Dear Chairman Adams and President Ah Yun,
In November 2024, standing before the assembled body of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, the oldest Jesuit university in the world, an ailing Pope Francis made a call for universities to be true to their heart, and to their ultimate mission—love of God, and through Him, all humanity. “Rome is a teacher,” he spoke, “of what they thought invincible, only ruins remain, while what was destined to flow, to pass—the river—is precisely what has defeated time.”
Once again, as always, the logic of the Gospel shows its truth: to gain, one must lose. What are we willing to lose in the face of the challenges that confront us? The world is in flames; the madness of war covers every hope with the shadow of death. What can we do? What can we hope for?” As we grieve his death, may the words of Pope Francis haunt and challenge us.
Like many Americans, we, the undersigned alumni of Marquette University, have found ourselves reeling as the sweeping actions of the Trump administration have capriciously upended so many pieces of our nation’s foundation. We are fortunate to benefit from the Ignatian principles we have learned at Marquette, which equip us to face this moment, identify the injustices occurring, and work towards what justice demands.
We call on Marquette’s University Leadership Council and Trustees to ground themselves in our shared Ignatian identity, stand firmly for the principles of love and justice, and work in solidarity with our Jesuit peer institutions to oppose the Trump administration’s assault on our academic and fundamental freedoms.
We were formed, as Marquette students, to be men and women for others—“men and women who cannot even conceive of a love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors,” in the words of Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ. We learned from and worked alongside mentors at Marquette who put this to practice. Like Fr. Harold Bradley SJ, who lobbied for and won millions of dollars from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program used by Dr. Madeline Wake, Karen Ivantic, and their colleagues in the College of Nursing to deploy lifesaving food aid and medicine to thousands of mothers and children living with HIV/AIDS in Africa.
It’s perverse and antithetical to this philosophy, and these efforts that the Trump administration, under the direction of unelected billionaire Elon Musk, has made arbitrary cuts to foreign aid–lifesaving food meant for famine-stricken Somalians left to rot, withdrawn support for the education of Sudanese refugee children, HIV medications in rural clinics spoiled without care. Who are we if we are not bound to our less fortunate brothers and sisters through our common humanity and love of God?
In our professional lives, each of us has sought to bring to life the ethic of cura personalis—care for the whole person—that we learned at Marquette. This ethic has pushed us beyond dogmatic and one-dimensional views of individuals and the world in which we live, rejecting simplistic reductions of complex issues and episodes into easy black and white morality tales.
The cura personalis we learned at Marquette is what has led us to work in emergency rooms where shooters are operated on, to board rooms where mental health funding is debated by corporate executives, and to the food pantries of cities where former offenders pursue rehabilitation through service. We have learned that to work for the Kingdom of God here on earth means to accept and see the humanity in all people, and to never lose touch with our own humanity in the process.
We are dismayed to see the Trump administration reject not only the ethic of cura personalis, but the fundamental right of due process guaranteed to all people in America by our Constitution—a fact most gratuitously exemplified in the unlawful deportation and detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, abducted and sent abroad without the opportunity to so much as make a phone call to his family, much less to present his case before a court of law. Who are we if we will not stand up to such actions so contrary to our laws and the ethical precepts we learned here at Marquette?
St. Ignatius called upon his companions to find God in all things—not just through religious ritual and private prayer, but through every act and facet of life, all imbued with divine presence. Universities have always been at the forefront of this mission, forging into the frontiers, charting new discoveries, and crafting new frameworks for understanding the world.
Yet the Trump administration is assaulting universities on multiple fronts, slashing billions of dollars in scientific (NSF) and medical (NIH) research funding, targeting the visas of international students, and threatening universities who refuse to fall in line with attacks on their finances and tax statuses. Already, we see other university networks such as the Big Ten and the AACU coming together in solidarity to form a united front committed to the values of academic freedom and free expression.
Who are we, Marquette, if we do not band together with our sister Jesuit institutions and fight this assault?
Marquette and its fellow Jesuit institutions hold a special role in the call to find God in all things, as they provide an education firmly rooted in both intellectual and moral foundations. We call on Marquette and its sister institutions in the Association of Jesuit Colleges & Universities (AJCU) to summon unusual moral courage at this pivotal time and stand together in the face of these unlawful and unethical actions by the Trump administration.
This moment requires solidarity in the fight for justice that the love of God demands. Jesuit institutions like Marquette must be steadfast in their commitment to being women and men for others, in living the ethic of cura personalis, and in continuing the mission to find God in all things, no matter how they may be threatened or cajoled by this administration. We alumni will be proud to stand beside you.
Sincerely,
Greg St. Arnold, Arts ‘07
Logan Adams, Arts ‘07
Courtney Konyn, Arts ’10, Grad ’25
Laura (Perlman) Corcoran, CHS ’07, Grad ’09
Matthew Hart, Arts ‘05, Bus Ad ‘09
Anna Kees, Arts ‘06, Law ‘09
Mike Valente, Arts ‘07
Meg Lavery, Arts ‘07
Jacqueline Toepfer, Arts ‘84
Gregory Jackson, Arts ‘07
Sean Campbell, Eng ‘02
Katie Kelly, Arts ‘07
Tammy Biesenthal Hopp, Arts ‘92
Joseph Konyn, Bus Ad ‘78
Morgan Halaska, Arts ‘07
Candi (Biesenthal) Konyn, Arts ‘81
Thomas J. Kiset, Nurs ‘84
Mary McDonald Kissinger, Bus Ad, ‘82
James Maguire, Arts ‘84
Andrew Mark, Arts ‘07
Chris Curry, Jour ‘84
Caroline Stankovich, Bus Ad ‘82
Drake Dettman, Bus Ad ‘05
Liz Allen, Jour ‘73
Judith Capar, Jour ‘73
Elizabeth O’Connor, Jour ‘73
Mike Mittel, Eng ‘85
Charles Pierce, Jour ‘75
Eric Compton, Jour’ 72
Ann Heidkamp, Arts ‘72
Cary Kimble, Jour ‘75
Terrence P. Kane, Arts ‘86
John J. Byrne, Arts ‘78
Tim Kummer, Nurs ‘07
Kelene Neer Blumstein, Arts ‘65
Terry Bannon, Jour ‘75
Jacqueline Banaszynski, Jour ’74
Natalie Lynch, Nurs ’09
Dave Marrese, Comm ’03
Sarah Cotton, Arts ’07
Katherine Simoncic Comm ’12
Vincent Howard, Bus Ad ’10
Joseph Sullivan, Bus Ad ’23
This Op-Ed was written by Greg St. Arnold, a graduate of Marquette University’s Klingler College of Arts & Sciences.
To submit an OP-ED email Executive Opinions Editor Joseph Schamber at joseph.schamber@marquette.edu. and copy Print Production Manager Clara Lebrón and Production Director Izzy Fonfara Drewel. They can be reached at clara.lebron@marquette.edu and isabella.fonfaradrewel@marquette.edu.
