Abbreviation CFPL Service (OSL) Director, Melissa Quan | Established 2005 JUHAN Director, Julie Mughal | |
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Location 1073 North Benson Rd.
Fairfield, Connecticut Director Richard Ryscavage, S.J. | ||
Center for Faith and Public Life (CFPL) at Fairfield University, Connecticut, founded in 2005, provides a cross-disciplinary forum for students, scholars, policy makers, and religious leaders to reflect and converse on issues where religion intersects with civic life. Through academic research, teaching, publications, and public initiatives, the Center provides a focus for viewing the role of religion in public life. Additionally, the Center has made major contributions to the national debate on migration policy through its director who served as advisor to President Obama and was long in the forefront of the issue. He is one of many prominent social activists hired by the University who contribute to the vitality of this center.
Contents
Academics
Coursework. The Center promotes teaching, research, and other activities to advance student understanding and public dialogue on issues of faith and justice. It has advanced its objectives by engaging 55 faculty members at Fairfield University to include education for respectful global citizenship in 85 University courses. There are 35 community-based organizations worldwide with whom the Center maintains relations.
JUHAN. Fairfield University is a leading member of the Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network (JUHAN), which aims to raise awareness on Jesuit campuses of the meaning of humanitarian response and its implications for the Jesuit ideology of training men and women for others. Through JUHAN Jesuit university professors share ideas for course components and programs to implement its goals. Assisted by a $260,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation. the JUHAN leadership team at Fairfield examined the increasing career opportunities in the humanitarian action field along with the popularity of this field among Fairfield University students, and proposed that the University initiate a humanitarian action minor. This minor was in place by 2016 and students were involved through JUHAN in insertion experiences abroad. Through JUHAN the Center also offers fellowships to students who are preparing for a career in social activism. With help from these fellows, JUHAN further organizes student action, trips, and network conferences." Also, engineering students at Fairfield created the JUHAN website.
Service Learning. The Center is home to the Office of Service Learning which incorporates the service learning teaching methodology into the Fairfield curriculum, providing opportunities to combine studies with community service to local organizations in nearby Bridgeport, Connecticut. For example, education and psychology students can participate in the Adrienne Kirby Family Literacy Project, business students can participate in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, and nursing students can work at the Health Promotion Center or in Nicaragua in summers. And CFPL is the current home for the Connecticut Campus Compact, providing state-level support for Campus Compact, a national coalition of more than 1,100 colleges and universities promoting community service, civic engagement, and service learning in higher education.
Connecticut Association of Nonprofits has enlisted the help of the Center to improve the skills of young employees who will become leaders in their profession.
Community service programs
The Center facilitates placement in more than a dozen service opportunities in the area, and also offers longer service emersion opportunities. at spring break and in summer, with an emphasis on global citizenship.
Research projects
University access. In 2010, Fairfield along with Santa Clara and Loyola Chicago universities received a $200,000 Ford Foundation grant to study how to assist more of the 65,000 undocumented high school graduates to enter a tertiary institution, with fewer than 10% entering now. In 2013 CFPL issued its report and is implementing it especially for students in the Bridgeport area, reaching out with scholarships.
Welcoming immigrants. Following up on a Carnegie Foundation grant (2008-2009), a CFPL study funded by the Hagedorn Foundation and Jesuit Conference in Washington researched how to help Catholics fulfill the gospel mandate and welcome immigrants as neighbors. This "Strangers as Neighbors on Long Island" project in 2013, with the full support of the Bishop of Rockville Centre, brought together Catholics with differing views on immigration for town hall meetings to discuss immigration from the perspective of their faith. The research, published in 2016 as Strangers as Neighbors: How Religious Dialogue Can Help Re-Frame the Issue of Immigration, confirmed that placing faith as a basis for discussion brought about less polarized exchange on controversial issues.
Women's issues. Another research topic, favored by the Assistant Director of the Center, is issues dealing with women.
Sponsored forums
Fairfield on Wall Street invites young alumni working in financial services to come together and reflect on the impact of Jesuit education on their professional life.
Interfaith. Various events are sponsored on campus to promote dialogue and understanding among those of different faiths.
Business leaders' breakfast. This annual Mass and breakfast for Catholic business leaders is cosponsored by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation of Fairfield County. It includes a keynote speaker and Catholic leadership award.
Politics Meets Faith is a series sponsored by the Center and recorded on video. American politicians such U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, U.S. Representative Christopher Shays, U.S. Representative Jim McGovern, U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), U.S. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), and U.S. Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT), have gone on record in front of an audience of students for these conversations.
Open VISIONS Forum and Lectures. Other events promote reflection on the role of faith in public life. including its 10th anniversary lecture by the president of the Save the Children Action Network.