chaglang wrote:(1)Point? SLU and Creighton fit into the same category and are much better. I'm not asking them to be Georgetown. Not even sure they have the leadership to do that if they wanted to.
(2)I assume that you haven't been near the campus lately. The area given over to parking lots and empty space is astonishing. They got flak for tearing down buildings along Paseo and turning it into a grassy hill. It was deserved.
(3)Stop trolling. Two of their three dorms should have been replaced years ago. One of them was briefly declared unsafe and had to be emptied out.
(4)Those are completely unrelated points. 20 years ago, Rockhurst could be reasonably classed with SLU and Creighton. That's not true anymore. In settling for being a decent local school, they've slipped down the ranks of their peer Jesuit schools. Why is that a problem? Because people pay a premium for Jesuit education, and if you're going to drop $28,000 a year (!!!!!!!) for undergrad, there are far, far better Jesuit schools to do that. Or you could just go to one of the other decent local schools and pay far less. Beyond that, Jesuit education is about service and leadership. I don't see any of that out of the school itself, even though there clearly is a need. Hence my disappointment with them.
(1)Creighton is twice the size of Rockhurst, student wise. SLU is 4.5 times the size of Rockhurst. So I wouldn't call those other schools small, especially SLU at 14,000 students, and those schools have a more diverse selection of programs than Rockhurst.
(2)Granted I haven't been by lately but looking at an aerial I'm not sure what grassy hill you are talking about. And the empty space that is an grassy courtyard looks in place. Other grassy areas are sport fields.
(3) When did they build the new dorms on Paseo?
(4) If you want to change the nature of Rockhurst then appeal to the Jesuit community. But given the recent mention of the management school I doubt that the school is that low on the Jesuit college scale.
Concerning service:
Students, staff, faculty and alumni are directed by the university mission to Learn, Lead and Serve in the Jesuit tradition. In short, the Rockhurst community is always seeking to make God's good world better, and those efforts begin at home, in Kansas City.
Social Impact
Rockhurst opened its Community Center as an outreach to the 49/63 neighborhood and greater community in 2002. Since then the community center has continued to grow in popularity and continued to provide free meeting space for nonprofit community agencies, civic groups, school district affiliated groups, and neighborhood organizations. 13,156 people crossed the Community Center’s threshold in 2010. More than 50 organizations used spaced for a total of 2,805 hours, which is the economic equivalent of $144,311.
Service in the Jesuit tradition is a paramount piece of the culture and experience of Rockhurst University. Students participate in community service and in service-learning courses at their own will giving on average an aggregate 30,000 hours of service per year. The Finucane Service Project is a student-led service event for new students during orientation in the fall. More than 500 members of the Rockhurst community participate. Safe Trick-or-Treat is a student-led project, which offers neighborhood children a safe place to celebrate Halloween with their families. The families enjoy a “haunted house” and treats. Each year an average of 600-800 visitors attend and more than 80 students volunteer. Students participate in numerous service activities throughout the year, including RU College Bound and Global Youth Service Day. They also create their own service experiences with community organizations.
Rockhurst offers students, who qualify for the Federal Work Study program, the opportunity to participate in Community Work Study, which allows them to tutor or mentor youth in the community. Rockhurst partners with agencies such as the Kansas City Urban Youth Center, Operation Breakthrough, Jumpstart KC, YMCA and St. James United Methodist Church to offer students this unique opportunity to integrate work experience with community service. Students participating in 2010 completed an aggregate 2,940 hours.
Partners
Rockhurst University is in the city for good. The university continues to build strategic partnerships that strengthen our community and offer unique educational opportunities for our students. The university has many long-term community partners. Here are a few for which we hold membership.
•Brush Creek Community Partners
•City of Kansas City, Mo
•Greater Kansas City Chamber of Community
•Southtown Council
•Prep-KC