Prom Alternatives

ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 4 — Two Long Island, N.Y., Catholic high schools are considering simple end-of-the-year dances or senior outings in place of opulent proms, “where the largest limo and most expensive gown win,” reported the wire service.

Last year, the principals of Chaminade and Kellenberg Memorial high schools made news when they decided to cancel their senior proms because they had become an expensive show of materialism that was out of character with the schools’ missions.

The students suggested that they have an end-of-the-year outing without formal dress and no limousines.

At Chaminade this year, they plan to visit an amusement park. At Kellenberg, they are planning a dinner dance on a Manhattan Island cruise. In each case the students would travel by school buses.

Good Trend

CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY, March 29 — The society announced that its protests have helped achieve a record-low 22 Catholic colleges and universities to present “The Vagina Monologues” this year — down from 27 venues in 2005, 29 in 2004, and 32 in 2003.

Of the 34 Catholic institutions originally scheduled to hold performances this year, academic officials persuaded or prevented students from presenting the play at Aquinas College in Michigan, Assumption College, The Catholic University of America, New York Medical College, Providence College and Seton Hall, Carlow and Marquette universities.

Four other performances announced by “V-Day” were canceled, including Sacred Heart University, Saint Xavier University, Siena College and the University of Scranton, but there is no indication that officials halted the events.

Jerome Award

CATHOLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, March 30 — Jay Dolan, professor emeritus of history at the University of Notre Dame, will receive the association’s Jerome Award later this month for outstanding contributions to Catholic scholarship.

Dolan founded the university’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism in 1975 and served as its director until 1993.

He has written or edited numerous books on the history of Catholicism in America, including The American Catholic Experience: A History From Colonial Times to the Present.

New High School

DIOCESE OF ARLINGTON, March 31 — The diocese in northern Virginia will move forward with plans to build a Catholic high school on the Cherry Hill peninsula near Dumfries.

The 1,000-student school — the first to be built in the diocese in over two decades — is planned to open for the 2008-2009 academic year, and is designed to meet the area’s growing population.

The school was originally slated to open this fall but problems with soil conditions and rising construction costs forced a postponement.

Curing the World

VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, April 3 — Dr. Paul Farmer, professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School, is the 2006 recipient of Villanova University’s Mendel Medal.

Farmer is a founding director of Partners in Health, an international charity that provides direct health services and conducts research on behalf of the poor.

Farmer also is the subject of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Tracy Kidder, The Quest of Dr. Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, published in 2003.