This document is intended to be used by Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States as a tool for self-improvement, particularly with regard to their fulfillment of their Jesuit and Catholic identity. While this document focuses on the Catholic and Jesuit identity of our schools, it needs to be used in the context of the presupposition that an institution cannot be an excellent Catholic and Jesuit university unless it fulfills its mission to be an excellent university within the American academy, and therefore values highly academic freedom and peer review. With that as a starting point, the document lists seven characteristics appropriate to Jesuit institutions and gives examples of ways in which each characteristic might be observed in concrete terms.