Experiencing God in Nepal Creighton alumna Kerri McCallister (inset) calls her volunteer work in this tiny, poverty-stricken nation “one of the greatest blessings” in her life Enron 101: Lessons from a Corporate Scandal

OfOf Threshers, Threshers, Cobblers Cobblers and and Enron 101: IambicIambic Pentameter Pentameter TeachingFeeling About‘Alive’ Terrorismin Nepal LessonsTeaching from Abouta Corporate Terrorism Scandal Fall 2002 Pursuethe FALL 2002 possibilities. University Magazine

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Helping recruit undergraduate students for Creighton’s College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business Administration and School of Nursing is as easy as...

Send us a prospective student’s name on the attached card 1. provided in this magazine. Give a prospective student a special fee-waived application 2. that will be mailed to all alumni in September. Direct a prospective student to the Undergraduate 3. Admissions Office website: http://admissions.creighton.edu/. Or call the Undergraduate Admissions Office at 1-800-282-5835 For admissions information on Creighton’s other schools and colleges, call or visit online ... School of Law Enron 101: (402) 280-2872 http://culaw.creighton.edu/ (Fee-waived applications offered to family and friends of Creighton Lessons from a University alumni. Call the number above or e-mail your name and address to [email protected].) Corporate Scandal School of Dentistry (402) 280-2695 President Bush, in his speech last month on Wall Street, http://cudental.creighton.edu/ said corporate scandals, such as the one that toppled School of Pharmacy and Health Professions energy giant Enron, have shaken the public’s trust in (402) 280-2662 corporate America. Developing ethical, responsible http://spahp.creighton.edu/ corporate leaders for tomorrow is a primary focus of School of Medicine 14Creighton’s College of Business Administration. Many professors in the (402) 280-2799 College — from accounting to management to finance — are using these http://medicine.creighton.edu/ scandals to reinforce important business lessons. Graduate School (402) 280-2870 http://www.creighton.edu/GradSchool/Webs/index.htm (For information on graduate programs in the College of Business Administration, call 402-280-2829.) About the Cover University College Creighton photographer Don Doll, S.J., captured this image of (402) 280-2424 an 89-year-old woman near Nargakot, Nepal, welcoming visitors http://www.creighton.edu/UnivCol/ Experiencing God in Nepal with a traditional Nepal greeting. The woman was out cutting Creighton alumna Kerri McCallister (While application for admission is not required, those admitted as either (inset) calls her volunteer work in this tiny, poverty-stricken nation “one of the greatest blessings” in her life degree- or certificate-seeking students may apply for financial aid.) Enron 101: grass for her cow at the time. Fr. Doll explained that it’s very Lessons from a Corporate Scandal

OfOf Threshers, Threshers, Cobblers Cobblers and and Enron 101: common among Nepalis to greet people by putting their palms IambicIambic Pentameter Pentameter TeachingFeeling About‘Alive’ Terrorismin Nepal LessonsTeaching from Abouta Corporate Terrorism Scandal Fall 2002 Thank you for your support of Creighton University. Photos by Don Doll, S.J. together, bowing slightly and saying “namaste” (nah-mah-stay) — which basically means, “I worship the divine in you.” Visit the magazine online at: www.creightonmagazine.org

Features Departments

4 Letters to the Editor 5 University News Spirits of Creighton Kurt Morrison of Littleton, Colo., and Nakina Mills of Pine Ridge, S.D., received the University’s top student award at May commencement. Relief in Sight

Photo by Don Doll, S.J. Photo by Bob Ervin Fourth-year medical student Greg Stroup Experiencing Teaching About traveled to St. Lucia in March with God in Nepal Terrorism Creighton’s vice president and associate 20 For Kerri McCallister, BA’99, it 28 In the post-9/11 era, Creighton vice president for Health Sciences, providing was a leap of faith — leaving behind family and scientist Martha Gentry-Nielsen said our best care to people suffering from glaucoma. friends in Colorado to work as a JVI (Jesuit defense against biological terrorism is Volunteers International) school teacher in a poor knowledge, understanding and preparation. 40 Development News village in Nepal. It is now a labor of love, an Gentry-Nielsen and her Creighton medical Heider Gift experience that has opened her eyes to social colleagues are working hard to make us more The Jesuit tradition of being women and justice issues and deepened her faith in God. informed and better prepared. men for others is a daily goal for Charles and Mary Heider. Their most recent gift to Creighton will fund student scholarships. 44 Alumni News Dad, Grandpa ... Father Creighton alumnus Phil Flott, BA’67, a father of five and grandfather of 16, became a Catholic priest earlier this year. His son, Anthony, writes of the experience. Hear Kitty, Kitty

Photo courtesy of James Cavanaugh, BA’77, JD’80 Photo courtesy of James Cavanaugh, BA’77, Illustration courtesy of Duke University Edward Walsh, PhD’83, and his wife and Creighton Lawyer Of Threshers, colleague, JoAnn McGee, Ph.D., MS’82, studied the hearing of lions and other big Finds Treasure in Cobblers and Iambic cats at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. 32 Ireland’s Past 34 Pentameter During a search of his Irish roots, Creighton Bridget Keegan, Ph.D., chair of Creighton’s 55 The Last Word alumnus and Omaha attorney James Department of English, has “rediscovered” an Are religiously sponsored health professions Cavanaugh, BA’77, JD’80, stumbled upon often overlooked and forgotten class of 18th and an ancient legal system, passed from 19th century poets. Far from the social elite, schools relics of the past or do they provide generation to generation by an amazing these were laboring poets — equally adept at important and unique dimensions of group of lawyer-poets known as Brehons. wielding a cobbler’s hammer or a farmhand’s education and health care? Creighton’s thresher as well as a poet’s pen. Richard O’Brien, M.D., examines the issue. Contact Us Creighton University Magazine’s Purpose Executive Editor: Stephen T. Kline Creighton University Magazine, like the University itself, is committed to excellence and dedicated to the pursuit of truth in all its forms. (402) 280-1784 [email protected] The magazine will be comprehensive in nature. It will support the University’s mission of education through thoughtful and Editor: Rick Davis compelling feature articles on a variety of topics. It will feature the brightest, the most stimulating, the most inspirational thinking that Creighton offers. The magazine also will promote Creighton, and its Jesuit Catholic identity, to a broad public and serve as a vital link (402) 280-1785 [email protected] between the University and its constituents. The magazine will be guided by the core values of Creighton: the inalienable worth of each Associate Editor: Sheila Swanson individual, respect for all of God’s creation, a special concern for the poor, and the promotion of justice. (402) 280-2069 [email protected] Visit the magazine online at: www.creightonmagazine.org Missing Two Points Absolutely a great issue. All of the major articles were topnotch (A Bear Hug from Putin; University Magazine Alzheimer’s Team Searches for Hope; Chance, God and the Economy; and Islam’s ‘Rogue’ Cousin). When I saw the subject of the Last Word Dream Catchers They came to Creighton as high school students with dreams. column, Can There Be Peace in the Holy Land?, I Publisher: Creighton University; Rev. John P. Now they share a milestone. Schlegel, S.J., President; Michael E. Leighton, expected more insight into the challenges of A Bear Hug Alzheimer’s Team God, Chance Islam’s ‘Rogue’ Cousin From Putin? Searches for Hope and the Economy Islam’s ‘Rogue’ Cousin Vice President for University Relations. Creighton Summer 2002 creating peace in the Middle East than I found. University Magazine staff: Stephen T. Kline, Although I don’t quibble with Executive Editor; Rick Davis, Editor; Sheila anything Professor Raful wrote, I was Swanson, Associate Editor; Pamela A. Vaughn, Features Editor. Editorial Advisers: M. Roy surprised that his “simple realities” Wilson, M.D.; Craig McGarry; Diane Dougherty; neglected two basic facts. First, the Rev. Donald A. Doll, S.J.; Ruth Purtilo, Ph.D.; West Bank was taken by Israel in war, Tamara Buffalohead-McGill; and Jayne Schram. Letters and Israel is therefore an occupying power. Second, the many Jewish Creighton University Magazine (USPS728-070) is to published quarterly in February, May, August settlements established in this and November by Creighton University, 2500 the Editor occupied territory have been California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178-0001. constructed on what was once Periodicals postage paid at Omaha, Nebraska, Palestinian land. and additional entry points. Address all mail to Proud of Alma Mater Doesn’t Professor Raful acknowledge Public Relations and Information, Omaha, NE that the Palestinians should reasonably 68178. Postmaster: Send change of address to May I say how proud I am that my alma Creighton University Magazine, P.O. Box 3266, mater gives voice to the talent it has within its expect to have all of this land returned as Omaha, NE 68103-0078. teaching staff. part of the price of peace? And what did I was moved by the perspective and his Israeli contacts have to say on the land For more enrollment information, contact the import of the article about the recycling of the ownership issue? Undergraduate Admissions Office at John Novak, MBA’84 1-800-282-5835, [email protected]. earth’s water. (We Are All ‘Water Cousins,’ by John Scott, S.J., Spring 2001.) Omaha To make a gift to the University, contact the Likewise, I was moved by the recent article Development Office at 1-800-334-8794. by Robert P. Heaney, M.D., titled Chance, God Uncommon Perspective and the Economy (Summer 2002). I am a financial consultant with Salomon For the latest on alumni gatherings, contact the Alumni Relations Office at 1-800-CU-ALUMS Although he proposes no solutions, I Smith Barney in Louisville, Ky. (800-282-5867) or check online at applaud his effort in applying a scientific Your published article Chance, God and the www.creighton.edu/alumni. methodology to test the myths of a capitalist Economy has addressed several key issues economy. that I have pondered for quite some time. Send letters to the editor to Rick Davis at Even though he spoke a bit despairingly of Dr. Heaney provides an uncommon [email protected]; fax, (402) 280-2549; Creighton University, Office of Public Relations, “socialism” (which I assume would appease perspective of the responsibility that comes 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178. many of the “fat cat contributors” among with personal wealth and the importance of Creighton graduates), I appreciate the fact being a good custodian thereof. Update your mailing address or send alumni news that Jesuit institutions have the confidence in The article was given to me by a client who (births, weddings, promotions, etc.) electronically their beliefs to allow criticism of established, also was intrigued and inspired by Dr. through www.creighton.edu/alumni, call 1-800-334-8794 or mail to Development Office, contemporary doctrines. Heaney’s thoughts. I believe that several of Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Also, as a postscript, I found Dr. Horning’s our other clients would find the article to be Omaha, NE 68178. article on Putin to be, as usual, refreshingly beneficial and applicable to their lives. insightful. When I took two semesters of I am glad that a bone biologist is open to Visit the magazine website at Russian history from him in the ‘60s, I could sharing his economist-like thoughts. www.creightonmagazine.org tell that Dr. Horning had the kind of “good Doug Kraft heart” and objectivity that transcended the Louisville, Ky. www.creighton.edu Cold War rhetoric of the time. I have two Correction: Nicole Haukaas’ last name was Copyright © 2002 by Creighton University texts that we used at the time, and I refer to them, on occasion, to this day. The fact that misspelled in the article Native American Recycled and Recyclable Horning is still teaching (am I really that Retreat Celebrates Milestone in the old?) says something about the intellectual Summer 2002 issue. We apologize for Printed with Soy Ink integrity of my alma mater. the error. Thank you, Creighton. George Bubnis, BA’66 Bothell, Wash.

4 Fall 2002 University News Callone Named to Saint Joseph Hospital and Creighton Higher Learning University Launch New Medical Commission Board Center Name Patricia R. Callone, vice president for Saint Joseph Hospital, one of the Institutional Relations at Creighton oldest hospitals in Nebraska, and University, has been elected to a four-year the Creighton University Health term on the board of trustees of the Higher Sciences Division officially became Learning Commission of the North Central linked under their new name, Association of Creighton University Medical Center, Colleges and on June 27. Schools. Her term on The new name clarifies the position the 18-member board of Saint Joseph Hospital as the begins Sept. 1. teaching hospital of Creighton “I am honored to University and reinforces the serve higher institution’s position as one of the education and the premier academic medical centers in Higher Learning the region. Creighton University Callone Commission in this Medical Center (CUMC) includes capacity. My work with the commission is the hospital and its clinics and an extension of Creighton’s traditional Creighton University’s Health Sciences commitment to provide service to the Division, which comprises the Schools community and to higher education,” of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, and Callone said. Pharmacy and Health Professions. Media Services Herbert/Creighton Photo by Tom Creighton University Medical Center became official on The Higher Learning Commission is part This is a historic moment for both June 27 during a signage unveiling in front of the hospital. of the North Central Association of Colleges the hospital and Creighton, as the and Schools. The association was founded renaming of the organization in 1895 as a membership organization for recognizes the more than 100-year Joseph Hospital through its university link educational institutions. It is committed to relationship of the two institutions as an with the Jesuits at Creighton. The Catholic developing and maintaining high standards academic medical center. The hospital was litany will remain on the hospital wall that of excellence and is recognized by the established by the Sisters of Mercy in 1870 identifies Saint Joseph as the patron saint of Secretary of Education and the Committee and at one time was called Creighton the hospital, a source of hope to the sick, a on Recognition of Postsecondary Memorial Saint Joseph Hospital. protector of the poor and a comfort to the Accreditation. The status of both Saint Joseph Hospital dying. The association is one of six regional and Creighton University will be preserved To learn more about the Creighton institutional accrediting associations in the under the new name. The name also University Medical Center, visit United States. preserves the religious heritage of Saint http://health.creighton.edu.

commitment to providing a quality liberal knowledge that a strong liberal education CU Joins the Call education to every college student, significantly expands economic for Liberal Arts regardless of the student’s field of study. opportunities and fosters intellectual “We are pleased to be a part of this resilience, civic capacity and knowledge Education national effort to advance public of the wider world. understanding of the nature and benefits of According to CALL and the Association Creighton University has joined more a liberal education,” said the Rev. John P. of American Colleges and Universities, than 365 colleges and universities in the Schlegel, S.J., president of Creighton “Liberal learning is not confined to Association of American Colleges and University. “Our university was founded in particular fields of study. What matters Universities Presidents’ Campaign for the knowledge that a liberal arts education in liberal education is substantial content, the Advancement of Liberal Learning produces well-rounded individuals capable rigorous methodology and an active (CALL). of meeting the demands of today’s complex engagement with the societal, ethical This national effort, led by college world.” and practical implications of our learning. presidents from across the country, seeks CALL seeks to promote the intrinsic and The spirit and value of liberal learning are to increase public understanding of liberal societal benefits of a wide-ranging liberal equally relevant to all forms of higher education and to foster a societal education. The effort will promote the education and to all students.”

5 Fall 2002 University News

Mahern Honored Commencement discipline; distinguished local civic, cultural or volunteer service; and commitment to with Robert M. 2002 Honorees the educational and community ideals espoused by Creighton University’s Mission Creighton University celebrated its 111th Spire Award Statement. spring commencement exercises on May 18. Presidential Medallions were conferred In addition to awarding more than 1,180 Catherine Mahern, director of the Milton upon Duchesne Academy of the Sacred graduates with their degrees, the University Abrahams Legal Clinic at Creighton Heart, the Omaha Star and the Knights of presented three Presidential Medallions and University, was awarded the 2002 Omaha Columbus Father Flanagan of Boys Town honored an outstanding alumnus. Bar Association’s Council No. 652. Robert M. Spire Alumni Achievement Citation Duchesne is one of 21 schools in the Public Service The Alumni Achievement Citation was United States that make up the network of Award on May 1. presented to Larry N. Ito, Ph.D. The Alumni Sacred Heart Schools. For 120 years, the This award, Achievement Citation is Creighton’s highest Academy has been a pillar of education in named in honor of alumni award. the community, educating girls to become the late Robert M. Ito, BS’84, MS’86, received his doctorate women of conscience and confidence. Spire, former from the University of Minnesota in 1990. In 1915, Duchesne College was president of the That same year, established and in its early years had an Photo by Dave Weaver Omaha Bar Dow Chemical hired affiliation with Creighton. After six decades Mahern Association and Ito. In the last decade, the college and elementary school closed at Nebraska state attorney general, is he has not only Duchesne, allowing the high school to presented annually to a lawyer who has transformed the prosper. Today, Duchesne High School demonstrated a long-term commitment way Dow Chemical serves more than 250 girls with a rigorous to the enhancement of the public’s conducts its business, curriculum. knowledge of the law and has shown a but he has transformed The Omaha Star has been covering issues history of providing services to the the environment. and events in the city’s African-American community for purposes other than Ito Ito, now a technical community for nearly 65 years. Mildred financial profit. leader at Dow, was Brown, who founded the newspaper, Mahern, an associate professor of law instrumental in designing chemical processes guided the paper during racial segregation, and the holder of the Connie Kearney Chair that take chemical waste streams from other and the civil rights movement of the 1960s in Clinical Legal Education, has helped Dow commercial endeavors and convert the and 1970s. She worked at the paper until obtain more than $300,000 in grants from waste materials into useful products. her death in 1989 at the age of 82. Since the Nebraska Commission on Public then, the paper has continued as a family Advocacy for the ongoing operation at the Presidential Medallions enterprise. Marguerita Washington, Ph.D., Abrahams Legal Clinic. The Presidential Medallion recognizes owner, editor and publisher of the Omaha From 1990 to 2002, Mahern participated individuals and organizations which have Star, is Brown’s niece. in the Nebraska State Bar Association displayed excellence in an academic In 1902, the Knights of Columbus Minority and Justice Commission. Its charge was to study racial barriers to the profession, the courts, and the judicial system and implement programs to Alumni develops lay and Jesuit groups to generate overcome these barriers. new initiatives to further the mission of the Mahern currently sits on the Nebraska Honored with province. O’Brien developed a lay spiritual Supreme Court Pro Se Litigation Committee. formation program for province employees. This committee seeks to address the issues Achievement He also oversees fund raising of more than encountered by the self-represented litigant Awards $3 million annually — funds that are used in the Nebraska courts, and to develop for the training of young Jesuits, the care of literature to assist these litigants in College of Arts and Sciences older Jesuits and for other good works. accessing the courts. On May 17, Kevin O’Brien, BA’81, received the 2002 Alumni Merit Award from School of Dentistry the College of Arts and Sciences. He Roger B. Gerstner, DDS’69, received the received his master’s in educational School of Dentistry’s Alumni Achievement psychology from the University of Houston Award on April 19. Gerstner has been in in 1986. Since 1998, O’Brien has been the private practice in Omaha and on director of the Ignatian Apostolic Creighton’s dental school faculty for 30 Partnerships Office in Baltimore. This office years. As a member of the peer review for the Jesuits of the Maryland Province committee of the Omaha District Dental

6 Fall 2002 University News

Morrison, Mills also was helpful in recruiting other Native American students to the University. Over Receive Spirit of the past three years, she personally sent out more than 550 letters to prospective Native Creighton Awards American students. Creighton University graduates Morrison received a bachelor of arts in Nakina Mills, of Pine Ridge, S.D., and political science at the commencement Kurt T. Morrison, of Littleton, Colo., ceremony. While at Creighton, Morrison were presented the prestigious Spirit of was active in more than a dozen student Creighton Awards at the May 18 organizations including a term as president commencement ceremony. The Spirit of Creighton Award is Photo by Mark Romesser given annually to Fr. Schelgel with Marguerita Washington, Ph.D., editor and publisher of the Omaha Star, one of two students who three Presidential Medallion recipients at May represent the best Commencement. qualities of the University’s established Council No. 652 on behalf of 52 founders. Recipients Catholic men in Omaha. One of the charter are honored for their members of the group was Count John initiative, enterprise, Creighton. academic From its humble beginnings in the early achievement and 1900s, the group of men has grown to more outstanding than 22,000 members at the beginning of the character traits. Photo by Mark Romesser 21st century. In 1948, the group was re- Mills received a Kurt Morrison, left, and Nakina Mills were honored at the May 2002 named Father Flanagan’s Council to honor bachelor of arts in commencement as the Spirit of Creighton Award winners. the founder of Boys Town. Today the sociology at the council serves 11 parishes by promoting commencement ceremony. During her of the Creighton Students Union in 2001- family, faith and the Church and assisting years at Creighton, she spent countless 2002, president of the Kiewit Residence with Catholic education, civic involvement volunteer hours at homeless shelters Hall Council and executive officer of the and aid to those in need. and day care centers and served as Freshman Leadership Program. Despite a Creighton’s first Presidential Medallions president of the Native American full academic schedule and his leadership were awarded last year to Catholic Charities Association on campus. Mills set an duties on campus, Morrison also worked as of the Archdiocese of Omaha and the example of service to others at the an intern for Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Omaha Symphony. University and in the community. She

Society, Gerstner evaluates and mediates Walker earned a complaints against dentists in the Omaha doctorate of nursing community. He has been instrumental in science from The managing just and equitable solutions for Catholic University of both patients and dentists. From 1997 to America in 1988. She is 1999, Gerstner served as chairman of the an associate professor Nebraska Board of Dental Examiners, a of medicine and a prestigious peer-nominated position behavioral researcher at appointed by the governor. He also is a the Diabetes Research O’Brien Gerstner Walker member of the American College of and Training Center at Dentists, an organization that honors the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in involvement for more than 15 years. She dentists of high moral and ethical character. Bronx, N.Y. She teaches practitioners how to served as the ADA’s national president of motivate their patients to manage their health care and education in 1999. Walker School of Nursing diabetes and live longer, healthier lives. The also travels widely promoting diabetes The School of Nursing presented its American Diabetes Association (ADA) and education and treatment programs to Alumni Achievement Award to Elizabeth A. the American Association of Diabetes physicians and patients. Walker, BSN’76, D.N.Sc., RN, on May 17. Educators have benefited from Walker’s

7 Fall 2002 University News Bringing Hope to Glaucoma Sufferers in St. Lucia

Editor’s note: The author is a fourth-year medical student at Creighton. He traveled to St. Lucia this past March to work alongside Creighton physicians providing care to those suffering from glaucoma. By Greg Stroup

As we descend over St. Lucia, I get my

first glimpse of its sandy shores lined with Stroup Photo courtesy of Greg swaying palm trees. Greg Stroup, left, with Creighton physicians Drs. Sade Kosoko, second from left, and M. Roy Wilson, Crystal-clear water of a brilliant turquoise second from right, and two local nurses in the O.R. at Victoria Hospital in Castries, St. Lucia. plays peacefully with the island’s white, speckled fringes. Having just escaped 12 around 2 percent in the general U.S. first to tell you that locating and treating inches of fresh snow back in frigid Omaha, I population). patients in a developing country is no small find myself daydreaming about relaxing Finally, there was proof that blacks were task. under this intense sun and simply truly more affected by this disease, and this After weather-related flight delays replenishing my soul after months spent evidence could be used domestically to turned our outbound trip from 12 hours to landlocked and indoors. increase awareness of, and therapeutic 36, we arrived in Castries, St. Lucia, on a But the vision quickly disappears with treatments for, glaucoma in African- Sunday evening around dark and began the impact of landing, for we are here on a Americans. working immediately: communicating with working trip with a distinct purpose: A decade after this initial study, Wilson local nurses about the location and medical and surgical mission work for and Kosoko returned to St. Lucia to follow condition of our patients and organizing the patients with glaucoma. up on their patients. Sadly, they found that week’s activities. This work began in 1986 with M. Roy more than half had progressed rapidly in The first day was spent in the field, Wilson, M.D., vice president for Health their disease due to inadequate medical making house calls in the areas around Sciences, and colleague Sade Kosoko, M.D., attention and a breakdown in the health Castries in an effort to find those patients associate vice president for Health care infrastructure on the island. Some with no telephone or personal Sciences/Multicultural and Community individuals exhibited severe loss of vision, transportation. Many lived in houses that Affairs and associate professor of while others were blind from glaucoma. were built with poor timber and were on ophthalmology. Prior to coming to Wilson and Kosoko realized that stilts, often lacking electricity or a clean Creighton, the two physicians organized something must be done to help the St. water supply. and carried out a groundbreaking study to Lucians who were suffering. And, in the To further complicate matters, many St. determine the prevalence of glaucoma spirit of Creighton’s unique Jesuit focus, a Lucians were known only by nicknames, a (increased pressure within the eye that can final mission was planned to offer definitive common practice in the country. Also, as I lead to optic nerve damage and vision loss) medical and/or surgical intervention to eventually discovered, women often in the black population of St. Lucia. those patients who needed and would changed both their first and last names Prior to this effort, physicians globally accept help. when they married, making it even more had simply relied upon a clinical suspicion So it was that this past March, I found difficult to track them down. that pointed to higher rates of glaucoma in myself accompanying this team to St. Lucia With the generous help of the black patients. for a spectacular week tracking down these knowledgeable nurses from the Ministry of After surveying and thoroughly patients and offering them further Health, though, we were able to locate examining more than 1,600 patients on assistance. many of those identified. These individuals the island over a six-month period, it But, before you think that I somehow were invited to Victoria Hospital (the was discovered that 8.8 percent of these lucked into a great excuse for a vacation (as government hospital) to be fully evaluated black patients had glaucoma (compared to many of my classmates did), let me be the by the surgical team.

8 Fall 2002 University News

To our delight, many patients kept their slow vision loss might have seemed like a the potential complications and post- hospital appointments and arrived by simpler alternative to having a foreign operative challenges, this was a better public transportation the next morning. physician operate on their eyes. alternative than merely returning home to We were able to perform comprehensive Furthermore, glaucoma surgery doesn’t enjoy what little sight remained. eye exams, dispense free samples of usually improve vision, as do cataract After a full day in the O.R. and checking ophthalmic medication brought from the surgeries or LASIK procedures. Rather, on patients the following morning, we U.S., and offer surgical finally had some time to enjoy intervention later in the week to the spectacular sights and those who required it. United States beautiful people of some of the That afternoon was spent other areas of St. Lucia before similarly to the previous: driving returning home. the twisted, steep, back roads of Although a busy and St. Lucia, often asking several sometimes frustrating week, neighbors for directions before The Bahamas this was truly a valuable and finding our intended patient. unforgettable experience for a Cuba Prior to our arrival, we had Dominican medical student seeking to Republic identified 53 patients as possible Mexico someday use his skills to help surgical candidates. During our Haiti Puerto those in less fortunate countries Jamaica Rico search, however, we discovered such as this. that several of these patients had St. Lucia ★ In the end, we had donated died. We were unable to locate countless free samples of others and some were too elderly medication and surgical to leave their homes. In the end, Panama equipment to both the hospital we offered surgery to eight Venezuela and individual physicians on patients and, following a final the island, and had counseled evaluation, prepared for a full Colombia their health professionals about day in the “Operating Theatre” continued treatment of eye — the name for the only Creighton physicians found a high incidence of glaucoma in the black diseases. operating room in the hospital. population of St. Lucia, a tiny island nation located in the eastern And yet, somehow, I feel like To my surprise, three of the Caribbean Sea. we were the ones who benefited patients declined surgery. the most from our interactions It would have been easy to feel surgical intervention in glaucoma patients with these people, who appear to have so unappreciated or misunderstood after is intended to halt the progression of optic much less than we do but exhibit a true traveling so far to offer our help, but these nerve damage that can lead to blindness. compassion and generosity often forgotten people were simply scared. After all, As you can imagine, it was difficult to here in the U.S. surgery was unknown and frightening, and convince some of these patients that, despite

which began in 1994 at 22 centers most common form of glaucoma, is one Study Reveals nationwide, involved 1,636 participants of the leading causes of blindness in the between the ages of 40 and 80, who had United States and the number one cause Eye Drops May elevated eye pressure but no signs of of blindness among African-Americans. Prevent Glaucoma glaucoma. By proving the disease can be The study addresses the question of treated before it causes vision loss, the whether to treat patients who have elevated A National Institutes of Health (NIH) study gives ophthalmologists more ocular pressure but no indication of study reveals that eye drops used to treat treatment options for their patients. glaucoma. elevated pressure inside the eye can delay “This research is significant because of “Patients with elevated ocular pressure or prevent glaucoma. the number of patients involved and the are at greater risk of developing glaucoma, M. Roy Wilson, M.D., vice president for implications for people with elevated ocular but not all of them do. Ophthalmologists Health Sciences and dean of the School of pressure,” said Wilson, who also serves on will look at each individual patient’s risk Medicine at Creighton University Medical the study’s executive committee. “It shows factors before recommending the eye drop Center, was one of the primary investigators that the eye drop treatment is an effective treatment,” Wilson said. of the study. tool in preventing the disease.” The findings were released by the High ocular pressure is known to be a Glaucoma is a group of diseases that can National Eye Institute and appeared in risk factor in developing glaucoma. The lead to damage to the optic nerve and result the June 2002 issue of Archives of Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study, in blindness. Open-angle glaucoma, the Ophthalmology.

9 Fall 2002 University News

Removing Ovaries ‘Super‘ Computer because it tells us the exact structure of the proteins that cause disease and the Prevents Breast Helps Fit Pieces structural features that can be changed to remove the disease function of the protein,” Cancer in Some Together he said. In addition to looking at actual protein Women Suppose you were missing a piece to a structures, the computer allows researchers puzzle, but were not allowed to wear your to test theoretical models as well. In 2000, Hereditary cancer expert Henry Lynch, much-needed glasses to look for it? You Lovas examined the structure of an M.D., Creighton University Medical Center know the piece is there, but you can’t see it. antibacterial peptide from an insect to professor, has contributed to research Researchers at Creighton University predict how it worked in bacteria. His proving that a new option is effective in Medical Center aren’t missing a puzzle prediction, tested by molecular dynamics preventing certain types of breast cancer. piece. Their game is proteomics, the study simulation on the Beowulf computer, was Women with a genetic defect of the structure of proteins. In order to help correct. The information Lovas discovered (BRCA1/BRCA2) that puts them at them “see” intricate protein structures, was the basis for the design of a new increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer peptide-based now have another option for preventing antibacterial drug. breast cancer. The high performance A study co-authored by Lynch shows the computer was paid for long-term benefits of removing ovaries as a with a grant from the preventive measure for women at high risk National Science of breast cancer. The writers of the study, Foundation, through its which was published in the New England Experimental Program Journal of Medicine last month, conclude that for Stimulation of preventive removal of ovaries (prophylactic Competitive Research oophorectomy) in women likely to develop (EPSCoR). As part of its breast cancer reduced the risk of developing integral role in the disease. strengthening science in Prior to this study, some women in this Nebraska, Creighton also high-risk category thought their only option participates in was to undergo prophylactic removal of the Biomedical Research breast. Infrastructure Network The hereditary breast-ovarian cancer (BRIN), a National syndrome is a disorder Lynch first Image courtesy of Sándor Lovas, Ph.D. Institutes of Health (NIH) described in the late 1960s and early 1970s A new super computer designed at Creighton allows researchers to program. BRIN study intricate peptide and protein structures and interactions, such as when he joined Creighton University. encourages smaller the one above. According to Lynch, the subsequent colleges to develop discovery of the BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations Sándor Lovas, Ph.D., associate professor of research programs with the help of in this disorder has enabled physicians to biomedical sciences, and Gregory Chasse, established investigators at Ph.D.-granting counsel women with greater precision about Ph.D., research associate, designed a institutions such as Creighton University their breast cancer risk. computer with the power of 80 CPUs. Medical Center and the University of “For a variety of reasons, even in the face (Most home and office computers have one Nebraska Medical Center. of positive evidence, some women still find CPU). To map out the structure of a protein, Creighton provides access to advanced bilateral prophylactic mastectomy each unit (CPU) does its own computation technology such as the Beowulf cluster to unacceptable,” he said. “This now comes of a protein section, combining the undergraduate students and their full circle in that not only are we able to information through high-speed professors at non-Ph.D.-granting colleges, protect patients from ovarian cancer by connections. Those familiar with high including Nebraska’s Wayne State College, removing the ovaries, but the surgery also performance computers know this class of Wesleyan University and the University of provides highly significant protection computers as the Beowulf cluster. Nebraska-Kearney. The program is against breast cancer.” “The cluster has the ability to run expanding to include Creighton extremely complicated patterns undergraduate students in 2003. simultaneously,” said Richard F. “Barry” “By applying massive technology and Murphy, Ph.D., department chair, sharing resources with other researchers, biomedical sciences. “With this technology, we are able to fit all the pieces of the puzzle we can map peptide and protein structures together and make important discoveries and study their functions. This is important faster,” Murphy said.

10 Fall 2002 University News

ROTC Seeks active duty in the Army Nurse Corps upon cadet who graduated in May with a degree graduation. in nursing, admitted that she was a little Nursing Cadets Lt. Col. Robert Werthman, who heads the apprehensive about the program. ROTC program at Creighton, said some “I told myself, ‘OK, I’ll just try out ROTC The U.S. Army is looking for a few good potential candidates may have a for a week,’” she said. “Then it was a nurses. misperception that ROTC is like boot camp. month, and then a year. I really liked the And Creighton University’s Reserve The reality, he said, is that it’s a “very camaraderie and the personal interaction.” Officer Training Corps (ROTC), in Thornburg is now working as a floor cooperation with the School of Nursing, nurse at Madigan Army Medical Center is helping fill the demand. at Fort Lewis, Wash. She looks back on The nursing shortage in the military is her education and ROTC training with not as dramatic as in the civilian sector, pride. where current projections forecast that “I feel like I have accomplished a lot,” the supply of registered nurses will no she said, adding with a laugh, “My little longer meet demand for nursing services brother can’t believe that I can fire an by 2010. M-16.” However, Lt. Col. Joan Vanderlaan, the Vanderlaan said she is impressed with Army’s chief nurse for the 4th Region the quality of Creighton students. Among (ROTC), which includes Nebraska and 20 recent Creighton ROTC nursing cadets, other states west of the Mississippi, said 100 percent passed their nursing license exam on the first attempt. Nationally, 85

the Army Nurse Corps is about 180 ROTC Photo courtesy of Creighton nurses short of its goal of about 3,400 Nurses Alyssa Thornburg, right, and Kelli Wempe at the percent of nursing cadets pass the test on nurses. Camp Dodge, Iowa, rifle range. their first try. To help fill that gap, Creighton’s ROTC “From my perspective in this job, I program is offering scholarships, worth up professional environment” that offers really like for nurses to go to Creighton to $17,000 a year for tuition and fees and students a chance to be involved in the life because I know that when they come out $600 a year for books, to incoming cadets of the University academically, socially and they have the foundation to pass the test on who agree to major in nursing. In exchange, athletically. the first try and then they can move right the students agree to serve four years of Lt. Alyssa Thornburg, a Creighton ROTC into the hospital setting,” Vanderlaan said.

on the dressed up like Indiana Jones. Or should Grammy Winners performances it be Nebraska Greenspoon?” he laughed. on the Creighton of the three After the taping, Davis mentioned that Creighton he also would like to include someone to Faculty? It Could faculty. discuss ancient philosophy and art history. How did “Dr. Stephens and Fr. Bohr fit the bill Happen! this Creighton- perfectly,” Greenspoon said. Steamroller In reflecting on this experience, Davis Fr. Ted Bohr, S.J., Department of Fine connection observed that he was “pleased to have and Performing Arts, William Stephens, happen? worked with scholars who so generously Ph.D., Department of Philosophy, and According to provided expertise in areas that I could not Leonard Greenspoon, Ph.D., holder of the Greenspoon, research myself. They added authenticity to Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, are Chip Davis, the artistry Mannheim Steamroller fans have all featured on Fresh Aire 8, the most recent the composer and creator of Mannheim come to expect.” DVD offering by the internationally Steamroller, contacted him. Greenspoon When asked whether the three scholar- renowned group Mannheim Steamroller. was teaching a course on ancient Egypt performers exhibited any artistic Creighton students, faculty and staff had at the time. temperament, Davis, tongue firmly in cheek, a unique sneak preview of the DVD in “He said he was putting together a CD declined to comment. February at an event hosted by the College and DVD on ‘topics relating to infinity,’ and An informal poll of Creighton students of Arts and Sciences and the Department of wanted to do a segment on how the ancient who viewed the DVD gave the professors Classical and Near Eastern Studies. Those Egyptians viewed the afterlife,” Greenspoon straight A’s. And the rest, as they say, is attending received a free copy of the DVD said. “They built a special studio to look like show biz history. and had a chance to express their views an ancient Egyptian pyramid, with me

11 Fall 2002 University News

Creighton Hires Enrollment Manager Creighton University has hired Donald C. Bishop from Cornell University as the associate vice president for enrollment management. For the past six years, Bishop served as the associate dean of students and enrollment management at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell. His duties began at Creighton Bishop in mid-August.

Photo by Tom Herbert/Creighton Media Services Herbert/Creighton Photo by Tom Bishop, who received his undergraduate The Debate Team Champions: (from left) Coach Marty Birkholt, Angie Miller, Jonathan Lang, Ryan and graduate degrees in economics from Munce and Daniel Giersdorf. Not pictured: John Henderson. the University of Notre Dame, was the first Creighton University Lang, a senior from Tigard, Ore.; Angie undergraduate hired directly after Miller, a junior from North Platte, Neb.; and graduation as an admissions officer in 1977. Debate Team Wins Ryan Munce, a junior from Lees Summit, Mo. When he left Notre Dame in 1985, he was National Championship In individual competition, Giersdorf the associate director of admissions. From placed third, Lang came in fifth and Miller Notre Dame, Bishop went to Ohio Wesleyan The Creighton University debate team captured 17th. University where he served as the dean of won the national championship in team More than 83 schools from across the enrollment management from 1985 to 1994. sweepstakes at the National Lincoln-Douglas country competed in the debates, which were Debate Tournament at Berry College in held April 18-22. The Creighton team edged Now, It’s Creighton Rome, Ga., in April. Western Kentucky by five points, 64 to 59. Five students combined to bring home the The University of Pennsylvania finished in School of Pharmacy title, including Daniel Giersdorf, a junior third place, Northwestern University and Health Professions from Longmont, Colo.; John Henderson, a captured fourth and the U.S. Military sophomore from Hoisington, Kan.; Jonathan Academy at West Point finished in fifth place. Creighton University has changed the name of one of its academic units. The word “Allied” has been dropped from the name of the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. The unit, which 16thBluejay Annual had been known as the School of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions since 1982, Jamboree delivers degree programs in pharmacy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, emergency medical services and health systems administration. The change keeps the Creighton School of Pharmacy and Health Professions in step Dinner/Auction Fund-raiser for Athletics with a national trend, said Sid Stohs, Ph.D., dean of the School. Saturday, Nov. 16, 2002 “The term ‘allied’ implies that the Creighton University Gymnasium programs are not full-fledged health care professions, when in fact they are Chairman: Gary Gates, MBA’91 independent practitioners who work To donate an auction item or make dinner reservations, cooperatively with other health care please call Carol Ketcham at (402) 280-1794. professionals,” he said. Faculty members voted in favor of the

12 Fall 2002 University News name change earlier this year, and the University’s Board of Directors endorsed it. Creighton Art The change was effective June 5. The School has been a part of Creighton Professor Dies since 1905, when the University purchased Jerome K. Horning, associate professor of the Omaha College of Pharmacy, which had fine arts at Creighton University, died in his opened in Fremont, Neb., five years earlier. office after suffering an aneurysm on June In 1982, the School of Pharmacy expanded 28. He taught pottery at Creighton for 30 to become the School of Pharmacy and years. Horning was best known for his Allied Health Professions. The reorganized double-walled ceramic pots. He also made a school assumed responsibility for several six-part educational video on how to make programs previously organized as a ceramic pieces that was sold throughout the division of the School of Medicine and country. Horning earned a bachelor’s enlarged its programs to include academic degree at South Dakota State University in preparation for other health-related careers. 1959 and a master of fine arts degree at the University of Minnesota in 1965. CUMC Receives He is survived by his wife, Kellie, four brothers (including Creighton history $2 Million NIH Grant professor Ross Horning, Ph.D.), two sisters Creighton University Medical Center will and numerous nieces and nephews. Horning, left, working with a student. receive a $2 million research facilities construction grant from the National Institutes of Health. Association and Penn State University, took Ministry and co-creator of the retreat with The grant will be used for design, place at Sarah Lawrence College in New Maureen McCann Waldron, BA’75, MA’98. construction and equipment repairs related York. The online retreat is based upon the to space renovation on the fourth floor of The Endowment for the Humanities is a Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Criss II Health Science Building at federal agency that supports seminars at the founder of the Jesuits. Waldron explains, Creighton University Medical Center. The colleges and universities each summer to “We adapted this powerful spiritual classic project will provide 13,960 net square feet of advance teaching and research on important for a contemporary online community of space for research. topics in humanities disciplines. The theme students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents. “These grants are very competitive. It is of this seminar is “Justice, Equality and the We found that people all over the world, unusual to receive funding on the first Challenge of Disability.” who are hungry for something deeper in attempt,” said M. Roy Wilson, M.D., dean of Purtilo was part of a 15-member their lives, have found it extremely helpful. the Creighton University Medical Center multidisciplinary group from across the U.S. We look upon it as extending the spiritual School of Medicine and vice president for that shared its expertise on the common heritage behind every Jesuit sponsored Health Sciences. “This will allow us to theme. The work resulting from this ministry to a wider circle of the Creighton expand our research capabilities and focus scholarly seminar will be made available in family, and for anyone who desires deeper on putting NIH-funded investigators a National Public Radio (NPR) production. freedom and a deeper relationship with together for neuroscience related research. God.” We are very pleased to move forward with Creighton Again Offers The Online Ministries website can be plans to make our research facilities a more reached at: http://www.creighton.edu/ efficient and pleasant place for our Online Retreat CollaborativeMinistry/online.html. researchers to conduct their important work.” For the third year, Creighton’s Collaborative Ministry Office is offering a Theologians Receive Purtilo Selected for retreat on the Internet that anyone can make Mandate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from National Humanities anywhere in the world. What makes the 34- The Archdiocese of Omaha announced Seminar week retreat experience so unique is that that all Creighton University theology busy people can make the retreat in the faculty have been endorsed with the Ruth Purtilo, Ph.D., director of the Center midst of their everyday lives. mandatum, or mandate, stipulated in the for Health Policy and Ethics, was selected to “The retreat gives weekly guidance on Vatican’s Ex Corde Ecclesiae statement. The participate in a summer seminar supported how to reflect upon very deep things, as mandate — obtained from local bishops — by the National Endowment for the they relate to the events, conflicts and affirms that theologians at Catholic Humanities. The five-week seminar, co- choices of our daily lives,” said Fr. Andy universities are teaching in accord with the sponsored by the American Philosophical Alexander, S.J., vice president for University Catholic Church.

13 Fall 2002 Enron 101: Lessons from a Corporate Scandal

Enron 101: Lessons from a Corporate Scandal By Eugene Curtin

Post-Enron college students who remember neither the Savings and Loan bailout nor the misadventures of Michael Milken in the 1980s are dealing with a new and harsher reality.

14 Fall 2002 Enron 101: Lessons from a Corporate Scandal

On the heels of the dot-com bust comes retirement savings. Displaying character, and restoring the sinking of a titanic corporation once As one of the nation’s most successful the trust forfeited by Enron et al, will be held up not only as an innovative model firms lay in ruins — filing the largest a major responsibility of tomorrow’s of the new economy, but as a corporation Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. history business leaders. Creighton University committed to community service, prior to WorldCom’s collapse — the professors — keenly aware of their employee satisfaction and shareholder normally reserved chairman and CEO responsibilities for instilling ethical prosperity. And then the floodgates of the Goldman Sachs Group, Henry standards in their business, accounting appeared to open. Several other giant Paulson Jr., told a gathering and finance students — are using corporations, including WorldCom, in Washington: Enron’s collapse as a poignant example Xerox and Tyco, came under close “The Enron debacle and subsequent to drive home a variety of business scrutiny for alleged accounting misdeeds, revelations have revealed major lessons. and panels of corporate leaders invoked shortcomings in the way some U.S. First, and perhaps obviously, Enron the Fifth Amendment against self- companies and those charged with their turns out to be an excellent model of incrimination before Congress. oversight have gone about their business. how not to behave, providing a lesson But first, in this season of corporate And it has, without a doubt, eroded for students entering today’s business discontent, came Enron, the biggest public trust.” world. Less obviously, deeper lessons player of them all, and the hardest to And then, in a clear sign that the wave emerge having to do with character, fall. Enron had often been cited as a of corporate scandals had reached critical cleaving to an ethical path, realizing that model corporation for the 21st century mass, the president of the United States commitment to company must be based on its innovative business models weighed in with a major speech calling balanced with commitment to and management practices. on business leaders to stop “cooking community, and being careful not to But those practices are under indulge in those little ethical fire, flamed by numerous alleged compromises that set one on a abuses. corrupting path from which First, Enron traders may have escape can be difficult. engaged in fraudulent and Robert Moorman, Ph.D., the criminal acts during the West Robert B. Daugherty Chair in Coast energy crisis. Management and director of “This is an ugly mess,” said the Anna Tyler Waite Center Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., for Leadership at Creighton, is during Capitol Hill testimony on busily turning the Enron debacle the events surrounding the crisis. to his students’ advantage. “I think people in this country “I certainly understand the have been cheated out of billions tragedy of Enron, but I see this of dollars.” as an opportunity for business Second, Enron is facing ever professors because it really increasing charges that it used helps us make our points,” he

complex accounting maneuvers, with permission. ©2002 Milwaukee Journal Sentinal Inc., reproduced said. involving off-the-balance sheet “For example, in my classes partnerships, and intricate tax-reduction the books.” on leadership, a metaphor I tend to use transactions to overstate profits by billions “My administration will do everything a lot is the leader as shepherd. of dollars. According to The Washington in our power to end the days of cooking “A shepherd really has two Post, Justice Department officials are the books, shading the truth and breaking responsibilities — to move the flock investigating whether these actions our laws,” said President George W. from one pasture to another and to amounted to securities fraud, by giving Bush in a July 9 address to Wall Street protect the flock while it is being a misleading picture of the company’s business leaders. “When abuses like this moved. Performing only one duty financial health. begin to surface in the corporate world, means either the flock never moves or And third, Enron’s top executives are it is time to reaffirm the basic principles the flock is killed. Neither outcome is taking heat for selling large blocks of and rules that make capitalism work: good in the long run. company stock, while promoting the truthful books and honest people and “My point with Enron is that those stock internally and restricting employees well-enforced laws against fraud and leaders clearly failed to grasp their from selling their company stock as its corruption. In the long run, there is no responsibilities to perform both roles. value plummeted — wiping out as capitalism without conscience, there is They were intent on moving the flock, much as $1 billion of employee no wealth without character.” but failed to protect them. And we see

Opposite page, Enron vice president and company whistle-blower Sherron Watkins, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and Jeffrey McMahon, who recently resigned as Enron’s president and chief operating officer, are sworn in prior to testifying before a Senate hearing on Enron this past February.

15 Fall 2002 Enron 101: Lessons from a Corporate Scandal

the obvious results.” Outside the campus, along public streets teeth, and Enron recently felt his bite. Moorman said Enron failed to follow lined with fast food restaurants and Manahan serves as chaplain and a model he describes as “servant other small businesses, the same assistant dean for mission in the College leadership.” This model expresses the banners flutter. The banner’s message of Business Administration and teaches idea that leaders lead in order to serve is threefold: a course in business ethics. He oversaw followers rather than merely to enrich Anchored in Ethics. a dramatic presentation in which his themselves. Centered on Service. students used the words of various “How well were the followers served Pledged to Excellence. players in the Enron fiasco to illustrate when only the leaders preserved their The Rev. Thomas Manahan, S.J. — the hurt and disappointment gains? The followers, who should have Father Tom, as he is known around experienced by those who suffered been protected, instead lost their jobs campus — is a warm and friendly man losses. The play also highlighted the and their retirement nest-eggs,” whose bookshelves contain titles such as broken promises, obfuscations and self- Moorman said. “By studying Enron, our Civility, The Soul of a Business, The Spirit serving practices of some of the Enron students can clearly see the broad of Community, Moral Issues in Business and corporation’s major players. responsibilities of leaders and understand Integrity. He appears the polar opposite The Enron experience, as outlined the consequences of losing sight of how of the unfeeling advocate of cutthroat in the play, offers great value in the leaders really lead by serving others.” business practices. But the man has classroom, Manahan said, and will Moorman also uses Enron to illustrate enhance his ability to persuade students how leaders can quickly fall from grace. that business activity is not all about “At one time, Kenneth Lay was making higher and higher profits. heralded as a great leader,” Moorman “I certainly “The Enron case really offers an said. “However, now he has lost all of opportunity to help students come his credibility. We discuss in our away with a sense that any individual leadership classes how important leader understand the business is part of a much larger system,” credibility really is. As soon as followers Manahan said, “and that ultimately it believe you lack credibility, you’re done tragedy of Enron, isn’t all about me; it’s not all about you.” as a leader. Major corporations obviously have a “Kenneth Lay and those who speak but I see this as responsibility to earn profits in order to for him have tried to insulate him from pay their employees and satisfy legal responsibility by saying he was not an opportunity investors, Manahan said. involved in the key details and, even But there is such a thing as stakeholders, though he was CEO, he was not really too, people who are not directly in charge. In class, we talk about how for business connected to the company but who have these efforts may help him avoid legal an interest in its survival. That is where responsibility, but he needs to realize professors a commitment to the larger community that he is losing all of his credibility as a must play a role, he said. leader and will never really be able to because it really When Enron collapsed, the shock lead anyone again.” waves were felt throughout Houston A stroll through Creighton’s campus helps us make and Omaha, where the company has its illustrates how ubiquitously students roots and many former employees, are urged to inculcate values of ethics shareholders and retirees live. Businesses and service. Every 30 paces, it seems, our points.” that did business with Enron or Enron banners decorate poles and streetlights. — Robert Moorman, Ph.D. employees felt the pain. This is the community of stakeholders that corporations need to consider, Manahan said. Both Manahan and Moorman say the Enron experience has not yet changed their curricula. Rather, they said, it has made it much easier to bring home to Creighton business their students the dire consequences of professor Robert unethical business practices. Moorman, Ph.D., Ordinary people who lost their uses Enron as an retirement savings, married couples example in the who both worked for Enron and classroom to make suddenly lost all their income, all are

certain points. Photo by Dave Weaver stark, real-time victims of business

X Fall 2002 Photo by Ford Jacobsen/Creighton Media Services Jacobsen/Creighton Photo by Ford Students in the Rev. Thomas Manahan’s business ethics course presented a stage production centered on the Enron case, using the words of those touched by or involved in the company’s collapse. ethics gone awry, Manahan said. somehow you didn’t have to be selling board of directors but they seem to have Two floors below Moorman’s office, something. been very much asleep at the wheel. Ernie Goss, Ph.D., the Jack A. MacAllister “This whole experience brings us back “When you see the level of misconduct Endowed Chair in Regional Economics, to the old concept that is fundamental to that’s been reported at Enron, at least has just returned from making a the market system — that you buy and what we’ve heard from snippets of presentation at a Better Business Bureau sell products and services that have testimony in Congress, it’s just meeting. He is full of southern charm, value, and that if you don’t have that unbelievable,” he said. “Everything and his eyes gleam when he realizes concept deeply ingrained in your went wrong at Enron.” Enron is the topic. company then you’re not going to be Primarily, Pitts said, respect for rules Goss is famous locally and nationally in business.” went out the window, and when that for his economic prognostications, and is Other lessons emerged from Enron, happens, everything falls apart. regularly quoted in the media. He Goss said, lessons he hopes his students “Will this be a teaching tool for us?” describes himself as a free-market will take to heart. His students, after all, he said. “You bet it will. It will be a tool economist who holds to the “Old in the fullness of time, will be the next in our accounting classes, auditing Testament philosophy” that good generation of leaders asked to serve on classes and ethics classes. should be rewarded and bad punished. boards of directors of corporations, and “Our system of capitalism functions Students in his classes, he said, are will likely be paid well for their advice only when respect for rules, regulations more likely to hear that the Enron collapse and guidance. and laws is there. I think we can get our illustrates the strength of America’s Goss objects to the figurehead director, students to think about the consequences capitalist system rather than its who lends his or her name and prestige of what happens when you push the weakness. Enron, after all, has been to a board but is actually uninvolved in limits, about the impact of that on severely punished. the company’s functioning. Retired real people.” “It’s a very positive development, in politicians frequently find such plums Throughout the University, the alarm my view,” Goss said. “Those who don’t falling in their laps, Goss said, but that bells set off by the Enron collapse are believe in free markets need to look kind of inactive directorship is something ringing loud and clear. closely at this. The market has punished he will counsel his students to avoid. John Gleason, DBA, professor of Enron and has also punished the “There’s a huge responsibility that decision sciences in the College of shareholders of Enron, who admittedly goes along with being a board member, Business Administration, finds the case might not have known what was going and that is protecting shareholder value illustrates ethical issues on several levels. on but were nevertheless taking a risk.” and following ethical principles,” he Those include corporate executives who Enron stock that had once sold for said. “We still have boards of directors take “obscene levels of remuneration” about $80 a share plummeted to mere that are rubber stamping management while restructuring businesses through pennies. decisions, and I’m not at all confident layoffs that produce no long-term gain, “We had this irrational exuberance, that that is about to change.” and boards of directors whose as (Federal Reserve Chairman Alan) It will change if anyone cares to listen relationships with top managers Greenspan called it, beginning around to Robert Pitts, Ph.D., dean of Creighton’s are too cozy. 1995,” Goss said. “People were buying College of Business Administration. Catharine Curran, DBA, an assistant up stock and we had this view that Enron, he said, had an “outstanding” professor of marketing, uses the case to

17 Fall 2002 Enron employees and investors losing their life’s savings. “It brought very much to the forefront how important it is not to put all your money into one stock,” he said. “You can lose everything. That became very clear after Enron.” Coulton is majoring in accounting and finance with a view to eventually becoming a tax attorney. She said the mountains of finance documents typically accumulated by major corporations, and the difficulty of understanding them, makes it easy to hide wrongdoing. Clearly, she said, accountants and auditors must have an ethical commitment to speak truth to clients, even if that truth loses them business. “I always saw ethics courses as one of those fluffy subjects you don’t have to Photo by Bob Ervin pay a lot of attention to,” Coulton said. Creighton College of Business Administration Dean Robert Pitts, Ph.D., and the Rev. Thomas “Now I realize it’s critical. These are not Manahan, S.J., stand outside the Bryant Resource Center in North Omaha. Creighton is helping to develop a community technology center at the former school. Manahan said corporations also must just lofty goals we aspire to. They’re display a commitment to the larger community. principles that have a real impact on people’s lives.” examine corporate decision making, its remains, however, whether the effort is mechanisms and how those mechanisms hitting home. Are lasting lessons being failed and could be improved. imparted, lessons that will carry students Randy Jorgensen, Ph.D., assistant through when they are faced with hard “America’s professor of finance, finds Enron a choices in their professional careers? useful morality tale for students Zach Sroka and Diana Coulton are investors have planning to become financial analysts two of the students who took part in who will invariably find themselves Manahan’s stage production. Using the pressured to modify criticism of a actual statements of the various players been ripped off as company whose business their in the Enron drama, the production employers are interested in attracting. showed how the collapse came about massively as a Thomas Purcell, Ph.D., who wears despite repeated executive assurances two hats as a professor of law and an that all was well. bank being held associate professor of accounting, wants Among the words Sroka spoke during his students to understand that the that production were the following: up by a guy with accountants and auditors whose “America’s investors have been ripped practices appear to be so unethical are a off as massively as a bank being held up a gun and mask.” tiny percentage of the hundreds of by a guy with a gun and mask.” thousands of financial professionals in The words belonged to Arthur Levitt, — Arthur Levitt, the United States. former head of the Securities and former head of the “The vast majority of those have not Exchange Commission. But, Sroka said, Securities and Exchange Commission had ethical issues,” he said. “They have he made them his own. faced ethical dilemmas, certainly, but “They could have avoided the entire Among the lines Coulton spoke during resolved them without compromising. situation if they were honest with their the stage production addressed an issue “Most will make the best decision, employees,” Sroka said. “Instead, she said she will always remember — regardless of what it does to their dishonesty brought on a lack of trust that people like those who allegedly relationship with the client.” and that’s what led to the collapse.” brought about the collapse at Enron are So, the full-court press is on. Professors Sroka is majoring in economics, and not necessarily evil. They are much in the fields of business, finance and he said a lesson repeatedly driven home more likely to be ordinary people who, ethics are trying to extract a little good by investment experts came home with faced with opportunities that require a from the Enron collapse. The question real force as stories surfaced about little ethical compromising, take that

18 Fall 2002 Enron 101: Lessons from a Corporate Scandal

first step along a very slippery slope. The words Coulton spoke belonged to Jeff Skilling, former president and CEO KEY EVENTS IN THE COLLAPSE OF of Enron and the man who wears the ENERGY TRADER ENRON CORP. blackest hat if media reports are to be believed. In testimony before a congressional hearing, Skilling sounded a contrite note, providing Coulton with her lines: “... I am devastated by, and apologetic A giant falls about, what Enron has come to nron Corp. was the nation’s seventh- represent,” he said. “I know that no Elargest company until its collapse, which words can make things right; too many left countless investors burned and people have been hurt too much.” thousands of employees out of work. The ethical lapses that led to that apology are probably not unusual, Executive selloff Coulton said. Lawmakers have noted that Enron executives and directors, including “I’m sure that a great many companies former CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, apparently reaped right now are dealing with ethical almost $1 billion in stock sales in 2000 and 2001. dilemmas,” she said. “Hopefully, it’s not January May August just students who are learning lessons Lay sells 201,505 Lay sells 77,000 Sherron Watkins, shares of stock; shares; Skilling sells Enron’s vice president from this, and these companies will fix Skilling sells 182,451 50,000 shares of corporate 401(k) their problems.” shares development, sends June choke hold letter to Chairman Fixing those problems, or perhaps March Lay sells 73,500 Enron employees’ lawsuit says the Kenneth Lay, warning Lay sells 66,000 shares; Skilling sells company told its employees in avoiding them in the first place, could him of reckless shares; Skilling sells 20,000 shares September that they would be accounting practices. be among the greatest challenges 40,000 shares barred from selling Enron stock July students face when they step into the Aug. 14 April Lay sells 73,500 in their 401(k) retirement accounts Skilling resigns after business world. Lay sells 60,000 shares for about a month beginning Oct. running the company shares; Skilling sells 19. The stock price plummeted Jorgensen, the finance professor, tells for just six months. his students: “It is your duty to follow 40,000 shares during that period. your moral compass, even if you have to pay a price for that.” Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. The price can be severe, Jorgensen ’01 ’02 said, citing the example of two financial Stock performance $90 analysts who lost their jobs after Per share, daily closes recommending in the months before the Enron collapse that their clients sell their 60 Enron stock. That is indeed a heavy price, Manahan said, but the price people pay for ignoring 30 their moral compasses is paid by the soul. “If you push it in terms of writing a 0 paper that isn’t your own, if you push it in terms of not being honest in a relationship, if you push it in terms of abiding by the letter of the rules but not the spirit of the rules, you’re really setting yourself in a pattern to say, ‘I’m Call to arms always on the edges, I’m willing to push Chairman Kenneth Lay, who has been President Bush’s my values and virtues to their limits. I biggest campaign benefactor, and CEO Lawrence “Greg” Whalley contacted government officials about don’t have an anchor,’” Manahan said. the company’s financial trouble. Wary eye “You always have to remember that Oct. 29 Late October to The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Justice you might become someone you may Lay asks Commerce early November Department and a growing list of congressional not want to be.” Secretary Don Evans if he Enron President Lawrence committees investigate Enron Corp. can influence a decision “Greg” Whalley Oct. 31 Jan. 9 by Moody’s Investors telephones Treasury’s Enron announces the Justice Department About the author: Curtin is a free-lance Service to downgrade undersecretary for SEC inquiry has been confirms it has begun a writer working in Omaha. Enron’s credit rating; domestic finance “six to upgraded to a formal criminal investigation of Evans decides it would eight” times, according investigation. Enron. be inappropriate. to the department spokeswoman. SOURCES: Vickers Stock Research Corp.; Yahoo.com; Commodity Systems Inc.; Associated Press X Fall 2002 Experiencing God in Nepal

Experiencing God in Nepal A half a world away from home, in a poor village where goats and chickens roam freely, Creighton graduate Kerri McCallister, BA’99, has felt the presence of God.

INTERVIEW & PHOTOGRAPHY BY DON DOLL, S.J. WRITTEN BY RICK DAVIS, BA’88

20 Fall 2002 Experiencing God in Nepal

He comes quietly. But she knows He’s speak the language, I didn’t know how trekking across the rolling hills and there, gently guiding her work for the to cook new food, and, as for teaching, I soaking up the sights, sounds and Jesuit Volunteer Corps. was trained for secondary education,” smells of the beautiful countryside. McCallister is a teacher at St. Xavier McCallister said. “I had no background “I’ve felt so alive here,” she said. School in Godavri, Nepal, a rural village in English as a second language, and “There are so many sensory things here of rolling foothills and rice fields a few now I had to teach 45 kids in the class.” that I love.” miles north of Nepal’s capital city of During these difficult times, she McCallister was supposed to return Kathmandu. turned to God. home last year, but after much prayer She arrived in Nepal — a “I would have little times where I and reflection, she decided to extend her mountainous country about the size of would say, ‘God, this is a down day, and visit for another year, and will return Illinois nestled between India and China I need a sign.’ And it would always this November. Again, she felt God’s — in November 1999. But her journey come,” McCallister said. guiding hand in making her decision. began years before, when, as a student “I think that helped me develop more On the advice of a fellow JVI volunteer, at Creighton, she regularly pulled from faith and trust in God.” McCallister approached a nun who runs the library shelves a book on volunteer McCallister has fallen in love with the a retreat house in the village to see if she organizations. village’s simple pleasures — buying could stay with her for the extra year. “I would read through the book, and fresh vegetables at the local market, Story continued on page 26. every time I came to JVI (Jesuit Volunteers International), I started smiling,” McCallister said. “Something about it felt incredibly right.” Though a Catholic with deep faith, McCallister felt strongly against pushing religious conversion. Instead, she wanted to “serve people on their level.” She quickly identified with the four components of JVI: living simply, social justice, spirituality and living in community. After graduating from Creighton with a degree in English and secondary education, McCallister joined JVI and began two weeks of orientation in Scranton, Pa. She never asked to go to Nepal, but secretly that’s where she wanted to be placed. “I just let it go,” McCallister McCallister, dressed in blue, and her fellow teachers walk toward CHINA explained. “Wherever I’m supposed to the dormitory at St. Xavier School in Godavri, Nepal. go, that will happen. So I felt very strongly that God was leading me here.” INDIA Even so, it was still difficult to get on the plane and leave behind family CHINA and friends in Longmont, Colo. “To get on the plane, to come here to a completely new Dhangadhi Godavri is located about six country where I didn’t know • miles north of the capital city what to expect and exactly of Kathmandu. what I was doing, I think NEPAL that took a leap of faith,” ▲ Mount McCallister said. Kathmandu✪ Everest Adjusting to the new culture, she admits, was •Dhar¯an sometimes difficult. INDIA “I didn’t know how to •Janakpur

21 Fall 2002 Experiencing God in Nepal

McCallister and JVI colleague Mary Monnens of Isabel, S.D., review their teaching schedules prior to the start of the school year at St. Xavier.

Getting ready: McCallister applies tika paste to her forehead. In Nepal, the mark signifies the center of intelligence and spirituality. The decorative inscription hanging on the wall, written in Nepali, is a translation from the Gospel of John. It reads: “You are my beloved.”

McCallister, second from left, participates in a faculty meeting.

22 Fall 2002 Experiencing God in Nepal

McCallister distributes textbooks to students at St. Xavier. The school currently enrolls 630 students in grades one through seven.

Students wait in line outside St. Xavier to pick up their textbooks. The Jesuit-run school is located at the foothills of the Himalayan mountain range.

23 Fall 2002 Experiencing God in Nepal

Photo Caption:

McCallister, along with her friend and JVI colleague Mary Monnens, tours the sights of Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu.

24 Fall 2002 Experiencing God in Nepal

Monnens and McCallister talk with a sari vendor in Kathmandu.

Monnens, McCallister and the Rev. Casper Miller, S.J., principal of St. Xavier High School in Kathmandu and a spiritual counselor for Jesuit Volunteers International, rest underneath a tree during a tour of the city.

25 Fall 2002 Experiencing God in Nepal

“The amazing thing was that Sister had learning, but as a forum to get students been praying, just before I came into the to believe in themselves. chapel, asking for God to send her a “If you can teach students to think for companion in whatever form He chose.” themselves, or just teach them that they McCallister currently teaches at have power, that what they say matters, St. Xavier in the morning and a village that their ideas are important, I think school in the afternoon. In addition to that’s a huge way to empower the English, she also teaches social studies and a course on population and environment. The Jesuit-run St. Xavier instructs some 630 students in grades one “I felt very through seven. (The school is in the process of adding a grade level every year, with the hopes of eventually strongly that expanding through 10th grade.) Inside the one-story, brick and concrete school God was leading buildings, the classrooms are simple: benches and desks, with a blackboard at me here.” the front as the only teaching aid. All subjects, except Nepali, are taught — Kerri McCallister in English. And most children begin learning English around age 4, so they students later in life,” McCallister said. are familiar with the language. After all, she said, it’s not the School is not mandatory in Nepal. But volunteer’s role to push for political or McCallister sees education as critically structural changes within the host important, not only as a vehicle for country, but to empower the nation’s citizens so that they can make the necessary changes. McCallister’s students, however, aren’t the only ones learning and growing. The Creighton alumna said she has discovered a lot about herself, too, and her evolving worldview, becoming more of an advocate for the poor and downtrodden. “I think we have a Inside Assumption Church, the largest Roman Catholic ch responsibility for the poor. And I think so often, have to see them, so that the housing especially in the U.S. or they can afford is away from us,” wealthy countries, we kind McCallister said. of gloss over that,” she said. The experience opened her eyes. McCallister recalled “You stop seeing poverty as walking in the village and something negative, but as a place coming across a beautiful, where God is present,” she said. Western-style house. In the It also presents a challenge for those midst of all the small village of affluence in countries such as the homes, she was struck by the United States. fact that only this expensive “In the U.S., we have so much home had its property economically, so much in terms of enclosed by a wall. opportunity and education, that I think “It made me think that we we have a definite responsibility and do that in the U.S. We push moral obligation to share that wealth,” all the poor people into a McCallister enjoys a moment of reflection at the retreat house McCallister said. where she resides in Godavri. place where we don’t even Her experiences in Nepal have led

26 Fall 2002 Experiencing God in Nepal

hurch in Kathmandu. Christians make up about 4 percent of the country’s population; the majority of Nepalis are Hindu.

her to reflect on theology courses taken with a traditional blessing, spreading because of the challenges awaiting her at Creighton and the idea of building red tika paste on her forehead. once she returns home. the kingdom of God on earth. “Her father called me bahini, which “I think for me, in some ways, the “It just seems very unfair that there is means younger sister. But my student hardest thing will be to get on the plane such a great disparity of wealth,” she wanted her father to call me chori, or to go back knowing that I want to live said. “I see so many things that we daughter, so that we could be sisters,” differently now. could do, that we have the power to do, she said. “That because of this experience, I do to make that thought a reality — that the “I just felt so graced and so much a not want to be a mainstream part of kingdom of God can be here (on earth).” part of their family. And I just felt God’s Western culture. I want to live in a way “I think so many times I have presence so much there that it was like a that honors the people here and honors experienced the kingdom of God here little moment of what it really must be what I’ve learned.” (in Nepal) in little ways. Just small like to be in the kingdom of heaven. To She is still wrestling with how to best amounts of time.” be so open and have things shared so do that. But her message is simple. McCallister tells the story about freely, with so much love.” “One of the things I’ve learned and one visiting one of her student’s families McCallister said it will be hard to of the things I would like to share the during Dasain, a major Hindu holiday leave Nepal, both because of the people most is that we all have so many gifts. held in October. The family greeted her and memories she will leave behind and And we just have to share them.”

27 Fall 2002 Teaching About Terrorism

Teaching About Terr rismBy Lori Elliott-Bartle Martha Gentry-Nielsen, Ph.D., in her lab at Creighton, said to combat terrorism, “we have to ... think like terrorists.”

X Fall 2002 Teaching About Terrorism

Two years ago, Martha Gentry- our economy and our food supply.” Lethal Organisms Nielsen, Ph.D., was part of a In order to combat terrorism, Gentry- Just what organisms might a bioterrorist Creighton-University of Nebraska team Nielsen believes “we have to try to potentially unleash on a target population? that received a grant from the state of think like terrorists, anticipating For Creighton researchers Martha Nebraska to help combat bioterrorism. potential scenarios and then taking steps Gentry-Nielsen and Donald Giger, the The team agreed to develop training to ensure that they’re not played out. The possibilities — and, at least in the first case, materials and present a total of eight last thing most of us would have expected proven methods — include the following: training sessions for various health care last August was having planes flown professionals likely to respond to large deliberately into the World Trade Center. Bacillus anthracis outbreaks of disease during a Today we have to think differently.” Causes anthrax, bioterrorist attack. We also have to understand how fear which can occur Gentry-Nielsen said her biggest operates in terrorism. “The purpose of two ways: cutaneous challenge initially in fulfilling the terms terrorism is to intimidate, coerce or (through the skin) of the grant was finding audiences frighten the victim. In this country, we and inhalation interested in the subject. She did manage take the safety of our mail system and anthrax. to give two presentations in the summer our food and water supply for granted. The organism of 2001. That’s one reason the anthrax-laced mail is stable. It forms And then came Sept. 11. incidents were so shocking and spores that can The scientist who couldn’t book a disruptive. Although it was tragic that withstand drying training gig was suddenly in high five people lost their lives, the major and short periods of boiling. Infections demand. In the months since the attacks effect was not to kill people, but to terrify occur naturally in animals such as sheep, on the World Trade Center and the them, disrupt our nation’s cattle, goats and horses that graze on the Pentagon, as well as the anthrax- infrastructure, and create a huge ground. In the U.S., animals are vaccinated. inducing letters, she has conducted expenditure for our government.” more than four times the number of Although Gentry-Nielsen believes Cutaneous anthrax workshops than what she had committed other infrastructures such as municipal Spores enter a cut to do originally. Workshops and training water supplies are potential targets, she in the skin and sessions have now been held across the said the “dilution factor” would make it cause vesicle, ulcer state for infectious disease experts, difficult to affect masses of people in and coal-black scab. infection control nurses, laboratory their homes. “It would be much easier Successfully personnel and emergency medical service to contaminate the drinking fountains or treated with workers. A 20-minute training video ice machines used in a large facility during antibiotics. featuring Gentry-Nielsen has been a sporting event or rock concert.” Mortality rate distributed to every fire station in As a country, she said, we have about five percent with treatment; Nebraska. learned many things from staged events about 20 percent without treatment. Gentry-Nielsen, a professor of medical such as Operation TOPOFF, a $3 million Inhalation anthrax microbiology and immunology at drill that took place in May 2000. This Spores enter lungs Creighton University Medical Center, exercise simulated the simultaneous and cause flulike offers her audiences a mix of scientific occurrence of a chemical weapons attack symptoms of fever knowledge with reassurance. You might in Portsmouth, N.H., a radiological and dry cough, 2-3 expect a professor to perceive knowledge event in Washington, D.C., and the days of symptom and understanding as one of the best release of the plague bacterium in improvement, abrupt defenses. Denver. severe respiratory “The more people understand about “What we learned,” she said, “is that distress, followed in how to recognize and protect against we need much better coordination in 24-36 hours by shock and death. bioterrorist attacks, the less afraid and terms of leadership, decision making This form of the disease is nearly 100 more prepared we will all be in case of a and distribution of scarce resources.” percent fatal, unless antibiotic treatment large-scale event,” she said. To that end, more focus now has been begins before final respiratory distress What sorts of large-scale events could placed on strengthening community phase. Of the 11 people in the U.S. who Gentry-Nielsen envision happening? response teams and beefing up our have been identified as having inhalation The Creighton researcher outlined public health systems. anthrax, five died. several scenarios. In June, President Bush signed into No person-to-person transmission. “We think mostly about organisms that law a $4.6 billion bioterrorism bill to Vaccine exists and has been used in would infect people,” she said, “but we stockpile vaccines, improve food military and postal workers. also must be vigilant against an attack on inspections, boost security for water Above: Top, microscopic view of Bacillus our livestock or agricultural crops. We systems and enhance coordination anthracis; middle, cutaneous anthrax lesion on only have to look at what happened in among federal, state and local agencies the neck; bottom, chest X-ray showing a the United Kingdom last year to see how and health care providers. widened mediastinum (the anatomic region devastating the introduction of something Donald Giger, Ph.D., who has taught located between the lungs) due to inhalation Photo by Bob Ervin like foot-and-mouth disease would be to in Creighton’s medical microbiology anthrax, 22 hours before death.

29 Fall 2002 Teaching About Terrorism

Smallpox virus department for 20 years, also is involved trace the exposure than, for example, Causes smallpox, in the local effort to combat bioterrorism. chemical or nuclear attacks, which come declared eradicated He is responsible for the clinical with their own sets of challenges. in 1980 by the microbiology laboratory section at the Chris Destache, Pharm.D., associate World Health Veterans Affairs Medical Center and is a professor with appointments in the Organization. member of the Omaha Metropolitan Schools of Pharmacy and Health Last vaccinations Medical Response System or OMMRS. Professions and Medicine, outlined in U.S. in 1972. This local group is part of a federal characteristics of chemical weapons in a Virus is stable program designed to improve Creighton-sponsored mini-medical and easily collaboration between health care, law school presentation in early 2002. He transmitted from enforcement, fire and public health noted that blistering agents and nerve person to person; estimates say each entities and their abilities to manage a agents can cause death and debilitating large-scale attack. injuries. Although there are antidote infected person can infect 10 others. “A big challenge for OMMRS is to medications, the ability to administer Mortality rate: about 30 percent. keep everyone constantly trained and them before they cause damage is a Fever, chills, headache, backache reminded to be thinking bioterrorism in challenge. develop all its presentations or forms,” Giger said, In May 2002, the New York Times seven to 17 “but I’m impressed with the coordinated Magazine published a cover bearing these days after effort that does exist here in Omaha and words: “The best reason for thinking infection, the fact that it has been under way in that a nuclear terrorist attack won’t followed by the Midlands for several years.” happen is that it hasn’t happened yet, dense rash on There are critics of this “preparedness” and that is terrible logic. The problem is face, arms approach. An editorial published in the not that we are not doing enough. It is and legs. Nov. 8, 2001, issue of the New England that there may be no such thing as Lesions occur on palms and soles. Journal of Medicine argued that enough. How scared should we be?” Leaves permanent scars. preparedness activities shouldn’t take Writer Bill Keller admits he isn’t No proven treatment, although the place of making public health a sleeping as well as he used to, and promising antiviral drugs exist. priority. closes his story with a quote from David Vaccine stockpile exists and can be “The deplorable lack of funding for Albright, a physicist who counts himself protective even if given three to four public health programs increases the as an expert who imagines attack days after infection. vulnerability of the United States and scenarios for a living. Albright says, the world to outbreaks of infectious “I’m an optimist at heart. I think we can Clostridium botulinum diseases whatever their origin. But catch them in time. If one (nuclear This toxin is the instead of making public health the explosion) goes off, I think we will most lethal known priority, proponents of preparedness survive. But we won’t be the same. It compound by have embraced the idea of a ‘dual will affect us in a fundamental way. And weight. Estimates benefit’ — a trickle-down theory not for the better.” say that one gram suggesting that public health programs At Creighton, most efforts to alleviate of purified toxin will gain from the allocation of billions the anxiety such scenarios induce have could kill about of dollars for terrorism-preparedness come in the form of education and 10 million people. programs dominated by military and outreach. In addition to the health care police agencies. ... It is a contradiction of sessions conducted by Gentry-Nielsen Causes botulism. good public health practice to spend and others, Creighton faculty members When toxin is billions of dollars for dubious and have done many media interviews, ingested, it is very lethal. It also can dangerous preparedness while blocking have led mini-medical school sessions cause illness when inhaled. international efforts directed at the for community members and have Exposure leads to paralysis that begins primary prevention of war and terrorism.” incorporated ideas about preparing new at the head and extends down through And there are questions about generations of health care professionals the body. Double vision, difficulty whether our vulnerability really will be by considering curriculum questions. swallowing and speaking and drooping alleviated by preparedness measures. In April 2002, Gentry-Nielsen, along eyelids may occur. Thousands of cargo containers come with Rod Nairn, Ph.D., and Floyd Knoop, Can be treated with breathing support through our ports of entry every day via Ph.D, of Creighton’s Department of and antitoxin medication; may require trucks, trains and ships. We take for Medical Microbiology and Immunology, weeks or months on a ventilator. granted the freedom of movement we attended a conference to discuss No person-to-person transmission. enjoy individually and commercially; methods of incorporating bioterrorism these very freedoms put us at risk. preparedness training into the medical Above: Top, microscopic view of the smallpox Bioterrorism offers distinct challenges school curriculum. As well as sharing virus; middle, smallpox rash on a child; bottom, because of the delay between the time of ideas during the conference, these a microscopic view of the highly toxic exposure and development of disease. Creighton professors will collaborate Clostridium botulinum endospores. That delay makes it harder to detect and with other attendees across the country

30 Fall 2002 Teaching About Terrorism to develop a consensus statement anything into your house,” Gentry- Yersinia pestis concerning what our future physicians Nielsen said. “Effective, but not very Causes bubonic need to know. practical. I believe that the more and pneumonic Efforts at Creighton’s teaching ordinary citizens know about these plague. hospital have included participating in organisms, know about how they are Transmitted OMMRS and improving communications disseminated and what symptoms they from person to with fire, rescue and police responders. cause, the more likely we are as a society person. One of the more visible additions is the to recognize an event early on. My advice Natural disease set of decontamination showers located is to learn, read, listen and do as much of rodents spread in the parking garage below the as you can to understand these things. by fleas. Infected emergency room. In this area, victims “The more you know and understand fleas would cause who have been exposed to hazardous the less frightened you have to be,” she bubonic plague, which can develop into materials can be treated. said. “The more you know, the more you pneumonic plague if untreated. will feel in control of the situation and then you can do a better job as a citizen Bubonic plague causes swollen and to help the health care professionals and tender lymph nodes called buboes, the government officials deal with a fever, chills, headache and exhaustion. “I believe that problem.” Normally can be cured with antibiotics. Marvin Bittner, M.D., associate professor Pneumonic plague can result from the more of medical microbiology and immunology untreated Bubonic plague or could be at Creighton, outlines the choices by caused if Yersinia pestis were spread in ordinary citing Thomas Friedman, a foreign affairs an aerosol. Within two to three days, columnist for the New York Times who patient will have sudden onset of fever, citizens know has won three Pulitzer Prizes. chills, cough that may produce bloody “Thomas Friedman talked about two sputum. Breathing about these types of responses among Beirut residents difficulties and during the worst of the fighting there in coagulation organisms ... the 1980s,” he said. “Some were survivors. problems develop, That’s all they did. They worried and causing blackening the more likely they survived. Others were, in his of the extremities description, the thrivers. Friedman (which is why it has we are as a might be on his way to play tennis been called the when he’d hear jets roaring overhead. Black Death). society to He’d take a look. If they were going one Nearly always fatal unless treated way and the tennis courts were the with antibiotics in first day following recognize an other way, he’d keep on going to his symptoms. tennis match. As guests gathered for a Vaccine exists but requires a number event early on.” dinner party, the sound of artillery fire interrupted. The hostess calmly asked of doses and has been shown to be — Martha Gentry-Nielsen, Ph.D. the guests if they would prefer to eat effective only against bubonic plague. now — or wait until the firing stopped. For more information Policies related to collaborating with “As an infectious disease specialist, I To learn more about anthrax or other hospitals and agencies, staffing, have been asked question after question infection control, security and handling about dealing with bioterrorism,” he smallpox, or for a listing of other equipment and supplies have been continued. “More and more, I am biological and chemical agents, visit the developed, according to Alvin Kobes, convinced that I am not the person who U.S. Centers for Disease Control and who manages the care environment at has the important answers. The most Prevention website. The CDC offers Creighton University Medical Center. important question is how you are going online news and information on “Public Kobes said that preparedness planning to live your life, and that is a question Health Emergency Preparedness & has always been part of the hospital we each must answer for ourselves. Response” at the following Web staff’s work and points to the Terrorists engaged in psychological address, www.bt.cdc.gov. community-wide development of the warfare will fail if you simply choose Healthcare Evacuation Networks in to live your life with as few changes 1997 as a precursor to today’s activities. as possible.” In the end, it probably comes down to how each of us will decide to participate About the author: Elliott-Bartle works in Above: Top, microscopic view of Yersinia pestis; in our communities and what choices we media relations in Creighton’s Office of bottom, the hand of a plague patient displaying make about living our lives each day. Public Relations and is producer and host gangrene (the origin of the term Black Death). “You could lock yourself in your house, of the award-winning weekly radio talk avoid all public places and refuse to let show “Creighton Healthwise.” Photos courtesy of the Public Health Image Library, CDC, Atlanta, GA

31 Fall 2002 Creighton Lawyer Finds Treasure in Ireland’s Past Creighton Lawyer Finds TreasureBy James P. Cavanaugh, in Ireland’s Past BA’77, JD’80 Editor’s Note: When James P. Cavanaugh, BA’77, JD’80, a partner in Omaha’s Cavanaugh Law Firm, P.C., began to search Irish history for his roots, he thought he’d find what most Irish Americans find: A story of triumphs and tragedies, famine, oppression and exile in the New World. He found that, of course, but he also discovered a whole mysterious world of lawyer-poets called the Brehons (pronounced Bré-han), who devel- oped alongside the ancient Greeks, with their own system of laws based on family or “clann.” “A Brehon (literally, maker of judgments) was a poet-scholar of law who acted as both legal adviser and judge in Irish society,” Cavanaugh explains. The Brehons were a hereditary caste of men and women who traced their profession back from early modern times to the Druids of pre-Christian Celtic Europe. “I had stumbled upon a legal system that had shaped my ancestors’ lives for literally thousands of years. I learned that a truly magnificent story had been lost — and I was playing a small part in its rediscovery.” Cavanaugh is working on a book about Brehon law to be published in Ireland next year. Below is his story of discovery.

In Irish, Brehon law is called “An Seanchus Mor” — literally, the Great Story. Like almost all important knowledge in Irish history — medicine, literature, genealogy — the law was passed down in the form of poetry that was chanted or sung by its adepts. In the case of the law, Brehons would invariably come from Brehon families, and they would be taught from childhood the “legal poems.” It took years to memorize the entire Above, inset, James Cavanaugh and his daughters Anne, left, legal code, and, when the scholar had and Mary, right, visit the grave of the first Cavanaugh, King achieved a certain level of proficiency — Donal Cavanaugh, in Glenamoy, County Mayo, Ireland. James is usually by the mid-30s, a Brehon would a 32nd generation descendant of the king, who died in 1175. take his or her place in society as an Above, James Cavanaugh, third from right, at his uncle’s cottage adviser, judge and, in effect, legal library. in Ferns, County Wexford, Ireland. Also pictured are The amount of specific legal knowledge Cavanaugh’s wife, Leslie, holding their daughter, Aileen; his these people carried in their heads would

uncle, Alex McDonnell; and his cousin, Martin McDonnell. JD’80 Photos courtesy of James Cavanaugh, BA’77, put to shame our modern lawyers with

X Fall 2002 Creighton Lawyer Finds Treasure in Ireland’s Past our laptops and libraries. The Brehons Circumstances could change the honor which to find oneself in Old Ireland. carried the law in their heads and operated price of an individual. For instance, if a Your clann was your right to life. As a a virtually paper-free legal system that king had been injured in battle, “an result, there were no concepts of regulated an advanced and stable injury to the back of his head while he illegitimacy, orphanhood, homelessness human society for thousands of years. flees from a battlefield gives the honor or rugged individualism. Everyone Even more remarkable than the price of a commoner to him, unless he belonged. “Who are your people?” was massive human memory-based form of has gone through the enemy, for in that a very serious question. the Brehon legal system was its substance. case a wound in the back of the king’s To ensure this belonging, the Brehons For from these ancient citizens issued a head entails the same fine as a wound devised comprehensive systems of code of law that was comprehensive, in his face.” Thus, courage or cowardice marriage, divorce, inheritance, succession rational, compassionate and very attuned could make or break a king’s claim. and, most importantly, genealogy. It was to human nature and behavior. It had People who sustained disabling injuries essential to know your ancestors. one guiding principle — the alternative were put on “sick maintenance” at the Everything depended on it. These people equivalent to our “Equality before the expense of the culprit until they were would look on most of us moderns as Law” — which was “Family First.” cured. As well as medical expenses, the social amnesiacs for not being able to A good example of this family-centric culprit had to provide suitable food and recall more than a few generations of system at work can be gleaned from the accommodations — not only for the our ancestors. law tracts contained in Irish manuscripts victim but also for an accompanying The 13th century Irish poet Mac Con — mostly from the 15th and 16th retinue. The accommodations were Midhe summed it up thus: centuries — that survived the book- outlined in detail and had to offer a burning frenzy of successive waves of restful atmosphere where “no games are If it were not for poetry invaders. First written down in the 5th to played in the house. No tidings are The music of sweet stringed harp or lute the 8th centuries A.D. by Christian monks, announced. No children are chastised. We would know nothing of a good man, these later manuscripts faithfully copied Neither women nor men exchanged his career or His repute after his death the earlier oral traditions, including blows. ... No dogs are set fighting in his Noble men could find no knowledge many passages that were not entirely presence or in his neighborhood Of their traditions or descent. consistent with Church teachings. Such outside. No shout is raised. No pigs Let these be woven in poems was the respect that even the Irish clerics squeal. No brawls are made. No cry of Or say good-bye to history. had for An Seanchus Mor and the victory is raised nor shout in playing If the Irish will go so far as to drive away Brehons, that it is written that St. Patrick games. No yell or scream is raised.” the art himself assembled the chief Brehons Additional payment to a victim’s An Irishman’s birth won’t count, and his own monks and instructed clann was assessed when the victim had Every noble will be a churl! them to transcribe the Brehon law. reached what under American law we The traditional date given for this would call “maximum medical benefit.” My first history teacher, my Irish compilation is 438 A.D., coincidentally This body-fine was meant to cover “the grandmother Anne Conroy Munnelly, the same year that the Code of fear of death, the gravity of the sickness, put it this way, “You can’t know who Theodosius was published in the and the extent of the blemish.” The you are or where you’re going if you crumbling Roman Empire. Brehon judges were required to know don’t know who you were or where The Irish laws were comprehensive in “the correct body-fine for every limb you’ve been.” the extreme, dealing with everything from temple to heel.” In all of this, the prime directive was from beekeeping to king making. While each individual had his or her to preserve the family, and one comes Throughout, they always and everywhere own honor price, the payment of damages away from even a brief study of Brehon refer not only to what mishap occurred went not to the individual but to the law with a sense of wonder at the sheer but also to the perpetrator’s family or head of that person’s clann. Conversely, humanity of its intent. These ancients clann — and its obligations for settling damages were paid by the offending fashioned a self-enforcing web of laws any claims. party’s family. Honor price, damages passed down in poetry that lasted for In this ancient culture, the measure of and restitution were all relative to your thousands of years and regulated a a person’s status was his or her “honor relatives! society that truly put family first. price” (log n-enech — literally, the price In this society there were no jails. The There is something to be learned from of his face). Honor prices in this cash- family was responsible for the acts of all all of this. Martin Heidegger wrote, “The free society were counted in cumals — its members. Consequently, the family Oldest of the Old follows behind us in the value of a female slave or three milk had a very great incentive to police our thinking, and yet it comes to meet cows. Honor prices ranged from 14 cumals itself, and God help the one who cost us.” As we venture through the first years (42 milk cows) in the case of a provincial the clann a cow! of the new millennium, it is always king down to 1/12 cumal (one yearling As a family-centric system, Brehon instructive to note how our ancient heifer) for a youth living on his father’s law also made sure that everyone ancestors dealt with the same problems land. An individual’s entire honor price belonged to someone. No one could be we face today. It is also sobering to was only payable upon that person’s without a clann and survive. A loner recognize that their civilization operated death, while fractions of honor prices was treated as a non-person, with no successfully for many times the short were payable for non-lethal injuries. honor price — a deadly position in history, to date, of our own!

33 Fall 2002 Of Threshers, Cobblers and Iambic Pentameter

By Bridget Keegan, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department

The decades-long debate about the literary canon has had a profound impact on who and what is taught in the English classroom. The textbook I use for my British literature survey course now includes pioneering female writers, such as Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood and Hester Thrale Piozzi, as well as Daniel Defoe, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. My colleagues in American literature teach African- American poet Phyllis Wheatley or Native American poets as well as Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson. But while the canon has been opened to include talented writers regardless of their gender and ethnicity, there remains one group which continues to be neglected: writers from the laboring classes. No matter how well-versed a reader may be with women authors or authors of color, it is very unlikely that a student — or even a teacher — of British literature will have heard of Photo by Bob Ervin Creighton’s Keegan on the farm. Many of the laboring-class poets she has studied, such as Stephen Stephen Duck, Mary Collier, Mary Duck (see picture on opposite page), toiled in the farm fields. (Special thanks to the Metzger family of Louisville, Leapor, James Woodhouse, Ann Neb., for use of their farm. The late William Metzger attended Creighton’s School of Law.) Yearsley, Robert Bloomfield, John Clare

34 Fall 2002 Of Threshers, Cobblers and Iambic Pentameter or any of the hundreds of other British poets of laboring-class origins. Colleagues and students are stunned when I tell them that there were more than 1,000 laboring-class poets publishing in Britain and Ireland between 1700 and 1900. How is it that there can be so many laboring-class writers and yet few, if any, are known or studied — even with our expanded ideas of the literary canon? Especially as America’s own Labor Day approaches, I would argue that the category of class has been neglected in the reconfiguration of the canon largely because, unlike race or gender, social class is not biological. Although some theorists have argued that race and gender are also social constructs, there is no denying that class is certainly socially constructed. Class is something we supposedly are able to change. Witness the fact that some of the most popular novels from the 18th century to our own time tell the stories of the protagonists’ struggle to rise out of poverty and obscurity to attain a comfortable upper-middle-class (or even aristocratic) status. What literary historians identify as the first English novel, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), is both an epic story of humanity against the elements and a story of how much the Protestant work ethic pays off. The ne’er-do-well Crusoe survives on the deserted island, and becomes fabulously rich doing so. In popular fiction, at least, a lower-class status is something to escape, not celebrate. How social class informs poetic genres is more complex. The reasons why laboring-class poets wrote, to whom they wrote, and what they wrote about vary greatly. Many poets wrote for religious and devotional

purposes, versifying scripture and Book Manuscript and Special Collections Library Illustration courtesy of Duke University’s Rare penning prayers to help them accept their difficult fate. Others wrote to feel connected to a larger community, or to Duck, an agricultural laborer from Wilsthire, was the most celebrated laboring-class poet of the 18th amuse their friends and family by century. The illustration is from Duck’s Poems on Several Subjects (1730). transcribing songs and witty poems that might have, in an early era, a way to get rich quickly, many did late 17th century, authorship came to remained within an oral tradition. write to better their economic condition. be understood as a “career” in the And, while becoming a poet was never They were able to do so because in the modern sense of the word — something

35 Fall 2002 Of Threshers, Cobblers and Iambic Pentameter

which required specialized training and for which one was paid. Prior to this era, poets were either patronized by wealthy aristocrats or were noblemen themselves. Poems were circulated primarily in manuscript or were performed orally. Early 17th century advances in printing technology combined with increased literacy rates (underwritten by Protestantism’s mission to teach all believers to read scripture) changed the patterns of production and consumption of printed material. Due to increased literacy among the laboring classes and the prospect of writing to earn additional income, the early 18th century saw a surge in the number of laboring-class poets. These poets offer a unique but largely neglected perspective on crucial historical developments, including the Agricultural and the Industrial Revolutions. It may surprise some to know that Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) or Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village (1770) were not the first or the only English poems to elegize the conditions of the poor in a nation rapidly shifting from an agrarian to a manufacturing economy. Stephen Duck, Mary Collier, Mary Leapor and James Woodhouse are some of the laboring- class poets who treat the same theme from their firsthand experiences of those historical changes. As people of all classes moved away from the country and into cities and towns, nostalgia for the countryside resulted in a resurgence of interest in literary genres that celebrated or described pastoral images. It was in this climate that the most celebrated laboring-class poet of the 18th century © The British Library hit the scene. Stephen Duck, a rural agricultural laborer from Wilsthire, published The Thresher’s Labour in 1730. In it, Duck details the struggles he faced Yearsley, known as the “Milkwoman of Clifton” because she delivered milk from door to door, gained as a farm worker. While descriptions of popularity with England’s social elite in the late 18th century for her poetry. The illustration is from a hard labor date back to the early Greek 1787 book of her poetry, titled Poems on Various Subjects. and Roman poets, such as Hesiod and Virgil, never before had the pains of farm work been detailed in print by a

36 Fall 2002 Of Threshers, Cobblers and Iambic Pentameter farm worker himself. Moreover, Duck continues with housekeeping and House (1681), and rewrites the form elevates this arduous work by child rearing. Moreover, while male “from below,” offering a kitchen maid’s describing it in the language of classical agricultural laborers enjoy seasonal tour of the great manor house. mythology and martial prowess, calling respites (typically during the winter Later in the century, Ann Yearsley, his threshing tool a weapon. This months), it is during those times that the “Milkwoman of Clifton” near technique gives his manual labor a women must take on odd jobs, such as Bristol, who went by the pen name dignity that straightforward “realistic” laundering, to make ends meet, while of “Lactilla,” rose to celebrity after depiction might not: the men are seasonally unemployed. being discovered by the Bluestocking Collier describes the woman worker, evangelist Hannah More. (In mid-18th ❧ working in the field with the extra century England, groups of aristocratic Now in the air our knotty Weapons fly, burden of a child on her back, racing women, known as Bluestockings, would home to start the housework after an meet and discuss literary interests.) And now with equal force descend from high. exhausting day in the fields. She More promoted Yearsley’s gift but addresses her fellow male laborer: kept control of profits from the sale of Down one, one up, so well they keep the Time, ❧ Yearsley’s work. More feared success The Cyclops’ Hammers could not truer chime, would convince Yearsley that she was Alas! we find our Work but just begun; qualified for a full-time literary career. Nor with more heavy strokes could Aetna groan, More wrote of the trust-fund she When Vulcan forg’d the arms for Thetis’ Son. So many things for our Attendance call, established from Yearsley’s profits: “It is not intended to place her in such a (38-43) Had we ten hands, we could employ them all. state of independence as might seduce ❧ Our children put to bed, with greatest care, her to devote her time to the idleness of The poem was an immediate success, Poetry. I hope she is convinced, that the We all things for your coming Home prepare: and earned the poet the attention and making of verses is not the great admiration of Queen Caroline, who You sup, and go to bed without delay, bestowed upon him an annual allowance and a royal sinecure, as the And rest yourselves to the ensuing Day, librarian for her gardens at Kew. While we, alas! but little Sleep can have, Duck’s poem was so popular that it The reasons went through numerous editions over Because our froward Children cry and rave. the next 10 years and inspired a spate Yet without fail, soon as Daylight doth spring, why laboring- of imitators: John Bancks wrote The Weaver’s Miscellany (1730); Robert We in the Field our Work begin, class poets Dodsley, who later went on to become And there with all our Strength our Toil renew. one of the most successful publishers (106-117) wrote, to whom of the 18th century, began his career ❧ with a collection about his works as they wrote, a footman, The Muse in Livery (1732); Unfortunately, Collier’s clever and Robert Tatersal penned The response went largely unnoticed in her and what they Bricklayer’s Miscellany (1734). However, own time, and she failed to win the the liveliest response to Duck was accolades that Duck did. wrote about composed by Petersfield washerwoman Other women poets followed in Mary Collier. Collier was prompted by Collier’s footsteps and some did receive vary greatly. Duck’s unflattering representation of a modicum of acclaim. Mary Leapor, women workers, whom Duck described who worked as a household servant as too busy gossiping to attend to their and a cook and died of measles while business of human life; and that, as a jobs. In her poetic rebuttal, Collier in her 20s, was perhaps the most wife and mother, she has duties to fill, articulated in 1739 an argument made successful female laboring-class poet the smallest of which is of more value by many feminists today (and of the 18th century. Her most well- than the finest verses she can write.” experienced by working mothers known poem, Crumble Hall (1748), Apparently a career as a professional the world over): that women, in fact, uses the genre of the country house writer was legitimate only for women must work double shifts. Women’s poem, established by writers such as of More’s solid bourgeois pedigree. A work does not terminate with the end Ben Jonson in To Penshurst (1616) or fierce legal battle ensued over control of the traditional workday, but Andrew Marvell in Upon Appleton of the money, with Yearsley eventually

37 Fall 2002 Of Threshers, Cobblers and Iambic Pentameter

victorious, but with her reputation language of men” and celebrating the long outstripped the sales of tarnished due to the “ingratitude” simpler country life. Such an aesthetic, Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads. she had shown to her patron. that elevates the commonplace, the While Bloomfield is rarely read Although rural “peasant poets” (as everyday and the natural, led to the today, John Clare has become the they were condescendingly called) continued interest in poetry by most celebrated “peasant poet” of the dominate in the 18th and early 19th “common folk” and in forms of Romantic period. Like many of the centuries, laborer-poets who practiced poetry, such as the ballad, that had a laboring classes, Clare supported himself the artisan trades were also numerous. long oral tradition. But as critic Scott with a variety of occupations, from stone Bricklayers, millers and weavers wrote McEathron has recently argued, masonry to gardening. However, Clare’s poetry. Perhaps the most poetically Wordsworth, far from being original first love was poetry and he wrote gifted trade was shoemaking. More in his celebration of the “real language prolifically from the age of 13 forward. than 50 cobbler poets published during of men,” had simply managed to Clare grew up in the village of Helpston, the 18th and 19th centuries. Certain and witnessed his rural community material conditions surrounding the irreparably altered by the policy of work of shoemaking were likely to agricultural enclosure. Enclosure was have made it easier for these manual a practice of agrarian “improvement.” laborers to pursue a poetic vocation Clare’s poetry Areas that were previously held in alongside their primary occupation. common by villagers, and used to graze Unlike agricultural laborers, or later, protesting livestock, support small vegetable workers in factories or mills, gardens or gather kindling wood, were shoemakers worked independently or taken over and subsumed within a more in small groups without the supervision enclosure in the instrumental and “organized” method of a “master” who could punish them of farming that tore down trees and put for any breaks in productivity. The 1820s is one of the up hedgerows to indicate property activities of shoemaking were non- boundaries, preventing all but the repetitive and not noisy (as were the earliest instances authorized workers from “trespassing” threshall and the loom), and made it on the landlord’s holdings. Clare’s poem, possible for cobblers to compose and of laboring-class The Mores (1821-24), for example, take breaks to jot down lines. describes the open vistas of his native Shoemaker poet James Woodhouse poetry offering region prior to enclosure, and how the describes alternating the use of a pen landscape was defaced by the greed of and an awl in his daily labors. systematic protest enclosing landowners: Woodhouse also describes how he kept ❧ his cobbling work on one knee and an against social open book on another. Finally, because Far spread the moorey ground a level scene all classes of people needed shoes or injustice. shoe repair, the shoemaker was much Bespread with rush and one eternal green more likely than other workers to repackage for polite audiences the That never felt the rage of blundering plough interact with individuals in the elite kind of poetry that laboring-class intellectual or aristocratic classes who authors had been producing for Through centurys wreathed springs blossoms on might offer patronage or assistance. decades. In particular, Wordsworth its brow The cobbler John Bennet had the good could be said to have capitalized on . . . fortune to practice his trade in Oxford, the celebrity of one of the few laboring- Unbounded freedom ruled the wandering scene and was eventually assisted by literary class poets whose name might be historian Thomas Warton, who was also familiar to more than a few specialists: Nor fence of ownership crept in between a customer in his shop. Scottish “poet of the plough” Robert In the Romantic Era of the early Burns. Burns was not the only popular To hide the prospect of the following eye 19th century, we begin to see an laboring-class poet of the early 19th Its only bondage the circling sky overall shift in literary values toward century. It is a little-known fact of . . . a more “democratic” idiom for poetry, literary history that in 1800, Robert described most famously in William Bloomfield, a London shoemaker, Now this sweet vision of my boyish hours Wordsworth’s “Preface” (1802) to Lyrical published one of the best-selling Free as spring clouds and wild as summer flowers Ballads (1798). Wordsworth differentiates poems of the first years of the 19th his verse as being written in the “real century. Bloomfield’s The Farmer’s Boy Is faded all-a hope that blossomed free

38 Fall 2002 Of Threshers, Cobblers and Iambic Pentameter

And hath been once no more shall ever be Inclosure came and trampled on the grave Of labours rights and left the poor a slave ❧

Such an exploitative appropriation of nature is protested throughout Clare’s poetry, and his ecocentric vision has gained him popularity among modern environmentalists. Clare’s poetry protesting enclosure in the 1820s is one of the earliest instances of laboring-class poetry offering systematic protest against social injustice. It is only near the end of the Romantic period that we see poetry clearly articulating a working-class or proletariat position. Because there were no organized “labor movements” until the late 18th and early 19th centuries, laboring-class poets rarely had occasion to take explicitly political positions in their poems. However, by the Victorian age, when labor movements such as Chartism (a 19th century democratic social and political reform movement in England) became an important political force, poetry was a key medium for expressing a collective laboring-class identity. Allen Davenport, Thomas Cooper and Ernest Jones were the poet laureates of the mid-19th century labor movement in Britain. The voice of social protest rings clear and strong in poems such as Jones’ The Factory Town (1844): ❧

Fear ye not your masters’ power © The British Library

Men are strong when men unite; The “aspiring poet” from Robert Dodsley’s 1732 poetry collection The Muse in Livery. Fear ye not one stormy hour; Banded millions need not fight. writers can also be included in the More on Laboring-Class ❧ literary canon, alongside the voices of Poets women and writers of color, our A full bibliography of the more Laboring-class poets from Duck to understanding of literary history will than 1,000 British laboring-class Jones remind us of the dignity and the only be enriched. strength of working men and women, poets writing from 1700-1900 can and their poems are a testament to the About the author: Keegan is assisting with a be found online at significance of a laboring-class six-volume edition of English Laboring- http://human.ntu.ac.uk/clare/elsie.htm perspective on British history and Class Poetry, 1700-1900, forthcoming from society. If the voices of laboring-class the British Press, Pickering and Chatto.

39 Fall 2002 Development News

Heiders‘ Faith residence hall at 22nd and Davenport Harry, JD’30, and streets was renamed Heider Hall in their in Creighton’s honor. Edith Dwyer’s The Heiders also support Omaha’s Mission, Vision Creighton Prep High School and the Estate Gift Funds Jesuit Middle School. The Heiders’ two Inspiration for sons, Mark and Scott, attended Creighton Law Scholarships Prep, and Scott is now on the board of Support Creighton Prep. Their story reads like a Hollywood Charles’ enthusiasm for Jesuit screenplay. The era is World War II. A Charles Heider, a 1949 graduate of education led him to many years of young, beautiful English girl named Creighton’s College of Business service on the University’s Board of Edith relocates to the United States with Administration, and his wife, Mary Directors beginning in 1980. He currently her mother after bombs destroy their McBride Heider, have ribbon factory. simple reasons for Following the war, the mother- supporting Creighton. daughter immigrants find themselves in They have faith in the Beverly Hills, Calif. Edith gains mission and vision of employment at a fashionable dress shop the University and where she meets Hollywood’s most strongly believe in its notable bachelors who vie for places on future with the her dance card. She spurns them. She inspiration and prefers to spend her free time at the leadership of the Jesuit Veterans Administration Hospital, caring Community. for the troops who helped end the war in The Charles and her homeland. Mary Heider Endowed At the hospital, she meets Harry Jesuit Faculty Chair at Dwyer, a 1930 Creighton law school Creighton, funded by graduate from Plattsmouth, Neb. Injuries the Heiders, supports sustained at Omaha Beach hinder Harry’s the internationally ability to speak, but he eventually regains renowned photographic his voice, marries Edith and practices law work of the first Mary and Charles Heider in California. chairholder, the Rev. Don Doll, S.J. is an emeritus member of the board. Doll said the Chair allows him the “When Fr. Schlegel’s current goal for opportunity to continue his humanistic east campus expansion is completed, it Alumna’s Family photography throughout the world. will represent a very significant Pays Tribute to Her “The chair is a great honor and I thank contribution to the University,” he said. God and the Heiders for this Charles, who has enjoyed success in the Late Mother with opportunity,” he said. “I now have more investment industry, serves on a cadre of of a chance to be an eye for justice in the boards and committees including the Endowed Scholarship world.” Joslyn Art Museum, Children’s Hospital, This year, the Heiders have contributed Nebraska Humane Society and the The only magazine Salli Jo Bayne read $1 million to the Heider Endowed Omaha Community Foundation. cover to cover was Creighton University Scholarship Fund for undergraduate Charles is a member of the investment Magazine. She loved hearing about students. They said their gift stems from committee for Creighton and serves as campus activities and watching her their desire to support Jesuits and the chairman of the Health Future daughter, Michelle Bayne Zagurski, students faced with the ever-increasing Foundation Board. BA’96, MBA’00, participate in them. cost of higher education. Mary attended Duchesne College in Michelle joined Creighton her “When I meet students looking for a Omaha and serves on the board of the sophomore year as a transfer student. college to attend, I always tell them to Stephen Center Sponsors, Catholic Unhappy at her first school, she took a look at Creighton,” Charles said. “This Charities Foundation and Sacred Heart year off and visited other campuses. She endowed scholarship fund will hopefully CUES. said she chose Creighton because of the help some of those students who need The Jesuit tradition of being women feeling she had the first time she walked financial assistance.” and men for others is a daily goal for on campus. “It was peaceful. Everyone I In 1998, the 12-story Creighton them.

40 Fall 2002 Development News

When they ask you if you attended college, tell them you attended Creighton.’” In England, Edith’s family similarly demonstrated the value of a quality education. “I was raised by a wonderful Scottish father who said education was number one. He wanted only the best when it came to education. My father would send gifts to Oxford all the time and would say, ‘There are some wonderful brains out there that need funds to receive an education. Who knows who will be helped with this check?’” Edith passed away in November 2000 and bequeathed more than $300,000 for endowed scholarships for Creighton law school students. Dean Patrick J. Borchers said the gift means a great deal to the Edith and Harry Dwyer school. “The parents of Harry and Edith were Harry died in November 1979, and this country so. prescient,” Borchers said. “Creighton is Edith made plans to one day celebrate her “Harry wanted everyone to know he the destination of choice for many husband’s appreciation for his Creighton was a Nebraska native. He was such a talented students, but without scholarship education. She was absolutely devoted to proud man and Omaha rang out loud and support, their dreams may be unrealized. him and to her adopted homeland. clear when he was asked where he grew The willingness of the Dwyers to help “I am so glad I moved to the States,” up. With his deep voice and power, my students they would never know to she wrote to friends at the University. word, how it rang out! He was also proud realize their dreams of becoming a “I give America a kiss every night. of Creighton. His father told him, ‘Don’t Creighton lawyer is an act that will The Yanks are the very first to help just tell people you’re going to college, forever testify to their character and the wherever it is needed. That’s why I love tell them you’re going to Creighton. character of their fine families.”

spoke with was genuine. I believed remember my mom saying how much she loved the University and everyone wanted me to succeed,” she comfortable she was on campus. She saw believed in the undergraduate experience. said. how much progress I was making, She would want anyone who wants to Finding the perfect university for academically and socially, and how much attend Creighton to have that Michelle was the University meant to me.” opportunity. The scholarship will help also important to When Salli Jo died of cancer in April make that happen.” her parents, 2001, her family wanted a meaningful Michelle, who lives in Omaha, said she William and the way to pay tribute to her. is excited about and proud of the gift to late Salli Jo “The goal was to memorialize my Creighton. She fondly remembers the Bayne of mother by contributing to something she University’s welcoming atmosphere as a Redlands, Calif., believed in,” Michelle said. The family new journalism major in a city new to her. who supported found the perfect match in the Salli Jo “I guess what stands out most is my her decision to Bayne Endowed Scholarship, a fund that relationship with my journalism professor transfer to a provides financial assistance to and academic advisor Dr. Eileen Wirth,” Salli Jo Bayne different undergraduate students by using interest she said. “She cares so much about all of university. earned from the account’s principal. her students. She always had time for me. “My first semester at Creighton, my “The Scholarship is an excellent way to The way she believed in me helped me to parents came to visit for fall break,” remember Mom,” Michelle said. “She discover many possibilities. For me, she Michelle said. “I was very excited just to believed in everything Creighton stood epitomizes the role of a professor at walk around campus with them. I for. It’s a beautiful expression of how Creighton.”

41 Fall 2002 Development News

parents in death in November 1996. generous and compassionate family.” Creighton But before he died, Jerry, as he was The Dr. Oscar S. Belzer Endowed known to many, established the Dr. Oscar Chair in Dentistry was inaugurated at Mourns Death S. Belzer Endowed Chair in Dentistry at Creighton in September 1997. In 2000, Creighton, in honor of his father, and the Ruth Belzer established the Jerome Belzer of Ruth Belzer Jerome J. Belzer Chair in Pathology at Endowed Scholarship in the School of Ruth Frisch Belzer, a devoted friend of Dentistry for those students who assist in Creighton University, died June 19 at her the professional activities of the home in Beverly Hills, Calif., at the age chairholder. of 91. The Belzer Chair honors outstanding Ruth’s husband, the late Dr. Oscar S. senior faculty members who serve the Belzer, was a 1928 graduate of traditional mission of excellence in dental Creighton’s School of Dentistry. Oscar education, providing comprehensive, Belzer immigrated to the United States clinical expertise coupled with ethical and from Russia in 1921 with his family. They moral components and quality research. eventually settled in with cousins in The late Richard J. Blankenau, DDS’66, Omaha, living in a house near what is was the first to hold the Belzer Chair. now the Creighton campus. Gary H. Westerman, DDS’69, professor Oscar Belzer and Ruth Frisch were and chair of the Department of married in July 1933, and they had one Community and Preventive Dentistry, is son, Jerome. Oscar practiced for 25 years the current holder of the Belzer Chair. He in Omaha’s Medical Arts Building. He was installed in February 2000. became known as “the singing dentist” Ruth Belzer, who was an Omaha because he often sang to his patients as he native, maintained close ties to her worked on them. Oscar and Ruth Belzer hometown even after the family moved to In 1954, the family moved to Los California. As part of her 90th birthday Angeles, where Oscar Belzer continued to UCLA, where he did his residency. celebration, Ruth Belzer created the Belzer practice until retiring in 1988. “Jerry’s gift to Creighton reflected Family Gallery as part of the Nebraska Jerome, who shared his parents’ love of his love for his parents and their Jewish Historical Society. education and of being of service to commitment to our University and to Ruth Belzer is survived by niece Eunice others, became a prominent pathologist in higher education in general,” said Wayne Denenberg and her husband, Norman, of Los Angeles. Tragically, he was diagnosed Barkmeier, DDS, dean of the School of Omaha and their family, plus numerous with a fatal illness and preceded his Dentistry. “This was a wonderfully other nieces, nephews and dear friends.

As a professor, Dr. Urban was a tireless in 1984 and four times received Gift Establishes mentor to his students. As a friend, he and recognition as Outstanding Teacher of the his wife, Susan, opened their home and Year. Dr. T.J. Urban hearts, guiding students’ personal well- The Dr. T.J. Urban Memorial Lecture being and gently leading them to success. Series is part of the continuing education Lecture Series Don Vap, DDS’65, using Dr. Urban’s program at the School. It encourages Imagine being a dental student and one benevolence as his example, proudly Creighton dentists in lifelong learning. day having concerns about whether you celebrates the life of the kind professor Through it, various experts, on the cutting can stretch your meager financial through the School of Dentistry’s Dr. T.J. edge of dental procedures, annually come resources to the end of the semester. That Urban Memorial Lecture Series. to the University to share their same day, one of your professors gives “Dental school was a different playing knowledge. The series is supported by you a job as his teaching and research field than we were accustomed to,” Dr. interest income earned from an endowed assistant or steers you toward scholarship Vap said. “Dr. Urban cared about us even account. The fund is open for additional funds no one knew existed. When when it felt like many things were against contributions. students most need some extra cash, jobs us. When you saw Dr. Urban, the sun “I think it’s important that Dr. Urban be at this professor’s house often materialize came out.” remembered with more than just a plaque from nowhere. Theodore J. Urban, Ph.D., (1926-1990) on the wall,” Dr. Vap said. “The new A generation of Creighton students joined Creighton in 1954. He was chair of generation of Creighton dental students experienced the bigheartedness and Oral Biology and associate dean in the will not have the pleasure of knowing openhandedness of such a professor, Dr. School of Dentistry. He received the him. We need to memorialize him. He T.J. Urban. University’s Distinguished Service Award was a great human being.”

42 Fall 2002 Development News

Many Ways to upon endowing this University with book funds, established with a minimum perpetual support. Nearly two-thirds of gift of $10,000, help supplement Support Creighton’s endowed funds are for student assistance, dwindling acquisition budgets and faculty development and professorships. increase library holdings. An endowed Endowment Endowed Scholarships — Gifts of book fund provides resources on a Creighton University is committed to $25,000 and up for scholarships and perpetual basis to support the ongoing keeping its quality education affordable. grants may bear the names of their acquisition of new scholarly publications. The University’s many alumni and donors. The donors determine whether The endowment provides a permanent friends help to ensure that eligible their gift takes the form of achievement- source of funding that offsets escalating students can afford a values-centered based scholarships, need-based grants or costs. education. a combination of both. Faculty Development — Creighton Students arrive on campus Endowed Professorships — An University is committed to maintaining from varied backgrounds, from all endowed professorship permits the the capability of its faculty at the highest regions of the United States and from University to select an eminent professor levels possible. Opportunities and many corners of the world. Diversity from across the academic world to hold a incentives for development help faculty enriches the educational experience and is visiting or permanent chair without continue to uphold traditions of academic an inherent component in the concept of a dependence on the operating budget. excellence. university. An endowed chair at Creighton Gift opportunities for faculty Just as Edward and Mary Lucretia University can be established with a development range from sabbatical leave Creighton envisioned, their endowed gift minimum gift of $1.5 million for the programs to clinical research programs to create the University encouraged many School of Medicine and $1 million for all and post-doctoral fellowships. gifts. Creighton’s modern founders — other schools and colleges. To learn more about endowment today’s donors — continue to guard Distinguished professorships can be opportunities at Creighton, please contact traditions of welcoming students with created with a minimum gift of $500,000, the University Development Office, at promise, no matter their financial and professorships may be established (800) 334-8794, (402) 280-2200 or 2500 circumstances. with a minimum gift of $250,000. California Plaza, Omaha, Neb., 68178- The future of Creighton is contingent Endowed Book Funds — Endowed 0115.

Newsletters Offer opportunities at Creighton. As tax changes These three newsletters will help occur, we provide you with plain- explain recent tax legislation and will help Valuable Information language information. We show you tax guide you as you develop your estate By Steve Scholer, JD’79 advantaged strategies to plan your estate. plans. As you plan your estate, we hope In addition to the Journal, we are now you reflect upon the ways that Creighton Director of Estate & Trust Services expanding this service to focus on the has impacted your life and about ways Changes occur every day in the world specific needs of some alumni groups. you can support the mission of the of estate and charitable planning. The Tax Older graduates of Creighton’s School University. Many people make their Act of 2001 continues to raise a number of of Medicine or School of Dentistry will ultimate gift to Creighton through their questions. As the tax changes are phased receive Health Professionals’ Tax Journal. estate plans. If you decide to leave a in over the next few With ongoing changes to the health care bequest to Creighton, you will be eligible years, many people field, estate planning may be of increasing for membership in the Heritage Society — are uncertain as to importance to you. This newsletter can our recognition group for those who have how these changes help you as you plan for college expenses made provisions in their estate plans for will affect their estate for your children or grandchildren, the University. These gifts build upon the plans. succession planning, retirement planning legacy first established through the estate Where can you find and the ultimate distribution of your gift of Edward and Mary Lucretia helpful, timely infor- estate. Creighton. mation regarding how We’ve also launched a newsletter for If you would like to receive one of our Photo by Monte Kruse, BA’83 Photo by Monte Kruse, Scholer to plan your estate? our alumnae. Many women have forged planned giving newsletters or if you are The Office of Estate successful careers and have assumed interested in becoming a member of the and Trust Services is here to help you. increased financial responsibility. A Heritage Society, please call (402) 280-2885 For the past five years, we’ve been component of your overall financial plan or (800) 334-8794. If you have already providing timely updates through Estate should be the orderly distribution of your included a bequest to Creighton in your and Trust Services Journal. This free estate. Focus on Women addresses these estate plan, please let us know and we newsletter addresses current income and issues and shows how planned giving can will enroll you in the Heritage Society. estate tax planning issues, planned giving help you blend your philanthropic and techniques and memorial giving financial goals into a unified plan.

43 Fall 2002 Why does Creighton have a The Last Word Medical Center? By Richard L. O’Brien, MS’58, MD’60 Professor of Medicine, Center for Health Policy & Ethics

Religious Values in doctrinal conformity. On the Health Professions contrary, acceptance of religious values must be Why should a Catholic voluntary, based on personal Jesuit university provide conviction. In religiously health professions education? sponsored health science In the beginning, at least schools, specific values and part of the reason was ethical norms may and should to provide education for be advocated. However, there the children of Catholic is no room for coercion. We are immigrants who were not to judge but to teach and discriminated against by to serve. other institutions of higher And we are to teach and to education. But that was only serve motivated by love, part of the reason; another is charity and commitment to Photo by Monte Kruse, BA’83 Photo by Monte Kruse, justice. “A new command- the importance of health care This statue of St. Joseph with the Christ child has long stood outside Saint Joseph and service as a ministry. Hospital, now Creighton University Medical Center. ment I give to you, that you Creighton’s medical school love one another.” (John 13:34) was founded in 1892, just 14 years after the establishment of the Despite trends to treat health care as a business, religious health University. It was followed not long after by schools of Dentistry, professions schools teach students to place the interests of those they Pharmacy and Nursing. serve above their own, and that health professions should serve all Religious sponsorship of educational and health care institutions is who are in need. Professionals should have regard for the human rooted in the concepts that education based on religious values serves dignity of those they serve and should have no consideration other God and society, that life and health are God-given, that health care, than the needs of those they serve. All are equally deserving of especially for the underprivileged, is a proper use of human talent. professionals’ attention, knowledge and skills. However, many private schools founded with religious motives Such motivation, attitude and commitment to service do not imply have foresworn their religious purposes in our diverse and largely or allow compromise of excellence. Piety and religious conviction secular society. cannot substitute for competence. In fact, proper attention to human Of the more than 100 U.S. universities that have health science medical need demands a high degree of competence. Anything less centers, only nine retain explicitly religious sponsorship and missions. does not properly serve human dignity. Four of those are operated by the Jesuits (at Creighton, Georgetown, Religious sponsorship implies a commitment to change the world Loyola and St. Louis universities). and the manner in which its occupants are treated. Human With so few in existence, are religiously sponsored health knowledge and systems are incomplete and imperfect. Religious professions schools relics of the past, or do they provide important health professions schools profess to strive continuously to improve and unique dimensions of education and health care? the science, the art and the systems of health care. Their research and The underlying value system of those explicitly religious health efforts to reform should be motivated by the love and desire to serve science centers remaining in the United States is the Judeo-Christian humanity. tradition. This tradition believes in a giving, personally interested Further, health science centers dedicated to religious values God, a God who has given human kind physical being and the world understand that science instructs theology, especially in as an expression of love, who expects humans to emulate the divine understanding life, suffering and death. Scientific knowledge attributes of loving and giving. contributes to the formation of ethical positions and their application The Judeo-Christian tradition is strongly committed to community, to health care. to the dignity and equality of all human life. It is a world-embracing Health science centers animated by specific religious traditions and world-affirming tradition, seeking better to know and to foster expression of religious values integral to their culture and to understand God’s creation and its meaning. their educational and service missions. Health professions education in religious institutions properly Creighton and other medical centers with religious missions have strives for the formation of students with professional attitudes contributed importantly to the professions and the ethic of health care. consonant with this tradition, consistent with specific ethical systems Nurtured and supported, they continue to add an important and values. This does not mean indoctrination or insistence on dimension to American professional education and health care.

55 Fall 2002 Thank you, Padre The Rev.Robert Hart, S.J., known affectionately among Creighton coaches, student-athletes and Bluejay fans as “Padre,” has retired to his hometown of Milwaukee. Fr. Hart — his thick shock of white hair, beard and affable smile — had become a fixture on the sidelines of Creighton sporting events. Padre served as chaplain for the athletic department for 20 years. He was a true team player. He traveled with the teams, cheered for the teams, prayed with the teams and, when it was warranted, even cajoled a few officials to try to get a call for the team. Fr. Hart came to Creighton in 1982, after spending the previous eight years in Connecticut as a parish priest and chaplain at Yale Hospital. He taught theology at Creighton until last year. Fr. Hart was inducted into Creighton’s Athletic Hall of Fame last year, but his presence stretched well beyond the playing field. He loved the students and was always there for them. Many returned to have him perform their weddings or baptize their children. Now at 70, with Parkinson’s disease advancing on him, the Jesuit they call Padre has returned to Milwaukee. But his spirit and memory will remain on the hilltop campus that, for the past two decades, he called home. For all of those, past and present, touched by the Photo by Monte Kruse, BA’83 Photo by Monte Kruse, dedication and compassion of Fr. Hart, we wish him the best in his retirement. Thank you, Padre.