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Three years after leaving Seattle University, former President Stephen Sundborg, S.J., has returned, this time as chancellor, a homecoming to a campus and a region close to his heart. In his time away he took a sabbatical and lived in Washington, D.C., where he assisted the president of Georgetown University. But he couldn’t stay away from his beloved Pacific Northwest.

In keeping with the Jesuit character of SU, “Father Steve,” as he is affectionately known, will be working to facilitate communal discernment among senior leaders and members of the university community—a practice of Ignatian group decision-making that emphasizes deep listening.

In this Q&A Father Sundborg shares what’s ahead, his thoughts on an ever-changing world and the future of Jesuit higher education.

Now that you are back on campus after three years away, what’s been the reaction from people you’ve come across?

It has been wonderful how well I’ve been received. And then just above all with President Eduardo Peñalver, it’s been really welcoming. And the Jesuit community has been super. I’m living in Arrupe House, the same building where I lived for 24 years. And they’ve been so welcoming.

You’re originally from the Territory of Alaska?”

Actually, during World War II our family was evacuated to Portland, Ore., and I was born there in 1943. And then we went back to Alaska right after the war. In 1955, Alaska elected 55 people to write a constitution for the future state. And my dad, George, was the chair of the Drafting and Committee of the Constitution because he was a journalist and helped write that constitution. When Alaska became a state in 1959, he was the campaign manager for Ernest Greening, who became Senator Ernest Greening, who had been the territorial governor. So, he was one of the two first senators elected by Alaska and our family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1959.

What led you to become a priest? Were there any other paths you were considering?

From the earliest time that I ever am aware of in my life, the only thing I’ve ever really wanted to be was a priest. If I were not accepted in the Jesuits, I’d want to be
a diplomat.

What do you think made it so clear to you at such a young age?

It’s a puzzle to me. It is something to do with just the way I feel and think. It’s just a very natural thing to me. I admired the Jesuits so much because they were priests, which I wanted to be, and they had an intellectual life and they were also very adventuresome. I admired that combination. So I said, ‘well, that’s the kind of priest that I want to be.’

What brought you back to Seattle University and how do you feel about returning?

I would like the next period of my life as a Jesuit to be at home where I know people and I can be myself and people know me. I was doing some really interesting work at Georgetown and I was very intrigued about staying on and working there, but I’d like to go home.

The second thing was I want to be part of the cohort of the Jesuits here that work with the university. We’re a smaller community in terms of what we were. I want to be a support and just one member of that sort of team that is engaging with the university. I love Seattle University. It’s a free spirit. I like its kind. I used to say that it was kind of scrappy.

President Peñalver characterized your tenure as “a remarkable period of growth, innovation and transformation” for the university. With a little distance from your time as president, looking back, what’s your proudest achievement?

I’d say my proudest achievement is a pretty practical one. It’s the Jim and Janet Sinegal Center for Science and Innovation. It was the last facility that I worked on and there’s something about that building and what it makes possible and that it’s named for the Sinegals. I think we had raised the last nickel on what we needed for that building on my last day. But on the other side, my proudest achievement was fostering the Jesuit character of Seattle University. I tried to be as present at the university as I could. If any student ever came to my office to ask me to show up for something, I would say yes.

It’s becoming more common for non-Jesuits to serve as president of Jesuit universities. What do you make of that?

When I became president in 1997, at my very first meeting with the Board of Trustees, I told them, ‘I’m your last Jesuit president of Seattle University.’ I was then sure that that’s the direction we’re going and that’s the direction we should go.

I mean, Jesuits have a vocation to be priests. We have a vocation to work with people in a faith area, a spiritual area, pastoral care. We are not trained to deal with the finances, the legal difficulties, the political things, the fundraising dimensions, so forth. That’s not our background. There was more of a kind of an open playing field when I started in 1997. Whereas now you better know what you’re doing with some really big issues. That’s why I think lay people with the background that they bring from their careers and their educations and so forth, are more likely to be able to handle the challenging dimensions of being a president of a university.