President’s Convocation Address Highlights Enhancing Students’ Experience

Duquesne President Dr. Charles J. Dougherty presented Enhancing the Quality of Our Students’ Experience during his remarks to faculty, staff and students at the University’s 2012 Convocation program.

In his Sept. 6 address, Dougherty focused on the theme We serve God by serving students, a line from the Duquesne University mission statement. “This is a phrase we repeat to ourselves as a reminder of the overarching goal of Duquesne University and all of our individual efforts,” said Dougherty. “It is the ultimate context for what we do together.”

Dougherty stressed that, together, every member of the University community, “regardless of specific tasks,” has a role in serving students. “All our work is in service to students,” said Dougherty.

In addition, the president said that while service to students at Duquesne is “primarily educational,” faculty are not alone is serving as educators. “(Faculty’s) educational relationship to students is straightforward…but it is also true throughout all of our student services areas—in the living-learning centers, throughout our many student organizations, in athletic and recreational settings, in counseling and health services, and in student life generally.”

Dougherty described learning in student life areas as “more wholly practical, but also a lifelong and often wider education.”

Emphasizing the importance of developing students’ self-respect and mutual respect, Dougherty encouraged his audience to, themselves, recommit to maintaining an atmosphere on campus of civility and freedom from discrimination. “We must be, and indeed we rarely fail to be, role models of civility and mutual respect for our students and for one another,” he said.

In closing, Dougherty thanked all members of the campus community for making Duquesne a University of which “we all can be proud,” adding “this achievement…is ultimately about faithfulness to our history and to our Spiritan identity and mission.”