By balancing Jesuit history with forward thinking, Dean Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., is leading Boston College’s biggest school toward a mission-driven future grounded in the liberal arts.

Gregory Kalscheur’s journey to the Society of Jesus, the priesthood, and ultimately his job as dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences for the past eight academic years was in many ways indirect. It began with a conversation with a law school classmate, was put on hold by the pursuit of a legal career, included a tenured position on the BC Law School faculty, involved a reflective Jesuit sojourn in Australia, and ultimately led him to discover a penchant for the administrative side of academia. However, as Fr. Kalscheur describes it, there is a certain providence to his path. “There’s a way in which God has been at work in my life,” he says.

This past October, Beacon sat down with Fr. Kalscheur in Gasson Hall to discuss his duties as dean, how he recruits and retains great faculty, words of wisdom, and more.

What is it like managing BC’s largest school?

GK: Because it is the largest school, the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences might be understood as the engine or soul that animates the whole University, and, in Jesuit education more broadly, the arts and sciences are truly at the heart of things. The Morrissey College is a large enterprise, with 22 academic departments, so I rely on department chairs to play a critical role in carrying out the mission of the school. My primary role is to set a direction, articulate the mission, and help make sure everybody understands what we’re doing and where we’re going. Day to day that involves leading the work of faculty hiring and chairing the promotion and tenure process, both of which are important and labor-intensive activities.

How do you help ensure that BC hires the best faculty?

GK: Having faculty who are excellent scholars and excellent teachers and who have a good understanding of the distinctive mission of the University is important. If there’s going to be a sustainable, Jesuit, Catholic mission for the University, the faculty members have to understand and own that. I meet with all the finalists for full-time faculty positions before an offer is made. That conversation is my opportunity to get a sense of how they understand the mission. Are they open to the mission? Are they interested in being at a place that really wants to be a great research University while remaining grounded in a foundational commitment to formative liberal arts education? But that’s really just the first step. I think once they get here, how they are brought into the mission, how they deepen their understanding of the mission, is critical. And that’s a big part of my job as dean.

How does the core curriculum relate to the Jesuit pedagogy? Is it more important than the major course of study?

GK: The early Jesuits recognized that an education grounded in the humanities—in history and literature and philosophy and theology—can help people understand in depth the fullness of what it is to be a human being. It’s been important to help students and faculty members understand that the core curriculum is not something to get through and move on to other things, but actually to experience the core as foundational for whatever else follows. The students can sometimes feel like, I need to be in this major if I’m going to get a job, or they want to put these packages of credentials together. And there’s value in that. But it’s a relative value; it’s not the most important thing. At a Jesuit university, having a more broadly based humanistic experience is the foundation, and the core curriculum is part of what’s most distinctive.

What sets Boston College apart from its peers?

GK: I do think this commitment to a formative Jesuit, Catholic, liberal arts education is key. We want students to become good discerners who can reflect on their experience in ways that help them make good decisions. We want them to be people who will use all of their skills and talents and gifts to promote the common good, to help create societies in which everybody can flourish. We want the environment overall in the University to be a place where students come to understand that you can be a serious person of faith and a serious intellectual at the same time. Those things are not inherently in tension. And when we talk about the importance of formative education or the importance of who the students become as people, we need to recognize that faculty members are making the primary contribution to formation through their interactions with students.

Do you have a favorite scriptural passage?

GK: There are obviously lots of passages I find helpful. There’s a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29, where, speaking through the prophet, God says, “I know the plans that I have for you. They are plans of fullness and not of harm, to bring you a future filled with hope.” That speaks to me personally but, more broadly, it speaks to the life of the University and its mission. Every Jesuit work, in some way or another, tries to accompany young people in building a hope-filled future. That’s an important thing for us to be doing in the Morrissey College and throughout Boston College.

What Morrissey College accomplishments of the past year make you proudest?

We’ve been hiring great faculty members across the board. We brought in over 30 outstanding colleagues who will make significant mission contributions as teachers and scholars, while bringing all kinds of diversity to the life of the University. So that’s been great to see.

I’m certainly proud, too, of the way in which everybody in the College and the University have worked together to bring our new engineering program to life. I never thought I would be dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and once I was dean, I don’t think I imagined that I would be involved in starting an engineering program. It’s been fascinating to be part of that work creating something unique. And it’s been tremendously gratifying to see how many high-quality and diverse students have been attracted to this program. We’re off to a tremendous start.

What role does philanthropy play in furthering the work of the Morrissey College?

GK: Obviously philanthropy is critical to the future of the University. We want to continue to create access to this kind of education, and we can do that through contributions to financial aid. At the Morrissey College, faculty support is really important. We have excellent faculty members who could go to other schools almost anywhere in the world; we want to retain them. The long-term impact of the University is probably going to come through faculty members and their interactions with students more than almost anything else. Retaining them through avenues like endowed professorships is a critical kind of impact that benefactors can have on the life of the University and on the lives of students.

This interview was edited and condensed.