DePaul University. Office of Mission and Values.

The Office of Mission and Values started life as the Center for the Study of Values and later became the Center for University Values before finally adopting its present name and function. The Center for the Study of Values was established in January 1986 with Dennis McCann as its director. In its early years the Center was operated from the Religious Studies department, and appears to have been intended to implement programs that were academic and wide-ranging in nature. In 1988, McCann was joined by Jack Lane, as Co-Director. The first priority for the Center at this time was to define and preserve the Catholic and Vincentian identity of DePaul. McCann felt that a renewed emphasis should be placed on St. Vincent, rather than general notions of Catholicism, because he felt that St. Vincent's qualities of social pragmatism and activism would be attractive to faculty, staff and students, and also that placing the focus upon Vincent avoided potentially off-putting notions of a Catholic hegemony. Rev. Paul Golden, C.M. was appointed by Fr. Richardson in 1985 to "research, plan and design an institute for preparing leadership in religiously oriented organizations", and in 1993 became the Senior Executive for University Mission. In addition to working to enhance the Vincentian and Catholic mission of the University, part of his position involved trying to recruit other Vincentians to work at DePaul. In 1994, the Center for the Study of Values became the Center for University Values. There was some function reassessment for the Center at this time, and Jack Lane was now working at the Center full-time (Dennis McCann was no longer involved). It was at this time that the Center started to develop events and programs such as St. Vincent's week and to become more like the current Office of Mission and Values. Paul Golden remained very active in the discussions and planning for enhancing the mission and values of DePaul until he left in 1996 to become president of Niagara University. His position was filled by Rev. Edward Udovic, C.M. In 2002, Jack Lane retired, and the Center for University Values merged with the University Mission position, and became the Office of Mission and Values as it exists currently. The setting up of the Center for the Study of Values seems to be a consequence of the discussion that occurred in the 1970s about the future of DePaul in light of the dwindling numbers of Vincentians in the USA. As the Center progressed and grew, its function became less academically inclined and more with keeping public awareness of DePaul's Catholic, and especially Vincentian, heritage alive and strong.