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Volume 55, Issue 12 | wednesday, september 16, 2020 | ndsmcobserver.com
College starts voting initiative Saint Mary’s ‘100@100’ promotes student participation in 2020 election By GENEVIEVE COLEMAN Associate News Editor
To celebrate t he hundredt h anniversar y of t he 19t h A mendment — giving women t he right to vote — Saint Mar y’s facult y and staff are creating t he “100 @100” campaign to encourage eligible students to vote in t his year’s genera l election. Thomas Bonnell, professor and a 100 @100 organizer, explained his t hought process behind proposing t he idea to t he College. “In t his hundred anniversar y year, I t hought it would be a wort hwhile goa l for a women’s college like Saint Mar y’s to set a rea lly high aim of at least going for 100% participation in
t he voting process for t hose who are eligible to vote,” he said. “We have some internationa l students and t here are some students who aren’t old enough. So, t here are some who cannot vote, but [we are] tr y ing to get ever ybody who is eligible to vote involved in t he process.” Rebeka h Go, director of t he Of f ice for Civ ic and Socia l Engagement (OCSE) and a 100 @100 organizer, ref lected on t he importance of voting af ter historica lly oppressed groups struggled to receive suf frage. “[I]n t he case of some people such as women and people of color, hav ing t he opportunit y to participate in t he process came at a cost,” Go said. “We
South Bend adapts to COVID
honor t hose who fought for t he right for us to vote by t houghtf ully participating in t he process at ever y opportunit y.” Bonnell hopes to energize t he student population to participate in t he voting process, especia lly because of nationw ide politica l apat hy. “[It] w ill ta ke a bit of ingenuit y on our part to come up w it h ways of ma k ing it f un and exciting for students to actua lly sign onto because, frank ly, in our societ y, t here’s signif icant amount of apat hy, a signif icant amount of cy nicism,” Bonnell said. “A nd we have to, to t he best of our abilit y, tr y to overcome t hose disincentives for participating in t he process.”
Go stated t hat 100 @100 has many events planned for students to engage in before Election Day. “Over 30 campus-w ide events are planned for fa ll 2020,” Go said. “This includes tabling for voter registration and absentee ba llot assistance, voter education events such as lectures and ta lks, and civ il discourse initiatives to increase politica l discourse on campus in a way t hat promotes hea lt hy dialog ue across ideologica l differences.” Bonnell over v iewed t he plans for t he words of t he 19t h A mendment to displayed around campus to encourage students to
Sa int Ma r y’s w i l l beg in screen ing test ing Sept. 22, t he Col lege a n nou nced a n update posted to t he L ive.Lea r n.Work. website. “Screen ing test ing a l lows a n orga n i zat ion to d iscover posit ive cases, in pa r t icula r a mong asy mptomat ic ind iv idua ls,” t he website sa id. T he cu r rent pla n w i l l test 60 st udents a week, approx imately 5% of t he st udent popu lat ion, t h roug h ea rly November.
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News Writer
One volunteer works with kids at La Casa de Amistad, a local organization that serves the Hispanic and Latino community of South Bend. By ALYSA GUFFEY Associate News Editor
As col lege students in t he t ri-ca mpus communit y made t heir return to ca mpus in late Ju ly a nd ea rly Aug ust, St. Joseph Count y was a lready seeing a n upt ick in t he number of da ily coronav ir us counts compa red to t he mont h of June. “At t he end of June, [St. Joseph Count y] was
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averag ing 15 new cases a day,” Dr. Ma rk Fox, St. Joseph Count y deput y hea lt h of f icer, sa id. “We were actua lly feeling prett y good about [t his]. Then, t here were Four t h of Ju ly a nd g raduat ion pa r t ies a nd dif ferent t hings like t hat, a nd t he number went up.” On Ju ly 18, t he count y saw 59 new cases. see PANDEMIC PAGE 4
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Observer Staff Report
‘Educated’ author to deliver annual lecture By JULIANNA MCKENNA
Courtesy of Nancy Diaz
SMC updates testing
Saint Mar y’s w ill host the annual Christian Culture Lecture series w ith speaker Tara Westover on Wednesday. The Christian Culture series is an annual event at the College that brings inf luential figures in to speak to students. “We’re always looking for a big name in the humanities who could speak in some way to the inf luence of Christianit y on culture,” Laura Williamson Ambrose, chair of the humanistic studies department, said. Ambrose said she initially got the idea to inv ite Tara Westover after learning about her memoir “Educated” through a local book club discussion. “At that book club discussion, one of the people in attendance excitedly talked about this memoir that had just been published, ‘Educated,’” she said. “I took
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a mental note and w ithin a couple of months, I went and read it and immediately recognized its power. We recognized it had really great potential to speak to our students, the communit y at large and we really lucked out in being able to secure Tara Westover to come to campus.” The lecture w ill look different this year due to coronav irus, Ambrose said, but the College still wants to give the communit y a chance to share in this experience. “We decided to do a prerecorded conversation that we could bundle into a nice v ideo to give ever yone an entertaining experience as well as an enlightening one,” Ambrose said. The College has received an over whelming amount of support from the communit y, she said, as thousands of people have registered to receive the link to v iew the event Wednesday. “The event that is most
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pertinent to the public at large has essentially gone v iral,” she said. “We have over 30,000 people from six continents registered to watch the v ideo when we release the link at 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday. The v ideo w ill be available for at least 24 hours, but we hope to keep it up longer in order to accommodate different time zones.” Ambrose said the College also wants to find a way to engage its students since many attend the lecture for their various classes, so the idea of a watch part y was born. “We are going to bring in a truck w ith a giant screen on librar y green at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night so that 250 students can watch the event,” she said. “There is a special bonus feature for students Wednesday night, and the first 100 students to check-in get a free Saint Mar y’s blanket.” see LECTURE PAGE 5
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