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Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival to present 'Hamlet,' 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
• Date: May 22, 2012 • Categories: Campus and Community and The Arts
The 2012 Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival (NDSF) will run July 14 through Aug. 26, highlighted by the Professional Company’s production of “Hamlet,” directed by David H. Bell.
Other performances include “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” presented by the Young Company at outdoor spaces throughout the Michiana region; Beyond the Stage, a performance-based lecture series, which will be presented at select venues in July and August; and ShakeScenes, which will open the festival with performances at historic Washington Hall on July 14 and 15 (Saturday and Sunday).
Holy Cross designates Day of Prayer for donors
• Date: May 22, 2012 • Categories: Campus and Community and Faith and Service
The Congregation of Holy Cross, the international Catholic religious order whose members founded the University of Notre Dame, is remembering more than 700 friends of the Province in daily prayers and Masses today (May 22) on a special Day of Prayer to thank its benefactors.
Priests and brothers in all U.S. Province Communities, in seven countries on three continents, will thank all those who have offered financial and prayerful support over the past three years through the event, which is the culmination of Phase I of the “Following in the Footsteps of a Great Band of Men” Campaign.
Voters’ views of Mormonism still stumbling block for Romney, new study shows
• Date: May 22, 2012 • Categories: Academics, Faith and Service, and Research
Though the social barriers of race and gender were largely overcome during the last U.S. presidential campaign, religious affiliation (in this case, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormonism) is still a significant hurdle, according to a new study by University of Notre Dame Political Science Professor David Campbell and colleagues from Brigham Young University and the University of Akron.
A “stained glass ceiling” — one that John F. Kennedy famously shattered in 1960 — may still be an obstacle to Mitt Romney’s 2012 bid for the White House, just as it was for his 2008 presidential aspirations, according to the study, published today in the journal “Political Behavior.”
ND Expert: Religious liberty lawsuit to 'vindicate constitutional commitments'
• Date: May 21, 2012 • Categories: Academics and Faith and Service
Today, the University of Notre Dame, along with a diverse group of universities and schools, health care providers and social welfare agencies, filed federal lawsuits challenging the Obama administration’s rule that requires many religious employers to provide coverage to their employees for sterilization, contraception and some abortion-causing drugs.
The lawsuits are efforts to “vindicate the country’s constitutional and traditional commitments to religious freedom and pluralism,” according to University of Notre Dame Law Professor Richard W. Garnett, whose teaching and scholarly research focus on constitutional law and religious freedom matters.
What baboons can teach us about social status
• Date: May 21, 2012 • Categories: Research
Turns out it’s not bad being top dog, or in this case, top baboon.
A new study by University of Notre Dame biologist Beth Archie and colleagues from Princeton and Duke Universities finds that high-ranking male baboons recover more quickly from injuries and are less likely to become ill than other males.
Archie, Jeanne Altmann of Princeton and Susan Alberts of Duke examined health records from the Amboseli Baboon Research Project in Kenya. They found that high rank is associated with faster wound healing. The finding is somewhat surprising, given that top-ranked males also experience high stress, which should suppress immune responses. They also found that social status is a better predictor of wound healing than age.
Notre Dame files religious liberty lawsuit related to HHS mandate
• Date: May 21, 2012 • Categories: Faith and Service
The University of Notre Dame filed a lawsuit Monday (May 21) challenging the constitutionality of a federal regulation that requires religious organizations to provide, pay for, and/or facilitate insurance coverage for services that violate the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, the lawsuit names as defendants Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and their respective departments.
Exploring learning in and out of school
• Date: May 21, 2012 • Categories: Academics and Campus and Community
A two-day working conference titled “Learning In and Out of School: Education Across the Globe” will bring a dozen researchers to the University of Notre Dame campus May 22 and 23 (Tuesday and Wednesday) to share and discuss a broad range of perspectives on the nature of learning.
“We’re taking a critical look at conventional schooling and bringing insights from other domains to understand human learning and to improve schooling — which is one of my goals as a teacher and researcher,” says organizer Susan Blum, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology.
Contrary to popular belief, investment banks do add value to M&As, new study shows
• Date: May 21, 2012 • Categories: Academics and Research
Investment bankers often are stereotyped as greedy, overpaid leeches who will say or do anything for a quick buck.
However, despite certain biases, investment banks do add value to mergers and acquisitions and, in fact, produce important information for the M&A advisory process, according to new research by Matthew Cain, assistant professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.
Class of 2012 called to life of gratitude
• Date: May 20, 2012 • Categories: Academics
Urging the class of 2012 to embrace a life of gratitude, Haley Scott DeMaria, the 1995 University of Notre Dame alumna who made an inspiring recovery from critical injuries suffered in a tragic 1992 bus accident involving the Fighting Irish swimming team, challenged Notre Dame graduates to choose each day to celebrate the blessings in their lives, even during the darkest times.
DeMaria was the principal speaker and recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the 167th University Commencement Ceremony, at which 1,973 graduates received their diplomas on Sunday (May 20) in Notre Dame Stadium. (Read Address)
Michael O'Brien valedictory address
• Date: May 20, 2012 • Categories: Academics
Delivered by Michael O’Brien at Notre Dame’s 167th University Commencement Ceremony, held May 20, 2012, in Notre Dame Stadium
Mrs. DeMaria, Father Jenkins, distinguished faculty and guests, family, friends and fellow graduates: Nearly four years ago, we gathered together for opening Mass at the Joyce Center to take a break from the festivities of freshman orientation and mark before each other and God the beginning of a chapter of countless shared challenges and new opportunities. Our time here started with dorm room decorations, Disney song serenades, kilted marches across South Quad, and the most awkward dance ever devised — Domerfest. Those days of Frosh-O eliminated virtually every conceivable barrier of social convention and mental reservation to finding new friends and new interests in our new home.
Ken Hackett Laetare address
• Date: May 20, 2012 • Categories: Academics
Delivered by Ken Hackett at Notre Dame’s 167th University Commencement Ceremony, held May 20, 2012, in Notre Dame Stadium
Thank you, Father Jenkins, this is a great and special honor. To be classed in the elite ranks of other Massachusetts notables such as John F. Kennedy, Tip O’Neil, and my friend and counselor Father J. Bryan Hehir, and to be listed next to Dorothy Day, Sister Helen Prejean, and your own Father Ted Hesburgh is truly humbling. And it is also appreciated that your list of Boston College graduate awardees is growing. That’s most commendable.
As has been mentioned, the Latin word Laetare means to rejoice.
Haley Scott DeMaria Commencement address
• Date: May 20, 2012 • Categories: Academics
Delivered by Haley Scott DeMaria at Notre Dame’s 167th University Commencement Ceremony, held May 20, 2012, in Notre Dame Stadium
Thank you, Father John.
Members of the Board of Trustees, fellow honorees, Father Jenkins, honored guests, parents, families, friends, and most importantly the class of 2012, welcome and thank you. It is a true privilege to share this day with you, to be honored with a degree, as you are honored with your degrees, and to join the class of 2012.
When Father John called to invite me to be your speaker, he first mentioned that the University wanted to give me an honorary degree. That news alone was so unexpected and overwhelming, that I actually missed the part where he asked me to give the commencement address.
Thomas Quinn tells graduates to 'Seize the Day' at Graduate School Commencement
• Date: May 19, 2012 • Categories: Academics
The University of Notre Dame’s Graduate School recognized 389 master’s and 87 doctoral degree recipients and presented several awards during Commencement ceremonies Saturday (May 19) in the Compton Family Ice Arena.
Thomas Quinn, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, delivered the Commencement address. He also was recognized as the recipient of the Graduate School’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Graduate School Commencement address
• Date: May 19, 2012 • Categories: Academics
Father Jenkins, Provost Burish, Dean Sterling, members of the faculty of the Graduate School, distinguished guests, family and friends, and most importantly, to the graduates of the Class of 2012 Graduate School of Notre Dame: Congratulations!
I am deeply honored to be with you today on this special occasion. It is a personal privilege and responsibility to address you on your graduation from the University of Notre Dame. I also wish to personally thank the University and the faculty for nominating me for the Distinguished Alumnus Award. I am truly humbled by this award, which I will always cherish. I cannot thank you enough for according me this honor.
ND Expert: The legacy and challenge of a landmark decision
• Date: May 18, 2012 • Categories: Academics and Faith and Service
Reflecting on the recent anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, John Schoenig, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Program for K-12 educational access, insisted that serious challenges to the equality of educational opportunity remain.
“On May 17, we commemorated the 58th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, arguably the most important civil rights decision in Supreme Court history,” Schoenig said.
“It was through Brown that the deplorable legacy of ‘separate but equal’ that had been enshrined in Plessy v. Ferguson was formally prohibited in America’s public schools. This year’s anniversary is a particularly special one, insofar as Brown is now as old as Plessy was when Brown was decided.”
Notre Dame and Cleveland Clinic form health care innovation alliance
• Date: May 17, 2012 • Categories: Research
The University of Notre Dame has entered into a collaborative relationship with the Cleveland Clinic for joint development and commercialization of medical innovations.
Notre Dame will be the first university within the Cleveland Clinic Healthcare Innovation Alliance network, which includes the largest nonprofit health care system in the mid-Atlantic, MedStar Health and its MedStar Institute for Innovation; and the nation’s second-largest nonprofit, secular health care system, North Shore Long Island Jewish and its Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.
Fourteen seniors receive national fellowships and scholarships
• Date: May 17, 2012 • Categories: Academics, International, and Research
Fourteen members of the Class of 2012 have been awarded nationally-competitive scholarships from organizations such as the Fulbright Exchange Program and the National Science Foundation.
Additionally, two graduates of earlier classes also received prestigious fellowships and scholarships.
Notre Dame’s Wireless Institute, National Instruments join forces to help develop next generation of wireless
• Date: May 16, 2012 • Categories: Research
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame’s Wireless Institute and at National Instruments (NI) have entered into a research partnership that will accelerate innovations in future generations of wireless technology.
The researchers will join National Instrument’s RF/Communications Lead User program to support their development of fourth-generation (4G) and beyond 4G technologies, initially focusing on relaying techniques in the context of the Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced standard.
Notre Dame students travel to Northern Ireland for inaugural CSC seminar
• Date: May 14, 2012 • Categories: Academics and International
Seven University of Notre Dame students and two faculty members traveled to Northern Ireland this spring for a new Center for Social Concerns (CSC) seminar to explore the role of digital technology in peace building.
The Notre Dame team worked with eight students from Lismore Comprehensive School, a Catholic school in Portadown, and four students from Lurgan Junior High School to help create a website. Lurgan Junior High is a Protestant school about 20 minutes from Portadown. The four students from Lurgan traveled to Lismore each day during the week of March 12-16.
Play Like a Champion Today, Athletics to travel to Uganda to promote youth sports
• Date: May 14, 2012 • Categories: Athletics, Faith and Service, and International
As most college students are packing to return home for summer vacation, 12 University of Notre Dame students will be leaving to share the experience of sports with the children of Uganda. This trip, sponsored by Play Like a Champion Today (PLACT) as part of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and by the Department of Athletics will focus on promoting youth sports as well as educational research.
Heading this international effort are Kevin Dugan, manager of youth and community programs for the athletics department, and Clark Power, professor of education and psychology and founder of PLACT, a program developed to champion character development through youth sports. “The purpose of the whole effort is to work with the Catholic Church and the (Ugandan) Ministry of Education and Sports to share ideas on how sports can be used as a platform for positive social development,” Dugan said.
More than 2,900 students to receive degrees May 19-20
• Date: May 11, 2012 • Categories: Academics and Campus and Community
More than 2,900 students will receive degrees at Notre Dame’s 167th University Commencement Ceremonies, which will be held on campus May 19 and 20 (Saturday and Sunday).
Degrees will be conferred on 1,973 undergraduates at the Sunday ceremony. Alumna Haley Scott DeMaria, who made an inspiring recovery from critical injuries suffered in a tragic 1992 bus accident involving the Fighting Irish swimming team, will be the principal speaker and will receive an honorary degree. Ken Hackett, former president of Catholic Relief Services, will receive the 2012 Laetare Medal, Notre Dame’s highest honor and the most prestigious award given to American Catholics.
Michael J. O’Brien, a political science major from St. Charles, Ill., will deliver the valedictory address.
Music historian and liturgical scholar Margot Fassler wins three research awards
• Date: May 11, 2012 • Categories: Academics
Art. Sacred music. Medieval history. And the digital humanities. Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy at Notre Dame, brings them all together in her current research on Hildegard of Bingen — research for which she has been recently awarded fellowships from both the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Adding to these accolades, Fassler, a professor in the Department of Theology who co-directs the Master of Sacred Music program in the College of Arts and Letters, on May 11 (Friday) received the 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize for “The Virgin of Chartres: Making History Through Liturgy and the Arts” (Yale University Press, 2010).
“It seems that 2012 is my year,” Fassler says.
Science dean biking 3,250 miles to bring attention to rare disease research
• Date: May 11, 2012 • Categories: Academics and Campus and Community
Greg Crawford, dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, will be cycling 3,250 miles from Boston to Pebble Beach, Calif., to raise awareness and funds for research to find a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC) disease. His third cross-country ride will start May 21 (Monday) and conclude June 22 (Friday), in time for the Parseghian Classic, a golf fundraiser at Pebble Beach Resorts.
The “Road to Discovery” bicycle ride demonstrates Notre Dame’s commitment to research to find a cure or treatments for the devastating disease that took the lives of three grandchildren of former Notre Dame head football coach Ara Parseghian.
Mendoza ranked No. 1 for ethics and sustainability in Bloomberg Businessweek specialty rankings
• Date: May 10, 2012 • Categories: Academics
The Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame earned top five rankings in eight of 14 business specialty categories in the 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek annual ranking of the “Best Undergraduate Business Programs by Specialty,” released May 9.
The results included first-place rankings in ethics and sustainability, third-place rankings in macroeconomics, accounting and finance, a fourth-place spot in microeconomics, and fifth-place rankings in business law and information systems.
Microfinance programs: Benefits not clear-cut, study shows
• Date: May 10, 2012 • Categories: Academics and Research
Large-scale microfinance programs are widely used as a tool to fight poverty in developing countries, but a recent study by University of Notre Dame Economics Professor Joseph Kaboski and MIT colleague Robert Townsend suggests that microfinancing can have varying results for participants and may not be the most cost-effective use of funds for many situations. The study was published in a recent issue of Econometrica.
Kaboski and Townsend used the Thai Million Baht Village Fund, one of the largest government microfinance initiatives of its kind, to evaluate and understand the benefits and disadvantages of microfinance interventions. Beginning in 2001, Thailand transferred one million Thai baht (Thai currency), or about $24,000, in government funds to create almost 80,000 village banks throughout the country. Its goal was to increase credit and stimulate the economy, but results varied significantly among and within these villages.
Paul Bohn named 2012 spectroscopy fellow
• Date: May 09, 2012 • Categories: Academics
Paul W. Bohn, the Arthur J. Schmitt Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, director of the Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics initiative and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS). Bohn will be honored for his exceptional contributions to spectroscopy and his service to the society during its annual meeting in October.
A member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Bohn has received numerous awards throughout his career.
Marketing group names award after ND professor William Wilkie
• Date: May 08, 2012 • Categories: Academics
William L. Wilkie, professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame, recently added another achievement to his long list: The American Marketing Association Foundation has named an award after him.
The foundation announced the creation of the William L. Wilkie “Marketing for a Better World” Award at the annual AMA Winter Marketing Educators’ Conference in St. Petersburg, Fla. The award recognizes and honors the life of Wilkie, the Nathe Professor of Marketing at the Mendoza College of Business.
Father Jenkins urges graduates to express beliefs respectfully
• Date: May 07, 2012 • Categories: Campus and Community and Faith and Service
In a commencement address Monday (May 7) at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, urged graduates to hold fast to their convictions but express them in “more skillful, more respectful ways.”
Father Jenkins spoke to Wesley’s 130th graduating class in a ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral.
“We in this country are in the midst of a social crisis, a harsh and deepening split between groups that are all too ready to see evil in each other,” Father Jenkins said. “Each side has never been more eager yet more unable to dominate the other. Both sides call for change, but each believes it’s the other side that must change.”
EWiND facility aimed at improvements in wind energy
• Date: May 07, 2012 • Categories: Research
A wind turbine and a meteorological tower recently erected on the University of Notre Dame’s White Field are a highly visible symbol of the University’s commitment to establish a premier wind energy research program.
Thomas Corke and Robert Nelson, professors of aerospace and mechanical engineering, are directing the effort, which includes the establishment of a Laboratory for Enhanced Wind Energy Design, titled “eWiND.” The program will seek to develop revolutionary designs that involve “virtual aerodynamic shaping” for enhanced wind energy systems. The laboratory will provide a rich environment for multi-disciplinary investigations including fluid dynamics, acoustics, fluid-structure interaction, design optimization, materials, failure modeling, system feedback and control, and atmospheric turbulence.
ND Expert: Assessing the assessment of Catholic female religious
• Date: May 07, 2012 • Categories: Academics and Faith and Service
Last week, the Vatican charged the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization that represents most of America’s Catholic nuns, with “serious doctrinal problems” and announced plans to place LCWR into a sort of receivership overseen by three American bishops.
Kathleen Sprows Cummings, associate professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, said she understands why so many American Catholics have been “flabbergasted” by the decision.
