Insight: Introduction

Insight introduces readers to the legacy that inspired the founders of the University of San Diego and the common ground upon which its principles, values, and aspirations have been built. To know the university is to understand its history, heritage, mission and values, intellectual background, and distinctive Catholic identity.

The University of San Diego is a young institution. It was founded in 1949 when Most Reverend Charles Francis Buddy, first Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, and Reverend Mother Rosalie Hill, Religious of the Sacred Heart, obtained charters from the State of California for the San Diego University and the San Diego College for Women respectively. Classes began in 1952, and the institution has consciously fashioned for itself an image both intellectually challenging and aesthetically attractive.

The beauty of the University of San Diego campus, known as Alcala Park, reaches beyond the "eye of the beholder," for Mother Hill believed in the enhancement of learning through beauty and harmony. Here, beauty is a transcendental quality imparted to students as part of their education to goodness and truth-a simple but profound educational philosophy. The University sits on a prominent mesa and blends graceful architecture, at once stylistically and historically unified in its appearance, with stunning views of the ocean, bay, and rugged canyons that drop away from the mesa. The beauty of the campus, with its harmonious design, invites all who study, work and live here to serious intellectual endeavors, which shape a vigorous learning community.

Third Revised Edition

July 1, 2004

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