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Post by breezy on Jan 13, 2017 13:11:50 GMT -5
From the Holy Cross monthly news e-mail I received yesterday:
"For 24 hours on Feb. 14, join the entire Holy Cross community and show your love for Holy Cross. Your support provides students with opportunities to discover their passions and apply their talents in every corner of the world. On Valentine’s Day, if 4,000 donors show their love, Holy Cross will receive $1 million. Let's re-capture the fun and excitement of last year's Give Purple Challenge."
I think that many (hopefully most, if not all) of our posters recall the success of last year's Purple Pride Challenge, and I hope we will all make some effort to encourage other HC alums and friends to participate in this event. Of course, gifts made during this event can be designated for the Crusader Athletics Fund and the specific sport of your choice.
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Post by rgs318 on Jan 13, 2017 13:40:00 GMT -5
I hope it is successful as last year.
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Post by sarasota on Jan 13, 2017 14:24:26 GMT -5
Why doesn't HC attract a Nobel Prize winner to the Faculty? You can accomplish anything with enough money. I don't think they think like that. They're more interested in turning out persons for others, future successful professionals, etc. That's fine, but a different focus than pure academics. This difference in focus is not a small thing. It goes to the very heart of what an academic institution really is. Personally, I would prefer to see more of a focus on academics.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 13, 2017 14:33:01 GMT -5
"Successful" will be a little tough if the comparison is to last year's "Give Purple" campaign because the timeframe and goals are different.
But, last year's goal was 4,300 donors in 43 hours, just under 2 days. Result: 6,226 donors and $1,939,318.
This year's goal, 4,000 donors in basically 24 hours, 1 day with $1 million matched if that goal is met.
Expect an all-out communication blitz soon from Holy Cross, your Class Chairs and Class Agents, with more details.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 13, 2017 14:34:21 GMT -5
Noted, with interest.
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purple71
Crusader Century Club
Posts: 169
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Post by purple71 on Jan 13, 2017 16:22:48 GMT -5
Why doesn't HC attract a Nobel Prize winner to the Faculty? You can accomplish anything with enough money. I don't think they think like that. They're more interested in turning out persons for others, future successful professionals, etc. That's fine, but a different focus than pure academics. This difference in focus is not a small thing. It goes to the very heart of what an academic institution really is. Personally, I would prefer to see more of a focus on academics. I believe the mission of the College is to educate young men and women to be persons for others. In the course of fulfilling that mission the College has indeed been a breading ground for future professionals.
To educate by Nobel Prize winning faculty a generation of young people who do not understand the role of each of us during our time on this earth would miss the point of the College, that we are on this each to serve our God through the service of others.
The most significant aspect of the College is that it teaches its students in the Jesuit tradition and one must not minimize that aspect.
I don't mean to sound like a preacher but I suspect our dear Father K would agree with this analysis.
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Post by sarasota on Jan 13, 2017 17:00:09 GMT -5
Academic institution of higher learning vs. Seminary. (I use "Seminary" not literally but figuratively to suggest the difference between moral formation and academic inquiry.) HC devotes enormous energy to the seminary focus. I believe it is a zero sum game, i.e, there is only a finite amount of energy/resources an institution can expend. To do more of one focus necessarily entails that less of other focuses.
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Post by lou on Jan 13, 2017 17:02:15 GMT -5
Would love to have Bob Dylan give a lecture or two
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Post by sarasota on Jan 13, 2017 17:05:10 GMT -5
I would consider Dylan an interesting moral philosopher. I'm using "moral" in the old meaning of "about mankind," not necessarily Ethics.
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Post by hchoops on Jan 13, 2017 17:06:44 GMT -5
Would love to have Bob Dylan give a lecture or two Perhaps the enticements of worcester would surpass Oslo
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Post by sarasota on Jan 13, 2017 17:12:43 GMT -5
Hoops- For me, the ultimate value of having a Nobel winner on the faculty is for recruitment advertising. Sorry if that is crass. Dylan would fit the bill not because he is a Nobel Laureate, which most folks have already forgotten, but because he is a huge artist.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 13, 2017 17:25:41 GMT -5
I know this is very hypothetical but wonder, Sarasota, if Holy Cross were to land a Nobel laureate to the faculty would that make a difference enough for you that you would support alma mater with your money ("You can accomplish anything with enough money") rather than your empty words of support? And I truly mean "empty words of support" because it is very apparent that you will never give a nickel to Holy Cross even if it were to move from being a "seminary" (your words) to a purely academic, godless institution.
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Post by rgs318 on Jan 13, 2017 17:36:25 GMT -5
I am not sure that there is a clear "difference between moral formation and academic inquiry." Hasn't Jesuit education made much of its reputation by combining the two?
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Post by sarasota on Jan 13, 2017 21:14:32 GMT -5
sader1970- What's with your obsession with donations? Where did you ever come up with your nutty principle that an alumnus who donates nothing to his college forfeits all rights to criticize that college?
rgs- Academic inquiry is the pursuit of truth in conformance with accepted rules of rationality, empirical and logical methodology.
Moral formation is the effort to shape character in conformance with a set of religious/ethical beliefs that are not subject to rules of rationality, empirical and logical methodology.
These two are mutually exclusive.
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Post by rgs318 on Jan 13, 2017 21:33:25 GMT -5
Sota,
They are exclusive when you choose to use personal definitions...but that would not be logical, would it?
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Post by sarasota on Jan 13, 2017 21:36:39 GMT -5
I believe my definitions are widely accepted. Of course, we're now into the Faith vs. Reason debate.
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Post by chicago77 on Jan 14, 2017 13:12:03 GMT -5
Any Nobel Prize winner in a science field would require lab facilities beyond the capacity of HC as well as expectations of PhD students and post-docs to fill those labs. So you are left with literature and economics, perhaps the peace prize (though some of those are not academics). How many Nobel prize winners would be willing to move to a new campus (since the award is usually later in life) and teach exclusively undergrads? You are probably correct that there is some level of money that would work but probably not worth that investment, I don't think celebrity academics would really help HC in the long run.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jan 14, 2017 15:12:31 GMT -5
chicago77, agree with you on science. Re: economics, no Nobel Prize winner is going to be found teaching at a school without a graduate program in economics.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 14, 2017 15:17:26 GMT -5
So, it's Bob Dylan or no one?
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Post by hcgrad94 on Jan 14, 2017 18:00:26 GMT -5
Our professors actually love to teach and not be figureheads. I'll take our faculty that is committed to challenging 18-22 year olds any day.
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Post by sarasota on Jan 15, 2017 2:39:33 GMT -5
Theoretical physicists don't need a laboratory on campus. They can travel to CERN. It could be a joint appointment with WPI. Also, it need not be a Nobel Laureate. It could be a National Book Award winner, etc. The key is high profile. It's a matter of brand, marketing, advertising.
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purple71
Crusader Century Club
Posts: 169
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Post by purple71 on Jan 15, 2017 12:40:44 GMT -5
I believe my definitions are widely accepted. Of course, we're now into the Faith vs. Reason debate. You define the supposed conflict as "Faith vs. Reason". I don't see the two concepts as mutually exclusive. From your prior posts I infer that your reject religion which, of course, is your right. However, I do not agree with that rejection and therefore greatly admired the principles upon which Alma Mater was founded and espouses today. I am reminded of the great and oft repeated quote from the Maryknoll missionary, Father Cummings, based upon his service in the Philippines and as a POW during WWII : maryknollmissionarchives.org/?deceased-fathers-bro=father-william-t-cummings-mm. It is quote with which those who have faced combat overwhelming concur. I refer you to the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in WWII who articulated that point of view in a postwar American Legion address.
Your point of view would secularize the Cross to improve it, to me, secularization would eviscerate Alma Mater.
I do support your right to criticize the Cross without financial contributions as I have no way of knowing what financial circumstances might be driving that decision. If your reticence to contribute is driven not by finances but your opposition to the "seminary" nature of the Cross and you are awaiting the secularization of the school, we can do without your money as I am reminded of the quote from scripture: what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? For my 2 cents, and annual contributions, the Jesuit tradition of the Cross is indeed its heart and soul.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Jan 15, 2017 12:48:15 GMT -5
Outstanding contribution, purple71
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Post by rgs318 on Jan 15, 2017 12:52:53 GMT -5
Despite our occasional differences, I feel the need to speak up here on behalf of 'Sota. He does support the Benedictine Monks with their mission to educate underserved students at St Benedict's Prep in Newark, NJ. I assume that he is aware of the role of spirituality in their mission to help these young men. I am not sure why he needs to seemingly attack HC for doing what he supports at St Benedict's. He certainly as the right to do that. I wish he would hold back a bit on the criticism he heaps on religion and spirituality and on those who find a role for these things in their lives. [As an aside, if you want to read some outstanding stories about the work of the Monks, I would suggest one of two books: Downtown Monks: A Benedictine Journey in the City or Street Wisdom: Connecting with God in Everyday Life. The author is Albert Holtz, OSB. He has other works as well. I can sum up my opinion of him by saying that I believe he would have been an outstanding Jesuit! ]
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Post by sarasota on Jan 15, 2017 23:37:49 GMT -5
rgs- Thanks for your kind thoughts and your support of Benedicts. You are perceptive to have noticed the contradiction in my position inasmuch as Benedict's mission is spiritual as well as socially uplifting. All I can say about that is that it bothers me. I guess I have preferred one mission over the other.
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