The Dean's Welcome - Georgetown College

April, 2009

Dear Members of the Georgetown Community:

It is with equal parts excitement and humility that I assume the duties as Dean of Georgetown College. To be entrusted with the leadership of the College is a great privilege and a significant responsibility.  I extend my deep gratitude to the search committee, the trustees of the university, Provost O’Donnell and President DeGioia for having selected me for this important role. I hope to serve Georgetown faithfully and competently as my predecessors in this position have done.

Georgetown is an easy place to love. For more than twenty years, as Professor and Chair of Theology, Director of the Program on the Church and Interreligious Dialogue at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, the Amaturo Chair in Catholic Studies, and a parent of a Hoya, my devotion to Georgetown has grown.

As our students, faculty, staff, alums, and parents know well, Georgetown is a first-rate university where ideas are the coin of the realm. It is also a community, an extended family, a place with a heart that imbues values deeply rooted in our Jesuit and Catholic tradition. We must continue to ensure that our commitment to human knowledge is matched by our commitment to human beings. Above all, Georgetown College is about serving students.

Educating students in the liberal arts, social sciences, and the natural and quantitative sciences while a good in itself, also prepares students for careers that require critical thinking, analysis, and writing skills. It is likely that most graduates will change jobs and careers a number of times during their lifetimes. The College curriculum invites exploration and specialization. Education in the College requires students to move ably from one discipline to another, to develop habits of thinking that range across areas of knowledge and expertise, and to be able always to learn anew.

Educating men and women demands that institutions live their values rather than hiding them in dusty governance documents.  Georgetown’s values are woven into our curriculum and throughout our daily life as a community. As a Jesuit institution, we encourage service to those who are less fortunate. We promote the pursuit of justice and we regularly remind our students that a Georgetown education is a privilege that comes with the responsibility to give back to society and to make a disproportionate difference in the world. And our students respond to this invitation. Daily they interact with the community of Washington, D.C., tutoring students, working in soup kitchens, and serving as role models for young people encouraging them to aspire to attend college. Our faculty pursues research in laboratories, classrooms, and symposia on campus and around the world that enhances knowledge and contributes to their fields. College alumni bring the values of Georgetown to their professions. As Georgetown continues to expand our outreach and our programs in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, China, and elsewhere, we offer not only the highest quality Jesuit education in the world, we also have a global viewpoint. We are a community in which knowledge is revered, persons are valued as individuals, and the world intersects with our academic culture. We are Georgetown.

I look forward to seeing you on campus, and in cities and towns around the world as I go about the treasured work of leading Georgetown College. Hoya Saxa!