The first tangible sign of the Eddy Street Commons "college town" development sprang up in
July, just days after the South Bend Common Council approved rezoning 25 acres south of
campus for the $200 million project. A fence was erected along Edison Road emblazoned with
townhouse images, a phone number for leasing information and the slogan "Live, Shop, Relax,
Work, Enjoy." Behind the fence, contractors working for Kite Realty Group of Indianapolis
began clearing the area formerly known as the Notre Dame Woods. The development, which will
run along Eddy Street and east into the Notre Dame property, will include shops, restaurants, two
hotels, 250 apartments, 80 town homes and some 120 condominiums. The first phase, including
the hotels, commercial space and apartments, is scheduled for a summer 2009 completion. Town
homes and condos will be completed in phases from 2009 to 2011. . . . Unfortunately, several
Notre Dame students were victims of crimes just as school began in August. In the more serious
incident, two Notre Dame seniors were shot on August 21 while standing outside Club 23, a
popular bar south of campus. The incident began, according to the students, when a man,
unknown to them, approached and asked for a ride. A "harsh" conversation ensued when they
turned him down, and he left. A few minutes later the man returned as a passenger in an SUV
and said, "Thanks for the ride you [expletive] Notre Dame students," and fired five shots.
Matthew Collins was struck in the abdomen and leg while Mitchell Depree received a minor leg
wound. William Kirk, associate vice president for residence life and housing, visited the students
in the hospital immediately that morning and offered the families assistance. Fortunately, both
Collins and Depree are expected to recover from their injuries and were able to enroll for the fall
term. The bullet in Collins' abdomen, however, was too risky to remove and remains in place.
As of press time, South Bend police had not yet apprehended the assailant and the investigation
continues. . . . A few days before the shootings two Notre Dame students were robbed in
separate incidents at the Turtle Creek apartment complex just east of campus. On the evening of
August 17, a 21-year-old female student and her male friend were robbed when a gunman and
his companion stormed into her apartment after she opened the door. Several hours later, a male
Notre Dame student was forced at gunpoint to carry a TV set from a nearby apartment to the
burglars' getaway car. As the semester began, Notre Dame Security Police sent a safety advisory
to all students warning of the incidents and outlining safety measures. Both University and South
Bend police officers patrol student neighborhoods near campus. . . . The annual U.S. News &
World Report college rankings placed Notre Dame at 19th, tied with Vanderbilt, just ahead of
the University of California-Berkeley and behind Rice and Emory universities. . . . Notre Dame was ranked second, behind the University of Texas, in the Princeton Review's "job placement"
category. The excellent rating comes as no surprise to Lee Svete, director of Notre Dame's
Career Center. Svete reports the center had a record-breaking 4,600 appointments with students
and young alumni last year. Reflecting that record, by May more than 88 percent of the Class of
2007 had firm plans for employment or further education. . . . Not only are Notre Dame grads
getting jobs, they're making good money as well. The median salary offer this year for
engineering grads was $57,500, for business $55,000, science $53,000, architecture $45,500, and
arts and letters, $45,000. . . . Some ND professors are in the money, too, to the tune of a few
million dollars in one case. Over the summer, philosophy Professor Michael Detlefsen learned
that he had been named to a Senior Chaire d'Excellence by the French National Research
Agency (ANR). The chair, supported by the ANR and three French universities, is valued at $2.4
million and will require the ND authority on logic and the history and philosophy of
mathematics to spend time working each year through 2011 at institutions in France. Meanwhile,
physics Associate Professor Peter Garnavich was awarded a share of the $500,000 Gruber Prize
in Cosmology for his work with a team of physicists who in 1998 reported that, contrary to
conventional wisdom, the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate rather than decelerating.
Garnavich's share of the prize was modest because the 20 physicists on his team had to share the
prize with a competing team that made the same discovery at about the same time. . . . Where
did those artsy signs come from? Beginning in May and continuing over the summer, more than
350 colorful, little, blue, white and aqua signs popped up all across campus. The plaques, all
adjacent to street drains, bear images of ducks, a water tap, fish and waves. They admonish,
"Don't pollute. Flows to waterways." So is some commando environmental group or guerrilla
artist behind the street art? No, the signs were placed by Notre Dame's Department of Utilities as
part of the University's environmental plan in compliance with the Indiana Department of
Environmental Management's storm water rules. "We put them out just to make people aware
that what goes in these drains ends up in the lakes and the Saint Joe River," says Paul Kempf,
director of Notre Dame utilities. "It's not in response to any particular problem." . . . Ruthann
Johansen, an ND professor of liberal studies and fellow of the Kroc Institute for International
Peace Studies, has been named president of Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond,
Indiana. . . . The tragic mass murder of students at Virginia Tech last spring underscores the
importance of emergency communication. With that in mind, over the summer months the
University installed "Connect-Ed," a sophisticated system that employs multiple electronic
channels to reach students and faculty in the event of an emergency. Using contact information
from electronic campus directories, the system can send voice or text messages to cell phones,
office phones, home phones and email. The same message can be sent to six phone numbers and
two email addresses per person. . . . 
The Katrina Cottage is not just for hurricane relief any
more. The handsome, small homes, designed by Notre Dame alumna architect Marianne Cusato
'97 as emergency housing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, have become popular across the
country. So popular, in fact, that Lowe's, the building supply store, is now selling plans for the
homes, which range in size from 500 to 1,000 square feet. The store says many buyers are using
the $700 plans to build summer homes and "granny flats" for aging parents. . . . When Suzanne
Brzezinski died in June, the outpouring of sympathy offered a reminder of the bonds that often
develop between Domers and the University's housekeeping staff. Brzezinski had worked at
Notre Dame for more than 20 years, cleaning rooms in Morrissey and Lyons halls and most
recently tending the Eck Center. Jaime Cripe '89M.A., who manages the visitor center there,
says countless alumni, who had known Brzezinski as undergrads and would look her up when
back on campus, flooded the visitor center with cards, notes and phone calls when they heard of
her sudden passing. "Sue touched the hearts of students, alumni and staff," says Cripe. "No
visitor ever came here without being impressed by Sue's obvious pride in the building and her
sunny nature and impish sense of humor.". . . The sculptor of the 18-foot-tall statue of Moses at
the west entrance of the Hesburgh Library, popularly known as "First Down Moses" or
"We're No. 1 Moses" died in July at his home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Joseph Turkaly, 82,
had been an assistant to the famed Notre Dame sculptor Ivan Mestrovic and taught at the
university for two years after Mestrovic's 1962 death. The Croatian immigrant went on to a
successful art career himself. His sculptures are in public and private collections in the United
States, Canada, Italy, Croatia and Argentina. . . . Notre Dame senior Mariel Zagunis, who won
a gold medal in women's saber at the 2004 Olympics, has taken a leave of absence from the
University to train full time with members of the U.S. fencing team for the 2008 games in
Beijing. Zagunis, who was featured in a segment of the August 8, 2007, Today Show on NBC, currently
is ranked third in the world for women's saber. She plans to return to ND next fall. . .
Oh the horror, oh the sacrilege! While
on vacation last summer, Associate Editor John Monczunski passed through Saint Edward,
Nebraska, the tiny farm community (population 796) that South Bend's A.T. Coquillard platted
in 1876 and named in honor of his friend and Notre Dame's founder, Father Edward Sorin, CSC.
While there, Monczunski stopped at the Bank of Saint Edward and saw a massive photo mural
titled "The Stadium." Given the town's historical ND connection, he expected it to be the House
that Rockne Built. Scandalously, however, the mural depicts Memorial Stadium in Lincoln,
home of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. The bank's lone teller said she
thought the former pastor of Saint Edward's Catholic Church might be a Fighting Irish fan, but
personally she didn't know of any others. Father Sorin can't be happy with his wayward town.
(October 2007)
