USD Magazine Summer 2007

Recognition tastes sweet these days at USD’s School of Business Administration, which was named by BusinessWeek magazine as one of the top 50 undergraduate business pro- grams in the nation. The program came in 46th on the list, and is the only ranked university in San Diego County and the fourth highest ranked program in the state of California. Interim Dean Andrew Allen says that the rank- ing is quite an honor and reflects well on the high quality of the students and faculty. “Small class sizes and accessible professors contributed to the school’s debut in the BusinessWeek ranking,” says Stephen Standifird, the school’s first undergraduate program director. Not content to rest on these laurels, Standifird says that the school is “engaged in a variety of activities designed to further improve our already strong program.” Community participation is a big part of life at Alcalá Park, where students, faculty and administrators are determined to do their part to make our world a better place. Now, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected USD as one of 76 U.S. colleges and universities for its new community engagement classification. Extensive docu- mentation was required to be considered for inclusion; Elaine Elliott, director of USD’s Commu- nity-Service Learning Center, took the lead in putting together the exhaustive application, which points out that all four of USD’s current strategic initiatives include a community compo- nent, that faculty work on com- munity boards is rewarded in the university’s tenure process and that students are involved at all levels of decision-making in the [ etc . ]

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community service-learning pro- gram, including the creation of an annual social justice conference. When the new School of Leader- ship and Education Sciences build- ing opens this fall, some of its most dedicated and long-serving faculty will be missing. The department of learning and teaching’s Robert Infantino will be retiring, as will leadership studies faculty member and former School of Education Dean Edward DeRoche. Addition- ally, longtime faculty member Katie Bishop-Smith, whose focus is special education, is relocating this fall to Oregon.“Their commitment, dedication to teaching and pro- gram development made the strong foundation upon which our faculty can now build our teaching and scholarship,”says Dean Paula Cordeiro.“Their faculty colleagues and I wish them Godspeed.” The inaugural dean of USD’s School of Peace Studies will be Father William “Bill” Headley, President Lyons announced in late April. He will take the posi- tion on Aug. 1. Lyons called this appointment an important step in “building a globally rec- ognized school to promote social justice and peace build- ing.” Headley has held leader- ship positions at Catholic Relief Services since 2000 and has led a career that includes a variety of academic and nonprofit assignments around the globe. Lyons calls him a “world-class person in every respect.” New basketball coach Bill Grier took over from Brad Holland in late March, to become the Toreros’ 11th head coach in program history and just the fourth coach since USD moved to the NCAA Division I ranks in 1979-80. Grier comes to the school from Gonzaga University, where he had been on staff for the past 16 years and played an integral role in the school’s arrival on the national scene.

CRÈME DE LA CRÈME Honor society excels at excelling

M ortar Board students are the cream of the crop. So for the University of San Diego Alcalá Chapter of Mortar Board to be singled out with a national excellence award was quite an honor. The national Mortar Board awarded USD’s chapter with the RuthWeimer Mount Chapter Excellence Award. Mortar Board is an honor society for high-achiev- ing college seniors; students must be in the top 35 percent of their class and meet high standards for service and leadership activities. Alice B. Hayes, USD’s president when the chapter was chartered in 2000, says the award is significant for the national recognition and the fact that it honors the current students, plus their predecessors. “This award requires both lead- ership and teamwork,”Hayes says. She also notes that the Mortar Board, as an honor society, “recog-

nizes something that you are, not something you have done. “Mem- bership in Mortar Board calls for a lifetime commitment to the values of the organization. A reception celebrating the award was held at USD’s Degheri Alumni Center on Feb. 13. That event, which President Mary E. Lyons and Hayes attended, was aimed at recognizing the work of students as well as building an endowment for the Alice B. Hayes Mortar Board Scholarship for Mortar Board students going on to graduate school. “The national recognition it has received through this award is a tremendous honor, not only for the Mortar Board chapter, but for the whole university,”Lyons says. For information about making a donation to the Alice B. Hayes Mortar Board Scholarship Endowment, call (619) 460-4720.

ERIC DROTTER

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