The University of Dallas is 70 years old this year. At least, it is if we are talking about the university that was founded in 1956 by Bishop Thomas Gorman, with the help of a group of religious sisters and a small lay board remarkable for their strength of vision and transformative philanthropy. In both a historical and metaphysical sense, however, we can say that the University of Dallas is as old as the birth of the university in medieval Europe. For that matter, we could trace our origins even further back to the founding of Plato’s Academy in the fourth century BC. When it comes to the fundamental work of professors and students collaborating in the pursuit of wisdom, truth and virtue, the University of Dallas proudly bears her legacy as an instantiation of the very idea of the university.
But the University of Dallas is more than a participant in a grand culture-shaping Form; we are a concrete particular, and that matters a great deal. It matters that we were founded to be a truly great university, and it matters that we are realizing that vision. It matters that, under the leadership of President Donald Cowan, we developed soul-shaping core curricula in both our undergraduate and graduate programs, and it matters that we remain committed to that model still. It matters that we are in Dallas, Texas, and have a second campus in Marino, Italy. It matters that we focus on timeless truths while also adding to the growing body of knowledge through creative and innovative research. It matters that we attend not just to cultivating the virtues of the mind, but the virtues of character as well through our integrated student life and campus ministry programs. It matters that we are a university, and not just a college, or a collection of colleges — we are a unified whole.
Institutions, Aristotle teaches, mediate the virtues. They uphold standards of excellence and they give shape to the character of those who share in them. Institutions of higher education have played a particularly significant role in forming promising young people into the leading citizens our culture needs to build a future in which goodness, truth, and beauty have primacy of place. You can be proud that the University of Dallas remains committed to that core mission. If you need a reason to hope for the future of our country, just spend some time with our remarkable alumni.
Institutionally speaking, we are still relatively young. The University of Dallas is what it was and is becoming more what it is as we continue to advance educational excellence. Happy Birthday, University of Dallas. Many, many happy returns.