Good afternoon. Delighted to see you all here today. This is my first celebration of Founders Day at Creighton since 1982. I am pleased to see this tradition continues.

While we all expect change in our lives and on this campus as the years move forward, I think it is very important that we retain some points of continuity and retain some opportunities to celebrate as a university community.

Six months to the day, I walked into the President’s office. Since that day I have seen and heard a lot. I have laughed and I have had moments of great pause. I discovered some wonderful things and some I would like to forget! Having just read a bit of Harry Potter, I no longer am afraid to open doors of any description or in any location!

On Founders Day 2001, we will reflect on the Creighton legacy; revisit the five themes of the inaugural address and see what progress has been made, since those themes will be the guiding template of our institutional planning and budgeting. And in the last part of these comments I will set before you three challenges for our collective future.

Let me state up front that the “state of the university” is very healthy and filled with promise.

Founders Day is an appropriate time to reflect on our institutional history. The Creighton family continues to inspire:

 

• They were pioneers, bringing tradition from the east and from Europe to a new land and a new environment. Similarly, we engage the new and the future with the best of our traditions and history.
• They were innovators and builders—telegraph lines, ranches, banks, university, and hospital. We are innovators and builders in our research, health care, technology, and builders, renewing and upgrading the university.
• They were committed to and inspired by their faith. We, too, proudly insisting on our Catholic and Jesuit nature, even as we partner with women and men of all faith traditions.
• They were rooted in Omaha, building its infrastructure, caring for its uneducated, sick, and poor. We remain rooted in Omaha, grateful to be a model of a genuine urban campus in a thriving city and pleased to be a partner in its growth and development. And we are proud of our continued service to the sick and to the underprivileged, as well as to the newest citizens in our midst.
• They were committed to a comprehensive, multi-dimensional university, founding first a liberal arts college and then an array of professional schools and a hospital. We remain that unique institution today; the most complex university of our size with a full complement of health sciences programs in the country.
• They were family; two sisters and two brothers. When we are at our best, we too are a family, a community caring for the personal development of our students and of one another.

And it is important to remember that our founders were not just the Creightons. Our founders are every person who has sustained and renewed the university for the last 123 years—generations of Jesuits and other religious, faculty members, staff and administrators. We are all in their debt. And we all inherit the obligation to continue the founding of Creighton University by striving for excellence in all we do.

On that inaugural day in September I noted that:

“The Creighton of today is a vibrant, healthy, productive, and responsive institution, consistently ranked nationally and recognized as an outstanding comprehensive university, educating highly qualified students, possessing an excellent faculty who teach with passion and professionalism while being committed to timely and relevant research and publication.

“Creighton is an institution known for quality, value-centered, professional education and health care delivery; known for service and outreach to the greater community; known as the intellectual center for Catholic thought and dialogue; respected well beyond the borders of Omaha and Nebraska.”

Today that opinion stands undiminished. Indeed, I am even more bullish about Creighton today than I was five months ago.

In my visits to departments and faculty groups, through my listening sessions of nearly 400 employees, in my weekly breakfast conversations with students (ranging from med students to members of the birdcage), it is evident to me how committed, proud, and deeply loyal these women and men are to this university.

Lest you think me Pollyannish, however, some concerns and disappointments also surfaced in these conversations. These concerns primarily dealt with compensation issues, resource allocation and the budgeting process, financial aid, student demographics, and facility and technology up-keep and the need for additional facilities for teaching, research, and meeting space. These concerns will influence budgets well into the future.

None of these are surprising since they are concerns expressed on most, if not all, campuses in the country.

Recall those September hopes for the Creighton of the future: It is to be — faith-based and value-centered; an inclusive and engaged community; educationally purposeful, fiscally responsible, and a community in conversation.

A brief comment about progress on these multiple fronts.

(1) JESUIT AND CATHOLIC: We are facing the opportunities and the challenges that follow from the new relationships between Catholic universities and the church sparked by ex corde ecclesiae. We are entering a specific dialogue with the archbishop on the implementation of the mandatum for Catholic theologians teaching Catholic theology, and we are doing this as a spirit of trust and mutual respect. We know that the archbishop is proud to have Creighton University in the archdiocese and is grateful for the many ways Creighton serves the local church and for Creighton’s faithfulness to the church across the generations.

For our part, we want to think with the church and accurately characterize Catholic teaching. Working together, I believe, that we can create a model for church and university cooperation in this arena. And in that we are creating a Catholic university “that is a primary and privileged place for a fruitful dialogue between the gospel and culture—a place where faith meets reason.”

(2) INCLUSIVE: Many of you know that it is my strongly held belief that there is in Jesuit education an implicit acceptance and appreciation of cultural and ethnic diversity.

Over the years Creighton has worked hard to attract students, faculty and staff of color; and to keep Creighton affordable to students of diverse backgrounds. But just as important is making Creighton a welcoming environment in which diversity will thrive and to which international students will be attracted. We are making progress:

 

• 19% of the new freshman class is from under-represented groups.
• The medical school and educational opportunities programs reinstated the post-baccalaureate program to enhance enrollment of under-represented minorities. And the Medical School created an Office of Multicultural and Community Affairs for the health sciences.
• New initiatives are underway at the undergraduate level to target under-represented groups with financial assistance.
• The Office of International Programs is being reorganized and reinvigorated.
  

 

(3) ENGAGED: For me, part of the new Creighton is a higher visibility in the Omaha community; a greater willingness to be involved in the deliberations that impact the quality of life and the future direction of Omaha. Creighton is the elder sister of every other meaningful institution in the city. We were here early; we are here today. And, like our founding family, we must share responsibility for shaping the future of our city and for the welfare of the common good.

These past months have not been idle on this front.

 

• Since last August, C.U. has been featured in more than 25 front page stories; and more than 870 stories in local, regional and national publications. The wonderful success of the men’s soccer team certainly accounted for some of that coverage.
• The new campus in West Omaha is opening opportunities for us to be present to adult students seeking a convenient site to complete their educational objectives.
• Both the committee for community relations and the committee for governmental relations have been revitalized and refocused.
• The law school has initiated expanded legal services to the Latino community in South Omaha.
• The medical school is offering glaucoma screenings in North Omaha during glaucoma awareness month.
• And I am in a wooing mode with Nebraska’s congressional delegation, the governor, the unicameral, the mayor and city council. And I confess to liking this part of the job. It is an opportunity to tell the Creighton story.
• Creighton now employs a lobbyist in Washington to assist in our grant efforts.
• Alumni advisory boards have been established in 20 cities; we have 56 alumni chapters nationwide.

 

(4) EDUCATIONALLY PURPOSEFUL: Teaching and research are the heart of the matter. And so it will remain. Things have happened since September. You have been busy!

 

• We are embarking on a science project of building and renovation that will be the largest single capital project in the university’s history — $48 millions. Most importantly, it will involve the sharing of facilities between scientists and students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the scientists and students in the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions.

My hope is that physical sharing — and the admirable give and take that led to it—will lead to shared research projects and interdisciplinary collaborations that we cannot even imagine now. Let this be the start of a synergy that builds new levels of excellence on existing strengths and continues to keep Creighton in the national consciousness.

 

• A new masters in clinical anatomy is up and running.
• The new CLIC system which integrates all university libraries and collections is in place.
• This year two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court — Justices Kennedy and Thomas — have lectured at the Creighton law school.
• C.U. experienced the smallest attrition on record from fall 2000-to-spring 2001 for freshman and sophomores: 3.5% and 2.6% respectively.
• The Medical School had an 18% increase in externally funded research. All department chairs are in place. And Dr. Ronald Markert received the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Distinguished Teacher Award for 2000.
• The Dental School enjoyed the highest GPA and DAT scores for an incoming class in its history.
• On the national dental boards, C.U. grads ranked 13 nationally out of 55 dental schools.
• Dr. John Mattson, merited the Academy of Periodontics’ (Periodontology) National Clinical Research Award for 2000.
• This year marked the 25th anniversary of Creighton’s accelerated nursing program, one of the first in the country.
• C.U. implemented the first entry-level clinical doctoral program in occupational therapy in the country. And the entering students in pharmacy are required to have notebook computers.
• Expanded internet usage and access to internet 2 is in place. Today over 390 courses use WEB-CT; 110 of these courses are active this semester. And a wireless biology field lab is in operation.
• And, of course, Creighton continues to be recognized as the top comprehensive university in the Midwest for the fifth year.

 

(5) FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY: While our financial resources are never abundant, they are respectable. We have been vigilant, in the spirit of Mike Morrison, in keeping an eye to the bottom line.

 

• In process of restructuring the budgeting process with more input, more access, and more openness to the process.
• We are nearing completion of a significant restructuring of the university endowment portfolio designed to enhance investment returns and reduce risk.
• The university has announced its intent to acquire property to the east of campus, tying into other downtown construction and redevelopment activity. Many of the targeted properties have been acquired.
• Happily the board of directors share my vision and direction and are anxious to start another comprehensive campaign. In this we are fortunate, since many boards are reluctant to agree to major fund-raising efforts.
• Gift income from July 1 through December 30 totaled near $11 million compared to $9.2 million for the same period last year. (17.7% increase) the numbers are going in the right direction. I am confident they will continue to do so.

That is the Creighton of today. What of tomorrow? I end with three challenges. Challenges that I consider to be at the heart of our future success in being the institution envisioned by our founding family. These challenges will not be easy, but I know you and your colleagues are worthy of them and worthy of the future they portend.

The first challenge I set before you deals with who we are. Who we are as university family/community, how we interact with each other, how the institution empowers its students beyond the quality education provided them.

As mentioned earlier, since coming I have visited with many groups, read reports and reflected on survey data. Drawing from that, there are three areas I will briefly mention that constitute the essence of this first challenge.

First I want to stress the importance of every person in the employ of the university to live out the Jesuit commitment of cura personalis —the care of our students. It takes all of us — faculty, staff, administrators — from Environmental Services to the President’s office — working in our part of the university to make a difference for the students with whom we come in contact.

Recent data indicates the single most consistent factor “positively impacting” student sense of belonging, positive self-esteem on campus, and student appraisal of campus climate was the frequency and breadth of personal conversations with adults. You, when in conversation in/out of classroom, enhance their sense of self. I encourage you to continue this and reach out even more. That is a Creighton tradition.

The faculty, of course, have a unique role to play. They should be models of equity, respect, and empowerment — both in a way they treat students interpersonally and publicly; also in what they expect in student behavior in their classrooms and clinics.

We must develop and promote an authentic understanding that each Creighton employee, is part of the educational mission of the university. We all have an opportunity and a responsibility to contribute to the education of our students. We must continue to be interactive with them. This has always been a characteristic of a Creighton experience.

My mother used to say, “a new broom sweeps cleaner.” Well, I am the new broom; and the new set of eyes and ears. As I view institutional structures — i.e., our norms, policies, procedures and curricula. I see the need for change. A second point.

It is my belief that our curricula, our student leadership opportunities, and administrative policies need to communicate a stronger, more explicit message of inclusion of all sectors.

Knowing that Creighton, like other institutions, desires diversity among its students, we have to prepare the campus to be welcoming, encouraging and responsive to students of color, women, students from differing orientations and beliefs, as well as students with disabilities. We know the importance and the value of a diverse educational enterprise to effectively prepare and enable all of our students to become compassionate, committed, and just leaders of the human community of the 21st century.

So we must look at our procedures, our curricula, and our typical way of thinking and acting, and modify them to respond to changing times, to the changing needs and expectations of our students.

To round out the first challenge of building an inclusive community, we must consider the way students perceive this institutional environment and their interaction with peers.

It has come to my attention that the student subculture — of student-to-student — is not perfect, but reflecting other campuses and the nation as a whole, is characterized, at times, with incivility and rudeness in all of its forms. These patterns are exacerbated by race, gender, religion and orientation.

Obviously, this is not acceptable conduct for any institution. This is especially true for an institution guided by Catholic ideals and traditions. Our role as educators must be to work actively to transform our students’ hearts and minds — so that indeed they can become women and men for and in solidarity with others.

This is the heart of my first challenge, how do we actively promote and reward development of a student subculture that is centered in mutual respect for differences and celebration of human connectedness?

I ask each school and college to address the strong and the weak qualities of its unique faculty and student subculture. Where can we improve? Where can we be better? What is good that is already in place and should be retained?

The challenges are real. But in these challenges there are also unique opportunities to develop model programs and processes that reflect the heart and the ethos of our Catholic and Jesuit heritage, a heritage committed to justice and enabling for all.

What better foundation could we ask for in taking on the challenges of weaving the multicolored strands of diversity into the fabric that is Creighton — its curricula, its people, its community life?

The second challenge is an invitation to think big. To think well. To think beyond the present. To think beyond the confines of a regionally recognized university that has the potential to be great in your lifetime. To think beyond the regionally honored university that is far better than, perhaps, we believe.

Yet, at times we do not respond with the sure-footedness and the confidence that this reputation entitles. There are times when we are more modest in our aspirations, more sedate in our expectations, less demanding of our community and more accepting of the status quo. Yet we remain the foremost nationally recognized comprehensive university in the Midwest.

So I ask you today to join me in reclaiming the Creighton family’s legacy and “can-do attitude.” All of you play a unique role in this endeavor. In reality, the task is not difficult. It is a question of faith, of a willingness to be called to higher expectations, greater accountability, an honest living out of our mission, and giving voice/life to our aspirations.

It is no longer business as usual at Creighton. This is a new day.

I dream great dreams for you, for Creighton, and for Creighton’s role in the community. And today I simply ask you to recommit yourself, to reinvest your considerable talent and expertise and loyalty to building the Creighton of tomorrow.

To accomplish this renewal of institutional self three new initiatives are soon to be announced. Simply stated they are:

• Mandatory program review at the departmental level utilizing external evaluators will be implemented. More coordination and cooperation across departments and schools is to be encouraged. For to paraphrase the psalmist: There is a time for planting and a time for rooting up, a time to prune and a time to reshape.
• The introduction of genuine incentives for new program development. I presented this to the deans last fall. The intent is to reward the department or the college for their creativity and vision. A good incentives program can be very beneficial to any department’s faculty development and travel fund!

 

This is a call to read the signs of the times, to use your discipline creatively while developing new signature programs beneficial to our students and your personal professional development.

 

• The need for enriched external funding for research, program design and support, and facility enhancement. We must be more aggressive, confident, and creative in targeting external funding sources. This is an invitation to the entire university, across all departments and colleges. Our grants office is there to serve you, our Washington and Lincoln lobbyists are there to assist you, your peers are there to encourage you and enable you.

 

To summarize this second challenge: I have great expectations of you; we are an excellent institution with a quality teaching and research faculty and a service-oriented staff with tremendous potential that, perhaps, is not being fully appropriated for the institutional common good.

With serious program review, creative incentives and niche marketing, as well as enhanced external program and research funding, Creighton will not only continue to be that outstanding institution it is today, but soar to new heights. New heights that you both aspire to and can, indeed, accomplish. We have a great story to tell and it is getting better.

My last point. Just as I exhorted you to assist me in building a more inclusive and sensitive community and challenged you to raise the bar of expectations, now I ask you to join me and your colleagues in plotting our future.

 

There has been much planning over the past three years. You have been generous in your participation. And I thank you for that. It is not the intention to redo all of that quality work, nor to reinvent the planning wheel. Our new planning initiative is a three-pronged approach that will build upon and incorporate the relevant data of those past efforts.

 

There will be three new planning initiatives:

 

The academic/strategic planning initiative, the planning for the next comprehensive campaign, and the development of a new master plan and east campus development. They will run in tandem, on parallel tracks with some overlapping participants, deadlines and accountability.

 

A brief word about each:

 

• The academic/strategic planning will be done by academics, for academics and about academics since that is the heart of the enterprise. However, all sectors of the university will be represented on this committee with half of the membership coming from the faculty. It will be chaired by one of the academic vice presidents. The president will not be on the committee. I, however, will monitor progress and respond to draft reports.

 

This group’s charge will be to advance the mission of the university by balancing and prioritizing academic ambitions, fiscal realities, non-academic needs and concerns, faculty and administration priorities and resource allocation. The planning group will be announced by late February. It is hoped the plan will be completed in time to celebrate Creighton’s 125th anniversary in 2003.

 

• Planning for the next campaign is already underway. Last fall, the university community was invited to comment on the 18 campus priorities determined during the 1998-99 planning cycle. Many of you were generous in your response. Those priorities have been honed down to five general categories from which the case for the next campaign will be built.

 

There remains opportunities for all the schools and colleges to fine-tune the specifics within these broad categories. Obviously endowment for student scholarships and program support will be a primary focus of this next fund-raising effort.

 

• The campus master plan has to be revisited. The new opportunities to develop a significant east campus invites us to think in bigger terms and, perhaps, on an accelerated timeline. We hope to benefit from the momentum surrounding downtown development and the new convention center. I want Creighton to be fully engaged in this exciting, indeed, historic opportunity for university and city alike.

 

The campus planning committee will be reconstituted. I will chair it. As a complement there will also be a subcommittee responsible for landscaping and outside space design and enhancements.

 

• A brief word on the east campus project. Creighton has a great need to spread out, to decompress the density of person and facilities that are presently concentrated between 24th and 27th streets along the California mall. Should we consider growing our enrollment, we could do so only with additional student housing, playing fields, recreational and green space, additional academic buildings, and parking.

 

The time is now, the time is right for Creighton to be engaged in enlarging its physical footprint. In doing this, however, the university must be in genuine dialogue with our neighbors, particularly those in North Omaha. We have had a preliminary conversation. There is more to come. It is my hope that some aspects of this redevelopment will include small businesses, retail, and entertainment opportunities that will mutually benefit our students and the citizens of our neighboring communities.

 

Finally, it is my hope that these committees will work on parallel tracts, perhaps meet jointly on occasion and provide periodic updates for the entire Creighton community.

 

Let me say in closing that your active participation in these planning efforts will result in an equally active response on my part and that of the board.

 

I believe that if we are united in purpose and united in action, we will succeed and see the emergence of the Creighton of tomorrow we all aspire to and hope for.

 

Shakespeare captures this attitude best in “Julius Caesar,” where he writes:

 

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea we are now afloat.
And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our venture.

 

Or as T. S. Eliot noted:

 

We shall not cease from exploration,
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started,
And know the place for the first time

 

.…and perhaps meet (in spirit) the Creighton family who started this enterprise in 1878.

 

John P. Schlegel, S.J.
President
On Convocation
February 6, 2001