News » Archives » 2011

The calendar year 2011 was filled with numerous moments of accomplishment, celebration and reflection at the University of Notre Dame. Here are some of the highlights.

It appears early each Advent season, the massive crèche mounted on a platform of hay bales at the western edge of Notre Dame’s Grotto. Vibrantly colored, oversized figures of Mary, Joseph, an adoring shepherd, the oncoming Magi, some eerily well-groomed livestock and a girlish angel overhead, all symmetrically arranged around an empty patch of stable floor. All the figures, even the animals, have credulous and startled faces. The Baby is not yet where their apprehensive gazes fall.

While it is unlikely to be mistaken for a great work of art, this Grotto nativity scene is nevertheless irresistible, and not just for those small children whose parents bring them there to marvel and gawk and wonder where the Baby is. Naivete is commendable in this season.

The Main Building Christmas Tree brings festive cheer to all as student continue to complete their final semester examinations.

David Murphy, former president and chief executive officer of Better World Books, a for-profit social venture initially created and spun out of the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed associate dean for entrepreneurship for the Colleges of Science and Engineering and director of Notre Dame’s Engineering, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Excellence Masters (ESTEEM) program.

A one-year master of science collaborative program between the Colleges of Science and Engineering and the Mendoza College of Business, ESTEEM augments the scientific and technical skills of individuals who have already earned their bachelor’s degree by providing the opportunity to obtain the unique skills required to take science and/or engineering inventions and translate them into commercial ventures.

Archbishop of Cap-Haitien Louis Kébreau will be awarded the 2011 Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America at a ceremony in Cap-Haitien on Dec. 8 (Thursday).

Presented annually since 2000 by the University of Notre Dame with support from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the Notre Dame Prize recognizes the efforts of visionary leaders to enhance the region’s welfare by strengthening democracy and improving life for its citizens.

Presidents and trustees of 14 Catholic institutions of higher learning met last week (Nov. 6 to 8) at the University of Notre Dame for a three-day conference on the maintenance and strengthening of their Catholic identity.

The conference, “What We Hold in Trust,” was sponsored by Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life, and hosted by Notre Dame theologian John C. Cavadini, McGrath-Cavadini Director of the institute.

The University of Notre Dame Law School will host the Indiana Supreme Court oral arguments in the case of Jerrme Damar Cartwright v. State of Indiana on Nov. 14 (Monday).

The case involves a defendant who was convicted of attempted battery with a deadly weapon, attempted aggravated battery and possession of a handgun by a felon. The Court of Appeals reversed his conviction on grounds that the jury was selected unfairly.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will deliver the keynote address during a day-long symposium titled “Educational Innovation and the Law” to be held Nov. 18 (Friday) at the Notre Dame Law School.

The event is part of the 2011-12 Notre Dame Forum, “Reimagining School: To Nurture the Soul of a Nation,” a year-long discussion of the profound and challenging questions that shape the national debate about K-12 education.

Investing in development, building infrastructure and enhancing human dignity in fragile communities worldwide are several challenges to be examined during the University of Notre Dame’s Forum on Global Development Thursday (Nov. 10) from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Willard InterContinental hotel in Washington D.C. (1401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW).

The forum will precede Notre Dame’s off-site “home” football game against the University of Maryland and will feature lunch-time speaker USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg. In addition, Sen. Dick Durbin, along with international experts and Notre Dame faculty, will discuss new U.S. policy that emphasizes partnerships and innovation, and Notre Dame’s global development programs.

University of Notre Dame students were awarded 12 Fulbright grants for 21.4 percent of its total number of applicants for the 2011-12 academic year, placing them among the top 15 universities in the nation.

The U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, Fulbright recently announced the complete list of colleges and universities that produced the most 2011-2012 U.S. Fulbright students. The success of the top-producing institutions is highlighted in the Oct. 24 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The University of Notre Dame has established an endowed scholarship in memory of Declan Sullivan, the Notre Dame junior who died a year ago Thursday (Oct. 27) when the aerial lift on which he was videotaping football practice fell in high winds.

In conjunction with the anniversary, Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., is writing to members of the Notre Dame family, inviting them to contribute to the scholarship fund and/or to the Declan Drumm Sullivan Memorial Fund that has been established by his family.

A $15 million gift by longtime University of Notre Dame supporter Ernestine Raclin, The Carmichael Foundation, and her family to the “Spirit of Notre Dame” campaign will fund a major renovation and expansion of the Morris Inn, the full-service, on-campus hotel that was constructed nearly 60 years ago with a gift from her parents, the late Ernest M. and Ella L. Morris.

The Morris Inn was dedicated in May 1952. The renovation and expansion project is expected to begin in late summer 2012, with most of the construction intended to be completed by fall 2013.

Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, has been elected to the board of directors of the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), the non-partisan, non-profit organization that has sponsored and produced all U.S. presidential and vice presidential debates since 1988.

“Father Jenkins is a respected voice in higher education, and we are very pleased he will join the CPD’s board as we launch plans for the 2012 debates,” said Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. and Michael D. McCurry, co-chairmen of the commission. “He has demonstrated, through his words and actions, a serious and sustained commitment to civil discourse in society, which is consistent with the commission’s commitment to respectful and informed political dialogue.”

Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, is urgently concerned with the reform of the nation’s immigration policy, and he wants Catholic college and university students to be as concerned as he is.

Speaking with nearly 100 students and faculty members in the auditorium of Notre Dame’s Eck Hall of Law last week, Cardinal Mahony insisted that America’s 220 Catholic colleges and universities and the 800,000 students enrolled in them have a crucial role to play in immigration reform.

University of Notre Dame alumni volunteers to the Peace Corps will be recognized for their service by Peace Corps Deputy Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet, who will participate in campus events commemorating the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary on campus this weekend.

Hessler-Radelet will pay special tribute to University President Emeritus Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh for his significant role in Peace Corps history. She will also recognize Notre Dame as one of the top universities nationwide for alumni serving in the Peace Corps year after year.

“A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer.”

That plea, issued by Blessed Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter “Evangelium Vitae,” (The Gospel of Life), has been taken up by the University of Notre Dame Alumni Association, which is sponsoring a month-long campaign of prayer for the protection of all human life from conception to natural death.

The University of Notre Dame Band will be presented with the Sudler Trophy at halftime of the Notre Dame vs. Air Force game on Oct. 8 (Saturday) in Notre Dame Stadium.

The Sudler Trophy is considered the Heisman trophy of college bands. The John Philip Sousa Foundation presents the award to “collegiate marching bands of particular excellence that have made outstanding contributions to the American way of life.” The Notre Dame Band joins an elite group of college bands which have won this award, which recognizes both Notre Dame’s historical contributions to college bands and the excellence of the current Notre Dame Band.

More than 100 at-risk children will be able to attend Notre Dame ACE Academy (NDAA) schools in the south-side Tucson community thanks to a recent contribution of $100,000 from New York Life Insurance Company through Arizona’s corporate tax credit scholarship program.

The NDAA initiative is a comprehensive school support program of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), a University of Notre Dame-based movement that strengthens, sustains and transforms Catholic K-12 schools around the country.

The University of Notre Dame will break ground this fall on a new wellness center that will offer employees convenient, quality health care through an on-site medical clinic and pharmacy. To be located at the corner of Wilson Drive and Bulla Road on the northeast corner of the Notre Dame campus, the center is scheduled to open Summer of 2012.

“The health and well-being of our employees are important priorities for the University,” said Robert McQuade, vice president for human resources. “By implementing this innovative solution, we are furthering our commitment to provide the resources and benefits necessary to ensure our faculty and staff have access to quality, affordable medical care.”

The University of Notre Dame will welcome Ernest Bai Koroma, president of the Republic of Sierra Leone, to campus Sept. 27 (Tuesday) for a lecture titled “Faith, Tolerance and Progress.”

President Koroma will speak at 4 p.m. in the Decio Mainstage Theatre of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. A question-and-answer session and reception will follow the address. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required and will be available beginning today (Sept. 23) by visiting or calling the performing arts center ticket office at 574-631-2800.

The Notre Dame MBA program at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business ranked No. 4 worldwide in the Aspen Institute’s Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2010-2011 Global 100, up one slot from its No. 5 ranking earned in each of the three previous three surveys.

The biennial survey, released this week, is the only MBA ranking that measures how well business schools are preparing their students for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business. It’s based on a rigorous, year-long review of the school’s teaching and research pertaining to business and society.

The University of Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies and the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) will welcome Dr. Horst Koehler, former president of the Federal Republic of Germany, and his wife, Mrs. Eva Luise Koehler, to the University for a three-day visit that will include a major public lecture by Dr. Koehler.

Titled “The Whole is at Stake,” the lecture will be held Sept. 28 (Wednesday) at 7 p.m. in the Carey Auditorium of the Hesburgh Library.

The 2011-12 Notre Dame Forum, “Reimagining School: to Nurture the Soul of a Nation,” will present a number of events this fall, beginning this month with an address by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a panel discussion featuring four leading figures in American education.

Gov. Bush, who currently serves as CEO of the Foundation for Educational Excellence, will deliver the keynote address and lead an interactive discussion titled “The Architect: Radical Education Reform for the 21st Century,” on Sept. 26 (Monday) at 7 p.m. in the Leighton Concert Hall of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

The tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks will be observed with a Mass of remembrance for the victims Sunday (Sept. 11) at 7:30 p.m. on the Hesburgh Library Mall at the University of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame president Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., will be the presiding celebrant at the Mass, and Notre Dame president emeritus, Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., will preach.

The public is invited, and the customary Sunday evening Masses in all of the University’s 29 undergraduate residence halls, as well as in the Fisher Grace and University Village graduate student residences, will be cancelled in order to allow all Notre Dame students to participate in the Mass of remembrance.

Watch Video

Former Notre Dame head football coach Lou Holtz is once again taking a leadership role at the University – this time in an arena outside of athletics. He and his wife, Beth, have graciously agreed to serve as Notre Dame’s first “ambassadors for research” by taking a prominent role in increasing awareness of the University’s mission to pursue research that aims to heal, unify and enlighten a world deeply in need.

“Beth and I have always believed that Notre Dame is different,” Lou Holtz said. “Not only by educating young people who go out and do remarkable things in the world, but also through its commitment to research with potential to alleviate pain and suffering, the University is taking on global challenges and bringing about real change.”

Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., author and world-renowned advocate against the death penalty, will deliver the annual Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture and participate in a book signing beginning at 7 p.m. on Sept. 12 (Monday) in the Andrews Auditorium of Geddes Hall at the University of Notre Dame.

Sister Prejean will present “Building Justice in the World: Confronting Evil,” speaking about her experiences of confronting evil with justice based in gospel values. Sponsored by the Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, the event is free and open to the public.

The University of Notre Dame has received a STARS Silver Rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). STARS, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System, is a new program that measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education.

“STARS is a transparent assessment tool which enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements,” said Erin Hafner, programs manager in the Office of Sustainability. “We are using STARS to benchmark ourselves and to promote continuous improvement in all aspects of sustainability.”

On Nov. 14, 1986, at a news conference in the Morris Inn not much more than an hour after the University of Notre Dame’s board of trustees had elected him its 16th president, Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., said that he hoped to be a “peripatetic president.”

It was an arresting and evocative phrase. It could mean that the University’s president-elect was an adherent of a strain of Aristotelian philosophy, or that he liked to travel, or that he revered a sort of intellectual cosmopolitanism, or it could mean all of those things at once.

A new awareness campaign aimed at improving aerial lift safety was launched today by the University of Notre Dame in conjunction with several public and private agencies and organizations to help ensure that accidents such as the one that took the life of Notre Dame student videographer Declan Sullivan do not happen again.

Crews work to prepare campus as the start of the fall semester draws near.

First year students move into their dormitories on August 19 with the rest of campus returning August 21. Classes begin August 23.