Mission, Values & History

University Mission Statement

Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1942, Fairfield University is a coeducational institution of higher learning whose primary objectives are to develop the creative intellectual potential of students and to foster in them ethical and religious values and a sense of social responsibility. Jesuit Education, which began in 1547, is committed to the service of faith, of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement.

Fairfield University is Catholic in both tradition and spirit and celebrates the God-given dignity of every human person. As a Catholic institution, we welcome individuals of all beliefs and traditions who share our passion for scholarship, justice, truth, and freedom, and we value the diversity their membership brings to our community.

Fairfield educates students through a variety of scholarly and professional disciplines. All of our schools share a liberal and humanistic perspective, a commitment to excellence, and a respect for all of the disciplines - their similarities, their differences, and their interrelationships. In particular, our undergraduate schools provide all students with a broadly based, general education curriculum with a special emphasis on the traditional humanities as a complement to the more specialized disciplines and professions provided by our major programs. We are also committed to the needs of society for liberally educated professionals, and meet that need through our undergraduate and graduate professional programs.

A Fairfield education is a liberal education, characterized by its breadth and depth. It offers opportunities for individual and common reflection and provides training in such essential human skills as analysis, synthesis, and communication. The liberally educated person is able to assimilate and organize facts, evaluate knowledge, identify issues, use appropriate methods of reasoning, and convey conclusions persuasively in written and spoken word. Equally essential to liberal education is the development of the esthetic dimension of human nature, the power to imagine, to intuit, to create, and to appreciate. In its fullest sense, liberal education initiates students at a mature level into their culture - its past, its present, and its future.

Fairfield recognizes that learning is a life-long process and views the education it provides as the foundation upon which our students may continue to build within their chosen areas of scholarly study or professional development. We also seek to foster a continuing intellectual curiosity and a desire for self-education in our students that extends to the broad range of areas that they have been introduced to in their studies.

As a community of scholars, Fairfield gladly joins in the broader task of expanding human knowledge and deepening human understanding, and encourages and supports the scholarly research and artistic production of our faculty and students. Fairfield also has a further obligation to the wider community of which it is a part, to share its resources and special expertise with its neighbors for the betterment of the community as a whole. Faculty and students are encouraged to participate in the larger community through service and academic activities. But most of all, Fairfield serves the wider community by educating its students to be socially aware and morally responsible people.

Fairfield University values each of its students as individuals with unique abilities and potential, and respects the personal and academic freedom of all its members. At the same time, we seek to develop a greater sense of community, a sense that all of our members belong to and are involved in the University, sharing common goals and a common commitment to truth and justice, and manifesting in their lives the common concern for others which is the obligation of all educated, mature human beings.

Our History

Fairfield University is a comprehensive Jesuit institution that prepares students for leadership and service in a constantly changing world. Founded in 1942 after the purchase of the adjoining estates of Jennings and Lashar off North Benson Road in Fairfield, the University has grown from an initial class of 303 undergraduate male students admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences in 1947 into a coeducational university of more than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Along the way, the University has awarded more than 45,000 degrees since 1951, and has earned a reputation for educational excellence both regionally and nationally.

Mark R. Nemec, PhD, assumed the presidency of Fairfield University in July 2017, becoming the 9th President since the institution's founding in 1942. He succeeds John McEleney, S.J. (1941), James H. Dolan, S.J. (1944), Joseph Fitzgerald, S.J. (1951), James Fitzgerald, S.J. (1958), William McInnes, S.J. (1964), Thomas Fitzgerald, S.J. (1973), Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. (1979) and Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J. (2004).

Learn More About Past Presidents

Our Values & Identity