Where Innovation and Tradition Meet

As associate professor of art history, Kerry Boeye, Ph.D., digs into centuries-old art with his students. As endowed professor of biology and innovation, Michael Tangrea, Ph.D., ’96, expands research in biohealth.

When the two faculty members connected, they discovered they had more in common than they would have guessed. Boeye, who minored in biology, learned that Tangrea graduated not just with a major in biology but also a minor in studio arts. Together, they hatched an idea to teach a Medical Humanities class together—a course they’ve now offered twice.

“The class went very well,” Boeye said. “We realized it wasn’t just the content we were teaching but how we taught about research and thinking and approaching problems from different perspectives.”

Living the Magis

That kind of connection, collaboration, and curiosity doesn’t just lead to new classes, but also new programs—at a time when students and the market are clamoring for them. Loyola’s strategic plan, Together We Rise, calls for the University to develop new market-aligned programs, especially in health and STEM fields, that support mission and enhance future enrollment.

New academic programs are springing up across the University in all three schools. And academic leaders say a liberal arts university like Loyola is the perfect place for this type of creative thinking that stays rooted in what matters most in higher education.

“Creating new academic programs is nothing new for our faculty, who are lifelong learners who inspire intellectual curiosity and a love for the liberal arts in our students,” said Cheryl Moore-Thomas, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president. “The strategic plan fosters an environment and an opportunity to lean more fully into those strengths—to live out the magis at Loyola, stretch ourselves as educators, and explore ways to enhance the outstanding Jesuit, liberal arts education with new offerings.”

The new academic programs being launched are being created strategically with a deep commitment to Loyola’s liberal arts core and a conviction to prepare students to meet the needs of the world.

“We are thinking about where market, mission, and our liberal arts tradition meet,” said Frank D. Golom, Ph.D., ’04, dean of Loyola College. “That intersection is the true seat of innovation for us as a Jesuit, Catholic institution.”

Something Old, Something New

“There are some programs that scream, ‘this is who we are.’ Nursing is one of them, but it is by no means the only one,” Golom said. “We have added a number of programs, both in the liberal arts and the pre-professional space, that cannot be separated from the way we approach undergraduate education at Loyola. I think we have shown that we can deliver our most professional degrees in a way that is distinctively Jesuit, Catholic, liberal arts oriented.”

Loyola’s deeply relational, residential experience, in which students are mentored by their professors and build deep relationships with one another, dovetails with the generations-old purpose of the liberal arts.

“We are educating people not just for success, but to be informed, discerning, and ethically-minded citizens in their democracy. In the liberal arts tradition, the goal has always been contributing to the common good,” Golom said. “In fact, from a liberal education perspective, the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ have not changed for centuries. But ‘what’ we do—the content of what we teach and what we consider foundational for citizenship—has and, in some cases, probably should.”

The new programs—which are generating so much excitement and interest among students, prospective students, and alumni—build on existing strengths, said Mary Ann Scully, MBA ’79, dean of the Sellinger School.

“With these specializations, our faculty are doing something to help grow their disciplines,” she said. “So real estate is part of finance, supply chain management is part of information systems. We are asking what we are doing to ensure that the curriculum is relevant and that when students graduate they are as prepared as possible for both a career and for impact.”

Internal Vision, External Engagement

As part of that discernment process, Scully and others are engaging alumni and other community partners. These leaders meet with faculty to discuss how students need to be prepared.

“In part because of AI, students need these very durable skills like critical thinking and communication; skills they get through our liberal arts education. Then you look at certain fields that employers are telling us are in heavy demand and are not being met by anyone else,” Scully said. “We’re trying to solicit input from people outside the campus—employers in industry—to ask them what are you seeing, what can we do to help you, and in the process how can we help our students.”

Scully values the abundant enthusiasm and the investment from the community—internally and externally.

“By the time they’re done, after five or six meetings, they’re engaged,” Scully said. “When we get to the end, I say, ‘These are specialty programs, we don’t necessarily have faculty to teach these in the first year, will you teach them?’ They all say ‘yes.’ ‘Will you guarantee our students internships?’ They all say ‘yes.’”

Real World Experience

The new majors and minors are exciting to students like Luke Buettner, ’29, who wants to pursue a career in real estate, but chose Loyola before the University launched its program. He figured he would major in finance—and now he’s majoring in both.

“I was thrilled because this meant that I could study both finance and real estate and understand how these two fields coincide,” said Buettner, who lives in Finksburg, Maryland (and is no relation to the author of this article). “Real estate excites me because it transforms communities and brings together a range of people at each stage of development to bring a project to life. I am compelled by the idea of developing homes for people to live in or building spaces where both local and national businesses can thrive. The lasting impact that a project can have on a community is what excites me the most.”

As a first-year student, Buettner took a Real Estate Development class with Dori Farley, senior associate at MCB Real Estate and affiliate instructor in finance. “She exhibited patience as I was the only freshman taking her class, while continually challenging me to grow,” Buettner said.

Scully sees the strategic development of new programs, like the new real estate major, as building on the work the University is doing to add more experiential learning, field trips, and internship opportunities for students—and to track their success.

Buettner experienced this firsthand in Farley’s class. “Through her teaching, I was introduced to real-world experiences, examples, and professional speakers.”

Innovation Through Collaboration

Some of the School of Education’s newest programs have emerged through collaboration across disciplines and a commitment to meeting evolving educational needs. Loyola’s expanding Special Education offerings illustrate that approach. Building on established undergraduate and graduate programs, faculty worked across departments to develop a new undergraduate major that combines evidence-based practice, extensive clinical experiences, and interdisciplinary learning. Students may pursue coursework that complements their preparation in areas such as literacy, psychology, multilingual learner education, and speech-language-hearing sciences, preparing them to support diverse learners in inclusive educational settings, said Afra Ahmed Hersi, Ph.D., dean of the School of Education.

The Special Education major grew out of an interdisciplinary effort that brought together perspectives from across the University, a process Hersi described as “a perfect example of collaboration and interdisciplinary engagement.” For Hersi, the creation of the program reflects a broader culture of innovation across Loyola.

“Innovation is the heartbeat of what it means to educate students at Loyola,” Hersi said. “It's how we prepare students to use their knowledge, talents, and compassion to make a difference in the world.”

Culture of Learning

For Hersi, innovation begins with a culture of learning. Across Loyola, faculty continually explore new ideas, new tools, and new approaches to preparing students. Those conversations often lead to collaborations that shape programs, curricula, and new opportunities for students.

“It starts with our own faculty learning,” she said. “It’s also modeling this idea of how learning is a way to make sense of the world—whether it’s new tools or ways to make things happen. At Loyola, we’re really interested in the idea of the productive collaboration that happens when you bring people together to find a solution. That’s what you’re seeing here.”

As new programs are being considered, it’s important to realize what drives most faculty members, Golom said.

“If you’re a faculty member, you’re going to sleep and waking up thinking about whether your course is truly giving students what they need—not just to learn the material but to do good work in the world,” he said. “What I think we’ve been doing better is harnessing that natural energy.”

What’s Old Is New

Those interdisciplinary conversations among faculty and across divisions and schools may not just be inspiring and affirming, but productive in the way courses and academic programs are coming together.

“If we aspire to be an elite liberal arts school, we should be preparing our students to navigate that world,” said Boeye, who serves as chair of the faculty and oversees the Academic Senate. “We need to prepare them to be intellectually nimble, to be able to learn quickly, to know where to look for answers, and to be able to shift from using quantitative methods to making rhetorical arguments that are compelling.”

That’s as true today as it was when Loyola was founded nearly 175 years ago.

The Latest Additions

Faculty are working across the University to create new programs that build on the University’s strengths and serve incoming and current students.

New programs that are being implemented at Loyola include:

• B.S. IN NURSING
• B.S. IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
• B.A. IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES WITH A CONCENTRATION IN EITHER ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES OR ENVIRONMENT, SOCIETY, AND POLICY
• B.A. IN SPECIAL EDUCATION
• BBA IN FORENSIC ACCOUNTING
• B.S. IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AND REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT
• B.S. IN REAL ESTATE
• B.S. IN FINANCIAL RISK MANAGEMENT AND INSURANCE
• BBA IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

The schools are also adding new minors, including Community Development, Health and Human Experiences, and Arts Management.