What does Las Vegas Sands ‘ decision to build its hotel casino in its yard imply for the University of Dallas?  ,
In the higher education landscape of America, the University of Dallas is a distinctive liberal arts entity. A personal, Catholic university with two campuses, one in Dallas and the other in Rome, has excellent Great Books primary curriculum as well as comprehensive majors in everything from business and financial accounting to studio art and classics.
UD was founded in 1956 and is largely tuition-driven, with some being quirky, optimistic, and intellectual. The Dallas sky can be seen from the quadrant of the capital of Irving from where its U.S. campus is nestled in the small hills of the town.
Enter Las Vegas Sands Casino Corporation, an Asian company. The Venetian and The Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip and four hotel casinos in Macau, Singapore, are owned by Sands. It is the third-largest game company in the world with a commendable standing as too big to fail.
Now that the company has decided to build a multi-billion money job on a piece next to the University of Dallas, where it is hoped to have the largest game and location in the country, perhaps in the world.
Can it be stopped, really? God cannot accomplish anything, but David and Goliath are at odds with one another.
The game hopes to expand its largest endeavor to Irving in the coming years, and the Dallas suburb’s residents and workers just received a ton of bricks for it.
This hurried attempt to rezone for gaming is a startling, pre-emptive walk because blackjack gambling is already prohibited by the Texas Constitution. Citizens of Irving did not anticipate having to face and make a decision until the Texas government takes up the matter. Sands Corporation publicly acknowledges that it has spent millions of dollars on lobbying to change the Texas position law.
In a new eight-hour conference that spanned from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., lots of Irving people made their voices heard before the Planning Commission. The consensus was unheard of in the first place.
Only four persons stepped up to express their excitement for the game. Another Irving residents and University of Dallas university, alumni, staff, and students emphasized that they felt the process was convoluted, unfair, and unjust. They argued that the area does not require or want casino gambling as a form of growth. Their quarrels were supported by financial research, public health studies, public health studies, and other valid concerns about the Sands Corporation’s substantial public record.
All without success. The commission voted in favor of casino gaming in the face of enormous public criticism. The Irving City Council is scheduled to hear about the situation right now.
Irving was a Baptist village at its founding. The heart of city was home to churches, schools, cotton gins, a blacksmith’s shop, and a general business. In the Texas Wild West, it was a railroad halt and an oasis of society.
British, Italian, Czech, European, and Polish Catholics acquired the following following the World War II oil jump, founding Catholic churches, the University of Dallas, a Catholic Abbey, and a Dominican Priory, all of which are still flourishing with plenty of fresh professions inspired by John Paul II.
In the 1970s, Texas Cowboys built Texas Stadium and American Airlines became the airline’s main gateway. This new construction transformed Irving, a little, but still rural town, into a Dallas suburb, a part of the sprawling Mid-Cities Metroplex.
However, Irving has gone through three different levels of an entirely new kind of internal development over the past 25 years. Second, many University of Dallas graduates stayed in Texas, where economic liberty had led to economic growth, because of the financial crisis in 2007. The Californians, Chicagoans, and Bostonians who had chosen to travel to Texas for what George Weigel, John Paul II’s biographer, referred to as” The finest Catholic University in America,” settled down and stayed.
Second, Texas’s academic freedom allowed for the phenomenal growth of charter schools for historical education, such as Great Hearts Academies and Founders Classical Academies. But more University of Dallas graduates stayed for the positions available for training and for their growing households.
Eventually, the global COVID lockdowns resulted in an unprecedented wave of households emigrating from California and New York, Minnesota, and additional Blue States. They came to see the institutions that remained open and the churches that were available.
After these three internal immigration waves, Irving is presently a place in its own right thanks to the families who work there, as well as the churches that serve, creating a remarkably coherent, come-as-you-are-and-bring-your-guitar, backyard and entrance porch republic that epitomizes what conservatives mean when they say” Make America Great Again.”
The Las Vegas Sands Corporation intends to draw more customers to Irving thanks to its location game, upscale dining options, and resort-style entertainment. They desire visitors from outside to Irving to perform.
However, Irving’s people don’t enjoy that kind of enjoy: they prefer to worship God, provide for, and govern themselves, and exercise self-control. These are the elements of the good living as they see it, not travel plans and food hospitality.
This perspective has brought together researchers, firefighters, Christians, Methodists, Indians, and Muslims who are Catholics. Because of their shared desire for a family-friendly group, which they themselves have built, the Irving displayed at the conference this past year was diverse and inclusive. Irving doesn’t require a location because it is already a target for” Freedom Chasers,” as one citizen put it.
What will it mean if Las Vegas Sands decides to build its location game in its own garden for the University of Dallas? Will students from all 50 State states attend a small hill in Irving to learn about the Christian tradition and the history of Western civilization? Did they live in close proximity to a significant gambling complex and settle into their work, families, churches, and schools? All inquiries about violence, adultery, crime, or other social issues are dismissed by Las Vegas as immoral propaganda.
The University of Dallas neighborhood residents in Irving disagree and are engaged in this long-term challenge.
Susan Hanssen has lived in Irving, Texas for the past 25 years as an associate professor at the University of Dallas. She teaches the history of Western Society in Rome during the summer and the history of American culture on the Dallas school during the regular school year.
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