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| Spring 2000 issue | . | Seen and Heard | |
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U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will be the principal
speaker at commencement in May. . . . Here’s a sign of progress for those who think
Notre Dame’s faculty is too heavily weighted with white males: Women or members of a
racial or ethnic minority accounted for 32 of the 63 teaching-and-research faculty hires
during the 1998-99 academic year, according to the annual report of the University’s
Academic Affirmative Action Committee. But the committee said "the overall number of
faculty of color remains unacceptably low" and there’s a "virtual
absence" of African Americans. . . . A few years ago in-line skates were all the rage
on campus and  bicycles passe,
but bikes are back. It’s not uncommon to see 200 to 300 parked outside a residence
hall, compared with fewer than a hundred two or three years ago. The bike boom is borne
out in the number of bikes registered with campus police — 259 in 1997, compared with
391 this past fall, although hundreds more bikes never get registered because it
isn’t required. The renewed popularity of bikes is probably a consequence of the
campus spreading out. With four new residence halls built on the back nine of the golf
course and the bookstore relocating from the South Quad to south of the Morris Inn,
students face longer commutes. Grounds crews are adding bike racks but can’t keep up
with growth in demand at popular locations like the north door of DeBartolo. Which is why
you see bikes chained to light and sign poles, railings, even trees. . . . Nine out of 10
Notre Dame freshmen surveyed say they plan to earn an advanced degree. . . . Five years
ago, when he was 14 and recovering from surgery for a rare form of bone cancer, Joe
Collins of Placentia, California, was contacted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a group
that arranges for children facing life-threatening illness to enjoy special adventures. He
wished for a trip to Notre Dame to see a football game, and he got it; the Irish beat Air
Force. But since then he’s had better news. The cancer is gone. "I am completely
better. There’s nothing wrong with me," Collins tells fellow residents of Zahm
Hall; he’s now a Notre Dame sophomore. He hasn’t forgotten his introduction to
campus. Last fall he and some buddies helped out with a fund-raiser for Make-A-Wish at a
South Bend radio station. He says he plans to get more involved with the organization in
the future. . . . In January and February the Snite Museum hosted a traveling exhibit of
100 photographic portraits. The pictures were taken by the authorities at a high school in
Cambodia that in the 1970s was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a prison and a way
station to an execution site. Of 14,200 people brought to the prison, seven survived. The
exhibit held special meaning for Wuy Nem, who works in the North Dining Hall, and his
wife, Sal. As reported in The Observer, the former rice farmers survived years of
forced labor and lost two young children to disease and malnutrition during the terror.
They emigrated to the United States in 1985, sponsored by Steve Moriarty, curator of
photography at the Snite. . . . Opposition to the death penalty appears to be gaining
strength on campus. On the night of December 8, a group of Notre Dame students estimated
at nearly a hundred participated in a prayer vigil lasting several hours at the Indiana
State Prison in Michigan City. "The turnout was amazing," said Laura Antkowiak,
president of Notre Dame Right to Life, "especially considering that the vigil was on
the last night of classes, when everyone parties." The students and others were
protesting the lethal-injection execution of a prisoner scheduled for shortly after 1 a.m.
South Bend time. The condemned was a 48-year-old man with a reported I.Q. of 75 who was
found guilty in the 1982 murders of his estranged wife’s mother and her husband.
Since his conviction, Indiana has enacted legislation preventing the execution of mentally
handicapped people. But because the law does not apply retroactively, it didn’t save
him from becoming the seventh prisoner put to death in Indiana since capital punishment
was reinstated in 1977. . . . At the final home games for the men’s basketball team,
no homemade signs were permitted in the Joyce Center, more ushers were assigned to the
student section, and a pregame announcement warned that inappropriate remarks would result
in ejection. The measures were in response to the bad behavior of a small number of
students at the Irish home victory over the Huskies in February. In the first half a fan
reportedly shouted "What does Allah think of bastard children?" at Connecticut
guard Khalid El-Amin, a Muslim who is married with one child but also fathered a child out
of wedlock. Later about 20 rowdy students began chanting, "Bastard children, bastard
children" at El-Amin. In the days following the game, men’s basketball coach
Matt Doherty apologized to El-Amin and to Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, and in a letter
to the student body said he appreciated the renewed enthusiasm at home games but expected
better of students. "Anything that is vulgar or is a personal slur," the coach
wrote, "has no place in the Joyce Center." . . . Though he prefers not to
discuss dollars, the new director of licensing, Larry Williams ’85, a former
offensive lineman for the football Irish, confirms that the downturn in popularity of
team-logo sportswear has hurt Notre Dame’s licensing revenues. . . . For those who
missed it at the student film festival a couple of years ago, "Moment," the
terrific short film by Ryan Lutterbach ’98 about varying perspectives during an
instant frozen in time, can now be viewed on the web at www.shortbuzz.com/films/moment.html.
. . . "I felt posthumous the entire day, but that’s my condition most of the
time now anyway," said Ralph McInerny. Notre  Dame’s 71-year-old Grace Professor of
Medieval Studies, Jacques Maritain Center director, and prolific author of the Father
Dowling Mysteries and other popular and scholarly works was talking about a daylong
conference on campus in December that celebrated his life and career. The event coincided
with the Notre Dame Press publication of a collection of essays on natural philosophy,
ethics and metaphysics honoring him. It’s not often one gets to attend a conference
on one’s works while still of this earthly plane. The professor’s explanation:
"If you get old enough and you have students who have no standards they put on these
things for you." In addition to philosophers discussing his works, the conference
included Mass celebrated by Bishop John D'Arcy of the Fort Wayne/South Bend diocese. After
the service, the day’s honoree couldn’t help but inquire of attendees,
"Will you be going on to the cemetery?" |
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