The redesign of www.loyola.edu, the official website of Loyola University Maryland, is one of several changes for Loyola for the 2009-2010 year.  Click here for PDF Copy

On September 25, the newly christened Loyola University unveiled its new website, debuting simultaneously with the official designation change.  The redesign was undertaken with the idea in mind that the original Loyola College website had not been developed with a single cohesive vision.  Instead, new parts were continually added to the website and not necessarily integrated very well with the already existing features.  This assessment would ring true for any Loyola student who has found that it was easier to find a certain part of loyola.edu through a Google search rather than navigating through the actual website itself.  Thus, the redesign was meant to streamline loyola.edu and integrate all the individual parts.  The new website also presents a more calculated image than that of the old website.  Surely, this image is meant to be in alignment with the other changes Loyola has undergone (the designation change) and those it is seeking to implement (becoming the nation’s leading Catholic comprehensive university).

A recap of the 2009 Baltimore Running Festival.  Click here for PDF Copy

This past Saturday, October 10, saw another successful turnout for the Baltimore Running Festival.  The main event of the day was the Baltimore Marathon.  On a somewhat overcast morning, with a few bouts of rain – perfect running weather – Alphonce Yatich of Kenya won the marathon in 2:14:04, while Iuliia Arkhipova, a native Kazakh who now lives and trains in Russia, won the women’s title in 2:32:09.   This was fast enough for Arkhipova to PR by over 2 seconds as well as set the course record for women, smashing the former standard of 2:35:44 set by Rima Dubovik in 2006.  Arkhipova stated, “My goal today was to improve my PR … I knew by 22 miles I would get the record.”  She finished more than three seconds ahead of the second place women’s finisher, Tatiana Pushkareva of Russia.

A look back at the career of Loyola Athletic Director Joe Boylan, who is set to retire at the end of 2009-2010 season. Click here for PDF Copy

Joseph Boylan, Loyola’s athletic director since 1991, has announced his plan to retire come July 2010, prompting the Loyola athletic community and supporters of the Loyola athletic community to reflect on what their leader has accomplished during his nearly 20-year tenure.  During Boylan’s time at Loyola, he saw the addition of women’s soccer, women’s indoor and outdoor track, and men’s and women’s crew to the roster of Loyola’s NCAA Division I teams.  In terms of specific team accomplishments, five of Loyola’s Division I teams earned NCAA postseason berths in 1994, the men’s lacrosse team was ranked No. 1 nationally in 1999, the women’s lacrosse team was ranked No. 1 and reached the Final Four in 2003, and women’s soccer qualified for the NCAA tournament for five straight years from 2000-2004.  Boylan will also be remembered for the recent improvements in Loyola’s athletic facilities, including the enhancement of Reitz Arena, the construction of a new track shared with Johns Hopkins, and the building of the Ridley Athletic Complex, the new lacrosse/soccer stadium set to open this spring.

The odd tale of the large pink flamingo figure outside Cafe Hon. Click here for PDF Copy

After a bout of controversy, the large pink flamingo outside Café Hon in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood will remain in place.  No, this is not a plot from one of the movies of Baltimore native John Waters.  True, one of Waters’ most famous films was the 1972 shock cinema classic Pink Flamingos, but that was not really about flamingos.  This story, however, is about an actual pink flamingo (well, one made of bedsheets and wire).

The continuing story of reactions around Loyola’s campus regarding H1N1. Click here for PDF Copy

Several weeks ago, we at WLOY featured a story about the spread of the H1N1 strain of influenza, characterizing the reaction to the disease as “swine flu hysteria” and reminding members of the Loyola community to keep their sanity in the fight to avoid getting sick.  In the time since that story ran, the overall campus paranoia has died down somewhat, but the swine flu story has hardly gone away.  On the contrary, it seems to have established a permanent place on the news and people’s consciousnesses.  As the weather comes down to its colder stage, it is not unreasonable for people to be worried about runny noses, coughs, and achy bodies.  But rarely in recent memory has the flu season reached the level of being an ongoing news story.

Acclaimed Baltimore-set drama The Wire inspires crime features in The Baltimore Sun and Great Britain’s The Independent. Click here for PDF Copy

When The Wire, David Simon’s Baltimore-set saga of crime, politics, and journalism, started to become popular in Great Britain, an English journalist had an idea.  Mark Hughes, a crime reporter with The Independent, a London-based international newspaper, contacted The Baltimore Sun to find out if The Wire’s depiction of police officers, drug dealers, prosecutors, and politicians bore any resemblance to reality.  The Sun agreed to welcome Hughes to Baltimore and have him report his findings in the paper.  The deal ultimately became a journalist-exchange program, as Justin Fenton, the Sun’s police reporter, was sent to London so that the two reporters could compare crime trends.  Thus was born the ongoing feature “Crime: A Tale of Two Cities,” which has been running in the Sun since the beginning of this month.

Happy Black Friday! Click here for PDF Copy

Hey WLOY listeners, thanks for tuning in over Thanksgiving break.  Somehow you have managed to wake up after the rush of tryptophan and all the other amino acids in the Turkey Day bird knocked you out.  And upon awaking, you have chosen to stick it to the man by not going out and shopping and listening to WLOY instead.

What is the fate of Baltimore’s Senator Theatre? Click here for PDF Copy

The Senator Theatre, one of Baltimore’s signature cultural landmarks, has been facing significant financial struggles lately.  In 2007, it faced foreclosure, only to be saved at the last minute by grassroots donation efforts.  The situation has not gotten that much better, however, following that near-death experience.  Chances are that the Senator will continue to survive in Baltimore, but its future incarnation may be significantly different than just as an exhibitor of movies.

The Baltimore Coalition of Reason introduces itself through a billboard campaign. Click here for PDF Copy

Just in time for the holidays, a group of nonreligious persuasion is getting its message out amidst this season of religiously inspired celebrations.  The Baltimore Coalition of Reason, a new organization made up of atheists, agnostics, and others, has recently introduced itself to the Baltimore area through a billboard campaign.  With their efforts, the Coalition is inevitably entering itself into the culture wars between religious and secular thought that has become particularly charged in this country in this decade.  Atheism is in vogue as of late, as noted by the success of the best-selling books and many public appearances by famous atheists Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.  Religious responses to atheism’s recent foothold in the public have also been strong, as evidenced by the push to include “intelligent design” in school curricula and efforts to include religious messages on government property.  But the Coalition is taking a much softer approach than that of Hitchens and Dawkins.  The specific message that it is sending out should prove to much less inflammatory in the eyes of religious thinkers.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee addresses the crowd at Loyola’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation. Click here for PDF Copy

On the evening of Wednesday, January 20, filmmaker Spike Lee graced the campus of Loyola University with his presence.  Lee was the keynote speaker of Loyola’s 17^th annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation.  McGuire Hall was packed with members of the Loyola community as well as Baltimore-area residents.  After an introduction from Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Timothy Law Snyder, Lee spoke for about 45 minutes.  An hour-long question-and-answer session followed immediately afterwards.