The first Jesuit community college, Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago, is scheduled to open in August. The college will provide students with the same liberal arts core curriculum classes offered at the university, but at a more affordable cost, according to Fr Stephen Katsouros SJ, Arrupe College’s dean and executive director.
Loyola University President Fr Michael J Garanzini SJ first proposed the college after assessing the needs of students with limited financial resources in the Chicagoland area. After it was approved in June 2014, Fr Katsouros was entrusted with getting Arrupe College off the ground and running.
“This is really the result of President Fr Garanzini. His vision and the Jesuit mission of making this kind of education available and accessible to lots of different people, particularly people who are marginalized economically,” said Fr Katsouros. “The Jesuits and our colleagues do not want our colleges and universities to become elite. [If we do so] we are leaving such great and college-deserving students behind.”
Arrupe College has committed to helping 2,275 earn associate’s degrees by 2025. To meet the goal, it must admit around 200 students each year.
The college has already pitched its program to 23 high schools across the Chicagoland area, in the hopes that they will become feeder schools for it. Representatives of the college are traveling to these schools to meet with prospective students for pre-enrolment advising and to assist students and their families in filing federal aid applications.
Preston Kendall, president of Cristo Rey St Martin College Prep in Waukegan, Illinois, said that Arrupe College gives some of his students a realistic opportunity to continue their education beyond high school.
“We are excited [about] Arrupe because it focuses on why students don’t go on to get their degrees. Maybe it is financial reasons or social reasons, but Arrupe’s focused on what our kids need: affordability, structure and counselling,” said Kendall. [Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States]
