[6] The four-year-long sequence of studies in the liberal arts was designed to follow a method of seminars and lectures based on the students' reading of the Great Books of the Western World, in a roughly historical order.
For instance, in their first semester, freshmen read works by ancient Greeks and Semites, including Homer, Aristophanes, Sappho, and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Unlike some other institutions with Great Books curricula, the SII operates within a larger university and does not constitute an alternative to the obligatory major that USF students declare before graduation.
[17] Eventually the differences between the SII and the Department of Theology were symbolized by their contrasting responses to Ex Corde Ecclesiae issued by Pope John Paul II in 1990.
In 1978, the SII hosted a symposium[21] to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the promulgation of Humanae Vitae, the encyclical by Pope Paul VI condemning contraception.
Gerald Coleman, dean of St. Patrick's Seminary, Menlo Park, California, delivered a paper for the minority at the symposium, expressing opposition to the keynote address and arguing for "allowing theological dissent and reception of communion by couples practicing artificial birth control.
Critics of the decision expressed regret at the loss of variety in styles of liturgical worship at USF caused by the campus minister's ruling.
[29] Fessio continued to teach theology at USF and in the SII until 1992, when he resigned to spend more time developing Ignatius Press, the lay-run publishing house he directs in San Francisco.
[40] Conservative leaders expressed support for Galten, including former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute, in a full-page ad published in the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere.
[41] In a memo published nationally, Privett responded to criticism of his decision, stating that the replacement of the SII's leadership would promote "synergies between St. Ignatius Institute and other university programs" and create "efficiencies by consolidating resources.
[43] Within the Catholic Church, the controversy reached Pope John Paul II through a letter of support for the SII signed by Fessio's former PhD thesis advisor Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who became Pope Benedict XVI) and by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (archbishop of Vienna and editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church).
[44] Nevertheless, at the pope's behest, an official letter[45] from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education supported the authority of the then-Archbishop William Levada to resolve tensions between the SII and USF.
Students live together in one of the residence halls, participate in monthly community events, and take a humanities-based curriculum designed to introduce them to topics and texts outside their primary fields of study.
[48] Campion was a two-year Great Books program that effectively transplanted the SII reading list and curriculum,[49] under Galten's watch, to a new junior college granting Associate of Arts degrees to its graduates.