It’s been awhile since the last post.  I keep a running list in my top desk drawer of things that come to mind that I might want to write about on this blog or things I observe on campus that I might want to share.  The topics are not particularly deep as evidenced by the following…

The Super Duper Weenie truck comes to campus every Wednesday when the weather permits.  They do a great business.  The Fairfield Prep students, in particular, seem to have a sixth sense about whenever the truck arrives.  Groups ranging from sizes of 3-5 to a dozen or more descend from Prep’s buildings to the truck’s location outside of the campus center.  We are living through difficult financial times as a country and world, but nothing is a more certain money maker than a mobile food truck serving hot dogs and french fries coming to a residential University campus that happens to also be home to 900+ teenage boys in high school.

A colleague recently shared with me that two of our students, one is the Sports Director for the campus radio station WVOF 88.5 FM (www.wvof.org) and the other is a sports broadcaster for the station, traveled to Fenway Park recently with media credentials in hand and interviewed the great Johnny Pesky on the occasion of the Red Sox retiring his number.  (I am not a Bostonian or native New Englander, but most baseball fans know what/where Pesky Pole is in Fenway Park and why it’s called that.)  What a great experience for these two students.  There is a picture of it on the station’s website listed above, and the interview itself is available for listening at http://staff.fairfield.edu/dgrazynski/podcasts/pesky.mp3.

Over 1,300 students attended this year’s Presidential Ball held under a tent on Bellarmine Lawn.  This marked the 5th consecutive year for the event which started originally as part of Fr. von Arx’s inauguration celebration in 2004.  Despite what was a cold and rainy day overall, this year’s event had the highest attendance of them all to date.  When you’re wrong, you’re wrong.  I had originally advised against the event when it was first conceived.  I thought four smaller class events to introduce the new President to students was the way to go.  While I did not go to this year’s event, I have in the past, and I know that Fr. von Arx greets each student who comes.  They enter the main entrance of Bellarmine Hall, proceed through the Great Hall, and head to the tent via the back Terrance.  Fr. von Arx greets them there and poses for what must be several hundred photos.  The relatively high number of freshmen who attend is not surprising, but it’s wonderful to see that the next largest class representation is the seniors.

Finally, I am a Philadelphia native and a die-hard Philly sports fan (actually, just a Philly fan overall).  Please let this be the year of the Phillies.