50 Years: 1972-2022 Winter 2021-22

A Digest of Many Thoughts

by Kerry Temple ’74

At 50, the magazine provides a library of stories that speak of Notre Dame and the lives and times documented on these pages.

As Seasons Go

by Valerie Sayers

Notre Dame has changed immeasurably in the decades between my coming and leaving. Always slowly. Sometimes surprisingly.

The Women of Past Presence

by Kathleen Sprows Cummings ’99Ph.D.

The Holy Cross Sisters, so integral to Notre Dame’s very existence, have faded from our institutional memory in what may seem a longstanding sin of omission.

What Happens Now?

by David Gibson

Catholicism has clearly lost ground in the American cultural landscape. Perhaps the way forward requires a new look at timeless tenets of faith.

As If There Were No Tomorrow

by Scott Russell Sanders

We have never wanted to slow down, be told to conserve our resources or deny the spoils of our success. Our fragile legacy is our children’s world.

The (Next) Line That Can’t Be Crossed

by Jason Kelly ’95

The history of college athletics can be measured in a series of singular moves that traditionalists said were steps too far.

The World-changing Discovery of Clarence Birdseye

by Andrew Santella

The intrepid adventurer and frontier foodie dynamically accelerated the race for greater convenience. But at what cost?

Reading, Writing and the Risks of Failure

by Anthony Walton ’82

The promise and performance of American education, once a point of national pride, is burdened by society’s ills and struggling to heal inequities in the system.

Detour

by Heather Treseler ’10Ph.D.

There are deeper meanings, I am sure, in this winding saga of my body and me.

The Enchanting Mr. Rice Guy

by Julia Scott

He was imaginary and he was kind and he got left behind, along with my childhood, until he returned last year to keep me company again. It’s all good.

The Longest Kiss

by Mark Phillips

‘I would like to talk of Linda telephoning me on a July afternoon back when summer vacations from school conjured an eternity. About a girl inviting me to her house, and my walking several miles past scores of small, ranch-style homes constructed with the help of the GI bill.’