December 2008
Late night
Finals are upon us, and that means the library is open 24 hours. What some students and alumni may not know is that the RecPlex is also open 24 hours during finals week. Two students, a writer and a photographer, spent a couple hours at the RecPlex to see what students were up to after midnight. Click the photo to see these night owls.
Dance fever
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When we captured scenes of dancing robots during the Motoman Robotics Lab dedication Nov. 21, we assumed people and their programs were behind the pas de deux. It seems the robots have plans of their own. See what happens when no one is watching. |
‘Eat well, and do good work’
After 21 years in dining services, the man behind the radio-style greetings, corny jokes and culinary choices on the dining services menu line is making a career change.
Now one semester away from earning a master’s in education, Kennedy Union dining services general manager Willie Hickey starts his term of student teaching in a Springboro elementary school in January. Once that’s completed, he’ll pursue work as an intervention specialist in an area school.
Hickey, who earned his bachelor’s in secondary education in 1988, said he didn’t expect his first full-time job out of college to last this long, “but I kept getting promoted,” he said. “It’s worked out well.”
Click to hear one of his final menu recordings — complete with a good-luck wish for final exams, a priest joke and his signature close: “Remember to eat well, and do good work.”
Housecalls
Rosemary Terkoski of Kettering, Ohio, has had a bond with UD ever since her son David Terkoski '82 played football for the Flyers.
This month, Terkoski had a surprise visitor to her front porch — junior marketing major Amanda Howe, a student supervisor in the UD telefund office, who came bearing glad tidings, gratitude and a red poinsettia.
Howe, of Dublin, Ohio, was among 15 students and annual fund staff who cruised around the Dayton metropolitan area during the second week of December delivering poinsettias as thank-you gifts to 120 of the Front Porch Scoiety’s newest members. The designation honors alumni and friends who have made gifts of any amount for at least three consecutive years. Terkoski has been giving to the Flyer football fund since 1998 and annually since 2006.
UD founded the Front Porch Society during the 2004-05 school year to acknowledge loyal donors of all gift sizes as important members of the UD family, said Kelli Holmes, assistant director of annual giving.
Rudolph still shining bright
For Jim Kebe ’82, the reindeer games that started in Stuart Hall second floor-south still go on 30 years later.
"We were walking back from the library," said Jim Kebe '82. "We needed a break and we saw the advertisement that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was on. It was like, 'Let's watch Rudolph tonight.'"
Exam studying had taken its toll, so Kebe and freshman-year roommate Pat Brown '82 invited floor friends and fellowship group members to watch the stop-action creatures and Rudolph leading Santa's sleigh. Popcorn and hot chocolate filled the dorm room and Christmas carols broke out. Kebe remembers thinking, "Quit stalling — we have to go back and study."
They had so much fun that Kebe continued hosting the event through campus moves to Garden Apartments and Kiefaber. "It became my thing," he said.
Even across state borders, calls and e-mails still come in and some gather to celebrate and watch, as they did last week. "I never thought that it would last 30 years," he said.
My Old House: 306 Stonemill
The women of 306 Stonemill spread good cheer with an inclusive holiday display.
Ho ho Harley
Ten years ago, it was just Phil and Alma, three limousines and 24 homeless kids.
Phil was Phil Cenedella ’84. Alma was Alma Hutcherson-Coba, program manager of children’s services at St. Vincent de Paul Village, which provides services for the homeless in San Diego. The 24 children were her clients.
On a cool December evening, they sat in Ellen Browning Scripps Park in La Jolla, Calif., eating takeout from In-N-Out Burger and singing Christmas carols in earshot of the seals that lay around La Jolla Cove.
Monday, the San Diego alumni chapter will host its 10th annual Christmas Caroling and Limo Party, its version of Christmas off Campus. San Diego, it’s safe to say, is the only chapter that will feature 50 Harley Davidson motorcycle riders escorting more than 100 children in limousines to its Christmas party. They’ll host them in style at the La Jolla Cove Suites, where they’ll get a chance to talk with Santa and Mrs. Claus, as well as San Diego Padres cheerleaders and the team’s mascot, the Swinging Friar.
The 10th annual party this month is the first one Cenedella will miss. He’s living on Irving Avenue in Dayton — temporarily while his daughter is in her first year at UD — and planning the event remotely. That daughter, Carly, was at that first party 10 years ago. For both, the event was bittersweet. Sure, they’d brought two dozen children to the park for a party, but they’d left another 75 or so behind at the shelter.
These days, they don’t leave any kids behind.
Ten years ago, “it was just me, Alma, three limos and 24 kids,” Cenedella said. “We were saying, ‘Hey, it’d be really cool to get other people involved.’”
More than two dozen alumni and friends make the San Diego event possible. Thirty-one alumni chapters across the country are hosting their own Christmas off Campus celebrations this month. Click here for information about yours.
'I just saw a man fly'
When Flyers fan Qasim Rizvi saw Chris Wright's dunk on Marquette in Chicago last week, he texted a friend: "I just saw a man fly."
Wright's dunk helped the team win the tournament championship and earned Wright tournament MVP honors and a spot on ESPN's highlight reel. But the all-around solid play of all 12 members of the squad are what will keep the 7-0 Flyers rolling, said coach Brian Gregory, who's always looking ahead.
"That trophy goes up on the shelf when we get back, and we'll start working for the next one," he said after the game.
For Flyer fans in Dayton, the next "next one," tomorrow's game in Akron, will be on WHIO-TV. If you want to see them in person, get tickets sooner rather than later. Single-game tickets for Xavier Feb. 11 are already sold out, but other options are still available.
This is our full house
Flyer students are more spirited than ever — so spirited that there are not enough seats for them all at the men's basketball games.
Usually students purchase vouchers for $30 and receive tickets to all the home games. This year, the 1,200 student tickets sold out before the distribution ended.
Those students left wanting still got vouchers, but since more vouchers were distributed than there are seats available, not every student is guaranteed a seat in the student section.
"Red Scare thinks that the reason that buying vouchers was so popular this year is because of the large freshman class," said Marissa Malson, Red Scare public relations executive. "We also had increased publicity to advertise the date that we were selling the vouchers."
The upside to the seating shortage: If students consistently fill their seats, the athletic department may grant more student seats in the future.
Bad news, good news
The bad news is the stock market meltdown of 2008 is likely the worst in history, according to Robert "Dr. Bob" Froehlich, a UD alumnus and chairman of the investor strategy committee for Deutsche Asset Management.
The good news? The economy is at least halfway through this crisis, and a recovery could happen in as little as two to three years, he said.
"I predict the stock market will post positive returns in 2009," Froehlich said during a standing-room-only talk at UD Nov, 24. "And the market that will turn the corner first is the U.S. economy." He said the U.S. has a 12-month head start on the rest of the world because it started cutting interest rates last year to encourage lending while economies worldwide were raising their rates.
Froehlich encouraged the audience of mostly students to take advantage of the depressed stock market and buy stocks at bargain prices. But before investing, everyone should do extensive research and should continue monitoring the stocks during good times and bad, he said.
Asked by one audience member to take out his crystal ball and predict the next big stock market "bubble," Froehlich said he sees infrastructure dominating for the next few years, as China and the U.S. both embark on major infrastructure improvement projects.
For more good news/bad news, watch Froehlich's talk.
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