2009 USD Fact Book

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WELCOME TO USD

The University of San Diego is a modern university that reveres its roots. While cutting-edge technology is ubiquitous, the USD community takes great pride in its past and its Catholic tradition. For six decades, the University of San Diego has been dedicated to providing a values-based education with a mission grounded in Catholic social teachings. Students are encouraged to explore how faith and reason are compatible in education, and to develop strong moral convictions. The university welcomes students, faculty and staff of all faiths, and believes all people benefit from the examination of other traditions. USD’s 180-acre campus, Alcalá Park, overlooks San Diego’s Mission Bay. Like California’s oldest city, the university took its name from San Diego de Alcalá, a Franciscan brother from Alcalá de Henares, a monastery near Madrid, Spain. The Spanish Renaissance architecture that characterizes Spain’s five-century-old University of Alcalá serves as the inspiration for buildings on the USD campus. Under the leadership of Mother Rosalie Hill of the Society of the Sacred Heart and Bishop Charles Francis Buddy of the Diocese of San Diego, USD began as separate colleges for men and women. The founding charter of the University of San Diego and the San Diego College for Women was granted by the state of California in 1949; in 1972 the colleges merged into the University of San Diego. Now governed by an independent board of trustees, USD remains dedicated to the values originally articulated by Mother Hill and Bishop Buddy. Students choose from dozens of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in academic divisions including the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Leadership and Education Sciences, Law, Nursing and Health Science and Peace Studies. Men aspiring to the Roman Catholic priesthood prepare for their vocation at the St. Francis Center for Priestly Formation.