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Volume 55, Issue 20 | MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2020 | ndsmcobserver.com
Jenkins tests positive for COVID-19 University president contracts the coronavirus after close contact with a colleague who tested positive Observer Staff Report Universit y President Fr. John Jenk ins tested positive for the coronav irus, Paul J. Brow ne, v ice president for public affairs and communications, said in an email Friday. Jenk ins has been self-quarantining since his trip to the W hite House on Saturday for the Supreme Court nomination of Notre Dame law professor Judge A my Coney Barrett where he was seen w ithout a mask. Brow ne said Jenk ins learned earlier this week a colleague whom he regularly associates
w ith tested positive for the v irus. Jenk ins was then tested and received a positive result. As a result, he has entered an extended period of isolation. “My sy mptoms are mild and I w ill continue work from home,” Jenk ins said in the email. “The positive test is a good reminder for me and perhaps for a ll of how v igilant we need to be.” Ba r rett tested negat ive for t he v ir us, W hite House spokesperson Judd Deere sa id Fr iday. “Judge Barrett is tested daily for COVID-19 — she has tested see JENKINS PAGE 4
Student groups meet in person By IVERSON SUN News Writer
A version of this story was published online Oct. 1. Since the start of the fa ll semester, Notre Dame set many new hea lth and safet y guidelines, limiting the capacities and spaces for student meetings. Follow ing these regulations, the Students Activ ities Office (SAO) reworked meeting guidelines and suspended most activ ities that would hold significant risk for transmission of COVID-19 during the t wo-week pause of in-person instructions and activ ities. However, in light of the decrease in positive cases of the coronav irus, SAO has permitted a ll clubs, as it has done ever since the first day of classes, to congregate in person, given that attendance is ta ken at a ll in-person meeting and events to a llow for contact tracing if necessar y. Campus groups are approaching these guidelines differently. Sophomore Dav id Campos, a member of the Notre Dame Cycling Club, said a llow ing members to have organized practices that follow COVID
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guidelines uplifted the genera l attitude of the club. “By training in closer proximit y, we have increased the training productiv it y and distance that each rider could go during training rides,” Campos said. “By a llow ing more experienced riders to pair up w ith newer members while stay ing socia lly distanced, we could hone technique and fitness early before tentative races in the spring.”
If the Cycling Club has more than 10 members, it cannot congregate at all once. SAO rules only permit a ma x imum of 10 people pods to train together at once while wearing masks. The Triathlon Club has also made adjustments to its in-person practices. First year, member Sam Vanstraten said the club has pods that rotate where they meet to train. “For practices, we have t wo pods that practice at different times for indoor practices,” Vanstraten said. “This has allowed us to space out see MEETINGS PAGE 4
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Photo courtesy of Notre Dame
University President Fr. John Jenkins tested positive for COVID-19 Friday. Jenkins said he was self-isolating before he received his positive test result, and will remain in quarantine until he is no longer contagious.
Traffic safety voice Sgt. Tim McCarthy dies Observer Staff Report Notre Dame athletics announced in a t weet Friday that Indiana State Police Sgt. Tim McCarthy, a former member of the game day footba ll traffic task force, died this week. “We pray for a ll who loved
Tim & join them in celebrating his life,” the t weet said. McCarthy gave safet y messages — featuring a pun — at the end of the third quarter of ever y Notre Dame home footba ll game for 55 years. He first started the tradition in 1960 and told his
last live pun Sept. 26, 2015. Today, recordings of his messages are still played at home games, which a lways begin w ith his famous catchphrase, “May I have your attention, please? ” McCarthy was awarded an honorar y monogram by the Universit y in 2013.
Professor publishes study on fatherhood insights By ISABELLA LAUFENBERG News Writer
Recently published in Nature Maga zine’s Scientific Reports, Dr. Lee Gettler, an associate professor of anthropolog y at Notre Dame, has completed a new study which links testosterone levels in fathers w ith their broader cultura l settings. Gettler said that he became interested in his research when he met Dr. Adam Boyette, who is now a senior researcher at the Ma x Planck Institute for Evolutionar y
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A nthropolog y, at a conference put on by the Jacobs Foundation. “[The Jacobs Foundation] put together a conference that was specifica lly bringing together a rea lly large group of scholars who specifica lly studied fathers from diverse perspectives —psycholog y, sociolog y, neuroscience, anthropolog y — to tr y to get a ll these people in the same room to ta lk about how we can begin to k ind of best understand the way that fathers impact human children,” Gettler said.
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Boyette did his dissertation research in a remote region in northern Republic of the Congo —accessible by a week long journey from the capita l cit y of Bra zzav ille. There he studied the BaYa ka and Bondongo people who live a ver y different lifest yle than one we’re used to. A lthough located in the same v illage, the t wo tribes have their ow n distinct cultures. The BaYa ka people are a more ega litarian societ y, focused on cooperative liv ing, see RESEARCH PAGE 3
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