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Volume 51, Issue 54 | Friday, november 18, 2016 | ndsmcobserver.com
University approves curriculum New course requirements set to be implemented for class of 2022 By CLARE KOSSLER Assistant Managing Editor
Since its founding, Notre Dame has prided itself on its commitment to the liberal arts, requiring all students to take a core set of courses deemed fundamental to a Catholic liberal arts education. Over the span of nearly 50 years, these core courses have changed but little, and current Notre Dame students are subject to most of the same University requirements for graduation as were students in the 1960s. However, on Nov. 10, University President Fr. John
Observer Staff Report
Just one day after the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in favor of Notre Dame in a case brought by ESPN, new information has emerged that could change the future implications of the ruling. The University was sued by ESPN in January 2015, after
see CURRICULUM PAGE 7
JOSEPH HAN | The Observer
FOOTBALL FRIDAY FEATURE
O’Neill residents discuss tailgating By COURTNEY BECKER News Writer
While tailgating is considered a staple of a Notre Dame home football game, many students don’t have a consistent tailgate to go to every week. In 2013, a group of seniors from O’Neill Hall solved this problem by purchasing a renovated school bus to use to create a consistent tailgate at which all students are welcome. The bus tailgate has become a tradition for O’Neill Hall, with a new group of juniors buying the bus from the outgoing owners at the end of every school year. “The tradition is an LLC, [a Limited Liability Corporation],” senior bus coowner Tom Taylor said. “So there are shares and we’ll sell our shares to the incoming class. We pay the incorporation fee, we pay the insurance fee, we pay the costs of tailgating supplies every week. We split it among all the seniors.” Taylor said registering the bus as an LLC has made the tradition easier to continue in multiple ways. “It removes liability from all the guys involved, and it’s just easier to pass it down that way,” he said. “It was incorporated three or four years ago. The guys bought an old school bus, fixed it up and one of their dads was a lawyer.
NEWS PAGE 3
NDSP legally a ‘public agency’
… It’s registered as the ‘Bus Beverage Provider, LLC,’ and it’s officially listed among the bars of the state of Indiana or wherever it’s registered.” Sophomore O’Neill Hall resident Liam Bryson said he appreciates that the bus serves as a unifying tool for the dorm. “I love the men of O’Neill — they’re one of my favorite parts of Notre Dame. And the bus always brings O’Neill together,” he said. “There’s a really interesting section dynamic in O’Neill where it’s kind of like you’re a part of O’Neill, but you’re mainly a part of your section. Your section is your really tight-knit group and you’re always with them, so this is one of the few things that I feel like really unifies all the sections.” Although investing in the bus doesn’t make sense financially, Taylor said juniors each year still look forward to putting in the time and money to pass the tradition down. “All the kids I looked up to when I was a freshman … they had they tailgates, they were the ones who were having us to their houses and showing us the ropes,” Taylor said. “We were all pretty pumped to get involved and we were all warned very clearly that it was a black hole for money.” see BUS PAGE 6
VIEWPOINT PAGE 9
see RECORDS PAGE 6
SMC faculty weigh in on post-election tension By NICOLE CARATAS Saint Mary’s Editor
“In preparation for Thanksgiving, Saint Mary’s faculty and students hosted a panel to discuss compassion, civil discourse and concrete action in light of the recent presidential election. College President Jan Cervelli said differing beliefs should not be a divisive factor in a community. “We are the Saint Mary’s family, and families sometimes disagree,” she said. “We should not only respect the disagreement, but revel in it.” Phyllis Kaminski, professor of religious studies, referenced the Charter of Compassion, written by Catholic author Karen Armstrong to advocate for compassion internationally. “We are part of a worldwide movement that is deeply spiritual and inclusive,” she said. “I hold here to the most basic tenet. All human beings are born with the capacity for compassion, and it must be cultivated if we as human beings are to survive and thrive.” Megan Zwart, assistant professor of philosophy, offered
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recommendations for civil discourse. Her first recommendation is to “remember not to be a jerk, and assume that your conversation partner is not a jerk either.” “It’s a view that any minimally decent person should hold,” she said. “You can ground this view in the church teaching that we are all grounded in the image of God, or you can see universal dignity as consistent with a secular commitment to human rights. You can understand our shared dignity by a means of basic human empathy.” Zwart said it is important to pay attention to the context in which the discourse is happening. “If someone is afraid for her safety or security, the context is not a good one for productive dialogue,” she said. “If someone is in pain, listen to her pain. If someone is fearful, help her find security. It doesn’t matter if you share her pain or her fear. Respond to her immediate need and save the argument for a less emotionally-charged time.” According to Zwart, another step needed for civil discourse
is to challenge assumptions. “If you argue with someone who has very different assumptions from you and you don’t recognize this, you’re not going to have a productive conversation; you’re just going to talk past each other,” Zwart said. “Investigating assumptions means you have to be up to the realization that your assumptions may not weather the test of critical scrutiny.” She said it is also important to take time to determine the facts of a situation. “Be intellectually responsible,” she said. “Do some research, and then do some research on the sources you trust.” Approaching situations with curiosity instead of defensiveness is another way to conduct civil discourse, Zwart said. She said our first impulses are to question the other person and then to flee. “We’re wired to defer to existing beliefs, and when we confront with new information that doesn’t conform to those beliefs, it’s tempting to dismiss those beliefs or get defensive,” she said. “Do not see ELECTION PAGE 5
IRISH INSIDER WITHIN