BC to eliminate student e-mail accounts

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story this morning about Boston College eliminating e-mail addresses for students.  Evidently, for the most part, students used their personal accounts and only checked their BC accounts for school-related e-mails.  

Now, students will be given a forwarding address (something like the @alumni.nd.edu that we have through the Alumni Association) so they can maintain their current accounts when they enter the school.

Notre Dame recently switched its student and alumni e-mail services to Google as a better way to manage the communications.

Fewer Students Taking SAT

According to this article from the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (yes, there is such an association), fewer students are taking the SAT this year than in years past.  We have noticed a similar change in our Early Action applicants this year: more seem to be taking (or at least scoring higher) on the ACT than the SAT.

As a reminder, we accept either the ACT or the SAT, and will take the higher score of the two if a student takes both.

Message from Father Jenkins

Today, Father Jenkins sent a message to all Notre Dame staff to discuss the University's standing during these difficult economic times.  Some of the things Notre Dame remains committed to are:

·         Financial Aid. Offering an affordable education for talented and committed students is a key priority.  We continually monitor tuition and other costs, and remain committed to maintaining our need-blind admission policy while also meeting the full demonstrated financial need of all our students, even as family circumstances change. Our goal is to accomplish this without increasing the overall debt burden for our students.

·         Research.  We will continue to focus on and fund our research projects. This is critical to our future success and a key component of our long-term vision for the University.  We will proceed with the next round of investment in research efforts through the Strategic Academic Planning Committee.

·         Graduate Students.  We will continue to strive to make graduate student stipends more competitive and improve health-care support for our graduate students.

·         Library.  The library is fundamental to our core mission of promoting scholarship and providing excellent undergraduate and graduate education for our students.  We will continue to make funding our library a priority.

·      Construction Projects.  Current construction projects will be completed.  Our conservative capital funding policy requires 100 percent of funding be pledged and 75 percent of funds be in hand before construction begins.  Because of strict compliance with this policy over the past five years, we can continue all current projects without incurring additional debt.  These projects will provide the infrastructure and equipment to continue advancement in research and teaching.  As has been our practice, future projects will begin only after the construction funding policy is fully met.

Interestingly enough, I don't see anything about "Head Football Coach" on there...

Picture of the Day - November 25

Picture of the Day - November 21

I forgot my camera cord at home today, so this picture is from last year.  But this is pretty much what campus looks like right now.  Happy Friday!

This may raise some eyebrows...

With the true passion of the Notre Dame Family, the following article is bound to raise some eyebrows and ruffle some feathers.  

As many of you know, we do not have a special admissions process for children of Notre Dame alumni.  While we would like to admit as many as possible, all admitted students to Notre Dame need to be competitive in both academics and extracurricular activities and be able to do the work and succeed at Notre Dame.

You can find the article here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/11/20/legacy

MBA program ranked #20

Last week, BusinessWeek magazine ranked the Notre Dame MBA program 20th among US business schools.  Read on for more details and individual rankings and evaluations of the program.