Rockhurst News

The class of 2020 at Rockhurst University is noteworthy for so many reasons.

As the sun sets on the Rockhurst University campus’ tulips for the spring, some new plants are getting a chance to shine.

On Friday, members of the biology faculty and students planted an assortment of pollinator plants in a small plot north of the Ignatius Science Center.  

Around a central redbud tree are now rows of coneflower, butterfly flower and coreopsis, among others.

Kristy Bayer has been named the new director of athletics at Rockhurst University, effective July 6, 2021. Bayer comes to Rockhurst from Emporia State University where she has served as the deputy director of athletics and senior woman administrator since December 2017.

1989 was a turning point for Saint Luke’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

In April of that year, the Missouri Board of Nursing approved a plan for a four-year degree program for the college, establishing a Bachelor of Science in nursing degree that generations of nurses have since pursued as a rigorous foundation for their own career in health care.

For centuries, Montserrat in Spain has been a pilgrimage destination.

Located high in the mountains not far from Barcelona and known as a destination for its breathtaking sunrise views, the Benedictine monastery also holds a special place in the hearts of members of the Society of Jesus. It’s where the society’s founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, came after suffering a battlefield injury, courtesy a cannonball, and laid down his sword in front of the statue of Our Lady of Montserrat.

Kat Dolan, ’20, came to Rockhurst University having already had what some might consider a lifetime of experiences. And they’ve all played a part in a new piece in the latest issue of America, the national Jesuit magazine.

Sedgwick Hall has been a lot of things over the years. But it’s been a while since it’s been under construction.

Anyone who has been on campus since December (or looked at the University’s social media pages) will probably have seen what Sedgwick Hall now looks like from the outside, with construction having kicked off on a $23 million renovation that will see the 1914 building transformed into the home of the Saint Luke’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the centerpiece of the For the Greater campaign.

Since 2004, Rockhurst University has marked the solemn occasion of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, with an interfaith ceremony in partnership with the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.

This year, in addition to a ceremonial reading on Kinerk Commons of names of those killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust – a list that includes 152 members of the Society of Jesus — the day included another symbolic gesture of interfaith cooperation and companionship.

Last year, senior biomedical physics of medicine major Bella Salerno was looking forward to her summer vacation for reasons other than getting out of town.

Salerno had been accepted to the Purdy Summer Research Fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine’s department of radiation oncology and was looking forward to the experience of delving deeper into a subject she’s grown to love.

“One of the reasons for choosing my major has been my love for both math and science,” she said. “I found that physics really encompasses both the how and why aspect of science.”

The U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate School list for 2022 is out, and several programs within Rockhurst University’s College of Business, Influence and Information Analysis earned recognition among the best in the nation.

The management programs in the Helzberg School of Management, which is part of the University’s College of Business, Influence, and Information Analysis, were ranked No. 24 in the nation. The school’s graduate business analytics programs were ranked No. 39, the only such program ranked in the state of Missouri.