USD President's Report 2003

Fleet Feet. The women's soccer team, including senior Alexis Dbeji, shown here, reached the NCAA College Cup Tournament for a fifth consecutive season, a school record.

King of the Court. Freshman Pierrick Ysern, of Paris, France, was USD's No. 1men's tennis player. In 2003, he had a national ranking of 94, and helped the team finish 43rd in the nation.

JULY - SEPTEMBER

Mary E. Lyons became USD 's third president on July 1. Lyons previously was president of the College of Saint Benedict, a Catholic liberal arts college in Minnesota. Prior to that, the native Californian, a retired U. S. Naval R eserve captain, was president of the Californja Mariti111e Academy. Sally Brosz Hardin took over as dean of th e Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science in July. Hardin formerly was a professor and Ph.D . program director at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, Barn es College of Nursing, and held teaching positions at The University of Illinois at Chicago, th e University o f South Caroli na and the University of Massachusetts. Tom Iannacone retired in July after 15 years as athletics director. Iannacone supervised the rise of the university as a fo rmidable NCAA Division I program . During his tenure, 40 teams advanced to NCAA postseason competition, including a record six in 2003 - men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball , 111en's basketball, men's tennis and baseball. In July, the continuing edu cation division hosted its se111jannual University of the Third Age program . The program , for seniors ages 55 and older, included lectures on th e arts, current affairs, history, science, medicine and technology, as well as sessions of T ai Chi Clman exercise. In August, USD received word that it is ranked among the top 100 national unjversities by U.S. News & World R eport. In its 2003 survey, the magazine placed USD in a tic for 99th among 248 nati onal universities, defined as those offering a wide range of undergraduate maj ors as well as master's and doctoral degrees.

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