USD Celebrates 60 Years of Excellence

Innovative Programs Complement Campus Buildings

The University of San Diego will celebrate its 60 year anniversary with a lecture featuring President Mary E. Lyons and faculty who will remember the university’s founding roots, focus on the last ten years of growth and innovation and discuss future plans. The event will take place Friday, February 27 at 2:30 p.m. at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre.

President Lyons will take a trip back into the rich history of USD and its founders’ goals of establishing a faith-based institute of higher education during a time of war and depression in the U.S. Additionally, five USD professors will chronicle the collegiate development of USD, which will center on the question: “Why celebrate the 60th Anniversary?”

These five professors include: Iris Engstrand, history; Lee Ann Otto, political science; Sue Lowery, biology; Lea Hubbard, learning and teaching; and Mitch Malachowski, chemistry. They will discuss how the campus’ newest buildings and architectural innovations have made it possible for USD to expand student programs and incorporate novel technology for an enhanced learning experience.

Engstrand will expand on Lyons’ historical account of the university’s first 50 years and the extraordinary efforts of Bishop Charles Francis Buddy and Mother Rosalie Clifton Hill, who in 1949 had a vision to create an outstanding Catholic university. Malachowski will discuss the campus-wide meaning behind the Jenny Craig Pavilion, established in 2000, followed by Otto who will discuss the university’s mission for peace with the opening of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice in 2001. Lowery will touch on the curriculum centered design in the Donald P. Shiley Center for Science and technology, created in 2003, and Hubbard will talk about the campus’ newest educational building and programs housed in Mother Rosalie Hill Hall, completed in 2008 and home to the School of Leadership and Education Sciences. 

The Degheri Alumni Center and Student Life Pavilion will be the final points of discussion as Engstrand wraps up the lecture. The Degheri Alumni Center is dedicated to serving the needs of the USD alumni, and the Student Life Pavilion will be USD’s most recent addition. The Student Life Pavilion will be a multi-level gathering place for   students and faculty that will feature a student leadership involvement center, an expanded marketplace, an active game lounge, study and conversation spaces in a completely wireless environment and new, enhanced and gourmet dining facilities.

About The University of San Diego

The University of San Diego, a Catholic Institution of higher learning chartered in 1949. The university enrolls approximately 7,500 undergraduate and graduate students and is known for its commitment to teaching, the liberal arts, the formation of values and community service. The inauguration this fall of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace brings the university’s total number of schools and colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Education, Law and Nursing and Health Science.

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About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.