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On an episode of _Meet the Press_ in early June, Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked about a quote in _The New York Times_ from former Notre Dame basketball standout Danielle Green '99. Green was wounded and lost her left hand earlier this year while serving with the Army in Iraq. She told the _Times_ that the Iraqis "just don't want us there" and that she didn't think the United States should have gone to Iraq. "A lot more people are going to get hurt, and for what?" Powell said he hoped that in time Green would see that her sacrifice was worth it, particularly if a democratic government can be established that serves as a model for the region. . . . . A few days after that exchange Green visited President Bush, Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice '75M.A. at the White House. She was there at the same time as Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice. On September 11, she participated in flag-raising ceremonies before the first home football game of the year, against Michigan. . . . The new president and vice president of Holy Cross College's student government abruptly resigned soon after their election this past spring. In an e-mail, the quitters explained that they were facing heavy course loads and were also considering transferring. The runners-up in the election took their places. . . . Notre Dame's colleges have always had deans. The School of Architecture, which always looks like a college at commencement because its graduates sit together, has always been run by a chairperson. Until now. Earlier this year, the Board of Trustees approved the appointment of Michael Lykoudis, architecture chair since 2002, as the school's first dean. . . . In addition to everything else, Notre Dame now boasts a chapter of the Children's Defense Fund. It's the organization's first collegiate chapter. A student-led initiative resulted in its establishment. The chapter's stated mission is to inform, educate and motivate the Notre Dame community about child poverty in the South Bend area and across the country. . . . Current and former members of the men's rowing club will race across the Saint Joseph River this fall at the organization's annual alumni varsity row. The event is scheduled for the morning of the October 2nd home football game against Purdue and will kick off with a Mass out on the river. For more information, visit the team's website at www.ndcrew.org. . . . A July mudslide in Yellowstone Park nearly washed a car containing the Joyce Center's operations manager, Tom Blicher, and his wife over a cliff. The couple was driving through the park when a huge thunderstorm erupted. As Blicher described the experience to WNDU-TV, rocks and mud rolled down the hill and pushed their SUV to about two feet from the edge of a cliff. Neither of them was injured. . . . According to the archbishop of Baghdad, Christians made up 20 percent of Iraq's population in the 1960s, but the figure is down to only 3 percent today. Speaking at the Law School in July, Jean Benjamin Sleiman, the top Roman Catholic Church official in Iraq's capital city since 2001, said he worries about how the remaining Christians will be treated under an Islam-influenced government. Under Saddam Hussein, he said in an article in the _South Bend Tribune_, all religions were tolerated equally. Saddam's regime was dreadful, Sleiman has said, but "war creates other problems" like hate and resentment. . . . Eighteen graduating high school seniors from the Middle East visited campus in August as part of a new U.S. State Department program to improve understanding. The students, selected for their leadership potential, heard a presentation on inter-religious cooperation at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, toured the Center for Social Concerns, and visited the Islamic Society of Michiana, where young Arab Americans discussed their experiences. . . . Carnival Cruise Lines is offering a Notre Dame Legends Cruise around the Caribbean next February with former Irish players including Derrick Mayes, Tony Rice, Raghib "Rocket" Ismael and Bob Golic. One of the vice presidents of Athletic Appearance, the company that devised the cruise, is recent Irish kicker Jim Sanson. Fares for the week-long cruise leaving from Miami range from $999 to $1,299. . . . A $6 million gift from the William K. Warren Foundation of Tulsa, Oklahoma, will help renovate the University Health Services facility, the building once known as the Infirmary. The extensive work is scheduled to start in 2005 and finish the following year, at which point the building will be renamed in honor of the Warren family. The Warren foundation, chaired by Trustee William K. Warren Jr. '56, also underwrote construction of the William K. and Natalie O. Warren Golf Course. . . . Researchers found mosquitoes on campus this past summer containing the West Nile virus. Only a small percentage of people bitten by an infected mosquito will develop symptoms of West Nile such as encephalitis or meningitis, and the virus cannot be transmitted from human to human. The University's Center for Tropical Disease Research and Training, which made the discovery near Saint Mary's Lake, urged people to take such precautions as wearing insect repellant and curbing activities at dawn, dusk and during the evening, when mosquitoes are more likely to be biting. . . . When Mary Carmola first began working at the University in the 1970s checking IDs in the dining hall, she introduced a young male student to her daughter, hoping the two would hit it off. They later married. But it wouldn't be the last Notre Dame wedding the family would celebrate. This July, the decades-long University employee had her own wedding under the golden dome. The widow of Tony Carmola '52 married 1942 alumnus Bernie Brehl, 84, in a ceremony at the Basilica. The two met in 2002, when she was working at Brehl's 60th reunion dinner. She currently works at the Eck Visitors' Center, welcoming visitors to campus and arranging tours for them. Brehl volunteers as a tour guide in the Basilica. Together, their families have nine Notre Dame alumni, one current student, and two Saint Mary's graduates.