Harper Cancer Research Institute (HCRI) Research Day on April 23 (Monday) will gather cancer researchers from the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University 91��Ƶ of Medicine-South Bend (IUSM-SB) in an afternoon of exchange and discussion. A keynote address by Beatrice Knudsen, M.D., Ph.D., will discuss “Tissue Banking for Genomic Research and Personalized Medicine.”

Knudsen is the medical director for Cedars-Sinai Advanced Biobank, director of translational pathology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a member of the HCRI external advisory committee. Her presentation is free and open to the public.

All events for Research Day will take place in Raclin-Carmichael and Harper halls at IUSM-SB, where the cancer research institute is headquartered. Notre Dame and IUSM-SB faculty and research staff who are currently engaged in cancer research or who are interested in forming cancer-related research partnerships are encouraged to attend. Undergraduate, graduate and medical students and postdoctoral fellows and staff also are welcome.

Activities planned for the afternoon include:

• A display and judging of student and post-doctoral fellow posters, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m., Harper Hall
• Welcome and presentations by recipients of Walther Advancing Basic Cancer Research Grants funding,
  3 to 4 p.m., Raclin-Carmichael Auditorium
• Knudsen address and poster contest awards, 4 to 5 p.m., Raclin-Carmichael Auditorium
• Reception, 5 to 6 p.m., Raclin-Carmichael Atrium

The poster contest will display the work of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows engaged in cancer research in Notre Dame and IUSM-SB laboratories.

HCRI, a joint partnership between IUSM-SB and Notre Dame, was inaugurated March 8, 2011, with the opening of Harper Hall. The Institute serves as the locus of cancer research activity for IUSM-SB, Notre Dame and the regional medical community with efforts that promise to quicken the pace at which new treatments and diagnostics are discovered, developed, tested in clinical trials and ultimately used to improve and save lives.

Contact: Gail Hinchion Mancini, 574-631-5625, gmancini@iupui.edu; Andy Bullock, 574-631-2136, sabullock@nd.edu

Second-year students in Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education program send off their first-year colleagues, who are starting their classroom teaching placements in local schools.

John Borkowski, McKenna Family Professor of Psychology
“A ‘Perfect Storm’ will strike many American families in 2009: unemployment, home foreclosures, depression and stress, crime and violence, budget cuts in education and social services, and rising rates of child abuse and neglect. The President should use his bully-pulpit to focus on the plight of our nation’s children: Urge volunteerism, build a workable system of faith-based outreach initiatives, and teach more about parent engagement and responsibilities. The new secretaries of Health and Human Services and Education should move quickly to strengthen medical, mental health and education programs for all children and create easily available and high quality preschool programs, beginning at one year of age, for all children in poverty.”

Paul McGinn, acting director, ND Energy Center
“I would like to see a clear, thoughtful national energy policy be defined. The early signs are positive with the selection of Nobel laureate Steven Chu as the energy secretary. Hopefully this means that science will play an important role in guiding the decision-making process in energy matters at the federal level.”

†

Allert Brown-Gort, associate director, Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ
“Although one might wish for a new effort at reforming the country’s immigration policies, the ongoing economic crisis makes this unlikely in the short termboth because there are more pressing issues, but also because it makes the case for immigrant labor more difficult to make. However, the new administration can make executive changes modifying the current regime of stepped-up enforcement that has deported a record 274,000 people in 2008and that has destroyed families and communities. Moreover, the nomination of Rep. Hilda Sol”s as secretary of labor augurs for a new policy that focuses on the need to recognize that the solution to the immigration conundrum is through policies that address the needs of both workers and employers."

Michael Lykoudis, dean, 91��Ƶ of Architecture
“Americans are deeply concerned about sustainability issues that reduce global warming and ensure there is a planet for future generations to inherit. We, too, at the 91��Ƶ of Architecture, are focused on this issue and encourage Obama to raise land-use and transportation policies to the highest level of importance. Our future depends on our capacity to use the next few decades to plan for a time when fossil fuels will become scarcer. Past policies have produced suburban sprawl, poorly built buildings and an inefficient and unsustainable infrastructure. In how we build and live, we must rethink our land-use and transit in the new economy.

“We encourage Obama to develop effective strategies that encourage higher-density, multi-use, pedestrian-based neighborhoods. Our buildings should not waste resources by using excessive energy with unnecessary heating and air conditioning. Instead we should rely on passive systems when possible. Buildings should have the capacity for adaptive reuse to last for centuries rather than decades. We cannot afford to invest in our cities only to see them crumble in a few years time. With respect to transportation, we hope the new administration will promote a true national, regional and local rail and bus system to replace the auto industry and our cracking highway system that has become inefficient.

The pulse of America, not to mention the health of America (a recent study by the Brookings Institution says those living in cities have a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle than those living in suburbia), rests in America’s big cities and not in suburban sprawl. The establishment of a White House Office of Urban Policy is an opportunity to better coordinate federal efforts to help link U.S. land-use, transportation and national health-care policies. The office promises to build more livable and sustainable communities, use innovative measures to improve building efficiency, and above all, foster healthier lives for all Americans."

*Ken Milani, professor of accountancy

• “My wishes are simple: Tax forms that are simple and easy to read; understandable tax laws. And I may be dreaming, but an easier tax code would be very redeeming.”

*Scott Monroe, Warren Foundation Professor of Psychology

• “As a senator and a presidential candidate, Obama demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of the mentally ill. For example, he co-sponsored legislation that called for health insurance coverage to provide parity between mental and physical health benefits. In terms of taking care of people with mental disorders, the mental health profession can be optimistic. What I would hope for is that the premise of parity would be extended from treatment to research, that scientific studies directed toward understanding mental illness become as valued as scientific studies directed toward understanding other medical conditions.

“The economy is casting its own burden on the mental health of our nation. We know that when the economy does poorly, mental health problems increase. In addition to addressing the current economic crisis, we hope Obama can anticipate and attend to the emotional and behavioral consequences as well.”

*Susan Ohmer, Carey Professor of Modern Communication

• “Since the election last fall, journalists and editorial writers have flooded print and broadcast media with ‘to do’ lists for the president-elect, lists that include everything from salvaging the economy to negotiating a durable peace in the Middle East. To these important requests may I add one more: that President Obama continue to inspire us with his eloquence, clarity and imaginative vision. Here’s hoping for an inaugural address that reminds us what the U.S. has been and what it can become once more.”

Daniel Philpott, associate professor of political science, Kroc Institute
“The thorniest foreign policy crises of American presidents since the end of the Cold War have involved building peace in the wake of military operations. Clinton in Somalia. Bush in Afghanistan. Bush in Iraq. The problem has proven far more difficult than military victory itself. The concept of ‘strategic peace building’ offers fresh thinking for building peace in war torn and impoverished countries. Peace is not just a matter of providing security. It also involves promoting economic growth and equality, building the rule of law, fostering reconciliation among communal factions through truth forums, reparations and accountability, and cooperating with the United Nations as well as with local religious and tribal leaders. Through such a holistic strategy, America might better succeed in spreading human rights and democracy and reducing terrorismgoals that Presidents Clinton and Bush pursued but that Obama could pursue better.”

*Linda Przybyszewski, associate professor, history

• “My wish is to bring back old-fashioned home economics courses that taught young people how to budget and shop wisely. If more people had been asked at age 16 to figure out exactly how much Annie Abel had to spend on her school wardrobe if her parents made $100 a year, we would not have 35 year-olds thinking that flat-screen TVs were necessities and an interest-only mortgage was a good idea.”

Joe Russo, director of student finance strategies, financial aid
“We know that President-elect Obama is a great supporter of college opportunity and the need to keep these costs affordable for all students and families. During his campaign, he promised to reduce the complexity of the student aid process to one that is less daunting and more encouraging. It was a promise that many Americans wholeheartedly endorsed. We look forward to continued support in this area over the next four years.”

Jackie Smith, associate professor of sociology and peace studies
“I would like to see Obama make human rights a beacon for his administration. Many of the crises we are facing today are the result of our neglect of human rights both within our country and in the larger world. Economic policies that have prioritized economic growth over meeting human needs have contributed to the enormous gaps we see between rich and poor. These inequalities are at the root of the financial, energy, food and environmental crises. As more and more Americans face joblessness, homelessness and poverty, it is vital that we find new ways of coming together to transform our economy. The Bush administration actively worked to divide citizens and polarize our country as it mobilized around a ‘war on terror.’ As President, Obama needs to nurture a culture of tolerance, mutual respect and dialogue that is essential to a healthy democracy. And by prioritizing human rights in our international policy, we can regain the respect of the international community and help lead the world toward peaceful and equitable solutions to the urgent crises we face.”

*John Staud, director, Alliance for Catholic Education

• “Regardless of one’s politics, I think weAmericans as well as the international communitycelebrate the historic nature of Obama’s election, which signals obvious progress in an issueracethat has long divided the United States. I hope that Obama’s presidency leads to the healing of many forms of division that beset our country, perhaps none greater than inequality of educational opportunity, which some have called the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Many of us in ACE see the appointment of Arne Duncan as secretary of education as an important sign of hope that this administration will support innovative models of teacher formation and retention and embrace effective models of schoolingwhether public, charter, private or (most dear to our hearts) faith-based. If our children really are America’s most precious resource; they deserve nothing less.”

Rev. Oliver Williams, C.S.C., director, Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business
“Before he has taken office, Obama, through one senior-level appointment, has strengthened and enhanced the work of business in addressing poverty and other human challenges throughout the world. In December, Susan E. Rice was named ambassador to the United Nations and at the same time that post was upgraded to cabinet rank. Rice, a Rhodes Scholar with a Ph.D. from Oxford, served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Clinton administration and is a strong advocate of multilateralism. By this appointment, Obama has signaled that for his administration the United Nations, with all its flaws, is an essential global institution.

" As a member of the four-person board of directors of the U.N. Global Compact Foundation, I have observed the importance of the work of business in overcoming poverty. In just eight years, the United Nations, through the Global Compact, has enlisted 5,000 businesses in 120 countries to advance human rights, labor rights, environmental concerns and anti-corruption It is the largest voluntary corporate social responsibility presence ever concerned, and its work has helped poor people, especially in developing countries.

“With Rice’s appointment, the Obama administration has given the U.N. the attention it deserves, and it is my fervent hope that the Global Compact companies will do even more to meet the challenges of the poor.”

*Richard Williams, associate professor of sociology

• _"The new administration should continue the fight for affordable housing. Many people blame the current economic crisis on misguided efforts to promote home ownership; but in reality, during the 1990s genuine progress was being made in low-income and minority home ownership before greed, stupidity and predatory practices were allowed to go unchecked. It is better to do everything we reasonably can to help people stay in their homes than to allow their properties to go vacant and abandoned, bringing entire neighborhoods down with them in the process.† New home ownership can be encouraged by fair interest rates and by programs designed to help people learn how to manage their finances. For those who cannot or should not become home owners, the provision of quality affordable rental housing should be a top priority.† The American dream of home ownership became a nightmare for many during the 2000s; but by reversing the excesses and abuses of the past several years, the dream can become viable again."
  _

TopicID: 30948

The day may come when we pull into our garages in easily rechargeable electric cars. But the hype surrounding the release of GM’s electric Volt not withstanding, University of Notre Dame engineering professor Paul McGinn’s current project list is proof that the road to that point has many intriguing twists, and more turns than just the ride home from the dealer showroom.

McGinn is one of 20 U.S. researchers invited by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to a brainstorming session this fall on just one approach to creating a truly efficient battery for electric cars. (Right now, car battery technology is too inefficient to support a fully electric car.)

Meeting in early September, the group explored the potential for drug discovery techniques as a means for identifying this new, efficient approach. Researchers looking for pharmaceutical solutions to disease have developed sophisticated ways to identify possible new drugs by using theoretical modeling. The question among the scientists and engineers who met last month is whether theoretical modeling can help rapidly predict viable formulas for new battery production as well.

Underscoring the discussion was an enthusiasm for developing a new battery technology that also would be produced in this country. The latter achievement would make real the notion that new energy solutions will lead to new jobs.

McGinn’s work relates to the step taken after the theoretical modeling. His team has created processing tools and screening instrumentation to combine new chemical compounds and develop performance information to suggest what kinds of problems they might solve. He likens this concept of combinatorial work to the way the three ink colors in a colored printer combine to make a seemingly endless array of new colors.

He applies his research to energy and environmental issues well beyond car batteries, in settings including several in Indiana in which the search for solutions also relates to rebuilding the state’s manufacturing base. In McGinn’s circles, be they at the federal or state level, this work has definitive economic implications.

One instance of another application is a partnership with Cummins Inc. of Columbus, Ind., to eliminate sooty discharges from diesel buses and cars. Cummins was seeking an inexpensive exhaust catalyst so that filters to trap soot from diesel buses and cars can be easily regenerated by combusting the soot. Determining that an inexpensive catalyst could be fashioned from glass, McGinn and his team created a glass composition that"sweats"potassium, which readily combusts soot. (In this case, the compound was more of a revival: the kind of glass that works on this problem was prominent in medieval stained glass windows, he says.)

More relevant to the advent of a truly efficient electric car is McGinn’s longtime work on fuel cells, a promising technology that employs an electrochemical processas opposed to combustionto create energy in a manner that is clean, quiet and more efficient than burning fuel.

This solution could be applied to personal cars, but an early partner in this research is the U.S. Army. Working with the Army Communications and Electronics Command, McGinn’s team has been developing hydrogen fuel cell technology that also could provide portable power to soldiers and other military personnel on the battlefield.

The project also has attracted the attention of economic development organizations in Indiana that are hoping to harness original research on energy to enhance the state’s strong tradition of battery manufacturing.

In the state arena, McGinn has been involved in discussions about plug-in electric vehicles whose stored energy might be able to power some household needs. The question meshes nicely with a state focus on developing a"black box"to accelerate the commercialization of vehicle-to-grid technologies. The box would handle the transfer and conversion of all forms of energy and information between devices, such as the vehicle and the grid, and be able to control things such as the best time for vehicle charging based on grid power availability.

All which is to say that from where McGinn sits, a great deal of energy (pun intended) is being dedicated to developing alternate fuel sources, and many of the concepts have the capacity to transform energy usage as we know it today.

But the developmental process, he cautions, requires the patience that discovery often takes. Put another way, for the time being, there are no electric cars in the McGinn garage, and he expects it will remain that way for awhile.

_ Contact: Paul McGinn,_ " pmcginn@nd.edu ":mailto:pmcginn@nd.edu

TopicID: 30527

Physicists, says Randy Ruchti, are driven by the great questions.

The importance of fundamental science for us is in our bloodstream,the 31-year veteran of the University of Notre Dame physics faculty reflected last month during the earliest working days of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the massive new particle physics facility at the Center for European Nuclear Research (CERN) that straddles part of France and Switzerland.

Were rewriting the book on physics at this laboratory,he said.

In his Nieuwland Hall office, a poster of Clint Eastwood asDirty Harrylooks over Ruchtis shoulder. It is the most unlikely icon for a scientist whose demeanor is serene and whose patient perseverance in creating and sustaining research opportunities seems not to have been tried by some monumental dead ends and setbacks.

Switzerland is a long way from South Bend, compared to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Ill., where Ruchti and collaborators have long participated in the DZero experiment. With the advent of the more powerful LHC, Fermilab will discontinue the DZero experiment in two yearstime.

Since Ruchti teaches, works with graduate students, and recently became associate vice president for research, his chances of becoming a jet-setting researcher are limited. Regardless, the Notre Dame Particle Physics Group has several Notre Dame graduate students, a postdoctoral fellow and a full-time research assistant professor working on-site at the new facility.

Before LHC construction began, the U.S. scientific community harbored hopes of building the next major accelerator, and Congress seemed willing to help. In the 1980s, Ruchti and his colleagues first campaigned for the next great atom smasher to be constructed at Fermilab. A proposal for a giant facility in Texas won the bid instead, and construction began on the Superconducting Super Collider in Waxahachie, near Dallas.

Then, in 1993, government funding priorities for research shifted and the project was abruptly haltedsimply discontinued after the expenditure of some $2 billion but before construction could be completed. There would be at least a 15-year gap before physicists and, more importantly, doctoral candidates, could test their increasingly complex theories in a suitably advanced facility such as LHC.

After the loss of a major multibillion dollar project, you dont know how a field is going to continue and grow,Ruchti said.I needed graduate students and undergraduates to work with me on these projects.But there was no way to start students on a project in the 1990s when they would not be able to get data from it until the 2000s.

Thinking about this issue in 1996, Ruchti says his solution came in realizing that his wife, Peggy, is a very smart woman. For years she had been encouraging him to start a community outreach program that made science accessible and exciting to young people. He realized that the students who would be doctoral candidates when the LHC opened were barely teenagers.

The lightbulb thought:You have to start reaching middle school and high school age students so theyre coming up the chain to help on out a big experiment.

For this upcoming group of students,the science is going to be fantastic,Ruchti said.

Thus was born QuarkNet, a national program that engages teachers in immersive experiences in particle physics. The teachers are then catalysts to engage and inspire their own students.

And we (professors) would get to learn about master teaching, which they know how to do,Ruchti said. Even if all these engaged teachers and students never entered the research pipeline,theyre going to be voters: theyre making an informed decision about why science and technology should be supported,he added.

Now in its 10th year, QuarkNet engages 500 teachers a year in programs across the country, including the one still based at Notre Dame, located in a former grocery store on Eddy Street. An additional 100 high school students across the country also do summer research projects through the program. And the project benefits from the participation of 150 particle physicists who act as scientific mentors for the teachers and students. QuarkNet is directed by a colleague at Fermilab, Marge Bardeen, director of Fermilabs Education Office; Notre Dame particle physics faculty Mitch Wayne and Dan Karmgard; and R. Michael Barnett of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Has it been worth the wait? Observe how animated Ruchti becomes when discussing just two possible fundamental questions that collider experiments might answer. One is the nature of mass at the subatomic level. The other is the true nature of gravity, which may be functioning in dimensions not yet identified. If current theories are verified, there will be some new physics books indeed.

_ Contact: Randy Ruchti,_ " ruchti.1@nd.edu ":mailto:ruchti.1@nd.edu

TopicID: 30187

To make the current economic crisis seem simple, University of Notre Dame economist Chris Waller turns to old movies.

The Jimmy Stewart classicIts a Wonderful Life,for example, offers an excellent primer on the early chapters of the American mortgage industry, says the professor of economics and specialist in the political economics of central banking.

Regardless of his insight and insider perspectives, Wallers fate is similar to the one many Americans are facing with the bailout of the banking industry, beginning with a sense of astonishment and confusion.

I couldnt believe half of what was going on in the last month,Waller told a Saturday Scholars audience before a recent home football game.

Like most everyone else:

•His retirement account has lost value:I looked at it the other day. I wanted to throw up. I cant believe how much it has lost.

•His mother is scared: Like many retirees, she wants to know how to protect her life savings, which are losing value.I tell her: Dont do anything.If the money is not immediately needed for day-to-day living expenses, dont change your investment plans.It will come back.

•He will not be rewarded for living within his means.Im going to be paying the taxes for people in California who bought a million dollar house they couldnt afford. Some people behaved very well for the last 10 years, some didnt; and at the end of the day, those who behaved well will pay for those who did not.

Reminiscent of another Jimmy Stewart movie, Wallers life soon will assume some of the plot points ofMr. Smith Goes to Washington.In July, he will become senior vice president and director of research for the Federal Reserve – albeit in the St. Louis, not Washington D.C., offices. In the end of that film, Mr. Smith triumphs. No such happy ending can be predicted for the period during which Mr. Waller goes to St. Louis.

The success of the bailout plan, although based on techniques that have worked before, is not at all assured.

Were going to have to wait months and years to see if this works,Waller predicts.

With the so-calledlittle guy,or even professional economists, absorbing the cost of the problem, theres a temptation to see the $700 billion bailout plan as a bailout of Wall Street.

Not in Wallers view.

This plan was not intended to bail out the big banks in New York. Its meant to unfreeze the financial market,he explains.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson approached Congress for action two days after it became clear that the credit market had frozen, that even banks that had money to lend had stopped making loans, or had made them almost unaffordable to obtain.

According to Waller, heres where the Jimmy Stewarts and Donna Reeds get hurtthe type of people who live and work onMain Street.(By the way, despite the buzz on mortgage foreclosures, more than 97 percent of American mortgage holders still are making their payments.)

Businesses completely unrelated to the housing industry are getting caught in the credit freeze. They are unable to borrow money to pay their employees or their suppliers. With no money to make payroll, layoffs are likely. With no money to buy supplies, production will cease and thus will sales and income. The freeze wasnt just felt in the financial industry; it was felt by groups unrelated to Wall Street such as utility companies, transportation groups and agriculture implement manufacturers.

The $700 billion bailout allows the treasury to buy bad assets and hold them,Waller said.It is hoped that this will restore confidence and trust in credit.

One optimistic prediction is that the Treasury will need to apply only the first few billion before the credit markets begin functioning.

But room remains for pessimism, Waller says.

There are still problems out there,he explains.Will hedge funds soon collapse? Will more bailouts be needed?

In this story, its not just the ending thats missing. Its the middle.

Note: A video stream of Wallers Saturday Scholars presentation is available on the Web at .

_ Contact: Chris Waller,_ " waller.6@nd.edu ":mailto:waller.6@nd.edu

TopicID: 30166

University of Notre Dame political scientist Dianne Pinderhughes wants the upcoming presidential election to accomplish one specific outcome, and it doesnt have anything to do with gender or race.

I want the society to be better than its been for the last eight years,said the acting chair of Notre Dames Department of Africana 91��Ƶ.Ever since 2000, with that Florida election that was so contested, the values were used to have been turned upside down.

Weve lost any sense of right and wrong. I have the sense that the country has lost its anchor. Id like to think we can get back to somewhere where theres moral stability. I think its still going to be hard,she said.

Chatting about the election over a recent lunch, Pinderhughes expressed sympathy for an American public trying to negotiate the task of choosing a candidate.

Theres this tremendous swirl of stuff to sort through all the time,she said.Youve got race. Youve got gender. Its hard to work through the layers of implications.

During the primaries, Pinderhughes was quoted as saying,Im not from Missouri, but you have to ‘show methat white people will vote for Obama.

Well, the primaries showed her white people do vote for a black candidate. A scholar who has focused on the issue of race in elections, she says,I wouldnt have thought that, and most prior research didnt show much evidence along those lines.

If Barack Obama is elected, Pinderhughes reflects, shes still not going to be certain that barriers have been lifted for black politicians, because Obama and John McCain both are such exceptional cases.

The interesting thing about Obama is whenever he runs for office, he always runs against someone whose candidacy disintegrates,she says.He always seems to be able to run when the opposing party is not doing well.

Even though we dont know who will win the election, the process has left a number of legacies. Among them, it has revealed a point about African-Americans that the public had not yet grasped: Not all African-Americans think or act the same way.

Because of the comprehensiveness of racial discrimination, people are more likely to vote for the same party or same candidate within that cohort,Pinderhughes said.But with the African-American group, theres a lot of significant disagreement on social issues, on the death penalty, on religion. There are a considerable number of black conservatives. But because of race, they get pulled in a different way.

Somewhat cloudier is the meaning of gender in the political discourse.

People use the term ‘sexismfor manipulative purposes,Pinderhughes asserts.In the selection of Sarah Palin, any criticism against her became sexism. Thats preposterous. One should be able to comment about the ability of a candidate to run for office without being accused of sexism.

Pinderhughesadvice for the still-undecided:Ask yourself how you judge leadership. Try to be deliberate about it. Do some comparisons. Find some way to look at the whole personality … What moves or drives the candidates? What personal resources are they likely to draw upon? And ask yourself: Do you like those things?

Having recently stepped down as president of the American Political Science Association, she is hoping political scientists in higher educational institutions and high school civics teachers have prepared the public well enough to make such thoughtful choices.
Or, she wonders,maybe we didnt succeed.

_ Contact: Dianne Pinderhughes,_ " pinderhughes.1@nd.edu ":mailto:pinderhughes.1@nd.edu

TopicID: 30087

University of Notre Dame studentsextraordinarily low rate of default on student loans may be offering some cushion against the troubles of a shrinking college loan industry, according to Joseph Russo, director of student financial strategies in the Universitys Office of Student Financial Services.

Recently released data by the U.S. Department of Education indicates that Notre Dame studentsdefault rate on loans is only one-tenth of one percent, down from two-tenths of one percent the previous year.

Nearly 30 lending institutions that had been providing student loans to Notre Dame students have either exited from or suspended their involvement with the industry in recent months in the face of a crisis in liquidity and the unpredictability that this issue has fostered, according to Russo. For a time, until Congress stepped in, it appeared the entire student loan industry might fall apart. No long-term solutions have been identified, he says.

But those who remain as lenderswant to loan money to our students,Russo said.

I think lenders are happy to lend to our students for reasons that include low default rates, but also retention, on-time graduation of students, their satisfaction with the University, and the success they have in getting placed in jobs and graduate and professional school,he said.

Last summer was a wait-and-see one for the financial aid staff, which wondered if a shortage of loan money would affect familiesability to meet tuition costs and gain additional loan support for living expenses. That did not appear to be the case, Russo says.

As lenders left the business, some Notre Dame students had to find other sources for their loans, and did so successfully, he adds.The larger lenders, with long-term support for the student loan program, have generally continued their commitment.

While repercussions at the University from the loan crisis have been few in respect to access to financing, the financial aid staff is seeing the effects of the general downturn in the economy. As a consequence of the current economic difficulties, families are approaching the office with concerns about meeting their financial obligations because of lost income, lost jobs or a lost home.

We work with each family on a case-by-case basis,Russo said.The first message we strive to communicate is that we will continue to do everything within our ability to insure your continued enrollment at the University and to graduate. Sometimes all the family needs is understanding and time.

_ Contact: Joe Russo,_ " russo.4@nd.edu ":mailto:russo.4@nd.edu

TopicID: 30047

Bob Schmuhl wears some interesting hats. He is, first, the big shoulders on which the University of Notre Dames journalism program has matured, earning professional accolades from the prestigious Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nations better nontraditional programs.

A chaired scholarhe is the Annenberg-Joyce Professor of American 91��Ƶ and Journalismhis interests include communications and political culture. As early as 1990, he described the cult of personality that was taking over politics with the bookStatecraft and Stagecraft: American Political Life in the Age of Personality.

But during a presidential election campaign, Schmuhl assumes another role, that ofQuote Slut,a self-assigned titled in a 1999 essayConfessions of a Quote Slutfor American Journalism Review. Schmuhl is one of those academic experts who answers the phone when journalists call seeking analysis on the days story.

He is a frequent, international flyer in these circles, regularly interviewed byMorning Irelandon RTE, occasionally contacted by journalists for the International Herald Tribune, the Kuwait Times or Journal Brazil. Come Nov. 4, he expects to pull an all-nighter giving feedback on election results. His head wont hit the pillow until he has helped RTE and Ireland sort it all out.

Schmuhls interview below follows the recent U.S. economic meltdown but preceded the presidential and vice presidential debates, an important factor in the elections outcome.

You have been outspoken in your belief that the American presidential election cycle is too long. But the period between the party nominations and Nov. 4 is relatively brief. Are length and endurance still an issue?

Absolutely. As we get near the finish line, the public is finally tuning in on a regular basis. But it is almost as though the media feel that they have already covered much of the story. Just when the citizenry needs information and perspective we get something else, including lipstick on pigs and charges about taking liberties with the truth. The media have heard the candidates speak so often that to them little is new. Yet the public is different and deserves background and perspective on each of the campaigns to get ready to vote.

You wrote in the summer issue of Notre Dame Magazine,What Abraham Lincoln considered ‘the better angels of our natureinvariably seem to take flight when the presidency is at stake.Does that remain true in this election?

Charges and counter-charges keep flying, and truth-o-meters work overtime. The citizenry is caught in the crossfire and unable to really determine what is valid and what is not. This creates more heat than light, distracting people from the larger issues. But now we have the whole story of the state of the economy. All of a sudden very sobering reality intervenes. The current situation is so dire, were told, that it probably will result in less attention to the small and fabricated events. But let us see how the debates go.

You have maintained that the media are terribly important in elections. But it is so in a vastly different manner. Describe how.

There are so many possible sources now that you have to think beyond the traditional ones and take into account all the new ones: The blogs, talk radio,The Daily Show.All of these new forms are playing an important role in political communication today. The trouble is, many people arent as discriminating as they need to be. The partisan opinion is driving many of these messages. And people who are running the campaigns are doing everything they can to manipulate the media. It is no longer possible to pigeonhole
political communication and sequester it to the Sunday morning talk shows. Today it is as far flung as the media themselves are.

Your 1990 book examinedStatecraft vs. Stagecraft.If you wrote a new book today, what would you call it?

It might be calledStatecraft, Stagecraft and Spincraft.Since the early 1990s, the media themselves have exploded. People who are in political life are feeding them so frequently that much that we see and read and hear tends to be spun and comes with a motive and intention behind it. The continuing polarization of the public is one of the consequences of this. For example, there are those who are devoted listeners of talk radio and they dont spend much time with other sources; the same is true of blog readers, both left and right. As people gravitate toward partisan information and communication, we see the polarized politics that we now have.

You started the current, interdisciplinary journalism program about a decade ago. If you were starting from scratch today, would you do it all differently?

Today you have to prepare students for a multimedia world if they are going to work in journalism. The new technologies are critical, but I think it is appropriate to put the emphasis on reporting, writing and the ethical principles of journalism. If they are lost, where will the public turn? Will we be forced to rely on information that always comes with a point of view? I hope notfor the sake of the people and of American democracy.

_ Contact: Bob Schmuhl,_ " rschmuhl@nd.edu ":mailto:rschmuhl@nd.edu

TopicID: 30027

Steve Fallon has spent a good part of the summer at birthday partiesinternational birthday parties, in London and various locations in Australia. The guest of honor, born 400 years ago, was John Milton, author of numerous poems and polemics, includingParadise Lost.

Fallon, a professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, has written or edited three books on Milton, including a definitive volume on his complete poems and essential prose. He specializes in Milton and intellectual history, particularly the theological and philosophical contexts. Like most, Fallon fell in love with Miltons breathtaking epicParadise Lost;he later came to admire him as a theological, political and ethical thinker.

Here, Fallon spreads some Milton birthday spirit by explaining what Milton had to do with no-fault divorce, free speech and a handsome, fast-talking Satan.

_ Q: Milton sometimes is referred to as a poet, sometimes as a polemicist. How multidimensional was he? _

A. He is the greatest English-speaking narrative poet. The international language of the day was Latin, but he made a conscious decision to write for his countrymen. He was intensely patriotic. He was a political theorist of some acuity, a Republican and a fierce opponent of the monarchy who defended the execution of King Charles before a European audience. During Englands civil war decade, the 1640s, Milton laid aside his career as a poet to take up his duty for England. He began publishing polemical prose, writing, as he put it, with hisleft hand.It is hard to characterize these works from a 21st- century perspective. Milton argued for republics and against monarchy; he opposed government restrictions on the liberty of citizens; and at the same time he was a puritan theocrat, believing in rule by the Godly. He was a champion of freedom of the will and an opponent of Hobbesdeterminism and absolutism.

* Q: Often, the words or concepts of enduring writers become a part of our culture, so that their contributions are always with us, even if we dont realize the source. Is this true of Milton? *

A: A term he gave us isself-esteem.He bridled at the claims of hereditary aristocracy; he thought one had to have a sense of self-esteem as one negotiated these hierarchies. HisAreopagiticais one of the earliest and most famous essays on free speech. Milton did not coin the phraseno-fault divorce,but he was alone in his time in arguing that when two are incompatible because of their innate temperaments or inalterable natures they should be free to separate. Here, he was against rigid ecclesiastical law that chained people rather than freed them. He saw that a misinterpretation of scripture. It was the outcry against his writings about divorce, which the government threatened to censor, that led him to write about free speech and against pre-publication censorship.

_ Q: Youve worked most of your professional career on issues of Milton and theology. Can you give us a small sample of enduring or fresh veins of inquiry and controversy? _

A: Ive been involved in trying to understand Miltons theology, and that involves reading theology contemporary to him to determine where hes conventional and where hes unusual. InParadise Lost,he willassert eternal providence/And justify the ways of God to men.That can sound merely pious, as though hes a good Christian poet doing what Christians are supposed to do. But in his time it amounted to throwing down a gauntlet. The Calvinist majority thought that one should not presume to raise the question of divine justice because justice is defined as what God does. Milton, for his part, wrestled with this question.

Milton is a subtle student of evil. InParadise Lost,Satan is physically attractive and rhetorically persuasivesomeone who could tempt us. Many readers, especially since the romantic period, take the view that inParadise Lost,Satan is the true hero and that God is repressive. Another view is Milton is trying to celebrate God and denigrate Satan, but fails. Still others argue that Milton succeeds in anatomizing evil in the figure of Satan and justice in the figure of God.

Scholars are still discovering how Miltons various heresies (he denied, for example, the full divinity of the Son of God and the natural immortality of the soul) inform his poetry. Another hotly debated topic, since 9/11, is whether his playSamson Agonistesis an apology for religious terrorism.

* Q: How does Milton play to the Notre Dame audience? *

A: One thing I love about teaching here is philosophical and theological questions are real questions for the students. Are our souls immortal? Are our wills free? Notre Dame students care about these questions.

* Q: What do you tell people who protest:Me? Read 400-year-old poetry? *

A: Its easy to think of classic texts as long, forbidding and boring. What I find again and again is literary classics are classics because they are beautiful and because they require us to wrestle with the deepest questions.

Paradise Lostis one of the great landmarks of world literature, and English speakers can read it in our native language. He set out to do what Virgil had done for Latin, what Dante had done for Italian. Reading Milton, we can gain some glimpse of the depth and complexity that we miss when reading earlier epics in translation. Amazing things happen in and between every line.

TopicID: 29449

South Bend native and University of Notre Dame senior Greer Hannan spent last year in the Universitys Dublin program. With side trips, including one to Le Mans, France, Hannan thought she had seen Europe.

That was until late June, when she arrived by train at the base of the Carpathian Mountains in the western Ukrainian countryside. Her mission was to teach English to college students of Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), one of four Eastern European Catholic university partners of Notre Dames Nanovic Institute for European 91��Ƶ.

Supported by the institute, Hannan and three other Notre Dame students joined 16 U.S. and Canadian volunteers and 100 UCU students for an intense three-week program. In addition to Hannan, junior Christopher Smith and sophomores Jaime Cordes and Christopher Gattis also made the trip. Their isolation near the mountains was part of an experience that included semi-occasional hot running water, primitive bathroom facilities and a daily lunch of borscht. It all made Hannan realize she had found another Europe, one that is a place of contrasts.

The weirdest thing was seeing a well for water in a front yard, an outhouse in the backyard, and someone standing in the yard talking on a cell phone,she said.

Most Ukraine students have access to television, videos and the Internet, and Hannan was sometimes surprised by their influence. Some UCU students open Facebook accounts as a way of keeping in touch with their American teachers. Some seemed familiar with the Irish step-dancing showRiverdance.

But crops were transported by horse-drawn carts, and when Hannan stopped to capture the quaint image in a photograph, a UCU student expressed the surprise question,Havent you ever seen one?Her students were puzzled by stories of how the Amish community in north central Indiana eschews modern conveniences.

To them, it was so strange to have access to modern advantages and not use them,Hannan said.

Many of the volunteer college students, including two who had just finished their first year at Notre Dame, signed up for the experience to augment their studies in Russian. Faith and an interest in Catholic education drew Hannan, a theology and philosophy major.

UCU has reconstituted its Catholic mission since 1994, when the Soviet regime pulled out.  But Catholic university students face a social stigma.

They constantly have to defend their choice,she says.

The studentsfaith was genuine, as was their interest in speakingalbeit in rudimentary Englishabout their beliefs, Hannan says. Five hours of daily classroom work balanced three hours of liturgical servicesall of them sung. Nightly, Hannan and another volunteer led students in the Rosary.

Hannan will use some of her senior year to prepare her honors thesis on the philosophy of Catholic education. Her time in Ukraine will help frame her thoughts, not just on how these institutions are structured, but on the dedication and commitment they elicit.

The newness of the University, the passionate thoughtfulness of its chief administrator and the enthusiasm of the students, have given her a new view of Notre Dame, as well.

It almost made me think what it was like to be at Notre Dame in its beginning,she said.

TopicID: 29368

Six original films exploring the theme of sustainability will be featured during the 2008 Notre Dame Forum Film Festival to be held Sept. 19 (Friday) at 7 p.m. in the Browning Cinema of the University of Notre Dames DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

Introduced in support of the Notre Dame Forum, focused this year on sustainable energy, the juried festival of short films will showcase the work of primarily student filmmakers, with Notre Dame faculty and staff associated with the forum, the Office of Sustainability, and the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre serving as judges.

The festival committee opened the festival to filmmakers nationallyto encourage action, and to engage people in the topic of sustainable energy,said Jon Vickers, managing director of the performing arts center, which also is planning screenings of commercially recognized documentaries about energy and sustainability, includingAn Inconvenient TruthandWho Killed the Electric Car?

The winning film will be announced during the festival screening; the top prize is a Macbook computer with Final Cut Express, professional film editing software.

The winner will be identified among the following:

• A Convenient Truth,by Notre Dame alumnus Dan Moor, follows Christopher Gallo, a California native who, upon suffering through Midwest winters while attending Notre Dame, embarks on a quest to warm up South Bend by harnessing the powers of global warming.The film takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to wastefulness and the concerns of global warming.
• Addicted to Energy,by Notre Dame students Michelle Carlisle and Ryan Geldermann, is a mosaic of our daily lives as Americans in constant motion and a constant state of consumption.
• Living in Community,by Phillip Davis, focuses on the commitment of members of the Dancing Rabbit Eco-Village in Missouri to develop sustainable lifestyles.
• The Little Fan,by Notre Dame student Shannon Mathers, explores wind as a source of energy through the story of a small fan threatened by the arrival of an air conditioner who sets upon a mission to save himself.
• All it Takes,by University staff member Daniel Clark, reveals how renewable energies combined with individual efforts can slow down and stop our detrimental impact.
• Architecturally Addressing the Problem of Decommissioned and Abandoned Offshore Oil Platforms,by John Kelly, explores redevelopment steps that can put abandoned offshore oil platforms to use.

Other short films on the sustainability theme will augment the six entries to round out the program.

Sustainable Energy: A Notre Dame Forumwill take place Sept. 24 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Joyce Center on the Notre Dame campus and will explore how charting pathways to a sustainable energy future is emerging as one of the worlds great challenges. It also will examine underlying concerns, including technological, environmental, economic, political and geopolitical issues, as well as social justice and ethical considerations.

Forum panelists include Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. of Colorado, General Electric Co. chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Immelt, Sustainable South Bronx founder Majora Carter and Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The discussion will be moderated by Anne Thompson, chief environmental affairs correspondent for NBC News and a 1979 Notre Dame graduate.

For more information about the forum, visit on the Web.

TopicID: 29349

University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., opened the academic year Tuesday (Aug. 26) by wishing that students, faculty and staffbe afflicted by hopeandthe courage and conviction to act when action is called for and to inspire others to act as well.

As is the University tradition, the president delivered his thoughts during his homily at the academic year Opening Mass in the Joyce Center, an all-community celebration that presented the full beauty of the Universitys liturgical choirs and symphony with the presence of dozens of concelebrating Holy Cross priests resplendent in red vestments.

Father Jenkinshomily set the stage for the upcoming Notre Dame Forum to be held Sept. 24 (Wednesday) that will assemble leading intellectuals, government and business representatives for a broad-ranging discussion on sustainable energy. Details are available on the Web at .

Multiple academic and administrative units have signaled that 2008 will solidify a permanent, enduring commitment to sustainability on fronts ranging from food to the disposal of refuse and from energy conservation to contemplating the future of the Earth in a Catholic context.

The present and the future holda worrisome listof issues, advised Father Jenkins, citing the high price of gas, environmental degradation of land and sea, depletion of natural resources, the impact biofuels have had on poverty and starvation, and the strife and political instability that scarce resources cause.

In answering the questionWhat should our response be?, Father Jenkins cautioned against both optimismthe conviction that whatever challenges appear, the situation is not so graveand pessimisma mindset that believes problems are grave and insolvable.

Both excuse one from serious thought, analysis and, ultimately, from action,he said.

Hope, in contrast,demands that we see the world as it is, that we assess, seek to understand, argue, seek solutions, overcome frustrations and failure. Most importantly, it encourages the courage and commitment of common action,he said.

Provost Thomas G. Burish traditionally closes the Mass with a few words; this years he pointedly addressed to first-year students.

Reflect, he counseled, on what is right, what is Gods will, on what your conscience demands.

You may never have a better time in your life to develop a mature understanding of right and wrong than you do as a student at Notre Dame,he said.

TopicID: 29246

Some academic experiences are built from moments and memories.

Tracy Kijewski-Correa remembers being at her home in downtown South Bend on Dec. 26, 2004, when the television began broadcasting news of a tsunami that hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, killing more than 225,000.

I just felt sick to my stomach,says Kijewski-Correa, Rooney Family Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Notre Dame.Weve all seen the damage Katrina caused, and how long rebuilding is taking. Imagine, then, the effects of a tsunami on a village where the homes are simple shacks and family members are having breakfast when a tsunami strikes with no warning.

With an eye toward what makes a dramatic lesson, Kijewski-Correa and civil engineering and geoscience colleagues conceived an undergraduate research experience that would help promising engineering students from around the country better decide if graduate study was in their futures. Loss of life at the hands of a disaster turns out to be a powerful motivator.

The summer Research Experience for Undergraduates,Interdisciplinary 91��Ƶ in Tsunami Mitigation and Impacts,is in its third year, funded by the National Science Foundation. Nine students from Notre Dame and universities such as Virginia Tech, Purdue and Puerto Rico undertook eight weeks of intensive research on campus in preparation for a two-week trip beginning at the end of July to see remnants of the tsunamis impact in Thailand and Indonesia. Unique to this project, the students explore ethical and humanitarian issues alongside science and engineering principles that can aid disaster recovery efforts.

There are a lot of things that can be done when you rebuild,says Kijewski-Correa, who always tells her students,People think doctors are the ones to save lives, but engineers can save lives, too, by building infrastructures that keep people safe.

Some solutions, such as early warning systems, are more related to public policy. But others represent engineering solutions, such as shelters built on stilts and of concrete that can withstand massive flood waters. Many lives were lost to the tsunami because the flat landscape offered no heights that could be scaled to provide refuge until the waters receded.

The Indian Ocean communities affected by the tsunami provide a fascinating lesson in the economics of redevelopment, says Kijewski-Correa.

Things that students think will work often do not in a developing country,she said.

In accompanying the students, Kijewski-Correa made her third trip to the region. In areas that had been tourist attractions, the resorts are underwriting the rebuilding of their properties, and areas where employees might live.

Its the poor fishing villages that have it hard,she adds. Thankfully, several non-governmental agencies have undertaken humanitarian relief efforts and remain on-site to this day in some of the hardest hit areas.

Part of the goal of the summer experience is to determine what affects studentsinterest in graduate studies. Surveyed when they arrive, most students cite family and peers as the main influencers in deciding their future. But following the session, they say their plans are partly shaped by the one-on-one faculty mentoring the summer program provides.

That, and witnessing the potential of engineering students to save lives.

TopicID: 29006

Seismic disturbances are common and often fatal in YahyaGinoKuramas native Turkey, and several occurred during his early childhood, including the 1970 quake in Gediz that killed 1,100 and displaced thousands.

Kurama, an associate professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, remembers the aftermath of a quake that hit a year later near his childhood home in the eastern town of Bingol. It ultimately killed more than 750 and left his family living in tents while relatives from Istanbul braved the threat of aftershocks to bring them food and clothing.

Key in that incident was the visible evidence that some structures survive a quake while others do not. Because his father was a government physician, Kuramas family lived in well-designed concrete-block housing. They had to evacuate, but the building stood.

Many buildings around us collapsed,he recalls.

By 1999, Kurama already had finished a civil engineering doctorate at Lehigh University, where he specialized in concrete structures, and had joined the Notre Dame faculty. When the Izmit earthquake hit that August, he went home to study its impact. While there, he examined how well some family membershomes had held up. He advised a move.

If you look at economics, earthquakes are not at the top of the list in terms of destruction. Hurricanes are far worse. The scary thing is, if you look at lives lost, nothing compares to earthquakes,he says.

Earthquakes happen without warning.The only way to put significant resources into saving lives is [through proper] construction of buildings.

Kurama has not been pursuing research in earthquakes because of his past, but there seems a bit of kismet involved in a unique research partnership he has recently undertaken with the Charles Pankow Foundation and the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute. The partnership aims to develop economical prefabricated buildings that can safely withstand severe earthquakes with little damage.

Engineers have clear ideas of building techniques that will withstand the impact of earthquakes, such as reinforced concrete and steel framing systems. However, most of these proven techniques are prone to heavy damage during an earthquake; the advantage of a precast concrete system is that it can provide a damage-free and economical solution while also speeding construction.

Prefabricated structures are not common in areas where earthquakes frequently hit. Thats where Kurama, who directs the Concrete Structures Laboratory, and graduate student Brian J. Smith come in. They are investigating a new class of structure, using a hybrid of prestressing and reinforcing steel, and will test the products viability in a Fitzpatrick Hall laboratory where the motion of an earthquake can be simulated with hydraulic actuators.

Stronger steel structures or heavier concrete foundations will not, themselves, provide the best solution.

Its all in the detail,according to Kurama.Bigger and stronger is not necessarily better.

The beauty of the partnership with the construction industry is that its professionals want to see the project in the field. While new earthquake-resistant structural concepts will be forged here on campus, Kurama says the work will only be completewhen I see the first building constructed.

TopicID: 28927

Fewer recent University of Notre Dame graduates still were looking for work at Commencement than any class in recent history, according to the preliminary results of a survey on graduatespost-Commencement plans.

This years graduating class seemed to have dodged any fallout from a poor economy,said Lee Svete, director of the Career Center.

Only 11 percent of graduating seniors listed themselves as still looking for work during the survey, which is annually conducted by the Office of Institutional Research during graduation week. That number is down from last years statistic of 12 percent and the results of the 2006 survey, when 14 percent of undergraduates still were looking for work.

Survey results indicate that while 10 percent of undergraduates are doing service work and many are continuing their educationlaw and medical school or other graduate or business schoolthere is no statistical indication that students fled to post-graduate work to avoid a poor economy, Svete says.

The survey results surprised and delighted the Career Center staff, said Rose Kopec, Career Center associate director, who handles early career outreach. Increasingly, sophomores and some first-year students make their way to her door. Last year, the Career Center staff conducted close to 200 workshops and presentations, organized career fairs, and held some 5,000 individual advising sessions.

Kopec and Svete identified one trend, affecting around 20 students, that reflects the economy, particularly the troubles experienced by the financial industry. Students who had been hired by major corporations were asked to defer their first day of work through the summer. For example, a July 1 starting date has been shifted to the fall.

Weve had contacts with these employers, and they say the jobs will be there in fall,Kopec said.

Some businesses are hiring graduates but assigning them to a different industry within their corporation and a different city than first discussed. For example, students who planned to work in the financial industry are being shifted within the same firm to the financial arm of the health care division.

Median starting salaries continued to climb, Svete adds: $59,500 for engineers, $55,000 for business school graduates and $48,000 for graduates of Arts and Letters. Increasingly, he says, Arts and Letters students are taking internships that prepare them for jobs in sales and marketing.

TopicID: 28486

James Hussar had the best possible final semester a doctoral candidate can have. By January, he had accepted a tenure-track teaching position at his number one choice: California State University, Fullerton, in the modern languages and literatures department.

That allowed him to cancel interviews at more than a dozen other campuses, visits that would have taken eight weeks out of his final semester and home life with his wife and two small children. Instead, he stayed in South Bend, taught undergraduates a final time (he considers teaching at Notre Dame autopianexperience) and finished a dissertation that would win one of the most prestigious awards bestowed upon a graduate studentthe Shaheen Graduate 91��Ƶ Award.

Anybody aware of the challenges of finding a tenure-track teaching job recognizes Hussars story as a happy ending. His strikes a particularly celebratory chord, because he is the first graduate of Notre Dames six-year-old Ph.D. in Literature Program, a unique doctoral program that eschews literary studies defined by language or national borders. Its students experience a wide-open opportunity to follow multiple languages and literatures across native tongues and national boundaries.

The program was birthed by such distinguished faculty as Margaret Doody, Glynn Family Professor of Literature and its first director; and Vittorio Hösle, Kimball Chair in Arts and Letters. Supportersintuited,says todays director, Joseph Buttigieg, that language and literature studies would have to head in new directions in a shifting, multilingual, global society.

The proposal won adoption and has been enrolling students since 2002; Hussar was in the inaugural class. During that period, Buttigieg has seen validation that a new conception ofworld literatureis developing. For example, Princeton University Press launched a book seriesTranslation/Transnation,including a volume calledWhat is World Literature?

As students progressed, the program developed many invaluable supporters including, Buttigieg says, the Nanovic Institute for European 91��Ƶ, the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish 91��Ƶ, and the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre. (Countless faculty mentor these students, but as staff go, theres only Buttigieg and administrative assistant Jessica Monokroussos, with support from professional specialist Olivier Morel.)

Most faculty members Hussar approached welcomed his questions and lent support.

I have been blessed by the number of faculty who have been willing to help me with letters of recommendations, directed reading, advice on courses. This is a very gracious faculty,he says.

Until Hussar graduated, no one, including Hussar, knew if students from a freshly minted program would be accepted by the academy.

We were very aware there was no precedent. There were no other students to meet,says Hussar.In the first few years, we sensed the newness.

Hussar had been a middle school and high school Spanish teacher who entered the program with an interest in not just Spanish, but Portuguese and Luso-Brazilian literature. Not many doctoral programs met his requirements, he says.

One of the characteristics of a Ph.D. in Literature candidate is that one often can ask: Where can you study for that? Consider the interest of Abigail Palko, who expects to graduate next May. Her language studies focus on English, Irish and French; her literary interest is women writers from Ireland, the Caribbean and Africa. Gender 91��Ƶ has selected her as their predoctoral teaching fellow for the coming year.

Another characteristic, says Buttigieg, is that students tend to approach their subjects through the lenses of multiple languages and cultural traditions. Hussars dissertation was about Latin American Jewish literature. But the interest in Jewish literatureencouraged by theology professor Rabbi Michael Signerfollowed the love of Spanish and Portuguese.

The program, Hussar says, wasan ideal fit for me,because he and its other students had such influence in the direction their research took. Ultimately, he hoped to be a good candidate for a Romance languages teaching position. But in his doctoral program, he wantedto be able to work outside that narrow space.

Im not sure I sacrificed anything,by choosing the Ph.D. in Literature over a traditional Spanish Ph.D. program.But Im sure I gained,he concludes.

TopicID: 28426

I wont bore you with the details.

Its a line Jim Mazurek, Notre Dames newly appointed sustainability director, uses during the many campus presentations hes made since arriving in early May.

As it happens, Mazurek seems in no danger of boring people. But he could bury them, for all the data hes absorbed in a few short weeks about the Universitys annual environmental impact: the 80,000 tons of coal, the 275 tons of copy paper, the 8,900 printer cartridges, the 12,000 tons of garbage.

Is it really possible we consume 900 million gallons of water a year? Some numbers are smaller, yet worrisome: We consume enough electricity a year to power more than 15,000 residential homes. Although ourcarbon footprinthas not been precisely defined, Mazurek expects it to range between 150,000 and 200,000 metric tons.

By the end of his first 100 days, Mazureks is likely to be a household name and a familiar face. Showing up at 5 a.m. to volunteer for Old2Gold, as he did, will help you make friends quickly. Also by the end of those first few months, Mazurek will have begun to forge the above details into a structure for sustainability activities that leans heavily on measurements and accountability.

These early steps will be necessary before Mazurek can propose the method and methodology for attracting proposals for the $2 million in loan money the University has set aside to encourage sustainability initiatives. Hiring Mazurek, whose office will host three full-time staff and about a half-dozen student workers, and the loan program are just two signs of the Universitys determined foray into sustainability. Change has been swift enough that the national College Sustainability Report Card 2008 identified Notre Dame as among the most improved over the past year.

Mazurek, an engineering undergraduate, had not foreseen a future in sustainability in 1991 when he graduated from Notre Dame, having attended to issues of ecology and energy efficiency no more or less than the average student, he says.

Today, he is a hybrid-driving parent whose family recycles so assiduously, they could use the trash barrel for recycling and the recycling bin for trash. Whatever strong messages he ultimately delivers about needed change on campus, he promises to always be more tactful than his two young children, who proselytize about recycling with sometimes embarrassing zeal.

In between graduation and this new job, Mazurek consulted for a firm that eventually became a leader in helping global businesses negotiate a world increasingly conscious of the environment. Simply put, his work often helped corporations understand that being green could be an asset. Notre Dames Catholic mission implies an additional obligation.

Mazureks background has given him a firm grasp ofthe levers to pull for sustainability.Recycling is an obvious area to address, but there are so many: Should we address our commuting habits?Use only vendors who have green practices? Invest our endowment only ingreencorporations? Build and renovate buildings by stringent, and expensive,greenstandards?

And a really hard question: how to marry a sincere wish to reduce our impact to our growing research profile, which will require more energy to support?

The key is, how do we ‘grow smartly.Our total energy consumption on campus has more than doubled in the last 20 years,he says.Over the same period, energy usage per square foot has grown by 44 percent.

As he puts methodologies into place during the summer months, he looks forward to taking a more human measure: how to leverage the energies of an enthusiastic student body and faculty.

TopicID: 28407

Seven University of Notre Dame employees have been honored as the first winners of two new awards to honor individual staff excellence. The award recipients were announced last month at the annual Service Recognition and Presidential Awards Dinner.

Of the two awards, the Presidential Achievement Award acknowledges significant personal achievement. The Presidential Values Award honors employees who exemplify the Universitys mission and core values of integrity, accountability, teamwork, leadership in mission and leadership in excellence.

Recipients of Presidential Achievements are Michael Chapple , security professional with the Office of Information Technology; Ray Phillips , construction administrator with the University Architects office; and Judy Kenna , department administrator for aerospace and mechanical engineering.

Presidential Values Award winners are Pauline Alvarez , custodian with Building Services; David Harr , associate vice president, auxiliary services and facilities operations in Business Operations; MartinMartyOgren , manager of Transportation Services; and Tami Schmitz , director of RCIA and Emmaus programs for Campus Ministry. Each award carries a $1,000 cash prize.

Chapple, a 1997 graduate, has been instrumental in maintaining the safety and integrity of the Universitys business information. He is responsible for updating security standards in all areas where the University accepts credit cards. He also has created and managed the Universitys long-term information security advancement program. In both cases, his nominators stated, he has shown a gift for engaging the cooperation of a cross-section of University professionals.

A doctoral candidate in computer science, Chapple also teaches an undergraduate course incorporating Catholic social teaching in a discussion of information security ethics. Lending his technology know-how to the community, he has served on the technology committee for the new St. Pius X 91��Ƶ and has helped local law enforcement representatives submit a grant for a program to identify online predators.

Phillips won the undying admiration of College of Engineering faculty when he solved a ceiling leak that had plagued the basement of Fitzpatrick Hall for 29 years. Some faculty believed the persistent problem affected funding applications and faculty recruitment.

The University made numerous diagnoses over the year, and tried many solutions, to no avail until Phillips stepped in. He climbed into nooks and crannies, dug investigation holes around the buildings exterior, performed a series of tests and, ultimately, pinpointed the source. He is honored both for his tenacity and for his sensitivity to the negative impact the problem has had on the Universitys teaching and research agenda.

Kennas business acumen has established her as a key source for establishing clarity in both departmental and research budget issues. Her understanding of and enthusiasm for technology allowed her to help develop an online file-sharing process for the departments appointment and promotions committeea useful advance, since faculty are located in three buildings. While valuing Kennas gifts as a departmental administrator, her colleagues also admire the contribution she has made as a University-wide resource who assists in the improvement of accounting and personnel practices across divisions and departments.

As a liaison with the Controllers Office, she helped develop the procedures that provide administrative staff and faculty with accounting information needed on a daily basis. Kenna is retiring this spring after 28 years of service to the University.

Alvarez is known for her friendly, ever-optimistic greetings among Grace Hall tenantsher primary custodial assignment. Her demeanor is living proof that excellence in leadership is often gracefully demonstrated by those who lead with their hearts.
Among her fellow professionals, she is admired for her thoroughness and efficiency. These qualities have earned her a spot in the Hesburgh Library office of Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., where she has been chosen to clean three days a week.

As one of the first to volunteer when other buildings, shifts or other supervisors need help, she is a familiar face across campus.

Harr has been a lynchpin in the planning of expansions to Cedar Grove Cemetery and the Notre Dame Hammes Bookstore. His nomination for the Presidents Award acknowledges his planning and organizational skills on a volunteer project for which he is less well known: the annual United Way campaign.

Two years ago, during a period when employee participation and total dollars raised had been declining, Harr joined the Universitys United Way committee, immediately infusing its work with enthusiasm. He is credited with encouraging livelygrass rootsparticipation through projects that emphasize fun, personally organizing the logistical details of a weekendcosmicfund-raiser featuring bowling under black lights.

This years United Way campaign met the annual goal of $300,000 and exceeded it by $8,000. More importantly, those who followed Harrs lead became more committed to the organization and a little bit closer to one another.

Ogrens nominators explained how difficult it is to separate an understanding of his professional responsibilities, as manager of transportation services, from hiscontinuing spirit of giving.Both of them have him constantly on the move. He is a mainstay of volunteer support for Catholic Charities, Compassionate Friends, Holy Cross House, the Center for the Homeless, the Salvation Army and the Kiwanis Club. Many of his most outstanding acts of kindness are done friend-to-friend, especially for the handicapped, for whom household movement or transportation can be such an issue.

As the first director of the University Motor Pool, established in 2004, Ogren oversees an operation that manages some 1,000 vehicle rentals a year. This resource has allowed the University to limit the number of vehicles it buys. His safety initiatives have included a driver safety program resulting in a notable decline in damages to University vehicles.

Schmitz brings faculty, staff and students closer to their faith as she plans retreats, organizes prayer groups, and directs the education of those converting to Catholicism, touching the lives of literally hundreds each year. Her duties also call on her to assist the master of divinity lay ministry program, interview candidates for Moreau Seminary and work with the University Counseling Center on a faith-based grief counseling program. All this she achieves while serving as the very model of a collaborative team member and team leader ever-respectful of the dignity of those with whom she works.

Patient, persistent and unafraid to address challenging issues, Schmitz is especially appreciated by the Office of Student Affairs for her work developing a program on sexuality and relationships for all first-year students. This two-day program reflects the teaching of the Catholic Church while delivering the information in a way that is appropriate for college students and that considers the diverse beliefs of the Universitys student body.

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How many people read a student research paper? Theres the student writer. Maybe a friend offers to proofread it. Finally, theres the professor who assigned the project. Not a very large audience.

The exception is research done by students in anthropologist Daniel Lendes class,Alcohol and Drugs: The Anthropology of Substance Use and Abuse.By now, their research has been viewed some 2,600 times over the Internet.

Lende required student teams to communicate their work in two forumsoral presentations to the class and a summary of their work written for a blog calledNeuroanthropology. Created by Lende and former Notre Dame anthropologist Greg Downey, the site generally draws professionals who seek a better integration between the brain sciences and anthropology, psychology, sociology and philosophy.

Within the first week of posting all eight projects on the blog, Lende not only had seen his students reach thousands of viewers, but two projects had been picked up and posted on other blogs. Far from being personal diaries on campus parties, the projects present measured analysis. Topics include how brain imaging measures the role of the brain in addiction, the genetic and environmental bases of addiction, the role gender plays in addiction, and when varying cultures introduce their children to alcohol. (All can be seen at .)

Alcohol addiction provides a perfect example of the need for integration between the brain sciences and the social sciences. Recent research defined the neurology of addiction, but that information did little to put addiction in a social context.

Addiction is not a brain disease,says Lende.Its a people problem.

Urging students to communicate through a blog is only the latest in Lendes efforts to create student projects thatget students to reach beyond themselves.

A previous class worked with Imani Unidad, an organization dedicated to increasing HIV/AIDS awareness in the African-American community. The class produced a pamphlet that addressed local alcoholism treatment options in recognition of the fact that drinking and alcoholism can increase sexual risk taking. Another class producedUnderneath It All,a colorful guide used by South Bends Memorial Hospital that describes how women have used humor in their recovery from breast cancer.

But by encouraging bloggingduring the semester, students also blogged among themselvesLendes assignment acknowledges that technological communication is increasingly more relevant to students than are books and papers. The Internet is a neuroanthropological riddle all its own.

Lendes motivation to prepare students as better scholar-communicators involves a glance to the past as well as the future. And in the latter case, he is his own case study.

As an anthropology major at Harvard, Lende recalls, his senior thesis project was as a solitary march toward a 150-page paper on human altruism. Only after he earned his doctorate and undertook a post-doctorate fellowship did a professor gently suggest that Lende needed to learn the conventions of writing for publication. Today, his undergraduates craft their papers in a flow typical of professional journals. In blogging, he encourages them to abandon the scholarly voice they adopt to impress faculty in favor of a tone that is friendly, accessible and direct.

Even one of his community partners helped shape Lendes thoughts about people-friendly knowledge. After finishing a community-based learning project with Imani Unidad, Lende presented the director with a copy of the summary of their workin classic term paper form.She said ‘Oh. Thats nice,he recalls.

After that, he had students create the pamphlet.

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