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2004

Dying to Live: A Migrant's Journey dvd

“Who are these people, and why are they risking their lives to enter the United States?” the narrator of this documentary asks. In seeking to answer that question, the film provides both a look at the human face of the Mexican immigrant, including scenes of the harrowing journey migrants undertake to cross the U.S. border, and a discussion of the social, economic, political and religious issues involved.

The Gold Diggers

Chomping a big wad of gum so my ears wouldn’t pop, I stepped into the Ross Shaft cage and dropped almost a mile beneath Lead, South Dakota, into Homestake Gold Mine’s depths. The open elevator rattled along at 20 miles an hour and time warped. Our descent began in early evening, yet instantly we had morning, because that’s what the start of every Homestake shift was called. When thousands of feet of solid rock separate you from sunshine or moonlight, a guy in the cage told me, you can declare your own clock. Time, weather, and bill collectors never followed a miner down the Ross.…

The Bear Truth

I’m not sure when I first heard about the Sophomore Comprehensive Examination. Sometimes it was referred to as “The Orals.” But soon after I entered Notre Dame in 1957, I heard the Liberal Arts students talking about the rigors of that test scheduled to be given at the end of sophomore year.

I can only imagine that the purpose was twofold: First, to find out if anything a student had studied the first two years had sunk in. Second, to determine if a student could communicate sensibly. There were horror stories circulating around the dorms that certain students who failed the test were told they couldn’t return. The reported numbers of the unfortunates were in the hundreds. To this day I am told that our class of 1961 had the poorest graduation rate in the history of the school. Whether the oral examination was just too much for some or if it was due to the Holy Cross Priest who taught Symbolic Logic freshman year (He was Chinese, had just returned from China, and we couldn’t understand him), I really can’t tell you. Whatever the reason, no one looked forward to The Orals at the end of the sophomore year.…

Laetare Lesson

The Laetare medal is awarded annually by Notre Dame to an outstanding Catholic. The selection is announced on Laetare Sunday, the first Sunday in May. Recipients have ranged from Clare Booth Luce to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Irene Dunne and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In 1910, the Laetare Medal was awarded to my grandfather, Maurice Francis Egan. At his death in 1924, it was “awarded” to me.…

The Guy Who Likes Hoops

He stood in the frame of my dorm room door at Fisher Hall, naked except for a towel around his waist. With a shaving kit in one hand, he was, I had to assume, on his way to the shower stalls. It was my first day at Notre Dame, and I was thoroughly confused. Ninety-three degrees and 93 percent humidity. Two thousand miles from home, in a place I knew I had to be but which I knew nothing about. I sat down on the end of the bed in my tiny single room to collect myself. Like many freshmen on their first day at college, I was scared to death. I really, really missed my mom.…

ND Alumni Briefs

Sullivan Voted President-Elect
At its April meeting, the Alumni Board elected Robert Sullivan Jr. ’67 of Tulsa, Oklahoma, as president-elect of the Alumni Association. Sullivan will assume the presidency on July 1, 2004, at the end of his three-year term on the board as regional director for Region 13 (Oklahoma and Texas). He is principal of Sullivan and Company LLC…

Domers in the News

Tim Feeney ’92 appeared on Fox News Channel escorting one of the Washington, D.C.-area sniper suspects after the suspect’s arrest last October. Feeney is a special agent for the FBI in Maryland. . . . Joseph Rutledge ’01, ’02M.S. won the Elijah Watts Sells Gold Award for attaining the highest score in the nation on last year’s Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. The test is given to more than 120,000 people each year. . . . In the wake of its accounting scandal WorldCom Inc. has formed an ethics office staffed by three veteran company employees, including lawyer Brian Levey ’84…

Books in Brief

A Theologian’s Journey, Thomas F. O’Meara, O.P. (Paulist Press). The autobiography of a Dominican priest who has witnessed vast changes in the church and society. O’Meara is an ND emeritus professor of theology.

Chalk Dust: A Teacher’s Marks, David Ellison ’81 (Heinemann). A collection of funny, sad and poignant columns from a seventh-grade teacher who strives to make a difference in his students’ lives.…

Books in print

Love & Other Recreational Sports, John Dearie ’86 (Viking). After breaking up with his cheating fiancee, Wall Street banker Jack reluctantly re-enters the dating game, and readers of this novel enter a male perspective of women, romance, sex and life in general. Jack’s funny, philosophical friend Alex, who watches reruns of Oprah…

Lacrosse Pack Rat Showcases Club Years

Len Niessen ’68, ’69, still has all his copies of The Observer from the 1960s. The self-described “saver” is more of a historian than pack rat, however. A few years ago he sorted through material from his lacrosse-playing days at Notre Dame and sent some pages to Jack Tate ’64, ’66M.A., who founded the first lacrosse team at the University.…

Bible Geek Speaks to Teens

Mark Hart ’95 calls the Trinity “the ultimate Three-for-One deal,” notes that “Catholic Christianity is not for wimps” and believes that the platypus is a sure sign that “God has an incredible sense of humor.”

Obviously, Hart also has a sense of humor. And while he says he is not “theologically brilliant,” hundreds of teenage website users clamor for his answer to their scripture questions. They know him as “the Bible Geek” and find his columns online at www.lifeteen.org. The site is a service of LIFE…

John Bellairs: The Spooky Writer Who Cast a Magic Spell

When the kids finish the latest Harry Potter, some fans of ghosts and spells and things that go creeeeak in the night have a suggestion: Check out the books by John Bellairs.

Bellairs, who graduated from Notre Dame in 1959, became the talk of juvenile fiction in the 1970s with the publication of The House with a Clock in Its Walls…

Letters: web extra

‘And other things Catholic’ letters disturbing

One of the advantages of being a "senior alumnus" is that you have time to think and explore issues unrelated to earning money and making tuition payments. I just finished reading some of the letters to the editor in the spring issue and was totally amazed by some of the statements. First, I must inform Mr. Burke that priestly celibacy does not date back to Christ or the apostles. The concept started in the fourth century. In fact there is evidence of correspondence between St. Augustine and a married bishop and his wife, who was a daughter of another bishop. If Mr. Burke would do some reading he would discover that the apostles ( including Peter ) were married so there is no historical or scriptural basis for priestly celibacy. Now Mr. Burke gets to "the church’s position on birth control". Before Pope Paul VI wrote Humane Vitae in 1968 Pope John XXIII…

Letters to the editor: from print issue

The Unseen Notre Dame

Thanks to Ed Cohen and Matt Cashore ‘94 for the compelling photo essay, “The Unseen Notre Dame” (Spring 2003). Cashore’s pictures speak volumes, with unique camera angles, textures that jump off the page and subtle influences of ambient lighting. For me, some of the pictures were quirky and fun, some awe-inspiring, others sentimental. The way Cashore photographs people seems to place one into their presence, capturing heart and spirit, and you feel you’re sharing their stories. Beautiful work.…

Wondering Out Loud: What is that CE label?

You’ve been seeing it for years now on the backs of computers and other electronic products or on the boxes they come in. What does that bold, black, rounded “CE” signify?

It means the product conforms with all health, safety and environmental protection standards of the 18-nation European Union and is therefore eligible to be sold within those countries. CE is an acronym for Conformité Européene,…

Spotlights: Challenging the status quo; Peruvian liberator

You have a better idea?

If you’re going to challenge the status quo at the office, it appears you’d better have an innovative solution to propose.

A study by J. Michael Crant, Notre Dame associate professor of management, and colleagues at the University of Illinois-Chicago, found that criticism for the sake of criticism isn’t looked on kindly in the work place and won’t move you up the ladder. More likely, it will create ill will.…

Busted Bar Bites Back

It’s been happening every year lately: Word spreads among students that a particular bar is easy to get into if you’re under the legal drinking age (21). The bar is raided. Law enforcement personnel discover scores of underage students inside holding fake IDs. The bar is forced to close or give up its liquor license as punishment. Another massive raid happened at a bar near campus in January, except this time the bar is fighting back—against students. A raid at The Boat Club on North Hill Street in South Bend found more than 200 minors inside, most of them Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s students. In cases involving so many violations, the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission typically orders the bar’s owner to surrender the liquor license or sell the business. While waiting to see if the same fate awaits The Boat Club, however, the company that operates the bar, Millennium Club Inc., is suing the cited minors in small-claims court. The lawsuits argue that the minors are to blame for the business’s demise because they misrepresented themselves and should therefore be compelled to compensate the owner. The suits ask for $3,000 in damages from each student. A University official familiar with the case said he hadn’t heard of this tactic being tried in connection with a local bar bust before. The argument has apparently been made in cases elsewhere, however, with the courts generally not buying it. Were the courts to agree with the bar’s owner, the possibility future legal action might discourage underage students from trying to get into bars using fake IDs. But it could also act as an insurance policy for unscrupulous bar owners and become an incentive to allow underage drinking. According to Ed Sullivan, a local attorney retained by 40 Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s students, hearing dates on the lawsuits have been set for August. But these probably won’t go forward because the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission is not expected to have resolved its case against the bar owner by then. The court isn’t likely to listen to arguments for damages until the bar can show what damages it has suffered. A phone call to the attorney representing the bar’s owner seeking comment was not returned. In a separate matter, in late April law enforcement officers raided The Library Irish Pub on East Wayne Street in downtown South Bend and issued citations to dozens more patrons for underage drinking and possession of fake IDs. In October 2000, they raided the same address, when it was known as Finnegan’s Irish Pub, and issued 147 citations. Because of the incident, the bar’s owners were forced to sell Finnegan’s and the bar was renamed.…

Top Ten Team Names: Bookstore Basketball 2003

10. You’ll Thank Us When It’s Over
9. Non-Nutritive Cereal Varnish
8. Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys
7. The Shroud of Torin
6. 5 Guys Who Know a Guy Who Pooped His Pants
5. Mounds Don’t
4. One Hawaiian & 4 Girls Who Like to Give Leis
3. We Arrgh Pirates
2. Jamaica Me Crazy
1. Stop that dog! It has my gum!…

Hurling: Fighting Irish Commence Playing Irish Sports

The newest sport on campus is one of the oldest on record.

Earlier this year Notre Dame became the first college in the United States with a hurling program, according to the Irish graduate student who organized the program.

Hurling, which this fall will become an official club sport, is considered by many to be the fastest and oldest field sport on earth. Played by the Celts as early as 600 B.C., it’s Ireland’s national sport and remains immensely popular there. But in America, hurling clubs typically are found only in major cities.…

Hall Portrait: Lyons

Year built*: 1925

Capacity: 211

Male or female? Male till 1974, when it was converted into the sixth residence hall for women.

They Call Themselves: the Lions or Lyonites (in 1971-72 the dorm softball team went by the name Lyons Tigers).

Executive VP steps down

Father Tim Scully, CSC, ‘76, ’79M.Div., is stepping down as executive vice president, the University’s No. 3 officer post, this summer. He will remain on the political science faculty as well as a Notre Dame trustee and fellow. Three years ago Scully succeeded Father E. William Beauchamp, CSC, ’75, ’81M.Div. in the position. In announcing his decision, Scully said his first love had always been teaching, research and pastoral ministry and he was excited to be returning to those pursuits full time. The Board of Trustees formed a committee to search for his successor.…

ND Commencement 2003

Speakers at the May 2003 commencement reminded graduates that the world is a different and scarier place than when they arrived at college. One said the way to cope with it is through a worldwide system of accountability for weapons of mass destruction. Another simply implored, “Do not be afraid.”…

Seen and Heard

This year’s Notre Dame Award for international humanitarian service went to Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan—except he couldn’t come to campus to pick it up. The award was announced in late March, by which time the prince had curtailed his travel, a statement said, because of the war in Iraq. The war was then about a week old. As of late May the ceremony had yet to be rescheduled. Hassan is the younger brother of King Hussein, who reigned in Jordan from 1952 until his death in 1999. He served as the king’s political adviser, confidant and deputy, and founded and has been active in numerous educational, developmental and humanitarian institutions in his own country and internationally. . . . Also preempted by the war…

Deaths in the Family

RUDOLPH S. “RUDY” BOTTEI, a chemistry professor who taught generations of students that the environment is precious and so are human beings, died April 23 at age 73. Professor Bottei taught environmental chemistry and freshman chemistry classes through the first part of spring semester before succumbing to cancer. He joined the faculty in 1955 and was named assistant chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1964. He published numerous research articles, served as a research director and held several summer faculty research appointments at the Argonne National Laboratory. But he was known foremost as a teacher and won several awards for his expertise. At this year’s commencement it was announced that he would receive Frank O’Malley Undergraduate Teaching Award posthumously. Bottei enlivened lectures with demonstrations of chemistry principals and interspersed his talks with wit and such practical advice as “don’t procrastinate” and “use it or lose it.” He worked hard to keep labs and teaching facilities in top shape and was looking forward to teaching in the planned Science Learning Center, which colleagues thought of as “his baby.” He made students work hard but was also fair. Many considered their cheerful, likeable professor a friend. He was known for reminding others of the Gospel imperative to help the least of one’s brothers and sometimes took up collections for the less fortunate. Among his many extra activities, he served as a faculty member in the Balfour-Hesburgh Summer Program for Minority Students.…

Students Think, Therefore They IM

It started getting serious around 1997.

Workers wired up the final residence halls, and then any residents with a computer and ethernet card had free, high-speed access to the Internet at their bedside.

The time had long since arrived when computers were nearly universal in dorm rooms. But with a high-speed connection, the machines grew beyond super typewriters, calculators and toys into a virtual milieu.…

Letter from Campus: Who Cared About the War?

I looked back over my calendar and checked a few websites a minute ago to make sure I had the date right. It’s true. Less than two months have passed since President Bush went on national TV and announced U.S. forces had commenced bombing Iraq. It seems like a lot longer ago.

As I look out my Grace Hall office window now, what I can see of the campus looks deserted. All of the students except the seniors have gone home, and many of them are off at Cedar Point or somewhere enjoying Senior Week ahead of commencement. I’m trying to remember what it was like during the month or so when the war was going on.…

Seen and Heard, web extra

The founding and long-time director of the Center for Continuing Education, Thomas P. Bergin ’45, died in May at age 79. Bergin joined the business faculty in 1947 as a specialist in economic growth and development and later served as head of the Department of Business Administration. In 1964 President Hesburgh appointed him founding dean and director of the Center for Continuing Education, where he remained in charge until 1991. . . . In the latest survey, Notre Dame has the highest percentage of students participating in study abroad programs among American research universities.

Notre Dame Students Today: What They're Like

There was a time when a telephone with a bulbous red flashing light on it meant something. The Soviet premier was ringing the White House to inquire about a bomber squadron screaming over Siberia in the direction of Moscow. Or Commissioner Gordon needed Batman’s assistance with an arch villain wielding an amnesia ray.…

The Creeping Bent Kentucky Blues

I am miserable. I have just looked through a window into my backyard and surveyed my domain. The yard is an uneven checkerboard of sickly gray-green turf, alternating with patches of bare dirt and wisps of buff-colored straw. This is hardly the velvet green carpet for which I have yearned, lo these many years. After more than a decade of study, I have reluctantly concluded that the grass is always…

Whose Promised Land?: Suicide Blasts Harm Peace Hopes

In our neighborhood of Gilo, we were literally sitting at the borderline between the city of Jerusalem and Palestinian territory. Like in a surreal movie, my family and I could watch from our living room the exchange of fire and artillery between the Palestinian snipers and our Israeli armed forces. We learned to identify the sources and caliber of the different weapons that caused more noise than damage but had a tremendous psychological impact upon all of us, especially our children.…