Some thoughts on communio and what matters at SNC during a challenging time
Communio — creating it, nurturing it, living it — this is the secret sauce that makes St. Norbert
College special. It recognizes the preeminent importance of relationships — between and among
people and their God; between and among faculty and other faculty; between and among
faculty and staff; between and among faculty and students; between and among staff and other
staff; between and among staff and students; between and among students and students.
Relationships are built on a foundation of love or agape. Agape is defined as a selfless,
universal love. It is all about self-sacrifice and loving others unconditionally, as Jesus loves
people in the Bible. It is achieved through respect for others’ innate dignity, genuine caring and
interest, curiosity, a willingness to serve, honesty and transparency, and a commitment to
justice. It requires us to be present with each other, to set aside our phones and other
distractions and be mindful of each others’ needs. It is the result of countless small and
sometimes large interactions, from holding the door for one another to listening as a colleague
or student shares the pain of losing a loved one. It’s why I came here from a perfectly good
university. I wanted more; I wanted better. I wanted to be in community with my fellow travelers
on our learning journeys.
I caution us to make all of our most important decisions with communio in mind. It is the tie that
binds our Catholic, Norbertine, and liberal arts traditions together. Importantly, living in
community doesn’t happen through electronic mediation. Tools such as those found on our cell
phones and our computers are meant to serve us, not to replace the fundamentals of what it
means to be human. Our students need us to be in community with them. (Well, not actually
living with them, unless they’re a child of ours or a partner.) But they need to be able to see and
interact with us in person, in our offices, in our classrooms, in our labs and studios, in the Caf,
at the library, at the gym, everywhere we consider our collective space. They need to know we
are present for them. It is in this way that we can best role model what communio means, and
encourage them to be the best versions of themselves. We don’t do remote coaching. Why
would we do remote teaching? Particularly in an age in which communio and agape are
self-evidently and desperately needed to help all of us maintain our emotional, mental, and
physical health.
Does this mean I object to all remote teaching? No. But it does mean that we make a careful
assessment of what our students need and deserve in addition to any so-called bottom-line
metrics. Love — agape — isn’t felt in our depths when one doesn’t know one’s teacher or student.
To know requires human interaction. While I talk with my granddaughters who live in Florida via
Facebook Messenger, nothing compares to the times when we are physically together, when we
can snuggle and read and rest and play and create together. Nothing.
Let us articulate what communio means to us and why it matters more than ever in our decision
making. As I said, it is our secret sauce.
Related to this, I offer a plea that we consider metrics other than number of graduates, majors,
minors, SCH as we are asked to contribute to difficult decisions around program elimination … I
know these metrics were what our faculty colleagues were asked to consider in making their
recommendations. I applaud the difficult work done by these people and those in the disciplines
who worked with them. You are all to be commended. I have a message, though, for those who will decide what happens next. I ask that you go beyond these simple measures of demand and
consider more criteria before making those decisions. For example, the impact of a program
on our community’s social capital is a metric that I beg you to consider. As an expert in
community recovery and resilience, I can tell you that social capital is one of the most important
determinants and indicators of a community’s health and its likely ability to sustain itself,
particularly during difficult times. Social capital may be measured by the amount of trust and
“reciprocity” in a community or between individuals — in other words, communio outside our
SNC community. Social capital is also related to another of our values — stabilitas loci. Place
matters. Relationships in place-based communities matter most. Yes, I have a friend in CA who
has a banging chicken soup recipe, but I need a friend here to bring me that soup when I’m ill.
Higher social capital means a stronger sense of trust, higher civic engagement, more
involvement in community, and more connections across differences. Social capital is the glue
that binds together a community’s built, socioeconomic, financial, political, and natural
environments. It is represented by the proliferation of parks and other places for adults and
children to relax and play, the number and efficacy of the service-oriented non-profits that offer
care to our most vulnerable and minoritized populations, the cultural events, celebrations, and
places that add to our quality of life and cement our connections with each other — the fine arts,
music, the performing arts, libraries, museums, festivals, and more. These are not extras. They
are what tell us that we are part of a vibrant, caring, and sustainable community.
Theatre studies is a program, for example, that may not have the numbers of majors and
graduates associated with Business or Biology. Still, in this geographic community, it is one of
the key elements of our social capital as represented by the performing arts scene, a scene that
includes both large performing arts centers and a number of smaller yet significant contributors.
The demand for individuals with the skills and knowledge taught in Theatre Studies is robust,
though not always made evident by the number of majors. The fact that UWGB, with its
world-class Weidner Performing Arts Center, has decided to phase out its Theatre program
presents us with an opportunity to partner with the university and its resources and add to the
necessary vibrancy of the community’s performing arts scene — assuming we retain our Theatre
Studies program. The services provided by our Theatre, Art, and Music faculty and staff to the
community’s many performing and fine arts events, venues, activities, etc. is not measured by
majors and graduates — but they matter! They help to make this community — my home
community for 60 years — one that attracts others to experience what we have to offer in the
way of sustainable social capital.
Fix our bottom line, yes. But not at the expense of our community’s social capital and not to the
detriment of communio.
As a professor of Business Administration and mom to an SNC alumnus who majored in
Theatre Studies and is a thriving human (David Arendt, ‘22), I love being a member of the St.
Norbert College community and I want it to live long and prosper.
Dr. Lucy A. Arendt (just Lucy)
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