Our Mission & Values

A community of learning, reverence, and service.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

Lourdes University, rooted in Catholic and Franciscan traditions, provides a values-centered education that enriches lives and advances academic excellence through the integration of the liberal arts and professional studies.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

In support of this mission, Lourdes University:

Nurtures a diverse community that supports students in fulfilling their potential.
Commits to the engagement of faith and reason, inspired by our Catholic and Franciscan intellectual traditions.
Provides a holistic, student-centered education rooted in the liberal arts that prepares individuals for meaningful careers and lifelong learning.
Fosters personal integrity, ethical understanding, social responsibility, care for all of creation, and a commitment to community service.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT

Recognizing that the diverse expressions within the human family enrich the learning and life of our community, Lourdes University, as a Catholic institution, is committed to nurturing an atmosphere that engages students, faculty, and staff in a dynamic exploration of a broad spectrum of ideas and cultures that leads to a multidimensional understanding of the world.

Lourdes University fosters an intellectual community enriched by the full range and depth of human experience where diverse voices and viewpoints are represented. Lourdes University reflects its Franciscan values of community, learning, reverence, and service through initiatives that include professional, pedagogical, and student development, as well as community events, which actively promote and support a diverse population.

OUR FRANCISCAN VALUES

Lourdes University expresses its Franciscan identity as a Community:

A Community of Learning
A Community of Reverence
A Community of Service

Lourdes University is, first and foremost, a community because community is fundamental to the Franciscan tradition. As a Franciscan institution, the Lourdes community acknowledges and celebrates its relationship to God, self, others, and all of creation. The mission of Lourdes is carried out in the context of a community that begins on the Lourdes campus among students, faculty, and staff and flows outward to embrace the religious and civic communities with whom we engage. As a community, Lourdes is called to grow, to be hospitable and inclusive, and to be a community of peacemakers and justice seekers.

Lourdes is a community of learning. In the Franciscan tradition, the love of learning stems from a desire to grow in our understanding of God, creation, and each other. The quest for truth, understanding, and excellence in academic disciplines allows for growth and transformation to take place both in ourselves and in the world around us.

Lourdes is a community of reverence. Reverence recognizes and respects the dignity and worth of each human person and all creation. Reverence takes us beyond tolerance and calls us to treasure the diversity of the human family with its various races, cultures, and traditions.

Lourdes is a community of service. The Franciscan tradition is intimately tied to service. The members of the community challenge one another to cultivate a spirit of gratitude, to be mindful of those who feel unconnected and who are in need, and to develop and share our gifts with the broader community.