What’s the purpose of higher education? It’s not true that a university should merely equip students with skills required for their professional career. Our work is to help our students to live fully, to live well, so that they are not just existing, but really living; not just surviving, but thriving. And that’s a whole different thing. It’s an endeavor which is very distinct from what most colleges in our day set out to do. We offer an education for the whole of life, and that’s the difference. — Monsignor James P. Shea, President of the University of Mary