Home   l   Athletics   l   Duquesne     


 

WHO WE ARE

Our University can be described in many ways. In recent years, Duquesne has been identified as one of the best values in higher education, while rising to become one of the top ten Catholic universities in the nation. The remarkable progress Duquesne has achieved over the span of 125 years might have astounded our founders, who began this great enterprise in rented rooms over a bakery in uptown Pittsburgh. 
 
They were Catholic priests and brothers of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit known as the Spiritans founded in France in 1703. Driven out of Germany by the oppressive regime of Otto von Bismarck, these exiles chose their home in Pittsburgh, then the steel manufacturing capital of the world. The city was darkened by smoke in the day and lit by the fiery glow of the mills at night.

Duquesne's founders came not in spite of these conditions, but because of them. They came to serve the masses of immigrants who flooded the city in search of new life. The bishop of Pittsburgh prayed for a religious congregation to provide education for the city’s uncounted children. His hopes were fulfilled in the Spiritans. The newcomers were joined by other Spiritans from Ireland, who brought with them an established reputation for educational excellence.

Our founders who toiled through those desperate days would probably not recognize our beautiful, bustling campus today or our sparkling, progressive city. Yet, at the heart of Duquesne they would discover something very familiar to them. The Spirit who answered the cry of the poor in 1878 is the same Spirit who gives life to the University today. We are more than buildings or people. We are more than honors and awards.

THE GOALS OF DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY

Education is understood as the primary purpose of every institution of higher learning. At Duquesne University, we view education not only as an end unto itself, but also as the most basic tool for human liberation. Duquesne’s history reveals that many of our students were empowered through education to rise out of the difficult economic circumstances into which they were born. This tradition continues today, with approximately 75 percent of our students receiving financial aid. In turn, a Duquesne education equips students with the knowledge to become future leaders of a more just and compassionate society.

Students prepare for responsible leadership roles in society through a broad-based education in the liberal arts, the very heart and soul of the University. This liberal education enriches and ennobles all their professional training. As a Catholic and Spiritan University, we believe that all students should have every opportunity to encounter the rich and venerable Catholic intellectual, cultural and artistic tradition. To achieve this goal there is a need to recruit competent teachers, scholars, and scientists, who support the University’s mission and identity. Because Duquesne believes in the mutual enrichment of faith and reason, it seeks faculty who can promote a dialog between the two, while respecting the autonomy of every academic discipline.

To this end, our University supports a faculty who are distinguished by excellent teaching and significant scholarly accomplishments in their diverse fields of expertise. Duquesne’s faculty engages in a variety of research, produces numerous works of scholarship, and contributes creatively to the arts. They are affirmed in their quest for knowledge as recipients of numerous grants and awards each year. Duquesne embraces academic freedom in the pursuit of knowledge as inseparable from the search for truth to which the Spirit calls us

VISIT DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY ONLINE
 

Copyright © 2006 Ron Everhart and
CollegeInsider.com. All Rights Reserved.