Recently in College Category

From my ordinary, Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin:

Statement regarding the University of Notre Dame

As was announced recently, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., is presenting President Barack Obama with an honorary degree and have asked him to give the commencement address.

I, along with many other Catholics, express great disappointment and sadness that a Catholic university would honor someone who is pro-choice and who holds many values contrary to our Catholic belief.

In the midst of such a sad situation, as Catholics we must continue to be pro-life and to proclaim with even greater strength the values of Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

In my opinion, it is very clear that in this case the University of Notre Dame does not live up to its Catholic identity in giving this award and their leadership needs our prayerful support.

On the way out of the locker rooms to run out onto the field, each player touches these horns (much like ND's touching the "Play like a champion today..." sign. Above the horns, it says "Don't Mess with Texas".

I'm hoping to get the higher quality images soon, but personally, I only had my BlackBerry on me with a sad 1MP built-in camera.

I was taken on a tour of the UT Football Locker Room.

Sent via my BlackBerry.

I'm watching the pseudo-National Championship Game in my hotel room in Atlanta and all I can say so far (3rd quarter, 1:13 remaining, just following the blocked FG attempt) is "come on OU!"

I can't post details yet, but UT's corporate greed to control all aspects of everything on campus is incredibly frustrating.

I have various student loans. They're a fun part of my life [sarcasm]. A nice little chunk of my paycheck is used to pay off the various financial institutions that bankrolled my college career.

I'm used to sending them checks--usually electronic, but nevertheless, the cash flow goes toward them. Until today.

I recieved a check from one of the loan services with a memo of 8/1/2008 for the amount of my usual payment. I do a bit of research; my 8/1/08 payment was taken from my account, but not one on 9/1/08. I check online and my account is paid in full. The check was a refund for overpayment.

Why am I confused? I've only paid a quarter of the loan. I've sent them an e-mail (since the offices are already closed) and figure this out.

I'm not complaining, but just confused.

You read the headline correct. The St. John's Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois has announced the opening of their St. John's Institute of Catholic Thought's School of Theology. The Institute of Catholic Thought has appears to be offering for-credit undergraduate and graduate coursework that is listed as part of a University of Illinois program, but they have recently been granted degree-granting authority by the State of Illinois to award Masters of Theological Studies and Masters of Arts in Theology.

Wow!

Years ago, The University of Texas at Austin had a similar program to the UI program that the Institute of Catholic Thought has previously offered for-credit course work. The Texas Bible Chair, as it was known, offered for-credit classes from a perspective of the Disciples of Christ, but other denominations also offered for-credit classes through the arrangement, including the Catholic faith through the work of the Paulist Fathers. In 1985 and 1987, the Attorney General for the State of Texas, Jim Mattox, offered two opinions, JM-352 and JM-711 that led to the end of the arrangement. Basically, Mattox stated his opinion that constitutionally a state university could not have a member of the faculty to be selected or his/her position to be funded, in whole or in part, by a religious institution.

Students wanted to take courses by instructors who had the support of their respective faith traditions, but those instructors could not be chosen, or approved, by a faith tradition. The University, likewise, can not offer credit for a course not taught by a faculty member. The Attorney General did say, however, that the courses themselves were not unconstitutional and in fact, The University of Texas at Austin still allows such courses to count as electives for Liberal Arts degrees.

Back to the St. John's Catholic Newman Center, this is a huge step forward for them and for that region of the country. They will be the first Catholic graduate program in 150-mile radius; before now, individuals had to go to Chicago or South Bend, IN for advanced Catholic theological coursework.

At the University Catholic Center, we are in the beginning stages of our religious education program. Currently, we're offering Catholicism 101, a non-credit sequence of courses designed to bridge the gap between what was taught in parish religious education classes during the student's younger years and a college-level understanding of the basics of the faith. Ideally, this program would have four semesters worth of course work and additionally expand to more advanced discussion on particular aspects of the Catholic Church.

Thankfully, we have a number of options for graduate-level religious education in the Austin-area, including the Diocese of Austin's distance program with St. Mary's University of San Antonio.

God bless the folks at St. John's and hopefully many will take advantage of this offering.  

In light of Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech, their Provost announced a few decisions that I feel were good.

First, classes will resume on Monday. Students, on a course-by-course basis, can have their grades determined by one of three methods. First, the grade could be determined based on coursework completed up until April 16th. Second, all of the previous material plus some that the student wishes to complete. Third, the course would be graded as normal with all requested coursework.

This allows the greatest flexibility for the students and staff as they begin to recover. The procedure does not hurt students who were hoping to bring their grade up during the last weeks of the semester while also allowing students the option of heading home and not returning for the semester.

Also, they decided to award degrees to all of the students whose "lives were taken". I assume that excludes the shooter, as he "took his own life". It is a fitting tribute.

If you read this today, don't forget that the UCC will be holding a prayer service at 7:30 p.m.

The University of Texas Board of Regents are suing a College Station retailer for trademark violations. The store sells various T-shirts with the UT Longhorn logo with horns that are cut off and hanging next to the head. UT is claiming trademark dilution while the Aggie defense is claiming freedom of expression. Some of the reaction I've heard from the Aggie side of the fence is that UT is bitter about the recent Thanksgiving weekend loss in football or some other school pride issue.

I've exchanged a couple of messages with an Aggie whom I found through a Facebook post. He asked me my thoughts on the lawsuit and mentioned how he feels it is related to the football loss. Earlier in the day, I briefly read through the complaint filed by UT and the response filed by the retailer. I think the Aggies aren't fully aware of our desire for brand purity. My response to his question is below:

Hey,
With the lawsuit, in all honesty, the suits downtown at the System office couldn't care less about the football victory or loss. From a student's perspective, I haven't heard much of anything about it since the Monday sports recap after the game.

The UT System/Board of Regents' office is removed enough from UT-Austin to where a lot of the school pride is removed from the governance from my experience. (One of the volunteers at the church I work for has been a vice chancellor for some time and just stepped down to a "director" of one of the offices at the System complex.) [Don't get me wrong, the UT alumni who work there are proud of UT, but not the same type of pride that A&M alumni seem to posses.]

UT, on the other hand, cares a great deal about branding issues and trademark dilution. We've successfully forced dining establishments to change their name (their old name was "Bevo's") and have made a large effort to pursue merchants who sell unlicensed versions of clothing or other items bearing our trademarks, including the Longhorn logo in question in the lawsuit.

During the 2005-2006 academic year, our income from royalties derived from licensed sales increased to $8 million dollars- the highest of any university in the country. Our strong brand and the public's ability to recognize that brand is a crucial aspect of that income. In other words, UT lawyers are not worried about UT students not able to tell the difference, but the many fans we have who, despite no actual connection to the University, wish to show their support by buying t-shirts.

Licensed products help support the university and act as a way we improve our academic footprint without having to raise tuition higher than we already had to. The UT System's administration will do what it can to preserve this income source.

Unlicensed products, or unlicensed alterations of our trademark- like the "Saw 'Em Off" design, chip away at our brand integrity and if our brand weakens, we potentially lose some of our royalty incomes from especially unaffiliated purchasers.

Regarding the UT/A&M rivalry, UT itself suggested a different design for "Saw 'Em Off". The suggested design was of a more realistic looking longhorn with broken horns. If A&M, or Aggieland Outfitters, want to preserve this aspect of the rivalry, UT encourages it, as long as it doesn't dilute our trademark.

I am curious of what the outcome will be. If you hear of anything new and have a chance, let me know. It appears that this is getting more press coverage in College Station than Austin.

Take care,
Kraft

A letter to the editor to The Observer, the student newspaper of Notre Dame, that I wrote was published in today's edition.

In short, the ticket office changed a policy concerning how many tickets parents can request for a couple pre-selected football games. The change produced, so far, a good amount of feedback, all against, by the student population. I wrote a short note that, in short, said keep fighting.

Maybe a "Save Parent Tickets!" movement might start up ;-)..