University of Notre Dame political scientist James McAdams recalls the first time he stepped over the border from West Germany to East Germany in 1973 as a 19-year-old college student studying in West Berlin.

“The first time I entered East Berlin, it felt like I was going to an anti-Disneyland. It was like going from color television in West Berlin to black and white in East Berlin,” says McAdams, the William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs and director of Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European 91��Ƶ.

An internationally recognized scholar of the two-state period in modern German history (1949 to 1989) and its aftermath, and author of several books including “Germany Divided: From the Wall to Reunification,” “East Germany and Détente,” and “Judging the Past in Unified Germany,” McAdams was living in West Germany in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell.

“There were several events happening in that part of Europe at that time that set the stage for the fall of the Berlin Wall,” McAdams says.

“The East German government was slowly allowing short visits to the West, and at the same time, there was a feeling of looseness; for the first time, people were publicly voicing complaints about their own government.”

The rise and success of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union also played a role in helping to open the gates of reform. In October 1989, on the 40th anniversary of the existence of East Germany, Gorbachev visited East Berlin and told the East German government, “Those who come too late are punished by history.”

His words – a stinging indictment of Communist rule – conveyed to the East German government that if their country is to survive (not be “punished by history”), then the time had come to reform its politics and economy and begin thinking in new ways about its responsibility to its people.

On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell.

“East Germans were filled with excitement just to have the opportunity to leave their country and visit West Berlin, just the spirit of choosing how to live their lives,” McAdams says.

“But there was this realization that suddenly this coming together of two countries that hadn’t had ties for nearly a half century, and throughout the 1990s, East Germans were convinced that they were being treated as second-class citizens by their West German kinsmen.”

They felt German, certainly, but felt they were regarded as the “lesser” cousins from the East who were “generously brought into the West German economy and culture,” McAdams says.

So the big question with which Germans will grapple in the coming decades, according to McAdams, is what happens to the chunk of the country brought into unified Germany?

“And more importantly,” he added, “what do you do with the history of this part of Germany in dealing with the fact that this part of Germany was ruled by a dictatorship for 40 years? Or do you just ignore it and pretend it never happened?”

Contact: James McAdams, amcadams@nd.edu, 574-631-5253

The Taliban are in much stronger financial shape than al Qaeda, and their emergence over the last two years as a formidable military force is directly tied to funding by private benefactors, according to Jimmy Gurulé, University of Notre Dame professor of law and one of the world’s leading experts on terrorist financing.

“The good news is that al Qaeda has been weakened by military strikes killing top al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan,” Gurulé said. “These military efforts have further denied the terror group a safe haven to plan and launch major terrorist attacks against the West. As the result of al Qaeda’s decline, donors have been reluctant to fund the terrorist organization. No one wants to donate to a losing cause.

“The bad news is that the Taliban are growing in strength both in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and are perceived by many as winning the war in Afghanistan. As the result, there is no shortage of private donors willing to finance the Taliban’s efforts.”

According to Gurulé, the Taliban receive approximately $100 million annually from the opium trade in Afghanistan – a narco-state which is keeping the Taliban flush with funds to purchase military weapons and recruit fighters. Further, the U.S. government’s efforts to stem the flow of funds from the sale of heroin in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere around the world back to Afghanistan have been largely ineffectual.

Media advisory: Jimmy Gurulé’s comments may be used in whole or in part. He is available for interviews and can be reached at 574-631-5917 or �ҳܰ��ܱ�é.1���Ի�.����. Additional information on Gurulé, including video, is available at .

Sirius XM Radio will broadcast “The Catholic Guy” live from the University of Notre Dame campus Friday (Oct. 2) from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturday (Oct. 3) from noon to 2 p.m.

A variety of students and faculty, including the University’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., will be interviewed. Father Jenkins’ interview takes place Friday from 6 to 6:20 p.m.

Hosted by Lino Rulli, “The Catholic Guy” can be heard on The Catholic Channel on Sirius 159 and XM 117.

The University of Notre Dame has been identified as one of the top 10 higher education workplaces in the country in a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education, a leading resource for higher education news and information.

The “Great Colleges to Work For” survey places Notre Dame among 10 large universities that have achieved multiple high marks in such categories as overall job satisfaction, employee benefits, quality facilities, safety, and employee commitment to the institution’s mission. Other leaders in the category, comprised of four-year institutions with more than 10,000 students, include Cornell, Duke and Emory Universities.

“We are pleased to be recognized for the quality of our workplace, and pleased that the diligence and commitment of our faculty and staff have resulted in this honor. We all share in this achievement,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., University president.

“For several years, the administration, faculty and staff have worked together to improve Notre Dame’s work life experience,” added Robert McQuade, associate vice president for human resources. “It’s great to be recognized for those efforts by our peers and other higher education professionals.”

Results reflect information provided by participating institutions, as well as surveys with hundreds of employees selected at random. The Chronicle survey cites, in particular, Notre Dame’s decision to commit $1 million in recent years to improve professional and personal development. Partnerships with Ivy Tech, Indiana University South Bend and the South Bend Community 91��Ƶ Corp. have increased on-campus education options that range from high school equivalency preparation to a master’s degree in educational administration.

Survey results were drawn from information voluntarily submitted by colleges and universities, as well as surveys of hundreds of faculty and staff members selected at random. Of 26 categories measured by the survey, Notre Dame achieved top scores in 11 categories. A high-quality teaching environment was cited in addition to favorable compensation and benefits.

“These areas of recognition are of crucial importance in our efforts to bring the brightest minds to work and live in this community,” Father Jenkins said.

More than 245 institutions and nearly 41,000 faculty and staff participated in the survey. It is the second annual survey for the Chronicle, whose editors describe its purpose as recognizing colleges and institutions for specific best practices and policies. ModernThink, a human resources consulting company in Wilmington, Del., administered the survey and analyzed the results.

President Obama’s push for a formalized, financial regulatory consumer structure to aid the nation’s recovery from one of the worst financial crises in history would be “the worst kind of nanny-state regulation,” according to Paul Schultz, John W. and Maude Clarke Professor of Finance at the University of Notre Dame.

“The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) is intrusive, petty and probably very expensive,” says Schultz, who specializes in market microstructure and corporate finance.

Potential actions of the CFPA include warning consumers who use debit cards or ATM machines that doing so would overdraft their account; prohibiting charging for overdraft coverage under a plan unless the consumer has “opted in” to the plan; and limiting the types of credit cards and mortgages that are made available to consumers.

Part of the mission of the CFPA, according to Schultz, will be to ensure that “traditionally underserved consumers and communities have access to lending, investment and financial services,” and that the CFPA should maintain a group of examiners specially trained and certified in community development to conduct CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) examinations of larger institutions.

“In other words, the CFPA will pressure banks to make loans to borrowers that they would not otherwise make,” Schultz says. “Isn’t that one of the reasons we got into so much trouble in the first place?”

In addition to the CFPA, other changes proposed by the Obama administration include an oversight council to identify systemic risks, a national insurance regulator, comprehensive regulation of over-the-counter derivatives, and registration of hedge funds.

“Financial innovation has outpaced regulation. Much of the U.S. regulatory structure dates back to the 1930s. The last three decades have seen an explosion of new financial products and services,” Schultz says.

“This is the normal course of events – unless we stifle innovation, it will proceed faster than regulation. Wall Street is full of very smart people who can make a lot of money by creating successful financial innovations. In fact, regulation is often a spur to innovation as the financial industry looks to evade expensive or restrictive regulations.”

A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1998, Schultz is the co-author of a landmark 1994 study that led to a $1 billion class-action lawsuit against the Nasdaq stock exchange and to major changes in the rules governing share trading on Nasdaq. More information about Schultz is available at http://newsinfo.nd.edu/for-the-media/nd-experts/faculty/paul-schultz.

Media advisory: Schultz’ comments may be used in whole or in part. He is available for comment and can be reached at 574-631-3338 or pschultz@nd.edu.

Though his speech to the Arab world on Thursday did mention past American failings – particularly the coup in Iran – President Obama stopped short of apologizing for those missteps.

“He didn’t hold out hope for reconciliation for past matters,” according to R. Scott Appleby, University of Notre Dame professor of history and director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ.

“He offered a tough-minded analysis of what the situation is right now, today.”

It was “a straight-forward approach, what we might call a mainstream American position – the unvarnished truth as he saw it. He went as far as one can go in one speech with reframing relations between the West and Islam,” Appleby says, “and tackled head-on the issues that divide those two worlds.”

Though Obama’s call for Israel to accept some of the burden for solving the conflict with Palestinians was met with resistance from Israel, the speech still “signals a shift” that in no way diminishes support for Israel, “but suggests that the U.S. wants to be an equal partner with Israel in determining how that support should be understood and how Israelis themselves must act within the context of a three-way partnership that has really not been so strongly pronounced in the past,” Appleby says.

“The U.S., Israel and the Arab-Muslim world are all partners in this and that came across very clearly in a way that really has not come across in previous presidential pronouncements from earlier administrations.”

Appleby’s areas of research include the roots of religious violence and the potential for religious peacebuilding. His books include “The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation” and “Spokesmen for the Despised: Fundamentalist Leaders of the Middle East.”

Video featuring Prof. Appleby discussing the speech can be viewed at:

Media Advisory: Prof. Appleby’s comments or video may be used in whole or in part. He is available for interviews and can be reached at 574-631-5665 or Appleby.3@nd.edu

For the families and friends left to mourn scores of innocent Chinese citizens who were slaughtered two decades ago in Tiananmen Square for calling for government reform, June 4 will be a day filled with anger, sadness and resentment. But there will be no memorial event marking that historic struggle.

“June 4 marks the tragic end of a near triumphant struggle of the Chinese people against a corrupt and illegitimate authoritarian state,” says Lionel Jensen, associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Notre Dame.

“There is an urgency that attends the anticipation in Western journalism of a 20th anniversary memorial insurgency, a long awaited comeuppance for the decades of official denial of the slaughter and the unaccountable turning of the People’s Liberation Army on the people in the Square. However, this dramatic scenario will not be staged in real time,” says Jensen, whose areas of specialty include Chinese nationalism and Chinese religion and thought.

The Chinese communist government’s commitment to the rapidly growing national economy – which has raised thousands out of poverty – has overshadowed Chinese citizens’ cry for legitimate rule, according to Jensen.

“This is the Party’s answer to the massacre: an offering to the generations living beyond the unspeakable to pursue wealth without much political interference. In the eyes of many, the dream of economic self-sufficiency that was a revolutionary ideal prophesied by the Party’s leaders, has been achieved,” Jensen says.

“As long as the government’s diminished legitimacy remains tethered to the desperate, blind retreat from Tiananmen, there will always be a sliver of a chance that there will be a frank public accounting of what transpired. Unfortunately, that accounting will not occur this year.”

Contact: , 574-631-7699 Jensen.21@nd.edu.

The Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame will present diplomas to 403 master’s degree candidates at 8:30 a.m. Sunday (May 17) at the Angela Athletic Facility on the Saint Mary’s College campus.

Richard C. Notebaert, chair of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees and former chairman and chief executive officer of Qwest Communications International, will address the assembly.

A member of the Notre Dame Board since 1997, Notebaert has served as chair of its University Relations and Public Affairs and Communication Committee, and serves as a Fellow of the University. He led Qwest from 2002 to 2007. A leader in broadband, data, voice and image communications, the company is based in Denver. Notebaert previously served as chief executive officer of Tellabs Inc., and as chairman and chief executive officer of Ameritech Communications.

The Mendoza College of Business undergraduate recognition ceremony for accountancy, marketing, management and finanace majors will be held Friday (May 15) at 2 p.m. in the Joyce Center arena.

The University of Notre Dame’s Division of Student Affairs recently recognized four outstanding seniors with student leadership awards.

The Rev. A. Leonard Collins, C.S.C. Award, given to a graduating senior who has made substantial personal effort to advance the interests of Notre Dame students, was presented to Janeva Waked, a Winter Springs, Fla. native who completed a double major in business and Arabic.

Serving on the freshman and junior class councils, as sophomore class secretary and senior class vice president, Waked also was co-leader of the senior retreat and served as a resident assistant in Howard Hall.

The John W. Gardner Student Leadership Award, presented to a graduating senior who exemplifies the ideals of Notre Dame through outstanding volunteer activities reaching beyond the University, was given to Megan Rybarczk, a biology major from Muncie, Ind.

Rybarczk’s service activities include participation in international service programs in Ecuador and Haiti, as well as service trips to Appalachia and New Orleans through Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. She also served as social concerns commissioner for Lyons Hall, where she organized several successful donation drives for South Bend’s Center for the Homeless.

The Denny Moore Award for Excellence in Journalism, named in honor of the University’s late associate vice president for public affairs and communication and presented to a senior who exemplifies the qualities for which Moore was known, including personal integrity and character, commitment to Notre Dame and writing ability, was given to Christopher Hine, a history major from West Pittston, Pa.

Among Hine’s honors are the Harry Ornest Memorial Award for Sports Journalism and the James Reston Reporting Fellowship. He served as sports editor for The Observer in 2007 and as editor-in-chief in 2008, managing a staff of some 150 students. He has interned as a sports writer for The Los Angeles Times, and as recipient of the Reston Fellowship, earned an internship with the New York Times, where he will serve as a sports staff writer.

The Ray Siegfried Award for Leadership Excellence, established in 2006 in memory of the alumnus and University Trustee, was presented to Daniel Rodgers, a Phoenix, Md. native who completed a double major in theology and pre-professional studies.

A resident assistant in Siegfried Hall, Rodgers also was a four-year member of Siegfried’s cross country, ice hockey, lacrosse and soccer teams. He served as president of the boxing club and was a three-time Bengal Bouts champion. In addition to his excellence in athletics, he participated in the South Africa Public Health Program and in the Center for Social Concern’s Urban Plunge program. Rodgers also served as leader of the sophomore road trip and as a sacristan of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

The Aidan Project, a cancer awareness initiative coordinated by University of Notre Dame student leaders, recently was named the 2009 Service Project of the Year by the Association of College Unions International (ACUI).

Led by Notre Dame’s Circle K club with the support of Knott Hall and the Senior Class Council, The Aidan Project began in 2006 as a way for Notre Dame students to raise awareness about cancer while also supporting Aidan Fitzgerald, a classmate living in Knott Hall who discovered he had cancer. Students make fleece blankets and write personal notes of encouragement for children undergoing cancer treatment. This past year, children from Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, as well as South Bend’s Memorial Hospital and St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, received the blankets.

is a college-based service group affiliated with the Kiwanis international organization. In addition to The Aidan Project, the club coordinates a variety of weekly service projects in the South Bend community, including tutoring students, visiting nursing homes, working with animals and volunteering at local hospitals.

Founded in 1914, ACUI is a nonprofit educational organization that brings together college union and student activities professionals from more than 500 colleges and universities in seven countries.

Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, former U.S. national security advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, will present “The Foreign Policy Challenges Facing the Obama Administration” at 4 p.m. April 27 (Monday) in the auditorium of the Hesburgh Center at the University of Notre Dame. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Prior to the presentation, Gen. Scowcroft will sign copies of his latest book, “America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy,” which he co-authored with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter.

Scowcroft’s presentation is part of Notre Dame’s International Security Program seminar series, which was established last year to provide a forum where leading scholars in national security studies from Notre Dame and elsewhere could come together to explore some of the most pressing issues in national security policy. The program is co-directed by Notre Dame political science faculty members Michael Desch, Kier Lieber, Daniel Lindley and Sebastian Rosato.

President Obama will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree. Other honorary degree recipients are:

Steven Beering (doctor of laws) – The president emeritus of Purdue University, Beering is the current chair of the National Science Board, the governing board of the National Science Foundation. Before becoming president of Purdue in 1983, he spent a decade as dean of medicine and director of the Indiana University Medical Center. He retired from the Purdue presidency in 2000 and holds appointments as a professor of medicine at Indiana University and professor of pharmacology at Purdue. He earned his bachelor’s and M.D. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and has held numerous national offices, including the chairmanship of the Association of Medical Colleges and the Association of American Universities. He is a former regent of the National Library of Medicine.

Myles Brand (doctor of laws) – The president of the NCAA since 2003, Brand previously served as president of Indiana University from 1994 to 2002 and as president of the University of Oregon from 1989 to 1994. Trained as a philosopher, he has studied the nature of human action with a focus on intention, desire, belief and other cognitive states, as well as deliberation and practical reasons, planning and general goal-directed activity. He earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his doctorate from the University of Rochester. He began his academic career at the University of Pittsburgh and also has served on the faculties and in administrative positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Arizona and Ohio State University. His service to the academy includes membership on the boards of the Association of American Universities (as chair), American Council on Education and National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. He revealed in January that he is battling pancreatic cancer.

Fritz L. Duda (doctor of laws) – A member of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees since 1997, Duda is chief executive officer of Genus Holdings Ltd., a Dallas-based investment company, and the owner and founder of the Fritz Duda Company, a privately held real estate development and investment firm. He is a graduate of the University of California’s Hastings College of Law. Prior to his election to Notre Dame’s Board, he served for six years on the Advisory Council for the University’s 91��Ƶ of Architecture. He has provided significant leadership on the Board as chair of the Facilities and Campus Planning Committee, overseeing many important projects, including the development of a comprehensive long-term plan for the Notre Dame campus, the initiative to close Juniper Road, the development of Irish Green, and the return to a collegiate gothic theme for new buildings. He also has provided leadership and guidance to the University on the Eddy Street Commons project and campus-community relations in the Northeast Neighborhood. As chair of the Board’s International Facilities Committee, he has led efforts to establish a larger presence for Notre Dame in Italy and to secure the future of the University’s London facility. In addition, he and his wife, Mary Lee, have been generous benefactors to the University.

Patrick Finneran (doctor of engineering) – Finneran is vice president of program management and business excellence for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, leading company-wide efforts to achieve peak performance. He joined Boeing in 1987 following a 20-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps, including combat service in Vietnam, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He has led every military aircraft program at Boeing’s St. Louis site. Finneran earned a bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame and master’s degree from East Carolina University. He is chairman of Notre Dame’s Advisory Council for Graduate 91��Ƶ and Research.

Cindy Parseghian (doctor of science) – A 1977 Notre Dame graduate, Cindy Parseghian serves on the University’s College of Science Advisory Council. Along with her husband, Michael, she is co-founder of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, which they started in 1994 in an effort to find a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C disease, a rare and fatal genetic disorder that struck three of their four children. The foundation is named in honor of the children’s grandfather and Notre Dame’s legendary football coach. Cindy is president of the foundation, which has raised more than $33 million to help scientists identify the gene responsible for the disease and develop therapies to help the children affected.

Don Michael Randel (doctor of laws) — President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation since 2006, Randel is a prolific and internationally prominent historian of music. He specializes in music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance but has written and lectured on topics ranging from Arabic music theory and Latin American popular music to medieval liturgical chant and 15th century French music and poetry. He also is editor of the Harvard Dictionary of Music, the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music and the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He taught for 32 years at Cornell University, serving as dean of the university’s college of arts and letters and for five years as its provost before becoming president of the University of Chicago in 2000. At Chicago, he led a $2 billion fund-raising campaign, the largest in the university’s history.

Randall T. Shepard (doctor of laws) – Appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court in 1985, Shepard has served as the chief justice since 1987. Under his leadership, the Indiana Supreme Court has undergone dramatic improvements, including successfully breaking down the language barriers in the courts, creating an atmosphere of accountability for judges, and educating the public about the judiciary’s role in society. U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts recently appointed Shepard to the U.S. Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. A native of Evansville, Ind., Shepard was graduated from Princeton University and Yale Law 91��Ƶ. He also earned a master of laws degree from the University of Virginia. He was judge of the Vanderburgh Superior Court from 1980 until his appointment to the Supreme Court and previously served as executive assistant to the mayor of Evansville and as a special assistant in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A prayer for Pope John Paul II, who died four years ago today:

“O Mother of Jesus,
now glorified in heaven in body and in soul,
as the image and beginning of the Church,
which is to have its fulfillment
in the future age here on earth,
until the day of the Lord comes
do not ceases to shine
before the pilgrim people of God
as a sign of sure hope and consolation.”