Notre Dame Alumnae:
In May 2006, the ND Alumni Association asked a group of us alumnae in Chicago to plan the first ever event for alumnae only. We invited Fr. Ted to be the keynoter because if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have our degrees.
Once he accepted, we did something else that we didn't think had been done before. We asked the Alumni Association to ask all of the 17,001 undergraduate alumnae worldwide to send us letters (1) thanking Fr. Ted for the gift of coeducation and (2) telling him the difference an ND education has made in our lives.
We filled four binders with letters and gave them to him at a luncheon at the Chicago Club.
Two weeks before the event, we realized that we had the makings of a book. So, we incorporated a private foundation here in Chicago to do just that. And, we've filed papers with the Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) status.
In addition to thanking Father Ted, we wanted to do the book for other reasons. Women on campus today have no idea what it was like to be a co-ed pioneer. There's no collection of eyewitness accounts of what it was like from the pioneers' perspectives. There also was no readily accessible source with recollections from administrators on what it was like to take ND coed. So, we asked almost every retired ND administrator to submit his or her reminiscences. We've heard from 25 of them, starting with Father Ted. A third section of the book features celebrity letters from prominent alumnae and alumni talking about how coeducation has impacted Notre Dame.
Our book, Thanking Father Ted: Thirty-Five Years of Notre Dame Coeducation 1972-2007 will be in bookstores nationwide and also at Amazon.com in August 2007. It retails for $26.95. All of the profits from the book will fund a $100,000 scholarship in Fr. Ted's name as a birthday present. You may pre-order the book, prior to August, by going to Amazon.com.
Starting with Graduation Weekend 2007, we also will be selling two posters. (See HOW TO PURCHASE OUR POSTERS LINK). The first is a reprint of the original 1972 poster to recruit undergraduate women to ND. The second is a poster commemorating the 35th anniversary of coeducation this year. Each poster costs $16.95. They're sold in mailing tubes. Both posters are available in the ND Bookstore, at Amazon.com, or at the posters link on this site. $10 from the sale of each poster is being donated to the ND Gender Relations Center.
If you've got any questions, please feel free to e-mail any of the alumnae officers or directors. Their contact information is at the "Officers and Directors" link.
Buy early, buy often!
— The Thanking Father Ted Foundation