As in-person classes continue on campus, President Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA '82 MA '83, spent time walking the UD Mall, gathering vital student feedback. He reported a joyful response to initial testing success, “especially among the seniors — how much they hope we can keep this going.” There have been only four positive tested cases out of nearly 1,000 tests performed on campus since June, with no active COVID-19 cases as of Friday, Sept. 4.
At the University of Dallas, we are called to pursue truth, goodness and virtue, and as Catholics, we are called to preach this same truth by our very lives. This past summer, Associate Professor of Accounting Susan Rhame, Ph.D., exemplified this calling by doing mission work in Uganda through an organization called Engage Hope.
This fall, Branden Williams, MBA '04 and adjunct instructor for the Satish and Yasmin Gupta College of Business, accomplished a long-held dream: being awarded a patent. Officially listed as U.S. Patent No. 10,423,965, "Method and apparatus for establishing and maintaining PCI DSS compliant transaction flows for banking entities leveraging non-EMV tokens," Williams' patent draws from his extensive work in information technology and cybersecurity and comes up with a novel way to process payment systems.
On Friday, Dec. 6, members of the university community gathered to celebrate new scholarship endowments created by alumni Kurt Matthew Daniel, BA '74, and his wife, Debra (Bundow) Daniel, BA '77. The Drs. Helen & Leo Paul de Alvarez Scholarship in Politics and the Dr. Frank Doe Scholarship in Biology will benefit, respectively, politics and biology majors at the University of Dallas.
On Thursday, Dec. 5, many members of the university community gathered to celebrate the new endowments established by Trustee Mary Ritter, J.D., BA '85, for the Dr. Eileen Gregory Scholarship in English and the Marilyn Walker Endowment for Music, which will benefit, respectively, English and music students at the University of Dallas.
The University of Dallas' Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business is proud to announce a new partnership with Bishop Lynch High School. The partnership aims to further the Gupta College of Business' mission to prepare students in a wide variety of management specialties, serving a range of industries, and will support recruiting, education and other key functions at Bishop Lynch.
On Tuesday, Nov. 19, several members of the university community, including former students and colleagues of the late Classics Department founder Father Placid L. Csizmazia, O. Cist., gathered to celebrate the $50,000 endowment by an anonymous donor of the Father Placid L. Csizmazia, O. Cist., Memorial Scholarship in Classics, which will benefit classics majors at the University of Dallas.
A rebirth of lifelong learning is flourishing under the instruction and embrace of a collective "brain trust" of UD faculty, which Provost Jonathan J. Sanford, Ph.D., guides from the third floor of Cardinal Farrell Hall.
After finishing her first year of law school in Beijing, Vicky Sun, BA '20, traveled to Washington, D.C., where she studied the American Constitution for one summer at Georgetown Law School. She was intrigued by the fundamental nature of politics, and when she expressed her desire to further her studies, one of her professors recommended she consider UD.
On the heels of publishing her latest book, Whistleblowers: Honesty in America From Washington to Trump in September, Professor Allison Stanger of Middlebury College joined President Hibbs onstage at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture for a collaborative, timely discussion, "Speaking Fearlessly: The Demise of Discourse on Campus and in the Public Square.”
Last month, the fall 2019 Women in Business Leadership Panel and Networking Event featured three UD alumnae, and for the very first time a current UD student. Experienced in their fields, each brought a high level of perspective on "Elevating Entrepreneurship" as the University of Dallas community gathered for lunch and discussion.
On Oct. 10-12, 2019, over 3,000 Dallas/Fort Worth area Catholics came together at the Irving Convention Center for the 13th Annual University of Dallas Ministry Conference. The weekend included over 100 conference sessions in English, Spanish and Vietnamese, as well as opportunities for networking with exhibitions from diocesan organizations, publishing companies, authors, speakers and fellow attendees.
On Nov. 1, 2019, the Solemnity of All Saints, the University of Dallas inaugurated its ninth and first alumnus president, Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA '82 MA '83.
"Our department has two fundamental guiding principles: the study of political philosophy and the study of American founding principles," said Richard Dougherty, MA '89 PhD '93, associate professor of politics and director of the politics graduate program. It is this emphasis on American political development combined with the quality of faculty and the rigor of the University of Dallas' politics doctoral program that led the U.S. Department of Education to award UD a $250,405 grant for stipend support for politics doctoral students through its Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need program.
On Thursday, Sept. 26, several members of the university community gathered to celebrate the completion of Course II of the Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture program, the first component of UD's Liberal Learning for Life initiative. The course is titled "The Person: Tradition and History."
To found the famous Core curriculum of the University of Dallas, as an education "best for the individual," Donald and Louise Cowan looked to John Henry Newman's The Idea of a University. He unapologetically promotes the Western classics -- precisely because so few know our own culture well enough to appreciate the depth of any other.
This summer, the University of Dallas invites students, alumni, faculty and staff to join its first-ever tour abroad of Russia, led by Professor of Physics Richard Olenick and Affiliate Instructor of Spanish, French and Italian Irina Rodriguez. From June 8 to June 16, 2020, Olenick and Rodriguez will guide participants through the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, taking them on a cultural and literary tour of the "Russian soul."
No longer relegated to the damp lower level, the Cowan-Blakley Memorial Library's Rare Books Room has for the past two years occupied a prime spot on the second floor, where there used to be study carrels. The room, made of glass walls, is normally locked and only opened by appointment, but on Sept. 26, the library hosted an open house for faculty and staff to come and examine these treasures.
On the afternoon of Sept. 26, several members of the university community gathered to celebrate the endowment of the Dr. Charles Coppin Scholarship in Mathematics, which is named in honor of the longtime department chair and professor of mathematics and will benefit current and future mathematics majors at UD.
Trustee Thomas (Tom) Zellers, M.D., BA '79, began making medical mission trips to Honduras approximately 12 years ago. Zellers and his team supported the training of a surgeon to learn cardiac surgery, and he is now independently doing cardiac surgery in the two largest cities in the country. Before this surgeon was fully trained, Zellers and his team averaged between 12 and 20 surgeries and 38 and 57 catheterizations per trip, with patients coming from all over the country and ranging in age from a few months to 21 years.
UD's Beatrice M. Haggerty Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of "Costa Rica to Lubbock -- Drawings by Tom Spleth," a solo exhibition of recent work by nationally renowned North Carolina-based ceramic artist Tom Spleth. A recent trip to Costa Rica as well as reflections on a lifetime of travel to Lubbock, Texas, for family reunions serve as the chief driving inspirations for the artist's featured showcase. This exhibition marks the artist's first solo exhibition in Texas, and includes digital drawings, printed drawings on T-shirts, video and ceramic pieces.
The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine recently awarded Associate Professor of Theology Andrew Glicksman, Ph.D., BA '02, a $25,000 fellowship for his work to help promote Catholic biblical literacy and interpretation. With this grant, while on sabbatical during this fall 2019 semester, Glicksman will develop a manuscript on the relationship between wisdom and spirit in the biblical and patristic tradition.
As other colleges and universities struggle to advance institutional rankings, the University of Dallas climbed seven spots over last year's placement in the 2020 edition of U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges, reinforcing its placement among the nation's top universities.
The University of Dallas is one of only 22 institutions nationwide, and one of only four Catholic institutions, to receive an "A" grade from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) in its 2019-2020 What Will They Learn? report, an annual assessment of over 1,100 general education programs.
Dallas-area native and Door Number 9 designer Elisa Choffel Low, BA '03, will have her latest dress design showcased on the red carpet at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 22. The silver open-back vintage-style gown includes a striking chainmail jewelry inset created in collaboration with Toronto jewelry designer Kyra Matsui.
On Friday, Sept. 13, the university community welcomed George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the father of two UD alumnae. Celebrated for his two-volume biography of St. John Paul II and many other intellectual contributions, Weigel presented an exploration of the current Catholic situation in light of a new interpretation of the past 250 years of the church's interaction with social, cultural, economic and political modernity.
Gabe Dickey, DBA '19, recently successfully defended his dissertation, titled "Exploring the Human Side of Audit Quality: Team Engagement and Partner Leadership Behaviors," for UD's Doctor of Business Administration. Dickey has spent his career in the accounting profession, the vast majority as a certified public accountant working in auditing. He began UD's DBA program three years ago, drawn in by his interest in broader business issues and the program's practitioner-oriented focus.
Carlos Tijerina came to UD as a Campus Safety officer 23 years ago. He has loved the camaraderie of the CSO, but it has always been his dream to become a police officer. Then, a little over a year ago, UD finally got a police department. On Sept. 10, Tijerina was sworn in by President Thomas Hibbs as an official part of the UDPD team.
"I guess I'm a man for all seasons," said Irving City Councilman Al Zapanta, who was elected to the University of Dallas Board of Trustees on May 31. Zapanta has had, as he explained, three different, often overlapping careers: in the military, in the private sector, and in both federal and state government and politics.
Kate Palla, BA '10, gets to her office in Gulu, Uganda, by hailing any motorcycle driver who doesn't already have a passenger. "For 15 cents, they'll take you anywhere you want to go," she explained. "It's the least expensive Uber ever." Palla is the director of finance and operations for Cycle Connect, a high-growth asset-finance company based in Uganda.
As the result of a project initiated by UD Police Chief Russell Greene in May 2018, the Gupta College's Manager of Executive Education Jenn Howard and Associate Professor Rosemary Maellaro won the training bid from the Irving Police Department (IPD) for their annual IPD Leadership Summit.
When Maria Labus, BA '19, received a letter from UD on her birthday her junior year of high school, it wasn't clear whether it was targeted marketing or fate -- perhaps the latter, because she ended up here in Irving. Having recently graduated in the Class of 2019, this UD history major has just begun teaching seventh-grade Texas history at Travis Middle School in the Irving Independent School District.
On the afternoon of Aug. 22, several members of the university community and family gathered to commemorate the life of Suhail "C.C." Hameed, BA '94, who passed away in 2011, and to celebrate the scholarship put into place by his family in his name, to honor his memory and intentions: the Suhail "C.C." Hameed History Scholarship Fund.
The University of Dallas welcomes 21 new faculty members this 2019-20 academic year. Their knowledge and insights will further enrich the university in many disciplines, including accounting, art, business, chemistry, cybersecurity, economics, English, finance, humanities, ministry, philosophy, politics, psychology, Spanish, theology and the library.
The University of Dallas earned high marks of excellence recently from leading publications, including the 2020 edition of The Princeton Review's The Best 385 Colleges, the annual listing of "America's Top Colleges" by Forbes, Kiplinger's "Best College Values" and more. UD was also named among the "Best Colleges for Your Money" by Money magazine earlier this month.
Today the University of Dallas community welcomed the Class of 2023 during Fall Move-In Day. With the help of student volunteers, faculty and staff, 437 incoming freshmen officially began college life at their new home in Irving.
Aspiring drama (and perhaps also English) major Klemens Raab, BA '23, has been hanging around UD his whole life, since he only lives about a mile away from the university's Irving campus, and his parents (Klemens, BA '00 MA '06, and Gina (LeBaron), BA '99) are both alumni. He's already experienced the Rome campus, too, having participated in the summer High School Rome Program Shakespeare in Italy last year.
The University of Dallas Board of Trustees has added another alumna to its ranks: Mary Devlin Capizzi, BA '88 MBA '89, a one-time Spanish major who is now a partner at Drinker, Biddle & Reath, LLP, a national, full-service law firm founded in Philadelphia in 1849.
"I ended up at UD by accident," said Professor of Management Bruce Evans, who has taught at UD for 50 years now. Half a century ago, he and his brother were heading home to the East Coast from a camping trip and stopped by UD on a whim; Bob Lynch, dean of the newly formed Graduate School of Management (now the Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business), hired Professor Bruce, as he is known by students, on the spot.
Alexandra Koch, BA '19, received four scholarships for her studies at UD, and now she is UD's 39th Fulbright recipient; she will spend the coming year teaching at a Catholic high school and taking classes at the University of Bonn in Germany.
The university mourns the passing of Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Jack Towne, Ph.D. (April 23, 1927 - July 8, 2019), who passed away in his Irving home at age 92. He had a long, celebrated career in education, culminating in his roles at UD.
July 1 marked an era of new beginnings at the University of Dallas as Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA '82 MA '83, stepped into the limelight as the university’s ninth and first alumnus president. And his early morning arrival on UD’s Irving campus denoted a full-circle homecoming for the former Holy Trinity seminarian.
On July 9, President Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA '82 MA '83, along with Alex and Martha Galbraith, parents of alumna Alison Galbraith, BA '12, signed the C.W. Eaker Scholarship Fund for Chemistry/Biochemistry at UD. The endowed scholarship is the first to be received by Hibbs since his presidency began on July 1; it honors longtime and much-loved chemistry professor C.W. Eaker, Ph.D., who served UD with distinction for over 40 years, first as a faculty member, then as dean of Constantin College and finally as provost of the university.
I was always puzzled by the look of UD until one afternoon several years ago. While hiking through the woods above the seminary with my family, I happened upon something extraordinary: jutting out of the ground was the corner of a rock painted with exquisite patterns.
While many UD couples joke about their "ring-by-spring," Karen Norris, BA '88, and Michael Rouse, BS '87, have a less conventional UD love story.
UD is pleased to announce that Julia Carrano, J.D., BA '02, will return to her alma mater on July 15 as the university's new dean of students. In this role, she will lead the Office of Student Affairs in its mission "to cultivate an authentic Catholic community that holistically develops students for leadership and service to the world."
During his 40-year tenure, William “Bill” Hendrickson, Ph.D., most notably instructed the university's Organic Chemistry course sequence, teaching students the study of the organic molecular compounds found in all living things. The now retired UD chemistry professor already has his next adventure planned for this coming September: Yellowstone.
Peter Searby, BA '01, feels that modern schools -- with a scarcity of opportunities for children to work with their hands and use their imaginations to explore their worlds -- are doing boys in particular a disservice. From this recognized deficiency, Searby conceived the idea for Riverside Center for Imaginative Learning. Also finding the education of boys to be a primary concern, Daniel Kerr, BA '03, opened St. Martin's Academy, a Catholic boys' boarding high school in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 2018.
In an intimate gathering at the Museum of Biblical Art in February, UD celebrated the inaugural Crowley Chamber Trio Concert, "Music in the Museum," the first of three concerts that took place this spring. The opening performance rekindled the university's popular Crowley concerts, which first took breath more than two decades ago.
Former Affiliate Assistant Professor of Spanish Nicole (Hammerschmidt) Lasswell, BA '03, and her husband, Martin, have two sons, Will and Stevie, both of whom have autism. For World Autism Awareness Day, the family was interviewed on Telemundo; because the boys are thriving, it seemed particularly important to the Lasswells to share their story and their hope with others.
The first time Monica Ashour, MTS '95 MH '04, read St. John Paul II's "Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body" was in 2000 with a small, grassroots group of parents and teachers, including DeAnn (Barta) Stuart, Ph.D., BA '98 MH '04, and Annie (Duffin) Vining, MTh '03. This group went on to found The Theology of the Body Evangelization Team Inc. (TOBET) on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, 2001.
UD is pleased to announce the appointment of Jason Wu Trujillo as its new vice president for university advancement. Trujillo currently serves as chief development officer and director of the Honor the Future campaign at the University of Virginia (UVA) Law School Foundation, which conducts alumni relations, external affairs, fundraising and endowment management for the benefit of the UVA School of Law. He begins his new role at the end of June.
More than 500 graduate and undergraduate students, draped in their respective regalia, quickly filled the empty seats on the Braniff Mall the morning of Sunday, May 19, to participate in UD’s 60th annual Spring Commencement Ceremony. This year’s commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient featured Emmet T. Flood, BA '78, Assistant to the President and Special Counsel to the President.
"Tonight, we will honor four outstanding and highly deserving recipients for their achievements in their careers and respective communities," said Andy Farley, BA '99, university trustee and president of UD's National Alumni Board, in the welcoming address for the university's 18th annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner on Saturday, May 4, at the Omni Dallas Hotel.
The Spring 2019 Women in Business Leadership Panel and Networking Event featured Dallas/Fort Worth's top female leaders and executives. Leaders in their fields joined University of Dallas students, faculty and alumni for lunch and discussion. They shared insights and tips for living both halves of their lives: the work/life integration.
On Feb. 25 and 26, seven UD students traveled to Austin with Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Enrollment Michael Probus, BA '12 MBA '15, to advocate for continuing and/or increasing Tuition Equalization Grant (TEG) money.
Mike Kiegerl's youngest daughter, Christine, would have graduated from UD in the Class of 1994, but just before her graduation, she was struck by an impaired truck driver and died instantly. Kiegerl and his wife, Peggy, established the Christine S. Kiegerl Memorial Scholarship in their girl's memory in 1997.
UD students not only read St. Augustine's "Confessions" in Rome, traveling to Ostia to marvel at the place in which, according to Book IX, St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica, had a joint mystical vision of God — they also travel 4.4 miles from the Irving campus to read the text with residents of South Irving.
As you know if you’ve read even some of our first UD Reads book, "All the Light We Cannot See," it’s possible to build a radio from random, scavenged parts, as long as you can find the necessary random, scavenged parts, as Werner does in the book. This is also essentially what Assistant Professor and Department Chair of Physics Jacob Moldenhauer did as well: He scavenged parts from the Physics Department, and built a radio.
The University of Dallas Board of Trustees announced today that it has unanimously selected Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA '82 MA '83, to serve as the university's ninth president. The first alumnus of UD to be president, Hibbs has served as dean of the Honors College and distinguished professor of ethics and culture at Baylor University since 2003.
Brandon Cox, MBA '18, first heard about UD in 2013 when he was looking for an MBA program. While searching UD's website he also noticed there was a job opening in the Facilities Department. As both a student and a staff member, Cox was immediately drawn to the family and close-knit community that UD has to offer.
Mariana Zayas, BA '12, began her UD journey as a psychology major, but realized during her Rome semester that there might be other paths for her besides graduate school, which had been her original plan. "I knew I wanted to help people, but not in what capacity," she said. "I didn't know what that looked like."
As an incoming freshman, Abigail Wade, BA '19, thought she might major in one of the sciences and ultimately become a physical therapist; now she's an art major, with a focus in painting. Some things have not changed, however: She is still aiming to represent the U.S. on the archery team in the 2020 Olympics. Also, her love for UD has only grown in her nearly four years here.
Over 90 printmaking artists will be exhibiting their work across six exhibitions in the Haggerty Art Village this March 6 - 9, as part of Texchange, an international printmaking conference held by the Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI) in North Texas.
UD welcomes Emmet T. Flood, Assistant to the President and Special Counsel to the President, as the 2019 commencement speaker. Emmet T. Flood received his B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Dallas in 1978.
As UD's first-ever recipient of the George S. Sturgeon Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship, business graduate student Dominique West will receive a $3,000 scholarship to apply toward her final semester at UD. West is graduating with her M.S. in Cybersecurity in May.
UD announced the formation of the St. John Paul II Teaching Fellow in Social Thought. Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., known for his clear and careful writing as well as his poise and civility in addressing controversial social issues, has been selected the first fellow.
Alumnus Irvin Ashford Jr., MBA '00, was among 33 business school graduates recently honored in the 2019 Class of Influential Leaders by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) — the world's largest business education alliance.
"The scale of the mall is just right for a dragon ... We get reminders of its destructive power, with the necessity of smoothing out the mall from time to time," said Professor of Psychology (and 2018 King Fellow) Robert Kugelmann as he presented his address, "Past and Future at the University of Dallas: The Roadrunner, the Snake, and the Treasure," to his colleagues during the 34th King/Haggar Faculty Award Ceremony.
In collaboration with the Diocese of Dallas and Irving Independent School District, this year marks the start of a new university-wide reading initiative, UD Reads, at the University of Dallas.
UD's Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business is proud to announce the re-accreditation of its business undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
The Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business is proud to announce its 2019 Hall of Fame inductees.
In Martin Luther King Jr.'s own time, not everyone loved him, not even all black people; some thought he wasn't vocal enough or that nonviolence was not the most effective means of inspiring change. On Thursday, Jan. 24, WFAA anchor John McCaa, Ph.D., MA '02, explored Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy during UD's fourth annual MLK Day Symposium, titled "Politics, Faith, and the Media: An Interview with Dr. John McCaa."
"The University of Dallas is positioned to reshape graduate business education," said Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business Dean Brett J. L. Landry. Aside from being the business college's chief academic officer since 2016, the information technology veteran is a professor of cybersecurity — and even a "certified ethical hacker."
As he began his ascent up Observation Peak, the only trail-accessible peak of the Sawtooth Range of the Rocky Mountains, alongside his mom, dad and younger siblings in summer 2017, UD freshman John Rabaey could more than sense the coming summits on his horizon.
