Xavier: The Buzz

“I've spent my whole life chasing the American dream."
— 1977 alum and Speaker of the House John Boehner in the Boston Globe
"It's about fear. When you ask people about the American Dream, they all worry about whether it's lost for their children. What they've lost confidence in is every institution that's supposed to safeguard that, the government, church, business, even sports. It's not going to come back simply by changing a couple of players on the chess board. The election is a quick fix."
— Michael Ford, founding director of the Center for the American Dream, in the Associated Press on the results of the American Dream study
“We take term limits very seriously. No one can say, ‘We did it that way last year, so we should do it again this way.’ And there’s so much energy, because it’s all focused for one year.
— Rabbi Abie Ingber, founding director of the Office for Interfaith Engagement in Metro New York on the one-year limits on students serving on student government
“It would not be about how we teach but it would be more about what we teach. I can see the recession affected some content in some courses, but I don’t think it should affect how we deliver the material or develop expectations on what the students are doing.”
— Associate professor of economics Steve Cobb in the Cincinnati Business Courier on the recession’s impact on business courses.
“I just tasted it once and said, ‘That’s gross.’ ”
— Sophomore Adam Stowe in The New York Times in a story on mixing beer and energy drinks.
“The team's success improves one's self-identification with the team. New fans make a new, positive self-identification, and older fans—the longtime fans—deepen their self-identification with the team."
— Professor of psychology Christian End in the San Francisco Chronicle on fans jumping on the San Francisco Giants bandwagon after the team began winning.
“It's easy to put 'jobs, jobs, jobs' on a placard or in a 30-second commercial, but harder to talk about what all that entails or what it means. When you're the one who has seen the jobs go away, the only alternative you really have to explain it all is to take out a 30-minute infomercial with charts and graphs, which is something no one wants to do. It's kind of like being a mayor. There are only so many things you have under your control and tools in your toolbox. But of course, you are the one held accountable by the voters no matter what."
— Political science instructor Gene Beaupre in the Cincinnati Enquirer on how much a politician can actually influence the economy.
“A million people may watch it and they’ll say the crowd really got out of hand at the U.S. Open. But the reality is that was between three people.”
— Professor of psychology Christian End in the New York Times on a fight in the stands during the U.S. Open tennis tournament
“I expected to find more ‘you suck’ kinds of messages toward an owner or coach. But what struck me was how many messages were simply information sharing. The message board allows a fan to admit his team isn’t as perfect as he thought. You don’t want to say this in a group, but on the Internet you can be more honest and you’re more prone to hold your team accountable.”
— Professor of psychology Christian End in the Kansas City Star on his master’s thesis on content of NFL fan message boards
“We want any information we offer to be of benefit to the individual as well as the institution. We want it to be braided into the identity of the individual.”
— Debra Mooney, assistant to the president for mission and identity, in the Catholic Telegraph on its new web-based seminar on mission and heritage.
“Riots are difficult to predict. Alcohol is a great predictor—especially in extreme cases like 10-cent beer night—but you have a bunch of variables that interact and sometimes end up resulting in such an event. There are also social pressures, and, of course, people who could care less about sports and see an opportunity to get that flat-screen that they want in the cover of the riot. There's always a chance that one person in one pocket of the city will throw a beer bottle up and break it, and a bunch of people will cheer and start engaging in one-upping behavior. But considering the number of times that Boston has been put to the test, it definitely bodes well that the people there haven't historically celebrated in violent ways."
— Professor of psychology Christian End in the Boston Phoenix on what causes sports fans to riot
“I almost went to Xavier University with Pete Gillen. Both my sons were just about approaching high school age at the time and we were going to move to Cincinnati, my wife Chris and I had looked at homes, looked at schools, we had been out there for a weekend and we left Pete saying we were going to do it. We got home and my sons blistered us with questions that I had a hard time answering. ‘You’re going to be an absentee father because you’re going to be recruiting all the time, we wanted to go to St. Anthony’s, we’re at an impressionable age and why would we be relocating at this age of our lives.’ Between my wife and I, if it was a quiz we would have got like a 20 out of 100. I called Pete on Monday morning and said the kids really didn’t want to do it and really I have never looked back.”
— Legendary high school basketball coach Bobby Hurley Sr. in MassLive.com upon his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame
“College is a time of growth and experimentation. Even if a student has not been drinking in the past, there’s a chance they will once they get here. It’s paramount [that] parents teach their kids to look at a situation and be able to get out of it if it’s bad, or be able to stand up to their peers. If they can’t, it’s going to be an issue.”
— Lori Lambert, director of residence life, in Cincy Magazine, in a story on student drinking.
In a Xavier University poll, 60 percent of respondents said it has become harder to reach the American Dream than it was for their parents' generation, and two-thirds said it will be even harder for their children.
— CNN.com in a story about what happened to the American Dream
“The role of a judge is to maintain the interpretation of law and this ought to be insulated from political influence. With this ruling, a judge’s role could be compromised by partisan politics and organizations that have given them money ... Someone will have to be harmed by the current rules for this to be challenged. But eventually some legal case will work its way through the lower court and go to the federal court and then the precedence will help decide if Ohio judicial campaign rules should be changed.”
— Gene Beaupre, political science instructor, in Cincinnati CityBeat on a new decision that will change the way judicial candidates run for office in Kentucky.