Fencer dies in car crash
Sophomore Spencer Vermeule was a resident of Keenan Hall
Observer Staff Report
Notre Dame student
Spencer Vermeule died Saturday afternoon in a car accident in Elkhart County.
Vermeule, 20, was a sophomore from Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying in the Mendoza College of Business and the College of Arts and Letters, according to an email students received from the Division of Student Affairs Sunday morning. He lived in Keenan Hall and was
on the fencing team.
“Together we mourn the loss of Spencer Vermeule and pray for his family, loved ones and all those who are impacted by his passing,” Notre Dame Athletics wrote in a tweet Sunday around noon.
Vermeule was driving east on County Road 8 when his car left the road near Songbird Way around 2 p.m., according to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office. His car collided with a large tree
and rolled onto its roof.
Vermeule, who was driving by himself, was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
Several dorm masses on Sunday evening were offered for Vermeule and those mourning his loss. The Division of Student Affairs wrote the University was in the process of organizing “opportunities for the campus community to come together in our sorrow and commemorate Spencer’s life.”
Campus lights up for rare diseases on Leap Day
By GRAY NOCJAR News WriterOn the last day of February, the University observed Rare Disease Day. A host of events including patient testimonials, research panels and faculty presentations were organized to promote the day and provide a space to encourage further study into rare diseases.
The events were championed by Notre Dame’s BolerParseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases. According to the center’s website, the day is observed in order to “raise awareness
for rare diseases and improve access to treatment and medical representation for individuals with rare diseases and their families.”
One of the presenters was Dr. Stephanie Ware, chair of Indiana University’s medical and molecular genetics department. Ware later described her specific focus on cardiovascular genetics and the role that they play, among other factors, in identifying rare diseases.
“Many of the patients that we see in genetics have a rare disease and clinical geneticists play a diagnostic and management role in the
care of these patients,” Ware said. “I have a specific interest in cardiovascular genetic disorders and in that capacity I see patients with a variety of rare disorders that may involve their heart.”
Many other universities were represented in the events, including Arizona State University, Rush Medical College and the University of Oxford.
On Thursday, a reception for rare disease patients and their families was held in the galleria of Jordan Hall of Science. A collection of
‘The Sisterhood is BLUEtiful’: SMC reps colors
By ALLISON BOWMAN News WriterOn Friday afternoon, the Saint Mary’s Student Activities Board (SAB) presented the first annual “The Sisterhood is BLUEtiful.” The event was filled with an assortment of blue snacks and decorating. Attendees engaged in decorating picture frames and took part in a blue-themed
giveaway.
Morgan McGuire, a sophomore and a SAB traditional co-chair, said the board created this event in hopes that it would unite the community.
“We wanted to create a new tradition to add to Saint Mary’s culture, and we thought that celebrating one of our school colors — blue — would be a great way to do that,” McGuire said.
On-campus rape reported to OIE
Observer Staff Report
An on-campus rape was reported to the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) on Tuesday, according to the University’s Daily Crime Log.
The alleged offence occurred at a men’s residence hall between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Feb. 23. For certain offences, the Notre Dame Police
Department does not publish a specific location on the Daily Crime Log “to protect the identities of the individuals involved in that incident,” according to Daniel Kavanaugh, Clery Act manager at the department.
A sexual battery allegedly occurring at a men’s residence hall on Jan. 16 was
see
McGlinn, Baumer wed
By ANNIE CHEN News Writer
On Saturday, the Notre Dame community gathered to celebrate the union of sophomore Brady Kroll and junior Lizette Mendez.
Blue is not just a color, McGuire explained.
“Blue is a symbol of all of us meshing together — our cultures meshing together into one,” she added. “At the end of the day we celebrate each other for our differences. Our hope was that students would come together just to recognize how special Saint Mary’s is and
March 2 marked the second annual Baumer and McGlinn charity wedding — a celebration of commitment and love. As last year’s social commissioners, current McGlinn Hall president Lauren Taylor and vice president Kaitlyn Leshak helped to establish this tradition.
“We were really invested in the extravagant
charity weddings that so many Greek life organizations had,” Leshak said. “We thought it would be fun to have our own.”
Taylor and Leshak’s proposal would garner dormwide support, they said.
“Without the excitement and creatively motivated minds in McGlinn, this event would not be nearly possible,” said Henry Maxwell, Baumer Hall vice president.
Baumer and McGlinn residents said they were excited to continue this charity wedding that generates real social impact in the
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A story in Friday’s print edition referred to the Latinx Student Alliance as the Latino Student Alliance. The article also misreported Rebeca Santa Maria’s position in the organization. The Observer regrets these errors.
Monday
Women Owned
Business Market
Dahnke Ballroom
3 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Celebrate Women’s History Month.
Soulful Sisters
Supper
Noble Family Dining
Hall 6 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Eat with others.
Tuesday
Bowlful of Creativity
McCandless Hall
4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Paint a trinket bowl with spiritual quote and designs.
Why Catholics Must
Be Political
201 DeBartolo Hall
6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Hear from Professor Daniel Philpott.
Wednesday
Herbivore Society
Potluck Geddes Hall Coffeehouse
6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Enjoy vegan dishes.
Introduction to Self Defense
Angela Athletic and Wellness Complex Room 1 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Thursday MoneyThink Mentoring Session Riley High School 8 a.m. - 2
Documentary sparks discussion on inequality
By AYNSLEE DELLACCA News WriterThe Center for Faith, Action and Ministry and the Office for Multicultural and International Student Services sponsored the showing of a documentary Friday afternoon to celebrate the end of Black History Month and the beginning of Women’s History Month.
Shown in the student government association (SGA) multipurpose room in the basement of the Student Center, the 2006 PBS documentary “Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change” followed the story of nine Catholic nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph religious order in Rochester, New York, attending the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965.
The Sisters of St. Joseph established a mission settlement in Selma in 1940 to help Black Americans suffering from extreme poverty and segregation. But it wasn’t until over two decades later that the sisters
Blue
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that we do truly have a sisterhood that is really unique compared to other colleges, and just celebrate how we’re all here for each other throughout college and throughout life.”
Maureen Galvin, a SAB traditional co-chair, said the board organized the event to bring students closer as sisters in blue.
“The color blue represents our solidarity in each other. We’re united in the color blue,” Galvin said. “Our
took on a greater role in civil rights advocacy.
Pope John XXIII called for the Second Vatican Council in 1962 to propose an evolutionary vision of discipleship. The council continued until 1965. According to various sisters in the documentary, the speeches made by John XXIII inspired the sisters working in the Selma settlement to join the march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama.
The Sisters of St. Joseph viewed their participation and engagement with the civil rights movement as acting as a “silent witness” to uphold the vision of discipleship and mission from Vatican II. The sisters’ presence brought greater awareness of civil rights and more solidarity with the Black community within the Catholic Church during that time period.
After the documentary, ecumenical chaplain Carrie Badertscher led a discussion with those in attendance.
Sister Kathleen Johnson, a Saint Mary’s alumna of 1974
blue color is ingrained into our school, and I think we should be really advocating our blue colors and not switching the colors and repping also over at Notre Dame — not being afraid to wear your Saint Mary’s colors and really showing how strong of a blue community we are.”
Maddie Rader, a sophomore and traditional committee member, said the board hoped to have a good turnout of students with spirit.
“We can continue to represent the color blue by wearing it, displaying it on our
and a Holy Cross sister, mentioned she was in attendance during Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. when she was a young girl. She cited herself as a silent witness.
“I remember being there with the crowds of people, and there was an energy there that was tangible.
I mean, even for a kid, I could feel something very exciting was going on,” Johnson said.
During the discussion, Badertscher asked the group what it meant to have a silent witness in their life.
Freshman Keeley Mitchelle spoke about her personal experience of having a silent witness in her life, but how it’s not enough for change to occur.
“When you do share it with someone, it’s still kind of like ‘Well, two people know now that this has happened, but like we are still at a loss.’ I still can’t feel like we can move forward and do something,” Mitchelle said. “Having someone know, sometimes, does feel a
website and rooting it more on social media,” Rader said.
After a recent marketing campaign, new colors of green and yellow were added to the school’s website and to the Shaheen Bookstore. Many students attended the blue-advocacy event as a way to continue celebrating and displaying the color blue.
Phoenix McClellan, a junior at the College, said that she thinks the color blue is a huge part of the College’s identity.
“I feel like at this point everyone is super defensive of the blue and obviously
little bit better. But if nothing changes or happens, then it’s just like, ‘Well, I guess we both know now.’”
Mitchelle’s comment opened the floor to discussing the racial inequalities still felt in the current day. After another prompt from Badertscher, Mitchelle continued to voice her personal experience of racism.
“I was raised to not see color. We’re all human beings, and we’re all children of God. I’ve always been taught that way. But even on campus, just dealing with the n-word flying around and people like telling me, ‘We don’t allow your kind at my party.’ It’s just been so much,” Mitchelle said. “I think I’ve grown a lot as a person because there is a Black woman stigma so that I feel like I can’t react, but I don’t want to anymore.”
Badertscher asked what silent witnesses look like to the group and what type of solidarity is needed on Saint Mary’s campus.
“I feel like standing up or educating yourself within
with them trying to change the colors, we all saw how everyone got up in arms about it,” McClennan said. “I always associated blue with calmness and happiness, and I think it’s for our College identity.”
Freshman Maria Brasil said she felt like the green represented Notre Dame and that the Saint Mary’s community is represented by the color blue.
“First they were trying to challenge the color scheme and the French cross — which was also represented by the color blue — which is
the context of anything [can help]. I’ve found that if you don’t have that [time to educate yourself] or if you don’t have that education period, you’re not really a silent witness. You’re just there,” junior Angelina Wright said.
Badertscher offered her advice to those in attendance in response to much of the need for an empathetic approach for change, emphasizing that while some change can come from administration on campus, most of it must come from students attending Saint Mary’s.
”We have got to start sitting at small tables with people who are different from us and receiving their experience, exactly as it is without trying to minimize or even qualify or quantify or try to explain it away,” Badertscher said. “If we want to be a community that truly seeks the peace of our friends or our sisters, we have to join together and figure out what that looks like.”
Contact Aynslee Dellacca at adellacca01@saintmarys.edu
our College’s theme,” Brasil said. “Blue is a beautiful color, and it totally matches the girlhood vibe here. It fits us completely.”
Brasil said blue will always represent Saint Mary’s and be a part of its identity.
“We can keep representing the color blue by wearing our gear around, and we shouldn’t be scared and hide where we are from,” she said. “They should know that we are from Saint Mary’s.”
Contact Allison Bowman at abowman01@saintmarys.edu
Notre Dame join group to develop safe AI
By PETER MCKENNA News WriterOn Feb. 8, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced the formation of a consortium to research new guidelines and standards for artificial intelligence innovation. Launched under the National Institute of Standards and Technology, it will be comprised of more than 200 companies, universities, civil organizations and non-profits.
“As we think about the societal impacts of AI technologies, it’s good to have a dialogue that presents varied interests,” Nitesh Chawla, director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society and a professor of computer science and
engineering, said. “What I believe this consortium is trying to do is to create that space.”
Chawla said developers and users are often not in the same room.
“We don’t have a good, complete understanding of what could go wrong [and] what could go right,” Chawla said. “How do we measure these things? How do we monitor these AI tools as we develop them and they go out in the wild?”
It’s important for Notre Dame, in Chawla’s mind, to have an important and critical voice in the conversation around AI because of the University’s mission, he said.
“We are excited to be part of [the consortium],” Chawla
said. “And as a university, it’s important for us to have a seat on the table when we think about AI as a force for good. How do we use AI as a force for good?”
The consortium was prompted by an executive order signed in October — “The Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.”
“Today we are in a race to build [and] deploy these technologies,” Chawla said. “But we must think about how we do it in a responsible way. How do we do it in a safe way?”
Chawla emphasized the need for establishing industry standards in artificial intelligence.
“There are no industry
standards right now,” he said. “We often feel like we are building the plane as we are flying it.”
Jeffrey Rhoads, vice president for research and a professor of aeronautical engineering, said in a statement the University was excited to join the AI Safety Institute Consortium.
“We know that to manage AI risks, we first have to measure and understand them,” Rhoads said. “It is a grand challenge that neither technologists nor government agencies can tackle alone.
Through this new consortium, Notre Dame researchers will have a place at the table where they can live out Notre Dame’s mission to seek discoveries that yield benefits for the common
good.”
When asked about his attitudes toward AI, Chawla said he was super optimistic.
“This is an amazing time in AI … what we can do — the impact it will have is phenomenal,” Chawla said. “But we need to recognize that we need to think about guardrails. We need to think about measurements. We need to think about safety. We need to think about trust.”
The consortium is already starting to host meetings. Chawla’s team members have recently attended a meeting on red teaming efforts, and he said he plans on hosting an event at Notre Dame in the coming months.
Contact Peter McKenna at pmckenn2@nd.edu
local community.
To choose the bride and groom, participant voted for their preferred candidate via $2 donations. Baumer president Brian Lane said the halls collectively raised nearly $1,600 for their charity partners.
This year, proceeds will be donated to the Jubilee Institute for Financial Inclusion, a Notre Dame student-led nonprofit that offers financial welfare and planning services to South Bend’s disadvantaged community.
“While the Baumer and McGlinn wedding is a super fun experience for both the Bucs and Shamrocks, it is ultimately a reflection of Notre Dame’s power to make a difference in South Bend,” Lane said.
The wedding was held in Baumer’s 24-hour space with a reception in McGlinn.
The officiant began the wedding by reflecting on the symbolic union of the two halls. The couple then exchanged vows, promising to be faithful to one another and to honor one another all the days of their undergraduate years.
When asked if anyone
would object to the union between Kroll and Mendez, Baumer resident Matthew McDonald — dressed as a Teletubby — loudly declared that he was in “love [with] Clint Murray, and there should be no reason that [they] should not be wed here today.”
When the clamor subsided, and the objection was overruled, Kroll and Mendez sealed their unlawful marriage with a real kiss.
Guests cheered on the happy couple and followed the pair to the reception in McGlinn where McDonald later offered a heartwarming toast to the couple.
“I’ve known Joseph Brady Kroll for a few months, but in those few months, my life has been exponentially improved,” McDonald said. “I just want everyone to know that he got a 97% in organic chemistry, and he still hits the slopes! He’s a great skier. I will love him no matter what, and I want you guys to feel the same love I feel for Brady.”
The night ended with the groom inviting the bride to dance, saying, “Let’s dance, miss girl, come on.”
Contact Annie Chen at achen22@nd.edu
Rape
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reported to OIE in the middle of February. A sexual assault allegedly occurring in a residence hall room at Saint Mary’s was reported to authorities at the beginning of February.
About 5% of male and 19% of female students, who responded to a question about experience with nonconsensual sexual contact as part of the University’s most recent climate survey, indicated they personally experienced a form of such contact while a student at Notre Dame.
Professor discusses AI’s impact on democracy
By KAELEIGH PICCO News Writer“This is not just about technology; this is also about how this technology impacts democracy and fundamental human rights,” Anu Bradford, a Columbia law professor, told an audience in Mendoza College of Business’ Jordan Auditorium
Friday.
As students and faculty filed into the auditorium around 10:30 a.m., a quiet buzz spread across the room in anticipation of “Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology,” a lecture within a greater series hosted by Mendoza exploring artificial intelligence through the research perspective of some of the top scholars in the field.
Sponsored by Mendoza’s Eugene Clark Distinguished Lecture Series endowment, Friday’s lecture was delivered by Bradford, the Henry L. Moses Distinguished Professor of Law and International Organization at Columbia Law School.
Bradford, who received her Doctorate of Juridical Science as a Harvard Fulbright Scholar in 2007, is now a leading educator on the regulatory actions of
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dining tables were neatly dressed and a buffet was prepared to welcome incoming guests.
The reception was organized by Barbara Calhoun and Katrina Conrad, who are, respectively, the director and program manager of the Patient Advocacy Initiative on campus. The initiative is primarily responsible for running the minor in science and patient advocacy, which educates students on identifying rare diseases and finding
the European Union and is sought after commentator on the EU, global economy and digital reputation.
Three models
Bradford offered a comprehensive, but rather grave overview of the rapid advancement of technology and artificial intelligence. She provided an explanation about how governments are grappling with the issues that arise from it on the world stage based on her second book “Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology,” which was published by Oxford University Press in September.
“There is an increasing global consensus on [technological] regulation, but no consensus on what that regulation might look like,” Bradford began.
She then explored the three current “models” of interaction with technology utilized by three regions of the world: the American market-driven model, the Chinese state-driven model and the European rightsdriven model. Yet each of these models, Bradford said, are not confined to the jurisdictions of their regions. They overlap and collide with one another, even
available treatments.
Calhoun later explained some of the major changes which Rare Disease Day has undergone since taking over as director in 2014.
“We have continued to expand this program to include involvement with patient families and students,” Calhoun said. “With the start of the minor in science and patient advocacy in 2021, the program has gained momentum. By joining th e international community in the Light Up for Rare event, we started lighting up the Word of Life mural last year.”
Near the end of the
coming into conflict, she explained.
“It is very hard for Microsoft to hand over data to numerous law enforcement agencies as part of a law enforcement investigation when that data is located in Ireland and protected by the GDPR [the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation].”
Two battles
This type of technological jurisdiction overlaps between companies and thus, their home countries leads to two types of battles, Bradford said: horizontal battles and vertical battles.
Horizontal battles are conflicts raised between governments. Bradford offered the example of regulation between Europeans and Americans.
“If I asked you to name a European tech company, it might take you a while,” she joked, since the region primarily relies on American technology.
However, Bradford said, the issue arises when Europeans wish to regulate aspects of the technology. The companies are not their own and are left with American technology that may “compromise their rights, their privacy and leave them surrounded by hate speech and
reception, Calhoun gave a brief speech in order to give thanks to the many people who helped make the event a success and highlight students who participated in the minor or made a difference in rare disease research.
In one case, Calhoun told a story which was relayed to her by a former student while working as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).
Calhoun explained that the student had gotten a call from a family who was taking care of a rare disease patient. When EMTs arrived, the parents struggled to explain the nature of
disinformation.”
Vertical battles, Bradford said, are conflicts within each region between the power of government and the power of their own tech companies.
The United States, she explained, for the longest time had existed as a libertarian market for tech companies, allowing them virtually free reign over the American economy. Yet, with the growing power of these companies and the rise of artificial intelligence, there exists in the country a “high stakes battle looming over the digital empire.”
If the United States does chose to regulate, Bradford added, there exists the fear that the nation may fall behind technological advancements made in China.
One goal Bradford concluded her remarks with a grim sentiment about the rise in global popularity in the Chinese technological market.
“Although the European model does very well in the democratic world, it is not doing well in the authoritarian world and that world is getting bigger every day,” Bradford said. Other developing countries “look at China, and they like what
their child’s condition to the student.
However, Calhoun said, her student had researched and studied the condition.
“And so she went to the mom and said, ‘I do understand what you’re talking about. And I understand some of the complications that occur with this condition and how that could affect the care that we give,’” Calhoun said. “She said she could not express both the pride and excitement she felt when she saw the relief the family members had.”
After the reception, patients, their families and
they see … because China has shown to the world that innovation does not require freedom,” she added.
Bradford argued that to combat technological impacts from rising democratic backsliding, the United States and Europe must work together “to show the world that there is a liberal democratic way to regulate technology” and that “developing countries need to have a stake in technological development,” rather than fall in the trap of partnering with China’s state-driven authoritarian model.
She offered hope about the power liberal democratic governments hold in this matter.
“What do you expect will be around 100 years from now, Facebook or France? I think France,” Bradford said. “These states have power. They just have to use it.”
The next lecture within the “Artificial Intelligence: Promise or Peril?” series will take place March 22 and will explore “Symbiotic HumanAI Interaction: Examples of AI in Robot and AI in Finance.”
Contact Kaeleigh Picco at kpicco@nd.edu
dozens of students made their way to Hesburgh Library. White bags decorated for a specific patient or rare disease were positioned along the reflecting pool in front of Touchdown Jesus. There, the guests participated in a prayer service given by Fr. Peter McCormick.
At sunset, the mural was lit green, red and blue in accordance with #LightUpForRare, a movement to display the colors at 7 p.m. local time around the world in solidarity for rare diseases.
Contact Gray Nocjar at gnocjar@nd.edu
Should we boycott boy Mass?
Gracie Eppler The SoapboxMy sister got sent to detention once in her life, and it was for wearing a sweatshirt. No, it didn’t have any obscene language or political statements, but it did have the name of our all-boys brother school written in fat white letters across the front.
My mom, two of my older sisters and I all attended the same all-girls Catholic high school in St. Louis. Some of its more infamous rules included:
1. Please brush your hair before the photographer shows up.
2. You must attend Mass on the first Friday of every month, and
3. Never wear an all-boys high school sweatshirt to World History.
“You should represent your own school,” our history teacher argued, “not your boyfriend’s. Do you really think he’s walking around with your school’s name printed on his chest?”
At the time, this restriction induced eye-rolls. At 16, all of us scoffed and groaned, claiming we knew better. We snuck our sweatshirts in to throw on during lunch. In hindsight, I wonder what was so great about these oversized, blue and white hoodies anyways. Why were they so coveted? What made them more desirable than wearing our own school’s merch? And why did wearing them instantly send off an alert to every other girl in a six-mile radius that you had friends that were boys, and that that made you cool?
It seemed that every one of my classmates appeared to juggle the same set of premises and consequences, only to come to the same conclusion:
• Premise 1: Everyone in high school wants to be well-liked.
• P2 : If I wear a boys’ high school sweatshirt, I will appear to have guy friends.
• P3 : If I wear my girls’ high school merch, I’ll appear to have no guy friends.
INSIDE COLUMN• Conclusion : Therefore, I will choose to wear a boys’ high school sweatshirt to appear well-liked (even if it means I will get in trouble).
In high school, there was something alluring about declaring your favorite all-male school. Even more than that, there was something enthralling about being claimed by the boys of a different high school.
It’s not like this trend went away after graduation either.
On Sunday, my friend asked if I wanted to join her to go to Flaherty Mass. “I always skip our dorm’s,” I told her. “Knott’s is way better.”
She told me I was being a “pick-me.” I told her it was true. In my opinion, Knott has better music, free pizza afterwards and, most of all, it has better attendance. Not only do more boys show up for Mass, but more girls do too. The process is cyclical:
• Premise 1: The perceived quality of a Mass is influenced by attendance.
• P2 : Knott Mass typically has higher attendance than Flaherty Mass.
• P3 : Higher attendance tends to create a more engaging and communal atmosphere.
• Conclusion : Therefore, I will choose to go to Knott Mass.
I think anyone can agree with the fact that Notre Dame is an extremely gendered campus. It is gendered in its very nature — not only in the fact that it began as an all-male college, but because of the dorm system that is so integral to what ND is. I think almost everyone will also agree that men’s dorms are more fun than women’s: they have more events, better community, a more distinguishable reputation and closer relationships with their rectors.
A few days ago at the Keenan Revue, my girlfriends and I chatted about how hilarious every sketch was. “I wish we could do something like that,” a friend pointed out. For a moment, I wanted to add, “Maybe we could.” But I didn’t because I’m not funny, and because I wouldn’t want to get up on stage and do something ridiculous. The Keenan Revue works because people show up. If a girls’ dorm held a similar event, would people come? Would they laugh at a troop of female comedians in the same way they do for
a male one?
Perhaps it’s futile to imagine the “what ifs” of our campus events. The fact of the matter is that Notre Dame was forged on the idea of separating women and men, and it will probably persist this way. We may never be able to change the dorm system, but perhaps we can change how we think about women’s halls. This begins with the women living inside of them.
Last Sunday, I attended mass at Cavanaugh Hall for the first time. In preparation for our joint Flaherty-Cav formal, girls from both dorms joined together. The Cav chapel was buzzing with electricity. We sat in integrated rows, Bears mixed with Chaos, chatting about what dresses we would wear and how we were going to do our hair. And when we sung, I noticed how my voice didn’t have to strain to hit any low notes — every line lay perfectly in my key. We sang in harmony, a collection of clear, feminine voices blending.
I left mass feeling a warm sense of security. There was no one to impress, no one to prove a point to. There was a sense of sisterhood, of community, of collective excitement. That was a feeling I had never gotten at Knott Mass before.
There is something special about women supporting other women. There is something so unique about being a sister, a daughter, a girlfriend. I’m not saying we need to never show up to mass at boys’ dorms or never wear merch from our favorite all-male schools. What I am saying, however, is that we need to support women just as often as we support men. We need to show up for them in the same way we do for male-led events.
• Premise 1: When I show up to support my girlfriends, I feel good about myself.
• Conclusion : Simple, I will start showing up.
Gracie Eppler is a junior business analytics and English major from St. Louis, MO. Her three top three things ever to exist are 70s music, Nutella and Smith Studio 3, where she can be found dancing. Reach her at geppler@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Embracing the emotional
Gabrielle Beechert Assistant Managing EditorIn the fall of my junior year, I was sitting in the London Global Gateway’s Student Activity Center with a few of my friends while we were chatting and doing homework. I don’t know how, but we somehow landed on the topic of dramatic people, and the conversation became specific to me and two of my other friends who were sitting with me. The three of us all agreed that were generally dramatic and emotional people, so we jokingly asked our other friend at the table to rank us from least to most dramatic. He laughed at the question, but then he told us it might be hard because we were honestly some of the most dramatic people he’d met.
The whole conversation was pretty light-hearted, but I was still slightly taken aback by his assessment. I’ve always known myself to be emotional, but I guess at that time, I never really thought about just how on-display my emotions truly are. Maybe I just lacked some crucial self-awareness at the time, but reflecting on the conversation, he was right.
Growing up, I was always the most emotional sibling. Most of the people I know — ranging from close friends to mere acquaintances — have seen me cry. And whenever I have a somewhat difficult conversation with someone, I almost always get emotional. The actual content of the conversation isn’t normally upsetting for me, but the fact that the conversation is taking place at all brings me to tears.
I could go on to list examples, but I’m sure you get the point: I’m emotional. And throughout the past week, I’ve really been feeling it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my personal relationships and what those are going to look like as senior year comes to a close, and I’ve been stressed about the future. This is my last week as Assistant Managing Editor at The Observer, and it’s been an emotional journey coming to terms with the fact that such a big part of my life is concluding. We’re almost at the halfway point of the second semester of our senior year. For a girl who doesn’t always enjoy change, it’s a lot to handle.
I know that these are normal afflictions for college seniors, and many of my colleagues have been confronting questions of their own futures in the pages of this paper. I also know I’m not making this any easier for myself. I’ve had “Waiting Room” by Phoebe Bridgers on repeat for the past week, and I just asked my roommates to send me some of the saddest songs they can think of so I can add them to my playlist.
Through all this, I’ve sometimes found myself wishing that I wasn’t so emotional all the time. But when I talked to my mom the other day, she told me that sometimes the only thing you can do is cry it out and just let yourself feel.
There are few things as validating as your mom telling you it’s OK to be sad, and it’s exactly what I needed to hear.
I’m taking a class called “Jane Austen and Her World,” and we finished reading “Sense and Sensibility” a few weeks ago. In describing one of the main characters, Marianne Dashwood, the narrator calls her as “sensible and clever; but eager in everything: her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation.” In fact, Marianne feels things so deeply that by the end of the novel, the sorrows of her personal and romantic life cause her to get sick.
When we were talking about the idea of sensibility
and the extremes to which Marianne feels her emotions in class, my professor reminded us that to Marianne, things really are that bad. Even if we think she’s being dramatic, her emotions are genuine and we need to understand that.
I think my professor was trying to tell us that we need to give Marianne some grace when it comes to her emotions, and I think I owe it to myself to do the same.
I know I’m dramatic. I have my moments where I let my emotions get the best of me, and it’s not something I’m always proud of. But being emotional and fully feeling things can also be a beautiful thing.
Earlier today, I was driving around South Bend with the windows down while listening to the 10-minute version of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well.” Few things bring me as much joy as belting along to Taylor Swift in the car, and I don’t think I could get as much joy from that if I tried to stifle my emotions. And had Taylor Swift not allowed herself to feel her own emotions so fully, we wouldn’t have bangers like “All Too Well.”
Even though the future is scary, and it’s hard for me to come to terms with the fact that important chapters of my life are coming to an end, I get to really feel the best parts of my life. It’s karaoke with my best friends from home over winter break. It’s spending time with some of my favorite people in the world at The Observer. It’s crying because my best friend surprised me in South Bend after her semester abroad.
If feeling the lows means that I also get to experience the highs, I know I’ll be alright.
Contact Gabrielle at gbeecher@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this Inside column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
LETTER EDITOR
How to be a political science major
For starters, you’ll want to be the sort of person who wants to go to Notre Dame. You’ll want to be ambitious and tall and sort of snotty but mostly polite, and ideally you’ll have a British accent, but ideally you’ll also be from Chicagoland. Second, get into Notre Dame. In order to do this, you’ll want to be wealthy or smart or a congressman’s son or really good at throwing a ball. Got in? Good!
Search the online catalogs of majors. Consider English. Consider sociology. Consider marketing. Consider pre-law. Pre-law isn’t a major? Choose marketing. Marketing sucks. You have to take accounting and finance, and you’re bad at accounting and finance. Sometimes people ask you what marketing is, and all you know for sure is that it’s not the same as advertising, so you say, “It’s not the same as advertising, I’ll tell you that!” Almost fail finance. Do well in all of your University requirements and wonder why you don’t spend your time doing stuff like that for your major. Watch an incendiary political speech on YouTube. Get upset. Tell your roommate how upset you are and how wrong this is and how you could totally write a paper proving that. Disobey their advice to go to bed. Wake them up an hour later with the revelation that you’d like to be a poli-sci major.
Ignore your mother’s claim that “poli-sci majors don’t get jobs.” Tell her marketing majors don’t get jobs either and the job market is really bad right now, so you might as well study something you’re passionate about. Wait till Dad calms her down. Meet with your dean. “Why not double major?” she asks. Ignore the question. Eat a Twix bar on your walk back to the dorm. Think about it more that night. Realize that more than you want to be a poli-sci major, you really just don’t want to be a business major because it makes you feel icky and stupid, and it kind of feels like you’re not learning anything, and your GPA was so much better than this in high school and when did Mom and Dad
stop prioritizing your GPA? Eat another Twix bar. Register for your first two poli-sci courses and be astounded by how interesting they are. Learn about Congress and foreign affairs and historical scandals and finally learn what the filibuster is. Tell all your friends about the filibuster and how it’s such a big issue, but since it always advantages one of the parties, neither will vote to get rid of it. Ignore their counterargument that you should stop interrupting them when they’re trying to study. Get an A on your first paper. Get an A- on your second paper. Find out Patrick got an A on the second paper, and wonder how you got so much dumber between the two papers. Ask yourself if maybe the business school wasn’t to blame. Ask yourself if you’re just dumb. Ask yourself if you deserve to be here. Eat a Twix bar. Go to bed.
Check your final grades, and find that you got an A- in both of your first two poli-sci classes. Realize that this is the sort of major where it’s somehow really hard to get as high as an A but also really hard to get as low as a B+. Get seven more A-’s and one flat out B because that professor hated you and didn’t believe you when you got mono and because that one girl really didn’t help on the group project, but she’s on the soccer team, so maybe it’s not her fault or whatever, but also she rides a scooter everywhere and that always bugs you, so feel annoyed about it anyway. Tell your roommate how unfair it was that she didn’t help write her portion of the paper. Ignore him as he asks, “Is that your third Twix bar today?”
Learn about the world and how different governments work and don’t work. Learn about the decline of democracy in India. Learn about the decline of democracy in Europe. Learn about the decline of democracy in America. Learn a lot about America. Learn a little bit about the UK, learn a couple fun facts about China and then learn a lot more about America. Learn that America is the biggest, strongest, sexiest country
with the most hot dogs, atom bombs and porno mags. Wonder what you’d learn if you studied poli-sci somewhere else. Think about it over another Twix. Think about your high school trip to Argentina and your conversation with a local when you asked something about how they perceive America and how they gave you a befuddled look and said, “To us, this is America.”
Learn about ways to reverse the decline of democracy. Learn why none of them seem to work. Think about your friend studying sustainability who tells you how the world’s gonna boil alive, and think about your friend studying economics who tells you that we’re up for another recession soon, and think about your friend studying psychology who tells you that the mental health crisis among young people is the greatest threat to the world today and wonder what the hell is going on. Wonder if we’re just supposed to fix all of this someday or if maybe professors are making it all up or if the world’s just about finished. Have a panic attack. Go for a walk. Eat another Twix.
Click your heels together three times fast, and suddenly you’re a senior. You’re graduating in May. Apply for jobs. Apply for consulting jobs. Apply for marketing jobs. Apply for advertising jobs. Apply, apply, apply. Go to the career center. Ignore their request that you not eat a Twix during the meeting. Get some guy’s phone number. Call the guy. Get mad that he didn’t give you a job. Wonder if your mom was right. Worry about leaving school, worry about losing your friends, worry that you chose the wrong major, worry that maybe you’re as good as finished at 22 years old. Take a deep breath. Go for a walk. Call your mom. Have a Twix. Check if it’s too late to switch to accounting.
Daniel Lucke seniorFeb. 27
By LUKE FOLEY Scene Writer
Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors currently working. His sci-fi films — “Arrival” and “Blade Runner 2049” — are phenomenal. They are visually stunning, yet they miraculously maintain intimate character work and profound themes. Thus, he was the perfect director to adapt “Dune,” a notoriously difficult book to bring to the screen. 2021’s “Dune: Part One” was a fantastic introduction to the world of Dune that successfully translated the book’s singularity to the big screen. Yet the film was only one half of a story, so it felt slightly sparse and incomplete. I had faith that Villeneuve would stick the landing with the sequel, but he has somehow managed to surpass even my wildest expectations. Visually staggering, narratively fascinating and superbly acted, ”Dune: Part Two” is an aweinspiring epic that has instantly cemented itself as one of the greatest sci-fi films ever.
“Dune: Part Two” continues the gorgeous visual language Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser established in the first movie. The wide shots grandly capture the vast deserts of Arrakis and the towering brutalist machinery and buildings. The film’s ability to convey scale is exceptional and engulfs you in the unfamiliar world. Yet the film knows when to reel the scope in to capture intimate moments. Ultra close-ups of characters add weight to emotional exchanges. Throughout the movie, there are sequences that will have you paralyzed in your seat with awe. Paul riding his first sandworm is an overwhelming and visceral scene, immersing you in Paul’s initial struggle to gain control of the sandworm with palpable intensity and his eventual success with resounding triumph. The scenes on the Harkonnen planet are downright terrifying.
‘DUNE: PART TWO’ IS AN EPIC
SCI-FI
MASTERPIECE THE MAKING OF ‘RICHARD III’
The bleak black-and-white cinematography paired with the demonic and fascist aesthetic of Harkonnen society is bone-chilling, and the final battle with towering sandworms swallowing up thousands of soldiers is exhilarating to watch. Overall, the film is endlessly breathtaking and one of the best-looking blockbuster films ever.
Even beyond all this visual excellence, “Dune: Part Two” is densely packed with engaging themes and idiosyncratic lore. The world of Dune is a wonderfully audacious synthesis of eugenics, anti-colonialism, talking fetuses, trade wars, Islamic mysticism, psyops and more, all of which helps make the film’s examination of religion and politics powerful. The plot revolves around Paul’s transformation into the prophesied messiah as he becomes closer to the Fremen, the native people of Arrakis. Paul is the product of generations of meticulous breeding by the Bene Gesserit to produce a supernatural “messiah” that will transform the universe to their liking. To add credibility to their organization and plan, the Bene Gesserit have planted the prophecy of a foreign messiah into the local religions of various planets, including the Fremen on Arrakis. Thus, their crazed political agenda has transformed into a religion with millions of devout Fremen followers. This manipulative syncretism enables Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica, to easily hijack the revolutionary plans of the Fremen for their political gain. Paul is initially reluctant to assume this role and denies he is the messiah. Still, he eventually succumbs to his maniacal mother, the Fremen’s intense faith in him and his own desire for political revenge against the Harkonnens and Emperor. Paul’s arc is a powerful tragedy of a man who was never given a choice; he’s less a person and more a preconfigured vessel for all these political and religious forces. By the movie’s end, viewers see that Paul has transformed into a vicious
ruler who has unleashed something incredibly dangerous into the world. Our protagonist wins, but you’re not happy about it. It’s a powerfully subversive ending.
The film is further elevated by its fantastic, astoundingly stacked cast. Timothée Chalamet gives a tremendous performance as Paul Atreides. He perfectly captures the character’s transformation from a shy teenager into a sinister, commanding leader. Rebecca Ferguson is deeply unsettling as the power-hungry Lady Jessica; the craziness in her eyes throughout the movie is hard to shake. Austin Butler is unrecognizable and terrifying as FeydRautha Harkonnen but still manages to exude a childlike giddiness in the character that is fascinating to watch. Javier Bardem gives a surprisingly hilarious performance as Stilgar, a Fremen incredibly dedicated to Paul and the idea he is the messiah. His excessive admiration of Paul is funny and provides comedic relief in many scenes. Yet there comes the point when his zeal stops being funny and becomes unsettling as Paul uses believers like Stilgar to gain more and more power. Beyond these personal highlights, the film has many other talented actors giving great performances. The acting is one of the film’s greatest strengths, a remarkable feat considering it would be easy for the characters to become secondary to the film’s spectacle, but Villeneuve adeptly balances both.
“Dune: Part Two” is a medium-affirming film. It’s a reminder of the power movies have to transport us to entirely new worlds full of mystique and wonder. It’s a reminder of the star power that used to fuel the entire Hollywood system. It’s a reminder of the scale and splendor blockbuster movies are supposed to have. It’s a reminder that auteurdriven films produce the best results. We are so back.
Contact Luke Foley at lfoley2@nd.edu
By ANNA FALK Scene Editor
This Saturday, me and 18 of my closest friends journeyed to Chi-town to see the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s (CST) production of “Richard III” at Navy Pier. After a lovely dinner at Margaritaville, we sat down in the theater, chatting excitedly while actors in masks and white coats drifted across the stage and into the audience. As a group working to perform the play in just over a month, we had high expectations for a professional production.
Since the middle of January, the Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Company (NSR) has been working on perfecting our own version of the Bard’s treacherous tale. The play follows Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, as he claws his way towards the ultimate prize: the Crown of England. Tensions are high amidst the deaths of Henry VI and Edward IV, and questions of who shall occupy the throne become twisted and muddled with the progression of time. Richard will stop at nothing — and for no one — until he takes the throne.
“Richard III” at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, directed by Edward Hall, stars Katy Sullivan in the titular
role — the first ever woman with a disability to play the character in a major U.S. production. The production is staged like the cast and crew are in a 1930s psych ward to mimic the state of Richard’s psyche. All of the costumes were highly accurate — with the character of Jane Tyrell even sporting a look akin to Miss Ratched of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” — and the special effects, lighting and sound aided in the construction of an utterly vile plot. While I was impressed with the production aspects and with performances from Scott Aiello (George, Duke of Clarence), Debo Balogun (Sir Richard Ratcliffe) and Sean Fortunato (Lord Rivers/Duchess of York), there were many things that I questioned the use of or the portrayal of.
One of the main parts of the play I was concerned with was the level of violence. Don’t get me wrong — “Richard III” is a harrowing and bloody play, but there were parts of the show in which the violence seemed gratuitous. Why did Lord Hastings have to be cut up with a chainsaw? Why did Richard essentially kill every single person who crossed his path? Why were the severed (puppet) heads of the two princes in a glass jar necessary to tell their mother that they had died?
There were also many issues with the strength of the
performances — sometimes there was too little, and sometimes there was too much. In general, the women of the play — notably Lady Anne and Queen Elizabeth — felt very lackluster and gave into Richard’s whims with little persuasion. Is this how the script is originally written? Unfortunately, yes. But is there still a way to play it in a way in which the women are given more nuance and control over their unfortunate circumstances? Also yes. Other performances made me raise my eyebrows considering some choices that were made. Our group reached the general consensus that throughout the whole performance, many impactful and powerful decisions were made, but their place in the show didn’t always make much sense.
Regardless of my perspective, it was an enjoyable experience and made me further appreciative of the people I work with and the process we’ve been going through. Reading and performing Shakespeare in an informed and impactful manner is not easy, and it takes a lot of talent to get a message across to an audience. I think the CST cast definitely accomplished this task, and I have faith that NSR will deliver in full.
Contact Anna Falk at afalk@nd.edu
Watson: The mental game
Claire Watson Sports WriterSoftball has been the center of my life for the past 14 years of my life, my two positions being catcher and outfield. I played travel softball from 10U all the way to my first year of 18U, I played in high school, I am a freshman at Saint Mary’s playing for the softball team and I have also had the honor of being an assistant coach for a 10U softball team. So what does any of this have to do with the mental game of an athlete and its importance? This question is not easy to answer — at least for me it wasn’t. Through my experiences playing softball and coaching softball, there are a few different reasons why a mental game of an athlete is so important. Two of these aspects are confidence and focus.
Confidence
I have learned that softball is a game of failure. You make mistakes, and you learn from them. The most important thing, though, is that you cannot let one mistake ruin the rest of the game, or it can lead to more room for error.
My senior year of high school helped me learn that. I did not get my freshman year season due to COVID-19, and I was out my sophomore and junior years due to surgeries. However, I was able to make a comeback and start as a designated player. After not playing for three years in high school, I stepped into the box during the first game and struck out. As soon as that happened I realized that I had no confidence in myself and that I was scared. This ties to confidence because confidence tells an athlete that they can do it and they can step into the box in high stress situations and be able to make the play happen.
I remember the summer before my senior year, I was coaching a 10U travel softball team and one of the youngest girls on the team was going to catch for us at a tournament. I remember her walking up to me and saying “Claire I am really scared, I have never caught before.” At that moment I knew that she did not have a lot of confidence
in herself.
As a catcher, I understood that feeling of nervousness and fear, so what I told her was that no matter what happens, whether we win the game or not, she is trying something new and she should be proud of herself for that.
Focus
Focus is a key part of an athlete’s mental game. This could mean knowing where the ball is, knowing where you are going to throw the ball if it comes to you, fielding the ball smoothly and making the play and much more.
I am a catcher and this position requires a lot of focus, which I have learned over my years of play. When I was in high school and I was behind the plate, there were a few times where I would stop paying attention. This could be not knowing where the runners were, not paying attention to the pitch that the coach was calling or not knowing how many outs there were.
This is where I learned why it is important to stay focused, especially behind the plate. Not knowing where the runners were caused more than one error in the field. Not knowing what pitch the coach called caused me to line up wrong behind the plate and the pitcher threw the wrong pitch. Point of the matter being is, without focus, one error turns into another and ultimately leads to a team loss.
In terms of when I was coaching, focus was very important. Of course there is no doubt that these 10U girls were probably focused on something else.
One thing that I had to make sure that they understood was that, without focus, there is no game no matter where you are on the field. Without focus, there is room for error which will evidently lead to more errors and end in a loss. Overall, the main point that I want to make to answer my original question is that without confidence and focus, there will be error after error, leaving no room for improvement. It is truly a mental game.
Contact Claire Watson at cwatson@nd.edu
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
ND MEN’S BASKETBALL
Irish defeat Tigers 69-62
By RYAN MURPHY Sports WriterDon’t look now, but Micah Shrewsberry’s Fighting Irish are hot — red hot.
Sure, Notre Dame’s run of five wins in six games has included victories over 8-21 Louisville, and 1316 Georgia Tech. But for a Notre Dame team (12-17, 7-11 ACC) that was widely picked to finish last in ACC, this recent run of success — culminating in Saturday’s 69-62 victory over Clemson (20-9, 10-8 ACC) — is worth savoring.
With only two games remaining on their schedule, both on the road, the senior night win provided a potential glimpse of what’s to come for Shrewsberry’s largely young squad.
“Everybody that showed up, we are going to play the same exact way [when] you show up for us next year,” the first-year Irish head coach said postgame. “Know that we’re not going backwards. It’s only going forward from here.”
Despite the important growth of Notre Dame’s youth — the freshmen recorded 40 of Notre Dame’s 69 points — there was still senior night magic. With Purcell Pavilion at the loudest its been all season, Matt Zona, Notre Dame’s only regularly playing senior, stepped into the spotlight.
Zona, a 6’9 forward from Blauvet, NY, is one of just three seniors on the Irish roster. Despite his limited play time this season, Zona has been a quiet leader for the Irish and was named the team’s captain prior to Saturday’s game. Playing a season-high 28 minutes Saturday night, Zona was right in the middle of two of the game’s most important moments.
Late in the first half, he drained a three to give Notre Dame their first lead of the night at 29-26. Shrewsberry, fired up on the Notre Dame bench, called timeout shortly after, allowing Zona time to hear the appreciative Purcell crowd. Zona would do it again the second half, dropping another three from the corner to put the Irish ahead with 8:23 remaining.
“It is a lot of fun. We are playing really good basketball right now,” Zona said postgame. “I’m a firm believer that you want to leave a place better than you found it, and me doing something or not doing something, I think this place is in a really good spot.”
As Notre Dame’s season winding to a conclusion, that much is clear. The Irish are clearly in the best position they’ve been this season. Despite having their three-game win streak snapped at
Syracuse a week ago, Notre Dame has now responded well to two teams ahead of them in Wake Forest and Clemson.
It wasn’t clear from the start Saturday that Notre Dame would continue their strong play, though. Clemson took an early 5-0 lead, and kept a 4 or 5 point cushion between themselves and the Irish for much of the first half.
Freshman forward Carey Booth tied the score at 17 apiece 9:30 into the contest, but Notre Dame wouldn’t take a lead against the Tigers until Zona’s first three at 4:10. Clemson was able to respond to the deficit, and led 34-31 at the end of the first half.
Booth, who was 3-6 from behind the arc and scored 11 points on the night, gave Notre Dame their first lead of the second half (37-36) just under two minutes in. Then, sophomore guard Tae Davis turned it on, scoring 18 points over the course of the second half including a monster twohanded dunk with 7:21 remaining.
With the game coming down to the wire and the Irish ahead by four, freshman guard Braeden Shrewsberry converted a three with two feet on the monogram at midcourt, electrifying Purcell
Happy
and learn. The
you
through
will be priceless. Keep tabs on investments and what’s hot and not, and you’ll find a means to make extra cash this year. Don’t let emotions cloud your vision or cause you to miss an opportunity. Look for unique outlets for your skills, and you’ll discover a market thirsty for your contribution. Your numbers are 3, 10, 17, 26, 33, 37, 49.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Find your tribe and expand your mind and circle of friends. You stand to prosper if you invest time in the people and prospects that interest you most. Personal growth will lead to better relationships and security. Love and romance are in the stars.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Sign up for meaningful events. Dedicate your time to something you feel passionate about, and you will make a difference and meet people who share your concerns. You don’t have to spend to be of help; kind words and hands-on assistance are sufficient.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Refrain from getting into situations that others are manipulating. Keep busy and do your best to avoid letting anyone take advantage of you. Emotional manipulation is prevalent, and being strong enough to say no is essential. Concentrate on being and doing your best.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Envision what you want. Control the outcome instead of letting someone else dictate what you do next. It’s okay to branch out independently and discover what life offers. Follow your heart, but let your head navigate you toward peace, love, and happiness.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): You’ll be drawn to the wrong people and tempted by things you should avoid. Don’t jump into something aimlessly when thought and planning is necessary. Physical activity will ease stress and return you to your senses when you feel inclined to cast your fate to the wind.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A trip or reunion will lead to knowledge, intrigue, and unexpected options. Consider the possibilities and don’t hesitate to act. Use your intuition coupled with intelligence and common sense, and you’ll figure out which path is best and what’s best to avoid.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Let’s get moving. Stop planning and discussing the future; step into it and make things happen. Contact like-minded people who can help you make your dream come true. Make personal growth and physical improvements a priority. Romance is in the stars.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Explain yourself in explicitly. Don’t give anyone a chance to twist your words. A positive outlook and solid plans will lead to success. Stop putting up with users and abusers; they aren’t your people. Surround yourself with innovators and initiators, and something good will transpire.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Avoid joint ventures or shared expenses. Someone will be eager to take advantage of you if given the chance. Count every penny and stick to an amount you know you can afford. Problems with authority figures, institutions, and relatives are apparent. Don’t share personal information.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Emotions and money won’t mix. Watch where every dollar goes and put a cap on your spending. Domestic changes, updates, or repairs will be costly and require close budgeting and monitoring from start to finish. Do your best to avoid arguments and manipulative situations.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Refuse to let outside influences interfere with your plans. Set your sights on what you want and plan your actions wisely. Staying within budget and refraining from promising more than you can deliver will be necessary to achieve your objective. Don’t try to buy love.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Work alone to maintain control. If you reveal too much, someone will quickly take over or swipe your idea. Rethink money matters and put a budget in place that will ease stress and give you leeway to explore new ways to prosper.
Birthday Baby: You are good-natured, generous, and sensitive. You are methodical and philosophical.
Irish notch fifth-straight win
By J.J. POST Associate Sports EditorHannah Hidalgo can’t stop growing.
Perhaps not physically, as Notre Dame’s diminutive but ever-ascendent star point guard still stands just five-foot-six. But her performances seem to find new rungs to climb weekly.
A freshman wall was long seen as something of an inevitability for Hidalgo –such is the nature of having your first career game be a 31-point outing against a top ten opponent. It was clear that she was destined for stardom, but surely some regression to the mean of rookie play would emerge eventually, right?
As of early March, it still hasn’t. Irish women’s basketball have found their stride heading into the postseason, to the tune of five consecutive wins and back-to-back victories over ranked opposition. And right at the center of the action, as the engine of the offense and sparkplug of the defense, is Hidalgo.
26 points. 8 rebounds. 6 steals. 4 assists. 40 minutes of gametime. And one huge win to seal an ACC Tournament double bye for Notre Dame.
Just weeks earlier, the Irish’s season seemed to hang in a precarious position. Niele Ivey’s squad had lost two of three, including an embarrassing, unprecedented home loss to North Carolina State.
Notre Dame meandered off the court that night looking to be without answers for how the ACC’s top-ranked offense completely lost their groove.
On Sunday the Irish walked off the court against Louisville slowly once more, but not with their heads down. They wanted to
ND SOFTBALL
savor their exit from a court soaked with the sweat of a hard-fought, statement win. They wanted to enjoy every remaining second of an electric Purcell Pavilion crowd that rose to its feet to give the home squad a standing ovation as they dribbled out the clock. One final hurrah for a team that remains in the dark as to whether they’ll host any further home games in the NCAA tournament.
Contrary to the final scoreline, Sunday was not a game Notre Dame controlled from the get-go. In fact, the Irish spent much of the first half trailing in a one-score game, before a late Louisville run gave the Cardinals a sevenpoint halftime lead.
Then came the third quarter.
The Irish started hot, scoring three quick buckets to tie the game, and sustained that firepower over a ten minute stretch that buried the visitors.
Notre Dame poured in thirty points in the third quarter, highlighted by a remarkable 19-1 run that included a five minute Louisville scoring drought.
After giving up 36 firsthalf points, the Irish buckled down to allow just 22 in the second half.
Louisville couldn’t find their rhythm against a Notre Dame zone defense that pounced on every opportunity to trap and double, turning the ball over 11 times and shooting just 21% from the field over the game’s final 20 minutes. The Cardinals went without a field goal for nearly four minutes to end the contest as the Irish padded their lead, part of a perpetual quest to rack up always-useful style points for the NCAA tournament seeding committee. The ovation from the crowd as the
Purcell buzzer rang on Notre Dame’s biggest win against a ranked opponent this season wasn’t a bad perk either.
The Irish’s formula for success, at one point a work in progress, is now beginning to become etched in stone. Hidalgo relentlessly spearheads the offense and defense. Junior guard Sonia Citron adds tallies in basically every column of the stat sheet. And for senior forward Maddy Westbeld, who’s now had 10+ points and 10+ rebounds in three of her last four games, double-doubles are starting to become predestined.
Notre Dame’s big three, as Ivey referred to her star trio after Sunday’s game, can almost always be relied on for production. But for the Irish to not just win, but thrive against a top-25 opponent, as they did against Louisville? They need contributions from everyone on the roster.
Kylee Watson had perhaps her best game of the season against the Cardinals, posting 10 points and four rebounds. More importantly, she refused to be moved on defense down low, putting forth a stalwart effort that included a highlight-reel block on Louisville forward Nyla Harris in the third quarter.
After the game, Ivey gave plaudits to Watson and the rest of the Irish frontcourt for rising to the occasion.
“She was so locked in defensively,” Ivey said. “The last game, [I] thought that Louisville did a great job on the boards.
Our posts stepped up tonight. They did a great job of defending their post. They were intentional about their defense. I thought [Watson’s] block ignited us.”
Elsewhere, the Irish got their usual key rotational production from the team’s
secondary guard platoon of KK Bransford and Anna DeWolfe. Neither DeWolfe or Bransford have been volume scorers often this season - averaging 8.9 and 7.3 points per game this season respectively - but both bring an invaluable change of pace both on and off the ball that affords the alwayshard charging Hidalgo some rest. They may not stuff the statsheet, but Notre Dame are markedly better off when Bransford and DeWolfe are on their game.
Sunday’s game was a physical one, the mark of an evergrowing rivalry between two of the ACC’s top programs. The teams combined for 37 fouls and 39 free throws.
15 different players between the two teams received at least one whistle on the day, and seven received
at least three. But the Irish, usually more well-known for their high-flying offense than robust physicality, didn’t back down.
“We expect that. We prepare for that,” said Hidalgo, who attempted a seasonhigh 15 free-throw attempts. “But we have a great trainer, so we’ll be OK. She’ll take care of us.”
Having clinched the fourth seed in the ACC Tournament with the win, Notre Dame will now also enjoy an extra day of rest before their quarterfinal contest. For Sonia Citron, though, more important than any method of postgame recovery is the final score.
“You feel a lot less sore when you win.”
Contact J.J. Post at jpost2@nd.edu
Irish come up short against Virginia Tech
By CLAIRE WATSON Sports WriterThe Notre Dame softball team, now 8-8 on the season, came up short this weekend against Virginia Tech. The Irish lost the first game against the Hokies 9-1, the second game 9-3 and the third game 11-5.
In the first game, sophomore Micaela Kastor started in the circle and threw four innings. Kastor allowed seven hits, seven earned runs and had one strikeout. Junior Shannon Becker came into the circle throwing the last two innings of the game. Becker allowed
two hits, two runs, one earned run and had one strikeout. Neither team scored in the first inning, but the Irish scored the first run of the game in the second. The Hokies were quick to recover, scoring three runs in the third inning, four runs in the fifth inning and two runs in the sixth inning which led to the final score of 9-1. Graduate student Alexis Laudenslager started on the mound in the second game for the Irish throwing 3.1 innings. Laudenslager allowed nine hits, eight earned runs and had three strikeouts. Becker came in relief and finished the game
allowing two hits, one earned run and one strikeout.Virginia Tech took the early lead in the first inning, second inning and fourth inning.
The Hokies scored five runs in the first, two in the second and one in the fourth, making the score 8-0 against the Irish. The Irish put their first points on the board in the fifth inning, making the score 8-3, but the Hokies added another point to the board to make the final score of the game 9-3. In the final game against Virginia Tech, freshman Kami Kamzik made her first collegiate start in the circle for the Irish pitching four
innings. Kamzik allowed three hits, six runs and five earned runs. Laudenslager stepped on the mound in the fifth inning for the Irish allowing two hits, four earned runs and had one strikeout. Kastor closed out the game in the circle in the sixth inning allowing one run and one hit. The Hokies took the lead in the first and second inning, scoring one point in both innings. Notre Dame added a point onto the board for themselves in the third inning, making the score 2-1. Neither team scored in the fourth, but Virginia Tech was able to put up eight points against the
Irish in the fifth inning.
The Irish only put up three, making the score now 10-4. Virginia Tech added one more point for themselves in the sixth inning with Notre Dame following suit in the seventh, ultimately ending the game with a score of 11-5. Notre Dame softball is now looking ahead to Marshall March Madness this upcoming weekend, where they will be playing Marshall, Indiana State and Ball State to kick off spring break.
Contact Claire Watson at cwatson@nd.edu
Baseball
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them to victory, galvanizing the offense. Trailing 9-3 after three innings Saturday, Notre Dame ended the top of the fifth on top 12-11. Moreno, who tied an Irish program record with a threehomer game last season, reached that illustrious mark once again. He started the Irish rally with a two-run shot in the fourth, brought the Irish within one by clearing the wall the very next inning and tacked on much needed insurance with another long ball in the eighth.
Junior right-hander Ricky Reeth was an unsung hero for the Irish on Saturday as well. After Notre Dame’s first two pitchers surrendered 11 runs (10 earned) through 3.2 innings, Reeth threw four scoreless innings to allow the offense to pull ahead rather than keep playing catch-up.
Saturday’s game was so crazy that Penney’s two-run shot in the fourth hardly registered as a notable moment once the dust finally settled. But he made sure his mark on the weekend would not be forgotten. Down by a whopping 9-2 margin after an inning in the series finale, Penney started the
comeback train with his third round-tripper of the weekend to lead off the third. Slowly but surely, the Irish chipped away, bringing the score level in the fifth after threestraight multi-run innings.
Tennessee Tech regained an 11-9 edge by, of all things, a wild pitch and a passed ball. But the might of Penney and the Irish was too much for the home team to overcome. Penney circled the bags again in the seventh inning, tying the game with a two-run blast. Baumgardt’s second RBI double of the day gave the Irish the lead for good in the eighth, with Gumpf tacking on the insurance courtesy of a two-run shot himself.
Last season, the Irish reached double-digit runs nine times in 54 games. They’ve already hit that mark in half of their 10 contests in 2024. It was the first time Notre Dame scored 10-plus runs in at least three straight games since April 30 to May 10, 2022. That dominant 2022 offense did so twice. The pitching will need to improve, but a team containing as much power and resilience as the Irish have shown this season is a nightmare for anyone to face
Contact Andrew McGuinness at amcguinn@nd.edu
W. Lacrosse
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was there to lead the way. She struck for Notre Dame’s only two goals of the third quarter, which ended with the Irish ahead 5-4.
Early strikes separated by just 57 seconds from senior midfielder Mary Kelly Doherty and Wolak gave Notre Dame some breathing room.
The game ended without a single goal in the final 10:55 after North Carolina got one back, with the Irish defense preventing them from pulling any closer.
In truth, the Tar Heels may have been fortunate to hang around for so long.
The Irish were the better team in numerous key areas, most notably doubling up their opponents in shots (34-17). It was a consistent trend, too, with Notre Dame recording twice as many shots in three of the four quarters.
Halfpenny’s team also came out on top in ground balls (19-12) and draw controls (10-5, 66.7%) while also committing six fewer turnovers.
Notre Dame did struggle to hit the net at times,
recording a lesser but still impressive 20-14 advantage in shots on goal.
Senior Lilly Callahan delivered a season-high nine saves, just two shy of her previous record in conference play.
Combine that with the usual stellar draw control work from Doherty and senior midfielder Kelly Denes (four each), the Irish took care of business despite a lack of depth scoring (only three players recorded a point) and a rare off-game from graduate student midfielder Kasey Choma, who was held without a goal for the first time in 69 career collegiate contests.
Not only have the Irish now beaten two of their better teams in the country, they’ve also done so in near dominant fashion. If the Irish and Tar Heels meet again in 2024, the game will carry postseason implications. Performances like this show the Irish are a threat to beat anyone in any style — a trait that’s great to have in big games like Saturday’s.
Contact Andrew McGuinness at amcguinn@nd.edu
MBB
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Pavilion. Shrewberry’s gutsy three-ball gave Notre Dame a 64-57 lead, their largest of the evening, and the juice to close out the 69-62 win.
The entirety of the game, Notre Dame only led for 10:22, most of that time coming late. The Irish shot 5-11 from behind the arc in the second half to propel themselves to victory. Once again, hometown freshman guard Markus Burton led the way for the Irish. Burton put up 21 points and six rebounds, both team highs. The Irish as a whole shot 42% from the field, although they were outscored in the paint 32-18.
Notre Dame rounds out the first regular season of the Micah Shrewsberry era this week, with road trips to No. 9 North Carolina on Tuesday (7 p.m. tip, ACCN) and Virginia Tech on Saturday (2:30 p.m., ESPNU). The ACC Conference tournament looms afterward, beginning March 12.
Contact Ryan Murphy at rmurph22@nd.edu
ND BASEBALL
Irish bats deliver dominant power display to sweep Tennessee Tech
ND WOMEN’S LACROSSE
By ANDREW McGUINNESS Sports EditorWhenever a team starts a new season, there is one universal goal: build an identity. No matter preseason expectations or talent, figuring out what a team can count on is paramount to finding success at every juncture of their campaign.
Just 10 games into 2024, there is no doubt what Notre Dame baseball’s identity is. This Irish team is built to slug. And their results this weekend against Tennessee Tech were just the latest piece of evidence to support it. After taking two of three from the Golden Eagles, the Irish have clobbered 28 home runs in 10 games, a 2.8 homers per game average that is double the program record (1.4, set in 2022). Notre Dame hit a program-best 79 long balls that season en route to its first College World Series berth since 2002. This year’s team is
on pace to launch about 149.
Maybe at some point the Irish bats will come back to Earth. But even their outstanding performances in their first two series pale in comparison to the slugfests that occurred in Cookeville, Tennessee, this weekend. The Irish didn’t waste any time getting started in Friday’s series opener, jumping out to a 3-0 first inning lead, with graduate student infielder Simon Baumgardt continuing his hot start with a two-run homer.
Senior outfielder Brady Gumpf and sophomore infielder Estevan Moreno connected on sixth inning solo shots to extend the Irish lead. Though Nicho Jordan’s threerun blast in the inning’s bottom half gave Tennessee Tech life, the Irish turned it into a laugher with nine runs over the final two innings. Graduate student infielder Josh Hahn, junior infielder
Jack Penney and senior infielder Connor Hincks each left the yard in that time, adding to Notre Dame’s offensive onslaught. Graduate student Bennett Flynn impressed on the pitching side, retiring all nine hitters he faced in the final three fames with a whopping seven punch outs.
However, positive stories for Irish pitching were hard to find the rest of the series. In both of the final two games of the series, the Irish were shelled for nine runs against Tennessee Tech within the first two innings.
Sunday’s starter, sophomore Caden Spivey, failed to retire any of the nine batters he faced. Notre Dame surrendered 11 runs in each contest.
For most teams, such pitching woes would be a death sentence. But the Irish bats rose to the occasion, the daunting challenge of producing enough runs to lead
see BASEBALL PAGE 11
Irish make history with win in Chapel Hill
By ANDREW McGUINNESS Sports EditorBeating Northwestern could be the spark that galvanizes Notre Dame women’s lacrosse to breakthrough championship season, just like the year the men’s team had a season ago.
But it was hard to feel that way after the Irish scored just three times in the second half in an upset loss at home to No. 4 Syracuse.
That could be the loss that symbolizes that this season will be yet another so close, but yet so far season where their championship ambitions come up short.
The jury is still out on which way things will go for Christine Halfpenny’s group.
But the Irish made one heck of a statement in their first contest against the North Carolina Tar Heels since losing to the Orange.
Not only are the Tar Heels a top-10 team themselves — the third the Irish have faced in six games — but Saturday’s showdown was Notre Dame’s first road game of the season. A year ago, the Irish were just
4-4 on the road, which stood in stark contrast to their stellar 8-1 record playing at Loftus Sports Center and Arlotta Stadium.
In the present, the Irish are perfect away from home, recording their first ever in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Earning their second win against ranked competition this year required the Irish to play a much different game than any they had been in all season.
Each of Notre Dame’s first six games of the season featured at least 25 combined goals, with the Irish notching a then-season-low 14 against both No. 3 Northwestern and Syracuse.
Saturday’s contest at Dorrance Field had just 12 tallies — total.
Almost half of them (five) came in the second quarter alone.
That would hardly seem like an offensive burst in most lacrosse games, but it especially stuck out after the defense-heavy opening 15 minutes. It took over 11 minutes for the scoreboard to change, and even then, the
Irish were on the power-play and got a free-position shot to score the first goal of the game.
But graduate student attacker Madison Ahern got it done, beating former Tewaaraton Award Watch List member Alecia Nicholas for the game’s first tally.
The offense started to pick up about halfway through the second quarter, with three goals put on the board in an 86-second span. Ahern and graduate student attacker Jackie Wolak went backto-back to give the Irish a 3-0 edge.
But in a reversal of how things went in the first quarter against Northwestern, the Irish lost a three-goal advantage late in a quarter. Alyssa Long finally got the Tar Heels on the board with 7:05 to go in the half, and goals a few minutes later by Eva Ingrilli and Reilly Casey evened the tally heading into the break, taking advantage of Irish penalty trouble.
Once again, though,
