A Sense of Place

France Griggs Sloat

 

It’s raining outside and Marilyn Hanrahan is getting ready to leave. She’s on her way to her first Xavier men’s basketball game, and she wonders how chilly she’ll be. Unable to find something of her own, she rummages through her husband’s bureau and digs out a white sweatshirt. She pulls it over her head, looks in the mirror and reflects on how odd it seems for her to be wearing anything with the word “Xavier” on it. But there it is, in big blue letters. The mirror doesn’t lie.

A Norwood native, Hanrahan lives three blocks from the University, but until 2003 she’d never set foot on campus. Never wanted to. Not after years of unanswered complaints. Not after years of students’ loud parties, disorderly conduct and disrespectful behavior. Not after the soured relationship brought on by the closing of Ledgewood Avenue and construction of the Cintas Center, spawning exaggerated fears of the University taking over. And wearing a Xavier sweatshirt was certainly out of the question.

To read the full length article, click here