Jesuit Journeys
Spring/Summer 2005

BY FR. Michael Morrison, SJ

For example, Marquette has emphasized graduate programs and today is recognized as a major doctoral-granting school without sacrificing academic quality or the educational experience of undergraduates. Moreover, Marquette has had the courage to close some graduate programs (as with sociology and physics) and redirect resources to more successful programs.

Creighton, on the other hand, has a limited number of doctoral programs, concentrated exclusively in Medical School bio-medical programs. By closing some masters programs in the Arts and Sciences area, Creighton has been successful in involving undergraduate students in faculty research projects that were previously filled by graduate students. Creighton has also maintained its strong emphasis on professional programs, especially in health sciences. The Law School continues to provide significant membership numbers to the bar and judiciary in Nebraska and Iowa.

The health science professional schools are a significant part of Creighton’s national identity, as demonstrated by the fact that 25 percent of the Medical School class comes from California. Like most dental schools, Creighton’s has reduced its class size. Still, contracts for professional school education with states such as Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah are an important part of the school’s enrollment. Creighton also has the only Pharmacy program at an American Jesuit University. And programs in occupational therapy and physical therapy (which are housed in the same school with Pharmacy) were among the first in the country to grant a professional doctorate in these areas.

The legendary Al McGuire, Marquette University basketball coach during the glory years and 1977 NCAA Championship run, does his game-day thing with assistants Hank Raymonds and Rick Majerus at his side.

Change, of course, does not occur without some pain. In the early 1980s, a for-profit hospital chain purchased Creighton’s teaching hospital, which an independent community-based board had received from the Sisters of St. Francis about a decade earlier. A brief honeymoon was followed by extended litigation that ended with a settlement under which the university purchased a 25 percent interest in the hospital. Since then relations have been good and the hospital has changed its name to Creighton University Health Center.

The Marquette University School of Medicine once stood tall on campus. Sponsorship of the school ended in 1967. It operates today as the Medical College of Wisconsin.

The former Marquette Medical School is now the Medical College of Wisconsin. It became independent of the university in the late 1960s and later moved to new facilities a few miles west. Establishing an independent medical college was necessitated by a series of issues including the status of the teaching hospital, state and federal funding, and the cost of new facilities.

Marquette’s Dental School, meanwhile, not only moved to beautiful new quarters on campus in 2002 but continues to prosper as Wisconsin’s only dental school under an arrangement with the State of Wisconsin. And Marquette’s Law School continues to enjoy strong enrollment and expanding facilities.

Marquette University dental students learn and practice their oral surgery skills in the old dental school facility. A new Marquette University School of Dentistry building opened in August 2002.

As the years passed, however, both Marquette and Creighton were forced to face the challenge of preserving their Jesuit/Catholic identities. In earlier times no special efforts or programs were needed. But the professionalization of the theology departments, the influence of Vatican II, fewer Jesuits, and separate incorporation required efforts to promote Jesuit and Catholic identity. Both universities responded by setting up strong campus or university ministry offices which are staffed by a combination of Jesuits and lay people, especially women, to meet the needs of the increasing female enrollment. Other programs emerged to increase awareness of the schools’ Jesuit and Catholic missions among students, faculty, staff, and trustees.

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