Notre Dame's libraries are facing a budget crisis
that has forced them to cancel more than 1,500 electronic journal
subscriptions and discontinue the print versions of another 1,000
journals. The problem is complicated but involves publishers of
the journals knowing they have a captive audience and continuing
to raise subscription rates faster than inflation. Were the problem
not addressed, the new faculty-staff newspaper ND Works
reports, the University's expenditures on periodicals would double
every seven years. . . . Law Professor Jimmy Gurulé
traveled to The Hague, Netherlands, in May to help train Iraqi
judges for the planned trials of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein
and other members of his Ba'athist government. Gurule is a former
federal prosecutor who later served as undersecretary of the treasury
for enforcement. . . . .The CSC's Fatima Retreat Center
on the northwest shore of Saint Mary's Lake is closing
after 48 years. It's being turned into a retirement center for
Holy Cross priest and brothers. . . . Irish politician
Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, received a warm
welcome to campus in March when he gave a talk about the tenuous
peace process in Northern Ireland. It was his first visit to Notre
Dame. But not everyone was pleased to see him. In a letter to
The Observer, department of theology graduate student Derek
S. Webb reminded the campus community that the Irish Republican
Army carried out terrorist bombings for many years before agreeing
to a cease-fire in 1994. Sinn Fein is the political arm of the
IRA. "Bringing Gerry Adams . . . to talk about the Irish peace
process," Webb wrote, "is akin to bringing Yasser Arafat or politicians
associated with Hamas to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process." An undergrad, senior Brendan Magee, wrote back saying
the IRA was formed as a desperate response to the repression of
Catholics in Northern Ireland and that it would make no sense
to exclude Adams or Sinn Fein, the largest nationalist party in
Northern Ireland, from the peace process. . . . Probably
the most recognizable person on campus the past 17 years
has retired. With his bushy white mustache, even bushier eyebrows,
and immaculate white uniform topped with a chef's toque, Executive
Chef Denis Ellis was known to everyone by sight if not by name.
An Englishman by birth, he began his career at age 15 as a ship's
kitchen boy, later immigrated to Canada, and in 1972 was appointed
executive chef of the world's largest hotel, the 1,000-room O'Hare
International Towers at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Since 1987 he
had held the same position at Notre Dame, preparing recipes and
overseeing menus for some 20,000 meals served daily on campus
. . . . Knute Rockne was back in the news this
spring. On March 31 the Kansas Turnpike Authority dedicated a
new memorial to the legendary coach at a rest stop not far from
where Rockne died in a plane crash exactly 73 years earlier. The
Matfield Green Service Area is at milepost 97. Three weeks after
the turnpike event, a group of Rockne descendants -- including
his only surviving son, John "Jack" Rockne of South Bend -- gathered
at the Statue of Liberty to receive the Ellis Island Family Heritage
Award. The award celebrates Ellis Island as the entry point into
the United States for 17 million immigrants. Each year the Statue
of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation selects a number of Ellis Island
immigrants or their descendants to honor with the award. Rockne
passed through Ellis Island in 1893 as a 5-year-old emigrating
from Norway with his mother and sisters. . . . The
line leading into DeBartolo Hall's largest lecture hall
the evening of April 20 extended up the stairs and along the second
floor corridor and then up to the third floor and down that corridor.
What was everyone so eager to see? An appearance by Mo Rocca of
Comedy Central's fake news program The Daily Show, which
is wildly popular with students. . . . For the first time
in its history, the School of Architecture ranks in the top 10
nationally. The ranking is based on an independent survey of architecture
firms that asked which institutions produced graduates most prepared
for real-world practice. Notre Dame came in ninth out of more
than 75 schools accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting
Board. . . . Notre Dame has the best intramural
athletic program in the country, according to the national student-newspaper-insert
Sports Illustrated On Campus. About 6,000 people participate
annually in 60 intramural leagues and tournaments. . . . Undergraduate
tuition, room and board and student fees will jump to
$36,930 at Notre Dame next year as a result of a 6.9 percent increase
announced in the spring. ND is still less expensive than most
of the other U.S. News & World Report top 20 national
universities. . . . Who's the smartest player
on the football team? Hard to say, but the one with the highest
cumulative grade-point average at the end of fall semester was
reserve wide receiver Rob Woods. The mechanical-engineering major,
a sophomore last year, carried a 3.956 GPA. The top student athlete
overall? Graduating senior Megan Sanders, a rower studying mathematics
and life sciences. Her GPA stood at 3.997 after the fall semester.
. . . The LaFortune Ballroom
turned into something akin to a sheep-shearing station without
sheep for a day in April. More than 130 female students had their
hair shorn for the charity Locks of Love. The organization makes
wigs for disadvantaged children who have lost their hair because
of illness or treatment for disease. The women donated about 118
feet of hair. At the same event, sponsored by the Class of 2005,
20 male students shaved their heads as part of a pledge-drive
to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
. . .Saint Mary's and Notre Dame female students
helped collect prom dresses to donate to a program called Princess
for a Night. The dresses were provided free to local high school
girls who couldn't afford prom dresses. The Junior League of South
Bend and Ziker Cleaners helped organize the drive locally. . .
. As manager of athletic facilities,
Dan Brazo is ultimately responsible for making sure the field
in Notre Dame Stadium looks fertilizer-commercial perfect. But
he admits to having the worst lawn in his whole neighborhood.
"It's probably the worst in the county. After looking at fields
all day, the last thing I want to do when I get home is worry
about grass."
(July 2004)
