Cura Personalis (Care for the Whole Person)

We are committed to caring for others in and outside the classroom. Therefore, we strive to: 

• Help people. 
• Understand their inherent human dignity. 
• Reach their greatest human potential. 
• Share their experience and knowledge with others. 
• Act in a way that reflects this growth.

Magis (More)

We are committed to excellence. Therefore, we strive to: 

• Better understand ourselves and others as people loved by God. 
• Seek greater knowledge of the academic, spiritual, and social disciplines. 
• Give greater love, care, and compassion for our neighbors. 
• Find more purposeful and effective ways to carry out our work.

Reflection and Discernment

We are committed to the examined life. Therefore, we strive to: 

• Seek greater knowledge of all creation. 
• Reflect on our own lived experience of the world. 
• Discern the movements of our heart and reason. 
• Listen to the experience of other people. 

Contemplation in Action

We are committed to just action through leadership and service. Therefore, we strive to: 

• Take responsibility for our gifts and talents and help build up the gifts and talents of others. 
• Be agents of transformation, especially in the areas of social justice and equality. 
• Bring our best resources to bear on creative responses to problems and challenges. 
• Foster openness and curiosity about all things new and different. 
• Foster a spirit of trust, hopefulness, collegiality, and dialogue. 
• Value different points of view and experiences.

Wisdom

We are committed to learning. Therefore, we strive to: 

• Learn about all aspects of this God-charged world. 
• Create an environment that values and champions the search for and communication of knowledge. 
• Examine the moral and ethical implications present in each discipline and program. 
• View religious experience and religious questions as integral to the understanding of human existence and human culture. 
• Foster love of the world that leads to the desire to create a better and more just existence.

Finding God in All Things

We believe that God is actively working in our lives and the world. Therefore, we strive to: 

• Search for and find God in every circumstance in life, not just in explicitly religious situations. 
• Grow in love—love of God, of our neighbor, and of the world. 
• Deepen our relationships with God and our own religious traditions. 
• Model that all aspects of learning and teaching are relevant ways of encountering and responding to God.

Mission Statement
Rockhurst is a comprehensive university and a supportive community that forms lifelong learners in the Catholic, Jesuit, liberal arts tradition who engage with the complexities of our world and serve others as compassionate, thoughtful leaders.

Vision Statement
To create a more just world through inclusive, innovative, and transformative education

The following words inspire our mission, vision, and core values and are inscribed on the Bell Tower in the middle of campus:

“You are called by the Society of Jesus to be men and women who reflect upon the reality of the world around you with all its ambiguities, opportunities, and challenges, to discern what is really happening in your life and in the lives of others, to find God there and to discover where God is calling you, to employ criteria for significant choices that reflect Godly values rather than narrow, exclusive self-interest, to make decisions in the light of what is truly for the greater glory of God and the service of those in need, and then to act accordingly.” (Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., 29th Superior General of the Society of Jesus, 1997)

The spiritual heritage of Rockhurst University originates from the founder of the Society of Jesus, Saint Ignatius Loyola, a Basque knight who lived in the first half of the 16th century.

Since then, Jesuit education has become renowned for academic excellence and an emphasis on the education of the whole person. Academic excellence, a value-oriented education, interdisciplinary studies, a global perspective, and justice are the hallmarks of Jesuit education today.

Rockhurst University was founded in Kansas City in 1910 and shares this 450-year-old tradition with 27 other Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States, as well as with hundreds of Jesuit schools, institutes, and educational works worldwide.