Bound to the Love of Truth and Justice: The Inauguration of Thomas S. Hibbs

+ SCHOLARSHIP FERVOR

New Endowments

+ SHARING UD

Two Programs, Great Reach

+ FULL CIRCLE

The Alumna Who’s Now Dean of Students

The Inauguration of Thomas S. Hibbs

BOUND TRUTH JUSTICE

to the Love of and WINTER 2020

FIRST WORD

TOWER PRESIDENT Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA ’82 MA ’83 VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT Jason Wu Trujillo, J.D. DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS, ANNUAL GIVING & DONOR STEWARDSHIP Julie Abell, MBA ’91 SENIOR EDITOR Callie Ewing, BA ’03 EDITOR Aaron Claycomb DESIGN Sarah Oates PRODUCTION Roberta Daley, Director of Marketing & Communications Operations

hen I was asked almost exactly a year ago by the UD Search Committee for the Presidency to write a brief essay about my interest in the position, I titled it, in a gesture to Tolkien, “There and Back Again.” I had more to say about returning to Dallas in my inauguration address, delivered at the end of the Mass that celebrated both the inauguration and, more importantly, the Feast of All Saints. (The text of my remarks can be found in this issue of Tower.)

We began the month of October by welcoming parents and alumni to campus for Alumni and Family Weekend. The academic calendar, which here at UD is at least at various points in the year inseparable from the liturgical calendar, introduces a certain rhythm into our lives, with beginnings, middles and ends — the indispensable ingredients in a good plot, as Aristotle informs us in the “Poetics.” In a world that is increasingly skeptical and despairing over the question of whether our lives have any shape or purpose, it is a great gift for us to inhabit a community that believes in both shape and purpose.

Amid the rhythm there are regular returns, opportunities for all of us to recollect, to reflect and to give thanks for what our time at the University of Dallas has meant to us. There are also occasions for us to reflect in specific ways on how each of us, as alumni of this great university, might support the university and ensure its flourishing for the future. With that in mind, Jason Wu Trujillo, our new Vice President for University Advancement, and I decided to concentrate on scholarships to help defray the cost of a UD education.

My time as a student at UD was marked by one marvelous discovery and opportunity after another. My sense of surprise was perhaps increased by the fact that I was the first member of my family, on either side, to attend college. UD has always been a place that welcomes first-generation students, sets high standards for them, and helps them meet those standards and thus achieve things that their families never dreamed possible for them.

With that in mind, my wife, Stacey, and I have just established a scholarship for first-generation students at UD. We invite you to join us in giving back to the university in ways that are meaningful to you.

To update your address or other contact information, email udalum@udallas.edu.

Send comments, letters to the editor or other communication regarding this publication to Jason Wu Trujillo, University of Dallas, Office of University Advancement, 1845 E. Northgate Dr., Irving, TX 75062; jwtrujillo@udallas.edu.

Tower magazine is published twice annually by the Office of University Advancement for the University of Dallas community. Opinions in Tower magazine are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the university. Postmaster: Send address changes to Tower, Office of University Advancement, 1845 E. Northgate Dr., Irving, TX 75062.

The university does not discriminate on the basis of sex in its programs and activities. Any person alleging to have been discriminated against in violation of Title IX may present a complaint to the Title IX coordinator. The coordinator assists in an informal resolution of the complaint or guides the complainant to the appropriate individual or process for resolving the complaint. The university has designated Joshua Skinner, J.D., BA ’00, as director of the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX. He can be reached at 972-721-5056. The Human Resources Office is located on the first floor of Cardinal Farrell Hall, and the phone number is 972-721-5382. © University of Dallas 2019. All rights reserved.

PHOTOS: JEFF MCWHORTER, KIM LEESON, ARTWORK BY JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS.

To Believe in Shape and Purpose

CONTRIBUTORS Edith Barvick, BA ’23 Alyssa Coe, BA ’19 Shelley Gayler-Smith Jocelyn George, BA ’18 Kim Leeson Anthony Mazur, BA ’21 Jeff McWhorter Mike Pitstick, BA ’15 Ellen Rossini Jonathan J. Sanford, Ph.D. Justin Schwartz, BA ’16 Ken Starzer Heather Tutuska, BA ’10 MH ’12 Kate Vicknair, BA ’22 Bernadette Waterman Ward, Ph.D.

Inside FEATURES

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To Endow a Scholarship

It’s been a season of endowed scholarships for the Chemistry, History and Mathematics Departments.

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Fostering Human Freedom Two programs celebrate and share UD’s riches with the wider community.

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Bound to the Love of Truth and Justice

On Nov. 1, UD’s first alumnus president, Thomas S. Hibbs, was officially inaugurated. Here is his address to the UD family … as well as an introduction to his wife, Stacey Hibbs.

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Full Circle

After 17 years, Julia Carrano, BA ’02, didn’t necessarily expect to find herself back at UD as dean of students, but she’s glad to be here.

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The Idea of Our University

On the occasion of Cardinal John Henry Newman’s canonization, Associate Professor of English Bernadette Waterman Ward considers his book The Idea of a University.

IN EACH ISSUE 2 UD360° 5 Heard Around Campus 20 Diversions 22 Class Notes 25 Album 29 In Memoriam, Last Word

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UD360

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Evans and his band, Sound Judgment, have provided musical entertainment at the President’s Reception/ Gala the night before graduation for 35 years.

COMMENDING THE CORE. UD was one of only 22 institutions nationwide, and one of only four Catholic institutions, to receive an “A” in the 2019-20 What Will They Learn? report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. As the guide states, “UD should be commended for its requirements in philosophy, theology, fine arts, and the history of Western civilization.”

PROFESSOR BRUCE

Capstone Professor Celebrates Half a Century at UD

AMERICA’S BEST. Besting last

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Read more about Evans (and his almost-perfect attendance record) at udallas.edu/ professor-bruce.

TOGETHER IN FAITH “Have them tell truth with the clock, confuse new with true,” said Boston College Professor of Philosophy Peter Kreeft at the 13th annual University of Dallas Ministry Conference in October, delivering a new “Screwtape Letter” modeled after those of C.S. Lewis. Kreeft was one of 85 speakers; the event had 3,330 attendees. Read more at udallas.edu/udmc-19.

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year’s No. 14 spot in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges edition, UD ranked No. 7 among 128 of the Best Regional Universities in the West and was the No. 5 highest-ranking Best Value institution. UD also placed among those schools for Best Undergraduate Teaching, Best Undergraduate Business Programs and Highest 4-Year Graduation Rate.

MARKS OF EXCELLENCE. UD also earned high points in several other prestigious publications: • The Princeton Review’s The Best 385 Colleges named UD a Best Value College among 127 Best Western schools, crediting UD with the second Most Religious Students in the nation, the third Most Conservative Students among private institutions in Texas and the nation’s seventh Most Popular Study Abroad Program.

• Named among America’s Top Colleges by Forbes, UD earned its placement among the top 25 Catholic institutions nationwide and recognition as the No. 1 Catholic institution in Texas.

• UD also placed among Kiplinger’s Best College Values, including Best Values in Liberal Arts Colleges.

PHOTOS: JEFF MCWHORTER, ANTHONY MAZUR, KIM LEESON, COURTESY OF MARY DEVLIN CAPIZZI, IRVING CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU, AARON CLAYCOMB.

ended up at UD by accident,” said Professor of Management Bruce Evans, who has taught at the university for 50 years.

In 1969, Evans was on a camping trip with his brother, seeing the sights of Texas. Passing through Irving on their way home, they saw signs for UD; Evans asked his brother to stop. It was Memorial Day weekend, and campus seemed deserted, but they made their way to Braniff Graduate Building, where Evans finally located an open office: that of Bob Lynch, dean of the newly formed Graduate School of Management (now the Satish and Yasmin Gupta College of Business).

“We were total strangers, and we talked for two and a half hours,” said Evans. “He hired me on the spot.”

+ Alumna on Board Living and working in D.C. is far from what Mary Devlin Capizzi, BA ’88 MBA ’89, envisioned as a UD freshman. “I had a Long Island accent, could snap gum and loved a good party, but couldn’t write well or think critically,” she said. Now a partner at Drinker, Biddle & Reath, Capizzi was elected to UD’s Board of Trustees on May 31. Read more at udallas.edu/alumna-on-board.

+ A Man for All Seasons “I guess I’m a man for all seasons,” said Irving City Councilman Al Zapanta, also elected to UD’s Board of Trustees in May. Zapanta has had three different, often overlapping careers: military, private sector, and both federal and state government and politics. Read more at udallas.edu/manfor-all-seasons.

Trending + 21 New Faculty

“I have been trying to pray for each of you … for our students … for our alumni, and I believe this is a great practice … to pray for our students learning in front of us,” said President Hibbs in his Faculty Day address, when he also welcomed 21 new faculty (18 pictured top right), including nine alumni.

Read more at udallas.edu/new-faces.

+ North Texas Giving Day Thanks to your kindhearted generosity, UD received more individual gifts (431) than any other North Texas university for the seventh year.

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UD joins previous GAANN recipients including the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago and Duke University.

RIGOR REWARDED

Preparation for Teaching and Research Federal Grant to Support Politics Doctoral Students

ur 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. “We think these two things are intrinsically connected.”

It is this emphasis on American political development combined with the quality of faculty and the rigor of UD’s 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 (GAANN).

“This grant will make it possible for students to focus on their studies and prepare themselves for careers in teaching and research,” said Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts Dean Joshua Parens, Ph.D. Beginning Jan. 1, 2020, politics doctoral students with excellent academic records and financial need, including those who have completed coursework and are working on dissertations, will be eligible for GAANN fellowships to support their living expenses.

The grant is guaranteed for one year; the university will reapply as federal funding becomes available.

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Discover more at udallas.edu/ gaann-grant.

UD360

HEARD AROUND CAMPUS TRUE BLUE. From the time of his

hiring 23 years ago as a campus safety officer, Carlos Tijerina dreamed of the day he could serve the university as a sworn officer of the UD Police Department. A little over a year ago, UD finally established a police department, and on Sept. 10., Tijerina was sworn into the UDPD.

EXPANDING OFFERINGS. UD’s

Gupta College of Business launched four new MBA concentrations: in marketing, in strategic leadership, in supply chain management and in health care analytics. “These MBA concentrations are strategically developed based on the needs of the growing organizations and communities that we serve,” said Dean Brett J.L. Landry, Ph.D.

FIDELITY TO TRUTH. In fidelity

PHOTOS: JEFF MCWHORTER, AARON CLAYCOMB.

to Dei Verbum (or “Word of God”), the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine awarded a series of grants to five recipients designated by the Catholic Biblical Association. Associate Professor of Theology Andrew Glicksman, Ph.D., BA ’02, received a $25,000 fellowship to develop his work to promote Catholic biblical literacy and interpretation.

BUSINESS LEADERS. Gathered

on the third floor of SB Hall overlooking the Dallas and Las Colinas skylines in October, Dean Landry and National Alumni Board Director Fanny Sheumaker, BA ’88 MBA ’91, presented three Gupta College of Business Tower Award honorees: Madison Milliken, BA ’11 MBA ’15, Dexter Freeman II, MBA ’11, and Ellen M. Sturgeon, MS ’19.

The pursuit of liberal education requires an essential devotion to civic dialogue, which takes place formally and informally around campus. Students gained words of wisdom from scholars and industry professionals alike. Here’s a sample of what they heard:

“God has his own mysterious way of giving back to you. You don’t have to give in just a monetary form; you can volunteer or give a blessing.

Giving balances your life.”

Satish Gupta, MBA ’81, founder, president and CEO of SB International Inc., during the Leaders & Legends talk “Classroom to Global Enterprise.”

Professor Emerita of Drama Judy French Kelly at the “UD Founders Tell Stories” event during AFW 2019.

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“By dangling and then withdrawing the possibility, the counterfactual makes us compare alternatives … and that forces us to reconsider the story that we know; likewise, a jarring or out-of-place simile opens up new panoramas in which a familiar narrative takes on new perspectives.”

University of Chicago Assistant Professor of Classics Emily Austin, Ph.D., BA ’06, on “The Other Iliad: Narrative Reversals and the Human Condition,” during a tribute to late longtime UD classics professor and chair Grace Starry West.

Middlebury College Professor of International Politics and Economics/Harvard Senior Fellow Allison Stanger at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture during a talk with President Hibbs.

“Learn from every failure you have; say ‘Whoops!’ and learn from it and move on; just put your head down and do it.”

Cathy Pullen, MBA ’85, corporate managing director at Savills North America, during the Women in Business Leadership Panel “Elevating Entrepreneurship.”

ADVANCING ACADEMIC RIGOR UD is among the toughest colleges to get into, according to a recent ranking by the college publisher Niche. Reinforcing this ideal of academic rigor, the Class of 2023 boasts the highest freshman SAT scores in university history — 1269, 36 points higher than last year’s record-breaking average.

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TO ENDOW A

SCHOLARSHIP Since President Thomas S. Hibbs began his term on July 1, UD has endowed several new scholarships. Whether honoring retired faculty or in remembrance of family or classmates no longer with us, these scholarships all serve our students.

C.W. EAKER SCHOLARSHIP FUND FOR CHEMISTRY/BIOCHEMISTRY On July 9, President Hibbs, along with Alex and Martha Galbraith, parents of alumna Alison Galbraith, BA ’12, signed the C.W. Eaker Scholarship Fund for Chemistry/ Biochemistry. This endowed scholarship 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. He retired in May 2017 and has spent his time since with his six grandchildren and traveling extensively with his wife, Mary.

“This is a good day for the University of Dallas,” said Eaker. “There are so many people like the Galbraiths who understand the treasure that is a UD education and want to support that treasure.”

He truly appreciates the people he got to know while at UD, among them the Galbraith family, who established the scholarship to express their gratitude to Eaker for his untiring guidance and support as dean during Alison’s undergraduate experience at UD, and to thank him for his assistance in the establishment of Constantin’s Galbraith

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Lecture Series, which furthers the Catholic intellectual tradition carried out by the University of Dallas.

This competitive scholarship will be awarded to a junior or senior UD student majoring in chemistry or biochemistry. Among qualified applicants, special preference will be given to first-generation college students, minority students and students with financial need.

Raymond Chan, Ph.D., BS ’97, Chana Hennessee, Ph.D., BS ’98, Gerard Jacob, BA ’87, Joseph McDonough, Ph.D., BS ’85, and Jennifer Muzyka, Ph.D., BS ’85, are now leading a campaign to add to the scholarship fund after the Galbraiths’ initial gift. Alumni, especially those who enjoyed Eaker’s famed electron spin demonstration by his “dance” around the classroom, are invited to join them in commemorating him in a way that helps future students.

“Physical chemistry with Dr. Eaker was like taking a class taught by Mr. Rogers,” said Brenna Rossi, BA ’17. “He always looked happy to be there at 8 a.m. teaching a subject he loved.”

To learn more about the C.W. Eaker Scholarship Fund for Chemistry/Biochemistry, visit udallas.edu/eaker-scholarship.

SUHAIL “C.C.” HAMEED HISTORY SCHOLARSHIP FUND On 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 in place by his family in his name, to honor his memory and intentions: the Suhail “C.C.” Hameed History Scholarship Fund. Each year, the scholarship will support students in their studies of history at UD. UD alumni, especially those who studied history or were friends or classmates of C.C. Hameed, are invited to contribute with gifts of their own.

“What I remember about C.C. is that he had a very bright smile,” said Professor of History Tom Jodziewicz, Ph.D. “I enjoyed having him in class. He asked questions and was engaged in his education. His senior thesis on the origins of the Nazis demonstrated imaginative research and clear writing; it was a good read.”

“I met C.C. when he came into Campus Ministry to inquire about confirmation,” said retired Director of Campus Ministry Denise Phillips.

“For over a year we had deep, serious conversations about what it meant to follow Jesus in everyday life. He was committed and passionate in his journey. Years later, when he became a father, that same commitment and passion flowed over into his love for his daughters. He was generous and loving and always had a smile on his face.”

Hameed’s parents, who were at the ceremony, expressed that their desire is to commemorate his memory and keep it alive at UD. Hameed’s daughter Michaela, a student at Stephen F. Austin University, joins them in this sentiment.

“This scholarship, and the occasion of us coming together this afternoon, is a testament to the involvement of this community in the lives of our students but also in the lives of their families,” said President Hibbs.

“We all come together to nurture and develop the minds and hearts of young people. We come together in times of tragedy to grieve but also to remember. Now, we do our little part to remember and acknowledge this life that impacted so many, the important impact this life had on our university and that this scholarship will have going forward.”

This scholarship will enshrine C.C.’s memory in a permanent way, as year after year it provides necessary funds for dedicated students to progress at UD. “This is a wonderful opportunity for history faculty to reward

history students who show they appreciate the humanistic approach we have to history at UD,” said Associate Professor and Chair of History Susan Hanssen, Ph.D. “It’s really so exciting; I would like to see more scholarships like this.”

To learn more about the Suhail “C.C.” Hameed History Scholarship Fund, visit udallas.edu/hameed-scholarship.

DR. CHARLES COPPIN SCHOLARSHIP IN MATHEMATICS To the ceremony celebrating the Dr. Charles Coppin Scholarship in Mathematics, which will benefit current and future mathematics majors at UD, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Charles Coppin, Ph.D., brought with him a “learning aid”: the plaque the Mathematics Department had given him on his 60th birthday, upon which is engraved Coppin’s favorite poem, “Simply Assisting God” by Piet Hein: “I am a humble artist moulding my earthly clod, adding my labor to nature’s, simply assisting God. “Not that my effort is needed; yet somehow, I understand, my maker has willed it that I too should have unmoulded clay in my hand.”

Associate Dean of Constantin College and Associate Professor of Mathematics David Andrews, Ph.D., BS ’90, spoke specifically of the gamma function. He recalled how Coppin called him into his office after Andrews took his comprehensive exam during his senior year at UD; Andrews had missed a question on the gamma function, and Coppin talked him through it and permitted him to try again, which enabled Andrews to graduate as intended.

“We begin and end with the gamma function,” explained Andrews. “It comes up naturally; it’s a beautiful relationship.”

“Your kindness and generosity to your students were a hallmark of the legacy you left the Math Department,” Andrews told Coppin.

“Other parts of this legacy are your love of math, the chaos we studied together; there are all of these wonderful aspects of math — it’s such a rich field — and you’re interested in them all.”

“The donors thought of you specifically,” added Andrews. “Your legacy and influence must be measured in super-exponential form because of all the lives you’ve touched.”

“My life has been very blessed,” said Coppin. “God has really blessed me as I moved along in life, putting it in my mind that teaching was what I should do. I hope that these donors will be blessed, and that each student who receives this scholarship will be blessed.” He expressed his gratitude for his wife, Alaine Fay, who has been very much a part of his career, as his proofreader and co-author in life.

“UD is eternally grateful to the anonymous donors who endowed this scholarship,” said Vice President for University Advancement Jason Wu Trujillo. “While their identities are hidden, the impact of their generosity will be apparent to future generations of UD mathematics students. It is the sincere hope of the donors that others, especially UD mathematics alumni, will contribute to this endowed scholarship and honor the influence Dr. Coppin has had on their lives.”

Coppin left everyone with a final nugget of wisdom, one he used with both students and colleagues, found in another poem by Piet Hein: “T. T. T.,” which stands for “Things Take Time.”

“Put up in a place where it’s easy to see the cryptic admonishment T. T. T. “When you feel how depressingly slowly you climb, it’s well to remember that Things Take Time.”

To learn more about the Dr. Charles Coppin Scholarship in Mathematics, visit udallas.edu/coppin-scholarship.

To make a contribution to any of these scholarships, or to start a scholarship of your own, please contact Vice President for University Advancement Jason Wu Trujillo at 972-800-0927 or jwtrujillo@udallas.edu.

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UD EMBRACES LIBERAL LEARNING FOR LIFE

A nationally recognized ethics scholar, Sanford came to UD with a clear mission in mind: to help shape the vision of Catholic higher education at the University of Dallas. “We are taking the best of what we do with our students here on our campus and sharing it with alumni and old friends, as well as with new friends who don’t know us yet, providing them with serious, significant, enriching intellectual formation,” he says.

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Join the tradition at udallas.edu/liberallearning.

“Intellectual formation does not take place in a vacuum. We are social beings,” explains Sanford. “We want people to get together and share ideas. The heart of what happens at UD is what takes place in the classroom.

You’re living to know, and you’re living to love, and through the education you receive here, you have the capacity to live a life of genuine freedom.”

FIRST INCARNATIONS

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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.

One can trace the first incarnations of Liberal Learning for Life to Sanford’s deanship of Constantin College, which began in 2015. “I was already working on establishing a center for Catholic social teaching,” recalls Sanford; for this project, he designated alumna Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P., as an instructor.

The new faculty-inspired initiative, Liberal Learning for Life, developed as most scholarly ideas do — as a collective germination of thoughts and discussions eventually leading to its complete fruition. “I was trying to decide where to start — literature, science and faith, something interesting,” says Sanford, sitting behind his desk, attempting to recollect the moment everything came together.

Sanford and Sister Jane Dominic began brainstorming the idea further with a group of faculty including Greg Roper, Ph.D., BA ’84, Matt Walz, Ph.D., Susan Hanssen, Ph.D., Gerard Wegemer, Ph.D., and Ron and Kathryn Rombs, both Ph.D. “Those were the faculty who initially got pulled in one way or another to the project, and they encouraged other colleagues to join as well,” says Sanford.

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Around the same time, after speaking with UD alumni, Sanford developed the Constantin College Advisory Council, a short-lived but fruitful effort that further enriched the final metamorphosis. “I was familiar with some of the ways other universities have built lifelong learning components, and in thinking what would be unique to UD … the first person I reached out to, to be a member of the council, is a man by the name of Dr. Thomas Hibbs,” says Sanford. The two philosophers had met a few years prior at a dinner ceremony in Dallas hosted by the National Review Institute, where a scholarly kinship formed and a shared pursuit to transform Catholic higher education took shape.

Though the Constantin College Advisory Council had only one meeting due to Sanford’s promotion to provost, the encouragement and financial support from the gifted group of alumni and friends of UD helped launch the four-course series later named Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture. “I didn’t have Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture in mind at that time — I was talking about ways to promote liberal learning, and ways to change the culture through liberal learning,” says Sanford, who sketched the initial curriculum covered in the four courses.

“The Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture series captures who we are in terms of the Catholic tradition, the Catholic faith and liberal learning,” he explains. “It is an expression of our effort to try to live out faithfully our commitment to rebuild our culture, and promote the good of our church to our country and the wider community. ”

As new cohorts meet in schools, parishes and private homes across the country, Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture just celebrated the completion of its second course, “The Person: Tradition and History.”

Two of UD’s newest faculty, Affiliate Assistant Professor of English Shannon Valenzuela, Ph.D., BA ’00, and Affiliate Assistant Professor of English Michael West, Ph.D., BA ’06, are aiding the completion of courses three and four of Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture. “We have a faculty brain trust that we work with to help give shape,” says Valenzuela. The program enables alumni and friends of UD to re-engage with the questions, texts and faculty that animate the core of the undergraduate experience.

INTERDISCIPLINARY QUEST The second (and newest) component of Liberal Learning for Life is Arts of Liberty, founded by Braniff alumnus Jeffrey Lehman, MA ’99 PhD ’02, whose “interdisciplinary quest” is always ongoing and, as it happens, brought him home to UD — the place where he says it all began.

“When I was studying here at UD, one of the things that struck me most was the intense, deliberate interdisciplinary character of the course of study,” recalls Lehman, one of the newest additions to Braniff’s Classical Education faculty, conversing over coffee on the Cap Bar patio. “Both faculty and students were serious about having the disciplines enter into dialogue with one another.”

He specifically remembers an Institute of Philosophic Studies course on Plato and Aristotle that was co-taught by philosophy professor Janet Smith and politics professor (and one-time provost) John Paynter.

“What I found fascinating about the course was that both of them were reading Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Ethics with great care — and yet they came at it from very different vantage points,” says Lehman. “When their respective readings came into contact, that’s when the lights came on … Drs. Smith and Paynter modeled how to disagree with one another in a cordial, illuminating way, and so they didn’t feel any need to agree on everything; this productive disagreement brought out things in the texts that I would’ve never seen otherwise. Their passionate, well- reasoned dialogue set me on a quest of trying to allow the disciplines to speak to one another in a wholly integrated way.”

This interdisciplinary quest seems more important now than ever.

“There is a renaissance in classical education that’s happening right now,” explains Lehman. Among other things, this renaissance has been fueled by a desire to reestablish intellectual freedom, a freedom that has been challenged and often compromised by technology and the media these past few decades.

“The reason why the liberal arts are called ‘liberal’ is because they each contribute to liberating the minds and hearts of learners.

Liberal education as a whole trains us to be free in our thoughts and to order our passions so that we may become fully human,” he says.

As classical charter schools expand at a rapid pace across the country, other parts of the world are also expressing an interest in the liberal arts and liberal education, and Lehman has firsthand accounts to attest to this. “Among the many success stories, there are two that I like to share,” he says.

One of these stories is from John Paul the Great Junior College in Belize. The junior college approached Lehman to build its liberal arts core curriculum after some of the college’s faculty commended the Arts of Liberty website (artsofliberty.udallas.edu). Lehman spent the next several months conversing with college faculty and administrators via email and phone. Not long after this, another academic institution, in South Africa, also reached out to him. “They were developing an alternative undergraduate education program that involved distance learning, yet they were deeply committed to the liberal arts and liberal education,” he explains. The curriculum from Arts of Liberty helped both of these institutions transform their noble commitments into concrete realities.

As a classical educator himself, Lehman describes his passion to provide intellectual formation for future educators. “While the renaissance involves more than just teachers and administrators, they’re absolutely crucial,” he says. “In classical education you’re not simply filling minds with facts; you’re creating a community of learners who want to cultivate and to pass on an intellectual tradition.”

Through the Arts of Liberty and other Liberal Learning for Life initiatives, this type of community might begin at UD and organically spread outward. Lehman concludes, “I’m hoping that Arts of Liberty can become a natural outworking of UD’s commitment to bringing people together in pursuit of the true, the good and the beautiful.”

BOUND TRUTH JUSTICE to the Love of

Trustee and National Alumni Board President Andrew Farley, BA ’98, and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Laura Felis Quinn, BS ’86 MBA ’18, join President Hibbs on the stage during the inauguration dinner.

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The Inauguration of Thomas S. Hibbs

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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. This is his inauguration address. hank you, Richard [Husseini, BS ’88, chair of the Board of Trustees], for that introduction, and thank you, Bishop Burns, for that beautiful homily and for presenting me with the presidential medallion. I am pleased to be surrounded by a number of bishops and clergy, many of whom I have known since the early 1980s here at UD; members of the Board of Trustees; administrative leaders; faculty; staff, students, alumni and friends; and members of our family. I’d also like to thank delegates from other universities and former UD President John Sommerfeldt and President Emeritus Frank Lazarus.

I have friends here from every institution with which I have been associated: St. Mark’s Grade School, DeMatha Catholic High School, the University of Notre Dame, Thomas Aquinas College, Boston College, and a green and gold army that came up from Baylor University in Waco. And, of course, old and new friends from both Holy Trinity Seminary and the University of Dallas.

Thank you all for being here. I want to thank the trustees for the confidence they have shown in me. Stacey and I want to thank the members of the university community — students, staff, faculty, trustees and alumni — for the warm welcome we have received. From some less restrained (more honest?) friends, I have received quizzical looks, as if they were wondering, “Have you lost your mind? Why would you ever want to be a college president?” I am not sure that the American Medical Association should identify the seeking of a university presidency as a new pathology, a yet-to-be-named species of insanity. But Bart Giamatti, former baseball commissioner and president of Yale, was surely right when he said that being a university president is no way for an adult to make a living.

The key questions are: What sort of university? Ordered to what end or mission?

It is a wonderful coincidence that the inauguration is occurring on the Feast of All Saints, the day on which we attend to our belonging to a church, a community that stretches from here to eternity and unites us with the communion of saints in heaven.

Catholic universities form some small part of, and play a specific role within, that community. John Henry Newman, whose presence among the saints has recently received official church confirmation, argued that universities — whether Catholic or not — have their own intrinsic end — the pursuit of truth in its complexity and unity. Against the tendencies of some clergy of his time, Newman insisted that the university is not “a convent or a seminary.” Yet Newman never neglected the moral and spiritual formation of students, particularly in their residential communities.

Indeed, after being named rector of University College Dublin, his first thought concerned the building of a church to demonstrate the unity of religion and education.

My initial and enduring ideas about the indispensable elements of such a community took form here at the University of Dallas way back in the summer of 1980. I can tell you one thing about my start at UD: I was happy to be in the classroom or anywhere indoors.

I had never experienced heat like I did that summer. I had also never seen anything like the lunar landscapes of the hills of Irving; it was like a scene from a 1970s disaster film.

Drought-engineered holes were so vast, they looked like they could swallow farm animals or Pintos and definitely naïve Yankee boys from D.C.

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ut, of course, the great blessing of modern Texas is that the only thing more impressive than the heat is the pervasive and inordinate use of air conditioning.

Along with a climate adjustment came a cultural one. Within weeks, I found myself immersed in UD debates. Among the combatants — and the military image is only slightly exaggerated — were Southern agrarians; Thomists and phenomenologists (Fighting Phenomenologists! as they were known); psychologists whose work was both clinical and informed by the literary imagination; and East Coast and West Coast Straussians. We knew about those distinctions before they became famous in Supreme Court nomination hearings.

Everywhere you looked there were Cistercians with strange accents, including one aptly named Father Placid, who did his best to teach me Greek and who — I have since learned — played a role in the underground resistance to communism in the 1950s in Hungary. There were also scientists and mathematicians whose teaching mesmerized many of my classmates, and a petite nun who seemingly controlled every aspect of the lives of pre-med students. They feared and adored Sister Clo! There were also the seeds of things to come. A secretary in the Philosophy Department would use what was even then an antiquated typewriter to compose the first business plan for what would become the entrepreneurial dynamic duo, Yasmin and Satish Gupta, [MBA ’82 and MBA ’81, respectively,] for whom our business school is now named.

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The faculty were and are remarkable.

Everybody was concerned with our writing: Clarity and eloquence were not just the preserve of the English Department; critical thinking was not limited to philosophy or mathematics; the insistence upon evidence was not just a matter for those studying science. Theological questions arose naturally out of the various inquiries and culminated in the study of Catholic theology in our Core courses.

UD has maintained this focus on teaching.

Our faculty are scholars, many of them publishing work that helps shape their disciplines, but they understand that their primary calling is as teachers who mentor students both inside and outside of the classroom. Some things are better. We have beautiful new buildings, and we are more closely connected to the city of Dallas. Professional development is vastly improved. I have joked that in the old days, the UD motto for career development was, “We get you out of the Cave.

You make your way back in on your own.”

I spent three years here in awe of the curriculum, the faculty and the remarkable fellow students with whom I was privileged to attend class and among whom I was happy to live. I kept wondering, “What sort of place is this?”

In honor of my classmate Dan Flores, [BA ’83 MDiv ’87,] now bishop of Brownsville, and his delightful twitter tagline Amigo de Frodo, I turn to Tolkien and my favorite passage from The Lord of the Rings: “The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind.

Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually — their paths were laid that way. I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into.”

I did not know it at the time, but in the summer of 1980, I had fallen into one of the most remarkable stories of Catholic liberal education ever to have existed, right here in the hills, such as they are, of Irving. A UD education is about introducing students to the great stories, the great debates, the great texts, the great inquiries to which we are heir; it is about discerning our place here and now in relation to the past and as part of a community that stretches from here to eternity. As we know from Scripture and from every good quest story, ordinary folks pursuing ordinary lives often have extraordinary callings thrust upon them. Such is the ordinary and extraordinary story of the University of Dallas.

“I spent three years here in awe of the curriculum, the faculty and the remarkable fellow students with whom I was privileged to attend class and among whom I was happy to live.”

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“As we know from Scripture and from every good quest story, ordinary folks pursuing ordinary lives often have extraordinary callings thrust upon them. Such is the ordinary and extraordinary story of the University of Dallas.”

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Secretary of the Board of Trustees Bridgett Wagner, BA ’81, introduces the President Thomas S. Hibbs and Dr. Stacey Hibbs First-Generation Scholarship at the inauguration dinner.

his kind of community offering this kind of education was atypical in 1980; it is quite rare today. In Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education, former Harvard dean Harry Lewis indicts Harvard as a place where the “ideal of liberal education lives on in name only.” Yet nearly every university, including religious schools, now wants to be Harvard.

What most universities promise is, in a mere four years, to turn adolescents into world-transforming leaders. They promise students that on their campus, they will be able to write their own script and construct their own story. Universities tell students who don’t yet have a sense of self, “Be true to yourself.” And we wonder why they’re full of anxiety. Universities take Polonius’ admonition — “This above all: to thine own self be true” — from Hamlet at face value. Yet Polonius is a dangerous fool; his counsel likely contains some truth, but that truth is not obvious. At the end of Whit Stillman’s film The Last Days of Disco, one of the more despicable characters has a moment of self-knowledge in which he poses the following questions: “You know that Shakespearean admonition, ‘To thine own self be true’? The assumption is that ‘thine own self’ is something pretty good, being true to which is commendable. But what if ‘thine own self’ is not so good? What if it’s pretty bad? Would it be better, in that case, not to be true to thine own self?”

Universities often end up reinforcing in students a shallow, and deeply consumerist, understanding of freedom. In his book The World Beyond Your Head, Matt Crawford observes that in a world dominated by technology, interaction through social media increasingly substitutes for encounters with external things and other persons. This puts before us the tantalizing possibility of a frictionless universe, one in which the external world presents no obstacles to our will. Yet, freedom involves confronting and navigating external constraints and conforming to objective standards external to the will.

Frictionless fantasy is reinforced in education when we promise students an opportunity to write their own script, as if each student were an autonomous creator of his or her own universe.

Treating students as if they were rational, fully informed consumers implies that education begins and ends with the desires they bring to campus with them. Why bother with the past or with mastering a set of disciplines?

The result in our culture is a citizenry that is increasingly incapable of following any kind of argument, that labels those with rival views evil and fatuous, and that suffers from a historical amnesia about the sources of our culture. The great American novelist Ralph Ellison notes the deleterious effects of what he calls the “tradition of forgetfulness, of moving on, of denying the past, of converting the tragic realities of ourselves but most often of others … into comedy.” The sort of comedy Ellison has in mind here is not the Divine Comedy of Dante or even Shakespearean comedy but a cynical mocking comedy that sees others and ourselves as less than human.

A university that is unapologetically and enthusiastically Catholic will preserve our full humanity. It appreciates the true meaning of liberal education, to be led forth into freedom. If we need to be led forth, then we are currently in some way or another and to some degree or another bound and blind. Our liberation from binding and blinding is complex: intellectual, moral, spiritual. To that complex account of human freedom and its realization, the University of Dallas has been dedicated from its founding.

May I end by asking a favor of each of you on this Feast of All Saints? I implore you to deepen your prayer life, to ask God to bless this university, its staff, its students, its faculty, its alumni and its benefactors. We also need to pray that we are increasingly aware of the many gifts that have been bestowed on us through this great university, and we need to ask God to make us aware of how he is calling each of us to use our gifts to support and advance the good of this community, a community bound to the love of truth and justice. Veritatem, Iustitiam Diligite.

Parts of this story were originally written

by Kate Vicknair, BA ’22, for The University News.

ffiliate Assistant Professor of Politics Stacey Hibbs, Ph.D., met her husband, UD’s ninth president, Thomas Hibbs, Ph.D., because of University of Notre Dame football. They were both graduate students, and they met through mutual friends. The team wasn’t good, but at Notre Dame, that didn’t matter; football weekends were integral to the culture.

The Hibbs were married in 1987 in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. After living in California for some time, they moved to Massachusetts, where Thomas Hibbs taught at Boston College, and Stacey Hibbs went back to school. She focused on political philosophy along with constitutional law, and

concentrated in politics and literature, earning both her master’s degree and her doctorate.

“The graduate program at Boston College is a more theory-based program, which is very compatible with the type of politics that’s done here at the University of Dallas,” explained Stacey Hibbs. “You get a better understanding of the historical whole, and the principles involved, and the considerations that go into how government can facilitate human flourishing.”

In 2003, the Hibbs went to Baylor University in Waco, where Thomas Hibbs became the inaugural dean of the Honors College, and Stacey Hibbs taught in the Great Texts program and the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core — co-teaching a class on friendship with her husband.

Their three children grew up running around the campus, sometimes coming to class with their mother if they had the day off from school. Now their two older children, Lauren and Dan, have graduated from Baylor, and their youngest, Sara, is doing an internship in Washington, D.C., with the Baylor in D.C. program that her father helped start.

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“The fact that they’re all grown is what made coming to UD feasible for us,” explained Stacey Hibbs.

With the “empty nest” phase approaching, the Hibbs had been talking and praying about how they wanted to spend the next part of their lives. “Quite honestly, almost immediately following a particular kind of intense prayer about discernment, we found out that the job as the president of UD was open,” she said.

Although the Hibbs loved their lives at Baylor, the job opportunity aligned with their search for something new, and they decided to pursue it. Stacey Hibbs is thrilled they made the choice. She is currently teaching in the Core Curriculum: one section of Philosophy and the Ethical Life and two sections of Principles of American Politics.

Her favorite part of UD so far?

“The students, hands down,” she said.

She especially appreciates how engaged they are; she is delighted to find that the majority of them bring their books to class and participate with plenty of comments and questions.

“When you have students who are going to take active roles in their education, it makes things much more pleasurable for them and for their teachers,” said Hibbs.

She is having a wonderful time discovering the different components of UD — the various nooks and crannies of the campus, the traditions and culture of the students.

She considers UD’s architecture to be the biggest surprise so far; she finds the thoughtfulness behind the buildings and the focus on light very beautiful, and she especially enjoys the layout of the Haggerty Art Village.

“There are so many opportunities for enrichment and engagement,” she said. “And it’s fun to explore and get to know a new place.”

When she’s not teaching or exploring, you might find her reading the science section of the New York Times, which fascinates her. “I’m a nerd, and proud of it,” she confessed. She’ll be right at home here.

Welcome to UD, Dr. Hibbs!

NOURISHING THE SOUL

From First-Gen Student to University President Drs. Hibbs Create Scholarship for Future First-Gen Students

t the dinner subsequent to the inauguration ceremony, it was announced that Hibbs and his wife, Stacey, have endowed a scholarship for first-generation students: the President Thomas S. Hibbs and Dr. Stacey Hibbs First-Generation Scholarship.

“We say that our graduates cultivate a lifelong commitment to the pursuit of truth and justice so as to think and act for their own good and the good of their family, community, country and church,” said Trustee Bridgett Wagner, BA ’81. “As a graduate of the University of Dallas, Tom understands this. He and his wife, Dr. Stacey Hibbs, have dedicated their lives to this pursuit … and their careers to ensuring their work and that of those around them is focused on nourishing the soul.”

“The President Thomas S. Hibbs and Dr. Stacey Hibbs First-Generation Scholarship will honor Tom’s own path to college as a first-generation student and make a UD education more affordable for first- generation students to come,” added Wagner.

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FULL CIRCLE

FROM UD UNDERGRADUATE TO DEAN OF STUDENTS

probably would have been voted Least Likely to Become Dean of Students,” laughed Julia Carrano, J.D., BA ’02. Yet, here she is, 17 years after graduating, back on campus as UD’s new dean of students.

While not precisely a native Texan, Carrano came to UD as a freshman from New Braunfels, where she’d spent most of her school years. From Vermont originally, she’d wanted to return to New England for college; applying to UD had been more of an afterthought. Two things caught her attention, however: the Rome Program, which sold her Italian father, and the tagline: “The Catholic university for independent thinkers.”

“Independent thinking was high on the list of what I was looking for in my college experience,” explained Carrano, who knew she wanted to attend a small liberal arts school but hadn’t applied to any other Catholic universities. She didn’t think deeply about her choice, as she recalls; she never visited UD before moving into Catherine Hall as a freshman. Yet from the moment she set foot on campus, she sensed the uniqueness of the place and the people, and the coherence of the education offered here.

“I loved that about UD,” said Carrano. “And my best friend is still someone I met that first day.”

However, while she lived on campus for three years and cultivated close friendships, Carrano admits she was not extremely involved with student life on campus during her time as an undergraduate, which is why it came as such a surprise to her in the course of her career that undergraduate student life was the part of the college experience to which she was most drawn.

She has slowly come to realize that while she’s pretty good at research and technical

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writing, her real joy comes from working with students.

One reason UD’s dean of students position appealed to her was that the title is once again “dean of students” and under the jurisdiction of the Provost’s Office; for the past few years, it had been “assistant vice president of student affairs” and fulfilling a more operational role. Having worked in places where there wasn’t integration between student affairs and the academic side of students’ lives, Carrano knows how frustrating this fragmentation can be and probably would not have taken the position if that had still been the case at UD. “It’s very helpful to understand the academic rhythm — what students are doing in class, professors’ concerns, etc., so we can determine how to serve the students better,” explained Carrano. “We’re trying to form the students in an integrated way, and this formation translates into all aspects of their lives; the distinction between dean of students and AVP is a subtle one, but it’s useful, especially in a place like UD.” “We ran a national search for a new dean of students and had many outstanding candidates, but in Dean Carrano we found the perfect fit,” said Provost Jonathan J. Sanford, Ph.D. “Her preparation and, most importantly, her character are such that advancing the vision we have for integrating the academic, human and spiritual dimensions of the formation of our students comes naturally to her. She is an outstanding leader, we are blessed to have her in this reimagined role, and I am eager to see the fruits of her labors in the years to come.”

Carrano has had, as she describes it, an unusual career trajectory. She sometimes struggles to explain it to other people, not because it hasn’t been good but because

she didn’t always take a direct route from one point to the next. After earning a B.A. in history with a German concentration at UD, Carrano received an M.A. in anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005, pursuing her childhood dream of becoming an archaeologist. She had the opportunity to travel around the world on archaeological digs in the Sudan, Germany and Israel. As a child she had obsessively collected issues of National Geographic, so one of the highlights of her time in archaeology was being visited by National Geographic reporters on the Sudan dig.

Carrano later obtained a J.D. from the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C., in 2010, where she graduated with highest honors, and went on to work in criminal justice research.

She most recently served as assistant director of student affairs at American University’s Washington College of Law and as dean of students at John Paul the Great Catholic University (JPCatholic) in Escondido, California.

“I’ve gotten to experience a lot of different things,” she said. “But ultimately, I’ve always been fascinated by how people relate to one another in community — how humans live, work, play and thrive together. Looking back, I think this is the common thread that drew me to history, anthropology, criminal justice and, yes, even student affairs! In student affairs, I have the chance to help people in the most formative moment of adulthood start to make sense of their lives and their place in the larger community — start, in some sense, to build culture.”

After all of these experiences, being back at UD after 17 years has been more thought-provoking than Carrano expected.

“It’s a unique experience to get to see and relive, in some ways, a formative portion of your growing up through a different set of eyes,” she said. “On a daily basis I am confronted with my own undergraduate education, because I’m serving other undergraduates who are having a profoundly

Carrano signed her son up for rugby; they practice on UD’s pitch. “Who knew they had rugby for 5-year-olds?!” she said.

similar, yet distinct, experience to what I had.

I see challenges as well as opportunities I didn’t see then. As a result, I try to pull from what makes UD unique, what’s central to UD — and what could be done differently — and put those things together.”

As an alumna, Carrano has a deep sense of what the core of UD is, but she’s also cultivating a sense of seeing what’s changed and being OK with those changes.

One of the challenges she hopes to tackle as dean of students is the problem of housing on campus, especially for upperclassmen, for whom there currently aren’t a lot of options.

“It’s a question again of looking at what’s core for UD, and what could be modified to enhance that,” she said. “Residential life is a large part of the UD experience for many students. Is there a way we can improve upon what already exists?”

She has visited the residential colleges at Baylor University, which are based on a model traditional at English universities and boarding schools, in which faculty or religious live on campus among the students. This type of model more fully integrates how students learn and live their lives. Carrano hopes something pertaining to residential life can be worked into UD’s new strategic plan.

she said. “The key to success is finding the right faculty to participate, and also architecture, how buildings are designed; they need to have spaces that naturally draw people together. One thing I’ve learned after many years of studying anthropology is that people interact differently based on how spaces are constructed. Buildings are tangible culture. This is important because we know loneliness is an increasing problem on college campuses, probably in part due to the internet and social media. One way we combat that is to create intentional communities where students are encouraged to have real, face-to-face conversations.”

Outside of work, travel has been one of the highlights of Carrano’s life, from Chile to Cambodia to Italy, even a year in Germany, and she now looks forward to passing along this love of exploration and travel to her 5-year-old son.

“Experiencing other cultures is so powerful not only because it awakens in you a greater sense of empathy and understanding, but also because it makes you confront your own limitations, assumptions and norms,” she said. “Every student who returns from the Rome campus knows that the best part of the experience isn’t just the good food and wine (although that is amazing!) but rather how much you learn about yourself after only a few months abroad.”

Back in Irving after so many years and reflecting on the journey that brought her here, Carrano recognizes that the flexibility and ability to choose different paths are essential aspects of the education UD provides. It prepares you for life, so if you decide you don’t want to do the particular thing you always thought you wanted to do, you can determine a way forward into doing something else. Now that she’s figured out what she loves, she looks forward to helping guide current UD students so that they, too, can discover a similar freedom to explore different paths, and maybe sometimes embark on different futures from the ones they had once envisioned or expected.

“We need attractive and affordable options, especially for upperclassmen,”

Independent thinking was high on the list of what I was looking for in my college experience.

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DIVERSIONS

My Soviet Youth: A Memoir of Ukrainian Life in the Final Years of Communism The Author: Affiliate Instructor of Spanish, French and Italian Irina Rodriguez grew up under Soviet power in Ukraine; after taking a creative nonfiction class with Associate Professor of English Greg Roper, Ph.D., BA ’84, she was inspired to write this memoir.

In a Nutshell: “One of the last generation of Soviet teenagers who tasted the political restrictions and propaganda, and the benefits and deficits of the communist state, the author recalls her early years in a Soviet school, a Young Pioneer inauguration ceremony, work on a collective farm, her family’s plot of land and their fights against invasive insects, and her first breaths of post-Soviet freedom, which brought economic havoc and bitter disappointments, along with new hopes.”

Overdue, A Dewey Decimal System of Grace The Author: Valerie (Silbernagel) Schultz, BA ’79, began as a volunteer, then took on a clerical position, and finally ran a library in a prison, coming to see the full humanity of the prisoners: “They possessed all the quirks and gifts and flaws, the nobility and the sin, that define humanity — every single one of them a human being created and loved by God.” In a Nutshell: “In Overdue, Schultz shares what she learned and the grace she received during her 14 years inside an American prison. Her experience and insights will transform how you see the people around you and the world we all share.”

Start Reading: Available at giveusthisday.org for $19.95.

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A Thousand & One Goodnights The Hosts: Ben Gibson, BA ’06, and Nick Wignall, BA ’07, started this podcast to talk (and sometimes vent) about the bedtime stories they were reading their children.

In a Nutshell: “We hadn’t anticipated that it would be a special sort of torture for a couple of former English majors to read the same books over and over again without any opportunity to discuss them critically. Or how much pleasure we might get from venting to a sympathetic ear about fictional trucks or unreasonable toddler audiences.”

Start Listening: Visit 1001goodnights.com.

PHOTOS: ILLUSTRATION BY ARTHUR RACKHAM, COURTESY OF GABE DICKEY AND UNI, COURTESY OF MARIA LABUS. JEFF MCWHORTER.

Start Reading: Available at mcfarlandbooks.com for $35.

MAKING HISTORY

FROM HISTORY STUDENT TO HISTORY TEACHER When Maria Labus, BA ’19, received a letter from UD on her birthday during 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, this UD history major has just begun teaching seventh-grade Texas history (despite being from Charlotte, North Carolina) at Travis Middle School in the Irving Independent School District.

DBA DREAMS

DBA Alumnus Begins Tenure-Track Position at UNI abe Dickey, DBA ’19, recently defended his dissertation, “Exploring the Human Side of Audit Quality: Team Engagement and Partner Leadership Behaviors,” for the University of Dallas Doctor of Business Administration.

Dickey has spent most of his career as a certified public accountant in auditing; for the past five years, he taught at the University of Northern Colorado. 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.

This fall, Dickey began a tenure-track teaching position at the University of Northern Iowa, his undergraduate alma mater, where he met his wife nearly 22 years ago.

The move from Colorado brought them and their two children closer to family — a huge benefit.

“My wife supported me because she knew UD’s DBA program was what I felt called toward,” explained Dickey.

“So to be able to turn around and move close to her family brings the process to a nice conclusion.”

To anyone considering pursuing a DBA at UD, Dickey advises, “Be prepared to be challenged intellectually and emotionally. It’s such a rewarding experience, if you can hang on and enjoy the ride.”

1

“It’s a Title I school, so the student body is basically 100% underprivileged or disadvantaged,” she explained. “I fell in love with the community there, and I learned how much these students need: You have to build relationships with them and provide them with a lot.”

“The job doesn’t stop at 3:45 when everyone is dismissed,” she added.

“I’m constantly staying after school or coming in early, so I can be there when they need me. It’s quite a challenge, but I can see the great worth of working here when a student begins to succeed and thanks me.”

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1 Dickey has a tremendous

amount of gratitude for the program and for the professors, especially J.Lee Whittington, Ph.D., and Greg Bell, Ph.D. “J.Lee would continually remind me to take time out to spend with my wife and children, and that was always fantastic advice,” he said.

2 Read more about Dickey’s

dissertation research and his DBA experience at udallas.edu/ dba-dreams.

Labus is looking forward to continuing to be part of this community at Travis as well as the greater Irving community. Read more about Labus’ UD experience and love for Irving at udallas.edu/making-history.

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Class Notes 1970s

Bob Hyde, BA ’75, was appointed

by Texas Governor Greg Abbott as a Texas Woman’s University regent.

Ernie Hawkins, PhD ’77, is an internationally acclaimed blues guitarist.

Genevieve Landregan, BA ’77, received the International Prize Diego Velasquez for her painting “Remembrance,” which was exhibited in April at the European Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona in Spain.

Daniel Donoghue, BA ’78, is the John P. Marquand Professor of English at Harvard University.

1980s Cynthia Elwood, BA ’81, is principal of Holy Cross School in South Portland, Maine.

Fulbright Recipient Fosters Community in Germany lexandra Koch, BA ’19, initially resisted coming to UD because it was so close to her Plano home, but the more she learned about the university, the less this proximity seemed to matter. For example, as a prospective student, she listened to an address by Anthony Kersting, BA ’15, who had just received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Germany. While it seemed merely a dream that she might one day do the same, she was impressed by the academic formation that had prepared Kersting for such an honor and experience.

Koch received four scholarships for her studies at UD, which also played a role in her decision to enroll.

Now, four years later, Koch is UD’s 39th Fulbright recipient; she, like Kersting, will spend a year teaching and studying in Germany, working as an English teaching assistant at a Catholic high school. At the University of Bonn, she plans to take classes in German literature as well as German language for foreign students.

Koch credits her UD community for inspiring her to apply for the Fulbright.

“Both in Rome and in Irving, much of my formation has come from being a part of the UD community,” said Koch. “My four years at UD — and studying Aristotle’s ‘Politics’ — have taught me that a true community exists not simply for the sake of living, but for the sake of living well.”

Read more about Koch’s formation and journey to the Fulbright award at udallas. edu/fulbright-fantastic.

TO RUSSIA WITH UD

From June 8 to 16, 2020, Professor of Physics Richard Olenick, Ph.D., and Affiliate Instructor of Spanish, French and Italian Irina Rodriguez will guide students and alumni through Moscow and St. Petersburg, taking them on a cultural and literary tour of the “Russian soul.” Discover more at udallas.edu/to-russia-with-ud.

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Francis H. LoCoco, J.D., BA ’83, of Husch Blackwell, was named in the 26th edition of The Best Lawyers in America, a peer-reviewed ranking recognizing lawyers for their professional excellence across the U.S. John Parker, J.D., BA ’83 MBA ’89, was sworn in as a federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas at the Abilene and San Angelo divisions in October.

Daniel Manack, MBA ’84, is a licensed professional engineer in Texas and vice president for global support and services at McAfee.

Father Donald J. Rooney, BA ’84, pastor of St. Bernadette Church in Springfield, Virginia, is celebrating his 25-year jubilee. He is director of the diocesan Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and in his third term as president of the Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers; he also represents the diocese in the Virginia Council of Churches and the Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington faith leaders’ committee.

Johan Schotte, MBA ’84, was invited by Pope Francis to a private audience in September at the Vatican to celebrate his contribution to the common good. His organization, the Johan Schotte Foundation, focuses on three main areas: humanity, environment and civil society.

Joan Laura Arnold, BA ’85, was named one of the Best Pediatricians in San Antonio by Kev’s Best.

Richard Husseini, J.D., BS ’88, of Baker Botts LLP, was named in the 26th edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ALEXANDRA KOCH, NIKITA KARIMOV, JEFF MCWHORTER, AARON CLAYCOMB.

FULBRIGHT FANTASTIC

HOUSECLEANING: UPDATE YOUR ALUMNI LISTING

Changed your name? Different email address?

Or just looking for an old classmate? Drumroll … Alumni may now update their personal information and peruse the university’s newand-much-improved Alumni Directory. Stay abreast of the latest happenings at your beloved alma mater by registering today at udallas.edu/alumni.

Associate Professor of Politics and Director of the Politics Graduate Program Richard Dougherty, MA ’89 PhD ’93, edited the book Augustine’s Political Thought, which reveals that Augustine’s political thought drew on and diverged from the classical tradition.

1990s Jack (Sarawut) Phadungtin, MBA ’94, is president of Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School in California.

Carl Fitch, MBA ’97, is principal in the Emerging Physician Leaders practice at the executive search firm WittKieffer.

Destiny (Albert) Wagner, BA ’97 MH ’02, a popular physics teacher at John Paul II High School in Plano, added self-defense to her teaching repertoire after her husband passed away; what began as a means of processing her grief became a way to help others. Read her story, written by Judy Porter, MTS ’90 MBA ’97, at focusdailynews.com.

Nicole Huff, MBA ’98, is the chief compliance and privacy officer for St. Luke’s University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as well as an adjunct professor at DeSales University and Moravian College.

2000s Joshua Skinner, J.D., BA ’00, is director of the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX at UD.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Quest for Truth Inspires Evangelism

“God calls us to live a righteous life,” said Sun, who remains best friends with her freshman roommate, Madeleine Nerio, BA ’20. Continue reading about Sun’s journey at udallas.edu/pursuitof-happiness.

fter finishing her second 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. With that advice, Sun’s quest for knowledge soon transformed into a higher calling: a pursuit of “truth and happiness,” and a liberal education at the University of Dallas.

“I’m very passionate about doing the right thing,” she said. And in reading the Great Books as an undergraduate at UD, Sun began to learn about charity, friendship and love. “I became someone I never thought I could become,” she said.

Sun credits her UD education with giving her the vision to see “evil and good in our daily life.” One of her fondest memories is of her sophomore semester in Rome and baptism in St. Peter’s Basilica. “The pursuit of happiness is not about personal success, nor is it someone’s private story … I want people to see the spirituality of our life … and to listen to the moral teachings of the church.”

Whenever faced with self-doubt or requiring patience, Sun reminds herself: “I’m a citizen of the church, and I’m a daughter of God.”

Emmanuel V. Dalavai, MBA ’01 DBA ’18, adjuncts at UD and was recently inducted into Topeka West High School’s ninth Hall of Fame; an expert in emotional intelligence, he was a featured speaker at an EMS conference in Belgium this year and provides guest lectures at various universities.

Christopher Lyon, J.D., BA ’01, announced his 2020 candidacy for the attorney’s office in Ellis County, Kansas. Chris has served as Trego County attorney since 2017; he is also the WaKeeney municipal prosecutor.

Jennifer Anderson-Baez, Ph.D., BA ’02, is interim principal of Pepper- hill Elementary School in South Carolina’s Charleston County School District.

Kevin Heller, Ed.D., BA ’02, is associate director of operations in the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Stanford University School of Medicine.

James Hoelke, BA ’02, is part of the environmental engineer staff at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.

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CULTURAL CONNECTIONS

Applying the UD Core

Business Alumna Helps Rural Ugandan Farmers

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TOWER MAGAZINE

“Our farmers experience challenges we’ve either never had in the U.S., or had so long ago that we wouldn’t think of them now,” said Palla.

there are different norms. Nothing is as easy, especially in the rural areas; the power goes out all the time, and the buses are never on time, and so on. There’s no air conditioning. There are fewer rules, and the politics are tricky; a lot of this relates to living in a postcolonial country, where I’m constantly reminded that there’s a bigger history that the U.S. wasn’t part of.”

In navigating this history and culture, Palla’s training through the Core Curriculum has been helpful, albeit sometimes in a roundabout way.

“The Core is very Western-focused,” she explained. “I wasn’t exposed to African history or authors, but I gained an in-depth knowledge of my background and culture.

Being able to go back so far in my own culture, I can recognize how deep the differences from the African culture go, and this helps me to understand that there’s a process and a development to every culture, and to break it down to see our cultural differences more clearly in an effort to understand theirs.”

Working in a career that many wouldn’t immediately imagine, Palla wants current UD students to know how necessary it is to meet people for coffee and to learn about a variety of careers and experiences to best determine their own particular paths.

“I wouldn’t change my education, but the one thing I wish I’d known before I graduated from UD was how important internships and informational coffee chats were to getting exposure to different professional career paths and opening doors to interviews at desirable companies,” she said. “My piece of advice for a UD student is to send a LinkedIn request to an alumnus in a field they’re interested in. I always respond to students reaching out from UD, to share my experience and offer any assistance I can to support their endeavors.”

Read more about Palla’s work in Uganda and what led her there at udallas.edu/cultural-connections.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF KATE PALLA, ANTHONY MAZUR.

Sometimes Cycle Connect provides loans for something as simple as a bicycle for $100 USD, which even a farmer earning $2.50 USD per day can afford.

ate 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. She spends about 75% of her time there and the rest working remotely from the U.S. — usually at her family’s home in Napa.

While in Uganda, Palla divides her time between the northern city of Gulu and the capital, Kampala. Cycle Connect owns houses in both places that are shared by three or four employees at a time, all of whom travel frequently, like Palla.

“It’s a pretty transient lifestyle,” said Palla. “I just got back to Uganda last week, and I’m leaving Friday to go back to the States for three weeks; then I’ll be back in Uganda for a month and a half.”

Right now, this transience appeals to Palla, who has always had a travel bug. “I enjoy interacting with people in their native language,” she said, “and finding connection to a different culture through living in it.”

“It helps to be there to appreciate the nuances of living and working in Africa,” she added. “It’s a big adjustment, because it’s very different from Western culture. Things that are commonplace for us in the U.S. are not there;

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Alumni & Family Weekend Fall means homecoming, returning to the place that helped form you, reconnecting with old friends, reveling in a meeting of past and future, and finding hope in reaffirmed community.

1 - President Hibbs mingles over cold brew at the Alumni/ Faculty Cap Bar Social, organiz- ed by the Class of 2009, which brought together over a dozen faculty and alumni from many classes on Friday afternoon.

2 - Professor of English Robert Scott Dupree, Ph.D., BA ’62, toasts his fellow Golden Crusaders at Friday evening’s dinner for the Class of 1969.

3 - Paul Stauduhar, BS ’11, enjoys family and friend time.

Several hundred alumni, their spouses and children, and parents and families of current students congregated on campus for the weekend’s festivities.

4 - Professor of History Tom Jodziewicz, Ph.D., delivers “Revisiting Frederick Douglass” on Saturday morning as part of the EnCore Lecture Series, in

which faculty share knowledge about relevant topics of today while reflecting back on the Core Curriculum.

5 - Madison Milliken, BA ’11 MBA ’15, Ellen Sturgeon, MS ’19, and Dexter Freeman II, MBA ’11, receive Gupta College of Business Tower Awards, which honor business alumni who embody the mission of the Gupta College of Business.

6 - The Class of 1979 celebrates their 40th reunion.

7 - Business major Jackson Crutch, BA ’21, engages in serious conversation during the Student Career Networking Social

with Alumni hosted by the National Alumni Board.

8 - Professor Emerita of Drama Judy Kelly, BA ’63, leads AFW’s “UD Founders Tell Stories,” as retired University Historian Sybil Novinski, Professor Emeritus of Art Lyle Novinski, and Professor of Management Bruce Evans, among others, look on. Professor Emeritus of Drama Patrick Kelly (not pictured here) co-led the storytelling.

9 - Noah Crawford, BA ’20, and Gretel Lim, BA ’20, enjoy open art studios in the Haggerty Art Village with a ceramics exhibit

by Tom Spleth as they sample Due Santi Rosato and Rosso (from UD’s Eugene Constantin Campus just outside of Rome) with parents and others.

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The Idea of Our University

“We desperately need, both for the transition and the new age to come, the kind of education that for centuries has been called liberal.”

- Donald Cowan, Unbinding Prometheus

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o 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.

Newman unapologetically promotes the Western classics — precisely because so few know our own culture well enough to appreciate the depth of any other.

Students, he thought, should form their imaginations by well-tested literature, with images of the noble and great before their minds. Material meant merely to stir addictive passions narrows rather than enlarges the mind. But the classics must be studied thoroughly in all the strangeness of their contexts, and their effects upon our culture.

Rather than “enfeebling the mind by multiplicity,” Newman advised studying a limited literature systematically and rigorously, through grammar and logic to history and geography. Strong bones and joints make flexible bodies; this apparently rigid, interconnected curriculum makes flexible minds. Newman says a student must “make good his ground” — that is, rationally connect new information to material already understood. This generated the 19-course, 71-credit University of Dallas Core Curriculum spanning literature, history, mathematics, theology, philosophy, language, economics, politics, art and laboratory sciences.

Newman wrote philosophy, theology, history and even novels — but he wanted to focus each student’s mind to “to digest, master, rule and use its knowledge, to give it power over its own faculties, application, flexibility, method, critical exactness.” The methods of the various disciplines enable students to enjoy relating ideas to one another and testing those connections in new contexts.

Shallow multiculturalism, he thought, misses the interconnections, leaving “a mass of undigested knowledge.”

Miseducated students today often judge other cultures by 21st-century American values. Worse, they may be helpless to distinguish differences in fashion from fundamental disagreements — or fads of the current news

cycle from real problems. A University of Dallas literature or politics professor can confidently refer to theological or historical issues, to philosophers or artists or economic theorists. Scientists are expected to write, and to understand the imaginative aspects of their disciplines. Debate proceeds civilly, often on a philosophical level.

The University of Dallas has various departments, rather than a single unified curriculum: “an assemblage of learned men, zealous for their own sciences” as Newman recommended, who “learn to respect, to consult, to aid each other.” Newman explains, “A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation and wisdom.”

Each fits into its proper context, and judges with the principles of its own science. None is allowed to be a law unto itself or a tyrant to others; theologians, economists, political scientists, biologists and all the others defend their viewpoints. Academic integrity umpires the rivalry; no discipline is silenced. Neither mere egotism nor personal prejudices can substitute for evidence and reason.

Newman considered this mutual respect to constitute a “science of the sciences.” He himself most respected the discipline of theology, in its promotion of the primacy of conscience and its wide view of a world that makes sense under a rational God, balancing realities that are physical, moral and spiritual at once.

A balanced circle of sciences challenges each discipline to recognize higher values than survival, or power, or partisanship. Rather, all admire “the magnanimity or self-mastery, which is the greatness of human nature.”

Newman’s ideal university does not produce a certain type of social arrangement, serving some political or personal end; it forms philosophical minds to work freely on any problem.

Because the university is Catholic, its members acknowledge God’s call to care for their neighbors — and first of all to consider their obligation to speak and hear the truth among their fellow students and professors.

Rather than disinviting those who hold opposing views, or shouting them down, students learn to logically challenge their ideas in relation to their own thoroughly examined tradition. No “free speech area” needs to be defined, and no political views must be quashed. The student body is mainly Catholic, but, with a robust grounding in reason and their own culture, they can debate opposing viewpoints without fear — albeit not perfectly in all cases, but with growing maturity. The University of Dallas has prospered by embracing the ideal of Newman’s university.

PHOTOS: KIM LEESON, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, UD ARCHIVES, AARON CLAYCOMB.

By Bernadette Waterman Ward, Ph.D.

MODERN CATHOLIC HISTORY

Irony and Rebirth n 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.

This exploration is the topic of Weigel’s new book, The Irony of Modern Catholic History, which was published Sept. 17; he had advance copies available for purchase and signing after the lecture.

“I have enormous affection for this school,” said Weigel, who delivered UD’s Commencement 2014 address. “The University of Dallas provides the finest undergraduate education of any university in America.”

Weigel’s return to UD’s Irving campus certainly marked a homecoming of sorts for the distinguished scholar. The lecture, which provided an overview of his book, did not, as Weigel emphasized, introduce any new facts; it simply reconfigured them.

“It’s a frank exercise in revisionist historiography,” he explained. “I’ve taken shards of stone from many historians and rearranged them into a new mosaic.”

Weigel went on to examine “the many ironies in the fire of the Catholic Church’s engagement with modernity.”

One such encounter occurred in the late 18th century

with figures like Voltaire, who called for the destruction of the Catholic Church; paradoxically, these encounters re-energized the church for its missionary and evangelical work, and, interestingly, helped begin the rediscovery of the church’s own essence, which may save the modern world from descent into fragmentation.

Weigel divided the book, and thus the lecture, into five acts, with Act I being “Catholicism Against Modernity” and Act V “Catholicism Converting Modernity,” as a retort to the tired (and one may argue, false) belief that modernity acts and Catholicism simply reacts. The drama of the church’s relationship to modernity is far more complex, interesting and hopeful than is often thought.

Weigel’s lecture left the audience with much to hope for with respect to the future of the church, as well as an exhortation of work to be done.

“The Catholic future depends on proclamation and evangelization,” he said as he introduced Act I. “This can’t be taken for granted; it has to be effective.”

“Everyone in the church is a missionary; everywhere is mission territory,” he added as he wound up Act V. “The rediscovery of the essential evangelical character of the church has come just in time for us in our part of the world.”

“The Catholicism of the 21st century will be chosen, not inherited,” he concluded. “The deepest irony is that in the often turbulent encounter with modernity, Catholicism has recovered. The flattening of the human experience has helped create a new openness.”

”Our greatest challenge is not atheism but massive indifference and boredom.”

- George Weigel

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Class Notes Andrea (Rivera) Schroeder, BS ’02, is a pharmacy region director for CVS Health.

Christine Uhl, Ph.D., BA ’02, is an assistant professor of mathematics at St. Bonaventure University and was nominated for the Junior Faculty Award for Professional Excellence.

Rachel Winstead, BA ’02, is owner of Makeshift Muse.

Jennifer Bralick, BA ’03, is a registered nurse at St. James Healthcare Center.

D believes passionately in bettering our community through initiatives that have immediate and lasting results. UD Reads is a community reading initiative both for the UD community and others throughout Dallas/Fort Worth. The 2020 UD Reads book is Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic — and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World.

Throughout the year, UD will host a series of

Last year’s book was Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer-winning All the Light We Cannot See.

associated lectures, art exhibits, panel discussions and other activities as well as a spring break trip to London.

In addition, the University of Dallas is thrilled to partner with over 40 local public, Catholic and charter schools, as well as homeschool groups. More than 4,000 students across DFW are reading the book as part of their literature, science and social studies curricula. Discover more, including how to join us in London, at udallas.edu/ud-reads.

UPCOMING EVENTS Events are subject to change. Stay up to date online.

UDallasAlumni

UDallasAlumni

UDAlumniOffice

calendar.udallas.edu

Zachary Weisse, BA ’04, is the Science Department chair at St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Phoenix.

Nathan Rizzo, BA ’06 MBA ’09, runs RX Technology, which recently acquired Star IT. Jessica Hooten Wilson, Ph.D., MA ’06, associate professor of literature at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, won the $50,000 2019 Hiett Prize in the Humanities awarded by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.

Jessica praised teachers who have influenced her, including the late University Professor Louise Cowan.

The author of three books of literary criticism, Jessica is preparing unfinished Flannery O’Connor material for publication through a commission with the O’Connor estate and credits her husband, Jonathon, for his support as they raise three children.

Chris Fuller, MBA ’07, is chief communications officer for Inspire Brands, the parent of Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and three other restaurants.

Ryan Linders, MBA ’07, is chief marketing officer for 360training in Austin.

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GUPTA HALL OF FAME

GROUNDHOG

COR CHALLENGE

MCDERMOTT LECTURE

GRADUATION

Join us to honor and celebrate outstanding business alumni who are leaders in their fields.

Shadow or no shadow, UD always has a party full of music, food, bonfires and camaraderie.

Challenge your classmates, rival classes and yourself to raise money for the Cor Fund.

Leading contemporary artist and world-renowned cultural influencer Makoto Fujimura will speak.

Robert P. George, Ph.D., of Princeton University, will deliver the Commencement 2020 address.

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TOWER MAGAZINE

Haylee Ryan Yale, BA ’08, teaches art at Dallas ISD’s Hogg Elementary, paints large-scale murals in Oak Cliff and Deep Ellum, and sings and plays guitar in the band Sister, which recently opened for David Garza at the Kessler.

Peter Bloch, BA ’09, is a portfolio specialist at Fidelity Investments.

David Scrivner, MA ’09, is the Arkansas State Fiddle Champion.

PHOTOS: JEFF MCWHORTER, KEN STARZER, WINDRIDER PRODUCTIONS, GAGE SKIDMORE, KIM LEESON.

For the Love of Literacy

Bethany Lee, BA ’03, finished a three-year drawing and painting program at the Florence Academy of Art (U.S.). She is available for commissions in design illustration, still life, portrait and landscape.

Follow her work at facebook.com/ BELFineArt/.

LAST WORD

2010s Lacy de la Garza, BA ’11, is senior program manager of parish, community and volunteer engagement at Catholic Charities Dallas.

Ben Russo, BS ’11, teaches chemistry at Archbishop Shaw High School in New Orleans.

Anthony LoCoco, J.D., BA ’12, is a deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

Wendi Ruth Valladares, BA ’13, honored her Spanglish upbringing through “Un Medley of Memorias,” an art exhibition in Oak Cliff this fall.

Father Anthony McFarland, BA ’14, who was a Toys R Us human resources representative before being called to the priesthood, is the newest parochial vicar for St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Port Arthur, Texas.

Coming Home to UD hen it was decided that the provost would get the last word in our revamped Tower magazine, President Hibbs joked that we could frame the front and back of the magazine like a medieval disputed question where I could rebut whatever he advances with a sed contra.

Maybe next issue.

President Hibbs’ homecoming reminds me of my own. It was five years ago that I was asked to consider applying for the position of dean of Constantin College. Even as I submitted an application and underwent the rigors of the review process, I thought it unlikely that I would uproot my family to serve at the University of Dallas. Imagine my surprise (and my wife’s!) when I called her after completing my on-campus interviews and spending time with our outstanding faculty to tell her I felt like I had just come home. With my dean years behind me, and having completed two years as provost where I exercise principal responsibility for academics as well as student life, campus ministry, athletics and various student support services, and having taught during each of the years of my service at UD, my own sense of belonging has only deepened. I know many of my non-UD-alumni faculty colleagues feel the same way.

President Hibbs identified the source for this sense of belonging in his inaugural address: It is born from the shared sense of purpose in the education we provide and pursue at the University of Dallas. This is an education for freedom: freedom from ignorance and wayward passions, and freedom for a life devoted to truth, wisdom and those other virtues whose exercise make us fully human. It is an education that liberates us — whether we are faculty members, staff, students, alumni or friends of the university — to live lives animated by the calling to devote ourselves to excellence as individuals and as members of our communities. This vision of liberal education is universal precisely because of its rootedness in the Catholic intellectual tradition and the particularities of that tradition’s life within the University of Dallas, and among all who are touched by the work we do. It is a privilege to find ourselves at home here.

Sara Coello, BA ’18, former editor- in-chief of The University News, now works on the breaking news desk at The Charlotte News and Observer.

After leaving UD, Sara had a Collegiate Network fellowship on the breaking news desk at The Dallas Morning News.

Patrick Reardon, BA ’18, is managing editor at D Custom.

Luke Schwarz, BA ’18, who played soccer at UD, is a midfielder for the Orlando SeaWolves.

Samantha Deitschel, BA ’19, an ACE fellow through the University of Notre Dame, teaches middleschool social studies and campus ministry at Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, Minnesota.

In Memoriam UD mourns the passing of Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Jack Towne, Ph.D. (April 23, 1927-July 8, 2019).

He had a long, celebrated career in education, culminating in his roles at UD. He was a professor and chair of the Chemistry Department for more than 30 years and the founding director of the O’Hara Chemical Sciences Institute. Jack is survived by his wife of 35 years, Elizabeth (Bette) (Pipkin) Towne, MA ’88, of Irving; his son, Michael C. Towne; his brother, Norman; and four stepchildren, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made in Jack’s memory to the O’Hara Institute.

Read more about Jack at udallas. edu/jack-towne.

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University Advancement 1845 E Northgate Drive Irving, TX 75062-4736

SAVE THE DATE

NOW&THEN

GROUNDHOG 2020

FEBRUARY 1 udallas.edu/groundhog

2020. Today, Groundhog is on campus with tents, tables, and ample space for food, beverages, bonfires and friends — not to mention live music on a stage, and still plenty of dancing. Get your 2020 tickets at udallas.edu/ groundhog.

1980. Back when Groundhog was still out in the woods down a rutted dirt track, people drove their cars and got stuck in the mud; the only music was from someone’s eight-track player (and later, boomboxes), but that didn’t inhibit dancing to it.