope for the year does not negate worry or angst, nor does it mean that there won’t be difficulties or challenges. My hope comes from my faith in this community, as Fr. General said: “Keeping our hope firm while living in difficult times requires strengthening the identity of all members of the university community. A university community rooted in shared identity is better able to successfully confront the difficulties that hinder its mission.”