Vincent Rougeau, president to the College of the Holy Cross, and Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham University, join FutureU hosts Jeff Selingo and Michael B Horn to discuss their roles as the first lay presidents of their Jesuit institutions and how the tradition fits with today’s students.
“When you look at Gen Z there is a hungry not just to be virtuous but to really change systems,” says Tetlow, who is also the first woman president at Fordham. “They are cynical but also passionate about questioning assumptions and to fix things. Which is also very Jesuit in nature. The Jesuits for centuries have gotten into good trouble making a difference in the world. That’s who we are in our DNA.”
Rougeau, who is Holy Cross’s first Black president, noted that “there is a special role that the Jesuits play in their presence on campus. They are really engulfed and integrated in on campus undergraduate life.”