Father George Rozum, CSC, may have taken his second-last ride
in a coffin. Rozum '61, '80MSA has been rector of Alumni Hall
since 1979 and for many years was a central figure in a bizarre
ritual associated with the hall's signature springtime event,
the Alumni Wake. Originally a commemoration of the much-disputed
1978 decision banning kegs in dorms, the Wake grew into an annual
week-long series of festivities culminating in a dance in the
hall's basement. The rector would arrive at the dance at midnight,
carried in from the hall chapel inside a coffin. New rules aimed
at curbing abusive drinking have put an end to all in-hall dances,
and apparently the coffin ritual also has been laid to rest. Student
Affairs officials and Father Rozum agreed that it was time to
change the character and demeanor of the event. As of February
ideas were still being discussed as to what form this year's Wake
would take and whether to bury the coffin. . . . It was the greatest
mile race ever run at Notre Dame, maybe the greatest anywhere.
Senior Luke Watson won the Meyo Mile at the annual Meyo Invitational
meet in the Loftus Sports Center in early February in a time of
3:57.83. It was only the second sub-four-minute mile ever run
by a Notre Dame athlete, breaking Chuck Aragon's school record
of 3:59.9 set in 1981. More amazing, the top five finishers in
the race all broke four minutes and posted what were at that date
the five fastest indoor mile times in the world in 2003. The times
were so good that any one of them would have won last year's NCAA
indoor mile championship race. . . . More than 1,200 hotel and
motel rooms have been added to the South Bend's guest accommodations
since 1994, bringing to the total to about 3,800, according to
the South Bend/Mishawaka Convention and Visitors Bureau. . . .
Father Malloy's mother, Elizabeth, died in January at age 94.
She had been living in a nursing home in Chevy Case, Maryland.
As it happened, Monk arrived in Washington for a meeting with
the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities just after
she took ill and was able to be with her in the final hours. .
. . Chad DeBolt's booking photo made him look like a victim of
police brutality. An internal investigation by the Jacksonville
(Florida) Sheriff's Office cleared officers of any wrongdoing.
DeBolt, a special teams player on the football team, was in Jacksonville
for the Gator Bowl the week before New Year's. He was arrested
early in the morning of December 27 for refusing to leave a nightclub.
In the booking photo, shown on national TV and printed in many
newspapers, his eyes were swollen and he appeared to have dried
blood on his face. The internal affairs report said DeBolt was
highly intoxicated while being processed into the jail and became
combative. The investigation report said the student's injuries
were "superficial" and "not proof of excessive force but an indication
that force was used to restrain him." The FBI is reportedly conducting
its own independent investigation. In January DeBolt's attorney
entered an innocent plea to a misdemeanor charge of trespassing.
DeBolt is completing his fifth year of studies. He played both
football and lacrosse for three years. This spring he expects
to earn a combined engineering and MBA degree. He was studying
in London spring semester as part of the MBA program. . . . Hofman
Professor of Physics Albert-László Barabási
was nominated for a 2002 Rave Award from Wired magazine
for his book Linked: The New Science of Networks, about
recurring patterns in life and the world. He lost the Rave to
Stephen Wolfram and his best-seller A New Kind of Science,
about how the universe operates. . . . The Boat Club joined
the ranks of Bridget McGuire's Filling Station and Finnigan's
Irish Pub in January when a police raid on the Hill Street bar
resulted in citations for more than 200 underage patrons. Like
Bridget's and Finnigan's, the Boat Club was widely known as the
bar underage students could get into with a fake ID. In terms
of citations, the Boat Club bust topped both the January 1998
raid of Bridget's (now a coffee shop) and the October 2000 raid
of Finnigan's (currently operating under new management as The
Library). According to authorities, all but 15 to 20 of those
cited at the Boat Club were Notre Dame or Saint Mary's students.
The Boat Club's owners face a $5,000 file and, as with previous
bar busts, must give up their liquor license or sell to new owners.
. . . A group of students organized a boycott of the downtown
dance club Heartland. The movement started after a Puerto Rican
student said she was denied admission to the club by a bouncer.
The bouncer was checking ID's at the door to make sure people
were of legal drinking age. He thought the student's Puerto Rican
driver's license might be fake so he asked for a passport. In
a letter to The Observer, the student said she explained
that Puerto Ricans don't need a passport to enter the United States
and that she doesn't carry hers with her. She said that as she
walked away the bouncer said, "We don't want Puerto Ricans here
anyway." Friends who were with her corroborated the account. The
club's manager told a reporter that the bouncer denies making
the remark. . . . N. John Cannon, a senior from Birmingham, Alabama,
was one of 83 undergraduates -- out of 460 nominated nationwide
-- to make USA Today's 2003 All-USA College Academic Team. He
was a second-team selection. A political science and finance major
enrolled in the University's Honors Program, Cannon also is president
and co-founder of a foundation that produces the magazine Changing
Times, about students and professionals making a positive
impact. The magazine is distributed three times a year to students,
colleges and universities around the country. . . . Saint Joseph
County Council rejected a proposal by a developer to build a permanent
tailgating park in a residential area a few blocks east of campus
and south of Douglas Road. Go Park Enterprises reportedly wanted
to subdivide the site into 576 oversized parking spaces and sell
them for $10,000 to $15,000. Neighborhood residents pressured
the council to vote down the proposal. . . . For $3,590 (single
occupancy) you can live out your dream of playing football for
Notre Dame this summer, in a manner of speaking. Former Irish
quarterback Patrick Steenberge '73 and the Monogram Club are organizing
a Notre Dame Football Fantasy Camp to be held July 2 through July
6. The package includes on-field workouts and instruction by former
Irish coaches and players, authentic Notre Dame game and practice
apparel, and a non-contact football game. For more information,
visit www.ndfootballfantasycamp.com, write to Steenberge at patrick@globalfootball.com,
or call Anthony Travel at 800-366-3772. . . . Starting this fall,
all business majors will be required to take at least a one-credit
course in ethics. . . . Women's boxing debuted at the Bengal Bouts
this year. Twelve members of the women's boxing club, formed in
1997, sparred in six unscored contests before the men's quarterfinal
and semifinal bouts. Before this year the women had only trained
and boxed in private, in addition to helping raise money for the
tournament's beneficiary, the Holy Cross Missions in Bangladesh.
. . . During football weekends, the new Subway restaurant in the
LaFortune Student Center is one of the three busiest in the country,
says Dave Prentkowski, director of Food Services. Even during
a normal week when school is in session the restaurant ranks No.
1 in its region, he says. . . . The latest addition to LaFortune's
eateries is a taco and burrito takeout in the Huddle Mart called
Buen Provecho. . . . Participants in last fall's inaugural Executive
Integral Leadership Program, part of the business college's executive
education programs, received some unconventional help in developing
their leadership skills. Among the activities included in the
program were poetry writing, portrait sketching and playing an
MBA version of Simon Says. Many of the activities were designed
to focus on the "interior dimension" of leadership, including
emotions, values and morals. Price for the program: $6,750 per
person. . . . If you're a fan of the TV series Survivor,
you probably don't remember the episode in which the stern football
coach figures out a way to divide 13 peanuts among 13 tribe members
so it seems like a lot more food. The coach was Tyrone Willingham
and the episode was Survivor Tyland, a short film parody
that raised the curtain on this year's 14th annual Student Film
Festival. The piece was produced by Ted Mandell, associate professional
specialist in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre.
In the film, the first-year Irish coach plays to his serious,
analytical public image as he chops each nut ("I would say I was
dicing them finely") into 13 pieces so they take longer to eat.
