University of Dallas Board of Trustees Chairman Thomas M. Zellers, M.D., announced
today that President Thomas W. Keefe, J.D., will be completing his tenure at the university
at the end of this academic term. The university will begin a search for a new president
this summer.
In an announcement emailed to the university community, Zellers said, “After careful consideration and prayer, the University of Dallas Board of Trustees has determined that the university would benefit from a change in leadership in order to continue to grow and maintain its position as one of the nation’s leading Catholic universities.”
The announcement noted Keefe’s many contributions to the university in his eight years as president, stating that the university had “benefited considerably from President Keefe’s contributions over these past eight years.” Zellers also said that Keefe parts with “the appreciation of the board, faculty, staff, student body and alumni.”
During the initial phase of the transition, in keeping with university policy, John Plotts, Ed.D., executive vice president for enrollment management and student affairs, will act in the president’s stead when necessary. According to Zellers, the board plans to appoint an interim president while the university conducts a national search for its next president.
Zellers also said, “The board of trustees is committed to ensuring that our students continue to receive the exceptional education that has given the University of Dallas a well-earned reputation as The Catholic University for Independent Thinkers.”
The announcement concluded by asking the university community to “join the trustees in remaining focused on our mission of education in pursuit of wisdom, truth and virtue that leads to the formation of leaders who act responsibly for their own good and for the good of their family, community, country and church.”
The University of Dallas has announced a new director of civil rights, Luciana Milano. Milano, who has a Bachelor of Arts in government from Harvard College and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, began her new role on Oct. 12.
+ Read More“This is the first time we’ve had a scholarship in honor of a great Catholic intellectual — and now, within the last year, saint,” said President Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA ’82 MA ’83, by way of introducing the St. John Henry Newman Scholarship in Philosophy recently endowed by alumnus Matthew Hejduk, MA '98 PhD '06, and his wife, Julia Hejduk, Ph.D. Julia was a colleague of Hibbs during his time at Baylor University, where she teaches in the Classics Department.
+ Read MoreMichelle Cortez-Gonzales, MFA ’20, was a Fort Worth ISD high school teacher with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Texas at Arlington when she decided to go back to school to get her master’s. At the recommendation of a friend, she visited UD, and knew immediately from the wooded area around the Art Village, the architecture of the buildings, and the faculty members she met that UD was the place for her.
+ Read More
