Observer the
The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s Volume 44 : Issue 50
Wednesday, november 10, 2010
Professors from abroad discuss transition to ND
ndsmcobserver.com
Student promotes peace Senior uses recreational outlets to launch nonprofit organization By MOLLY MADDEN News Writer
Photo courtesy of Ghada Bualuan
Notre Dame professor Ghada Bauluan stands in front of the Mediterranean Sea with her oldest son Roy in 2003. By NICOLE TOCZAUER News Writer
Several Notre Dame professors first knew the United States as a foreign country. Professor Ghada Bualuan from the Classics department moved to the United States from Lebanon after marrying her husband.
“At first it was hard and very challenging, for I missed Lebanon so much. I missed my family and friends,” she said. “I felt awfully lonely.” For others though, the transition was not as difficult. Professor Olivier Morel, from the Romance Languages and Literatures department, said he
see ABROAD/page 4
Senior Jeb Brovsky plans on making the promotion of global peace a part of his future with the creation of the nonprofit organization Peace Pandemic Corp., which will use sports and other recreational outlets as a means for promoting peace among youth across the globe. “The mission of the organization is to simply empower youth through peaceful action,” Brovsky said. “It’s about achieving peace through sport and music with kids.” Brovsky, who is graduating at the end of December with a degree in Entrepreneurial Studies and a minor in International Peace Studies, thought of the idea for Peace Pandemic Corp. when he was a sophomore. He said this past summer he decided to make the nonprofit organization part of his immediate future. “I began to see where I
Photo courtesy of Jeb Brovsky
Senior Jeb Brovsky and University President Fr. John Jenkins hold personal petitions for peace. wanted to end up in December,” Brovsky said. “I worked on getting Peace Pandemic off the ground, literally all day, every day this summer. I would like to devote
my life to this.” Brovsky, who is a forward on the Notre Dame soccer team and a finalist for this
see PEACE/page 6
Gardens go green in more ways than one 1st Source By LAUREN KELLY News Writer
Irish Gardens, Notre Dame’s student-run campus flower shop, is going green. The shop has begun composting waste in an effort to become more eco-friendly. “The project has been in the works since the start of the s e m e s t e r, b u t f u l l y g o t p u t into action at the end of October,” senior Celia Johns, product manager at Irish Gardens, said. The name of this new campaign, spearheaded by Johns, is “Making the Gardens Green.” “[Junior] Clare Mundy — one of the other managers — and I talked about encouraging recycling in the shop this year during a brainstorming s e s s i o n o v e r t h e s u m m e r, ” Johns said. “I got the idea for the composting program from a colloquium on Catholic Social Te a c h i n g and Sustainability, when a presentation from the Office of Sustainability talked about the community garden that was started over the summer,
INSIDE TODAY’S PAPER
offers grants for research
and that collections from landscape services makes up the compost for the garden.” The project got rolling with help from the University. “I contacted LaFortune Building Services, and they were very supportive of our initiative, and helped us get new large recycling bins so the custodial staff would know of the policy change,” Johns said. “As a student run business, it was up to the student managers to lead the charge on policy changes.” The Notre Dame compost pile is located at the Food S e r v i c e S u p p o r t F a c i l i t y. Waste from Irish Gardens is collected and deposited there. “The compost is added to the compost pile of other organic material that breaks down and provides natural fertilizer for the gardens that grow food used in the dining hall and by the community,” Johns said. Johns said she has heard positive feedback. “Other students and faculty have been very supportive of the idea [and] excited that we
SUZANNA PRATT/The Observer
In order to offer an incentive to bring university-based research to the marketplace, 1st Source Bank is sponsoring an annual award of up to $20,000 for Notre Dame and Indiana University School of Medicine South Bend (IUSMSB) researchers who have successfully commercialized new technologies. The award was established last year with a $1-million gift from 1st Source Bank and will be presented each year to a Notre Dame or IUSM-SB faculty member. The first award will be presented in the spring at an awards banquet, said chair of the selection committee Robert Bernhard, vice president for research at Notre Dame.
see GARDENS/page 5
Irish Gardens, the floral shop in LaFortune Student Center, has begun composting waste in an effort to become more eco-friendly.
see RESEARCH/page 4
By CASEY KENNY News Writer
Food services changes page 3 ◆ Now and then: Women’s basketball page 10 ◆ Women’s soccer NCAA tournament page 20 ◆ Viewpoint page 8