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

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It ' v: Mike Irvine Editor Dudley Andrew Jack Bevz Julian Bills Tom Malone U w Q U

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The god of progress is an old god, and his works have long been manifest. But the rev- olutionary fervor of man which has been ex- pressed with unprecedented fury in the last fifty years was for most of those years some- thing alien to Notre Dame. And to the extent that social institutions, technology, art and educational philosophy were revolutionary, they were something to be viewed with more than a trace of Catholic skepticism. Since the excellence riots of 1962, there has been a notable change in both stu- dent and administration response to educa- tion. The golden dome has been supplanted in its position on the horizon by the new Memorial Library. A long time in building, the library will be for a longer time unfilled. And yet it has already become the symbol of a new Notre Dame, a Catholic university which more often compares itself to Har- vard than to Holy Cross. The progress which it has made in pur- suing its goals has been spectacular in recent years. Since 1952, the number of buildings housing facilities for all types of scientific and cultural research has nearly doubled. And yet these buildings must themselves be objects of research. The goals which their existence implies are great ones; nor are they yet totally achieved. The Memorial Library contains under 700,000 volumes: how many will it contain tomorrow? The faculty of the College of Arts and Letters has greatly improved: how long will it be before that improvement is made quantitative as well as qualitative? The money which has helped to make this possible has been available for twelve years: will private and foundation revenues be as great in the future? Whether this process of intellectualiza- tion will continue can be answered only later; the question must be asked, lest much very real progress be dissipated by self- congratulatory student complacency.