lions pride
Campus Ministry Center Named for Peg Dolan, R.S.H.M.
More than 700 gather to mark the event during Alumni Reunion Weekend
On Saturday, Sept. 27, Peg Dolan, R.S.H.M., whose influence has been felt by countless students and alumni for more than three decades, was honored for her example of service and commitment to Loyola Marymount University. The university campus ministry center was dedicated as the Peg Dolan, RSHM Campus Ministry Center.
More than 700 people, including Dolan’s family members and friends, gathered at Regents Terrace, just outside the building where she served as campus minister and director of campus ministry from 1974–85. She is currently alumni relations chaplain and moderator of the Gryphon Circle service organization.
Dolan, who graduated from Marymount College in 1958 and earned a master’s degree in education in 1974, accepted her honor in the name of the members of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, who supported her in her ministry.
“You have enriched me and allowed me to become the person I’ve been called to be, so thank you,” Dolan said. “I am deeply grateful just to know that the mission of LMU will continue and that our students will grow in faith and come to know and love God.”
During the ceremony, university officials announced that $1 million had been raised toward the $5 million campaign goal, an amount that will sustain and expand campus ministry programs. The campus ministry fundraising effort is part of the university’s $380 million campaign, “Right Place. Right Time. The Campaign for LMU.”
“The dedication of the campus ministry center will align her legacy as a truly transformative force at LMU and in all of our lives,” said Joe Knott ’74, LMU parent and a contributor to the campus ministry campaign fund.
“Peg has her footprint all over this community and in the lives of almost all of us here,” said Bob Kerslake ’58, chair of the Sister Peg Dolan Campus Ministry Center Committee, at a reception earlier that day.
The dedication ceremony coincided with alumni events that included the Golden Lion induction of Dolan and her classmates from the Marymount and Loyola classes of 1958.
New Student Art Center Opens
The Thomas P. Kelly, Jr. Student Art Gallery, a new building designed to highlight student artwork, opened its doors on Sept. 24. The gallery will feature works from LMU students as well as student artists from programs around Los Angeles.
LMU students will be responsible for all aspects of the gallery, said Barbara Busse, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts. “We’re trying to give the students the experience of what it would be like to run a professional gallery,” she said. “There is a long tradition in art schools of having a gallery that students can manage.”
Working with Carolyn Peter, director of the Laband Art Gallery, William Vaughan, manager of art studios, and faculty members, students have formed the Student Art Gallery Cooperative, which is responsible for all aspects of putting on shows, from selecting pieces for display and mounting the works to preparing promotional materials and planning receptions.
“I hope that the art gallery will be at LMU forever and encourage students to go beyond their creative limits,” said Kirsten Harkonen, who is coordinator of the Student Art Gallery Cooperative and a senior fine arts major. “Also, I hope the gallery will give students the opportunity to create things that they never felt possible.”
Part of the Fritz B. Burns Fine Arts Center, the gallery is located between the Laband Art Gallery and Murphy Recital Hall. The student gallery is named in honor of Thomas P. Kelly Jr., former CFA dean. George A.V. Dunning, a trustee of the university and chair of the CFA Council, played a major role in fundraising for the facility. Construction began in December 2007 and was completed in August 2008.
Seaver College NSF Grant Will Fund Mathematics and Science Scholarships
A National Science Foundation grant totaling $552,000 will help establish a new scholarship program for as many as 12 Los Angeles students to study science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) in Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering.
The Descartes Scholarship program will provide the students with a four-year, need-based scholarship of $10,000 beginning in fall 2010.
“The NSF Descartes Scholarship will bring to LMU 12 very talented students who probably would not have been able to afford a high-quality college education,” said Herbert Medina, director of the program and professor of mathematics.
One of the project’s objectives is to ensure that the 12 Descartes Scholars earn bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields, which have lower percentages of professionals with minority backgrounds.
“This project is completely in line with LMU’s mission. These 12 students will be high-impact students who could significantly enhance the College of Science and Engineering,” said Medina. “They also may contribute significantly to America’s science and engineering workforce through their own work and the work they inspire in the people who they eventually mentor.”
The scholarship program is named after René Descartes, the 17th century mathematician, scientist and philosopher, whose education took place in part at the Jesuit college of Le Flèche in Anjou, France.
Six Nobel Laureates Ask Students To Work for Peace and Justice
Six Nobel Peace Prize winners came to the LMU campus Sept. 11–13 to urge young people to take action to improve the world.
The Nobel Laureates — Shirin Ebadi, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams and Jody Williams — called on the world’s young people to undertake 1 billion acts or projects aimed at making a difference on issues including the environment, health, racism, poverty, women and children’s rights, peacemaking, and more. The program, which is envisioned as a 10-year effort, is named the “Global Call to Action.”
“Sometimes I wonder how God must feel about his creation of human beings when he sees Burma, Tibet, Gaza and Dafur,” said Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. “But then he sees young people like these PeaceJammers, and he says, ‘That’s why I created them.’”
About 3,000 students from around the world and the United States attended the gathering, and 250 LMU students served as volunteers. A Public Broadcasting Service film crew taped the events for a show to be broadcast in spring 2009.
The Global Call to Action is a project of the PeaceJam Foundation, a peace and justice organization that works with young people and is based in Arvada, Colo.