University of Notre Dame - Dome Yearbook (Notre Dame, IN)

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Commerce. Political groups can now be organ- ized on campus, requiring only their registration with Student Government. There is a chapter of YAF, and a South Bend chapter of ADA; there are also members of SDS, although the group is not yet registered. Student Government has be- come more and more concerned with making itself worthwhile, although its success is some- what dubious. Nonetheless, the number of stu- dents who vote in each student body election is constantly growing. This year there were 3442 votes cast. More spontaneous, but nonetheless effective, groups have also arisen. The financial success of the Film Society is an indication of the recep- tion it has secured ; and the response to IPP pro- ductions indicates a sen sitivity to student initia- tive in the arts outside of the usual classroom and experimental situation. The institution of an honor concept is but a further indication of a growing student aware- ness of the possibility of meaningful participa- tion in decisions affecting their own lives. Although not all students may yet see Notre Dame as primarily an academic situation and experience, that potential is already being ex- ploited by many, and by many more each year. Although for some the four years may be still a social experience calculated by distance from football weekends, the University is constantly more committed to self-appraisal and improve- ment. And student concern for hastening that improvement, however imprudent it may seem, is a genuine concern.

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W u ft, O The President of the University of Notre Dame, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, has been serving in that capacity since 1952. He is a native of New York, and a graduate of Catholic Uni- versity, from which he received the S.T.D. in theology. In 1949 he was appointed executive vice-president, and in 1952 was named president. Appointed by the provincial of the Congrega- tion of the Holy Cross, the president has final authority in all decisions involving university policy. The administrative structure of the university is gradually becoming more decen- tralized, however, and the creation of new vice- presidential positions is taking much of the actual burden of administration from the office of the president. The president need not be a member of the Congregation, nor even a priest. Father Hes- burgh says that the possibility of a lay president is at the present time not likely. This would not, however, ever mean that the university would be severed from the juridical control of the Congregation. With decentralization in the administration, 16