Associated Students of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology: November 6: Arch & Vine

IN THIS ISSUE

Important Announcements
Upcoming Events/Deadlines

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Spring 2009 Online Early Registration
Spring 2009 online early registration for all returning students will be Monday, November 3 through Friday, November 14. Students may access the most current course information at http://colleague.gtu.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wwiz/wwiz.asp?wwizmstr=WEB.COURSE.SCH. Please make an appointment to meet with your advisor and discuss your course selections. If a course description indicates that your selection is restricted (maximum enrollment, faculty permission required), you must contact the instructor by e-mail to obtain the PIN code that allows you to register for the course. All PIN requests are due to instructors by Friday, November 7. Complete registration instructions are on pages 6-8 and 19-26 of the printed 2009-2010 Course Schedule and online at http://www.gtu.edu/academic-degrees-programs/registrar/procedures/web-advisor-registration-instructions.
Singers Needed for the Bishop’s Mass
If you are interested in singing for the Bishop’s Tri-School Mass (on Wednesday, November 19 at 5:15 p.m.), please contact Chris Trinidad (Liturgical Music Coordinator/MTS student at JSTB) at ct@christrinidad.com or (510) 221-7097, indicating your voice type. Rehearsals will be on Tuesday, November 11, 3:00-4:00 p.m. at the JSTB Chapel; Tuesday, November 18, 3:00-4:00 p.m. at the JSTB Chapel; and Wednesday, November 19, 3:30-5:00 p.m. at the PSR Chapel. They will sing a variety of liturgical music styles, including a setting of the Chant Missa Primitiva for the Mass ordinaries. If you cannot make all the rehearsals, let Chris know and he will try to accommodate your schedule. The Wednesday rehearsal is required. Remember: Liturgy is NOT a spectator sport! Get involved!
Lose Your Bike?
A blue bike has been locked to our bike rack since before Reading Week. If this is yours, please move it soon so that other people can use the space – at times the rack gets full and other people have no room to lock their bike because this one is being stored here! If the bike is not moved soon, we will have to assume that it has just been “dumped” here and take measures to remove it, which may not be good for your bike or your lock!
Volunteers Needed: Operation Thank You Phonathon
Our Annual Fund kick-off is around the corner and we need volunteers to help make calls to all DSPT donors to both thank them for their support of last year’s Annual Fund and to encourage them to give again this year. You as students are some of the best ambassadors for DSPT; donors love to hear from current students about everything that the school is doing! Operation Thank you will be on Tuesday, November 18 at DSPT. You will be provided with all you need to call donors and enlist their support, including a pizza dinner! If you are interested in signing up, please see Ciel or e-mail advancement@dspt.edu. See you on November 18!
Student Job Opening
DSPT is looking for a student to coordinate the lunches on Tuesdays. The student would be responsible for planning and preparing the lunches, including set-up and clean-up. This position would be approximately 5 hours/week, with the possibility for additional hours for assisting with other DSPT events. This is a great opportunity, a fun way to earn some extra money, plus – you get free food! A detailed job description and application are available from Elissa at the front desk. Applications are due as soon as possible! If you have any questions, please email them to Elissa at emccormack@dspt.edu.
Advent Wreath and Pie Fundraiser
This year, DSPT is holding an Advent Wreath and Pie Fundraiser. We will be offering fresh, handcrafted balsam fir wreaths and homemade pecan and apple pies (baked by Jamie Roberts!). Wreaths are $35 each and pies are $15 each. A percentage of the proceeds for each goes directly to support DSPT! To order a wreath or pie, e-mail your order to DSPT advancement at advancement@dspt.edu. Include your name, complete address, and telephone number. Checks can either be dropped off for Ciel, or mailed to DSPT Advancement, 2301 Vine Street, Berkeley, CA 94708. Wreaths will be shipped directly to your home address, while pies may be picked up at DSPT on December 3 and 4 between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. Even if you’re not interested in ordering a wreath or pie, help spread the word! If you have family or friends who would be interested in an Advent wreath or pie, tell them about this sale! For more information, contact Ciel at (510) 883-2085.
Next Deadline for Spring Applications: Wednesday, November 26

UPCOMING EVENTS/DEADLINES

Thursday, November 6

Center for Islamic Studies (CIS) First Anniversary Celebration
Time: 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Location: CDSP Easton Hall
The celebration includes reflections on the future of CIS by Munia Jiwa, CIS’s Director, and Arthur Holder, the GTU Dean, and a short film, Allah Made Me Funny. All are welcome! For more information, please contact cis@gtu.edu or (510) 649-2563.

Healer, Teacher, Trickster, Seeker: The Long, Strange Trip of Andrew Weil, Huston Smith, Timothy Leary & Richard “Ram Dass” Alpert
Time: 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Location: JSTB Chapel
Don Lattin, the longtime religion writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, will discuss his upcoming book. It’s the story of how three brilliant scholars and one ambitious freshman crossed paths in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the winter of 1960-1961, and how their experiences in a controversial psychedelic drug research project transformed their lives and much of American culture in the 1960s and 1970s. Snacks will be served. For more information, contact Jamie Wright at jwright@ses.gtu.edu.

Community Night (Eucharist and Dinner) at CDSP
Time: 5:45 p.m.
Please call CDSP in advance ((510) 204-0700) if you are planning to come with a group.

Philosophy Movie Night: Dark City
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: DSPT Classroom 1
Friday, November 7

Early registration deadline for requests to faculty for admittance in restricted courses.
Friday, November 7 – Sunday, November 9

Dominican “Come and See” Vocations Weekend
Time: 3:00 p.m. on Friday until 1:00 p.m. on Sunday
Location: St. Albert’s Priory
Have you ever thought about entering religious life or studying for the priesthood? Come to the Dominican Vocations Weekend at St. Albert’s Priory. For more information or to register, contact Fr. Steven Maekawa, OP at (510) 596-1821 or vocations@opwest.org.
Tuesday, November 11

Mass & Lunch at DSPT
Time: 11:10 a.m.

Mass & Soup Dinner at JSTB
Time: 5:15 p.m.

Quiddevangelists!
Time: 5:15 p.m.
Location: PSR Quad
GTU Muggles and Wizards alike (including alums and friends) are welcome to join in weekly Quidditch games at PSR (the first seminary to belong to the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association). For more photos and information, see the Facebook Group page of the Graduate Theological Union Quidditch League. You can also see a brief YouTube video of a match at http://www.psr.edu/quidevangelists-psr. BYOB (bring your own broom – some loaners will be available).

Learning to Speak a New Tongue: Imagining a Way That Holds People Together – Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Fumitaka Matsuoka (Professor & Director of PANA Institute at PSR)
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: PSR Chapel
Asian Americans have learned to speak a “second tongue” along with the historically constructed American “first tongue” of democratic freedom. Our second tongue may provide a clue to forging a new architecture toward building a peoplehood in an increasingly interrelated and yet fragmented world in which Americans live. Judith Berling (GTU Professor), responding. Reception to follow.Each year the faculty of the Member Schools nominate distinguished faculty from outside their school who they feel embody the scholarly standards, teaching excellence, and commitment to ecumenism that define the GTU. The nominations are considered by the Council of Deans who elects the Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.

Theology on Tap: Passionate Love of God: What Mystics Can Teach the Rest of Us
Time: 7:00 p.m. for Happy Hour, 7:30 p.m. for talk
Location: Kerry House (4092 Piedmont Ave., Oakland)
Speaker: Prof. Darleen Pryds, FST
This talk explores the passionate love that fueled the mystics in their desire to know God, and then suggests ways to make our own quest for God a little more passionate.
Wednesday, November 12

Career Workshop
Time: 9:00 a.m. to noon
Location: JSTB Classroom 216
This is an opportunity to clarify career objectives, plan your job search, and begin writing or updating your resume. It is especially timely for those who will be graduating this Spring 2009, but is open to all students of the three Catholic schools of the GTU. RSVP to pkircher@jstb.edu if you have not done so already.

Aquinas Lecture: Dr. Marga Vega
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: DSPT Classroom 1
The Aquinas Lecture is the premier public academic event offered each year by DSPT. Nominated by the DSPT faculty, a distinguished scholar is invited to offer a presentation which applies the teaching and methodology of St. Thomas Aquinas to issues of contemporary significance. We are honored to have one of our new faculty members, Dr. Marga Vega, as this year’s speaker. Dr. Vega recently joined DSPT as a full-time member of the Philosophy Department. She completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in philosophy in Spain. While there, she collaborated with the Music Department of the University of Valladolid in the creation of a research group, Interdisciplinary Seminar for Music and Philosophy, that organized four conferences and started the publication Music and Philosophy. Her topic, The Ontology of Art: An Anthropological Perspective, promises to be as interesting and stimulating as past years’ topics. The lecture will be followed by a reception.
Friday, November 14

Early registration ends.
Saturday, November 15

East Bay Catholic Men’s Conference
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Location: Christ the Light Cathedral complex (2121 Harrison Street, Oakland)
Come hear Fr. Michael Sweeney give the keynote address at the second annual East Bay Catholic Men’s Conference! Join other Catholic men for this conference and gain new insights as to how best live out your vocation in the world. Other speakers include Steve Ruda, Los Angeles Fire Department’s “Firefighter of the Year.” The conference includes lunch, Mass, and a tour of the new Cathedral. Go to www.eastbaymen.org or contact Ed Hopfner at ehopfner@oakdiocese.org for more information.

Ceremony investing Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. as Master of Sacred Theology
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Location: St. Albert’s Priory (5890 Birch Court, Oakland)
Fr. Augustine Thompson will be officially invested as Master of Sacred Theology (Sacrae Theologiae Magister, or S.T.M.). This degree, the highest awarded by the Dominican Order, has evolved from the final academic degree of the medieval university to a largely honorary degree today. As Church historian, Fr. Augustine has described the history and ceremony of the degree at http://dominican-liturgy.blogspot.com/2008/04/dominican-sacrae-magister-theologiae.html. The ceremony will feature the lecture required of the new master on this occasion. Fr. Augustine has entitled his remarks, “The Soul You Lose May Be Your Own: Historical Reflections on the Theologian and the World.” The ceremony will be preceded at 9:30 a.m. by a Missa cantata in the Dominican rite with Fr. Augustine presiding.

Ernest Becker: A Retrospective
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: CDSP Common Room
As he lay dying of cancer in 1974, Ernest Becker, cultural anthropologist and author of The Denial of Death, posited that genuine religion represented the highest level of power and meaning, that giving oneself to God represented the ultimate immortality project. More than 30 years later, a distinguished group of Becker scholars will meet to discuss what they think Becker would have to say today. Panelists include Neil Elgee (President of the Ernest Becker Foundation), Sam Keen (philosopher and author of Hymns to an Unknown God), Daniel Liechty (Professor at Illinois State University), David Loy (Professor at Xavier University, Cincinnati), and Joseph Scimecca (Professor at George Mason University). At 4:00 p.m., the film Flight from Death will be screened. This is an award-winning feature length documentary which provides an excellent introduction to Ernest Becker.