Rockhurst News

The greenery around campus makes every spring a wonderful time on the Rockhurst University campus.

But there’s more to the tree canopy at Rockhurst than aesthetics — all that foliage helps make the campus a more livable, sustainable place for faculty, staff, students, biodiversity and our communities. And in recognition of continuing efforts to keep the campus’s trees healthy and vibrant, Rockhurst University has been recognized as a Tree Campus by the Arbor Day Foundation — the first institution in the Kansas City area to earn that distinction.

Rockhurst University’s campus is home to a new resource for those with disabilities, thanks to a partnership with the state of Missouri.

Inside Ignatius Science Center is the Missouri Assistive Technology lab, a place where the community can come and learn about available assistive technologies and how to use them. It’s a service provided by the state. The main facility for the region is located in nearby Blue Springs, but the University campus provided a prime location for a second site, according to Tammy Bruegger, OTD, assistant professor of occupational therapy.

From an outsider’s perspective, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist probably appeared to have it all.

Even as a talented basketball player with a loving family and good group of friends growing up in New Jersey, he said he felt isolated for so much of his young life, in fear of being heard. All because of his stutter.

The Rockhurst University Board of Trustees has selected Sandra Cassady, Ph.D., to become the 15th president of Rockhurst University, effective July 1, 2022.

Cassady will make history as the first female and first lay president of Rockhurst, which is a Catholic, Jesuit university founded in 1910 by the Society of Jesus, a religious order of Roman Catholic priests known as the Jesuits.

Rockhurst University conferred degrees to approximately 200 students during its December commencement ceremony Dec. 11, 2021, in Mason-Halpin Fieldhouse. Students Berkley Hays and Nancy Miller delivered remarks on behalf of undergraduate and graduate students, respectively.

The following students received degrees:

Rockhurst University has announced the dean’s list for the fall 2021 semester. This honor recognizes students who have achieved a grade-point average of 3.5 or above.

The following students earned a place on the list:

Ashley Abbott

Yasmeen Abutineh

Aracely Acuna Trejo

Courtney Adams

Lauryn Adams

Nate Adamson

Peyton Aerni

Oscar Ahumada

Erica Akins

Mehdi Al-Amood

Shereen Al-Saoudi

Balem Alamerew

Karen Alba

Drew Altic

Litzy Alvarado Islas

Joseph Alvey

Bestselling author of “The World is Flat” and New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman will be the guest of the 2022 Rockhurst University Leadership Series, speaking on “Helping Today’s Leaders Understand Big Trends Shaping the World: Economics, Technology, and Geopolitics” at a talk followed by a reception, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 24, 2022, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri.

Rockhurst University and Keypath Education will launch four new online and hybrid degree programs, including two online graduate programs, one online graduate certificate program and one hybrid undergraduate degree designed to further Rockhurst University’s goal to become a regional leader in healthcare education and to help fill the need for skilled, compassionate healthcare providers.

The new programs scheduled to launch in August 2022 are:

It’s the fulfillment of a dream that began close to 70 years ago.

In 1954, Rockhurst University students offered to raise funds for a statue of Mary on campus and an accompanying grotto for prayer. The statue was funded and Mary was placed on a stone cruciform for the time being, but the rest of the project proved difficult to fund.

A lot separates the Jesuit higher-learning institutions in the United States — size, location and degree programs, to name a few. But they also face many of the same questions.

That’s the reason senior student development officers from across the country were on the Rockhurst University campus this week as part of the Jesuit Association of Student Personnel Administrators’ annual Senior Student Affairs Officers meeting.