November 2007
Believe
The cookies at 3 Evanston won over my taste buds, but the men of 235 Irving stole my heart.
As a judge in last night's Christmas on Campus house decorating contest, I was treated like royalty. The chocolate was hot. The Evanston sugar cookies were homemade, cut as Christmas trees topped with green icing. The men of 229 Stonemill — in Santa hats and Red Scare T-shirts — offered us seats for a hearty "Feliz Navidad" performance. At 225 Irving, four women danced to Charlie Brown music inside a giant snow globe. 409 College Park was high society with a Nutcracker reenactment complete with ballerina in tutu and tights (brrr). And 460 Kiefaber blinded us with 15,000 lights synchronized to music.
But at 235 Irving, the seniors nailed this year's theme, "Believe." They handed out golden tickets and played music from Polar Express. We walked along a train track of lights past blue-light mountains to the backyard and its two-story tree in lights. They read a poem that mourned their last year at UD but professed how learning, leading and serving can make it feel like Christmas all year long. On the porch hung stockings with sayings: "We can make a difference." "We can reduce poverty." And they had lots of hot chocolate.
With 24 entries, it was a hard decision. I can't tell you who won; I've been sworn to secrecy until Dec. 7.
But you can try to get it out of me. Did I mention I like chocolate?
Follow the bouncing balls
It’s hard to recall a week like this for Flyer athletes in recent memory.
Capacity crowds of 2,400 will see UD (32-1), Michigan State (19-13), Kentucky (22-9) and Lipscomb (20-11) battle at the Frericks Center this weekend in the Dayton subregional of the NCAA volleyball tournament. The winner advances to the Sweet 16 in Madison, Wis.
The women’s basketball team up-ended Cincinnati for the first time in seven years, 69-53, in their home opener last night. The 5-2 Flyers take on Akron 2 p.m. Sunday at UD Arena.
On Wednesday, the men’s basketball team overcame a 21-point deficit to beat Miami at Millet Hall 63-62. They take on undefeated Holy Cross 7 p.m. Saturday in Worcester, Mass.
Safety Brandon Cramer was named the top scholar/football player in the nation Thursday when he was named the 2007 ESPN The Magazine University Division Academic All-America of the Year.
The senior premed major is also among 15 finalists for the Draddy Trophy, often called the academic Heisman. He leaves Monday for the awards ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on Dec. 4.
Cramer’s team takes on Albany (8-3) in the Gridiron Classic at Welcome Stadium on Saturday in a match-up of the champions of the Pioneer League and the Northeast Conference.
And, the schedule doesn’t let up for these scholar-athletes anytime soon. Next week, it’s the last week of classes and Christmas on Campus. The week after, it’s finals.
My Old House: 232 College Park
John Brieske ’85 wrote in looking for glow-in-the-dark Jefferson Airplane lyrics on the wall. We found six men and new paintings in this old house.
Smiling faces
UD students might hear “I’ve seen you before” from the children greeting them at Christmas on Campus this year.
At a Tuesday meeting, UD students smiled for pictures that their children can access through a new Web site.
Tattered postcards read and re-read by Dayton school children were the only introduction in past years. “This new method will help the children form more of a bond before they come to campus,” said Chrissy Quilter, Christmas on Campus co-coordinator.
The children might be shy when they first arrive to Christmas on Campus, learned more than 400 first-time “adopters.” Kneeling down and looking at the child eye-to-eye will relax the child. Seeing Santa and eating a couple of cookies will help, too.
You've got a minute. Go.
One minute was all it took UD student Lori Hanna to win $1,000 and a chance to win $10,000 more.
Her skill? Convincing judges she had a winning business idea for improving medical treatment in developing countries and empowering a group of entrepreneurial Nicaraguan women. (The video shows her pitch plus two others.)
While the elevator pitch portion of the 2007 UD business plan competition is quick, no one said it was easy.
"We're trying to teach students how to differentiate themselves from others and stand out. When you actually have to make an elevator speech in front of an audience and compete for real money, it raises the stakes," said Dean McFarlin, chair of the management and marketing department and the NCR Professor of Global Leadership Development at UD.
Second- and third-place finishers in the elevator pitch also won real money — $500 and $250, repectively. In March, five finalist teams will present full business plans for feasible, profitable and innovative products worthy of going to market. They'll be competing for a total of $20,000 in prize money.
Standing with Sudan
Students took a stand — or a lie down — against genocide in Darfur Wednesday.
Darfur die-inThe Dayton chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur held a “die-in” in Humanities Plaza to protest the genocide in Sudan. About 35 students lay on the ground with the goal of generating awareness about the 450,000 lives that have been lost in that country since 2003.
“In the past we have said, ‘Never again,’” said UD STAND co-president Lauren Etzkorn. “It upsets me that it can be going on and no one who has power is stopping it.” In addition to raising awareness, the organization raised $1,144 in donations and T-shirt sales.
A distorted mirror
Juan Williams, who divides his time between the airwaves of NPR and Fox News, offered some biting words for fellow journalists when he came to campus for a Diversity Lecture Series talk Nov. 13.
''Is the American media creating a sense of community or destroying a sense of community? Too often what we are seeing is a media that dramatizes. We have to look in the mirror, but sometimes it's a funhouse mirror,'' he told a standing-room-only crowd in the Kennedy Union ballroom. ''Too often we think of reporters as those who come on the battlefield and ask the wounded why they're not dead."
Earlier in the day, Williams challenged Dayton Early College Academy students to walk away from the stereotypes of rap music and conversed one on one with UD students about Iraq, Iran and the upcoming presidential election. But he devoted his public address to the changing role of American journalism: ''We've gone from Walter Cronkite and broadcasting to narrowcasting,'' he complained. ''The media reaffirm existing opinions rather than challenge us."
And the entertainment factor often outweighs the news factor. ''When I ask people where they get their news, they say Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Oprah Winfrey. You notice I haven't mentioned a journalist yet? We know enough about Brittany Spears' thighs. It's time to move on."
Toy recalls put UD researcher in the spotlight
As Santa readies the sleigh and checks his list, he might want to pay a bit more attention this year to the kinds of toys he's putting in the sack. Elf-made toys may have avoided any recall lists, but millions of other toys have been recalled.
He might also want to talk to UD psychology Professor Keri Brown Kirschman, a pediatric injury specialist, who studied the easy availability of recalled toys on Web auction sites like eBay. KOMO-TV consumer reporter Herb Weisbaum in Seattle did just that and reported on Kirschman's research and the dangers that lurk online. The Seattle station is just one of many national news outlets who have turned to Kirschman for expert commentary during the last several months.
My Old House: 419 Kiefaber
Mickie Krupitzer Rinehart ’89 shared memories of this old house, where she first roomed with four women who lived together all four years. Today, another group of women calls Kiefaber home.
Where God is real
Carolyn Woo grew up in Hong Kong under the direction of Catholic nuns, serving as missionaries, who left an indelible impression on her academically and spiritually.
“For me, Catholicism and quality education always went together; there is no separation,” Woo said. “I never forgot why the sisters would give up their quality of life to improve the quality of life of some people in a faraway land.”
Now the dean of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, she gave a lecture on “Making the Mission Real” to UD School of Business Administration staff and faculty last Thursday in O’Leary Auditorium. Woo addressed what it means to have a business school at a Catholic university.
“A Catholic university is a place where God is real, not in quotation marks,” she said. “I don’t see faith and quality as a trade-off.”
Let the countdown begin
For months, we had been waiting for Thursday's Christmas on Campus sign-ups. Our preparations create joy for students who hear the name of "their child" for the first time. Colorful postcards fill our office in Kennedy Union. Students sport T-shirts with this year's theme: "Believe."
This was the day we members of the CoC committee danced and sang and shared our anticipation for Christmas on Campus on Dec. 7 with the UD community.
For the work we do has only just begun. Multiple fundraisers, such as Saturday's Reindeer Trot 5K, help us turn our dreams of the perfect Christmas night into reality and give us another excuse to play Christmas music in November.
As the countdown races toward zero, we work to include as many individuals in CoC as possible. The Vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception Mass will feature a huge choir. If you are interested in being part of it, contact Jim Pera in campus ministry.
(Video by Liz Sidor ’08, "Holly Jolly Christmas" from The Christmas Gift by Larry Campanella ’78)
Stargazing
A UFO sat atop College Park Center Friday and will remain there to bring space closer to students and faculty.
Professors Peter Powers, physics, and Brother Don. Klco, S.M., biology, hosted an open house for UFO — UD Flyer Observatory — to showcase the Meade LX200R telescope with a 12-inch lens capable of 200x magnification, or twice the power needed to see Saturn’s rings. “It’s a smart telescope,” Klco said. “Once you align it, it’s programmed to find all sorts of things.”
They purchased the telescope, a cart and additional eyepieces using a $6,000 grant from the Learning Teaching Center. The UFO space includes a warming room for cold nights and a classroom for two courses, Descriptive Astronomy and Stargazing 101.
Sunset brought cloud cover but not before students got amazing views — through a solar filter — of our own star (photo by Hillary Hopkins ’09).
Veterans Day in the chapel
U.S. Army Col. Gordon Roberts ’74 first entered the sanctuary of Immaculate Conception Chapel as a UD student in 1971. He was a young man looking for rest from his recent "marathon" at war. He was seeking retreat from the attention -- good and bad -- of receiving our nation's highest military honor.
On Friday, clad in full dress uniform with the blue-ribbon Medal of Honor around his neck, Roberts returned to that chapel, no longer anonymous, no longer seeking retreat.
As guest speaker at the UD Army ROTC Veterans Day ceremony, Roberts avoided discussion of his heroics in Vietnam 38 years ago that earned him the Congressional medal. Instead, he spoke about honoring all of America's military -- past, present and future -- especially during a time of war. (Video clip courtesy of UD's Media Production Group.)
And while the mention of war can conjure up thoughts of violence or politics or passionate opinions, Roberts -- a veteran of wars in Vietnam and Iraq -- finds personal meaning.
"When I think of war, I think of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen. ... I think about good haircuts and perfect salutes ... well-shined shoes and the eyes of those who have seen and felt in their hearts: Honor. ... I think of those who do not think of service as a personal sacrifice but instead think of it as a gift."
And as the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient and the only one on active duty stepped down, the final word went to 24 other UD graduates, each present only in name as an ROTC cadet called the roll of the program's fallen alumni.
Green ideas
Artists who explore watersheds in Tibet and create pastureland atop skyscrapers in Germany focused discussion on Dayton's dominant environmental feature, the Great Miami River, during a Nov. 1 lecture.
"Sears Recital Hall was packed; students laughed, listened and stayed," said Judith Huacuja, associate professor of art history.
The San Diego artists Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison spoke as part of the UD Arts Series. "We accomplished the goal of bringing together many groups around the common themes of the environment and the river," Huacuja said.
The Harrisons see an intimate connection between humans and their environment. "Someone told me, 'The first time I made love it was in a meadow like that,'" said Helen Mayer Harrison in reference to the installation "Future Garden Part I" in Bonn, Germany.
Through six days of class presentations and workshops, the Harrisons aimed to be a catalyst for local river projects. They discussed the Little Miami River as a source of pollution and the Great Miami River's role as a social and economic divider.
"They had a critical mass of attention focused on the river as economic revitalization," said Huacuja, who noted plans for future collaborations between environmental artists and students.
In connecting his worldwide travels to local environmental issues, Newton Harrison told the students, "I think you have to begin with a bigger vision than Dayton itself."
My boyfriend, the psychopath
If he’s charming, be cautious. If he describes himself as an adventurous thrill-seeker, be on guard. If he’s prone to lying or his morals are questionable, beware.
These all are signs that your dating partner is a sociopath, a hard-to-treat psychological condition that may make for a troublesome relationship.
That’s according to Caroline Presno, the “Date Doctor” and author of Profiling Your Date. She shared her research on psychology and dating — including tips on determining whether to stay put or get out and how to deal — with students last Friday through the Expand Your Mind lecture series hosted by the psychology department.
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