Eugene Prior, S.J.
When our alums return to Loyola for reunions or simply for "pop in" visits, the two greetings that I most frequently hear are "Gee, Father, you haven't changed a bit." This is mainly from the young ladies who have a sensitivity to my looks after 40 years here at the school. The second greeting is "How many JUGs do I still owe you, Father?" This one usually comes from the young men who say it with a smile in their eyes or on their lips, to let me know that the score is still slightly in their favor.
In my early contacts with Jesuit education as a teenager and even later as a young Jesuit this word "JUG" had a most distasteful connotation. It meant hours of monotonous walking on the square pavements at Fordham Prep, Regis and Loyola. The "horror" of the word was brought home to me when a part time cleaning lady, who had lived at an unnamed institution before coming here to work, looked out the window to see sullen faces walking in our JUG Yard and asked "Are they taking their recreation now?" Did this Jesuit word "JUG" really have something to do with a mental institution? Did it have anything at all to do with the words ‘crafty', 'sinister', 'deceitful' so often associated with the name Jesuit in the past? Or was it even possibly short hand for the noble call for all Jesuits to promote Faith and Justice under God - JUG - for all who failed in that ideal?
As Dean of Students a.k.a. Prefect of Discipline, I should be sure of the meaning of the word that highlights the list of names that I post on the main bulletin board each day after school. So, in the secure safety of our Jesuit recreation room where much learned conversation abounds, it was agreed that JUG comes from the Latin word ‘jugum,' which means burden or yoke. And those whose names appear below that word are literally under a burden or under a yoke.
But, as often happens here at Loyola, we do our best to draw good out of evil. Back in 1988, Jennifer Baxter (who never had JUG) graduated from Loyola and went to Hartwick College. About mid-year, she was surprised to hear a fellow student use the word "JUG, to describe detention, in a talk at a school assembly. Naturally, she felt he must be from a Jesuit high school and so decided to seek him out. Well, you know how one good thing usually leads to another. The word "JUG" led to Jennifer Baxter becoming Mrs. Paul Conway some happy years later. (The moral of this essay is: Jugees, even you can have a bright future!)
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