Monthly Archives: February 2014

Mardi Gras Time!

University of Detroit used to have big Mardi Gras celebrations with parades, dances , and  elect a king and queen to reign over the festivities. In 1967, as part of the Town and Gown concert series, Al Hirt and his band from his New Orleans Bourbon Street Club played on campus in the Memorial Building (now called Calihan Hall). I guess I am dating myself, but I always associate Al Hirt with Mardi Gras like Guy Lombardo with New Years...

Celebrating Winter? Enough Already!!!

Record snow, record low temperatures and a new term “poplar vortex” that only meterologists ever used, has even us native Detroiters  anxious for temperatures just to get above freezing! For anyone who is new to this area, this has not been a normal winter. Unlike the residents of Atlanta, Georgia, a couple of inches of snow in Detroit is not a reason to panic. We do have to put up with some extra long drive time, but at least the...

Valentine’s Day: Male vs Female

I thought since this blog would come up on February 14, I would find some nice Valentine’s Day article in the student newspapers. Did not expect it to be such a problem! Such a difference when I looked through the student newspapers of Mercy College of Detroit and the University of Detroit. The predominately female Mercy College paper always seemed to have a Valentine’s related item, but not true for the UD student newspaper. For example in 1975, Mercy had...

Black Madonna Statue at University of Detroit Mercy

In 1968 the University of Detroit created the Special Projects Office to assists students who had been considered unprepared to successfully negotiate the college curriculum. The  Project 100 students in the program met and discussed the need for the University to become more relevant to black students. These discussions led to the decision by the students that a statue of the Black Madonna and Child would be a symbolic representation of their presence on campus. When they met with Rev....