Archived Articles
Written by Dr. William Carroll
Change is good!
By William J. Carroll
October 2005
Several years ago, a major credit card company's developed a marketing
campaign around the slogan: "Change is good." Unfortunately,
it is sometimes very difficult to find individuals and institutions
that agree with that slogan. Probably one of the most difficult
things in life is change. We often don't think of it until some
major factor looms in front of us, or seems to trip us up. The
good part is that change very often brings with it a spurt of
growth. Though change in individuals is sometimes difficult, institutional
change can be like a minor earthquake. Everybody owns a piece
of the institution. When this "ownership" spans three
centuries, things can get interesting.
In past columns, I have talked about change in individuals and
have suggested that change is good and even necessary in our lives.
The same is true of institutions. Benedictine University has celebrated
118 years of change; the Benedictine religious order over 1500
years. In fact, the Benedictines have a saying: "If you cut
it down, it shall grow anew." Without change, neither the
University nor the Benedictines would be here today. Yet, the
more we change, the more we are somehow able to stay the same.
Over the years, I have had alumni return to the campus and exclaim
that the institution is no longer the same. The buildings they
inhabited are gone, beloved monks, faculty and staff are gone,
the student body has significantly changed, etc. At first, alums
are whimsical and reflective on how "their institution"
used to be. After a bit of time on campus, however, they clearly
proclaim that it still is the same place even though the buildings,
students, faculty and staff may have turned over many times since
they were students on campus.
How can Benedictine University have gone through so much change
and still be recognized as the same place by so many generations
of alumni? Clearly, the St. Procopius College of our early period,
was not the Illinois Benedictine College of our middle period,
or the Benedictine University of our most recent period. Or is
it?
St. Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican (but Benedictine trained) monk
of the 13th century made a wonderful analysis of change that explains
how the University can be the same yet different. He distinguished
between two kinds of change-incidental change and definitive change
(I have taken the liberty of modernizing his terminology). Incidental
change has to do with non-defining characteristics. For example,
as you go through life many incidental changes occur. Your height,
weight, hair color, and circumstances in life change; yet, you
remain the same person. At death, a person experiences a definitive
change which basically means the person ceases to be. Incidental
change refers to the accoutrements of daily life; definitive change
refers to life itself.
Applying this analysis to Benedictine University (and any other
institution) the distinction between the two kinds of change becomes
apparent. In 1887, a group of Benedictine monks decided to establish
St. Procopius College to educate Czechoslovakian young men in
a Catholic and Benedictine environment. In addition to Catholic/Benedictine
values, history, and tradition-a preparation for life, students
would also be prepared for a career. This design was the very
being and life-blood of the new institution.
Many changes have occurred over the years including moving from
Chicago to Lisle (1896), inclusion of women in the student body
(1968), two name changes (1972, 1996), addition of graduate programs,
increasing influx of minority students to the student body to
the point that there is no longer a distinction between minority/majority
students on campus; the establishment of a full campus in Springfield
(IL) and thirty off campus sites in Northern Illinois, the construction
of thirteen new buildings, and the tearing down of Benedictine
Hall-the main building for over 100 years. Finally, the number
of students has grown from a handful in 1887 to approximately
four thousand in 2005.
These changes are but the tip of the iceberg of changes occurring
at Benedictine over the years. Clearly, you can understand how
an alum might not recognize the institution as his/hers at initial
blush. But after spending a while on campus, they invariable come
back to the sense that this is indeed their institution.
How does this occur? It is simply that the changes described
above are incidental changes not definitive changes. Remember
that the monks who founded the College created an institution
that was Catholic/Benedictine-to prepare students for life with
specific courses of study to prepare students for a career. The
constant (yet ever upgraded) curriculum is the most obvious piece
of the original institution. The Catholic and Benedictine heritage,
tradition, and values are the lived piece of the original institution.
One needs to walk the campus and experience Benedictine hospitality
and values to know that we are who our founders intended us to
be. This is the piece that reawakens alumni into realizing that
this community is more than buildings and specific nationalities;
it is a community who shares the Catholic and Benedictine tradition
and values of the institution, and of its founders.
This institution has persisted throughout all the changes over
the years. The changes described above were born of opportunity
and necessity. In order for an institution to survive it must
seize opportunities and change out of necessity. Had the College
stayed as it was in 1887, it would not be here today.
The students may have changed, the trappings of the buildings
and the buildings themselves may have changed, even the name of
the institution may have changed, but St. Procopius College--Illinois
Benedictine College--Benedictine University remains the same,
amidst the change - in spite of the change.
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