Dear alumni,
The university community is excited about the plans to build a convent on campus for the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia. They embody the University of Dallas spirit characteristic of the order that provided the impetus — “the spark,” as Bishop Thomas K. Gorman described it — which started UDallas: the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur.
The Dominican project continues the tradition of inviting religious groups to establish houses on the campus perimeter. It began with the Namur House of Studies completed in 1958. A few months later, the Cistercians finished their first building.
Did you know that this is the 150th anniversary of the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur in North Texas? They came to the area in 1873 and started establishing schools: at the primary and secondary levels, at the junior college level, and finally the University of Dallas with the Diocese of Dallas and its new bishop, Thomas Gorman.
I was thinking the other day about how fortunate the university was to have experienced educators involved in the founding. The Namurs knew about academic calendars, record keeping, required rituals and housing requirements. And how fortunate that this group of women was blessed with that practical and loving sense of humor that is central to the spirit of UDallas.
I remember in the early days, probably the late 1960s, watching Sr. Mary Margaret O’Connell, SSMN, founding registrar, resist the Charity Week “officers” who were arresting her for the jail. She hollered and made a ruckus in the middle of the Carpenter Hall administration area while giving us instructions on running the office. We paid the fine and secured her release very promptly!
That humanness, that willingness to welcome new people and ideas, to join in good fun, permeated the character of the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur.
Sr. Cecile Faget, SSMN, was one of the professors who met with the august Louise Cowan, PhD, to re-think the English requirements. When Louise suggested that the students read fewer but entire works, which meant UDallas had to return the books which had just arrived, Sr. Cecile was enthusiastic — even though she had to make peace with the bookstore manager, who was not too happy.
That clarity and hopefulness also seemed natural to the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who established their Southern Province on university land in 1961 (now The Highlands School). Sr. Georgianne Segner was made head of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. After chairing the Generalate meeting in Rome, Mother Georgianne realized their Rome facility was virtually empty between the gatherings every four years. In her matter-of-fact way, she called President Donald Cowan, PhD, and asked if there was a way the university could use it. He and assistant Jim Fougerouse had just been talking about the need for a study abroad semester — the Rome Program was born the following fall!
But no more influential was the spirit of another School Sister of Notre Dame, Sr. Clodovia Lockett, longtime chair of the Biology Department and pre-med adviser. Her confidence in students’ ability to accomplish great things and lighthearted way of encouraging them helped achieve the high medical school placement rate, an achievement that the university still enjoys consistently today. About five feet tall, “Sister Clo” came in second to Ginger Rogers in a Dallas Charleston dance contest before she entered the order.
For many years, boys were housed on the west quad and girls on the east. Sr. Mary Ellen Williams, SSMN, the first dean of women, helped develop the rules and activities for the lively young people of the 1960s. The young men were generously ordered by the kindly first dean of men, philosopher and artist Fr. Damian Szodenyi, OCist, one of the first Cistercians.
The west quad was greatly influenced by Fr. Damian Fandal, OP, the first Dominican to join the university. Alumnus, former trustee and lifelong friend Dan Cruse, BA ’61, described the leadership and friendship of this young priest who served as professor, chaplain, dean and acting president: “A movie buff, he would take a bunch of us along, buy dinner and talk about theology and poker.”
As UDallas grew, it continued to depend upon Sisters of St. Mary of Namur like English professor Sr. Frances Marie Manning. Her literature classes were sought after, and it was she to whom President Cowan turned to be sure UDallas history was being saved. Certainly, I depended upon the records and writings she had collected for the 50th anniversary history volume Vision and Courage. In honor of the celebration of the anniversary of the Namurs, Sr. St. John Begnaud, SSMN, wrote a history of the order’s work in Texas. Called A Little Good, it is a charming and important recounting. Thank you, Dear Lord, for the great good the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur and others accomplished in founding the University of Dallas.
