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Volume 56, Issue 20 | Friday, OCTOBER 8, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
Conboy reflects on first year of presidency As inauguration ceremony approaches, College president discusses achievements, school’s future By GENEVIEVE COLEMAN and CRYSTAL RAMIREZ Saint Mary’s News Editor, Associate News Editor
Saint Mary’s President Katie Conboy will officially be inaugurated into her post at the College on Saturday afternoon. The Observer spoke to Conboy about this historic day, her reflections on the first year and a half of her tenure and her hopes moving forward. Conboy expresses pride in inauguration week plans, College’s accomplishments Discussing the schedule events leading up to her installment, Conboy spoke of her feelings
about engaging the Saint Mary’s community in the celebration. “It’s really an exciting week and of course, it’s kind of odd to be installed as president 17 months and nine days after you actually begin as president,” she said. “But I think the installation and all of the festivities around an inauguration are really about the community, not about the person — so it’s about bringing all of us together,” she said. Conboy noted she was inspired by Saint Mary’s traditions when she and her team created the schedule of events. “There are Saint Mary’s traditions, and some of those Saint Mary’s traditions are being
College unveils LGBTQ+ Center
honored as a part of the way that we do things here, and then there’s little insertions of things that are in the spirit of me or in the spirit of our students, which I really like because I want students to feel engaged and excited about the week as well,” she said. Speaking on the College’s strategic plan that was introduced in early 2021, Conboy also emphasized the importance of meeting initiatives stated in the plan during inauguration week. “The goals we have in the plan are kind of guiding the special events of the week,” she said. Conboy noted that she included Jacqueline Woodson’s visit to Saint Mary’s for the Christian
Culture Lecture in her inauguration festivities because Woodson represents her goals for the College. “We had a wonderful speaker, Jacqueline Woodson,” Conboy said. “We would always have the Christian Culture Lecture because it’s just part of our history, but finding a way to bring someone who represented some of the spirit of where I want Saint Mary’s to go with thinking about diversity, thinking about access to reading, to literature. Jacqueline Woodson challenged us to think about those kinds of things.” In relation to the strategic plan, Conboy spoke on the
By EVAN McKENNA Managing Editor
The South Bend skies on Thursday were gray and cloudy, but one room on the campus of Saint Mary’s College was bursting with color. Aside from a plethora of pride flags and bags of chips arranged in a rainbow formation, the room’s most prominent feature is a colorful artwork by local artist Alex Ann Allen, whose murals can be seen across the city of South Bend. This piece, titled “When Our Colors Unite,” is a 6-by-6 aerosol on canvas, featuring a flurry of
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multicolored stripes converging into a spiral. The room in question is Saint Mary’s LGBTQ+ Center, located on the second floor of Saint Mary’s Student Center. A space for LGBTQ students and allies to gather safely and create community, the Center was unveiled along with the neighboring Office for Student Equity at a ribbon-cutting event in Rice Commons on Thursday evening. The ceremony was held as a part of a week-long series of events celebrating the inauguration of the College’s President Katie Conboy, see LGBTQ PAGE 5
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see CONBOY PAGE 4
Terrence Floyd forgives Derek Chauvin in ND talk
CRYSTAL RAMIREZ | The Observer
College President Katie Conboy cuts the ribbon on the Office for Student Equity, located within the new LGBTQ+ Center at Saint Mary’s.
importance of belonging and building community. “The word that I used in that address to the community was ‘belonging,’” she said. “I talked about my own desire to belong when I came to Saint Mary’s and that it wasn’t just about my belonging. It was about every person who was under the Saint Mary’s roof.” She also spoke about the opening of the Office for Student Equity and the LGBTQ+ Center on Thursday evening as concrete examples of accomplishments within the strategic plan. “Those two [initiatives] were
MAX PETROSKY | The Observer
Notre Dame student body president Allan Njomo speaks with Terrence Floyd, brother of the late George Floyd, about the state of the racial justice movement on Wednesday evening in the Dahnke Ballroom. By NELISHA SILVA Assistant Managing Editor
Terrence Floyd, brother of the late George Floyd and founder of the nonprofit We Are Floyd, discussed the fight for racial justice and his hopes for the future of America in a conversation with student body president Allan Njomo on Wednesday evening. The event was hosted by and part of Notre Dame student government’s department of diversity and inclusion and the Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights, with support from the Office of Multicultural Student Programs
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and Services. The event was open to members of the Notre Dame community with limited seating in Dahnke Ballroom and a virtual attendance option via Zoom. The event was introduced by student government’s director of diversity and inclusion Amaya Medeiros and was moderated by student body president Allan Njomo. Njomo began by asking Floyd if America was where he expected it to be eighteen months after his brother’s death. “As far as us being where we need to be, I don’t see it being where we need to be, but I see it
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getting there,” Floyd said. “Some progress is better than no progress, and I see the changes in people and their mindsets. That’s what we can ask for right now.” Floyd spoke of his hopes that students will see real racial justice in America during their lifetime. “We’ll have a better future because you’re actually doing [the work] now,” Floyd said. “You’re not just in school to be in school, you’re in school to make a difference in yourselves, your family, your future and your future children and grandchildren.” see FLOYD PAGE 3
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