President Emeritus Trauth awarded honorary doctorate from Mount St. Joseph University

Texas State University President Emeritus Denise M. Trauth has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Mount St. Joseph University.

Trauth, an alumna of Mount St. Joseph, was presented with the honorary degree Dec. 9 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she served as keynote speaker for commencement.

Mount St. Joseph awards honorary degrees to individuals who embody the ideals for which the university stands and have distinguished themselves through service to the university, community, church or society. The president solicits nominations for honorary degrees from the university community and makes recommendations to the executive committee of the board of trustees for approval of the recipients.

Individuals receiving honorary degrees from Mount St. Joseph demonstrate one or more of the following requirements: evidence of intellectual acumen and exercise wisdom; commitment to advance the mission of the university and support its value system: service to others, quest for justice, quality in education and dignity of the person; contribute in an outstanding way to a profession which impacts the intellectual level or quality of life of society.

Trauth was named president of Texas State in 2002, where she served until her retirement in 2022. Before joining Texas State, she was provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Under Trauth's leadership, Texas State was designated a Texas Emerging Research University; was reclassified as a "R2: Doctoral University - Higher Research Activity" under the Carnegie Classification system; became a federal Hispanic-Serving Institution; moved to the FBS subdivision of NCAA Division I; and has experienced its largest construction program since being founded in 1899. The university greatly expanded its external funding of research and increased philanthropic giving. More may be found at www.president.txst.edu/denisetrauth/.

Trauth earned a bachelor's degree in English at Mount St. Joseph University, a master's degree in journalism at Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in mass communications at the University of Iowa.