Campus Watch

Board Additions

(Ga.) , Jan. 27 — Southern Catholic College in Georgia has added two more members to its Board of Trustees, bringing the total number of board members to 15.

Edward Schroeder, a retired international president of United Parcel Ser vice, and David Seng, retired director, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Montag & Caldwell Investment Counsel Inc., will join the board of one of the few Catholic colleges in the South.

Southern Catholic, located in Dawsonville, Ga., plans to open in fall 2005.

Catholics’ Centennial

(Univ.) , Jan. 26 — Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras presided Jan. 25 at a Mass celebrating Stanford University's 100-year-old Catholic community.

In 1903, when the Stanford Newman Club formed, the paper reported, Catholics were a minority on campus. Now, however, an estimated 30% to 40% of the student body identify themselves as Catholic, the most-represented religion on campus.

More than 800 students and faculty attend Mass and each year about 50 infants and 10 adults are baptized, 25 students and faculty members are confirmed, and about 75 couples participate in the sacrament of marriage.

Ecologically Unsound?

(Fla.) , Jan. 27 — Ave Maria University's planned campus and town near Naples, Fla., would “threaten the Everglades ecosystem,” according to the Sierra Club.

The environmental group said it was afraid the area would not only be converted to a school and town but also a massive new subdivision.

Ave Maria was mentioned as part of the Sierra Club's argument against a government-proposed $8.4 million plan to restore the Everglades. The organization said the plan to provide water to cities and towns has been twisted.

A spokesman for Barren Collier Partnership, which is working with Ave Maria on the new site, said the university is planned for “the least impactive place we could find to put it” and it complies with the anti-sprawl provisions in the county's plan.

Pro-Life at Pitt

(Univ. of Pittsburgh), Jan. 28 — Beautiful Choice is the name of the new University of Pittsburgh pro-life group.

Its mission, according to the student newspaper, is to “educate the university community on the value of human life and in matters pertaining to abortion and the right to life. We will seek to foster and support positive alternatives to abortion for pregnant women, especially those in the university community.”

Among its activities, said the organization's president, sophomore N'djamina Johnson, was a trip to Washington for the annual March for Life.

‘Monologues’ Update

CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY, Jan. 30 — Already the protest campaign launched in early January by the Cardinal Newman Society against presentations of “The Vagina Monologues” is having an impact.

According to the group's Web site, 11 Catholic colleges and universities have said they will not host or sponsor the play. Several college leaders have also indicated they will not allow the play on campus.

The Catholic University of America and St. Joseph's College in Indiana are among those who have cancelled plays or banned the play on their campuses.

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