Duquesne University is embracing the future
We will help reinvent the region while instilling core values in the next generation of leaders
It doesn’t get better than serving as a university president in your hometown. I feel lucky every day. As someone who grew up in Swissvale and Edgewood, attending St. Anselm school, playing baseball at Koenig Field and working a summer job at Union Switch & Signal across the street from my family’s house, I still find it remarkable that I now occupy the top floor of Old Main at Duquesne University, serving as president of an institution that’s been part of Pittsburgh’s fabric since 1878.
I should add that I was born at UPMC Mercy Hospital, so life has landed me only two blocks away.
The honor of serving as Duquesne’s 13th president — and only its third lay president — goes beyond merely holding a title. The greatest reward is watching the evolution of this special Catholic institution, which was founded by missionary priests from Europe who came to Pittsburgh to provide recent immigrants and their families — most working in steel mills and factories — with educational opportunities. It’s exciting to see Duquesne position itself to make even greater contributions as our region and world enter a new era.
Duquesne helped to build Pittsburgh. For 140 years, we’ve supplied leaders in business (our “School of Accounts and Finance” was founded in 1913), law and government (we’ve produced a “Who’s Who” of judges, lawyers and elected officials), nursing, pharmacy, music, liberal arts, science and education. Look around this region — from the late Ambassador Dan Rooney to Bishop David Zubik to Joy Flowers Conti, chief judge of the U.S. District Court: Duquesne graduates have left their fingerprints all over the landscape of Western Pennsylvania.
In envisioning the future of Duquesne, I ask myself: “What would the Holy Ghost priests who arrived on the Bluff in 1878 do if they arrived here today?” The answer seems obvious: They’d stare down the challenges of our time and help a new generation of students build something fresh and miraculous.
We need to reimagine our curriculum to add practical experiences that prepare our graduates to enter the 21st-century workforce. We also must draw upon Duquesne’s historic expertise in ethics.
As the only Catholic, Spiritan university in the United States, we have a duty to address troublesome trends. Fewer students than ever enter college today with foundations in religious faith or possessing core values. Fewer students than ever have grown up in close-knit communities where respectful treatment of others is practiced and moral compasses are shaped.
Technology is amazing. Yet young people raised on smartphones, text messaging and Instagram often have stunted social skills and difficulty interacting with others. Shout-fests on cable TV and insensitive postings on social media have become the norm, in lieu of productive social discourse. If society is going to get a grip on today’s crisis of moral ambiguity, universities like Duquesne must play a larger and more creative role in shaping responsible, ethical leaders.
We also have a duty to help reinvent Western Pennsylvania. If the Spiritan priests were transported to Pittsburgh today, they’d see minority communities in the Hill District and Uptown, in our own backyard, that are severely underserved. They’d peer down the river into the Mon Valley and see neighborhoods filled with elderly, needy individuals whose lives were decimated when the steel industry collapsed, trying to survive with little support. These same workingclass families helped to forge Pittsburgh and America when their time was at hand. Now, they need and deserve our help.
As Mayor Bill Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald launch an ambitious plan to create an Eco-Innovation District along the Forbes and Fifth avenues corridor, linking Downtown to Oakland, and as UPMC Mercy prepares to unveil a world-class Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital in Uptown, Duquesne sits at the heart of this wondrous new innovation zone. We’ve taken a leadership role in the new Uptown Task Force, ensuring that Duquesne will play a central role in driving positive change.
Duquesne faces more daunting responsibilities than ever, and we’re prepared to shoulder them. We recently completed a five-year strategic plan that doubles down on Duquesne’s historic role in this region. Duquesne has a rich tradition of serving people of all faiths and backgrounds. We welcomed African-American students, Jewish students and women to our campus more than 100 years ago — long before most universities opened their doors to such diverse groups. Now, Duquesne is poised to help weave together a re-envisioned Western Pennsylvania that will be the envy of the nation and the world.
It’s an indescribable honor to serve as president of this special university in my hometown, where my wife, Laura, and I have raised and educated our four children and where the Spiritan priests had a vision of creating opportunities for those who cared enough to make them a reality.
We’re deeply proud of Duquesne’s 140-year history of serving God by serving students so that they, in turn, can serve others. As we embark on the New Year, to Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania we say: The best is yet to come.