Press Releases
Saint Xavier University Names Dr. Judith A. Dwyer as Its 17th President
Chicago’s Oldest Catholic Educational Institution Picks Top Administrator from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
CHICAGO, (Sept. 3 2003)The board of trustees of Saint Xavier University today announced the appointment of Dr. Judith A. Dwyer, 54, as the 17th president of the university, effective October 1. Founded in 1846 by the Sisters of Mercy, Saint Xavier is the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in Chicago. Dwyer will be the university’s first president who is a laywoman. She succeeds Dr. Richard A. Yanikoski, who has been named president emeritus.
“The choice of Dr. Dwyer was an easy one,” said John P. Sweeney, chairman of Saint Xavier University’s board of trustees. “She is an extraordinary woman and an extraordinary academic. Her experience as a university administrator is extensive and impressive. Her credentials are superior in every respect. We look forward to her future success at Saint Xavier as it moves to a new level of excellence based on the foundation laid by Dr. Yanikoski.”
Dwyer has served as an administrator at Villanova University, St. John’s University in New York and, most recently, the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., where she has been the executive vice-president and chief operating officer since 1998.
She holds a Ph.D. in theology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany, both in Hamburg and Tübingen, and has completed post-doctoral work at both Harvard and Oxford Universities. An internationally recognized scholar, she has lectured throughout the United States and abroad, and is the editor of the award-winning “New Dictionary of Catholic Social Thought” and author of numerous other publications. She has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, including Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass., and Villanova University.
“I am indeed honored to be selected by the board of trustees as the next president of Saint Xavier University,” Dwyer said. “I am impressed with the exceptional energy of Saint Xavier, from its students, faculty and staff to its administrators, trustees and alumni. I also am inspired by the mission of Saint Xavier grounded in the legacy of the Sisters of Mercy. I consider it a privilege to be part of a university that has an exceptional future before it.”
Dwyer’s Fulbright research project was “Deterrence and Disarmament Strategies in the European Theatre after the SALT II Treaty.” Her post-graduate work at Harvard was at the Institute for Educational Management of the Graduate School of Education in a program for senior administrators in higher education. At Oxford, she participated in the Oxford Round Table, held at Lincoln College, focusing on fundraising strategies for higher education.
Her lectures have focused primarily on social ethics and related topics, including human rights, international peace strategies, nuclear deterrence policies and environmental issues.
“The privilege of having an education also bears with it responsibility to engage the cultures and the times within which we find ourselves,” she said. “Critical analysis of contemporary problems and efforts to address them creatively is the appropriate role of a person such as myself, who is devoted to moral theology specifically and to Catholic higher education generally.”
Saint Xavier University has been a cornerstone of Catholic education in Chicago for more than 150 years. “I look forward to getting to know the university’s neighbors,” Dwyer said. “I believe that mutually enriching relationships, which continue to be forged between our campuses and their surrounding communities, represent one of the benefits of an urban university. Saint Xavier enjoys the best of two worlds. Its Chicago campus is situated in a historic area of the city, and its new Orland Park campus is now part of one of the most vibrant and fast-growing suburban municipalities.”
A private, co-educational institution serving more than 5,200 men and women, Saint Xavier offers 34 undergraduate majors and 40 graduate program options through four schools: School of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, Graham School of Management and School of Nursing.
Established as a Catholic academy for women by the Sisters of Mercy in 1846, Saint Xavier became a college in 1915, a co-educational institution in 1969 and a university in 1992. Its current Chicago campus was established in 1956 at 103rd Street and Central Park Avenue in Chicago, and Saint Xavier’s second permanent campus will open in October 2003 in Orland Park.
The Sisters of Mercy are dedicated to education, especially for women and the poor, according to Sister Joy Clough, who has written a history of Saint Xavier University and is vice-chairperson of the Saint Xavier University Board of Trustees. “Saint Xavier fulfills the educational mission of the Sisters of Mercy by helping young people and adults earn a satisfying livelihood as well as lead a good life,” said Clough.