A Letter from Dr. Jake Bucher
"Planning for Progress"
As we move deeper into the academic year, I’ve been reflecting on the grace and challenge of planning – both in trying to plan when there is so much demand for fixing and maintaining, and planning not as a bureaucratic exercise, but as an act of discernment. To plan, in the Ignatian sense, is to pause and ask: Where is God or the good moving in our work? What invitations are we being called to notice, to nurture, or to release? Reviewing our 2024-2027 Academic Plan is, at its heart, a collective Examen – a framework that invites us to look honestly at what has gone well, where we have struggled, and how we are being called forward.
In this latest progress report, I see more than metrics or milestones. I see evidence of faithfulness – colleagues stepping into new forms of work and leadership, communities growing stronger even in leaner times, and students encountering a university that continues to believe deeply in their potential. These signs of progress are consolations – reminders that the Spirit/spirit is at work in the daily, patient labor of teaching, supporting, and accompanying others.
Still, we cannot ignore the moments of desolation that have marked our recent journey – the weight of reductions, the fatigue that accompanies constant adaptation, and the uncertainty that sometimes clouds our horizon. Yet even here, we are invited to remember that discernment is not about perfection or ease; it is about staying present, together, to the work that love and mission demand. And it is that mindset that I entered preparation of the progress report, and that intent is behind sharing the report.
As you read this update, I hope it serves as both a mirror and an encouragement: a mirror to the remarkable resilience of our community, and an encouragement to continue the work with renewed purpose and hope. The progress, and struggles, outlined here is not just institutional – it is deeply human, the fruit of our shared discernment and care for one another. Please access the progress report HERE, and the original planning document HERE for reference.