Many admire DWU, says SVD provincial
Divine Word University marked its 13th Foundation Day on Friday 21st August, 2009.
The day was marked with a Holy Eucharist, speeches by President of DWU Fr Jan Czuba and Governor of Madang Province and retired Chief Justice, Sir Arnold Amet and combined celebratory lunch with students, staff and guests.
The Holy Eucharist was led by the acting provincial of the Society of Divine Word Missionaries (SVD), Fr Joseph Roszynski.
He said the Foundation Day was a time to say thank you to God and acknowledge the many blessings the university has received.Fr Roszynski said DWU has achieved a lot in its short history as a university and he described it as “a great place, where something new continues to happen”.
He was acknowledging the common feature of DWU where new developments in infrastructure and introduction of programs continue to take place each year.
“Many people admire and look forward to new developments here,” he added.
Fr Roszynski said DWU takes its name from Word of God or the ‘Divine Word’ and serves the entire country.
He said it is a campus where one can meet the entire country given the congregation of students and staff coming from all parts of PNG.
Fr Czuba when giving an account of the history behind DWU and its predecessors, Divine Word Institute and Divine Word High School, said the university was fulfilling a dream its founding missionaries had back in the 1950s.
He said the head of the SVD missionaries visited Madang in 1958and wanted a university built back then.
But the idea met resistance from the colonial administration and instead a boarding secondary school was built and opened in 1963 on an old plantation and swamp land which is the current location of DWU.
The high school evolved into Divine Word Institute as a college offering secondary education (grade eleven and twelve studies) and diploma courses from 1979 onwards until 1996 when it became a university. Ends/
