Rockhurst News

There was a unique addition to the Thomas More Dining Hall that may have caught your eye this year. Renovations to the dining hall during the summer of 2021 brought with it the introduction of a hydroponics grow room offering an alternative to soil gardening.

Hydroponic gardens produce more plants quickly with less space and less water than soil gardening. This system utilizes nutrient-rich water and recycled soda bottles as a mesh-type medium that serves as the soil alternative to support the roots of the plants in grow towers.

Rockhurst University will honor Alvin Brooks, longtime Kansas City leader in social justice and civil rights, with the establishment of the Alvin Brooks Center for Faith-Justice on campus. The center will house many of the university’s faith-justice related efforts, including a chapel, mission and ministry programs, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Work has begun to raise funds for the center and to identify a location and construction and design partners.

As the August 18-20 move-in days approach at Rockhurst, students are using Instagram videos to encourage incoming Hawks to be sure they are vaccinated against COVID-19.

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.

Rockhurst University Companions,

After securing all but nearly $1 million of the expected $23 million cost, Rockhurst University will begin construction on the renovation of a campus cornerstone, Sedgwick Hall, into the future home of the Saint Luke’s College of Health Sciences at Rockhurst University.

Spanning centuries, styles and places of origin, the Van Ackeren Collection of Religious Art at Rockhurst University is something of a treasure on campus.

Each piece in the collection has a story behind it, but unfortunately are currently unavailable for viewing both because of ongoing renovations to Sedgwick Hall (the pieces are currently being safely stored offsite) and a citywide stay at home order to combat the spread of covid-19.