Boxing Priest to Leave for Loyola
Rev. Kevin Wildes S.J. holds a short mass in his New South residence every Tuesday. But no matter how exciting his weekly sermons, Tuesday’s mass never draws a crowd like his occasional boxing lessons on Sunday nights.
“Our joke was always ‘Tuesdays are for mass, but Sunday is boxing day,’” said New South resident Patrick Morissey, (SFS ‘07).
It is moments like these that will be missed when he leaves Georgetown this summer to become President of Loyola University in New Orleans on August 1.
Wildes’ departure will end his 11 years at Georgetown, during which he served as an associate professor in the Philosophy Department and a senior scholar at The Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Wildes also taught ethics at the Georgetown School of Medicine.
Christina Lelong, Director of Public Affairs at Loyola University, said that Wildes came very highly recommended for the position. She added that the University was confident that Wildes could bring Loyola to a higher level both academically and in university rankings.
Loyola has recently been hit hard by scandal, as former President, Rev. Bernard Knoth, S..J. resigned his position after being accused of sexual assault last fall.
Wildes said that he was looking forward most to the challenges Loyola presents. “Loyola is a strong institution that wants to be even stronger. That’s the kind of challenge that I just love,” he said.
The Board of Trustees at Loyola University, of which Wildes has been a member for 6 years, selected him as President.
Sitting in his apartment overlooking the Potomac, Wildes reflected on his time at Georgetown. “I’ve learned a lot about myself humanly, and I’ve thought a lot about the basic beliefs that I hold,” he said.
He described the people that make up the community as the most valuable part of his experiences at Georgetown. “It’s a great location, and Washington is a wonderful city; but it’s the people I’ll miss the most. This institution is wonderfully blessed with its faculty, staff and students,” he said.
In a letter to the Georgetown community President John DeGioia congratulated Wildes. “Loyola New Orleans has been fortunate to select an exceptional scholar and dedicated Jesuit for its presidency. We are proud to see one of our own recognized, but Fr. Wildes will be greatly missed by all of us at Georgetown,” he wrote.
Rev. Patrick Heelan S.J., a professor in the Philosophy Department described Wildes as a good friend and an energetic colleague. He said that the Wildes’ experiences at Georgetown would serve him well as President at Loyola University.
Wildes hopes to continue teaching at Loyola University. He said that he would like to teach a course in medical ethics.
GU’s star internationalist will go to Princeton
Presiding over his International Relations class, Professor G. John Ikenberry shares the traumatic story of his first day on the job at the State Department, the day the Soviet Union collapsed. In the midst of the geopolitical chaos, no one could spare the time to show Ikenberry around the building, and he wandered the halls for what seemed like hours looking for a bathroom. Over a decade later, chaos still surrounds Ikenberry as he deals with the demands of being one of the most prominent international relations scholars in the nation.
Ikenberry was courted by the international affairs departments at Princeton and Yale while holding an endowed professorship and directing the Mortara Center for International Affairs. He ultimately chose Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs because of the “very exciting offer” of a research program and his personal connections with the school. He met his fianc?e at Princeton and began his teaching career there, from 1984 to 1992.
As he prepares to leave Georgetown for Princeton this fall, Ikenberry has a full plate before him. Teaching international affairs classes, planning the logistics of his move from Georgetown to Princeton, publishing constantly and attending conferences abroad leaves precious little free time to sit down and chat.
Nevertheless, sitting in his ICC office Ikenberry eloquently summarized his disapproval of America’s recent unilateralism while simultaneously shooting off an e-mail to a colleague and keeping an eye on the international page of the New York Times. A colleague popped in to confirm an upcoming collaborative paper while students waited patiently to discuss the finer points of Relations among Industrialized Societies, Ikenberry’s graduate course this semester.
International politics is Ikenberry’s passion, but he does find time for other pursuits. He is a wine and travel enthusiast and relishes his chances to visit Italy and Asia, where he maintains close friendships. “I’ve always found travel in Asia fascinating,” Ikenberry said. He expressed a love for reading, to which the colorful volumes piled all over his fifth-floor ICC office attest, but was hard-pressed to remember the last book he read that had nothing to do with international relations.
At Princeton he will teach an undergraduate introductory course and continue his research with a five-year project studying the future of multilateralism. He will also help rebuild the faculty of the Wilson School, which has lost notable faculty members recently to retirement and transfers.
Normally quite steady and calculated, Ikenberry seemed genuinely excited when discussing the American government’s disdain of international institutions.
“I’m very troubled by what I consider a strategic debacle that America has found itself in,” he said.
