Creighton University

• Overview
• Faculty
• Students
• Diversity
• Legacy
• Student Achievements
• Alumni
• Additional Information Points

• Community Relations
• Honors and Awards

Creighton University, founded in 1878, is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the United States designed in the Society of Jesus tradition and Catholic identity of academic excellence and service to others. The University is located in Omaha, Nebraska.

The University provides its 4,087 undergraduate and 2,964 professional and graduate students an atmosphere that challenges them academically and professionally and supports and inspires them individually.

Nationally recognized for providing a balanced educational experience, the University offers a rigorous academic agenda with a broad range of disciplines, providing undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs that emphasize educating the whole person: academically, socially and spiritually.

In addition to the College of Arts and Sciences, which enrolls 36 percent of the University’s students, Creighton has the College of Business, School of Dentistry, the Graduate School, and the Schools of Law, Medicine, Pharmacy and Health Professions and University College.

Creighton offers its students faculty-led and independent study-abroad programs in nearly 40 countries.

The University’s academic medical center, Creighton University Medical Center, is the busiest trauma center in the state, home to a top-ranked program in cardio vascular services and digestive services and is internationally recognized for research in hereditary cancers and osteoporosis.

Creighton has a long and rich history of groundbreaking research that makes a difference in people lives. Research is essential to learning about the underlying mechanisms of disease and new ways to prevent and treat disease.

• With a student-to-faculty ratio of 12 to 1, Creighton retains 732 full-time faculty and 240 part-time faculty as well as those who contribute their services on a volunteer basis.
• Creighton University faculty members have received Fulbright and other fellowships, including being named scholars-in-residence at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congressional Budget Office. Research awards to Creighton for the 2008-09 academic year totaled more than $42.8 million.
• The University has 33 endowed chairs. Most of these reside in the University’s schools or colleges.

• The academic profile of the 2009 freshman class places Creighton among the top six private universities in the Midwest and among the top ten Catholic universities in the nation.
• Of the fall 2009 freshman class, 65 percent were National Honor Society inductees; 40 percent of the students were ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class; 50 percent scored 27 or above on the ACT (placing them in the top 10 percent in the nation).
• Creighton is achieving success in social-economic diversity – providing more access to students and families and fulfilling an important aspect of the University’s mission. For the 2009-10 academic year, 21 percent of Creighton’s freshman class is first-generation college students and more than 200 come from families with an annual income of less than $60,000.
• The 2009 freshman class was also very involved in high school activities: 80 percent were active in church and/or community service organizations; 36 percent in a student government position; 64 percent in high school varsity sports; 17 percent in speech/debate, or Model United Nations; in addition 26 percent were involved in school newspapers, literary magazines, yearbooks or television and radio.

• The 2009 freshman class also identify themselves as members of 30 different faiths; 58 percent identify themselves as Roman Catholic. Twenty-one percent identify themselves as students of color.

• Twenty-eight percent of the 2009 freshman class members are “legacies,” with family ties to the University.

• Creighton University students engage in a wide variety of research, scholarship and creative projects. They earn recognition from national academic honor societies and receive such prestigious awards as Fulbright, as well as Goldwater Scholarships, the James Madison Foundation and National Science Foundation fellowships.

• More than 52,000 current Creighton alums live in 89 countries. Sixty-eight percent live in the U.S. outside Nebraska, with 30 percent living in Nebraska. The largest numbers of alumni living outside the U.S. reside in Canada, Japan and Malaysia.
• More than 96 percent of graduates are employed, involved in volunteer work or attending graduate/professional school within six months of graduation.

• No other institution of its size offers as broad a range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs.
• Creighton has been recognized as an economic driver, community service advocate and urban developer in a Top 25 national ranking. In 2008 the University was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth.
• For the seventh consecutive year, Creighton University in 2009 is No. 1 in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of Midwest masters’ universities. It is the 12th time in 14 years Creighton has been No. 1, and the 23rd straight year the University has been ranked at or near the top of the magazine’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition. Creighton also was recognized as No. 1 in the Midwest region as a “best value,” where students get the best return on their tuition investment. For a second year in a row, Creighton was ranked No. 5 in the Midwest as a “school to watch” for and focus on the future and continued improvement.
• Creighton University has also been recognized in the 2010 U. S. News and World Report’s annual college rankings for undergraduate research and creative projects. Of the 50 universities and colleges listed, many of which are elite institutions, Creighton is the only Jesuit and the only Catholic institution honored. The ranking recognizes opportunities offered undergraduates for intensive faculty-mentored research that results in original works worthy of formal presentation on or off campus.
• Creighton ranks 5th in PC Magazine’s Top Wired Colleges, and is the only university in Nebraska and the only Catholic school in the nation recognized.
• It was also the first university in the country to notify students of acceptance by text message.
• Creighton University is included in the list of colleges that produced the most 2007-2008 U. S. Fulbright Fellows. The University was also one of only eight universities to have four undergraduate students awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.
• Creighton’s Online Ministries provides one of the finest faith-based websites in the world – with an average of 1.7 million visitors each month from 125 countries. It can be found at: www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html
• Creighton students, alumni, faculty and staff have volunteered approximately 58,000 hours of community service in one year – helping the poor and underserved locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Go to: http://www2.creighton.edu/communityrelations/
• Creighton University’s Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC), is an international, Catholic, Ignatian-inspired, collaborative health care and educational organization that exists to promote the integral well-being and spiritual growth of all of its participants including students, faculty and staff.
• The Center for Catholic Thought at Creighton University was created in 2009. The Center serves students, faculty, and the local Catholic community through a series of programs designed to explore and promote the Church’s intellectual tradition.
• The campus design and master plan have received top awards in landscape and architecture.
• The innovative Ratio Studiorum advising program helps first- and second-year students plan their curricula, careers and way of life focusing on ethics, service to others and a search for truth and justice.
• December 2005 was a defining moment for Creighton University. The Willing to Lead campaign was launched as an opportunity to secure Creighton’s place as one of the finest Jesuit, Catholic universities in the United States. The campaign’s initial goal, with a goal of $350 million, was the largest fundraising initiative in the history of Creighton University. As of June 15, 2009 more than $400 million had been raised. More than half of the campaign’s dollars have infused our academic mission through support for student scholarships, endowed faculty chairs and professorships, research and service projects. The remaining of the campaign’s record-breaking results have allowed us to achieve key elements of our dynamic and nationally recognized campus master plan—expanding the campus through land, buildings, and renovations to provide the high-level academic, life-changing experience for our students and the infrastructure necessary to support our talented faculty and staff.
• Since 2000, Creighton has invested more than $285 million in on-campus improvements and planned expansion. This is all part of the University’s nationally recognized campus master plan, which has capitalized on historical opportunities to purchase land in order to create a more vibrant and robust campus environment. The Mike and Josie Harper Center for Student Life and Learning opened in the fall of 2008. The building integrates student and academic services under one roof and serves as the University’s new front door, welcoming prospective students and their families, alumni and all campus visitors. In August of 2009, the University opened the Wayne and Eileen Ryan Athletic Center and D.J. Sokol Arena, a 78,000 square-foot-facility, that houses a gymnasium, women’s basketball and volleyball coaches’ offices, locker rooms, ticket offices, athletic training and meeting rooms, and media workrooms. The arena is expected to be used for other campus and community events as well, including campus assemblies, coaching camps/clinics, concerts, and speakers.