President Rob Manuel and Provost Salma Ghanem delivered remarks at DePaul’s 2025 Academic Convocation ceremony to kick off a new school year, celebrate achievements and chart our path forward. President Rob Manuel’s full remarks are available here.
Good morning, and welcome. One of the unique joys of academic life is the sense of renewal that comes with each new year. I am thrilled to kick off DePaul’s 128th academic year with you.
Convocation not only sets the tone for the year ahead, it is also a tradition that reminds us why we are here: to be a community — united in mission, aligned in vision, and dedicated to ensuring our students’ success both at DePaul and beyond. Each one of you plays an essential role in that journey, and I want to begin by thanking you for all that you do.
We are joined this academic year by an exceptional group of staff members, as well as 68 new faculty members over last fall. This number includes eight faculty who joined us in the middle of last year. Let us give them a warm welcome with a round of applause.
We also welcome new leadership. Geoffrey Rapp joins us as dean of the College of Law. In his short time here, Geoff has met with faculty and staff, engaged alumni, and connected with incoming students. My gratitude also goes to Julie Lawton for her steady leadership as interim dean during the transition.
I am pleased to share another exciting development: Anthony Volini has been appointed DePaul’s first faculty director of technology transfer, commercialization, and social impact. Working with our associate provost for research, he will help transform faculty, staff, and student innovations into real-world solutions with broad societal benefit. This is a major milestone in strengthening DePaul’s innovation ecosystem.
We also welcome John Shanahan to the Academic Affairs team as associate provost for student success and accreditation. John has already begun leading key projects, from preparing for an upcoming Higher Learning Commission visit, to advancing academic program reviews, to developing an Academic Affairs Artificial Intelligence Plan.
While many of you have been experimenting and incorporating AI into your work, we need to bring the various stakeholders on campus to aggregate current AI uses on campus, to formulate new or update existing policy as needed, to advance curricular innovation, and to inform university strategy with regard to Artificial Intelligence.
As part of the digital transformation initiative of the Designing DePaul Strategic Plan, we are in the process of forming a Provost’s Advisory Committee on Artificial Intelligence. This committee will include faculty, staff and students, as well as colleagues from Information Systems, Research Services, Center for Teaching and Learning, AI Institute, University Registrar and the Library to help our community be prepared, informed and up to date on the various aspects of this new information revolution.
As I said last year, we must look at the world through a kaleidoscope — reimagining the patterns of education in the age of AI. Some fundamentals will not change, but other aspects will change beyond recognition. What will definitely not change is our unwavering commitment to students: to give them an education that teaches not only how to use AI, but how to use it ethically, responsibly, and for the common good.
While the impact of AI is massive, it appears at times easier to address compared to the disruption that is happening in the world, the nation, and in higher education. The systems, structures and standards we followed are shifting and at times even crumbling. The way to navigate this turmoil is to focus first and last on who we are — a Catholic Vincentian university that compassionately upholds the dignity of all members of its diverse, multi-faith, and inclusive community — and to discover our agency in and from that place.
We need to continue to design our paths forward in this ever-changing landscape. The public at large is losing faith in the value of higher education and we are being criticized for perceived ideological bias. We need to continue showing our value through words and action.
Our mission commits us to outstanding teaching and academic excellence. And I see that commitment every day in the classes being taught, the research conducted, the retention initiatives implemented, and the new narratives emerging.
You continue to update the curriculum and incorporate new technologies when appropriate. Despite ongoing uncertainty in the external funding landscape, you have increased award revenue by 10.7% — rising from $12.2 million in FY 2024 to $13.5 million last year.
You have created new opportunities for our students. DePaul University and Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science partnered to create a direct path from undergraduate study to health science degrees, including medicine, physician assistant practice, physical therapy and pharmacy. The College of Education, along with partners at AUSL, developed a new teacher residency cohort to serve several Lake County school districts.
Global Engagement in collaboration with Mission and Ministry and the Student Government Association has launched a Displaced Student Initiative to support students affected by conflict and political strife around the world by giving them access to online programs. The first group of four students from Gaza are joining our online programs this fall.
DePaul continues to be active in supporting refugee students in Chicago as well. While the Afghan young women we welcomed three years ago continue to thrive toward graduation, this fall we welcome our new cohort of students from the Sponsors Circle Program, a national initiative that gives access to higher education to displaced students in the U.S.
Study Abroad had its highest enrollment ever in 2024-25, administering transformational programs for 1,197 students across 88 programs. A hundred dedicated faculty and staff developed and led many of these experiences for our students.
The strategic plans that have been submitted by our colleges, schools and administrative units include many initiatives that will further enhance student success, as well as our recruitment, and our academic distinction. President Rob will address this further in his remarks.
But to those who question the value of higher education, it’s simple and it’s in our mission: DePaul prepares graduates to be successful in their chosen fields and agents of transformation throughout their lives.
Even in the face of strong headwinds, we must remember the tailwinds. The Higher Learning Commission approved our Quality Initiative report that studied the launch and use of One DePaul since 2022, which documented the work of many within our community. Let us join in the upcoming centennial celebrations of The Theatre School. Let us all be proud at the grand opening of the David P. Miller CYBERLabs later this month. And let us all celebrate our first Truman Scholar Victoria Gomez-Meza and our first Illinois Poet Laureate Mark Turcotte.
At the same time, we cannot ignore criticism that higher education is ideologically biased. Our response must be to model the very values of a democratic society. We must equip students to think critically, to engage across differences, and to resist polarization. Universities are not places of indoctrination; they are crucibles for knowledge, creativity, and dialogue — preparing graduates to lead, to serve, and to bridge divides.
Dignity and inclusivity are the building blocks of Vincentian personalism. By focusing on the dignity of every individual, we can ensure that we truly include all members of our diverse community. In my convocation remarks last year, I indicated that we have an obligation as an institution of higher education to create an environment where academic freedom and inclusivity complement one another.
In other words, we need to balance academic freedom and inclusivity. When arguments on either side of an issue are strongly made, neither should be weaponized for political gain. What we need is effective, deliberative and thoughtful shared governance processes that helps us achieve this balance.
The Speech and Expression Committee developed guidelines for our community. We need to hold ourselves accountable to abide by those guidelines. Achieving such a balance will not be easy, but then St. Vincent de Paul did not shy away from the pressing issues of his time. And as members of the DePaul community, we have an obligation to come together and balance two fundamental pillars of what makes us DePaul: academic freedom and inclusivity.
As we continue to work together, I invite you all to re-read our university mission statement while reflecting on the etymology of two words: University and Catholic. Both words refer to the whole, the universal and the all-inclusive nature of who we are.
This convocation is more than a ceremony — it is renewal of our shared promise to our students, to one another, and to the world we serve. Our mission calls on us to teach with excellence, research with integrity, lead with courage and serve with compassion. Each of us has a part to play in shaping DePaul’s future.
Let us move forward with confidence and conviction, knowing that together we will continue to make DePaul a beacon of knowledge, dignity and transformation for generations to come.
Thank you, and welcome to a new academic year!