As a community of educators and scholars, Loyola's faculty and staff must be dedicated to excellence in teaching, in research, and in service to the larger community. The university must provide an environment conducive to growth of her faculty and staff and the development of scholarship and understanding of personal values that is so much a part of the Christian tradition. At the same time, concern for the student as a person is central to the Jesuit educational mission. Above all, Loyola will endeavor to develop in her students a love for truth, the critical intelligence to attain it, and the eloquence to articulate it. While academic excellence and liberal education are the immediate goals of our university community, they cannot be, in view of our commitment as a Jesuit university, the ultimate raison d'etre.
Academic excellence stands in the service of the full human development of persons as moral agents.
In this regard, it would be well to recall the role of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola in the development of every Jesuit. After the Gospel, the Exercises are the wellspring of the Jesuit spirit. They endow Jesuit activity with a distinctive quality. Some understanding of the Exercises, therefore, is necessary to understand the ultimate aim of the Jesuit educational endeavor. The Exercises aim to enable a person, with God's help, to make a Christian choice in regard to the most significant truths and values of life.