Network aims to coordinate universities' response to global crises

By Beth Griffin - Catholic News Service
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - Web Link
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July 15, 2008

While many of their colleagues were getting a jump on summer jobs and vacations, students and faculty from 20 Jesuit-run U.S. universities met at Fordham University in New York to discuss ways to coordinate their responses to humanitarian crises around the globe.

The workshop was the first national initiative of the Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network. Held June 20-22, it drew 156 students and 20 faculty members.

The network, known as JUHAN, was created by Fordham University and the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, according to Brendan Cahill, the institute's administrative director.

"JUHAN seeks to coordinate the response of its member universities to create an efficient, well-informed response to humanitarian crises, as well as to raise awareness on campuses across the nation on the meaning of humanitarian response and its implication for the Jesuit ideology of 'men and women for others,'" he said.

Workshop topics ranged from the concept of humanitarianism and the motivations, justifications, consequences and complexities of humanitarian intervention to logistics, health, sanitation, cross-cultural issues, security and media relations.

Cahill said the workshop is intended to be a biannual event, open to members of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States.