[19] The sisters, together with Eugene Constantin Jr. and Edward R. Maher Sr., petitioned the Diocese of Dallas to sponsor the university, though ownership was entrusted to a self-perpetuating independent board of trustees.

Bishop Thomas Gorman had plans to shape it in the manner of Louvain, the Catholic university in Belgium where he himself had studied and which was considered an elite institution in his day.

[21] The Sisters of St. Mary of Namur, Cistercian monks, Franciscan friars, and several lay professors formed the university's 1956 faculty.

[20] The Franciscans departed three years later; professors from the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) joined the faculty in 1958 and built St. Albert the Great Priory on campus.

[29] Two years later, the university applied for an exception to Title IX allowing it to discriminate based on gender identity for religious reasons.

[39][37] The outer circle of the university's seal is an alteration of verse 8:19 of the Book of Zechariah, "Veritatem tantum et pacem diligite", which means "Love truth and peace."

It also includes two crusader shields which depict the (left) Lone Star of Texas and (right) the torch of liberty and learning.

The wavy lines near the bottom represent the Trinity River (Texas)[40] Bishop Thomas Gorman wrote as early as 1954 to Abbot Anselm Nagy to ask the displaced Hungarian Cistercian fathers from the Monastery of Zirc to assist in founding the university.

On the first day of classes in September 1956, nine Cistercian fathers, at that point half of the entire faculty, were employed at the new university.

After students voiced criticism, signs were put up to warn visitors that "some items [on display] might be considered offensive.

After heated debate on campus, the University administration eventually approved a revised version of the submission, leading to the establishment of the Student Leaders for Racial Solidarity Club.

The campus consists mostly of mid-twentieth-century modernist, earth-toned brick buildings set amidst the native Texas landscape.

[52] Travel + Leisure's October 2013 issue lists it as one of America's ugliest college campuses, citing its "low-profile, boxy architecture that bears uncanny resemblance to a public car park," but noting that a recent $12 million donation from alumni Satish and Yasmin Gupta would bring new campus construction.

[53] A Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Orange Line light-rail station opened near campus on July 30, 2012.

Names of the student paper since the first issue in 1957 have included the following: The Shield, The Outgribe, The University News, and currently The Cor Chronicle.

Donald and Louise Cowan were instrumental in developing and implementing the university's "Core Curriculum,"[58] a collection of approximately twenty courses (two years) of common study covering philosophy, theology, history, literature, politics, economics, mathematics, science, art, and a foreign language.

[59] The curriculum includes a slate of required courses which cover specific texts, permitting professors to assume a common body of knowledge and speak across disciplines.

UD offers a five-year dual-degree program in electrical engineering in collaboration with The University of Texas at Arlington.

Undergraduate Graduate The on-campus editorial offices of Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations published 21 volumes as of May, 2016.