Dear friends,
A university is a unique and wonderful place.
Where else might you have physicians advancing transplant medicine alongside graduate students launching a cricket tournament? Scholars and incarcerated persons engaging together in philosophical inquiry? An expert in manufacturing embarking on a career change to teach in public schools and a Jesuit priest studying international humanitarian law?
Of course, I’m not talking about just any university. The profiles in this year’s President’s Report highlight only a few of the remarkable faculty, staff, students and alumni at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ÖÆƬ³§.
Committed to our Catholic, Jesuit mission for more than 200 years, SLU continues to thrive. Our total enrollment has grown to its largest number in history. Our research profile is on the rise, with funding nearly doubling in the last seven years. We are an ever more global community, with record enrollment on our degree-granting campus in Madrid and a vibrant community of international students in St. Louis.
The numbers are impressive, but in the tradition of Jesuit education, we are called to behold the dignity and nurture the unique potential of each person on our campus and beyond. We are committed to pursuing truth in service to a higher purpose so that we might contribute to the greater good.
I have the gift of hearing the stories of the SLU community every day. I can attest that each person who joins the SLU community – all of our more than 15,000 students, 4,000 employees and 137,000 alumni – brings their distinctive experiences, aspirations and drive to make a positive difference.
The impact is extraordinary.
Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.
President