SLU Hosts AJCU Honors Conference
04/07/2022
The Saint Louis University Honors Program hosted the 2022 AJCU Honors Conference on campus on April 1 and April 2. The annual gathering of students, faculty, and staff is designed to promote discussion and share best practices surrounding honors education at Jesuit institutions.
This annual gathering is distinctive among the various AJCU conferences and affinity groups because it includes not only program administrators, but also students at Jesuit colleges and universities. Each school is invited to bring several students to the conference's annual gathering to enrich the conversation.
Although some threads of each conference are tailored specifically to administrators or students, most sessions are open to all conference participants. This year, nearly 40 faculty, staff, and students joined for a day and a half of fellowship, collaboration, and fun.
After two years of pandemic-induced cancellations and deferrals, this year marked the return of the in-person conference. The last in-person gathering was in 2019 at John Carroll University.
Robert Pampel, Ph.D., Director of the Saint Louis University Honors Program and Chair of the AJCU Honors Conference, was thrilled to welcome AJCU colleagues to campus.
"We've been waiting three years to host our friends from other AJCU institutions, ever since SLU got on the hosting slate back in 2019," Pampel said. "Over the last few years we have missed this community of peers who care about the distinctive Jesuit, honors education our programs offer, and this conference was a great opportunity to exchange good ideas and rebuild the community that has been lost during COVID."
As chair of the AJCU Honors Conference, Pampel — along with Honors Program staff members Louise Edwards Neiman, Brooke Taylor, and Annie Henning — crafted a conference theme focused on an issue of shared importance for all Jesuit honors program.
Inspired by his work in the Ignatian Colleagues Program and the AJCU's commitment to racial justice, this year's conference was titled "Racial Justice and the Common Good in Honors Education." The conference invited honors directors, students, faculty and staff to think collectively about the challenges, opportunities and imperatives related to bringing racial justice to the forefront of honors practice.
During the conference, attendees participated in a case study on racial justice in honors curricula, then engaged in an exercise of radical imagination inspired by SLU's Division of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement (DICE) and the work of DICE interim Vice President Amber Johnson, Ph.D.. The work was designed to reimagine honors education through the lens of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
"When people think of honors education, they often think of a privileged enclave of students somewhere removed from the normal operations of campus and curriculum," Pampel said. "With these activities, we really wanted to encourage conference guests to think about their work in honors education as integrally connected to the mission of their respective institutions and the broader goals of diversity and inclusion."
In addition to these activities, the conference featured breakout sessions on topics like just and equitable recruiting, re-thinking service, and health and wellness in honors education. They also shared common meals and enjoyed time at local St. Louis restaurants and attractions.
"More than the specific takeaways from the sessions, the relationships that form from this conference — among directors and faculty, as well as among students--are the most important," Pampel said. "We look forward to the ways these newfound friendships will lead to collaboration on shared initiatives down the road."