SDU is Trusted to Lead AJCU-AP for Another Three Years
Hosted by Sogang University in South Korea, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities-Asia Pacific (AJCU-AP) held its annual meeting on August 23th-24th, 2019. The Rector of Sanata Dharma University (SDU), Johanes Eka Priyatma, Ph.D., attended the meeting together with the Vice Rector IV, Ouda Teda Ena, Ed.D., and Dr. Benedictus Yuliawan, SJ as the coordinator of Sustainability Project. Helped by Mr. Ouda as the secretary of AJCU-AP, Mr. Johanes who is the chairperson of AJCU-AP led the meeting.
Around 30 participants from 21 association members attended this meeting. Starting from this year, one of the members, Cullion College from the Philippines, quits from the membership because of no longer accepting college students and only accepting senior high school students. The envoy from Ateneo de Zamboanga University Philippines canceled the meeting because of the sudden illness. Every association member used to send one or two delegations. This meeting becomes special because the President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP), Fr. Tony Moreno, SJ, also attended the meeting and was interested in continuing to come for the upcoming years. This is because, organizationally, AJCU-AP is under JCAP coordination.
The meeting, which was held in one of the Sogang University’s buildings which was clean, neat, and modern, became one of the productive and comfortable opportunities for all of the participants. Moreover, all of the participants got a place to stay at Gonzaga dormitory which was located inside the university complex which is comfortable with various complete facilities.
There are six agendas discussed in the meeting, namely the activity report for the previous year, Universal Apostolic Preferences/UAP, Jesuit Union, Sustainability Project Proposal, The Charter of AJCU-AP education consortium, the election of the Chairperson of AJCU-AP for the next 3 years, and also planning activities for the upcoming year.The activity report includes 1) Service Learning Program (SLP) hosted by Sophia University Tokyo, Japan at August 1st-14th, 2018, followed by 28 students and 8 lecturers came from nine universities; 2) Global Leadership Program (GLP) hosted by Sogang University at August 11th-18th, 2018, followed by 14 students from four universities; 3) an education seminar with a theme “Education in the Age of Fake News and A.I” taken place in Ateneo de Manila at October 3rd-5th, 2018, attended by 25 participants from various schools in the Philippines; and 4) the involvement of AJCU-AP in various meeting, especially with the International Association of Jesuit University (IAJU). The discussion about UAP was facilitated by Father Tony Moreno, SJ. Meanwhile, Mr. Ouda led the discussion about the education consortium’s charter, and Father B. Yuliawan, SJ. discussed the sustainability project proposal. Meanwhile, for the election of the Chairperson of AJCU-AP for the 2019-2022 period, the Rector of the Sanata Dharma University was reelected for having the highest votes. (JEP)