Loyola administration is very happy to have you all as the faculty members for the PU-LCS program. All of you have experience of varying degrees: a few of you might be the beginners, some might have a few years of teaching experience, and many would have a decade plus experience and expertise in the field of your teaching. We welcome you and wish you all the best as you begin yet another academic year. The academic year has been shifted a bit due to corona epidemic as well as university direction. It is better late than never. Let us begin with hope and confidence – These are the two feet as we walk along the road of life.
Orientation is always very important in the Jesuit pedagogy. It is not that we get disoriented over a period of time, but we need to sharpen, enliven, and enhance our teaching as learning process. And orientation is the time to catch up with the changes on the time line and to get prepared for the challenges in the future. Each academic year brings its own successes as well as challenges coupled with opportunities. We meet often with dilemma or obstacles that confuses us – It might be the question that the students ask, or it might be a new concept that comes in while teaching, or it might be an insight for the old or existing problem. Whatever be the situation, our cumulative knowledge brings in new inspiration and we need to become better equipped to face the present in order to prepare our students for the future.
Recently I was reading the book, Sailing through a Storm: Making a Crisis work for You by T.N. Hari and S. Swamy (2021). It deals with the question whether we should address the crisis when it knocks at our door or we should be prepared for a crisis that might face us. In other words, whether we should pre-empt crisis or we should do the fire-fighting when the crisis occurs. Murphy’s law states: What could go wrong would one day go wrong. To be prepared for an unexpected or unwanted crisis is management and you, as faculty members, are going to prepare the students to meet with such crisis. And much more, you are going to tell them that each crisis has the potential of creativity and teach them the trick how to be creative on the face of any crisis. Just take, for example, corona crisis. It was a health threat but the outcome has helped a lot of industries: starting from mask-making, sanitizer production, detecting gadgets for body temperature, upto vaccine research – and of course, transport and distribution on the global and local level etc. Many a country as well as individual has profited a lot. Corona and now Micron have taught us the survival mechanism – It has taught us: No matter how hard you have been hit and how low you are feeling, forcing yourself to rebound quickly is the only way to turn things around. And as faculty members, whatever be the subject you are going to teach the students, you are going to teach them the above practical tip for survival and to progress. And you are going to convince them that some have break down on the face of obstacles but a few people break records when difficulties engulf them.
Above all you are going to deal with the present as well as future managers or management employees who would like to build their lives on formidable foundation of financial and social comfort zone. But you are going to teach them what matters most in life is searching and finding meaning in life, when teaching business management or learning the same. What makes one individual overcome extreme adversity and another to crumble is a difficult question to answer. The best answer is provided by the famous Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, in his bestselling book, Man’s Search for Meaning. The book is about the story of the survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp and how they survived despite the gruesome conditions there. The experience taught Frankl that those who survived were the ones who recognized that the primary purpose of life was the quest of ‘meaning’. He goes on to elaborate that ‘meaning’ came from three sources: Purposeful work, love of people close to heart, and courage to face challenges (Harri and Swamy, 115).
Along with your effective teaching, you need to motivate them to face life. They need to find purpose in work they do, they should become convinced that family and friends are central to their emotional life, who would stand with them in facing challenges and difficulties in life. Along with the objective way of teaching the syllabus, you could share with them your subjective experience in life how you have survived challenges and how you could surf in a storm.
You are not mere teachers or instructors but you are mentors. A teacher brings in knowledge and an instructor gives others training. But as mentors you show the way and walk with them. Blend your academic teaching with your life experience. Tell them to keep their life-goal clear in sight always and their enthusiasm ever burning inside. Convey to them that one cannot chase two rabbits simultaneously – You won’t catch either one. In today’s world, many keep jumping from job to job but they lose peace of mind. Show them how to learn, how to work, and how to live with purpose and meaning for themselves and for others. This can be done only by a mentor. Mentor does not merely show the way but walks with the mentees.
We have heard of the dictum: Once a teacher, always a teacher. I hold a different view: A teacher is a professional as well as permanent student who has the interest, enthusiasm, and thirst to learn more and to learn for ever. The ongoing formation is the one that keeps the teacher alert, fit, young in mind, and inspiring. Today we are living in a knowledge society and a digital age. Most of our works, ordering groceries, reserving tickets, teaching-learning etc, are on a digital platform in a faceless world. Today, as you know, the Govt auditing is done digitally and with faceless system. When you upload your statements or documents, you do not know where it goes and who would look at it. You think you have sent it to Delhi, but some parts might go to Assam, some assessment would be done in Bengaluru, and you might get the direction from Mumbai. This needs updated knowledge and readiness to adopt oneself to the system that is being introduced every now and then. As you are mostly dealing with finance either in general or specifically with marketing, you need for sure to keep yours abreast of time. Once you have learnt new techniques, pass them on to the students. You give them what you have and do not talk to them or teach them what you do not know.
You may say, that the syllabi are outdated and why should we teach modern trends and techniques. You are in a professional world. Passing the exams and getting a diploma are only an entry ticket to the job market. Once you sit down on your work-desk the reality is going to stare into your face. So prepare them – It might be double work for you but your students would be grateful to you for ever. Read at least one book a year in your area of specialization or in the subject you are teaching – Attend at least on conference online or offline to enhance your knowledge – And if possible do a course, perhaps 3-credit course, online to keep yourself updated. You would become in the long run an encyclopaedia of knowledge in your area of specialization.
I am sure Loyola would create this atmosphere for you and I recommend that you keep your interest in keeping yourselves updated in your areas of expertise. While I thank the Director and his team of able administrators of PU-LCS program, I welcome you all as you are going to shape up the students even though most of them are already employed. Thank you for your services in the past and wish you all the best in 2022. Loyola trusts in your competence and your commitment in delivering academic goods and we wish you all the best.
We entrust the students to you – You make them entrepreneurs and leaders with social responsibility. I am sure we shall do it with success and pride.
Francis P Xavier SJ
09Jan2022