Loyola University Statement of Educational Purpose

Loyola is a comprehensive Catholic university that embodies the standards of academic excellence synonymous with Jesuit education. As a community united in the search for truth and wisdom, Loyola’s faculty, students, and staff are committed to scholarship, service, and justice. Consistent with its Jesuit and Catholic heritage, the university is open to all qualified persons.

As enunciated in Goals of Loyola and elaborated in the Loyola Character and Commitment Statement, the mission of Loyola University is to provide a rigorous education grounded in values for an academically able student body selected from diverse geographic, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. While reaffirming its commitment to the educational needs of the citizens of New Orleans and of Louisiana, Loyola will continue to seek students from throughout the region, the nation and the world.

To achieve its goals, Loyola recruits faculty who are dedicated to instruction and advising, to research that enriches their teaching, and to service both to the university and to the larger community. To preserve its Jesuit character, Loyola seeks to maintain a substantial presence of Jesuits as faculty members. Acknowledging that education is not limited to the classroom, the institution employs staff who are committed to the education of the whole student. Through the curriculum, advising, campus ministry, co-curricular activities, and student life programming, faculty and staff strive to provide a supportive but challenging environment in which students can realize their individual potentials while coming to recognize their responsibility to serve others. To meet the diverse needs of its students, Loyola offers a curriculum rooted in the liberal arts and sciences and fully supportive of a wide range of pre-professional and professional programs. Though its principal focus is undergraduate education, the institution offers selected graduate programs that are consistent with its mission.

In the Ignatian tradition, Loyola University endeavors to develop students into a new generation of leaders who possess a love for truth, the critical intelligence to pursue it, and the eloquence to articulate it. The goal of a Loyola education is not mere technical competence but wisdom and social responsibility.

As approved by the Board of Trustees, "Goals of Loyola" is Loyola University’s mission statement; the "Loyola Character and Commitment Statement" is an amplification of the institution’s Jesuit and Catholic identity and tradition; the "Loyola Statement of Educational Purpose" is a distillation of these two documents to be used for planning and assessment purposes.

Approved 03/03/94—Mission Effectiveness Committee/Board of Trustees

Approved 03/17/94—University Planning Team

Approved 03/24/94—Academic and Faculty Affairs Committee/Board of Trustees

Approved 05/19/94—Board of Trustees

May 1994