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...THE VISION
Let me amplify this vision statement. What does “The Premier Independent Catholic University in the South” really mean? And how will it secure our place as the Leading Private University in the Commonwealth and Region?
Premier states our unqualified ambition for competitive excellence at the very highest level, in everything we do and in everything we are as a university.
Independent describes our legal status, of course – we are not owned or operated by the Catholic Church – and it also states without equivocation that we are an open institution deeply committed to academic freedom. Bellarmine University is a place where all are free to search for truth, beauty and goodness in our teaching and in our research, wherever that search may lead.
Catholic University is the heart of our identity and the heart of this vision statement. It roots us in the oldest and best tradition of higher education in the Western world. It affirms our place as heirs of this tradition, our rootedness in the liberal arts, and therefore our commitment:
to excellent teaching and scholarship in the liberal arts, at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels;
to the centrality and dignity of each individual as a whole person, made in God’s image and likeness and therefore possessing intrinsic value;
to a catholic, international, welcoming, hospitable and inclusive community of talented and diverse people studying a broad range of topics and issues;
to ethics, morality, spirituality, faith, religion and worship;
to the compatibility of faith and reason in the university’s work;
to the importance of and interplay between contemplation and action in our lives;
to Academic Freedom and open conversation in the study of the environment, the world’s great religions, the Church’s thinking and teaching;
to Catholic Social Teaching – social justice, service to others, our responsibility to alleviate suffering and to improve the human condition.
to educating students who will continue to educate themselves through a lifelong love of learning – who will be able to communicate compellingly in every way, and to recognize and solve a variety of problems with numeracy, literacy, logic and ethics, working alone and with others;
and to sending them forth with the desire and the ability to do great good in the world.
So the phrase Catholic University declares that, while our founding and tradition and identity are Catholic, our work is as a University – as a community of diverse searchers, in a culture of Academic Freedom, where different ideas and values are explored with civility and respect.
The reality is that Bellarmine University today is, demographically, a lay, ecumenical, interfaith community. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to create a model for “the new Catholic University” that uniquely exemplifies our heritage of academic excellence and freedom, spiritual awareness and character.
Thomas Merton, whose internationally distinguished archives are housed on our campus at the Thomas Merton Center, serves as an excellent model for expressing Bellarmine University’s Catholic identity.
In the South sets out a competitive geography that is regional and national and feasible. Notre Dame dominates the Midwest; Georgetown, Boston College and Fordham dominate the East; the University of San Francisco dominates the West – but the South is an open field for Bellarmine University.
And Louisville, the 16th largest city in the nation, is the “Gateway to the South,” a region that is identified with growth and known as an attractive, welcoming, warm, friendly and gracious place to live, learn and play.