Office of the President

Daniel J. Curran

Daniel J. Curran is president of the University of Dayton, recognized as a top-tier national university and one of the 10 best Catholic universities in the country. The Philadelphia native became the University of Dayton's 18th president and first lay leader on July 1, 2002.

Dr. Curran is guiding the University of Dayton through transformational times. A new master plan will shape development on a campus that now spans to the Great Miami River. A new strategic plan, A Vision of Excellence, will focus on strengthening the school's distinct Catholic and Marianist identity, diversifying the student body, internationalizing the curriculum, hiring nationally prominent faculty and building upon a learning-living environment that supports academic excellence.

Under Dr. Curran's leadership, the University of Dayton has enjoyed record applications, record sponsored research dollars and tremendous momentum.

In the past four years, the University started new exchange programs in China, established centers of excellence in nanotechnology and fuels and combustion, opened a science center, built a sports complex, launched the nation's first accelerated law curriculum and started a doctor of physical therapy program. In addition, UD opened the Dayton Early College Academy, a public high school on campus that prepares first-generation college students to earn a high school diploma and college credits at the same time. In the residential arena, UD constructed two facilities that combine living and learning — Marianist Hall, a residence hall with learning spaces, and ArtStreet, an imaginative housing and arts education complex in the University neighborhood. RecPlex, an ultramodern fitness and recreation complex, opened in 2006.

As a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I board of directors, Dr. Curran helped shape academic reforms designed to improve the graduation rate of student-athletes. He has been named to its executive committee and Division I-AA/I-AAA Presidential Advisory Group. His other national board memberships include the Higher Learning Commission, part of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

In the Dayton region, he focuses on economic development and high-tech issues. He chairs the Wright Brothers Institute board and serves on nearly two dozen others, including the Dayton Development Coalition, Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, National Composite Center and Miami Valley Research Foundation. In the state, the governor tapped him for the Ohio Aerospace and Advisory Council.

Colleagues praise him for his forward-thinking approach, dedication to the Marianist mission, energy, approachability and strong commitment to social justice.

A sociologist by training, Dr. Curran spent 23 years in various administrative and faculty positions at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, most recently as executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs. He's a noted scholar in criminology, juvenile justice and social problems, with a deep interest in international issues.

His passion for social justice runs deep. At his presidential installation ceremony in April 2003, he noted that a Catholic university must be "a force for social change. As a community of learners and educators, we must analyze the causes of social injustice and educate professionals with a conscience."

He serves on the board of the Ohio Children's Defense Fund and has served on the boards of Saint Joseph’s Carpenter Society, a nonprofit organization that purchases and rehabilitates homes in Camden, N.J., and Philadelphia’s Summerbridge Program, a college-prep program for minority middle-school students. For six years, he traveled with students to Tijuana, Mexico, on a service-learning project. He received the 2002 Eternal Flame Award, an international award given for “exceptional contribution to the field of Holocaust education.”

Most of Dr. Curran’s research has focused on ways to address social inequality. His prolific scholarly record includes eight books, most of which he co-authored with his wife, Claire M. Renzetti, former chair of the sociology department at Saint Joseph’s University. Theories of Crime: A Reader was published in 2003 and is now available in Polish and Czech. The two are working on updated editions of Women, Men and Society: The Sociology of Gender and Social Problems: Society in Crisis. In 1993, the University of Pittsburgh Press published his Dead Laws for Dead Men, a historical analysis of coal mine health and safety legislation.

Before becoming a vice president at Saint Joseph’s University, Dr. Curran served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for four years. He started his academic career there in 1979 with a series of faculty positions in the department of sociology, including chair from 1988 to 1992. As a professor of sociology, he has taught courses in criminology, social problems, juvenile justice and white-collar crime. Dr. Curran also served as president of the faculty senate at Saint Joseph’s University.

In 1990, he served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He held a concurrent professorship at Nanjing University in China.

Dr. Curran earned a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware in 1980 after receiving a master’s degree from Temple University in 1978 and a bachelor’s degree from Saint Joseph’s University in 1973 — all in sociology. Dr. Curran and his wife, Claire, have two sons, Sean and Aidan.

(revised July 2006)