ND alumna campaigns for congressional seat
By Jason McFarley
News Editor
It only took a few days on Notre Dame's campus in 1972 for Kathleen Cekanski Farrand to realize she was in the right place.
In the opening days of the semester that year — the first that University officials admitted women as undergraduates — a large banner at the all-campus picnic greeted Cekanski Farrand, a first-year law student in the third class of women to graduate from Notre Dame Law School, and her female peers.
It read simply: "We're glad you're here."
"I remember the impact of seeing that banner," the 1973 law school graduate said. "It was like the campus literally opening its doors and extending its hand to us."
Some three decades later, Cekanski Farrand, a former rectress at the University and today a prominent local attorney, hopes the U.S. Congress will be just as accommodating.
Cekanski Farrand, a Democrat from Mishawaka, announced her candidacy Aug. 18 for Indiana's 2nd District congressional seat which U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer will vacate in 2003.
The newly expanded district encompasses 12 counties, including St. Joseph, where South Bend and Mishawaka are located.
Cekanski Farrand became the fourth Democrat to declare her candidacy for the 2002 election.
Her campaign will be a grass-roots effort that focuses on the district's constituents, she said.
"We do not see this campaign as a sprint which focuses on which candidate can raise the most amount of money the fastest," she said in her Aug. 18 announcement, "But rather, we see this congressional campaign as a marathon of meeting people and taking time to discuss their concerns."
"It's important to meet as many people as we can and listen to what they're saying," Cekanski Farrand said in an interview with The Observer this month.
Her family-centered campaign also will center on infusing traditional values into government, she said.
"People my age and older remember a party of the people," the 53-year-old said. "I'm campaigning on the core values of vision, courage and commitment. When I try to tie up what my campaign's all about, it's about rekindling that spirit, because I just don't see it as much as it could be."
Cekanski Farrand's time at Notre Dame — years she called the best of her life — shaped the values she would bring to Congress, she said.
"There's something special as far as the principles you take with you away from here for the rest of your life," she said.
While football games and legal symposiums still bring Cekanski Farrand to her alma mater, the visits are infrequent.
But she recalled fondly memories of her time here as a student and rectress.
She thought of themed coeducational activities like popcorn or old-movie nights she planned while rectress at Badin Hall in 1972. She took the position that in Notre Dame's first year of coeducational undergraduate study, rectors and administrators should encourage positive interaction between the sexes.
In 1973, after a campus speech by then-Sen. Margaret J. Smith, the only woman in the U.S. Senate at the time, the politician stopped for an informal talk at Breen-Phillips Hall, where Cekanski Farrand was rectress then.
"One thing she told us all," she said of Smith's discussion with the Breen-Phillips group, "is never forget that you're a lady first. It was a very important message."
As a student, Cekanski Farrand's experiences proved equally influential.
Cekanski Farrand's time at Notre Dame — years she called the best of her life — shaped the values she would bring to Congress, she said.
"There's something special as far as the principles you take with you away from here for the rest of your life," she said.
While football games and legal symposiums still bring Cekanski Farrand to her alma mater, the visits are infrequent.
But she recalled fondly memories of her time here as a student and rectress.
She thought of themed coeducational activities like popcorn or old-movie nights she planned while rectress at Badin Hall in 1972. She took the position that in Notre Dame's first year of coeducational undergraduate study, rectors and administrators should encourage positive interaction between the sexes.
In 1973, after a campus speech by then-Sen. Margaret J. Smith, the only woman in the U.S. Senate at the time, the politician stopped for an informal talk at Breen-Phillips Hall, where Cekanski Farrand was rectress then.
"One thing she told us all," she said of Smith's discussion with the Breen-Phillips group, "is never forget that you're a lady first. It was a very important message."
As a student, Cekanski Farrand's experiences proved equally influential.
University officials chose her in 1971 to take former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren on a campus tour. At that point in school history, women couldn't walk on the University's golf course or swim at the Rockne Memorial, Cekanski Farrand said.
Cekanski Farrand took football fan Warren to the Joyce Center weight room where the athletes trained, another place off limits to women.
"I told him that I couldn't go in and to remember what you see when you go in there," she said. "He did. He came out and described to me in vivid detail everything he had seen inside there."
Of all the contacts Cekanski Farrand has made at Notre Dame, Father Theodore Hesburgh has been most valuable. She visited the University president emeritus before deciding to run for the congressional seat.
"There's a spirit that he brings to always keep those lines of communication open better than anyone I know," she said.
Hesburgh's advice?
"He told me to be myself, and that's what I'm going to do," she said. "I'm not going to be someone I'm not."
Hesburgh, who sees Cekanski Farrand only rarely these days, said he still sees in her the hard-working young woman he first met as a precocious law student.
"I thought she was tough and also smart and generous," Hesburgh said. "You need that in a leader."
"She's always been very vital, with all her work at school and in the halls. [As a congressional candidate], she will certainly be out there for women," he said.
Cekanski Farrand, originally of Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from Ohio State University in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in education.
She has worked since 1974 in private law practice in South Bend. Since 1975, she has been a labor negotiator for the city and an attorney for the South Bend Common Council.
She has worked part time as deputy county attorney for St. Joseph County since 1987.
Cekanski Farrand's philosophy of welcoming people and their ideas — like the picnic banner 30 years ago — into has been key in her professional success, she said.
"My door is always open," she said. "It's like when I was a rector. Rectors should have an open door and be there for students."
"At the same time, being at Notre Dame and working in the legal field, wasn't always a cakewalk. There have been many challenges," she said.
For Cekanski Farrand, Congress may be the next big one.
All News Stories for Tuesday, September 25, 2001
