Debate: University or Studentate

There is a huge discussion going on here at the UPS, and particularly among the professors of the School of Theology, over directives that Pascual Chavez gave last Spring. At that time the rector major asked the UPS to give up the notions of being a major studentate and to give itself completely to recognize its identity as a university. This means that while the UPS attends to intellectual formation and scientific research (as do all universities), religious formation will need to be carried out in formation communities. The university must concentrate on academic excellence, not only in the areas of education and communications, but also in the areas of philosophy, canon law, and theology.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but the significance of the remark is that the university has to become competitive. Salesians who enroll in university programs must seriously do the work of intellectual formation, and become truly competent in their fields. As for the other concerns of formation (human, spiritual and pastoral), the local and smaller formation communities need to be proactive in resourcing to the young Salesian in these sectors.