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.
(October 2004)
