Presidential Commitment to the Pursuit of Intercultural Competence

Presidential Commitment to the Pursuit of Intercultural Competence

Among the greatest challenges that institutions of higher learning face today is the necessity to help students come to a deeper and more resilient understanding of the diversity of peoples that constitute the world in which we live.  Such understanding is cultivated by getting to know other persons as individuals, by learning to love being with each other, by understanding that our life together is deeply enriched by the cultural, racial, and ethnic qualities each of us embodies.

The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University are committed to providing the very best residential liberal arts education in the Catholic university tradition.  Our coordinate mission statement goes on to say that we “foster integrated learning, exceptional leadership for change, and wisdom for a lifetime.”  Neither our mission commitment nor the results we seek to achieve are possible without expanding and deepening the intercultural competence of all members of the educational community, that is, without expanding and deepening the ability of each of us to engage, learn from, and work with people whose cultural identity is different from our own. 

The Benedictine, Catholic identity of these two institutions mandates cultivating the intercultural competence of all.  The Benedictine values of prayerful listening, community living, and hospitality call us to a number of practices relevant to developing intercultural competence.  These practices include moving out of our comfort zone for the sake of learning, breaking down any residual sense of insiders and outsiders, and engaging in dialogue in which each participant seeks to understand the other as the other understands himself / herself.  Practices such as these are deeply congruent with the commitments of the Catholic intellectual tradition, especially the importance that tradition attaches to universality, inclusiveness and self-criticism. 

We created an Intercultural Directions Council (IDC) in January 2006 to facilitate the development of intercultural competence on our campuses.  The IDC is comprised of faculty, administrators, staff, and students and is co-chaired by Miguel H. Díaz, Associate Professor of Theology and Mary Geller, CSB Vice President of Student Development.  The council will  consult members of our CSB/SJU communities on the question of how each might engage in practices that promote intercultural competence and thereby advance institutional excellence. 

We, the Presidents of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, invite all members of our educational communities to join us in the commitment to recognize and celebrate the diversity of our cultural gifts.  We recognize the progress we have made in acting upon this commitment and we seek to learn from our shortcomings.  We are conscious that our dedication to intercultural competence requires immediate and sustained efforts.  As Presidents of these two institutions, we are committed to support this process and we count on your generosity to contribute in creative ways to address this invitation.  Our work together will effect changes that will enrich our colleges and each of us personally.  In realizing intercultural competence, we will all help advance the mission of our two institutions.

MaryAnn Baenninger                                                  Dietrich Reinhart, OSB
President                                                                 President
College of Saint Benedict                                            Saint John's University