Note from the Editors

The past year was a difficult one for colleges and universities in the United States. Contentious protests divided many campuses, including our own. Collectively, we continue to grapple with maintaining free speech ideals in which all can express viewpoints without reprisal, creating inclusive campus spaces in which all members of a diverse community can feel welcome without fear, and pursuing human solidarity and concern for the common good. This turmoil occurred against the backdrop of a broad-based decline in Americans’ confidence in higher education. And if all of that was not enough, generative AI remains an ongoing challenge as higher education institutions figure out the implications of the game-changing technology for teaching and learning.

Throughout these ongoing challenges, students continue to show us the university at its best. In their scholarship, creativity, and vulnerability, we find ourselves inspired by their commitment to a thriving academic community. In that spirit, we present Volume 24 of Fresh Writing.

One of the most subtle skills reflected in a robust university is analysis: the breaking down of complex topics into understandable components while also not bending the original pieces out of shape. From comparing an ancient literary hero with a well-known one from an iconic film to critically examining police uniforms in Brazil, or finding connections between films depicting different countries in different eras to discerning the echoes of an ancient poem in a modern one, we see stunning models of analysis. Skillful analysis also emerges in the unpacking of a TED Talk on sustainable design. The written word is not the only medium for conveying this kind of intellectual work: in this volume, we also have a video asking us to think more deeply about what it means to be smart and podcasts presenting two complex histories in the United States: one on the changing attitudes toward marijuana and another on the Land Back Movement for National Parks.

In addition to analysis, the ability to understand the argument of another and refute it in a penetrating yet charitable way shows up in an essay patiently rebutting a recent Supreme Court decision.

Universities also form careful researchers who can synthesize many materials to enter a scholarly conversation to serve an ultimate aim. In the service of justice, we see meticulously researched proposals to improve fundraising to help a vulnerable population, provide more support for college students in their first year, offer safe injection sites for those struggling with substance abuse, allow more time on tests in schools, and extend greater access to menstrual products.

Academic subjects are not the only suitable venue for exploration in a thriving university. Whether it is turning inward to reflect or turning outward to recount experiences, many writers in this volume have generously invited us into their worlds. In compelling narratives, we find a student sharing the twists and turns of fortune while another offers a striking metaphor for living in a new environment. We laugh as one student takes us on a delightful adventure in a new city, and we feel nostalgia with another who calls that same city home. We also gaze at imaginative photos as a student reflects on the discomfort that comes with the experience of newness. We reflect on the ways spaces can remind us of our past and closets can be a window into a culture. Moreover, we learn so much from a thoughtful conversation between two young men who open up about what it’s like to be a minoritized or international student.

Additionally, our award-winning essays showcase the heights of what a university can bestow on the world. Our two Raclin Murphy Award winners bring together thoughtfulness and humanity as they analyze a photo of an iconic house that encapsulates the possibilities of the American Dream in a dynamic historical era and probe a religious painting created to affirm fundamental beliefs amid sectarian strife. Our McPartlin Award winners display all of the virtues of higher learning in studying the surprising things the desks in Hesburgh Library can reveal about our community, investigating how American political realities influence the Catholic bishops’ communication on climate change, and interrogating the personal implications of inhabiting two different sociolinguistic worlds.

All of these essays give us hope in these troubling times for colleges and universities. We believe that our students will never fail to be faithful caretakers of the ideals of higher education while also resourcefully adapting those ideals to new ways of being and living together. In total, we see in these essays and our students a university of people in true communion, giving and receiving gifts for the sake of the world.