October 2009
Sometimes, Flyers don't like to give
Mandi Bäck and the Flyers blew by UMass 3-0 on Baujan Field Saturday. Bäck's second goal was the 36th of her career, tying her fourth all-time in UD history.
To the moon
Ever dream? Mechanical engineering grad student Margaret Ratcliff thinks this will be a feasible vacation within the next two 
generations. She is on one of 21 teams participating in the Google Lunar X Prize, a competition to land on the moon a robot that will travel 500 meters and send images and data back to Earth by Dec. 31, 2012. The first place prize is $20 million.
Team LunaTrex is based in the Midwest because it's a prime region for aerospace development. According to team member Rick Wills, Dayton especially has a strong pull; both Ratcliff and Wills work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and LunaTrex shares ideas with UD Advanced Rocket Team, a University club.
LunaTrex team members — all of whom are volunteers — want to win, but they also see the competition as an outlet for collaboration, innovation, hands-on engineering and fun. The team hopes participating in this project at a local level will also help include the larger community.
When the grandchildren of today's UD students buy their tickets for a sub-orbital trip around the moon, remember that it's people like the members of LunaTrex that made it possible.
‘Mom, Dad … I think the Flyers are here’
Lucky men’s basketball season-ticket holders living around the Dayton area were surprised by members of the team on their front porches Monday evening.
After announcing a glitch in the season-ticket delivery system, some Flyer basketball fans were probably annoyed not to have their tickets … until they realized the glitch was really a prank and an opportunity for the players and coaches to say “thank you” in person.
I hopped in associate athletic director Dave Harper’s truck with players London Warren and Matt Kavanaugh and headed to four Centerville homes.
We met one ticket holder of 52 years, Warren’s biggest 12-year-old female fan, and a woman who exclaimed, “I think I know you,” before realizing who the men at her doorstep were.
“I’m surprised we didn’t run into any parties,” Warren said. “Last year, we delivered at a house in the midst of a party and stayed for a good half-hour.”
The entire team and group of coaches delivered from Xenia to Vandalia and Englewood to Huber Heights, catching more than 25 Flyer fans off guard.
Thinking green
As a freshman living in Marycrest, I am constantly reminded of UD's effort to go green by the cafeteria's sustainability program. Between my room and the dinner table I see seven posters, and when I get takeout containers the 25-cent charge shows up on the register as "Think Green." I'm in the minority — 67 percent of students were unaware of UD's sustainability initiatives according to a survey of 1,000 students and staff conducted at the 2009 Stander Symposium.
Though students may be undereducated about the University's attempts to green up, more than 80 percent reported an effort to minimize personal harmful practices. Unfortunately, the majority also admitted to being more conscientious in their own homes.
Students aren't apathetic about their environmental impact. At a forum this month, we learned that nearly every student believes UD should be concerned about going green. Recycling is practiced campuswide and lights are turned off when a room is left. In a second survey conducted after the UD Energy Forum, there was even a significant increase in students willing to pay a "green fee" to help fund campus initiatives.
Whether the funds come from students' pockets or (preferably) elsewhere, there is a general consensus that UD needs to focus on greening up. Vice versa, UD has helped me focus on eco-friendly practices by providing each dorm room with a recycling bin. Such awareness is key; spreading the word is already one giant step in the right direction.
Wise investment
As the Dow returns to the 10,000-point level, one group of students is seeing dollar signs.
$10.5 million of them, to be exact.
Today, the University board of trustees agreed to give the Flyer Equity Fund another $2 million over the next four months, bringing the total pot these finance students invest for the University up to $10.5 million. The student fund has beaten the S&P 500 at the one-, three-, five- and 10-year marks.
"It's not only an unparalleled learning experience for our finance students, it's a prudent business decision for the University," said Thomas Burkhardt, vice president for finance and administrative services.
Student manager of the Davis Center for Portfolio Management, Kenny Wittenberg, said, "Sure, everyone can do well when the market is up, but, as students, our fund performed well during very challenging times."
Which sets him up well for his next challenge: finding an investment job. Now he'll have at least $10.5 million pieces of experience to discuss in job interviews.
What's in a name?
In the issue of the University of Dayton Magazine hitting mailboxes this week and next is a feature on Provost Joe Saliba's journey to UD. But what we don't tell you is of the family's earlier journey, from the cradle of Christianity to Bteghrine, Lebanon, where young Joe was raised and from where he escaped to UD from his country's civil war.
Early Christians named Saliba — literally, "of the cross" — were fleeing the Ottoman Empire when they settled in 1625 in Bteghrine, a defensible, rocky ledge flanked by two mountain ranges towering above the Beeka Valley. According to Saleeby-Saliba Association of Families history, they became Christian in A.D. 67 with the baptism of Prince Petronious Amiries by John, an apostle of St. Paul.
In Bteghrine, which he conservatively estimates at 75 percent Saliba, "my name is not Joseph Saliba," he said. He was "Joe, son of Elias;" there were five other Joes, sons of Eliases. So, he became "Joe, son of Elias and Emilie" — "there are two of us, by the way," he said. People would then tack on his home district (Haret Ali) or his father's profession (winemaker) for clarification. Not until he left for Beirut did Joe know his surname was Saliba.
Read more of this story and others — on the evolution of Darwin's theory, the commitment of moral obligation of Col. Gordon Roberts ’74, and springtime in the West Bank — in your magazine, or online by clicking here.
There’s something about Mary …
In my five years at UD, I had never before visited the Marian Library. I also had never seen Mary so connected with the modern world.
As I viewed the Marian Library's current exhibition, Katherine Osenga’s Icons of the Electronic Age, I saw Marys acquainted with airplanes, technology, financial stress and the simple joys in life. Among my favorites is “The Madonna of Media” (left), which breaks with 
traditional Madonna portraits. Instead of holding baby Jesus, Mary holds a remote and her halo is a piece of telephone cable. “The Madonna of Financial Aid” (right) is more traditional, except for its border of international coins. She is truly a Mary any college student can appreciate.
The free exhibit is on display through Nov. 20 on the seventh floor of Roesch Library. Go check it out and pick your favorite Marys. I bet you can’t pick just one.
All fun and no work
Last weekend, parents and students shuffled into the KU Pub, laughing, talking and anticipating the upcoming jazz music. Conductor Willie Morris III led the UD Jazz Ensemble in its two-hour performance. The highly talented ensemble played a vibrant and upbeat style, with each song including impressive improvisation pieces by the band's performers. The audience tapped their feet, clapped their hands and even danced.
This was the fourth time I've attended a UD Jazz Ensemble concert. Originally, I attended the concert to support friends in the band. But after four years, it has become a fun tradition that I look forward to.
The concert was part of the annual UD Family Weekend, which included events such as a cornhole tournament, a UD football game, a continental breakfast and a performance of the play Eurydice.
On Monday, UD students voiced a common complaint: "I got no work done this weekend!"
The ensemble's next concert will be 7 p.m. Dec. 6 in Boll Theatre.
Fun the 5K painful way
My legs were a bit stiff Sunday, thanks to my mom’s insistence that I join her and Dad in UD’s annual Thomas J. Frericks 5K run during Family Weekend.
“It’s for a good cause, and it’ll be fun,” Mom said.
The first was obviously true: the 5K had more than 550 participants, the most in 18 years according to sport management professor Peter Titlbaum, and the entry fee went toward a sport management student scholarship.
I guess the “fun” part was true, too … when I wasn’t gasping for air chugging up Stuart Hill the second time or agonizing over burning thighs as I snaked between the Science Center and Marycrest Complex.
Talk about ego-killer! I had to be the last to finish in my age category, and maybe even one of the last in the 30s and 40s age categories. Even my 50-year-old father beat me by two minutes.
Overall, pain and humiliation, I’d still do it again. (And not simply for the free bagels at the finish line, which were extremely delicious.) There is something to be said about defeating the great temptation I had to walk at several points during the run. As a person who rarely runs, I felt accomplished.
I guess Mom was right. It was a “kind of” fun.
Stuart Hall gets even cooler
Fresh paint, new bathrooms, microwaves and — gasp — air conditioning. See for yourself.
A win for moms and dads
Thanks to UD’s annual Family Weekend last weekend, Frericks Center was jam-packed with an extraordinary number of parents at UD’s volleyball match Friday night. Accompanying the habitual Red Scare crew cheering on the sidelines, parents filled the stands, supporting the Flyer team against its nemesis, Xavier.
Perhaps the Flyers wanted to give their parents a show, as they certainly had fans on the edge of their seats during all five games.
First game, the Flyers won by just a hair, 25 to 24. Xavier won the second game by a long shot, 25 to 14. And by the third game, our rival had taken the lead of the match, 25 to 18.
Fans were getting worried, but then the Flyers stole a victory, 25 to 21, in the fourth game and set up a stand-off for the fifth and final round.
Behind one or two points throughout most of the final round, the Flyers caught Xavier at 13 and, two spikes later, delivered the final blows, finishing off Xavier and winning the five-game match with a 15 to 13 victory ... the perfect game for Family Weekend.
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