Students process into this year’s Mass of the Holy Spirit with banners showcasing the university’s updated six core Jesuit values, which Mission and Ministry recently condensed from seven.
In the fall of 2025, Creighton University’s Mission and Ministry office officially published an informational page on the myCreighton website showcasing Creighton’s core Jesuit values. Notably, the seven core values that many had been familiar with had been condensed into six core values, which Mission and Ministry will now refer to when sharing about the university, and this change was reflected on the website.
With goals of simplification and omitting nearly synonymous core values from the new list, the core value of “forming and educating agents of change” has been condensed into the value of “for and with others.” According to Cynthia Schmersal, Ed.D., Mission and Ministry’s vice president, the reasoning behind this condensing comes from the Rev. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., and his 1973 address “Men for Others.” In that address, he said part of the responsibility of Jesuit education was to teach the topics of justice and how to become individuals for others.
“It’s in the service of faith and the promotion of justice, which comes from that same time [1973 address] … he said, if we are educating you to be men for others, we need to educate you to be agents of change. And so that’s where I see ‘agents of change’ and being ‘for and with others’ as ‘how can one authentically be for others if you’re not advocating for justice?’ And agents of change really are agents of positive change, right? Trying to foster, I would say, a world that more fully coheres with God’s vision for humanity and the earth,” Schmersal said.
Another alteration is condensing of “Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam” (AMDG) into the “Magis” core value.
“‘Magis,’ you may well know, it’s a tricky one because, when it literally translates to more, it’s easy for us to think, ‘Oh, I have to drive myself to do more, or somebody can use that as an excuse to put more on my plate’ and that’s not the ‘Magis,’” Schmersal said. “Based on some of the research with it, it’s what best facilitates the more universal good. In Jesuit terms, it’s really what best serves the greater glory of God. And so ‘AMDG’ is kind of a Jesuit motto … ‘Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam,’ [which is] Latin for the greater glory of God. So, trying to avoid having both ‘Magis’ and ‘AMDG,’ they’re not extraordinarily synonymous, but they are deeply linked.”
Condensing these values started with research that began in the spring of 2023. Schmersal discovered that many different organizations and programs within the university had adopted their own sets of core values unique to their curriculums.
“I created a spreadsheet and found that there were a variety of ways of referencing values: sometimes Ignatian, which would be in direct reference to [the] kind of things that flow from St. Ignatius, sometimes Jesuit, which would be a little bit broader, including Ignatian, but charisms within the Society of Jesus. Sometimes we were calling them charisms, sometimes values, sometimes core values. There were lists of seven, there were lists of eight, sometimes there were lists of four with particular programs. I know in some colleges, like for the College of Nursing, for instance, their certain values mapped to the curriculum, the Department of Education references certain … I think they would call them Ignatian Charisms … so, just a lot of variants,” Schmersal said.
So, to create a more unified set of core Jesuit values between the university and Mission and Ministry’s communications, Schmersal collaborated with many other Creighton organizations to finalize the selection and condensing.
“It was some conversations between myself and the president’s office. Certainly, within the divisions, so including the Deglman Center, which [provides] kind of [a] deep understanding of Ignatian spirituality, Campus Ministry [and] the Schlegel Center for Service and Justice, so the various divisions within Mission and Ministry. And then also some conversations with partners in UCOM [University Communications], given that they’re in some ways helping to introduce our perspective students [and] our perspective faculty and staff to who we are as Creighton. So, there weren’t students per se, which is atypical given a Creighton process,” Schmersal said.
With the intention of creating a better introduction to individuals that are not familiar with the university, Schmersal hopes that this condensed list will spark further intrigue and encourage people to learn about the other Jesuit values that enhance Creighton’s mission and purpose.
“I hope that in scratching off ‘for and with others,’ … helps to introduce all of us to the idea of a well-educated solidarity. That it helps introduce all of us to being ‘agents of change,’ right. Or in scratching off ‘a faith that does justice,’ what does a faith that does justice in our context look like? Well, I hope that leads us to explore the Catholic social teaching and leads us into commitments to environmental justice as well, right … So, I hope that it leads down trails,” Schmersal said.
Yet, the condensing of the core value ‘forming and educating agents of change’ has sparked some debate among the university’s community. For instance, a professor of communication studies, Erika Dakin Kirby, Ph.D., questioned whether its condensing may diminish the attention to the value’s meaning itself.
“I feel like, you know, we have the flame that literally is engraved that says ‘Go forth and set the world on fire,’ and I’m not sure any of those six are as close to that for me as ‘forming and educating agents of change,’” Kirby said.
Kirby also recognized that another concern with the condensing of the core Jesuit values was the potential difficulty of resonation for those who do not follow a faith.
“If I don’t see myself as having a faith tradition, will I look into what ‘faith that does justice’ mean[s] to understand that as a student at Creighton, no matter what, I should have the goal of going forth and setting the world on fire and being an agent of change?” Kirby said.
Previously, Kirby raised the question regarding the condensing of the core Jesuit values in a town hall meeting. However, due to being on Zoom, her question was not addressed during the meeting and was later discussed with Creighton University’s President, the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, S.J., and Schmersal. Nonetheless, it was during the town hall meeting that Kirby recalled Hendrickson referencing the value itself when answering other questions that were addressed.
“Father Hendrickson used the words of ‘forming and educating agents of change’ in the town hall when he was answering a question, like it just like sort of flowed out of his mouth, which is why — and maybe it really is that it’s not the intro level, it’s the next level — but then I just want to know like … how are we making sure people get [to] that next level,” Kirby said.
After being in conversation with Kirby and reviewing the concerns regarding Mission and Ministry’s decision, Schmersal clarified that the list is meant to serve as an introductory reference page when sharing some of the core Jesuit values found within Creighton’s mission and not to limit an individual’s perspective to the six values stated.
“Absolutely all of these [values] and more, I would say, are expressions of the Jesuit mission. And so, I think [it] speaks to the challenge of [how] core values provide touchstones. They’ll never speak to the fullness [of all Jesuit values],” Schmersal said.
Schmersal said she also hopes that this tool will provide an entry for new members of the Creighton community to utilize these values to better connect to the university and understand what they stand for.
“So, for one person, it may be ‘cura personalis’ that really resonates with them. For another person, it really may be the importance of ‘reflection and discernment.’ For another, it may be that commitment to being ‘for and with [others],’ right? … But the hope is that everybody can find their entry point in that sense of connection with who we are,” Schmersal said.