Centers and Institutes
School of Business Administration Centers
and Institutes
For centers and institutes within the School of Business Administration, please see SBA. These include:
- John Ahlers Center for International Business
- Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate
- Accountancy Institute
- Supply Chain Management Institute
Center for Educational Excellence
The Center for Educational Excellence (CEE) was established to help faculty in all phases of their pedagogical development from the time they first arrive at the University of San Diego through their Emeriti years. It is a campus-wide center that offers programming and consultation to faculty on learning, teaching and assessment. CEE facilitates collaboration among curricular programs and student services, and partners with a variety of campus resources, such as the Center for Community Service-Learning, the International Center, and Academic Technology Services. CEE is committed to assisting faculty in promoting the institution’s core values of academic excellence, knowledge, community, ethical conduct, and service. Faculty can choose from a complete schedule of programs, events, and workshops sponsored by the CEE annually. CEE is staffed by the director, the assistant director, support staff, and the Faculty Advisory Committee of academic and administrative representatives. For current information on programs and events and for online registration, go to www. sandiego.edu/cee or call
(619) 260-7402.
English Language Academy
The USD Division of Continuing Education has designed an English Language Academy (ELA). The program offers an intensive English language proficiency and cross-cultural program.
The ELA courses for undergraduate or graduate students include language skills for academic and professional purposes. The program offers academic preparation, instruction in beginning, intermediate, and advanced language proficiency levels, and TOEFL preparation courses. It is a year-round program with small class sizes and a cultural component.
Students will be tested and placed in courses appropriate to their skill level, needs, and goals.
For more information, contact the English Language Academy at (619) 260-8887.
Center for the Study of Latino/Latina Catholicism
The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is rapidly changing its demographic makeup, and the same may be said of the Episcopalian and other churches which locate themselves within the overall western Catholic tradition. Nearly one half of all U.S. Roman Catholics are Latinos/as, and their proportional representation will only continue to increase within the Church. Similar transformations are also occurring in other Christian (western Catholic) churches. This demographic reality (and its profound social, pastoral, and theological consequences) strongly suggests that further research into Latino/a Catholicism, broadly understood, is an urgent and necessary task.
Catholic universities, precisely because of their Catholic character, are important as loci for the interdisciplinary, rigorous study of religion beyond the merely descriptive. Indeed, theological reflection on social scientific findings is an especially important and appropriate contribution of the Catholic university.
The University of San Diego, the only Roman Catholic university on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border, is uniquely qualified to engage in and promote the necessary research into U.S. Latino/a religious reality. USD is one of the few institutions of higher education in the country with significant library holdings on Latino/a and Latin American religion. Among its faculty, USD counts scholars with recognized reputations in the field of Latino/a religious studies and theology. It thus seemed very important that USD promote — in a systematic, ecumenical, multi-perspectival, intercultural, and critical manner — a sustained theological reflection on Latino/a Catholicism and its impact on the overall U.S. Church. In order to accomplish this in a way congruent with the nature of a university, USD established the center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism.
In order to guarantee the desired ecumenical perspective, the center came to define “Catholicism” as the “overall western Catholic tradition,” thereby broadening the number and scope of the U.S. Latino/a Christian churches it studies. And in order to guarantee the equally desired interdisciplinary and multi-perspectival approach to Latino/a Catholicism, thus understood, the center incorporates in its projects the participation and contributions of social scientists, historians, philosophers, economists and other scholars with expertise in the study of multiple contexts of Latino/a Catholicism.
The center has more recently committed itself to incorporating explicitly intercultural perspectives, and consequently it has deepened its continuing dialogue with black, Asian-American, and European-American scholars, as well as with academics throughout Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Furthermore, from its very beginning the center recognized the evident presence and invaluable contributions of Latina women, and insisted on incorporating the methodological perspectives common to the best Latina feminist scholarship.
In order to carry out its mission, the center promotes and organizes national and international symposia and research projects, publications, public conferences, etc., which contribute to the theological study and interpretation of Latino/a Catholicism in the United States. The center also assists scholars with independent research and/or sabbatical projects, and it has begun collaborative programs with similar centers in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil and Europe.
The center seeks, through USD’s Office of Sponsored Programs, research and symposia grants.
USD Center for Christian Spirituality
The USD Center for Christian Spirituality (CCS), the successor to the Institute for Christian Ministries, began in the Fall of 2001. While Christian spirituality is the tradition in which the center is rooted, all people who want their lives to be consonant with their deepest values and meaning are welcome and respected. The diversity of our beliefs and cultures is itself a gift.
The goal of the center is to address and foster spirituality in four areas:
- personal enrichment
- professional life
- academic life
- social justice
The goals are realized through academic courses, programs designed for professional constituencies including business, law, health care and spiritual direction, workshops for personal enrichment, and collaboration with groups addressing social justice concerns. The center emphasizes dialogue as an essential way to discover and share the transcendent values of life in order that they may be placed at the service of community.
The center is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Student participation is welcome. Visit Maher Hall, Room 280, call (619) 260-4784, or go to www.sandiego.edu/ccs.
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice
Dedicated to fostering peace, cultivating justice and creating a safer world, the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) at the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies was founded in 1998 with a $25 million gift from philanthropist Joan B. Kroc. The institute began programming in 2000. The IPJ is in Special Consultation Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and an active member of the Alliance for Peacebuilding.
The fundamental philosophy of the IPJ is that sustainable peace is possible only through the observance of human rights, the inclusion of civil society, and training on collaborative peacebuilding techniques to political parties, civil society, the military and professionals in their field.
The IPJ offers capacity-building activities to enable people to resolve their own differences and, when invited by parties in conflict, serves as an impartial third party to facilitate or mediate discussions and negotiations.
From the San Diego region to Southeast Asia, Latin America, and East and West Africa, the IPJ has helped citizens, media, women, youth and local leaders better understand peace and justice issues. They in turn teach others, creating a network of skilled, motivated peacebuilders in the local and international arenas.
Through ongoing research and practice at the intersection of human rights and conflict resolution, the IPJ shapes practical approaches to conflict management, balancing the need for accountability and justice with the basic goal of human security. As the late Joan B. Kroc said at the dedication of the IPJ in 2001, “This is a place not just to talk about peace, but to make peace.”
Institute Programs
- International Peacebuilding Projects support civil society and diplomatic efforts for sustainable peace. These projects, including a nine-year project in Nepal, aim to increase the capacity of civil society and political parties to negotiate and develop democratic policies.
- Women PeaceMakers Program, funded by the Fred J. Hansen Foundation, recognizes and connects women peacemakers from conflict zones, bringing them to the IPJ to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories.
- WorldLink Program provides high school students with their own powerful annual forum and motivates them to act for peace and justice in their daily lives through a year-round program of internships, research programs, public events and journalism opportunities.
- Joan B. Kroc Distinguished Lecture Series hosts high-level policy makers who are exploring new ways to prevent conflict and protect human rights. Endowed by the late Joan B. Kroc, the lectures influence and inform policy makers, faculty, students and the general public, and are available through the IPJ Web site.
- IPJ Internship Program provides future leaders in the peace and justice field with experience in the NGO world. Graduate and undergraduate students from around the world learn about and report on global conflicts and human rights as they work with program officers.
- Community Outreach provides the university and San Diego communities with speakers, films, drama and art that foster an understanding of peace and justice issues.
For more information, call (619) 260-7509; fax (619) 260-7570; e-mail ipj@sandiego.edu; or go to http://peace.sandiego.edu.
Master’s Degree in Peace and Justice Studies
The graduate program in Peace and Justice Studies is now offered through the School of Peace Studies, which was endowed by Mrs. Kroc with a $40 million gift in 2004 and inaugurated in 2007. The goal of the master’s program is to produce graduates who will be capable of relating disciplinary and cross-disciplinary theories of peace and justice to real world problem-solving involving regional and international conflict. The 12-month course of study focuses on conflict resolution, international relations, ethics and human rights with courses in religious studies, philosophy, international relations and history.
The program of study is intensive. The dozen or so students accepted each year receive partial scholarships from USD. The students go through the program as a cohort, developing relationships that form a global network of peace-builders.
Students in the program have come from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Alumni have gone on to work around the world in humanitarian assistance, human rights advocacy, democracy building, politics and development, while some have continued their graduate studies in law, international relations and other disciplines. For more information, contact Lee Ann Otto, Ph.D. at lotto@sandiego.edu or (619) 260-4635.
USD also offers an undergraduate Minor in Peace and Justice Studies, to creatively promote conflict resolution, non-violence, and cross cultural harmony by introducing students to an integrated, multi-disciplinary program. For more information, contact Kathryn Statler, Ph.D. at kstatler@sandiego.edu or (619) 260-4652.
Manchester Family Child Development Center
The primary goal of the Manchester Family Child Development Center is to offer a safe and enriching environment in which children can share, grow, and learn. It offers a rich, stimulating setting that is warm and supportive of each child’s individual learning pace.
Affiliated with USD’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the center serves as a practicum and research site for members of the university community. The center accepts all children between the ages of 2-1/2 and 5 years, with the availability of both full- and part-time enrollment options. Each class of 12-14 mixed-age children is staffed by two qualified teachers.
The Center operates from 7:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., Monday through Friday, 48 weeks per year. Volunteers are welcome and encouraged to inquire. For additional information, including current tuition rates, please contact the center at (619) 260-4620.
Trans-Border Institute
The mission of the Trans-Border Institute (TBI), founded in 1994, is:
- To help the United States-Mexico border community in ways consistent with the nature and mission of the university;
- To position the University of San Diego in the United States-Mexico border community;
- To serve as a vehicle for communication, dialogue, exchange, and collaboration in order to break down the barriers between peoples, with special attention to the United States-Mexico border region.
In order to accomplish these goals, the Trans-Border Institute provides the students and faculty of the university, as well as the people of the United States-Mexico border community within which the university is located, information, contacts, and opportunities for study, research, internships, academic exchange, partnerships, and service learning.
The Trans-Border Institute is organized to encourage participation of students, faculty, staff and the binational community. 0TBI welcomes those who would like to be involved in developing the Institute as it helps develop USD’s growing involvement with its surrounding communities on both sides of the border.
TBI’s resources include event programming, a grant program for both student and faculty research on border-related issues, a Web site (go to www.sandiego.edu/tbi), a newsletter, and various research outputs. TBI co-sponsors other programs and activities related to the border and the broader area of Latin America. TBI has ties with the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at UCSD, the Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias at SDSU, the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, and other border studies institutes in Europe and Latin America.
Values Institute
The principal aim of the Values Institute is to provide a place where people can come together for the thoughtful discussion of difficult moral issues. We seek to provide such a place for members of our own immediate university community, for members of our own local San Diego community, and for the larger national and international communities of students and scholars through courses, lectures, seminars, workshops, and conferences, both on campus and on the Web.
The Values Institute (http://ethics.sandiego.edu/values), located in the USD Department of Philosophy, builds on a long history of support for the development of ethics-related initiatives at the University of San Diego. The university received a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to promote the development of team-taught interdisciplinary values courses.
The Values Institute is also the home of USD’s nationally recognized Ethics across the Curriculum (EAC) program (http://ethics.sandiego.edu/eac). The EAC program seeks to provide support for the development of ethics-related components in all aspects of the curriculum. It does this through sponsoring a two-day curriculum development workshop and public lecture by a visiting scholar, on-campus lectures on matters of moral concern, the acquisition of ethics-related instructional materials, and support for faculty attendance at ethics-related conferences.
The Values Institute, through its support of ethics updates and ethics videos seeks to make resources in ethics available to students, faculty, and the interested public through the Web. It receives approximately two million visits annually.
