"How many students do you have?" It's the most frequent question I get, usually posed by well-meaning people leaning into my office doorway on their way down the hall. I smile, because it's a complicated question, and reply, "3,400. I serve the entire campus!"

Twenty or thirty years ago, all that was required for Campus Ministry to work was a space, a weekly event, and a person to lead it. "Build it and they will come" was the motto. These days, things are different--in Campus Ministry, in the Higher Education system, in the Church, in the world. Students today are entirely different than the students of the 1980s and 90s, and here are just a few examples of how:

• 50% of local college students are "First-Generation", meaning that they are the first in their families to attend college

• the cost of a Bachelor's degree has increased exponentially since the '80s, which means that today's students are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, participating in work-study to help with financial aid, and taking overload course loads to finish their degrees early 

• on top of that, many--if not most--fields in the current job market require at least a Master's degree for entry-level jobs, which means that students are loading on internships and other resume-builders to get into grad school 

• New Hampshire recently overtook Vermont for the title of "Most Unchurched State", which means that only 20% of people claim to be "Very Religious". A recent Pew survey also shows that over a quarter of people identify as "spiritual but not religious", and that number is even higher among the Millenial and GenZ demographics.

All of this combined means that "We're getting together on Sunday night, wanna join?" is an outdated, ineffective model for Campus Ministry. Over the last few years, Campus Ministries across the country--including this one--have been shifting toward an Accompaniment model.

Accompaniment is about meeting students where they are--spiritually, physically, emotionally--and joining them on the journey. It looks less like planned events and more like one-on-one meetings over coffee, conversations held in hallways after meetings, and walking down Appian Way during the morning rush wishing the campus community a good day. Accompaniment has strong and noble roots within the Jesuit tradition, it is a major theme of St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises, and it is perhaps one of the best words to describe the day-to-day events of Jesus' earthly ministry.