Strategy Three
Diversity and Inclusion
Foster an ever more inclusive community for the diverse students we so proudly welcome, through implementation of the Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence. We will proclaim our values in the ways that we treat each other with dignity and empathy. We will improve the diversity of our faculty, work harder to retain that diversity and ensure equity. We will also foster a community where we can disagree with each other, and learn to debate issues with respect and humility.
- Continue to build on our strength of serving students with disabilities, using wrap-around services to help them flourish.
- Achieve the status of Hispanic Serving Institution, unlocking federal support for our diverse student body. To get there, we will intensify our recruitment and welcome Hispanic students − the one growing demographic of young people and a major force in the American Catholic church.
- Continue our work to end gaps in retention based on race and class with particular outreach efforts.
Develop a More Engaging Campus
Redevelop Broadway campus in ways that include residential living, particularly for law students, and event spaces.
- Build the residence hall envisioned in the campus master plan to meet more of the demand for campus housing and to create a more exciting community. Work to include in this project the deferred maintenance of other residence halls.
- Make the front corner of our campus magical. Redesign the Communications Building with color, creativity, and a public-facing stage at our front door.
Make Manifest Our Strengths in Courage and Creativity in the Academic Enterprise
Prioritize relevance in faculty research and service by valuing societal impact in faculty hiring and promotion.
- In particular, we focus on the “apostolic preferences” of the Jesuit order, including care for the dispossessed and the environment.
- Reinvigorate the first-year experience to overtly reflect our strengths in courage and creativity and design the new January term in creative ways.
- Expand Environmental Studies as an interdisciplinary major across the undergraduate colleges with a more specific focus on climate change. A commitment to creation is primary to our faith and a focus of the Jesuit Order. This signature program will both reflect our values and attract students from a generation that correctly identifies these issues as primary.