January 2007

Rudy's Fly-Buy closing its doors

Tuesday's issue of Flyer News brought word that after 17 years in business, Rudy's Fly-Buy is closing its doors for good at the end of the spring semester.
According to news editor Jessica Parker, sales have declined during the last five years as dining services and Rudy's parent company, Flyer Enterprises, have expanded food options for students. The redevelopment of Brown Street and an increase in Ohio's minimum wage were also factors, she reported.
Flyer Enterprises is a profitable student-run enterprise with seven companies, approximately 170 employees and revenues topping $1.3 million annually. Nationally, the program has been compared to similar business programs at Harvard, Georgetown and Stanford, but this one takes a bigger risk because faculty don't get involved in day-to-day operations. Only at UD do students manage every detail — from creating a leadership development program to launching new product lines. The decision to close a losing venture comes with the territory.
"We did everything we possibly could to keep it open," senior Tyler Link, president of retail at Rudy's Fly-Buy and Stuart's Landing, told the paper.

by Matthew Dewald 1-31-07

In harmony

A toddler with dark eyes and a bright pink jumpsuit bobbed up and down to the beatbox sounds of Rhythm in Shoes at Monday night's Culture Builds Community event at Otterbein United Methodist Church. Dozens of children — and their families — also bobbed and clapped to Appalachian swing, traditional mariachi music and African drumming. In their eyes — blue, brown, black, green, gray — there was joy on bending conventions of culture and mixing together sounds representing Dayton's many peoples. The free community event was linked to this week's visit by Samputu and Ingeli, a Rwandan music and dance group to perform at UD 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, in a joint presentation of the UD Arts Series and Cityfolk. Jean Paul Samputu will discuss his music and dance at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Sears Recital Hall, part of the campus Focus on Africa events.

by Michelle Tedford 1-30-07

Street law

A fun night turned to disaster for Susan. She fought with her boyfriend, lost her ride home, missed the bus and got picked up by the police for violating curfew.
What's a teenage girl to do?
Go to juvenile court, or, more precisely, to Street Law class.
This winter, law professor Dennis Greene is teaching Street Law to 28 Dayton Early College Academy students. They are learning about criminal law, appropriate dispute resolution and other legal areas through readings, discussions and role-playing.
Last Thursday, students got a legal lesson in juvenile justice through a mock adjudicatory hearing for Susan, played by DECA student Hadil Issa.
Juanita Tennyson, third-year law student and class volunteer, doled out advice as well as justice in her role as judge. She told the defense lawyer, Tayana Hargrave, to object to the prosecutor leading the witness. She informed lawyers of their right to cross examination and suggested lines of questioning to help each of their cases.
Prosecutor Tiffany Smith responded to the prompting with a barrage of questions to which the witness was left with only one response: yes.
"If you can get the witness to agree with you, you've got it," Greene told the class. "Remember, everybody, that this is war. At risk is the freedom of an individual and you (Hargrave) want to break up the flow."
But Hargrave had her own tactic — fluster the witness. Her circuitous questioning got the police officer to admit she never informed Susan of her offense. In the end, the judge sided with the defense.
Tennyson, one of many law student volunteers, said she was impressed with the students' thinking. Those watching the hearing piped in with questions about Miranda rights and the constitutional right to face one's accuser.
She said she is volunteering each Thursday because it is her civic duty to provide students with a positive African American role model in the judicial system. "We want to show them that we are here and that we're accessible — we're right across the street," she said.

by Michelle Tedford 01-30-07

Barring justice

With tears in her eyes and passion in her voice, Janet Moore spoke of the man who she said first showed her how “broken the criminal justice system was” during a luncheon discussion with students and faculty Wednesday afternoon at the law school.
In 1982 Earl Washington Jr., a mentally retarded black man, was convicted of raping and killing a white woman in Virginia. He remained incarcerated even though DNA evidence in subsequent years contradicted the prosecution's theory. When the case made its way to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Moore worked as a federal judicial law clerk for a judge who had the deciding vote in Washington’s petition for a rehearing. The judge voted no and Moore, choking up at the recollection, said she still hasn’t gotten over the decision. Washington served 18 years before his 2001 exoneration.
Moore now heads up the Race and Justice Project at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, an organization in Cincinnati dedicated to reforming the state’s criminal justice system.
She spoke of the need to address the cause of the “schoolhouse to jailhouse pipeline” minorities follow and said the solution is to start from the beginning by investing the proper resources in education.
Moore encouraged UD law students to assist her in an upcoming project in Hamilton County, Ohio. When asked by a student if they could volunteer in Dayton, Moore reiterated the scope of the problem: “The opportunities for participation are huge and limitless.”

by Kathleen Miller 1-26-07

In song and story

Father Patrick Tonry, S.M, has the Irishman's gift of storytelling.
His lecture Jan. 19, part of UD's Marianist heritage celebrations, was full of stories:   of the three Marianist founders and of his past decade as a parish priest, learning "power and wisdom from people who have lived life and gone through great crisis."
He told stories about the people he ministered to, including some 1,300 children in the religious education program, who looked at him as a grandfather.
Stories, he said, help us to remember, to see things for the first time and to remember other stories.   Stories touch something within us; they give us hope.
Afterwards, a small group of vowed Marianists and laypeople gathered for dinner with Tonry. As the evening came to a close, people shared some of the thoughts that his stories had sparked.
Colin Gerker, a redheaded first-year student, remembered his own grandfather, now gone. His family maintains the tradition at Christmas of singing the German drinking songs his grandfather knew and loved.
In that instant, an idea took shape in the collective Marianist heart. "We know a German drinking song," someone volunteered. "Shall we sing it?"
The small group raised their glasses and a cappella, offered the toast from Alsace-Lorraine that the Marianists traditionally sing to new University of Dayton employees, "Sie leben hoch," (May you live well).
And in story and in song that touch something within us, give us hope and help us to remember, a piece of Marianist heritage was passed on.

by Deborah McCarty Smith 1-23-07

Prom night

Most dance moves were restricted to jumping up and down because "up" was the only direction to go during the seventh annual Martin Luther King Jr. Prom. On Saturday, Jan. 13, about 350 students filed in and out of the student house, its walls practically shaking from the beat of the music and rhythms of the dancers.
The MLK Prom got its start in 2001 when two men hosted a formal get-together for their friends in their Marycrest dorm room, which carried on the next year in VWK. But it was in 2003, when the students had a house on Woodland Avenue, that the celebration really took off.
Each year the standards for the prom grow, along with the amount of decorations and people in attendance. Upon graduation, the two alumni passed the torch to Steve Mannhard, who is currently in his senior year.
“I had a fantastic experience going, and thought the tradition of friends coming together for a special night was so cool,” Mannhard said.
Mannhard, with the help of his five roommates and many friends, organize a decorating committee, arrange couples pictures, and name a king and queen of the dance.
The event brings the original founders and their graduated friends back each year. Mannhard hopes to pass along his prom responsibilities to a younger student and keep the tradition alive.
Adorned in a suit and top hat, he greeted each couple this year with instructions on the picture taking. “I will never have a prom like this one again because this is the last time I will be in charge," Mannhard said. "My favorite part is that the MLK Prom brings all friends together in a different setting than we normally get at UD.”

by Sarah Barnidge ’07 1-23-07

Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

"Were brother Martin here today, what would he say to us?" Johnnetta Betsch Cole, president of Bennett College for Women and former president of Spelman College, asked a packed Kennedy Union ballroom during the 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. prayer breakfast Tuesday morning.
We can't know for sure, she said after acknowledging "brother president" Daniel J. Curran, but in King's words Cole found guiding principles. "He didn't bring us this far to leave us now," she said.
King would say today that "we must continue to educate, we must legislate and, where necessary and in a nonviolent way, we must agitate" against all forms of discrimination, she said. "He would remind us that war, poverty, bigotry and injustice are not carried on the chromosomes. We learn to behave in this way and we can unlearn it. And we can just stop teaching it."
Curran, president of UD, echoed Cole's remarks before presenting her with a gift. "At times in our (UD) community, we do not step forward; at times, we stay silent. Sister president has told us that is not acceptable."

by Matthew Dewald 1-19-07

The letter

It arrived in the UDQ editor's mailbox a week ago bearing a stamp from Nigeria and a postmark from just before Christmas. Inside was a single sheet of paper and a small passport photograph.
It was a class note. If you held the sheet up to the light, you could see where typewriter keys had punched tiny pinholes at the periods. A 1975 graduate was writing to say she lives in Ondo State, where her husband is traditional ruler of Ikare.
"The work in the palace keeps me busy," she said.
What's keeping you busy? Send a class note to classnotes@udayton.edu.

by Matthew Dewald 1-18-07

Adèle and duck

Wednesday’s lunch in the faculty-staff dining rooms of Kennedy Union had its roots in many places — in the centuries-old soil of France, in the wine-rich Napa Valley, in the front yard of the mother of Chef Lisa Davis.
The rector’s office in its annual celebration of UD’s Marianist Heritage had asked dining services to share something special. So this lunch celebrated the founder of the Marianist Sisters, Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon, noble and wealthy by birth, humble and generous by choice.
Chef Lisa shared with us a recipe dating from her experience in 2002 when she received a scholarship for six weeks of studying food-and-wine pairing at the Culinary Institute of America in California’s Napa Valley. “We had to come up with something to pair with pinot noir,” she said. So she created Sautéed Duck Breasts with Lavender, Fennel and Cracked Pepper.
An option for wine wasn’t available at the KU lunch, but the duck went nicely with a topping of tomato coulis and a bed of lentils and of lavender, from the front yard of Davis’ mother.
Davis dates her liking of duck back to childhood and being the daughter of a “hunter-gatherer father.” For some time, she said, “I’d wanted to serve duck in the Chef’s Corner [in Kennedy Union]. But I didn’t think there would be many takers.”
But many of us took it. And others took the Halibut en Pappiotte, the Coq au Vin or the Beef Bourguignonne, some finishing with Tarte au Chocolate avec Sabayon de Champagne.
And in our taking of this abundance we were given an opportunity ourselves to share. Also marking UD’s Marianist Heritage this week are, in the KU lobby, barrels to be filled with food for Dayton’s hungry, perhaps indicating that those with roots should spread their branches.

by Thomas M. Columbus 1-10-07

'Dark Places' on white walls
A dark staircase in an ancient cathedral in Siena, Italy, sparked interest for senior art history major Jama Baldwin. Her photograph, “You Have Dark Places, Too,” is part of the Seventh Annual Honors Art Exhibition, which opened last Friday with a reception and awards ceremony. Baldwin was studying abroad when she happened across her inspiration, a winding staircase of years past. “The shadows and the graduations of tone were really of interest to me,” she said.
Honors and Berry Scholar students from many majors have brought a collection of photography, drawing and painting to the white walls of Alumni Hall. Sophomore education major Katie Groves shows “Life,” which depicts her favorite interests, music and art. Quotes about the two subjects are pasted on sheet music from Billy Joel’s “Lullaby” and “Someday” of West Side Story. Mary Lynch received best of show and a $500 scholarship for her photograph “Where Does the Mind Wander?” The show will be displayed until Nov. 16, 2007, in Alumni Hall room 125.

by Johnnie C. Kling ’09 1-09-07

Carolina screaming

You've heard of a silver lining. At the Dean Dome on New Year's Eve, it was more like a red lining across the top of the sky-blue arena. More than 750 Flyers fans purchased tickets for the game at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and didn’t let the nosebleed seats keep them from being heard. A few cheerleaders in the group got the crowd going with "We are UD" and "Let's go Flyers" chants.
"Our guys could hear them more than maybe the rest of the place," coach Brian Gregory told the Dayton Daily News.
Though the Flyers lost by 30 points, there was still much to be happy about. More than 300 alumni, friends and family met for a pre-game luncheon at the Carolina Inn. In the dome, Bill Wall and Sandy Whipple Wall, 1968 graduates who now live in Pinehurst, N.C., shared with younger wed-to-weds the story of their marriage 39 years ago this month. Father Norbert Burns, S.M., who taught their Christian marriage course, married them in his first out-of-town ceremony, Sandy said.
"He was beaming even more than our parents, as if he were responsible for us getting married," she said, explaining how he encouraged couples to hold hands during class. Thirty-eight years, 11 months and 14 days later, they were still holding strong, through good times and not-so-good basketball.

by Michelle Tedford 01-04-07

Gotta wear shades

Phil Doepker thought he'd avoid the perils of morning sun by scheduling his first class in the new innovation center at 10 a.m.
Instead, he cast a long shadow across the projector screen as light bounced off the windshields of 450 cars in C lot and into the design studio.
Ah, what a glorious problem to have.
He was worried his problem would be no classroom.
As the semester neared, construction workers asked Doepker, director of the Design and Manufacturing Clinic, which rooms he wanted done first. Forget the offices, he told them. Give me studio space by Jan. 3, the first day of classes.
While he got his wish, workers are still finishing a flexible projects lab, collaboration studios, offices and the three team meeting rooms, each painted in a bright orange, blue or maroon. For the best view of the space, stop by in the morning hours, and bring your shades. With transparent walls and windows everywhere, there's a lot to see.

by Michelle Tedford 01-04-06