Human Formation Team and Committee
The role of the Director of Human Formation is to oversee the Human Formation process. The Director coordinates the assignment and provides resource for the continuing education and effectiveness of the Faculty Formation Advisors. The Director attends the Annual Reviews and monitors the quality and content of the Annual Review documents.
The Human Formation Team is comprised of faculty members specially dedicated to maintaining an effective and integrated formation program. The team is chaired by the Director and consists of the Director of Admissions and the Director of Psychological Services. Other faculty members are assigned to the team by the Rector because of their interest or expertise in the area of formation. The Team meets weekly to discuss and evaluate the effectiveness of the program and to address the specific needs of seminarians or faculty advisors. Monthly Formation Advisors Meetings (FAM) are provided to assist advisors of their role and to address specific needs which arise in the Formation Advisor-Advisee relationship. The Human Formation Committee consists of the Human Formation Team and student representatives from the various levels of formation. The Committee meets monthly in order to respond to the questions and concerns raised by the seminary community and discuss ways of improving the effectiveness of the program. The members of the Committee play an integral role in the Continuous Quality Improvement of the Human Formation Program by facilitating the annual evaluation process. |
FORMATION ADVISOR
To assist the student in his personal formation and evaluation each seminarian has a faculty member as a Formation Advisor (FA). The Formation Advisor relationship is meant to provide the student with a helper in addressing areas of human growth in the external forum, that which is public: attitudes, behaviors, factual information. The Formation Advisor is the student’s liaison with the faculty and particularly with the evaluation team, a channel of communication, making certain that relevant information regarding the student reaches the faculty and that faculty concerns are also communicated to the student. The Formation Advisor conducts the annual evaluation process for the student. Confidentiality
The relationship between the Formation Advisor and the student is considered in the external forum and not strictly confidential. Whatever he shares with the Formation Advisor in the context of the relationship may be appropriately shared with other faculty and administration. The student cannot ask the Formation Advisor if he can share “off the record” for this confuses the role of the Formation Advisor and that of the internal forum (spiritual director or confessor). Even if a priest is the Formation Advisor, he cannot be the student’s spiritual director, nor should he serve as the person’s confessor, because he could find himself unclear of the context in which he came by information and confidentiality could be violated. The Formation Advisor is in the external forum, but that is not the same as public information. The Formation Advisor must share with the faculty all relevant information received in the context of the Formation Advisor relationship. However, it is understood that the Formation Advisor may privately decide not to share some things: i.e., the information is not essential for a fair faculty appraisal of the student or is not suitable for sharing with the faculty at large (e.g. the student confides a matter of a highly personal nature such as childhood trauma that has no present bearing.) Duties
1. To meet with the student monthly (at least 4 times a semester) to monitor his formational growth
3. To follow-up recommendations from admissions, consultation and vote concerns 4. To help the student draft his self-evaluation 5. To write the starter document for the evaluation meeting and final document for the file 6. To assist with the faculty evaluation by gathering and promulgating all the documents and facilitating the meeting itself 7. To integrate peer observation reports for PT II, second and third year theology 8. Complete the Annual Review Summary document. |