"How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by St Thomas U Prexy, Father Dennis Dease!

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Introduction
This summer I visited Taiwan for an alumni event in Taipei and to sign an exchange agreement with Tamkang University. One afternoon I was standing in my 18^th-floor hotel room when I suddenly fell against the wall. I thought I had stumbled on the suitcase at my feet, but then I fell again. Before you start thinking too much “rice wine,” I must add that the doors on my floor began to slam and the heavy wooden clothes-hangers in my closet began to bang loudly against the wall. To keep from falling, I quickly made my way to the bed and sat down. The building was flexing back and forth as though it were made of rubber. I was experiencing my first major earthquake – one that registered 6.1 on the Richter scale. Naturally I was concerned, but I comforted myself with the thought: “Dennis, you survived last semester’s travel policy; you will get through this.”

If you love St Thomas, or you are concerned about it, you must read this discussion of their mission!

The mission of a Catholic University
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This academic year we need to focus anew on our mission, and its implications for the university’s work ad extra – that is, the mission for which we were founded and for which we continue to exist. The institutional church realized four decades ago that it needed to become more engaged with the world culturally, ecumenically, and socio-critically. Today we, too, must keep always foremost in mind our larger mission. We need to search for new and more effective ways to assist our students in growing more aware of the larger world around them – its “joy and hope, grief and anguish.”
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The Catholic Mission

First, I would like to say a word about the Catholic mission of St. Thomas. At the May meeting of our Board of Trustees, one respected trustee commented that she had gone through Catholic schools from first grade through college. She said she had found herself concerned that our recent travel policy controversy might reinforce in the minds of our publics and our students the mistaken notion that Catholic moral values are mainly about sexual matters. She said she had learned that Catholic moral beliefs are ever so much broader than sexual ethics and apply to a wide array of human and societal issues. She also spoke of the rich body of Catholic social thought to which she had been introduced in her Catholic education.

What she said struck a chord with me. Catholic moral values are often portrayed, especially in the media, as sexual dos and don’ts.
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Diversity
Why our mission makes us different
The world of our students will change
An international perspective
Civility in discourse
Campus dialogues

Who are we? Our revised mission statement reads: “Inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition the University of St. Thomas educates students to be morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely and work skillfully to advance the common good.” We are a “teaching university.” We recognize and reward a broad range of intellectual endeavors as constituting scholarly engagement and we place a special emphasis on work that actively involves students in the scholarly process.

Where are we going? Our new vision statement affirms: “We seek to be a recognized leader in Catholic higher education that excels in effective teaching, active learning, scholarly research and responsible engagement with the local community as well as with the national and global communities in which we live.”

Our convictions: A basis for dialogue

Conclusion
After all is said and done, what does our mission boil down to? It comes down to our students – their challenges and their future. The American Council on Education’s tagline is: “America ’s colleges and universities: We teach the people who solve the problems and change the world.” And here at St. Thomas we say to students: “Challenge yourself, change our world.” Our mission, in a word, is to educate students in such a way that they may indeed contribute to the fashioning of a fairer, better world. [Read it All] STU Bulletin