The mission of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University is to educate and form Franciscan servant leaders of all faiths. We honor and preserve the legacy of our founders by preparing highly skilled professionals, integrated thinkers, and faith-filled citizens. Inspired by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady to be a living witness to Jesus Christ and the Gospel message, the University is in communion with the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University aspires to be a premier Catholic University in the Gulf Coast region. The University will be known for excellence in academics, civic engagement, and student and faculty achievement. This will be accomplished by maintaining relevant, rigorous program offerings, superior facilities, community engagement, and excellent student support all within a culture of Catholic, Franciscan faith identity consecrated to the cause of truth.
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University (FranU) is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award doctorate, master’s, baccalaureate and associate degrees. Located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University is a small, Catholic, not-for-profit institution with a healthcare emphasis. The University offers degrees in nursing, health sciences, humanities, behavioral sciences and natural sciences. The University is sponsored by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady and is faithful to its mission grounded in Franciscan values. The University is a student-centered academic community committed to the pursuit of truth and common good and devoted to excellence in teaching and learning.
The University engages students in an educational experience that cultivates the spirit of scholarly inquiry, ongoing reflection, and a commitment to life-long learning and service. The University seeks to promote a learning environment informed by the concepts of collegiality, community, democracy, social justice, and the culture of life that encourages individual and collective responsibility. Committing to and accomplishing the institutional purpose and goals requires empowering students to exceed standards, expand their vision, and come to the full measure of their humanity.
The University will advance and integrate FranU’s Catholic and Franciscan mission through faculty and staff mission-centered recruitment and engagement, student servant leadership development, University mission outreach, and the establishment of a clear arrangement for religious sponsorship and appropriate governance.
The University will consistently achieve academic excellence in terms of student achievement in coursework and research, and in terms of faculty performance in teaching, research, program development and professional growth.
The University will achieve and sustain optimal enrollment through strategic recruitment and retention initiatives focused on growing and shaping enrollment to meet program capacity while responding to the needs of students and the community.
The University will ensure fiscal and operational strength through strategies focused on creating an optimal campus environment, improving operational efficiencies, developing facilities and the campusmaster plan and stewarding financial resources to advance the University’s mission.
The University will grow philanthropy through a comprehensive fundraising plan that includes broad constituency engagement, targeted fundraising objectives to meet current and future needs of students and a strategic mix of philanthropic opportunities to support long term institutional sustainability.
Service is part of the very fabric of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, formerly Our Lady of the Lake College. As a Franciscan institution which has been a leader in healthcare-related education in Louisiana for over 90 years, we value the opportunity to serve others "with joyfulness of spirit, and with humility and justice for all those entrusted to our care."
We believe that our Catholic values grow stronger as we take action to improve our community. Our service-related curricular and co-curricular programs allow our students to foster intellectual, spiritual, social and civic development through participation in community improvement projects and service-learning. Service-learning (an educational experience in which students learn from and reflect upon participation in meaningful community service) has been used successfully at the University in traditional, liberal arts, science, and clinically-based classrooms to enhance course objectives and improve learning and engagement in students.
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University has been recognized nationally for its emphasis on active service. In 2011 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching named Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University to an elite list of institutions designated with the Carnegie Foundation Community Engagement Classification. This classification put the University into a select group of higher education institutions in the United States recognized for their student’s engaged service in the community through service-learning and civic engagement initiatives.
Additionally, the University has been named on numerous occasions to the President’s Community Service Honor Roll, a recognition which is based on several factors including the scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has named Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, formerly Our Lady of the Lake College to an elite list of 2 - 4 year public/private colleges designated with the Carnegie Foundation Community Engagement Classification. This classification recognizes the University’s significant commitment to Service-Learning and community engagement throughout Louisiana.
“This designation is a momentous achievement, putting us into a select group of 311 higher education institutions in the United States recognized for their students’ engaged service in the community,” stated the President's report to the University Board of Trustees. “It recognizes our years of hard work and dedication to serving others . . . a fundamental characteristic of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University community and the core of our Mission.”
Service-Learning--a teaching pedagogy that integrates meaningful community service with classroom instruction and personal reflection--has been used successfully at the University in both liberal arts and clinically-based classrooms to enhance course objectives and improve learning and engagement in students. Recent student survey results show that FranU students report higher than national average levels of engagement in 1) developing a personal code of values and ethics; 2) contributing to the welfare of their community; and 3) participating in activities to enhance their spirituality.
According to Dr. Rhoda Reddix, Service-Learning Coordinator for Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, “Our faculty and community partners work collaboratively to meet course objectives and frame service opportunities to both challenge students and help them develop an increased awareness of their civic responsibilities.”
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, established by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, is an interactive community dedicated to personal, academic and professional excellence. This is best accomplished within an environment of mutual respect and civility, self-restraint, concern for others and academic integrity. By choosing to join this community, I accept the obligation to live by these common values and commit myself to the following principles.
As a member of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University community:
By endorsing these common principles, I accept a moral obligation to behave in ways that contribute to a civil campus environment and resolve to support this behavior in others. This commitment to civility is my promise to the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University and its community of scholars.