USD President's Report 1987

e teach our students how thewest was won. Startingwith Plato. Ask many college students today about Western Civilization and they'll probably start talking about cowboys. cattle drives and the Pony Express. Not at the University of San Diego. That's because all our students get a heavy dose of the liberal arts-whether they're aiming for careers in accounting or careers in medicine. And there's a reason we want our students to study people like Plato. Aristotle, Hegel and other great thinkers of Western Civilization: they asked some of the most important questions about life that have ever been asked. Questions we're still grappling with today. Why ask students to confront 2.000-year-old questions that have never completely been answered . instead of just letting them study engineering or business or teaching? Because we believe that by making them confront age-old questions we help make them more capable. More capable of critical thinking. Of solid analysis. And of recognizing enduring values and ideals that have helped our civilization survive. And if we make them capable of those things. they'll have what it takes to make themselves capable engineers and accountants and teachers. t Universily of 0an Die30 We're passing on ideals. Not just information.

...

'

• 6

• 7