President's Message

As the first and oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in Chicago, Saint Xavier University is rooted in a rich heritage of service and achievement. When the first pioneering Sisters of Mercy arrived in Chicago in 1846, they applied their energy and considerable talents to the emerging needs of a burgeoning urban society on the prairie frontier. In keeping with the work of Catherine McAuley and the Sisters of Mercy, they worked tirelessly to establish schools to educate future generations and hospitals to provide healing and restoration to those in most need. Everything they did was born from a spirit of compassion, justice and hospitality, qualities that helped to shape the very fabric of society and culture of a city that was to become among the greatest in our nation.

The work of these courageous young women would have impact far beyond their immediate scope of vision. One of their most successful and daring planning efforts in those early years in Chicago was establishing an institution that would later become Saint Xavier University, while simultaneously doing the monumental work in founding Mercy Hospital. Were it not for their courage, dedication, and integrity, our City and our Community would not be what it is today. Saint Xavier University is proud to claim and acknowledge this rich and important heritage as it prepares for a new century of distinguished achievement and service.

It seems fitting, at this particular moment of our institutional history, to launch a formal strategic planning process that will invite the members of our University to reflect, to think, and to act in accordance with our venerable traditions. We begin this process from a position of relative strength, eager to share our collective energies and talents with our students, our colleagues, our communities. Strategic planning is a process that challenges us to look forward and outward and ascertain to the best of our abilities what our community and larger society will need in these changing times? It is a process whereby we will clarify our core competencies and strengths and think of new ways to focus them to help the communities in which we live. It is a process of honest self-reflection and candor about our internal challenges and areas for improvement and change.

Strategic planning is way of thinking, making decisions, and taking actions in concert with one another and in step with the needs of our larger society. It is an iterative process that will begin this year and continue in the years ahead. It is highly participative, collaborative, creative and at times risky. The goal of strategic planning is to manifest our longstanding mission more fully and in new ways. It will serve our students and our communities, and it will strengthen our inner resolve to meet the emerging needs of the new century.

President Judith A. Dwyer
October, 2003