A Q & A with Wheeling Jesuit University's new president

Fr. Julio Giulietti, SJ

A native New Yorker, he was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1972. He holds graduate degrees in comparative religions and counseling; he earned a doctorate from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He's served at Boston College and Georgetown University, but those are just his stateside stints. His teaching career and interest in intercultural education and service programs have led him to teach and consult in the Near East and the Far East, Central and South America, and Europe.

He was appointed president of Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, West Virginia, last August. Company introduces you to Fr. Julio Giulietti, SJ.

You've come to Wheeling Jesuit via Georgetown and Boston College. What skills and abilities have you cultivated at those schools that you're going to put to work at Wheeling Jesuit?

I've tapped into all of my experiences and relationships since arriving at Wheeling Jesuit. For more than 30 years I've served in institutions of higher learning in the United States, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. I've taught education and curriculum design at the National University in Hanoi and the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. I've also taught at the Royal University in Phnom Penh in Cambodia and at a teachers' college in East Timor.

At Boston College I worked first as a theology teacher and developer of international service programs and later as director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality, working primarily with faculty and staff. And at Georgetown I was the director of the Center for Intercultural Education and Development, the most global job anyone could ask for. It took me to Burma, the Philippines, Malaysia, Spain, Hong Kong—all over.

Tell us some ideas you've had about Wheeling Jesuit. What are some of the changes you're looking forward to making during your administration?

My vision, like my spirituality, is rooted in the here and now. There are two primary dimensions to my hopes for Wheeling Jesuit: transition and transformation. Wheeling Jesuit was founded to provide young adults from West Virginia and parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio the opportunity to get a Catholic and Jesuit college education.

For our students, attending Wheeling Jesuit translates into a way of living, a way of leading, and a way of service. But, to make that happen, we needed to offer significant financial aid to most of our students. Now, 53 percent of our undergraduates are first-generation college students, a figure I'm proud of.

At Wheeling we're developing a marketing strategy that will increase all sectors of our students. Given the cost of higher education, we need to include students from families that can afford a higher tuition so that families that can't afford it can receive the help they need. Jesuits in Peru are masters at this. They read the 32nd general congregation's document on faith and justice and then structured their high schools so that students from affluent families give financial aid so that poorer students could attend. This way they helped both the affluent and the poor become friends, something that's very hard to do without shared experience such as a Jesuit high school.

What's Wheeling Jesuit's situation as regards to graduate programs?

Our master's and doctoral students make up 37 percent of our student population. They're generally professional people who decide for many reasons to change careers. We provide training and learning to enhance service in areas including nuclear medicine, primary and secondary education, and organizational management, among many. And our programs are flexible; we offer a doctorate in physical therapy, which is done on campus and affiliated hospitals, whereas our nurse practitioner program is handled largely online.

You've been traveling, it seems nonstop, for years now. Tell us about Wheeling Jesuit's international footprint. Do your students go abroad?

All Jesuit schools need a vibrant connection to the wider world, and Wheeling's no exception. Globalization for our university means urging our students to study at the Beijing Center in China, which is supported by a number of Jesuit schools. Others have gone to study in Ireland, Italy, and England, among other countries.

In January we welcomed two students from the Middle East, a young lady from the United Arab Emirates and a fellow from Yemen. They're both transferring from their countries as second-semester juniors. And we've just arranged for eleven graduate students from Deusto University, the Jesuit university in Spain Fr. Arrupe attended, to come in July to begin nine months at our English Language Institute and then some business and ethics internships in and around Wheeling. And this May we're expecting fifteen Vietnamese students, some for basic English and some who'll be preparing for the Test of English as a Foreign Language. That will lead, we hope, to their getting accepted here for grad school.

And Wheeling has attracted visiting faculty from abroad; we've had professors from Argentina, Egypt, and Italy, and members of our faculty have gone to teach in Italy, France, and Mexico.

All told, we have fourteen nations represented at Wheeling, and I want to increase that significantly. We can nourish this globalization process by engaging in an ethical and spiritual dialogue with people, cultures, and political systems different than ours.

With what institutions does Wheeling Jesuit compete for students?

Our competitors range from Duquesne, John Carroll, Bethany College, and Xavier University to West Virginia University, Ohio State, and the University of Dayton. For the eleventh year in a row we are blessed with being ranked the strongest university for master's programs in West Virginia. In the southern region of the United States we're ranked eighteenth in all areas of learning and research; last year we were twenty-fourth. Not a bad jump for a young university!

How do you go about attracting student applicants?

We've brought on a terrific dean of enrollment management who is guiding our undergraduate admissions process. We use electronic, written, and oral communication with students, their families, and counselors. Our athletic department also does a fine job in bringing scholar athletes to our campus.

All in all, though, our best source of recruitment is word of mouth. On the graduate level, we're forced to turn people away at the master's and doctoral levels due to limits of space.

Tell us about student service projects at Wheeling.

At Jesuit universities, service and learning are intimately linked, and here these efforts are strong and will expand in the coming years. We have many opportunities for students to serve through clubs, service scholarships, and individual efforts. Locally, our students get involved with Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and a sexual abuse health center, to name a few.

Our students have also traveled to do service work in Baltimore, Boston, and New Orleans. And our physical therapy faculty and grad students have served in Mexico and Central America.

Fr. Julio Giulietti, SJ, has taken over the presidency of Wheeling Jesuit University, a school with a very high percentage of first-generation college students.

You've been involved in cultural and pastoral exchange with Vietnam; one National Catholic Reporter article mentioned that you've been there eighteen times since '94. Tell us about that.

While at Georgetown I pushed forward a set of programs in Vietnam and also Cambodia and East Timor that trained and educated men and women who wanted to be teachers and administrators to prepare themselves for entry into a complex world after years of war and poverty. From those experiences I made a lot of friends in health care, education, and community development.

Similarly, I was connected with Vietnamese Jesuits who opened doors for further service that was also linked to the professional development of young Jesuits, diocesan priests and religious, and most excitingly, with lay leaders.

HIV/AIDS is a major cross for the Vietnamese and Cambodians. With the grace of God and some friends in Vietnam, I've been able to get generous Americans and others to assist local Vietnamese groups involved in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and the medical and pastoral care of those with the illness and their families. That work continues. Soon, Wheeling Jesuit will play a more direct role in some of these ventures.

I understand that you're a fan of the rock group U2 and also an amateur photographer. How else do you kick back and relax?

Yes, I do like U2 a great deal! I believe that physical exercise is a form of spiritual exercise. Daily I either run or do some mild lifting, not only for my body but also for my mind. Amazing how easy it is for me to forget who I was angry with after a workout!

The National Catholic Reporter article also mentioned your visiting a leper colony in Vietnam. Was that among the most "formative" experiences you've had as a Jesuit?

It's not possible for me to identify any longer the most formative experience I have had as a Jesuit since there were and are so many. I will tell you one of those experiences was in prayer. It was during a time of significant and prolonged loss. Sitting in usual Zen position, I felt Jesus anointed my body with the blood from his side. I felt Christ loving me profoundly.