Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
Creighton’s got more than a few exciting things in store for 2024 — from a rebooted campus core to new University leaders joining our team to a new home for the individuals who make up the heart of Creighton’s spiritual community.
Read on to see a few 2024 developments that will be of interest to any Bluejay.
1. The opening of the Jérôme Nadal, SJ, Jesuit Residence
This academic year will inaugurate “a second founding for Creighton’s Jesuits,” with the opening of the Jérôme Nadal, SJ, Jesuit Residence, an investment in a spiritual community whose values and vision have guided the University’s mission-driven approach to education for nearly 150 years.
The residence will be home to Jesuits who live, serve and work on campus as instructors, pastors, chaplains and University administrators and staff. The 37,779-square-foot building will be accessible to students, faculty, staff, alumni and Omaha partners for Mass, spiritual counseling and other mission-based programs.
The residence will include 28 bedrooms for Creighton Jesuits, as well as a 1,015-square-foot chapel, a dining hall, a library and several spaces for spiritual activities.
Read more about the Jesuit Residence here.
2. The St. John’s Fountain and Plaza upgrade
The Eternal Flame sculpture will soon return to its rightful place with the upgrade of the St. John’s Fountain, which is expected to be completed this year. The renovations coincide with an update to St. John’s Church Plaza.
The new and improved fountain (see the rendering above) will no longer be sunken. The steps to the church will be widened. The plaza area in front of the church will be larger and include some attractive greenery and stone that matches that of the church.
Fountains have a long, weird history at Creighton. Read about it here.
3. More winning
Not to jinx any of our incredible athletics programs, but some of them have had a terrific run of late, and we can’t help but be optimistic in the Jays ahead.
The volleyball, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams have each, in one of the last two years, made it into the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 or Elite Eight. The men’s soccer team made it to the 2022 semifinals of the College Cup. This fall, for the first time in the tennis program history, senior Matthew Lanahan and junior Alejandro Gandini had their magical run come to an end in the round of 16 at the ITA National Fall Championship, while the women’s tennis team made it to the BIG EAST Championship for the first time in its history.
Nothing is ever certain, of course. But we’re going to venture a prediction that plenty more success lies in store for Bluejays in 2024.
Speaking of Athletics, Jimmy Walker was recently named the sixth head coach in the Creighton women’s soccer program’s history. He has led Bowling Green State to a pair of Mid-American Conference titles in the past four years, going 36-19-11 with the Falcons.
Walker replaces Ross Paule, the second-winningest coach in the program’s history.
4. New College of Nursing dean
In January, Jessica Clark, DNP, RN, will begin as the new dean of Creighton’s College of Nursing. Clark comes to Creighton from Bradley University, where she served as the dean of the College of Education and Health Sciences and, before that, the associate dean and director of the Department of Nursing.
Clark succeeds Catherine Todero, PhD, BSN’72, who retired this past summer after serving as dean of the College of Nursing since 2015 and vice provost for Health Sciences Campuses since 2019.
Prior to joining higher education, Clark was the regional clinical program director for telehealth with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She has also worked in emergency, critical care and medical-surgical nursing, having begun her career as an ER staff nurse.
5. Looking back, looking ahead
In the spirit of Forward Blue, Creighton will keep one eye on its history (its virtues, values, traditions) and the other on its future (bold moves, new opportunities) in the year ahead.
Stay tuned for some developments in our schools, colleges, programs and campuses. We can’t yet offer much in the way of details, but rest assured, it’s all good news, all exciting stuff.
We can be a bit less coy about the anniversaries Creighton will see in 2024 (some of which we’ll write about at greater length later on). These include the 20th anniversary of Morrison Stadium and the Magis Clinic, the 25th anniversary of Creighton magazine and the respective 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of the extension of the Reinert-Alumni Memorial Library, the opening of the Ahmanson Law Center and the groundbreaking of Swanson Hall.
Each new year also brings Creighton a bit closer to its most major milestone — our 150th anniversary. Just four more years until our first sesquicentennial. Let's make them count.
