This past week, I wrote a feature story on the 10th anniversary of Daniel Curran’s arrival as University of Dayton president. While working on the story, I had the rare opportunity to sit down in Curran’s office for 45 minutes to ask him dozens of questions about how he arrived at UD, what he likes best about campus now and the school’s future.

As the final part of a three-part outtakes series of extended quotes from my interview, this post covers Curran’s thoughts on the future of the university and his legacy at the school.

Flyer News: What’s next for UD? People are seeing, like you said, the buildings on Brown Street, the new cafeterias and all the other things over the past five to 10 years.

Daniel Curran: “I think what’s new for UD, at the undergraduate level, is we have the right size community at UD, we do not need to grow even though the demand is great. It would be easy for UD to go up to 10,000 [undergraduate] students, but that’s not in the plans, that’s not in the cards because you don’t want to jeopardize what’s the foundation of the UD experience and that’s community. So I think what I reflect on where we need to go with undergraduate [experience] a lot of it comes down to improving programs for the students. Looking, making sure – we had a great success rate in placing students last year – that students get out and have the opportunity to interview or get the internships or get the co-ops while they’re here, that’s where we got to go. …

“And again it’s just continuing to improve what we’re doing, opportunities for students, and then the other thing is build reputation. And we’ve done a lot, I mean, people we’ll be like, ‘What’s important about this GE complex for the average student?’ First, there’s going to be a lot of job opportunities, internships, co-ops, GE picked that  location over about eight others because they wanted to be near the University of Dayton. And they wanted the student, they wanted the intellectual talent. …”

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Jacob Rosen, Editor-in-Chief

This past week, I wrote a feature story on the 10th anniversary of Daniel Curran’s arrival as University of Dayton president. While working on the story, I had the rare opportunity to sit down in Curran’s office for 45 minutes to ask him dozens of questions about how he arrived at UD, what he likes best about campus now and the school’s future.

As the second part of a three-part outtakes series of extended quotes from my interview, this post covers Curran’s thoughts on some of his favorite stories, most difficult moments and top UD picks.

Flyer News: What’s one story that you think is seminal of the 10 years here?

Daniel Curran: “I have so many interactions with students it’s hard to pick one out. You know, I think when I go back, I think one of the most interesting, when you talk about where the university is going, is where my family and I were in Tibet and we know there is a UD group there. And we were walking in Lhasa, and all of a sudden I hear, ‘Dr. Dan, Dr. Dan.’ And a group of students run up to me, and here you are on the other side of the world, your students are excited to see you and your excited to see your students. And I think that’s one of the interesting interactions; I have multiple interactions where students have bumped into me: I’ve bumped into our students in Venice, I’ve had people in China come up to me and say, ‘I have two degrees from the University of Dayton and I’m so proud to be here.’ …

“And the other thing, the flip side, when you have a student get hurt or something when you had that accident earlier this year with the two Chinese students was, any loss of a student is hard and sometimes you don’t hear from it from a graduate, but that really when it’s a student that’s here you feel like you left the family down. ….”

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Jacob Rosen, Editor-in-Chief

This past week, I wrote a feature story on the 10th anniversary of Daniel Curran’s arrival as University of Dayton president. While working on the story, I had a unique opportunity to interview about a dozen individuals who know Curran in a multitude of different lights.

But in order for anyone to actually enjoy the fruits of labor from my 200 interview minutes, there had to be some great quotes that just didn’t make the final cut. Thus, this post covers some of the top thoughts on Curran from many of the individuals connected to UD who know him best.

1. Teri Rizvi, university vice president of communication, on Curran’s personality: “I think he has very strong instincts about people. And you know, he’s very accessible, he has a son who is a student here and beyond being the president of the university, he’s also a parent, you know, and he’s very, I think he’s a champion of students in my viewpoint.”

2. Jeff Firestone, a fifth-year senior accounting and finance major working on his Master of Business Administration, on Curran’s ability to market UD: “His favorite part of his job is definitely interaction with students and it shows. … Speaking to him, his vision hasn’t changed very much as far as standards for the university go as far as the years I’ve had the opportunity to interact with him.”Firestone also is a member of President’s Emissaries and the CEO of Flyer Enterprises.

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Jacob Rosen, Editor-in-Chief

This past week, I wrote a feature story on the 10th anniversary of Daniel Curran’s arrival as University of Dayton president. While working on the story, I had the rare opportunity to sit down in Curran’s office for 45 minutes to ask him dozens of questions about how he arrived at UD, what he likes best about campus now and the school’s future.

As the first part of a three-part outtakes series of extended quotes from my interview, this post covers Curran’s thoughts on the back-and-forth search process that led him to Dayton in 2002.

Flyer News: What does 10 years mean to you?

Daniel Curran: “Ten years have gone very fast for me. For me, probably the biggest thing it means is 10 classes have graduated during my tenure. And that’s the most exciting thing for me that all these graduates are going out into the world and making a difference. So again, it’s 10 years of UD graduates.”

FN: What first attracted you to UD as a Philadelphia guy, a St. Joseph’s University guy?

DC: “Well you know, it’s an interesting story. I was approached to be a part of the Dayton search in January of ’01 and I turned down being a candidate. I always liked Dayton, it was one of the top five schools I would consider going to. But the president at St. Joe’s [Nicholas Rashford] had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and we actually were building the house we thought we would retire in, in Villanova. And so when they came to me in January, I said ‘No, I can’t be a candidate.’ And then they went through the search and brought in I think it was three candidates in October of ’01 and it just didn’t work out. They didn’t find someone that would fit the university and I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to be going to Dayton. ….

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Chris Moorman, Sports Editor

University of Dayton (14-7, 4-3 Atlantic 10 Conference) Starting Lineups:

G- #1 Kevin Dillard (6-0, 170, redshirt junior)
G- #12 Josh Parker (6-0, 187, redshirt senior)
F- #4 Chris Johnson (6-6, 191, senior)
F- #23 Luke Fabrizius (6-9, 228, senior)
C- #35 Matt Kavanaugh (6-9, 250, junior)

Duquesne University (12-9, 3-4 Atlantic 10 Conference) Starting Lineups:

G- #20 T.J. McConnell (6-1, 185, sophomore)
G- #3 Eric Evans (5-11, 205, senior)
G- #32 Sean Johnson (6-2, 195, junior)
F- #23 B.J. Monteiro (6-5, 205, senior)
F/C- #0 Andre Marhold (6-7, 210, junior)

Pregame Notes:

Dayton enters this game on a two-game losing streak, which is never a good thing but is compounded considering the losing streak is right in the heart of the conference season. Last week, Dayton was a game ahead in first place of the conference. Today, the Flyers find themselves in the middle of a wide-open A-10 race. Read more »

Chris Moorman, Sports Editor

University of Dayton (14-6, 4-2 Atlantic 10 Conference) Starting Lineups:

G- #1 Kevin Dillard (6-0, 170, redshirt junior)
G- #22 Paul Williams (6-4, 212, senior)
F- #4 Chris Johnson (6-6, 191, senior)
F- #23 Luke Fabrizius (6-9, 228, senior)
C- #35 Matt Kavanaugh (6-9, 250, junior)

University of Rhode Island (3-18, 0-6 Atlantic 10 Conference) Starting Lineups:

G- #4 Mike Powell (5-11, 175, freshman)
G- #20 Billy Baron (6-2, 195, sophomore)
F- #12 Orion Outerbridge (6-9, 210, senior)
F- #35 Jonathan Holton (6-9, 220, freshman)
F- #23 Nikola Malesevic (6-7, 200, junior)

Pre-Game Notes:

Dayton enters tonight’s game on a down note. The Flyers lost 77-63 to Saint Joseph’s University Wednesday, Jan. 25, in Philadelphia. UD at that point in time was in first place of the Atlantic 10 Conference at 4-1. The loss was significant in two ways. One, Dayton dropped into a five-way tie for first and establishes further proof that the A-10 will be down to the wire once again if no team is willing to put itself out of distance from the rest of the pack. Read more »

Chris Moorman, Sports Editor

The University of Dayton men’s basketball team will play its next Atlantic 10 Conference game down another player.

Senior forward Chris Johnson suffered a blow to the head Monday, Jan. 9, during practice and is not making the trip with the team to Olean, N.Y., as Dayton (12-4, 2-0 A-10) takes on Saint Bonaventure University (8-6, 1-1 A-10) Wednesday, Jan. 11.

According to a Dayton athletics press release, Johnson did not suffer a concussion, but the team is taking precautions by not allowing him to travel.

Johnson was UD’s third-leading scorer with 10.6 points per game and the team’s second-leading rebounder with 5.5 rebounds a game. Read more »

Chris Moorman, Sports Editor

University of Dayton (10-4, 0-0 Atlantic 10 Conference) Starting Lineups

G- #1 Kevin Dillard (6-0, 170, redshirt junior)
G- #22 Paul Williams (6-4, 212, senior)
F- #4 Chris Johnson (6-6, 191, senior)
F- #23 Luke Fabrizius (6-9, 228, senior)
C- #35 Matt Kavanaugh (6-9, 250, junior)

Saint Louis University (12-2, 0-0 Atlantic 10 Conference) Starting Lineups

G- #3 Kwamain Mitchell (5-10, 175, redshirt junior)
G- #23 Kyle Cassity (6-4, 200, senior)
F- #21 Dwayne Evans (6-5, 220, sophomore)
F- #14 Brian Conklin (6-6, 235, senior)
C- #51 Rob Loe (6-11, 235, sophomore)

Pre-Game Notes:

Dayton enters tonight’s game on a two-game winning streak, but the team has suffered a tough loss already in this new year. Redshirt junior forward Josh Benson tore his left anterior cruciate ligament in Dayton’s 62-50 win over the University of Mississippi Friday, Dec. 30. Read more »

Chris Moorman, Sports Editor

Redshirt junior forward Josh Benson is out for the rest of the season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in the University of Dayton’s 62-50 win over the University of Mississippi Friday, Dec. 30, at UD Arena.

With 9:32 to go in the first half, Benson drove to the basket and attempted an off-balanced, running floater in the lane. As the shot bounced off the side of the rim, Benson fell to the court and appeared to bang his knee on the floor. Mississisppi forward Steadman Short leapt into the air to grab the rebound, but fell on top of Benson and was called for traveling.

Benson stayed on the ground clutching his left knee for a couple minutes before trainers and teammates helped him off the court and up the tunnel to the Dayton locker room. Benson was able to put weight on his left leg as he left the floor.
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