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Daniel J. Curran, Ph.D.
University of Dayton: Civic Engagement and Social Justice
April 11, 2003
I am immensely proud of the honor you have bestowed on me this afternoon.
I am privileged to become a member of a community with such distinguished faculty and researchers, engaged students, outstanding professional staff, and caring alumni that is the University of Dayton. I am also honored to be associated with the Marianists and their tradition that has been the soul of this institution since its inception and by the generations of Marianist presidents who preceded me. I am honored and delighted by the presence of personal friends and the numerous supporters of the University who are in attendance today. Likewise, I am honored by the many distinguished academics, students, staff, and administrators present. I want to give a special thanks to the installation committee who worked tirelessly to make this the special event it is. Claire, Sean, Aidan, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Dayton community, for your kindness and warmth in welcoming us. Of course, I thank my family for their support, their inspiration, and their love. Thank you all for being here.
Over the past year, I have given a great deal of thought to what I would say today. My final inspiration, however, came last month, when I had the opportunity during the University’s spring break to visit four of the many service projects coordinated by our Center for Social Concern. The first afternoon I drove to Salyersville, Kentucky. The University of Dayton’s commitment to this community dates back 39 years. As I pulled up to the house where our students reside, I found the students sitting on the porch, talking after a day of working with the youth and elderly in the community. After some quick hellos, I sat down and joined in the conversation that touched on topics like the plight of rural education and the pending war in Iraq. As we talked, cars passed by, often acknowledging the UD group with a honk of the horn or a shout of "Hey, Dayton." It was a wonderful feeling to be among a group of students being acknowledged by the community for their service.
Right before we went into the house for dinner, we walked off the porch, held hands and prayed for the people of Salyersville, for our University, and for peace in the world.
After dinner, I departed to continue my journey; next stop: the Catholic Worker Farm in Spencer, West Virginia. As I rode through the mountains, I started to reflect on this first day of travel and several things came to mind. First, it was March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph. One hundred and fifty-three years earlier, on March 19, 1850, Father Leo Meyer said Mass in the Stuart mansion in Dayton. After the Mass, Father Meyer and Mr. Stuart, a prominent member of the Dayton business community, signed the agreement for the sale of the Stuart estate, the current site of the University of Dayton. Father Meyer had no money to pay for the property. Instead, as a pledge, he gave Mr. Stuart a small St. Joseph medal, saying, "I have no money now, but St. Joseph will pay." Father Meyer, our first president, did eventually make good on the $12,000 debt.
Father Meyer and his colleagues were the first Marianists in America. They had come in response to a request made by Father Francis Xavier Weninger of the Society of Jesus, who asked their superior general for assistance in Cincinnati. Historical records indicate that Father Weninger made this request because of the Marianists’ reputation as outstanding educators. Father Meyer clearly wanted to extend the work of the Marianists into the New World as evidenced by his 1848 request to his superiors. Meyer stated, "I am begging you to send me to America as Moses of old sent Joshua and Caleb into the Promised Land to investigate the country. … I am not looking for anything premature or indiscreet. I do not wish to do anything that would be contrary to God’s intentions, but it seems to me that the moment has come." Father Meyer’s request was granted and on December 3, 1849, Father Meyer arrived in Cincinnati in the midst of a cholera epidemic. Shortly, he was asked to travel north to Dayton, where there was a need for a German-speaking priest. Meyer spent his first days in Dayton aiding the community’s sick and dying. This was the beginning of the unique bond between the University and the city of Dayton.
As I drove through the night in West Virginia, a second thought crossed my mind about sitting on the porch in Kentucky: how it was a fine analogy for a university, and how this analogy related back to my comments the day I was introduced as the new president of the University of Dayton. As many of you know, the porch is already a significant symbol for our community. Physically, porches are a key element of the open nature of our student neighborhood and, over the years, have grown to be representative of the campus’s openness, hospitality, and community orientation. But today I would like to present a somewhat different image, focusing not only on the porch, but also the house attached to it and the world beyond it.
As I drove that night, I thought, "What if the students spent their time totally in the house? Certainly, their thoughts, their comments and their prayers would be of value to them personally as individuals and as a group of housemates, but their impact on others, as well as their personal experiences, would be limited. People in the Salyersville community would probably know that individuals from the University of Dayton were there, but they would be viewed more or less as visitors; their wisdom and talents would fail to achieve their full potential. But even if they moved outside onto the porch, their experiences and impact would be limited. It was the walking off the porch, engaging the community beyond their house, that made the difference. Had they not ventured outside the house, beyond the porch, their presence would have meant little to the community; there would not likely have been car horns honking and greetings of "Hey, Dayton." But because they took those steps, and have taken those steps for 39 years, we are recognized — indeed, we are welcomed — as part of the Salyersville community.
These reflections brought me back to Feb. 18, 2002. On that day, I was announced as the 18th president of the University of Dayton. I said then that the most significant question asked of me during the interview process was "What should a Catholic university be?" I would make the same reply today as I made then: There are three basic elements of my vision of a Catholic university. First, it is a community of scholars seeking knowledge through use of the intellect. It is an institution that teaches women and men to think critically and ethically. As John Newman said, it gives a person "a clear conscious view of his [or her] own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them." Graduates of Catholic colleges and universities must accept their responsibility to follow the ethical path.
In addition, the Catholic university should provide its students with an education that connects their field of study to the world they will face when they graduate. We all know that today’s world is not limited by national borders. Even if college graduates never leave this country, they still will have to deal with the impact of the global economy and international politics, as evidenced by the war in Iraq. Monika Hellwig, the president and executive director of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, captured the essence of this challenge in a recent article when she wrote, "The American Catholic universities and colleges are a large component of the global strength in Catholic higher education and scholarship, but they do not participate in international collaboration in proportion to their capacity. The Holy Father personally … looks to the numerical, structural, and curricular strength of our Catholic institutions in this country to bring the wisdom of the tradition to bear on the economic, socio/cultural, and political problems of the contemporary world and its processes of globalization." This is a challenge that the faculty of the University of Dayton has and will continue to address, recognizing that if we ignore it, we will disadvantage both our students and our world.
To return to my analogy, UD must be the house within which our students master their discipline, learn about ethical decision-making and understand the global challenges of our time. We must be the house from which our graduates step out onto and off of the porch and into the world.
This leads directly to my second point: a Catholic university must be concerned with the social reality — it must be a social force for change. We must mobilize all the resources at our disposal to achieve this. As a community of learners and educators, we must analyze the causes of social injustice and educate professionals with a conscience. That is our collective task as a university. As Father William Ferree of the Society of Mary wrote in Introduction to Social Justice in the 1940s, "An isolated individual cannot practice social justice at all; he [or she] must associate with groups of various kinds and work along with them before he [or she] can practice it." Ferree points out that social justice takes time, and that there is no ideal or definite strategy to deal with the complex social world surrounding us. Ferree reiterates the recommendation of Pope Pius XI, "To tend to perfection, but to do what is possible. … If God demands something more, then He does it Himself."
Archbishop Oscar Romero, assassinated in El Salvador in 1980, makes the same point somewhat differently: "We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way. An opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and to do the rest."
Finally, a Catholic university is a learning environment in which students, faculty, alumni, and staff grow in their faith. We have a responsibility to provide one another with the security that allows us to embrace the vision of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, the founder of the Society of Mary and Daughters of Mary. Chaminade and the first Marianists saw the Holy Family as a model of community, where people of diverse backgrounds and varied social statuses worked respectfully together. As the University of Dayton’s first lay president, I am stepping into a great tradition. The Marianists have always collaborated with the laity in educating both the mind and the heart. Father James Heft, our chancellor, recently characterized this community as an "open circle": a circle in the sense that it privileges the Catholic intellectual tradition, but simultaneously values the contributions of every member of the learned community. A Catholic and Marianist university, therefore, explores and celebrates differences in its midst, while encouraging all to work together toward shared educational and spiritual ends. Accordingly, we must recognize that issues of inequality remain to be addressed in society and also on our campus itself.
While these are hardly unique ideas, they do capture what I have experienced in my life. The Catholic university is a place where I was challenged as a student and remain challenged as an academic leader. I am challenged to learn, challenged to respect all people, challenged to serve to better society, and challenged to grow in my faith. I want the same for our students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
Our mission statement emphasizes the same core beliefs: "The University of Dayton is a comprehensive Catholic university, a diverse community committed in the Marianist tradition, to educating the whole person and to linking learning and scholarship with leadership and service." I stand here today as a member of that diverse community, who looks forward to the challenges, challenges that test us, yes, but also serve as opportunities.
We have in our midst today clear evidence that this work has already begun. The video you saw moments ago documents the civic engagement of UD faculty, students, staff, and alumni. Let me take this opportunity to highlight a few examples of our pursuit of social justice.
The University of Dayton campus is a comfortable place. I have not been the first, nor will I be the last, to walk across the UD campus and feel a spirit of family, a bond that connects the people of UD.
That bond also presents a challenge: the challenge to prepare our students to be community builders. With us today are leaders of Dayton’s neighborhoods who are on campus for the University's annual CityLinks conference. They are the people who are engaged in the daily struggle to make a difference in their communities. They are our quiet heroes. We are committed to working with them through the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community to strengthen our families and to build our neighborhoods.
One of the neighborhoods closest to the University is undergoing an extraordinary transformation. Dozens of homes in the Fairgrounds Neighborhood have been renovated or newly built as part of a $15 million public-private partnership among UD, Miami Valley Hospital, the city of Dayton, CityWide Development Corp., County Corp., and the neighborhood. Look at what’s happening and you’ll not be surprised that it’s named the Genesis Project.
Children in cities need teachers. Many young, caring teachers choose to teach in our urban school districts, but nearly half of those who do, leave the profession within five years.
With the help of the Dayton Power & Light Foundation and Reynolds and Reynolds, the University of Dayton is providing stipends, over three years, to graduates of UD’s newly established Urban Teacher Academy who choose to teach in the Dayton Public Schools.
We are expanding a similar initiative in the urban Catholic schools. Named for Jean Baptiste LaLanne, an 18th-century Marianist priest, the program has placed teachers in urban Catholic schools in Dayton, Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, Indianapolis, and Albany, N.Y. The teachers live together and pray together. During the summer, they take courses toward their master’s degrees. In both cases, the University of Dayton is preparing students to teach in schools that need the most committed teachers.
Dayton is a city of innovation, creativity, and genius. This year we are celebrating the centennial of the invention of flight. The spirit of the Wright brothers burns brightly in the University of Dayton Research Institute, the largest non-medical research facility at any Catholic school in the United States, a leader in aerospace research.
That leadership is strengthened through partnership, including half a century of working with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Two recent initiatives continue the University’s tradition of technological innovation. First, future jet engines will be safer, more efficient, and friendlier to the environment because of the recently established Hans von Ohain Fuels and Combustion Center in the School of Engineering.
Second, a major technological field of the future is one that deals with things very small — nanotechnology. The University and the Dayton Development Coalition are establishing a $3 million endowment for a chair in nanomaterials. We are creating on campus a laboratory of nanoscale engineering science and technology. We think this is an area that will bring millions of dollars of additional sponsored research to the University and the greater Dayton community.
That goal — the pursuit of initiatives that benefit both the University and the larger community — is part of UD's strategic plan. The plan states that "We [will] work in partnership with others to improve the human condition."
Today that condition includes poverty and conflict between nations and religions. Whether we look at ourselves as a city, a nation or a world, we are a people divided. At the University of Dayton, we educate students to live in this conflicted world, but we also prepare students to mend the divisions by listening to diverse perspectives and developing the intellectual and moral capabilities to work toward equitably resolving divisive issues.
Locally, to bring Dayton community together, the University will host a Race Summit in the School of Law. The initiative is supported by the Dayton Dialogue on Race Relations, the NAACP, the Urban League, and others. As a community, we will develop a five-year plan for improving local race relations.
One final example, although I could give many more: The service of the first Marianists who came to the Miami Valley more than a century and a half ago and the service that continues today are deeply rooted in a faith, a belief in Jesus Christ and a tradition that commands love of neighbor. The only true leadership comes from serving. To serve those who share our faith and help them strengthen their belief, the University of Dayton uses, according to our Marianist tradition, "new methods for new times." The Institute for Pastoral Initiatives works with nearly two dozen dioceses, nationally and internationally, to use the Internet to offer adult religious education.
With funding from the Lilly Endowment, the University is encouraging a select group of highly talented and religiously involved students to make a commitment of service — whether as laity, religious or clergy — to their professions, their churches, their communities. We are asking these Chaminade Scholars to listen, to hear a call, to find what it is they can do, in the light of their faith, to make a difference.
They are looking for their calling. We, as a university, have heard ours. We believe we are called to lead. We say this not with vanity or arrogance. For we know that a leader is really a servant. We know that we must use what we are — our resources, our talents, our energies, our spirits — to build community and to serve all those in it.
Let me conclude with a pledge on behalf of the University:
"We must build our future upon pledges that we risk making to one another and which we responsibly carry out.
"As members of the University community, let us pledge to one another that we will create together a story of the University that will be worth telling future generations — one about past generations that lifted their sights to new horizons of distinctive excellence and journeyed toward these goals with imagination, with a sense of self-determination, with discipline, and with care and compassion for one another.
"To our colleagues in higher education, the University community pledges that we will work with you to build an intellectual life and standards of academic excellence that will be a resource, nationally and internationally.
"To our colleagues in Catholic higher education, the University pledges itself to a mutual exploration of our intellectual heritage that will bring new insight to enliven and enrich academe.
"To the Church, from which the University finds its origins, the University community pledges a ministry that brings the Catholic intellectual tradition and the fullness of human mind to bear on the problems of the world. We pledge our assistance in making the Christian message heard and effective in the modern world.
"To the Dayton-Miami Valley region, which has shared in a special way our growth over the past 150 years, the University joins with all sectors of the community in a renewed partnership for the future development and enrichment of our region. We wish to be a resource, and even more, a catalyst in this task."
If, for some of you, this pledge sounds familiar, that is because it essentially the pledge Brother Raymond Fitz made on this date 23 years ago when he was installed as the 17th president of the University of Dayton. It is a pledge that was originally made with eloquence and passion, a pledge that has been forcefully pursued, and a pledge to which I remain personally committed.
As I officially accept the position of president of the University of Dayton, I know I am in the right place. As I walk on campus among the students, faculty, and staff, I realize how fortunate I am to be working in such an outstanding university community — a community engaged in the world around them. At the same time, I know we can do more and I believe we need to do more. We need to look forward, acknowledging that change is continuous and with proper strategic decisions we can influence its impact. Let me raise four strategic questions on which I will focus as president. First, what initiatives must be taken to insure that our faculty and researchers can fully utilize their vast talents to further our academic excellence and to meet the future educational needs of students and society? Second, what steps must be taken to provide an outstanding living-learning environment, both inside and outside the classroom, an environment where students can become informed, engaged, and distinctive graduates? Third, how can we more effectively communicate the distinctive contribution of the University of Dayton to higher education and to society? Finally, how will we meet the needs of the contemporary Catholic community and how will we promote our Catholic and Marianist intellectual tradition?
Together, we will develop the strategies needed to answer these questions. Together, we will write the next chapter in our powerful story. Together, we will move to the next level of prominence in higher education. Together, we will use our talents to serve others and our faith to transform the world. THANK YOU!
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