Text of Remarks:
Sr. Margaret Claydon '45, SND
September 11, 2004
It is now twenty-nine years since I resigned from administration
at Trinity College to become once again a member of the English
faculty. There is no need for me to tell you that since that day
in 1975 higher education in this country has changed enormously.
From the 300 women's colleges that existed when I took office only
65 now remain as such; tuition costs have escalated and therefore
financial aid has increased exponentially; computers and access
to the internet have become essential tools for learning; competitive
sports for women reign as a necessary part of every woman's education;
the possibility of being sued for one reason or another is ever
a threat in our litigious society.
These are only a few obvious ways in which the world of education
has changed, but the world itself has changed. The threat of a terrorist
strike clouds our every day and is used as an excuse to violate
constitutional rights; abuse of the environment warms our oceans
and melts our glaciers and ice-bergs; our forests disappear and
terrible fires ravage homes and destroy lives to satisfy corporate
greed; the gap between the haves and have-nots grows ever wider
as more and more women and children are left without homes and enough
food; numbers of Americans are warned of obesity while women and
children in Africa die of hunger; a world that vowed after the Holocaust
"never again!" now stands by to watch slaughter and oppression
and the real possibility of genocide in Sudan. On Sept. 11, 2001,
we considered the words of Yeats. They are still relevant today.
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy
is loosed upon the world,/ The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,/……And
what rough beast, its hour come at last,/Slouches towards Bethlehem
to be born?" (Yeats' "The Second Coming")
In the midst of this fast-paced and changing world Trinity's founding
mission to educate women who, in many cases, would not otherwise
have the opportunity to learn in a caring and student-centered environment
remains unchanged. The student population is vastly different, however,
ranging from the conventional 18-21 year-olds to those in their
mid-fifties beginning a new career. They come from nations which
in earlier times never conceived of women's higher education. The
curriculum, too, includes now Communications and Business Administration
rather than Russian and French, whereas in every classroom there
is now a Smart Board and a television, and computers available throughout
the campus. The composition of the faculty and administration is
vastly different from the once pre-dominant Sisters of Notre Dame.
But what of the future? The prophet Joel has told us that "old
men dream dreams." Well, women 'dream dreams,' too. My dreams
for Trinity are many, but those I share with you today center around
the Sisters of Notre Dame and the theme of this Symposium, Global
Leadership in Women's Education.
From its earliest days down to the early seventies Trinity was
a place where SNDs from other provinces came to pursue their first
or higher degrees, among them Sister Camilla Burns whom I knew then
as a young Physics major. They came from Britain and Japan, as as
well as throughout our own country. It was unofficially a center
for higher education of SNDs. I hope that it can become once again
a center for the higher education of our sisters, now from Africa
and Latin America, as well as other areas of the world. To make
that possible new residential and educational facilities need to
spring up on this campus, so that it would become truly an international
Notre Dame Center where sisters could study not only here but at
any of the six or seven institutions of higher learning in the area.
The construction and development of a Notre Dame International Center
here on this campus would not only provide outstanding educational
and cultural opportunities but also would contribute to a greater
understanding of cultures other than one's own, foster unity among
the whole congregation, and provide international bonding and deeper
understanding of our ministries over the Notre Dame world. This
educational center could also be open to sisters from other orders
throughout the world, and thus provide a stimulating and vital atmosphere
in which ideas for evangelization and ministry and plans for further
cooperation could be shared. They could also benefit from the thriving
EPS Program already on campus as would the EPS profit from their
different experience.
Another dream that I have is that there be a renewed and concerted
effort to recruit SNDs for our faculty, sisters not only from provinces
in the USA but from all over the world. This would not only increase
the presence of SNDs on the faculty, but would also familiarize
Trinity women with our varied Notre Dame ministries throughout our
world today. They would also come to know other cultures and help
them to prepare for living and serving in a global world .culture.
One of Trinity's educational goals has always been education for
service, for leadership. The record shows that this goal has been
achieved by many alumnae, but primarily in this country. The time
now is ripe for leadership in a global world.
In conjunction with that idea I would like to see a kind of Trinity
Peace Corps, providing opportunities for our undergraduates to experience
our Sisters' ministries throughout the world. As undergraduates
they could take advantage of a summer to learn something of another
culture at first hand; then, upon graduation, a volunteer experience
for a year or two, along the lines of the Americorps volunteers,
but opening up the horizons beyond our own boundaries. Now that
the SNDs have an official status as a Non-governmental Organization
at the United Nations perhaps a formal internship program could
be set up for our students to spend a semester or a quarter there.
Perhaps by now some of you are humming "Beautiful Dreamer",
wondering how all these dreams will materialize. But I have hope
that some generous benefactors will emerge who see what Julie's
daughters have done and are striving to do in our time as they reach
out to the needs of women and children today who are illiterate,
abused, diseased, raped, driven from homes and homelands, seeking
necessary education and in desperate need of adequate health care,
sisters who are willing to accept an advocacy role in the cause
of justice and peace and quality of life for women and children.
These advocates will need appropriate education for global leadership.
It is my hope and my dream that Trinity will become an agent for
that role in its development of a Notre Dame Center for such education.
Though I may not live to see my dream come true I hope that our
present Notre Dame leaders and our leaders at Trinity will witness
in our time what real cooperation between religious and the laity
can bring about. I pray that together they may "strive, to
seek, to find, and not to yield," (Tennyson),for "Only
when love and need are one,/And the work is play for mortal stakes./
Is the deed ever really done/ For heaven and the future's sakes."
(Robert Frost).
I pray that together they may demonstrate to our world-wide church
the power of collaboration between lay and religious. These are
my dreams for the future. I pray that they may become reality, and
thus affirm St Julie's prevailing belief that indeed "God is
good."
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