More Obamencement spin advice from Notre Dame officials (the below e-mail went out this week from the University’s Mendoza College of Business) to minions. Note the request for collecting names/addresses/emails. Could merely be to reconnoiter for po’ed big-donor alumni. Or could it be to separate the wheat and the chaff? The Spiting Irish! — five years from now you might wonder why your valedictorian National Honor Society kid didn’t get accepted.

From: College of Business Enterprise Announcements [DELETED]
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:59 PM
To: [DELETED]
Subject: Calls and e-mails in reaction to Obama as commencement speaker
We understand that many of you around the College are receiving calls and e-mails from people in reaction to the announcement of President Obama as commencement speaker.
Here are a few guidelines for handling them:
· Blast e-mails sent to a long list of recipients can be deleted without response; News & Information is handling these.
· Phone calls from the general public can be forwarded to News & Info at 631-7367 or 631-8696.
· E-mails from the general public sent to you as an individual (not as part of a list) can be answered with a short message:
Thank you for your thoughtful letter regarding the University’s invitation to the president of the United States to speak at Commencement and receive an honorary degree. Please visit the following link to view Father John Jenkins’ statement.
· You can answer phone calls and e-mails directly from people with a relationship to the College (alumni, recruiters, students). I’ve attached a formal response from News&Info that you can use as guide for your comments, if you want. Naturally, you will want to tailor your reply according to the type of relationship, but here’s an example of a response:
In inviting Mr. Obama, the University’s hope was to feature a prominent American who will inspire a new generation of Notre Dame leaders as they leave our campus. The invitation should in no way be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues regarding the protection of human life, including abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
Rather, the invitation recognizes the president for his historic election, for his concern for the poor, for his efforts to improve educational standards, his respect for the role of faith and religious institutions, and for his commitment to ending war. These issues are dear to the heart of Notre Dame and all Catholics. We believe there is an opportunity to build a relationship, create dialogue and find more commonalities in the hope of shaping public debate.
But I understand your position, and appreciate that it comes from a deep commitment to your faith and beliefs.
· Please try to keep a record of names, affiliations and contact information of the individuals calling and e-mailing, and forward the information to me [DELETED]. Do not forward the e-mail or call itself.
· For people who insist on talking to [DELETED], respond that she is not available. We are setting up an e-mail account in [DELETED] for the purpose of accepting e-mails on the matter, but it isn’t established yet. I will forward it as soon as it is activated. Please do NOT give out [DELETED]’s main address.
We do appreciate that people are responding to this invitation out of their heartfelt feelings about their faith and about Notre Dame.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can be of help.