Dear Toreros,

The year 2022 has been one of making good on promises — promises we made to our campus, to our community and to ourselves.

We are well on our way to fulfilling our promises outlined in The Horizon Project, a five-year initiative designed to embrace Pope Francis’ guidance that as a Catholic community we must be more “open, inclusive and welcoming.”

Today, USD has the most diverse student body in our history. Our faculty is also more diverse than ever before and USD continues to make great strides on that front.

This semester we hosted the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities — its president, Dr. Antonio Flores and many of its HACU members — on our campus to discuss our efforts to become officially designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution.

We further amplified our Torero Promise, a guaranteed admissions program that creates a direct pathway for students from Catholic high schools to attend the University of San Diego. That promise started with the five Catholic high schools within the San Diego Diocese, but expanded to include Catholic high schools in San Bernardino, Riverside, Temecula, Palm Desert and Calexico.

In 2022, in partnership with the State of California and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, USD was among a select few private universities selected to be part of a historic California-wide network called the College Corps, which provides USD students with fellowship opportunities that address the needs of Californians while developing leadership skills and civic engagement opportunities, all while helping them to pay for college.

USD also launched new and innovative partnerships that provide greater access and opportunities for incoming students — by adding or expanding our Upward Bound programs at local high schools and by building and developing more agreements, pathways, dual-admission programs and more scholarship and financial aid opportunities for students at local community colleges.

In 2022, in partnership with the San Diego Foundation, USD’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences also established the Black InGenius Initiative. Known as “BiGI,” it’s a college access and early literacy program for Black students within the San Diego region.

USD will provide students with consistent academic support delivered by SOLES students and faculty members who are trained in neurodivergent teaching — based on the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in different ways and, therefore, there is no one “right” way of thinking, learning or behaving. Students who have completed seven years of participation in BiGI and are accepted to USD, will receive 100% of the federally demonstrated financial need with a personalized financial assistance package. With continued fundraising, the goal is to have 420 students in the program by the year 2030.

These are just some of the ways we have spent the year coming together in solidarity and finding new and innovative ways to fulfill our mission as an engaged, contemporary Catholic university.

We also celebrated the opening of the new Knauss Center for Business Education, home of our newly named Knauss School of Business, named in honor of Don Knauss, chair of USD’s Board of Trustees, and his wife, Ellie. With the opening of this new 120,000 square-foot business complex, we are poised to do business differently at the Knauss School of Business. We will not only open doors, we will expand our horizons. We will aim higher. We will pursue a greater good. We will serve a higher purpose.

USD earned multiple spots on the U.S. News & World Report’s list of 2022-2023 best colleges, including placing in the top 100 national universities and the top 75 for the best value for national universities. Additionally, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering ranked 15th for best undergraduate engineering. The USD School of Law ranked 64th in the nation and its intellectual property program ranked 19th. In the Knauss School of Business, the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management earned two rankings, seventh for Online Graduate Programs for Veterans and 16th for Online Graduate Business Programs, while our Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate ranked 15th. The Princeton Review named USD the 13th, best run university in the country and, once again, the Most Beautiful Campus in the Nation.

During Homecoming and Family Week, supporters from around the world made a tremendous impact at USD during the eighth annual Torero Tuesday. USD’s largest day of giving saw more than $1.875 million raised through more than 2,700 generous gifts. The overall total was enhanced by $100,000 in bonus and challenge funds thanks to the generosity of Karen and Tom Mulvaney ’77. The gifts received will go toward academic and extracurricular programs, athletics and scholarships.

That same week, during his first official visit back to his alma mater, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick ’05 (BS/BA) offered some salient advice to current Toreros: dream big and never be afraid of failure. “You can afford to make mistakes your first couple of years of college — this is the place to do it,” said Dominick, who majored in electrical engineering with minors in both physics and math. “This is the place to learn and explore and figure out who you are.”

Finally, a shout out to the men’s soccer team, which won the West Coast Conference Championship for the first time since 2015.

We also have to take a moment to celebrate women’s volleyball, which on Saturday completed the biggest win in program history to date, stunning one-seed/host No. 5 Stanford (27-5, 19-1 Pac 12) with a thrilling 3-2 win in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight as it silenced the Maples Pavilion to advance to the Final Four for the first time ever.

For those who’ve been following the NCAA Tournament, you already know that Saturday night’s win over Stanford in the Elite Eight marked our 28th win in a row … a program-record. Thursday is the semifinal, in Omaha, Nebraska, where we’ll face No. 1 seeded Texas.

Our team has adopted the mantra, “Why not us?” The players on this team have proven they deserve to be in the Final Four. We were champions at the conference level and I truly believe we could do it again at the national level. I know you’ll join me in letting everyone on the team know that Torero Nation is rooting for them to go all the way!

We have accomplished so much in the past year, largely due to the commitment and sacrifice each of you have made to advance our mission.

As the year 2022 comes to a close, and we finish out our fall semester, I wanted to take a moment to wish each of you a joyful holiday season and a happy and prosperous new year.

Merry Christmas!

Peace,
James T. Harris III, DEd
President