Making the Cut ‘Mother of Recognized Families, Colleges Debate Overuse of Rankings and SAT Scores the Huddle’ for Service Perseveres
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The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s Volume 45: Issue 85 Friday, February 10, 2012 Ndsmcobserver.com Professor Making the cut ‘Mother of recognized Families, colleges debate overuse of rankings and SAT scores the Huddle’ for service perseveres By KRISTEN DURBIN By MARISA IATI News Writer News Writer The Notre Dame faculty recent- “Mother of the Huddle” Helen ly acquired another academic Hiatt has watched over the La- accolade when Vania Smith-Oka, Fortune grocery store’s grounds assistant professor of Anthropol- since 1967, working her way ogy, was hon- from the old cigarette counter to ored with the the cash register over the past Center for 44 years. Public An- “I came in on Monday morn- thropology’s ing and that afternoon I was Ruth Bene- working,” she said. “I sold ciga- dict Global rettes for 11-and-a-half years. Citizenship And then when they quit selling Award last cigarettes on campus I lost my week. job there, so I went back to that The na- Vania Smith- register [in the Huddle Mart] tional award, Oka and I worked there for 25 years.” which hon- MARINA KOZAK | Observer Graphic Hiatt said she became ac- ors 1 per- quainted with many varsity foot- cent of introductory Anthropol- By SARA FELSENSTEIN “Colleges are accused by scores during the decision pro- ball players as they frequented ogy faculty across the country, Associate News Editor families as using the SAT too cess. the Huddle after practice. recognized Smith-Oka for her much to value students in the “People are concerned we “They’d come in and talk continued involvement with the As colleges compete for top admissions selection process,” use [test scores] too much, we to me about their problems Center’s Community Action Proj- national rankings and stu- Bishop said. “Well, the col- would disagree with that,” he and different things, and they ect (CAP). Smith Oka said CAP dents compete for top SAT leges are concerned that stu- said. “The admissions office started calling me their second actively engaged students in ethi- scores, some people argue the dents and their families use the would be as poorly served if mother,” Hiatt said. “It con- cal issues within the field of An- college admissions process rankings too much to value the all we used were SAT scores. If tinued on and I got to be ‘The thropology. places too much focus on num- colleges. There’s kind of a bal- we started being guilty of what Mother of the Huddle’ after so Smith-Oka said she first be- bers. anced equation, there, of dis- the public thinks we do and many years. And [former quar- came involved with CAP when Don Bishop, associate vice comfort in the process.” we overused the numbers, we terbacks] Joe Theismann and she began teaching at Notre president for Undergraduate Bishop said an applicant’s would have an inferior student Joe Montana and … the football Dame in 2006. The project in- Enrollment, said test scores do exam performance is extremely body.” players would come in.” cludes students from Notre Dame not fully reflect the attributes important, but more weight is Bishop said along with aca- University President Emeri- of a school or an applicant, es- placed on class performance see AWARD/page 5 pecially at Notre Dame. than on standardized test see SAT/page 5 see HUDDLE/page 4 Project to tackle vulnerability Conference to address By AMANDA GRAY News Writer human development The seventh annual Edith Stein Project will focus on vul- By ANNA BOARINI she said. “It makes you see nerability in relationships of News Writer how whatever you are doing every type, conference co-chair can have a contribution to junior Margaret Kennedy said. Students and faculty from development.” “The theme is ‘Encountering around the world will gather Naus said this year’s Vulnerability: Courage, Hope at Notre Dame this weekend theme, “Faces Behind the and Trust in the 21st Century,’” for the fourth annual Human Figures: Visions of Prosper- she said. “We chose to focus on Development Conference. ity, Progress and Human Po- vulnerability this year because The conference, sponsored tential” was inspired by the we often see it in a negative by the Ford Family Program poem “Those Little Numbers connotation and run away from and Kellogg Institute, will and People” by Eduardo Ga- it. But we also have a positive cover everything from the leano. The poem explores necessity of vulnerability in re- environmental impact of de- how statistical indicators of lationships.” velopment to information poverty and development re- Co-chair senior Rebecca technology. veal deeper meaning in indi- Roden said 29 speakers will Publicist Abbie Naus said vidual lives, she said. lecture on the many aspects of the conference engages stu- “With this idea, we as a vulnerability in daily life. dents and faculty in an inter- conference are focusing on “We thought vulnerability disciplinary session of pan- human-centric development would be a good theme because els and contests. and … everyday experiences there is a lot of variation in in- “The cool thing about the of the individuals being rep- terpretation and a lot of differ- conference is that it encom- resented by [statistical] fig- ent ways to go,” Roden said. passes pretty much every ures,” she said. “We want to MARINA KOZAK | Observer Graphic discipline and that is why we see STEIN/page 4 encourage students to come,” see HUMAN/page 5 INSIDE TODAY’S PAPER Workshop explores strengths page 3 u Viewpoint page 6 u Valentine’s Day Fashion page 8 u Women’s basketball prepares for WVU page 16 page 2 | ndsmcobserver.com The Observer u D AY-TO-DAY Friday, February 10, 2012 QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT WOULD YOU NAME YOUR EVIL TWIN? www.ndsmcobserver.com P.O. 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