"Chartering Creighton's Future:
Tending the Light and Shadow in the Academic Garden"


Good afternoon. Thank you for joining me in commemorating Founders Week 2006 and celebrating the service awards, new chair holders, and emeriti recognition of our faculty colleagues. Welcome to family and guests.

For some 15 years, I have crafted convocation addresses. During that time, the use of this bully pulpit changed as the format, focus and external environment shifted. So it will today as I integrate the state of the University into several national and international trends. But make no mistake: The state of Creighton University is solid! And the future is bright!

We realize that higher education is changing dramatically. Creighton University has faced many challenges in its 127-year history, and each time, guided by its mission, it has courageously transformed itself - growing from a small, local school for boys into a leading Catholic Jesuit university. Knowing this, we face our willed future with strong faith, renewed spirit and bold confidence.

But we must believe this. We must want this. We must be willing to work together to accomplish this willed future.

A special report in The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled "Outlook 2006: A Year of Treading Water?" caught my eye. Having just completed Tom Friedman's The World is Flat, I am convinced we have to take these external trends seriously as we draft the blueprint for Creighton's future.

It has been opined that "the year 2006 may disappoint many colleges by merely being good." (1) While the national economy is rebounding, the war on terrorism, Iraq and the August hurricanes appear likely to have long-term effects on university budgets. The storms have driven up our insurance costs, forced institutions nationwide to pay a premium for construction materials and, by causing a spike in fuel prices, have increased our energy costs.

Given this experience, universities, especially, have reason to hope "that neither hurricanes nor terrorists reach America's shores in 2006. If the year turns out to be merely good - no more and no less - it may be a bit of a disappointment, but also a bit of relief." (2)

In what follows, I will enumerate some of these national trends, review the light and shadows in our grove of academe and end with some directives.

TRENDS

* Endowment returns are projected to be modest, posting single-digit returns in 2006.

* The academy faces the first real cuts in federal funding in two decades. Federally funded nonmilitary research will fall for the first time since 1982. As for student aid, the maximum Pell grant award will remain flat, at $4,050, for the fourth year in a row; this is especially harmful because tuition has been rising.

* Protecting data and networks from hackers and thieves will continue to be top priority for college technology leaders. A second technology issue is assisting faculty members with integrating technology into instruction.

* Health care costs will continue to escalate, be it at a slower rate of 9.2 percent.

* On the fund-raising front, I am happy to note, support across the private sector remains strong. There is no evidence of donor fatigue!

* The loosening of restrictions on the use of federally funded student loans is creating enormous growth and subsequent challenges from for-profit schools.

* We continue to face a downward demographic trend in our traditional feeder states - Nebraska and Iowa will experience a 7 percent and 8 percent decline, respectively, over the next decade. The growth is in the Southwest. An increasing non-English speaking population and a disenchantment of international students reluctant to study in the United States post 9/11, exacerbates this issue.

It is against this background, and so much more, that Creighton must operate, charter its future and prosper.

LIGHT AND SHADOW IN OUR ACADEMIC GARDEN

On this February day, Creighton is a vibrant, healthy, productive and responsive institution, consistently ranked nationally and recognized as an outstanding master's university; educating highly qualified students and delivering quality health care; and possessing an excellent faculty who teach with passion and professionalism while being committed to timely and relevant research, scholarship and clinical work. Creighton remains a university known for its sense of community, faithful to its mission and identity, and generous in service.

At the heart of Creighton is our Catholic and Jesuit identity and mission. Without this we would be just another very good comprehensive university in the Midwest. We cherish our distinct identity.

Creighton's Center for Service and Justice plans to send a record 200 students to volunteer around the country during Spring Break - to such places as the hurricane affected region of the gulf. This will include a pilot, first-time faculty/staff Spring Break Service Trip. Our service trips are distinguished by their pillars of simplicity, justice, community, service and reflection.

The Institute for Latin American Concern sees the growth of high schools, colleges and health care professionals who want to participate in this Dominican Republic-based program. Through service and reflection, these participants become beneficiaries who are grateful that they often receive more than is given.

Campus Ministry has seen the growth and influence of their internship programs in areas of faith formation programs, prayer, and liturgical and retreat opportunities. Our newly renovated Retreat Center has been very active. Students continue to attend and take leadership roles in well-coordinated liturgical celebrations.

The Online Ministries website of the Collaborative Ministry Office receives 1.4 million hits per month from around the world - totaling 16 million hits a year. Ninety faculty and staff are making the Online Retreat, from September to May. Audio retreats are now offered online.

The establishment of two faculty-initiated seminars on Jesuit, Catholic education is very gratifying.

The enrollment front, while challenging, is successful due to our managed approach to recruitment, our attention to retention, academic counseling, and career placement. Our success in finding new feeder schools is reassuring as we forecast enrollment patterns. Cost sensitivity, financial aid and an increased attention to the enrollment of students from under-represented groups are issues that inform our enrollment strategy. Finding ways to increase the enrollment of low-income students and encourage their success once enrolled are two of the most important problems facing American higher education. Despite progress in narrowing the access discrepancies, large gaps remain between completion rates. (3)

Teaching, research and clinical care are at the heart of this enterprise.

Creighton's essential success lies in the depth and breadth of its undergraduate programming and the interdisciplinary collaboration among the undergraduate, graduate and professional schools' faculty - collaboration which is enhanced by excellence in scholarship as well as teaching. Their work continues to mark Creighton as the only Catholic university recognized nationally for mentoring undergraduate students in presenting original scholarly work.

The College of Arts and Sciences, with renewed focus, now offers an Honors Program that is designed for exceptionally talented, imaginative and highly motivated students.

Next fall, we will inaugurate a new Freshman Seminar experience, the title for which invokes our Jesuit origins with its allusion to the original "plan of studies" adopted in 1599 as a formal program of study at the university level. The new Ratio Studiorum Program is the unique effort of our undergraduate colleges and schools, and the division of Student Services, to introduce students to the culture of study within this Jesuit institution.

The College of Business, under the leadership of Tony Hendrickson, is poised to follow suit in this entrepreneurial spirit with a Master's of Science program in Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, a Global Ethics Center, and a "Real Returns" program that encourages Creighton alums to return to the business classroom as guest lecturers.

Law joins these initiatives with its Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. Aided by receipt of a $750,000 federal grant, the Law School is poised to develop a model to bilaterally negotiate U.S.-Cuban property claims. Next fall, it will offer to lawyers and non-lawyers alike a Master's of Science program that will focus on dispute resolution and negotiation in industry, health care and international business. Obviously, our Graduate Dean has been busy as well.

From the preview of health sciences, we welcomed Dr. Steve Friedrichsen as Dean of the Dental School and Dr. Amy Haddad as Director of the Center for Health Policy and Ethics.

The Schools of Pharmacy and Health Professions, Dentistry and Medicine completed successful accreditation visits, as did the Graduate Medical Education program. These visits required significant investments in time and effort by students, staff and faculty. Thanks to all! Enrollment across the health science schools remains strong.

The School of Pharmacy and Health Professions graduated the nation's first class of web-based Doctors of Pharmacy.

The research mission within the University and health science schools continued to grow. In this past fiscal year, Creighton was successful in obtaining $42.6 million in extramural funding for research and teaching. This is an increase of 30 percent from the previous year. Of this amount, the health science schools received $35.5 million in grants.

An important goal for the future of research is to expand current research strengths, to promote emerging areas of research, and to initiate new research areas through collaborative programs that cross disciplines throughout the University. Our core research infrastructure has been strengthened with the addition of cutting-edge research equipment, including new cell sorter technology.

Illustrating Creighton's continued service to the community, the Magis Clinic at the Siena/Francis House provided free health care services to over 300 men, women and children in its first year. The School of Dentistry received the "Milagro Award" from OneWorld Community Health Center for its commitment to uninsured patients, and CMA physicians served over 380,000 patients in 2005.

Last year, the new Community Economic Development Clinic in the Law School served over 725 people in rural Nebraska.

Creighton's reaccreditation by the Higher Learning Commission is scheduled for 2007. The self-study is presently being drafted under the watchful eye of Chris Wiseman, Scott Chadwick and Pat Callone.

A new criterion for reaccreditation is Criterion V: Engagement and Service - a Creighton strength, as illustrated above!

The present review of Creighton's outreach in 05-06 will be useful for strategic planning, future programming and meeting the needs of the Higher Learning Commission. In this community outreach, student learning is a primary goal. Service is viewed as integral to the formation of our students and giving them a life-long disposition to be women and men for and with others.

Interesting to note that from previously collected data we know that 82 percent of Creighton's metro outreach is north, south and east of 72nd - in the neediest areas of Metro-Omaha. Creighton has stayed in this area to serve the poor and underserved of Omaha. We are proud to be the university that hears the voices of the unheard.

A leitmotif running through these comments is that for universities to survive and prosper, they must keep adapting to the external environment. Institutional stasis is simply not in the cards, especially in technology.

In order for us to maintain the technological infrastructure, advanced academic applications, and proper support environments needed to help our faculty, students and staff, we must commit to maximizing IT's resources across campus. The network, fiber optics and infrastructure that support our educational, research and clinical missions form the "quiet curriculum" which gives Creighton a distinct competitive advantage. We need to build out and maintain these technology environments.

Creighton must optimize the use of information technology to improve student learning, research and the administrative work of the campus. Interactive e-learning programs, like our online pharmacy degree, must become a part of the conversations when talking about curriculum reform.

The University is working collaboratively to transform the ways in which we learn and communicate. Some of the progress includes an exciting new web strategy for campus; a single e-mail and calendar system; the rewiring of the Administration Building and Law School is revitalizing our learning network; the pod-casting of lectures in the Medical School, cellular texting prospective students about admissions status and the use of blogs in courses testify to Creighton's innovative technology. We can and must do more with the innovative use of technology.

With all of its complexity, the world of Student Services is in flux. Today's students are among the most talented this University has ever admitted. These children of the new millennium have idealistic goals that demand of them their most competent performance in their academic endeavors and social life. The majority of our students come from families that have provided them a high level of emotional support, as well as an unprecedented amount of material resources. Our students have experienced fast-paced feedback from computers all their lives, and they seek to learn in ways that are stimulating to them.

The millennium students come to America's campuses with great vulnerability. They experience more emotional problems, they exhibit more problematic and dangerous behavior, they have less resilience in the face of stress, and they have many developmental tasks unfinished. In a word, our students (like so many others) have much growing up to do while they are under our tutelage. As educators, we shed the mantle of "in loco parentis" 40 years ago. Yet today that mantle is back on our shoulders, placed there by the needs of our students and the expectations of their families. The task of mentoring and guiding our students academically, emotionally and spiritually falls upon our shoulders.

Athletics and other co-curriculars are part of Student Services. It has been noted that college sports are shaped by American culture. We are the only country in the world that integrates sports with education at the collegiate level. (4)

Our athletic program continues to enhance the general Creighton University reputation. Once again our athletes made strong showings not only on the court/field but notably in the classroom. In the fall semester, 104 of our student-athletes had a 3.5 or better GPA, while our 259 athletes had a semester cumulative average of 3.25. With a 95 percent graduation rate for student athletes, Creighton is tied for 15th among all NCAA universities and ranks first in the Missouri Valley Conference.

The men's soccer team made its 14th consecutive NCAA appearance and advanced to the Final Eight for the fifth time in six years. The men's basketball team made its eighth consecutive post-season appearance in 2005.

The women's soccer team won the Missouri Valley Conference, as did the men's baseball team. This was the first time Creighton baseball won a Valley championship.

Athletics also continues to set records in season ticket sales, especially in soccer and men's basketball. In addition, the Creighton-Nebraska baseball game drew the largest regular-season NCAA crowd of the year with 20,014 people in attendance.

On January 29, an alumnus wrote to me about a recent visit to campus: "I was emphatically impressed with all the changes over the past five years and I am extremely proud of the prominent place Creighton has reasserted within the Omaha community. You have definitely enhanced Creighton's campus facilities and community role, while maintaining its unique atmosphere that I have long enjoyed."

Our returning graduates do not recognize the campus. To be sure, in terms of construction and campus enhancement, we have made progress. Most visible of these are physical changes in many areas of the campus. Numerous construction projects have been started and/or completed, including the extension of the California Mall, renovations to the new fountain near Gallagher Hall, renovation of the food service areas in the Student Center, construction of the first parking structures on campus, the start of phase II junior/senior town homes, near completion of the Cuming Street project, a new parking lot on 30th Street and a host of smaller projects. Also, additional campus expansion properties have been acquired and buildings have been removed, making way for new construction, intramural playing fields, parking and other uses.

Progress has also been made in some less visible, but just as important areas. Our first installment of a formal capital budget process was initiated this year. This represents a continuation of our efforts to enhance financial planning by taking a more comprehensive, structured approach to managing our finite resources to achieve strategic objectives. We will experience a few growing pains with these new processes, but they will pay many dividends in the future.

To round out this overview, it is salient to mention the launching of the "Willing to Lead" campaign for Creighton. This is the most ambitious fund-raising effort ever mounted here. With a goal of $350 million, it will achieve nothing short of the re-founding of the University. The focus of this effort is fourfold: scholarship endowment and program support, science education and technology, east campus expansion, and the Annual Fund. I am gratified and encouraged by the response of our alumni, friends, corporations and foundations ... not to mention the deceased via estate gifts!

FUTURE DIRECTIVES

Looking back over this litany of the lights and shadows in our academic garden, it is realistic to note Creighton University is doing well, but not without challenges. We must be attentive to the shadows and not just bask in the light.

We must be vigilant in fostering our Catholic Jesuit identity: In an age of increasing secularization, of competing ideologies and values, and an atmosphere that challenges and denies the value of the human person, Creighton must not be afraid to hold in tension the best of what a university is and the best of what Jesuit and Catholic bring to the academy. We must remain a place "where the gospel is in dialogue with culture" and where "faith meets reason."

We must be attentive to the issues of access and affordability: A combination of factors works against families and students in keeping higher education affordable. We must focus on being as efficient as possible and creatively identify alternative sources of revenue to minimize the need for tuition increases. We must grow the endowment to support scholarships and programs.

While a college education has become more important to success in life and work, the means of ensuring equal opportunity have been drastically curtailed. Creighton must remain the dream-maker for low-income students.

We must be focused on undergraduate enrollment: Increasing competition and shifting demographics require our diligence in expanding our recruitment base and delivering quality educational offerings that are timely and in demand. Surveys show that the key to attracting students is flexibility, a supportive campus environment with personal attention, a sense of community and an emphasis on picking a major and dependable career counseling. We have that now, but we cannot become complacent!

In the research mission we face funding challenges due to the flattening of the NIH budget and decreasing availability of other funds to support new and established investigators. Despite this situation, we must assiduously seek new sources of funding for both science and humanities research; we must hire promising research faculty, as well as seek ways for cross-disciplinary or cross-institutional research opportunities. At the same time, we must continue to address the students' desire for hands-on learning, collaborative research with professors and opportunities to conduct independent research.

As outlined above, there are significant curricular initiatives under way. I can only encourage the faculty to be attentive to creating new courses, centers and degree programs that reflect the new and changing circumstances and address the interests of students. E-learning and other innovative approaches should be mandated as we address the vulnerability of science education, the diminishment of the humanities, and a renewed interest in languages that have strategic, commercial and cultural intent.

Finally, the millennium students and their helicopter parents will continue to occupy a great deal of staff time and require expanded resources in areas of counseling, spiritual direction, diversity sensitivity and behavioral health. We must find new ways to promote the responsible use of alcohol as well as sound the alarm regarding the dangers of methamphetamines and other drugs. We will continue, however, to be vigilant in these essential student services even in the face of scarce resources.

Let me end by thanking all of you and your colleagues for what you do to advance the educational, scholarly, clinical and service of Creighton University. We could not do it without each of you, doing what you do. Thank you.

On a personal note, I am very gratified with the progress Creighton is making, the direction it is heading and the support it is generating. Many of you know that I do not like the status quo; I prefer momentum and activity.

I end with a quote from the 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus. In it, you will get a bit of an insight into what animates me and, by extension, enlightens my expectations for all of you:

"Jesuits are never content with the status quo, the known, the tried, the already existing. We are constantly driven to discover, redefine and reach out for the Magis (the more). For us, frontiers and boundaries are not obstacles or ends, but new challenges to be faced, new opportunities to be welcomed. Indeed, ours is a holy boldness and a certain apostolic aggressiveness..." (5)

My colleagues, I ask you to join me at this unparalleled moment. Let us not be content with the status quo, let us not fall prey to institutional stasis, and fear not the challenges that are around us. Together we can unleash our creative energies, harness our love in God, and be confident as we take bold steps toward our future.

Thank you. Congratulations to all of today's honorees!



John P. Schlegel, S.J.
President


1 Peter Schmidt, "Outlook 2000: A Year of Treading Water?" Chronicle of Higher Education, 1-6-06, pp. 1-2.
2 Ibid, p. 2.
3 Peter P. Echel and J. King, "An Overview of Higher Education in the United States: Diversity, Access and the Role of the Market Place," pp. 16-17.
4 Myles Brand, NCAA News, 1-16-06, p. 7.
5 General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, 34, D. 26 N. 27.