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		From Jezebel to Jesuit: A New Professional’s Adventures at a Catholic Institution By Kristin D. Wodarski, Resident Director, Boston College New York City, Greenwich Village. MetroCard in hand, I weave through the city streets that make up NYU’s campus. An anonymous social justice protest takes up one corner of Washington Square Park, and no one but the pigeons seem interested. I am on my way to teach a sexual health seminar for some RAs after a day of working with the conflict resolution team. Probably some Thai food for a dinner- on the balcony, maybe, watching the sun set over the Brooklyn Bridge in the fresh spring evening. Eight months later. Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. A tree-lined campus, Gothic buildings and bell tower- students playing Frisbee on the lawn outside of the residence hall that I run. I pass a student who is wearing a pink bow around her ponytail. I am heading to the 9 pm mass, standing room only as usual, to tell the freshmen in attendance about our buddy program for the local foster children. Boston College community service: all the cool kids are doing it. Talk about culture shock. When people found out that my first “real” job as a new professional was going to be at Boston College, a Catholic, Jesuit institution, after six years at NYU where anything goes (and went), the reaction usually varied between a suppressed snort of laughter and a smirking eyebrow climbing up the side of a face. You see, at NYU, a massive, liberal, secular institution in the heart of New York City, my role included a great deal of sexual health education and LGBT ally work, as well as the usual grad student in residence life committee-sitting, resume-building, article-writing, thesis-researching exploits. People wondered (myself included) if I was too liberal, too progressive, and just too New York for a Catholic school. If you are about to join a Catholic institution, you are probably wondering the same things I was: Would I feel stifled in a more conservative environment? Would the students be different? Will I have to go to mass all the time? How conservative, uptight, and, well, just how Catholic are they? As my first year as a new professional comes to a close, this is what I have learned. The students are more diverse than I expected. They came to BC because it is a premier research institution - both in academic life and in the university’s mission to educate the whole person. There are openly gay students here, liberal students, and students who aren’t even Catholic. They are high-achievers, for the most part the typical stressed out, late-night pizza eating, over-extended, challenging, still developing students that those of us in residence life watch grow over the course of years. They are more open about discussing and practicing their faith. There are a few very conservative pockets in the student body, but by and large the students chose BC for its Catholicism and its academics, and incorporate both into their lives here. I was surprised at the number of students who attend one of the eight masses on Sunday, and the daily mass at lunch during the week is crowded, too. Ash Wednesday was a study in crowd control. Students put mass into their always-crowded schedules just as they make appointments with faculty or go to class. It is part of their routine, and most are very open to discussing their choice to practice. They are willing to explain their personal identification with faith, but I have found that they were surprised that I was asking. BC is the largest residential Jesuit institution in the world. Although the Jesuits have a reputation as progressive educators, being at a Jesuit institution does mean that there are things you cannot do here. After NYU, with its University- recognized bondage club, this was a different world for me. We don’t distribute condoms here. There are no sexual health workshops, and the role of LGBT allies on campus is still being defined by the administration. It is discussed, though, and many administrators and RAs choose to display Safe Zone stickers on their doors. While some students here may support pro-choice, the campus is decidedly pro-life. The Vagina Monologues is performed on campus- sponsored by academic departments- and the conservative student newspaper challenged the morality and appropriateness of its presence. And yes, cohabitation on campus carries a judicial sanction. Everything about how students conduct themselves, and what we administrators role model to our students, must be in line with the mission and philosophy of the Jesuit Catholic ideals. Although I had to leave behind my advocacy work, I have gained a lot as well- more than I was even expecting. There is still something missing, though, some quality of experience at NYU that I do not feel here. It took me a very long time to figure out what was causing the loss I felt, and then, I knew. There was something missing, and it had nothing to do with condoms, or the politics of abortion, or even seeing yarmulkes in the quad. It was the eccentric, the unique, the idiosyncratic, the peculiar and the quirky. The characters are missing here. My colleague here has a bumper sticker on the wall of her office that says, “God Bless the Freaks.” That’s how I feel. God bless the individuals who are true to their own person, who don’t want to fit in- the students who want more than anything to express their unique identity. I miss the guy wearing the green-tipped Mohawk and dog collar to class, who would only wear shoes not made from leather products. The woman with waist-length blue-streaked hair, combat boots, leg warmers, and a thrift-store print dress all billowing under her winter cape. The guy who walked around with an African gray parrot on his shoulder and wore buttons supporting Che Guevara. After years in an environment where individuality, non-conformity, and acceptance were heralded above all others, it is a significant change for me to work with students who want to fit into the community- who want to belong. Is BC intolerant? Not at all. The students are accepting, and they want to learn from each other. There just aren’t that many individualists moving against the grain from this tight-knit community, making grand statements about who they are and what they stand for. The khaki-skirt, polo-shirt with the collar flipped up, ribbon in the hair BC student would have qualified as unique at NYU because she would have been the only one. Here, it’s what the campus looks like on any given day by casting a glance over the dining hall. The students are polished, and beautiful, but they look… the same. This is not the Stepford Campus. We enjoy a growing diversity both ethnically and geographically, and BC students are interested in a variety of arenas, both academically and personally. I had a hackie-sac playing Colorado girl who never wore shoes. I had a good old Southern Gentleman who hung a confederate flag. But I didn’t have any individualists. I feel their absence, not only in my own opportunities to interact with them, but also through the way their absence affects the students I do have. My students now have fewer interactions with people who expose them to ideas and identities different from their own. There are fewer times when they have to practice tolerance about beliefs they may not agree with or even understand. They do not have to go out of their comfort zone as much as the NYU freshman who needs to learn what “transgender” means, or try to understand why a student would be participating in a vigil for Tibet. Do we have LGBT students at BC? Sure we do, along with socialists, feminists, atheists, social justice activists, and vegans. But they are not as visible, or vocal, here, so the BC student community is not necessarily forced to learn about, or even interact with, such different populations. I’m sorry for them, as I miss my beloved eccentrics who brought me much joy and satisfaction in my work at NYU. But more importantly, I am sorry for my students here who are growing up without the characters, without the individualists, as they are missing the opportunity to experience and be challenged by a world profoundly different from what walks the tree-lined paths of our Chestnut Hill campus. When I was deciding to come to BC, I had this perspective that I would have to give up a lot of the things that I cared about because they were not appropriate for a Catholic University. I accepted that I needed to respect the culture and viewpoint of this institution I was joining, but I never thought that I was gaining opportunities as well- the chance to be part of a student’s spiritual development and all that goes along with it. The students have lay peer ministers and Jesuit resident ministers living in the halls for spiritual guidance, personal counseling, and support. Many students train to become lectors or Eucharistic ministers during their freshman year as they participate in the student-run Sunday night mass. Community service is a main focus on the student culture. Most volunteer weekly, as well as participate in charity drives, and service trips are so popular, limits must be placed on how many times students can participate. Hundreds of students went on the Appalachia service trips for their spring break. They are also extremely generous. We collected truckloads full of donated food, furniture, supplies, and electronics for donation when closing the buildings at the end of the year- not even a half-empty bottle of detergent is thrown away if Clean Sweep can get it to a family in need. The most successful program we had in my building all year was a project called “Send a Little Love:” we adopted a unit stationed in Iraq and sent them donations, cards of encouragement, Valentines, and messages of support. When the Lieutenant came to visit the students when he got home, I was in the presence of that mystical moment when you know your students are having a profound, real-world learning experience. I think that’s part of what’s so special about BC- the students can separate the arguments, nationalities, and controversies from the faces of the people in need. Regardless of politics, they see and respond to the need. With the campus-wide initiative Church in the 21st Century running student-organized and targeted workshops like, “Dude, Where’s My Church,” you know this is not your grandfather’s Church anymore. It is responsive, though-provoking, and challenging. Most importantly, the Church has a personal face on campus in the form of our very active campus ministry. You don’t go to the 10:30 pm Last Call mass. You go to Father Jack’s mass. And you wait until 10:30 pm on a Sunday night to go because he is just that good. There are opportunities for students and staff to explore and grow in their own faith, to whatever degree they feel comfortable. A majority of my colleagues are not Catholic- we have Jewish, Episcopal, Baptist, and even agnostic represented in the administration. Not all of the “Good Catholics” go to mass. But there is something about the spirit and camaraderie on the campus, the care for others that transcends religious identification or participation- it’s just the way we do things here. It’s the Jesuit mission of Men and Women for Others. I think that’s what it means to work at a Catholic institution, however you bring that mission to life in your own work. While I do miss some of the advocacy and ally work that I still try to do, I am in exchange learning so much from my students as they develop their own faith systems and personal spirituality. It is exciting, and also a privilege, to be able to be part of that experience. I am glad that I came here, because while NYU taught me tolerance of any alternative view or lifestyle, BC is teaching me how to help my students make meaning of their formational experiences. Leaving behind my adored eccentrics is worth having the chance to watch students grow and learn in this context. Besides, I think they need a little New York up here. About the Author Kristin Wodarski is a Resident Director for freshman students at Boston College. A native New Yorker, Kristin received her master’s degree from NYU and has been at Boston College for one year. She is involved with NEACUHO, and has recently learned how to properly pronounce "chowder."