Good evening. Welcome to Creighton and to Omaha.

Welcome to this leadership conference. You are a President’s greatest hope – a room filled with students willingly and vigorously engaged in the life of a campus.

Thank you for the invitation. I believe strongly in the importance of students seeing and sensing the support of the President and of all administration.

Again, welcome to Omaha and to Creighton. Omaha is the best-kept secret of Midwestern cities. I refer to Omaha as the “Athens of the Great Plains” without the buffalo.

Your theme of “making tracks” resonates well with the history and ethos of this city and this University.

Tracks were made from Omaha!

• Historically, this region was a staging place for the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804.
• The Mormon pioneers spent a winter encamped here on their way to Utah.
• The telegraph lines were strung from Omaha to San Francisco; thus connecting this country for the first time from coast to coast!
• Omaha was the terminus for the railroad from all four directions. And today we host the first-ever corporate headquarters of the Union Pacific Railroad.
• Historic, too, because grazing cattle for sale, consumption and profit was developed in the Nebraska territory.
  
  The last three historic references – the telegraph, railroads and steak – involved the Creighton family and indirectly the founding of this University.

Two brothers from Ohio married two sisters from Ohio. The brothers’ estates endowed Creighton College. The philanthropy of the women built and supported Creighton University Hospital and St. John’s Church. Much has happened since the University was founded in 1878.

Creighton has evolved into the most complex institution of its size in the country – public or private. We have a full complement of health science programs that sets us apart from any other Jesuit school in the country.

Creighton is also the only Jesuit school to be ranked No. 1 in any category of the US News and World Report rankings of colleges/universities. Creighton has been ranked the No. 1 comprehensive University of the Midwest five times since 1997.

Well, that is enough of the history lesson.

For the next few minutes I want to share with you some of my “take” on the themes of this conference and the topics of your discussion.

Any conference that brings together student leaders from diverse campuses is a learning experience, a journey of discovery – new ideas, new relationships, new self-confidence. On your return journey home you will carry with you a much enhanced sense of leadership.

It is important you recognize the important role you play on your respective campuses. As student leaders you are the voice of your peers, you are the eyes and ears of administration, you are the ambassadors of the university, you are the organizers of activities and events, and you are at the center of the learning community.

Do not underestimate your importance and the importance of the role you play for the betterment of your university community. At times it will appear that you are speaking into the wind; from my perspective (12 years as President), college presidents must/should be responsive to the input of students – both welcomed and unwelcomed. Students have: some great ideas, some stupid ideas, some challenging ideas, and some very helpful ideas. Presidents should respond to you if they want to create a student-centered environment for growth and for the self-development of their students; and, indeed, if they hope to create a healthy alumni base for future development.

Perhaps this conference will become for you a source of new ideas and give you a sense of empowerment as you return to your campus.

You will be prepared to be agents of change.

I believe the type of education you are experiencing at your home campus is preparing you to be leaders on campus and after your college experience. This is especially true of Jesuit institutions.

As I noted in my letter in your program, a primary tenet of Jesuit education is the development of the whole person – intellectual, social, personal and spiritual. Contained in that principle also is the development of your natural talents.

Leadership is one such talent that the Jesuit educational experience seeks to foster. The Jesuit philosophy of education focuses on developing the natural, innate talents in our students. Leadership is an innate talent waiting to be enlivened and exercised. We do not train passive students. Jesuit education is more than good grades, good sports, and good social life. Be assured it is all of these, but …

Jesuit education exposes you to a value-centered education; exposes you to ethical thinking and moral decision-making. Jesuit education prepares you to live responsible and productive lives. Jesuit education prepares you for good citizenship. Jesuit education empowers you to make a difference.

From my perspective, leadership is largely a moral act – in the broadest sense – it is often a courageous assertion of principles of right/ethical/mission-based conduct for your club, organization or institution; and that is combined with the considerable intellectual energy and political skills that are needed in order to convince one’s community or student body or student government, to embrace a particular decision or vision or project.

That vision must be both compelling and practical, effectively articulated and demonstrated by a leader clearly committed to it. Jesuit education can do that for you and your work with your clubs, organizations, and student government on your campus.

The real struggle of leadership is internal: Do you understand what is going on, what your peers are thinking or desiring, where is your club, organization or campus government going? Can you make the hard decisions, the right decisions, the ethical decisions? Coming from Jesuit institutions, I hope you can and do!

Finally, leadership does not require perfection, but it does demand a belief, indeed a passion for the cause, the project, and an ability to see it through to completion.

In the post September 11th era, leadership is all the more important. The country, the neighborhoods, and the campuses, yearn for young women and men to come forward and act decisively; to take the fear away; to continue to do business as usual; to do the right thing; you are the players.

One of the reasons I have such confidence in you is rooted in our experience at Creighton. In a recently completed survey of our freshmen class of 1989 who were surveyed as freshmen, again as seniors in 1993 and seven years out as alumni in 2000, resulted in some interesting data.

Students were to respond that these items were “essential or very important:”

• Category: “To help others in difficulty”
  Went from 63%, to 80%, to 94%
• Category: “Essential to influence social values”
  Went from 47%, to 53%, to 95%
• Category: “To participate in community service programs”
  Went from 26% as freshmen, to 35% as graduates, to 97% as present citizens living across the country.
• Category: “To promote racial understanding”
  Went from 33% as freshmen, to 49% at graduation, to 90% seven years out of Creighton University

Now I am sure your institutions have the same set of data indicating that graduates do well in service to the community, to being women and men for others, for espousing the promotion of a faith that does justice, and for being the voice for the voiceless.

That is my hope for all of you. If you want to be a leader, then lead. Gather your convictions, tempered by your values and sense of responsibility, and act. If you do not do it, someone less altruistic will.

Your voice, your actions, your opinions are needed on your campus. It is needed to keep the campus honest, to keep the campus in sync with its mission, and to keep you true to yourself if you truly want to be a leader on a Jesuit university campus.

There is much that is spiritual in leadership, as there is much that is practical and obvious. But grasp the moment. Make tracks! Seek the Magis! And become agents of change on your home campus community and across the nation.

Thank you for your attention. All best wishes and good night!

John P. Schlegel, S.J.
President