luc.edu: Where’s the solidarity?

Loyola University Chicago prides itself for students who are committed to “setting the world on fire” while working towards social justice and equality, a major Jesuit value. After looking back at the University’s website via the website archive “Way Back machine,” I looked for ways the University advertised, or publicly promoted it’s acts of social justice as it relates to national tragedies. Some of the issues I looked for were, of course, 9/11, Columbine, the Virginia tech shooting, when the Dalai Lama came to campus and other significant events. I found that Loyola, while it does promote serving others and the community, does not favor press statements of solidarity with outside communities. Perhaps this is because Loyola feels it is not it’s place to make changes to the luc.edu website in honor or support of other relevant issues, or because it uses other forms to do so. I did, however, notice changes in how the university advertised it’s enrollment opportunities.

First, I looked up events like the Columbine high school shooting, the Virginia Tech shooting, and the Boston bombing. Within the week after the Columbine shooting in 1999, the University remained simple, plain texted and focused on informing potential applicants of their options. Complete with a staff directory, it’s almost as if Loyola had no thought to relating the website to anything that had been happening in the current headlines. This, I assume, is because of the “newness” of the internet. Instead of using it as a means of press releases and public statements of solidarity, this may have been a time that was mean strictly “for the facts” like the staff directory, for instance.

For this reason, I skipped a few years forward to the more public years. I consider 2007 more public considering the times: Myspace was “hot and popping,” and was sort of springing us into this culture of publicly posting our thoughts of contempt or approval of current events on the Internet. Yet still, luc.edu made no posts to promote student safety, awareness, or solidarity with another higher education institution.

I did, however, notice a difference in two things. First, I noticed how the school used the Internet to appeal to potential freshman or applicants and how the university advertised events. Before 2006, the University focused on including the staff directory, “what do I need to apply” tabs, and course listings. After that, the school went into an add frenzy. Photos of “diverse” groups of people filled the homepage. Women in hijabs, African American women, Asian males, etc. graced the front pages of the university’s website, as they often do now, in an attempt to promote a feeling of diversity on this campus. (A feeling that many students from cultural clubs on campus say is missing from this school.) I also noticed something else. The university began to share resources on its website around this time as well. Instead of referring students or potential ones to a phone number, students could look up their inquiries which suggests a shift in how we go about finding information. I know that often times, as a student in today’s society, I hear students would much rather look up something online that deal with teleprompters and hold music.

While I commend Loyola for its promotion of the Dalai Lama and other prominent speakers like Soledad O’brien on campus who seem to fit the role of “social justice,” I do wonder why the university stays neutral in times of adversity or mass killing.