Print Edition for The Observer for Monday, October 3, 2022

t he ‘Suppliants’: Ukraine project to visit

By EMMA DUFFY news writer

o n monday, notre dame will host its annual forum at the stadium. b ecause of this year’s theme is war and peace, notre dame has made its keynote event a presentation from the Theater of war p roductions — specifically, their project The “suppliants” p roject: u kraine.

Theater of war p roductions uses ancient texts to draw at tention to current turmoil and spark discussion. They do so by working with accomplished and awarded actors such as bill murray, a dam d river, Jesse e isenberg and many others, according to the group’s web site. i n addition, the company

partners with multiple gov ernment agencies, universities and museums. notre dame partnered with the company for last year’s forum on envi ronmental issues.

This year the company will be turning its focus to war and peace with a special focus on the crisis in u kraine by doing a dramatic reading of “The suppliants” by aeschylus. The play portrays the story of refu gees seeking asylum from vio lence and forced marriages. i n addition, it shows the varying sides of a refugee crisis.

“The play is as much about humanizing the perspectives of those refugees as they seek assistance as it is about inter rogating the cost of providing

assistance to those refugees within the city that ultimately accepts and protects them,” bryan d oerries, the group’s artistic director said. “The reason we chose it is because of the fact that it really spans both topics of war and peace.”

The project, with its set fo cus on u kraine, premiered in July, however, other cultures and conflicts have been high lighted by the company in the past. The idea behind the proj ect is that it can show univer sal to the struggles faced by many people.

however, the performance is just a small part to stimu late meaningful discussion

sustainability cup aims to educate via competition

l abor cafe talks teacher shortage

By PETER BREEN news writer

members of the notre dame community convened Friday evening in g eddes hall, the home of the center for social concerns (csc ), for the first l abor cafe of the fall semester.

dan graff, history professor and the h iggins l abor p rogram director at the csc, kicked off the conversation.

“[The l abor cafe] is the lon gest running vehicle of the h iggins l abor p rogram,” graff said. “The idea is simply to talk about compelling labor issues in a casual, collegial environ ment. no one pontificates for too long.”

graff said the l abor cafe wel comes participants beyond the “notre dame community” as

By KENDELLE HUNG-INO news writer

s tudent government, n otre d ame e nergy and the o ffice of s ustainability have collaborated for the relaunch of the s ustainability c up, a competition across all 32 n otre d ame residence halls that aims to educate students on the importance of sustainability. The cup, along with e nergy week, started s ept. 12 and will run till o ct. 7.

The s ustainability c up offers various sustainability-

related events, and points are given to halls based on their participation and attendance. The events were held in conjunction with e nergy week. a t the end of the competition, each hall’s points will be counted and ranked.

“There’s competition, and you want to beat the other dorms, so that seems to be driving more people to the events, which is great,” student government’s director of sustainability n ick a lbrinck said.

The cup is an annual

event, but this is the first year that it is being run by the student government.

“To get the most engagement [and] the most communications out effectively, the collaboration between different campus entities is really important,” a lbrinck said.

nd e nergy e ducation and o utreach associate program director a nne b erges p illai said being able to connect with student

Index tracks climate readiness

By MAXWELL FELDMAN news writer

i ncreasingly people, gov ernments and corporations must cope with the impact of climate extremes, p rofessor Jessica m c m anus warnell said.

a ccording to m c m anus warnell, an affiliated fac ulty member of the nd e nvironmental c hange i nitiative which houses

the n otre d ame g lobal a daptation i nitiative ( nd gain ). The organization aims to help private and public sectors prioritize cli mate adaptation, ultimately lowering risk and enhancing readiness.

nd gain is a consortium of researchers dedicated to examining vulnerability and adaptation data globally and

The Theater of War Productions will perform for Notre Dame’s annual forum on war and peace

Courtesty of Bryan Doerries

Performers will read “The Suppliants” by Aeschylus for the forum on war and peace. The play tells the story of refugees seeking asylum.

KENDELLE HUNG-INO I The Observer

Students had the opportunity to attend various sustainability-related discussion events, including one led by Notre Dame faculty members. Attending the events allows students to get points for their dorm.

Hebda

Thomas

Willoughby Thom

Ryan Vigilante

Maggie Klaers

Sayut

Johnson

Mathew

Question of the Day:

What is your favorite spot on campus?

Ryan Murdock senior off-campus “Notre Dame Stadium student section.”

Maura Hagaboom senior Pasquerilla West Hall “Riley Hall.”

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Today’s

Madison Wagner senior Pasquerilla West Hall

“The grassy knoll behind PDub.”

t he next f

Tuesday

Corrections

The Observer regards itself as a professional publication and strives for the highest standards of journalism at all times. We do, however, recognize that we will make mistakes. If we have made a mistake, please contact us at editor@ndsmcobserver.com so we can correct our error.

Multi-Language Reading Club

Collaboration Hub

4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

An opportunity to practice fluency.

The Suppliants

Project: Ukraine Notre Dame Stadium

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Featuring Emmywinning actors.

Kayla Daruty senior off-campus “JFam.”

Emma Keppel senior Pasquerilla West Hall

“The benches on God Quad.”

Daniel Zhu sophomore Duncan Hall

“Duncan Student Center.”

Café com Português Decio Cafe

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Practice Portuguese with coffee and pão de queijo. All are welcome.

IDEAs Challenge Innovation Park Room 109

6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

A 60-second pitch competition for prizes.

Want your event included here?

news@ndsmcobserver.com

Wednesday

Grants and Fellowships Lecture online

11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Open to Arts and Letters faculty.

Italian Coffee Hour Decio Commons

5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Join members of the Italian program for pane e nutella.

Thursday

Italian Research Seminar

102 Hesburgh Library

5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Hosted by the Center for Italian Studies.

“Macbeth” Washington Hall

7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Shakespeare starring Actors From The London Stage.

Friday

Signs of the Times Lecture

Geddes Hall, McNeill Library

12 p.m. - 1 p.m.

By Jan McGowan.

Summer Language Abroad Session

O’Shaughnessy 116 12:45 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Information about the SLA grant.

Reid

Matthew Broder Graphics

RYAN VIGILANTE | The Observer

The dining halls had barbecue available for students Sunday night, a meal which consisted of corn on the cob, baked beans, mac and cheese and pulled pork. Pictured is South Dining Hall, the older of the University’s two dining halls, which opened in 1927.

it’s traditionally defined.

“[We] bring together mem bers of the notre dame com munity, and that’s broadly defined, we welcome people who aren’t necessarily cardcarrying members of notre dame,” he said. “v isitors might be community members [and] all are welcome.”

The co-facilitators of the gathering were notre dame se niors Lucia carbajal, a history major, and brendan mcFeely, a political science and classics double-major. The co-facilita tors determine the topic of con versation and help select the suggested readings.

The topic of discussion for the evening was the teacher shortage in American K-12 classrooms today.

Kevin c hristiano, a sociol ogy professor, approached the issue of a shortage by looking at the word’s literal economic definition.

“The usual solution to any shortage of anything if you’re an economist is to say … if you want more workers in a par ticular type of job, you raise the level of compensation, and that ought to draw in greater amounts of labor,” christiano said.

mcFeely expanded the scope of the conversation from the absence of teachers in the classroom to the more general lack of food service employees and custodians — workers cru cial to the well-ordered opera tion of K-12 schools.

“When the department of education classifies local edu cation shortages or rates of employment, they don’t differ entiate between teachers, cus todians or anyone who works with food … those are typically not certified positions. [They are] the ones that have had shortages for even longer [and] are very important but not as well respected,” mcFeely said.

Graff confirmed that this dif ficulty has been affecting the south bend school system.

“bus drivers in the south bend school district has been an ongoing, like almost a de cade-long issue,” Graff said. “[You] haven’t been able to rely on the bus showing up be cause there are not enough bus drivers.”

Acknowledging the larger factors at play, most recently, the switch to remote learning during the pandemic, carbajal did not condemn teachers for the shortage in the education labor market.

“[Teachers] were very re luctant to leave, and part of it was the burnout. It wasn’t that they were happy to leave or if they had an opportunity that they were more excited about,” carbajal said. “It was that the quality of life wasn’t fitting it, and they weren’t getting the support from their employers. so, it was really unfortunate that it seemed like that was the

issue at hand.”

Graff encapsulated the frus tration that walks hand-inhand with the labor question in American classrooms, ex pounding on who the stake holders might be.

“We live in a society that trumpets education is the route for success and that the an swer is individual achievement and education to achieve the American dream,” Graff said.

“While at the same time, [there are] all these comments are about the indignities of work ing as an educator, either be cause the pay is so bad or the conditions are really troubling. What in the world is going on there?”

After the conversation con cluded, participants had the chance to hang back to propose topic ideas for future cafes.

Two more Labor cafe gather ings are scheduled for this fall, on oct. 28 and dec. 2.

Contact Peter Breen at pbreen2@nd.edu

PAId AdverTIsemen T

PETER BREEN | The Observer

Members of the greater Notre Dame community met to discuss the K-12 teacher shortage at the Center for Social Concerns’ first Labor Cafe of the semester. Two more Labor Cafes are scheduled for the fall semester.

PFAS chemicals found in school uniforms

By MATTHEW BRODER news Writer

a recent study involving the work of n otre d ame re searchers found high levels of dangerous chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFas ) in chil dren’s school uniforms sold across n orth a merica.

The study, published ear lier this month in the journal “ e nvironmental s cience and Technology Letters,” found elevated levels of fluorine in 65 percent of children’s tex tiles sampled, but the con centrations were highest in school uniforms. PFas are manmade chemicals par ticularly desirable for their stain-resistant properties, hence their usage in school uniforms.

“PFas are very good sur factants because of the way they are made,” said Graham Peaslee, a lead researcher behind the study and profes sor of physics at n otre d ame. “o ne part of the molecules is water-loving, and the other part is oil-loving, and these

molecules like to line the lay ers between water and air or water and oils. Thus, if you apply PFas to paper or tex tiles, you achieve quite high water and stain resistance on the material.”

The study investigated a to tal of 72 textile products pur chased online in a merican and c anadian markets in 2020 and 2021. r esearchers focused on products mar keted as water/stain resis tant, windproof or wrinkle resistant. o ther items tested include outerwear like rain coats and mittens, accesso ries like bibs and baby shoes and other miscellaneous clothing like sweatshirts and swimwear.

b ut PFas come with a cost. Known as forever chemicals, they are very persistent in the environment.

“Think thousands of years for each molecule,” Peaslee said. “The product using PFas might decay away in 60 days, but then 100 percent of the PFas on its surface will be released to the landfill leach ate and enter the surface and

groundwater pool where we subsequently drink them.”

b eyond this, many PFas are known to be bioaccumula tive, meaning they can build up in the body over time.

“ m any have been found to have human toxicity, involv ing cancers, thyroid disease, hypertension, endocrine sys tems, ulcerative colitis and immune system suppression to name a few,” Peaslee said. They have also been linked to an increased risk of asth ma, obesity and neurode velopmental and behavioral problems.

The reason for the con cern regarding children’s school uniforms is that chil dren are much more sensi tive to chemicals than adults, mainly because of their body weight. a small amount of toxin is a much larger dose for a child than it is for an adult who weighs twice as much. a nd any amount of toxin can have an impact on a child’s development.

“c hildren have rapidly de veloping systems in their body, and chemicals can

often alter those develop ments in a bad way, while in adults, the systems are already largely developed,” Peaslee said.

b ut particularly worrying to Peaslee is the immunosup pression capabilities of PFas observed in the body.

“The more in the blood sera, the less effective any vaccine becomes,” he said. “ i n this way, PFas don’t just encourage one disease to form, but any opportunistic disease or cancer can get past the natural immune system more easily.”

The national h ealth and nutrition e xamination s urveys from the cdc rou tinely find detectable levels of PFas in blood samples of children between the ages of three and 11. PFas can en ter the body from exposure to skin or inhalation of con taminated dust in the air. b ecause of how useful they are as surfactants, they are ubiquitous in modern life.

“ it is a much wider prob lem than just clothing, since there are over 200 industrial

or commercial uses for PFas published in a review paper in 2020,” Peaslee said.

The items tested were all initially screened at n otre d ame using particle-induced gamma-ray emission spec troscopy (P iG e ), a method developed by Peaslee to test for the presence of fluorine. Using this method, his lab has detected PFas in face masks, cosmetics, fast food wrappers and even drinking water.

“There is no consumer op tion to purchase clothing that can be washed instead of clothing that comes coat ed with chemicals to reduce stains,” Peaslee said. “We hope one of the outcomes of this work would be increased labeling of textiles to fully inform the purchaser of the chemicals used to treat the fabric prior to sale so con sumers have the ability to pick garments that were not treated with chemicals for their children.”

Contact Matthew Broder at mbroder@nd.edu

and allow people to discuss their own stories, according to d oerries.

“There was a woman … i remember speaking [to] from nicaragua, and she spoke of the revolution there, and she spoke of living within an au tocracy and a police state,” d oerries said. “When she was speaking during the dis cussion, it became clear that she was also saying things or entering into a space where the words had significance

beyond just saying that she could be endangering her self or saying those words that she was meeting the Ukrainians in a certain space that wasn’t necessarily a safe space.”

The showing of the perfor mance at notre dame will hit close to home for exchange students from Ukraine, like Yaryna Pysko, a first-year master’s Ukrainian exchange student.

“it is my personal experi ence with the war in Ukraine that is going to be on display as the 2500-year-old text reso nates with current events. but

i believe taking part in it would be more therapeutic and ca thartic rather than trigger ing,” Pysko wrote in an email. “i fully support the project and believe its mission to be con nected to peacebuilding as it spreads awareness about and commences public discussion on global issues associated with violence, which can con nect with a lot of people in the audience who went through similar experiences in differ ent settings. This project al lows voices and perspectives to be heard, for which i am thankful.”

To d oerries, the location

of the performance has pro found implications. notre dame is known for a plethora of reasons, however, football is one of its main landmarks.

d oerries feels that by having the performance in the sta dium, notre dame is making a bold statement.

“This [is a] protected place within this c atholic institu tion, where we’re now going to have this very challenging conversation about what we’re willing to sacrifice for people,” he said.

d oerries noted the perfor mance allows students to hear about real-world issues from

the people affected.

“i think it’s also kind of great for notre dame to engage with us to do something that per haps it couldn’t do otherwise, to create a different hierarchy of exchange,” d oerries said. “i f we’ve done our work, the people who are speaking in the audience, in ordinary set tings, would not necessarily feel empowered to be the ones who are speaking. … Perhaps they’ve never spoken before in public in their lives.”

i n addition, d oerries stat ed the c atholic nature of the University is also able to play an important role in this production

“For me, there’s something tied to c atholicism, especial ly notre dame … and their interest and commitment to social justice and to protect ing others who may not have the advantages that we have,” d oerries said.

a t the event, there will be food trucks with free food. additionally, the first 500 stu dents will receive free notre dame blankets. The perfor mance will include actors Tate d onovan, Keith david and a nthony e dwards.

d oerries said the content of the project is applicable to all.

“This war in Ukraine and related wars across the coun try and the world not only are having an impact on people, which we should care about, but in this globalized world in which we live, we’re all inter dependently connected, and it’s having an impact on us,” d oerries said.

Contact Emma Duffy at eduffy5@nd.edu

Paid a dverT isemen T

within the United States. The initiative works to enhance the world’s understand ing of adaptation through knowledge, products and services that inform pub lic and private actions, and investments in vulnerable communities, McManus Warnell said.

However, sustainability metrics are a separate is sue. Notre Dame is a mem ber of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and tracks cam pus sustainability through its STA r S program.

Danielle Wood, the project director of ND-GAIN, added that ND-GAIN is “an opensource index,” meaning it can “help private and pub lic sectors prioritize invest ments for climate adaptation to better lower risk and en hance readiness.”

McManus Warnell said she introduces the index to students in her business ethics and sustainability classes as “an example of a

science-based tool for com municating climate change data to key stakeholders in cluding communities, gov ernments and businesses.”

Classes in which she has shared the index with stu dents include several offered through the management department at the Mendoza College of Business, like Foundations of Ethical Behavior, Sustainable Communities and Global Business and Climate, Economics and Business Ethics.

ND-GAIN is “one of the first and still one of the few international climate indi ces,” Wood said. “It is used by a variety of stakeholders, from federal agencies around the world to NGOs like the Global Center on Adaptation out of the Netherlands and financial entities like Morgan Stanley. It gathers 45 core indicators to measure vulnerability and readiness and allows users to com pare countries for risk and readiness.”

McManus Warnell said she believes ND-GAIN is an important program that ad dresses a pertinent topic. As

Albrinck, Berges Pillai and Balas worked together since spring to coordinate the competition.

the impacts of a changing climate impact communities around the world, “stake holders and decision makers need robust data upon which to base policy development, investment decisions and other public and private actions.”

The decline of ND-GAIN leader scores is driven by the index’s measurement of climate readiness, which consists of economic, gov ernance and social com ponents. At the same time, “many of the highest-ranked countries saw an increase in vulnerability to the effects of climate change,” McManus Warnell said.

ND-GAIN measures vul nerability across six com ponents — including food, water, health, human habitat, infrastructure and ecosys tem services — for sensitiv ity, exposure and adaptive capacity to climate risks.

There are similarities among leaderboard coun tries, Wood said.

“Many do face moderate exposure to climate change, but they have good capaci ties to deal with the potential climate risks,” she said. “In

be converted into energy.

general, they are also better prepared for natural disas ters and practice good gover nance, which is essential to adaptation.”

At the same time, Wood said the drop of ND-GAIN scores among the highestranked countries should serve as a critical reminder.

“The decline of the topranked countries under scores that no country is immune to potentially ex treme impacts of climate change,” she said.

In McManus Warnell’s courses, she introduces NDGAIN as the class examines issues of adaptation to cli mate change.

“Adaptation, or the process through which humans and human systems adjust to cli mate and its effects to both minimize harm and identify benefits, depends on good data,” she said. “Government officials, business leaders and other decision-makers can’t determine how to re spond if they can’t measure what’s happening and what’s coming. ND-GAIN’s vulner ability and adaptive capacity data is informing decisionmakers around the world,

and it is a powerful example for students of how data can inform decision-making. Students will, of course, soon be the decision-makers in these leadership roles.”

On Notre Dame’s campus, McManus Warnell said the University has the Office of Sustainability along with other initiatives such as a standing committee repre senting students, faculty and administrators in operations and from functional units across the campus who work on Notre Dame’s sustainabil ity strategies.

“Communities can use ND-GAIN data to determine their specific vulnerabili ties to climate impacts, to understand readiness and to inform decisions about their adaptation initia tives,” McManus Warnell said. “Businesses can use ND-GAIN data to identify where and how to invest re sources, determine new op portunities and respond to specific needs of communities around the world.”

Contact Maxwell Feldman at mfeldma3@nd.edu

government and the Office of Sustainability is a big deal because they both have big audiences.

“Having it be student-led gets more momentum and interest from students,” Anna Balas, the program manager for outreach, education and engagement at the Office of Sustainability, said.

The cup kicked off with a “Weigh the Waste Night” at South and North Dining Hall, students discarded their food scraps into bins before putting away their dishes. Each night, the dining hall collects students’ food waste, packages it and sends it to an off-campus location to

“That day, we did it in front of the students. It helped to show them the process,” sophomore Madison Clancy said. Clancy was one of the volunteers at the waste collection tables at North Dining Hall.

Throughout the cup, students have had the opportunity to attend a sustainability career expo, lectures and discussions that aim to spread awareness

of various sustainability efforts the University is involved in.

“We’ve had a lot of participation, honestly, more than I thought,” Albrinck said. “It’s been fun for me to count all the points and be like ‘Wow, there’s so many people that do these things.’”

Some final points in the cup can be earned through completing a survey and quiz and by attending the “Sign of the Times” event

on Oct. 7 at McNeill Library in Geddes Hall. The survey and quiz close on Oct. 7 as well.

More information can be found on the student government website.

“I’m hoping that we can get the students to become more and more involved and engaged and care more beyond words,” Berges Pillai said.

Contact Kendelle Hung-Ino at khungino@nd.edu

The Watcher House

Caroline Collins news Writer

I grew up in a quaint, suburban neighborhood in n ew Jersey, exit 135 for those familiar with the Garden s tate Parkway. Picture newly built homes with at tached garages, families with big dogs, soccer games on s undays and a picturesque downtown with all the essentials — the bagel shop, the local diner and the penny candy drugstore.

m y family has lived in the same house for my entire life. I grew up spending the summers barefoot in the park with the neighborhood kids and I went to high school with my classmates from kindergarten. All of the neighbors knew each other.

When I was younger, I would complain to my mom that our town was boring and that I wished some thing exciting would happen. o ther than that c harles Addams used to live in my town and his house in spired the Addams Family h ouse, there wasn’t any thing noteworthy or exciting about Westfield, n ew Jersey.

I think some of this desire for excitement probably came from watching too many episodes of “20–20” and true crime shows. It was crazy to think these mysteries happened in real life, in comparison to my town where the biggest scandal was a series of car robberies (because people left their car keys inside their cars).

s o in 2014 when one of our neighbors bought a house and began to receive threatening letters from an unknown stalker, it was the biggest story in Westfield’s history. The incident began with murmurs within the neighborhood, then it hit the local news, then the national news and now it is being made into a n etflix series, “The Watcher,” that is scheduled for release this o ctober.

“The Watcher” is about 657 b oulevard. b oulevard is this beautiful, historic street on the south side of town. It is a picture-perfect neighborhood and 657 was the quintessential “dream home”— six bedrooms, four bathrooms and a large backyard.

s oon after the family bought the house, they began to receive threatening letters from a stranger who said they were watching the family and their children. The messages became increasingly troublesome and the stalker who called themself the Watcher threatened to harm the children if the family stayed in the house.

The family moved out of the house on b oulevard, and everyone knew the situation because they were our classmates, our friends and our neighbors.

The town was abuzz with questions about who the Watcher was. Was it a jealous buyer that didn’t get the house? Was it one of the neighbors from down the street? c ould it be the family sending the letters to themselves? There were even rumors that the letters had been tested and a woman’s dn A was found on the envelope.

Years passed but no one ever discovered the identity of the Watcher. The house sat unoccupied for many years before it was sold again. I used to go for walks around the block and when I passed the Watcher h ouse I would hurry by with my head down. From the outside, the house looked like any other house, but if I looked at the windows with the white frilly cur tains for too long I almost felt like the Watcher was watching me too. The nightmare that was the Watcher h ouse became a local legend whispered in the dark by trick-or-treating children.

s ince the Watcher is the most exciting thing that’s happened in Westfield, I will now be referring to my hometown as the spooky h alloween fright that is the Watcher h ouse instead of suburban n ew Jersey.

You can contact Caroline at ccolli23@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Observer.

The freshmen flu: A story of sniffles

Jonah Tran de re Publica

The temperature is dropping. The leaves are changing colors. The flannel and gray sweatpants combo have arrived. It is sweat er weather if you will. As of s ept. 22, at 9:04 p.m. ed T, fall has arrived in the n orthern h emisphere and at n otre d ame too. You might be tempted to think that the most im portant development of late is that you can wear cute “autumn-themed” clothes or that it is finally socially acceptable to indulge in pumpkin-spice beverages. b ut I draw your attention to the elephant in the room, an elephant which we room-dwellers neglect to acknowledge. With the arrival of sweaters and lattes comes the notorious “freshmen flu,” a ubiquitous ailment of varying sever ity that targets especially first-years but has been observed to affect others.

The “flu,” if it can even be aptly compared to influenza, begins with a sore, scratchy throat that progresses into a dry cough. o nce the dry cough settles in, the other symptoms appear like sinus congestion and fatigue. The characteristic mucous-filled cough is the final and most prominent symptom. s uch is the common illness pro gression that I and most likely you endured. s ome experience a minor degree of these symptoms, while other more unfortunate others suffer worse.

Take care not to turn the blind eye to the things you witness every day in class. You see the few extra empty chairs in the back of class. You notice the tissues and cough drops competing for pocket space with your phone and wallet. You hear the not–so silent silence of exam rooms. s niffles. s neezes. h acks. Throat–clearings — whatever noise that makes. It is obvious that the “freshmen flu” plagues the students of n otre d ame.

h ow then are we students to stop the spread of so widespread a disease? I offer a few hypothetical solutions. b e absent from class and recover in your dorm. In theory, this sounds perfectly reasonable. e xcept, you would sacrificing valuable class and studying time amid exam season, a dubious wager that has direct effect on sometimes 25% of your semester grade. c ross that one out. Purchase medicine from the huddle m art conveniently placed in LaFortune. The only issue is that the desired cold/flu medi cines are often out-of-stock, snatched up by the other infirmed. And if you are fortunate enough to get your hands on meager sized bottle of d ayquil, the huddle m art happily receives a generous $12.99 increase in rev enue in exchange for your health. I am still cross about that transaction. Forget it. o n top of these logistical impracticali ties, I have noticed a few subtle stigmas with respect to the “freshmen flu.” In class, it seems almost undignified to cough or snif fle too loudly as it might draw unwarranted attention or disapproval. And no, suppress ing your cough to a barely audible volume does not mean that your neighbor did not hear it, even if they did not look up. There is an overbearing silence in common study ar eas like r emick Family h all or the r eading r oom in h esburgh Library where I fear to make a noise, let alone sniffle. I fear the day when someone accosts me for such a despi cable crime. With respect to getting up from

your seat in class, I sense a similar stigma. m y neighbor might think, “Wow, is he really getting up to blow his nose. h ow disrespect ful?” Perhaps this is a sign my social anxiety is getting the better of me. h owever, I can not read someone else’s mind, and thus I am reserved to these types of sentiments. It remains that the consensus is to stay put for the 50 or 75 minutes and suppress the snif fles and stifle the coughs, even if it means mildly distracting others.

At this point, the “freshmen flu” seems to be more of a plague than a common cold. In contemplating this idea, I attempted to con jure up something good that can come from illness. I once thought rather optimistically that perhaps the “freshmen flu” is indicative of n otre d ame’s dedication to a diverse stu dent population, of whom hail from all cor ners of the world. s ubsequently, I wondered if the tour guides tell prospective students and families of the hundreds of ailments that find their origin in the hundreds of hometowns. Probably not. Yes, it is fantastic that geographically diverse students live at n otre d ame, but how does that cure my cough? It does not.

And so, I offer this final reflection. c onsider the reason for why a majority of n otre d ame is sick. I concede that there ex ists a specific virus that causes the “fresh men flu,” but I challenge that there is more at play. Given the change in seasons and weather, one’s exposure to sunlight, vitamin d, is dramatically reduced. With respect to classes, exam season is here, and everyone likewise must devote more and more time to studying or doing work. It is no longer “ s yllabus Week.” We now must engage in se rious work, leaving our silliness for another day. Late nights of studying, all-nighters and copious amounts of caffeine are tried and true practices to ensure preparation for as sessments. h owever, these tactics invariably have adverse effects on one’s sleep schedule and by extension, health.

Perhaps, the “freshmen flu” is good in the sense that it unites us as a community in a moment of reflection to consider how we have been treating our bodies. m aybe it is that our poor time budgeting and neglect of self-care are finally catching up to us. Poor eating habits, lack of exercise or self-isola tion, all of which are common, are, never theless, harmful to one’s mental and bodily health. Perhaps, we need to allocate more time to self-care, whether that manifests as engaging in an extracurricular passion, buy ing a delicious dessert or snack or even just sleeping. Take care not to forget those sim ple pleasures of life, which have an uncanny ability to keep you sane amid the craziness of academic life.

Find times to treat your health like wealth, even if it means washing your d ayquil cough syrup down with a pumpkin spice latte.

Jonah Tran is a first-year at Notre Dame double majoring in finance and economics and minor ing in classics. Although fully embracing the no torious title of a “Menbroza,” he prides himself on being an Educated Young Southern Gentleman. You can contact Jonah by email at jtran5@ nd.edu

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Greatest ally, cause of your anguish

Carlos Basurto eudaemonic banter

our brains are but wonderful machines. This term is no exaggeration by any extent of the imagination, for they have been fine-tuned through millions of years of evolution into the survival powerhouses we know and love so dearly. They are, through constant innovation, quite literally the line between life and death and as such have allowed us to become the (self-declared) rulers of this world.

nevertheless, it is for this very reason that our brains are also wonderfully perfect torture devices. due to their nature — that is, to prioritize our survival — they have inadvertently brought upon humanity some of the greatest sources of our agony.

For you see, a brain has been designed so as to spend its resources in that which does not exist in the here and the now. our brains record information and carefully con struct a gallery of memories with the purpose to learn from your experiences. They craft the past, a past that exists ex clusively in that cranial bathtub, and with it theorize about the future. Is that not fantastic, the ability to think? This is the reason our ever-wise ancestors noticed that maybe washing your hands was important or that perhaps one should not eat raw babies. They acquired knowledge from their mistakes and bettered their lives, always planning ahead. It was required in order for you to be here.

Yet, that is the crux of the issue, the there is not the here, the then is not the now. We have erected structures, bound our fellow men to law and established society. Gone are the days of being pursued by bloodthirsty animals and avoiding precipices covered by fog and snow. For many, their greatest daily plight is having to turn in our homework assignment mere minutes before midnight.

still, our brains may be ever incredible yet they are any thing but fast. What took our brains millions of years to

achieve through trial and error we have formulated in four millennia, and with the birth of exponentially more power ful technology there is no possibility for our cerebrum–cer ebellum dream team to keep up with the pace. As such, the original mechanisms remain present. That is to say, though the stakes are lower than ever, they may not necessarily be perceived as such whatsoever. The brain did not change their strategy of assaulting their host’s body with panic–in ducing hormones at the face of danger, but rather, adapted to the new challenges. exams are certainly not matters of life and death, but we are capable of deceiving ourselves into feeling like they are.

our brains, then, are experts of both future and past, administering their judgment through unconformity. They riddle us with guilt when considering our prior mistakes and overwhelm us with anxiety as we contemplate our actions to-be. Though neither of which are tangible or mal leable, the brain cares not as it relentlessly reminds. They drown us in the abstract, in the ifs, in anything and every thing that it believes may hurt you in the hopes of support ing your survival, but in truth, brings nothing but misery.

This is what I refer to as the Autopilot. The Autopilot is named as such for, when engaged, it can override all logi cal thought. It erases any semblance of control in one’s circumstance and, dragged by reactionary emotions, leads on to panic. Worst of all, the Autopilot is the easiest thing to do. how is one not to be crushed by the weight of past and future colliding and merging? It only makes sense to give in and shatter, no? After all, our brain incessantly specifies how ever–colossal and imminent they are, how frail one is to stop them.

however, though our brains and their great Autopilot rule our past and future, there is one source of perception that can never be conquered by them. For, when consid ered, the past and future do not exist. certainly the past existed at some point, and perhaps the future will, but in the here and now, in the present, they do not exist. They are

not real and, though their influence remains, they have no reason to actively control the present.

Although your brain may be infatuated by that which does not exist, your body can only perceive that which does. Your body is always grounded, always living in the present, always real. Your body is immune to the Autopilot.

As such, the greatest weapon to fight your brain? Your greatest anti-survival tool, key to your happiness? Turning Autopilot off, if only just for a brief moment of bliss, and focusing on your body.

It is to focus on what is real, on what is right in front of you, for you never know when you will get the opportunity to experience it again. Past mistakes and future worries cannot hurt you once anchored in the present. That does not equivocate to a lack of care, but rather, a conscious deci sion to live in the moment. For that is the only moment that is actually real. If we allow our brain to trick us into living in that which does not exist, time will not be merciful. It will march on with indifference and–while experiencing inexistent and inapplicable agony –we will miss out on our one shot.

so, perhaps, try to stop thinking every once in a while, and give living a chance.

Carlos A. Basurto is a first-year at Notre Dame ready to delve into his philosophy major with the hopes of adding the burden of a computer science major on top of that. When not busy, you can find him consuming yet another 3+ hour-long analysis video of a show he has yet to watch or masochistically completing every achievement from a variety of video games. Now with the power to channel his least insane ideas, feel free to talk about them via email at cbasurto@nd.edu (he is, tragically, very fond of speaking further about anything at all).

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Iran: Analyzing gendered oppression through an intersectional lens

on sept. 16, protests in Iran broke out after the death of 22-year-old mahsa Amini. Amini was arrested and brutally beaten on the head by the so-called “morality police” — au thorities that enforce religious based laws — for wearing her hijab too loosely: an illegal offense in Iran. Amini later died after being in police custody for three days. While the gov ernment is attempting to frame her cause of death on preex isting health conditions, her family contradicts this claim. soon after her death, protests broke out across the country. human rights advocates and Iranian activists have been engaging in demonstrations to protest the murder of mahsa Amini and the compulsory enforcement of hijabs. The dem onstrations include publicly cutting hair, burning hijabs and chanting phrases such as “death to the dictator” as a way to call out and resist the oppressive governmental system. In response, the “morality police” have been attempting to shut down protests through the use of brute force resulting in injured and in some instances dead citizens. In addition to this, the government is attempting to shut down the internet in order to control the spread of information both nationally and internationally. As this movement continues to grow, everyone must pay attention to the threat this poses toward human rights.

In 1979, the Iranian revolution shifted Iran’s system of government from a dynasty to a theocratic republic: a form of government in which the supreme authoritative figure is recognized as being divinely guided to create religious based laws. essentially, the supreme Leader is not elected by the people but has the power and authority of being in charge of all governmental affairs. one of these laws included the

strict mandatory dress of women. An article describing the significance of the hijab describes how this law was based on an interpretation drawn from the Quran, the religious text of Islam, although it is not directly stated within the scripture. The national Iranian council research director Assal rad explained how the protests are not against the religion at large but instead focus on the enforcement of the hijab and the lack of freedom Iranian women possess.

The mandated wearing of the hijab does not uphold a religious culture. It instead oppresses women by taking away their natural born right to bodily integrity and the freedom to choose. The enforcement of the hijab upon women in Iran is strictly meant to control women. not only does it take away their right to choose, but it infringes on their rights as a person. When looking at all aspects of identity with women in Iran, we are able to notice how different power structures overlap and intersect to determine who is worthy of certain rights and freedoms.

This phenomenon can be explained through the concept of intersectionality, a term first coined by scholar Kimberle crenshaw to examine how different aspects of identity dic tate how an individual experiences the world. The Iranian system of government oppresses women and minorities by restricting access to basic human rights such as educa tion, the right to leave Iran without permission from your husband and the freedom of choice around religion and dress. The Iranian republic determines what rights citizens deserve based on their gender, thus inducing the oppression, control and violence against women.

The death of mahsa Amini has sparked a new revolution: women are putting their lives on the line to challenge the system of government that perpetuates inequality. The en forcement of the hijab and brutal violence against women is a threat to human rights everywhere, for oppressive systems

are embedded in institutions. An intersectional analysis is essential when understanding oppression, for it brings to light the multifaceted aspects of people’s identities that withhold individuals from being treated as an equal human being. With increasing governmental control over internet access in Iran, the spread of information both nationally and internationally is being limited to silence the voices of people in Iran.

It is essential that everyone continues to talk and raise awareness about the injustices taking place in Iran in or der to hold the Iranian government accountable for their actions. While the oppression of women in Iran may not directly affect you, it is essential to fight for the human rights of all individuals despite their gender, race, sexuality, class or religion. As martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” While the gov ernment continues to try and silence the women in Iran, it is crucial for everyone to use their voice to speak out against the oppression of women in Iran. confronting this injustice will allow the movement to continue on and gain momen tum. We must acknowledge the dignity of every person in order for basic human rights to be upheld, prioritized and respected.

Grace Sullivan is a first-year at Notre Dame study ing global affairs with a minor in gender studies. In her column I.M.P.A.C.T. (Intersectionality Makes Political Activist Change Transpire), she is passionate about looking at global social justice issues through an inter sectional feminist lens. Outside of The Observer, she enjoys hiking, painting and being a plant mom. She can be reached at gsulli22@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Grace Sullivan

I.m.P.A.c

THE SUPPLIANTS PROJECT: UKRAINE

Join us for a powerful theatrical experience that invites you into a global discussion about war in Ukraine and in many other parts of our world.

• Free event, no tickets needed. All are welcome.

• Stadium gates open at 6:00 p.m.

• Food trucks from Rohr’s, Junbuggies, Rulli’s Pizza, Smothered & Covered, and Chick-fil-A will be available with ND, Saint Mary’s, or Holy Cross College ID from 6:00 to 6:45 p.m. Enjoy a free pre-event dinner!

• Grab-and-go dessert will be available on your way out.

• First 500 students will receive a free ND blanket and premier seating.

Featuring: Anthony Edwards Keith David Tate Donovan

Iconic Notre Dame Stadium provides the backdrop for a compelling and thought-provoking evening presented by nationally acclaimed Theater of War Productions. Emmy Award–winning actors Anthony Edwards (Top Gun, E.R., Inventing Anna) and Keith David ( Nope , Armageddon , The Thing ), as well as actor/director Tate Donovan (Friends, The O.C., Hercules), will perform dramatic readings of Aeschylus’ play The Suppliants, a Greek tragedy about the costs of war. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni whose lives have been touched by war will participate in the performance and discussion, both in person and virtually from locations all over the world.

By CLAIRE LYONS Associate scene editor

The difficulty in discussing hanif Abdurraqib’s work lies in the fact that I cannot describe his artistic mis sion as eloquently as he can. he is the type of writer that I think everybody strives to be: ambitious but not pretentious, emotional but objective, disarming but doesn’t leave too much of himself on the page, etc. he writes about the “emotional impulse” behind works of art, stemming from his obsession with certain cultural phe nomena (i.e. anything and everything from music, basket ball, sneakers and his dog Wendy).

I fell in love with his work by chance. I was scroll ing through my almost infinite list of to-be-read books on Goodreads when I stopped on an intriguing cover. striking with a wolf in a tracksuit and gold chain, the cover read “They can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us.” It was Abdurraqib’s second book. It’s a collection of essays and poems that cover virtually everything from the virtues of carly rae Jepsen’s music to “boyz n the hood” to the fear of getting pulled over to Fall out boy’s early years in chicago. As a music reviewer, it completely changed how I think about writing pieces for The observer. As a white person, it completely opened my eyes to the everyday experiences of black people. As a person in general, it

also brought me on a beautiful journey regarding com munity, art and love. In short, I couldn’t put it down.

so, when a friend in the english department told me Abdurraqib was doing a reading at notre dame, I marked my calendar a month early and told all my friends. I couldn’t shut up about it. When the day finally came, I was a few minutes late (in my excitement, I had written down the wrong location) and had a terrible cough but I would not be deterred from seeing one of my favorite authors.

At first, I did not see Abdurraqib until I spotted him hid ing behind his chair. As assistant professor in english sara marcus introduced him to the audience, he was nervously staring up at the ceiling and mumbling to himself. he later clarified that this is a mindfulness practice he does before performing, asserting that if he can “hold the anxiety in the palm of [his] hand, then [he] can turn it off.”

despite his performance anxiety, everybody in the au dience was glad for him to be there. The crowd was vir tually impossible to disappoint. since Abdurraqib has built up enough goodwill with his published work, ev erybody just felt lucky to be in his presence. It’s a total joy to see him perform his poetry live. You can totally see he got his career started with button Poetry, a pub lishing company that has a history in spoken word. h is voice is gentle, rising and falling like waves of the ocean, all the pauses are in exactly the right places.

You get the sense that he has done this many times be fore, and, he has.

Last Thursday night, he read four pieces: two from his most recent book “The Little devil In America” and two from his upcoming work “There’s Always This Year.” The crowd favorite was Abdurraqib’s com mentary on Whitney huston’s “I Wanna dance With somebody” performance at the 1988 Grammy Awards. Lines like “a font that can best be described as m iami v ice cursive” and bad dancing is “one of those lies that is easy to tell ourselves, because we are often not on the receiving end of the disaster” had me and my neigh bors laughing out loud. The piece on Whitney huston is not meant to razz her though. Ultimately, it was about finding somebody to dance with. It was about devotion.

Abdurraqib’s work often turns on its head. In “There’s Always This Year,” Abdurraqib has a very heavy poem about “no scrubs” by TLc and a poem “about flexing” that actually is about not wanting to leave the place you grew up. he balances a lot of complex emotions in a way that lifts you up, instead of tearing you down. You come away from his art feeling something more, something we can all learn from.

Contact Claire Lyons at clyons3@nd.edu

By ANDY OTTONE s cene Writer

I come from a fifth-generation immigrant family, meaning my great-great-great grandparents immi grated from Japan to America. Putting it that way, I sound fairly detached from my Japanese roots, but I am still half-Japanese. despite growing up in the United states, my parents, especially my mom, al ways made a point to help me learn about my cultural heritage and traditions.

A memorable way I learned about my Japanese her itage was a program called h ikari no Gakko, which translates to the “sunshine s chool.” This was a twoweek summer camp that I participated in from the ages of four to 16. my mom helped run the camp as co-director even way before I was born, so h ikari no Gakko holds a special place in our hearts. There is so much to love about the camp. There we learned Japanese songs, how to prepare meals and snacks (all these years later, learning how to make mochi is still one of my favorite childhood memories) and watched movies from and about Japan. even though we watched a lot of films, one movie, in particular, left a long-last ing impression on me. It is so ingrained in my soul that

it will never be forgotten: “big bird in Japan.” no, I am not kidding.

I may have watched this movie before the camp, but I have a vivid memory of being a little kid watching “big bird in Japan” on an old crT television during camp one day, and seeing s esame s treet’s very own b ig b ird learn about Japanese culture. What was lost on me at the time (but have come to appreciate with age) is that the movie tells the Japanese folk story of Princess Kaguya, or as I know it, the b amboo Princess. In the story, b ig b ird meets the central character of the folk tale and as the movie goes on she tells him about her past and we see her go live on the moon, as the original tale goes.

This was the first movie I remember touching on Japanese tradition, but it was far from the last. Growing up, I was a huge fan of s tudio Ghibli, a Japanese animation company. s ome of their most notable productions are “m y neighbor Totoro,” “ s pirited Away” and “howl’s moving c astle.” I re member seeing “Ponyo” in a movie theater. It was a retelling of “The Little mermaid,” and, to this day, “m y neighbor Totoro” remains one of my favorite movies of all time.

While movies had a large impact on learning more

about my cultural heritage, television was also great ly influential. For many children their first exposure to Japanese television was most likely “Pokemon.” Personally, I never got into “Pokemon.” I didn’t play the games, watch the show or collect the cards. Instead, I watched “doraemon,” a wacky comedy about a robot cat from the future sent to help his owner’s ancestor. If this premise sounds a little familiar, please note that “doraemon” debuted in 1979, while “The Terminator” came out five years later. I’m not alleging anything, but it’s something to consider ... nevertheless, I loved this show, and all the wacky antics the cast would get into with doraemon’s robotics. Anime, animation from Japan, is a huge industry worldwide and many, such as “dragon ball,” “naruto” and “one Piece” (with all 1,000 chapters and counting) are beloved by fans across the globe. While these ones may be the most popular, my favorite remains “doraemon.”

connecting through movies and television shows may not be the most traditional way to get in touch with one’s culture, but it worked for me. my entire life I’ve loved movies and television, and I’m really grateful I have this way to connect with my Japanese heritage.

Contact Andy Ottone at aottone@nd.edu

Happy Birthday: Slow down, go over details and do everything by the book this year. Don’t overextend or take on the impossible mentally, physically or financially. Aim for balance and equality in everything you pursue. refuse to let emotional or sensitive issues ruin your chance to head down a path that offers security and stability. Choose to do what’s best for you. your numbers are 3, 11, 18, 23, 34, 45, 48.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Put your emotions on the back burner and be reasonable. Think matters through, and you will come up with a plan that will encourage you to implement discipline into your everyday routine and time and finesse into how you present yourself to others.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Adjust what isn’t working for you and go about your business. Strive for peace of mind and eliminate negativity and opposition that is holding you back. Take control and live life your way. A change will lift your spirits.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Put your energy where it will do some good, and have fun. get involved in something that allows you to use your skills, talents and physical attributes to your advantage. Play to win and compete with intelligence and courage. romance is favored.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Taking a risk with your health or heart will not bode well. Put your time and effort into self-discipline, organization and mapping out a reasonable way to move forward at home and with meaningful relationships.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Be a good listener and observe how others react to what you say; it will help you find common ground. The information you gather will help you develop a plan to give your skills and attributes a new and profitable outlet. romance looks promising.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Emotions will get you in trouble. Overreacting to what others do or say will cost you. Don’t get involved in a joint venture or share expenses. Make your position and what you can afford clear to avoid interference or pestering.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): use charm, but don’t embellish. how you conduct yourself at events or in conversations will determine who reaches out to you in support of your efforts. live up to your expectations by setting reasonable guidelines and sharing feelings and facts.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Don’t try to fix what’s working. Dedicate your time to nurturing a meaningful relationship. If you overreact or overspend, you’ll pay the price, and it won’t be cheap. Take care of money and health issues before they spin out of control.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): A makeover, updated look or fixing up your surroundings will put you in a good headspace. Make plans to spend time with someone you love and discuss your intentions. Don’t make promises you can’t keep or ask too much of someone you love.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Problems will grow if you aren’t well informed. Preparation and understanding the pitfalls you are up against will help you make decisions that will benefit you and others. Don’t let emotions disrupt your life. Choose peace over chaos.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): get involved in a movement that makes you feel impassioned. Don’t let what others do interfere with your efforts. Discipline and hard work will turn an idea into something concrete. Measure your success by the response you receive. romance is favored.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): you’ll find it difficult to say no. Don’t take on more than you can handle or hang out with people who pressure you to do things you shouldn’t. Be honest, and walk away from situations that are unsafe or unhealthy.

Birthday Baby: you are sensitive, demonstrative and possessive. you are prolific and colorful.

Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, The Observer is a vital source of information on people and events in the Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross communities. Join the more than 13,000 readers who have found The Observer an indispensable link to the three campuses. Please complete the accompanying form and mail it today to receive The Observer in your home.

Jumble | DAvID hOyT AND JEff kNurEk

sudoku | ThE MEPhAM grOuP

EA

Irish drop two more Acc matches in return to Purcell Pavilion

By AIDAN THOMAS sports editor

After winning four of five to close their nonconference slate, notre dame volleyball’s momentum has come to a grinding halt. despite return ing home for the first time in over a month, the Irish couldn’t put together a win, dropping two more Acc matches. notre dame is now 0-4 in confer ence play. This weekend, no. 13 Georgia Tech dispatched the Irish, followed by clemson. The latter was a five-set battle, marking the second five-set de feat for the Irish in conference play.

In Friday night’s game versus the Yellow Jackets, efficiency was the name of the game. The Irish only made three ser vice errors and zero reception errors, tying and outclassing Georgia Tech in those two cat egories, respectively.

however, while the Yellow Jackets notched 55 kills with a .261 hitting percentage, the Irish posted just a .110 mark and 31 kills. Graduate stu dent transfer Kaylyn Winkler notched eight kills, as did sophomore outside hitter Paris Thompson.

In the first two sets, the Irish only led once, at 1-0 in the first set.

From there, the Yellow Jackets (10-2, 3-0 Acc) ripped off five straight points to take control. Then, up 11-5, Georgia Tech blitzed the Irish for an other 5-0 run, seizing control at 16-5. They ballooned the ad vantage to 22-8 and closed out the set comfortably, 25-13.

The second set was more competitive, but the Irish never obtained a lead. notre dame kept things closer in the early going, trailing 8-7, but Georgia Tech gradually pulled away.

They notched six of the next seven points to grab the mo mentum and rode that wave to a 20-14 advantage. notre dame flashed some resiliency, as a Thompson kill kickstarted a five-point streak, closing the deficit to a single point. From there, however, the teams traded off points, neither squad able to retain their serve. The Irish never surfaced from the deficit, dropping the second set, 25-23.

The third set was largely con trolled by the Yellow Jackets. They took the lead early and kept the Irish at bay in the first half of the set. Then, up 13-12, they won nine of the next 11 points to ice the match. The Irish didn’t get closer than five points and lost, 25-19.

Irish can’t finish off fifth set on sunday, notre dame played a sloppier game, but they were also more dynamic offensively, which gave them a chance down the stretch.

Thompson led the way with 16 kills, while freshman outside hitter Avery ross claimed 14 of her own.

however, the Irish also made a total of 14 service and re ception errors which allowed clemson to edge the Irish in the five-set contest.

The Irish never led in the first set, as clemson ran off eight stright points to claim a 17-9 advantage.

They had no issues in clos ing out a 25-17 win from there, taking the early 1-0 lead. Then, down 12-3 in the second set, notre dame looked primed to go down quickly once more, but this time, the Irish responded.

Following a timeout, notre dame clawed back into the set. Although they didn’t rip off any extended runs, a grad ual 14-6 spurt tied the set at 18-18. After trading points, the

Irish buried the Tigers with six straight points. Freshman defensive specialist maisie Alexander delivered three aces in the second set to lead the way, while Thompson and ross combined for seven kills.

In the critical third set, the Irish and Tigers were locked in a 14-14 tie.

but after clemson nudged ahead with three straight points, notre dame couldn’t quite get back even.

They closed within one at 18-17 and 19-18, but clemson closed with a 5-2 run to win, 25-20.

The Irish blew an early 13-9

advantage in the fourth set, but they rallied.

deadlocked at 17 points apiece, the Irish rode a wave of excellent service by junior libero hattie monson to five straight points and a 22-17 ad vantage. sophomore setter Phyona schrader came up big in the final few points, notch ing an assist, kill and block on the final three Irish points to force a fifth set.

There, the marathon turned into a sprint to 15 points. clemson was the first to gain momentum, tallying four straight points to take a 9-5 lead. notre dame got a point

back here and there, closing to 12-11.

but, they couldn’t find the last service break they needed and traded off the final few points, losing 15-13 in the fifth set.

notre dame falls to 0-4 in Acc play, last in the conference. They will look to start stacking wins next weekend, but it starts against syracuse, who is 4-0 in Acc play. They play the orange on Friday and complete the road trip at boston college (135, 1-3) on sunday.

Contact Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu

saints split soccer matchups with saint Ambrose

By TOM ZWILLER s ports Writer

Last week when a domi nant c alvin c ollege team earned a 3-1 win against the h oly c ross men’s soc cer team, head coach o mar Gallo was adamant that his squad would maintain the momentum they had built in conference play.

Gallo’s squad proved him right by beating s aint Ambrose 3-1 on the road.

The s aints got off to a quick start, with s enior Axel valenzuela scoring an unassisted goal right at the nine-minute mark.

d espite the quick scor ing start, neither squad would score again un til the second half.

The next goal would be scored by s aint Ambrose, with Ambrose’s e than h olke assist ing Joseph Gaither Jr. to score a left-footed strike from outside the 18’.

h oly c ross was un phased by the goal, however, as sophomore Juan Perez assisted se nior e rick Zelaya on an hcc goal in the 76th minute. The s aints fol lowed up their sec ond goal with a third,

scored by senior e lmin e jup in the 87th minute.

The goal would stand, and the s aints would pick up a 3-1 cc A c win.

The win propels h oly c ross to a 4-1-1 re cord in c onference, and at 13 points, the s aints are tied for first with o livet n azarene. o livet does hold a tie breaker as they have played one fewer game.

With an overall record of 6-4-1, the s aints will

continue their confer ence road trip, journey ing to Palos h eights, Illinois, where they will take on the Trinity c hristian c ollege Trolls.

The Trolls currently sit at 1-5-1 in conference play and are on a five-game los ing streak on the season.

The s aints are 8-5 against Trinity, dat ing back to 2009.

In the last five match ups between the two squads, h oly c ross is

4-1, with a goal dif ferential of 10 (12-2).

The game kicks off at 3:30 on o ct. 8.

Unlike the men’s game, the hcc Women’s s occer team did not get off to a quick start against s t. Ambrose. In fact, neither team got off to a quick start, with the two teams combining for just 12 shots total in the first half, with only four being on net.

Maria Gorecki | The observer

Irish freshman setter Harmony Sample sets the ball during weekend matchup against Clemson. The Irish fell to both Clemson and Georgia Tech this weekend at home and are set to play Syracuse next on the road.

Hcc Soccer

Instead, the first goal would come in the 48th minute, with senior Nicole Cook scoring courtesy of a pass from freshman Ashlyn Craig. m aking up for lost time, the Ambrose Fighting Bees would score the

following two goals with in five minutes of each other to take a 2-1 lead.

The Ambrose goals were scored by Kaitlyn Brunson (un assisted) in the 51st minute and the 56th minute by Taylor De s plinter (unassisted).

In the 74th minute, Kendall Wendt would increase the Ambrose lead off of a pass by

Adriane Latham.

Wendt’s goal would prove crucial as s aints freshman Hannah Lemieux would score with just seven min utes left to make it a 2-3 game. However, Ambrose was able to close it out and hand Holy Cross its first road loss of the season.

The loss sends Holy Cross to 2-3-2 in con ference play, and the s aints currently sit in

ninth in conference play.

On the season, Holy Cross is 3-3-6.

The women’s team also turns their atten tion to Trinity Christian; their game will kick off at 1:00 pm on the 8th in Palos Heights, Illinois.

The women’s team does not have the same historical success against Trinity

nd Soccer

of the team going into their hardest stretch of the season. Next week, the Fighting Irish play at Indiana and host No. 25 Louisville, an other ACC match-up.

Besides the quickness of their young scor ers, Notre Dame fans should also feel con fident with their play on defense, especially with how Dowd has played these last few weeks.

Dowd has allowed only two goals in the last two weeks and had some spectacu lar saves Friday night.

He was credited with four, and sev eral came in cru cial situations.

At one point in the game, Dowd saved two goals within seconds of each other

as the men’s.

Instead, the s aints are 0-13-1 dating back to 2009.

In the last five match ups, the s aints are 0-41 against the Trolls.

The s aints are elev en goals behind the Trolls in that span, with the combined score sitting at 4-15.

Contact Tom Zwiller at tzwiller@hcc-nd.edu

by making a sliding save and then getting up to make a diving stop on the rebound effort.

Overall, Riley was re ally impressed with how the team played against the Eagles.

“I think that was some of our best play of the year against a good team.

There were some mo ments where [Boston College] had too much control and obvi ously created a cou ple of good chances that we fortunately dealt with,” he said.

“But at the same time, we cleared a cou ple off the line, so I liked what I saw on the attack.

Now, we just have to do that for larg er parts of the game.”

The Irish will face the 4-2-2 Hoosiers in Bloomington on Wednesday at 7 p.m

Contact Annika Herko at aherko@nd.edu

Belles volleyball lose tenth straight, fall to North Park at home

By AIDAN THOMAS s ports Editor

Woes continued for the s aint m ary’s volleyball squad this weekend, as they faced another highly regarded opponent. North Park came to town after re ceiving votes in the most recent national polls, and they swept the Belles in three consecutive sets.

s aint m ary’s has now lost eleven straight sets dating back to s ept. 20. They fell to 3-10 and 0-2 in m IAA play.

s aint m ary’s got off to a solid start in the first set, leading for much of the early portions of the game. Junior outside hitter

Colleen m cCarthy deliv ered one of her team-lead ing nine kills to give the Belles a 9-8 lead in the first set, but that was as good as it got. North Park ripped off seven straight points to

take a commanding lead. The Belles remained with in striking range, down 1814 a few minutes later. But then North Park notched another 7-0 run, cement ing a smooth 25-14 first set victory.

In the second set, again, s aint m ary’s led in the early going. They went up 11-10 after a North Park service error. However, the visitors claimed seven of the next eight points to take the 17-13 advantage.

m cCarthy nearly rallied the Belles back into this one, with a kill and a ser vice ace sparking a quick three-point spurt.

That brought the Belles to within 22-20, but North Park closed out the set by scoring the final three points.

The third set was less competitive, as s aint m ary’s final lead was 6-5.

North Park blitzed the Belles for four straight points, and then a few points later, they replicat ed the feat to take a 16-10 lead. The Belles couldn’t string together consecutive points for the rest of the set, and one final 5-0 spurt for North Park clinched the result. The Belles lost the final set, 25-14.

Despite the loss, m cCarthy put together an other solid performance with her nine kills and nine digs. s he also delivered the team’s only two service aces. s enior libero Emma Watford added 11 digs.

The Belles now head on the road for three games, starting with a confer ence clash against Hope on Tuesday night. The game starts at 7 p.m.

Contact Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu

Smc VoLLeybaLL

SAM GODINEZ | The Observer

Belles sophomore outside hitter Colleen McCarthy makes impact with the ball in the Belles’ weekend home matchup against North Park.

RYAN VIGILANTE | The Observer

Irish sophomore forward Eno Nto fights for the ball against a Boston College player during their matchup, where the Irish claimed a 2-1 victory over the Eagles in a close Friday evening game in Alumni Stadium.

Joe Piane

Erin Strzelecki in 54th. Denner, an All-American, has been hampered in training with a minor in jury and should provide the team with a big boost when fully healthy.

Sparks praised Markezich’s performance, noting that her ability to run with the front pack at big meets stems from her mental toughness as well as her fitness.

“Over the course of the last four years, she has developed the confidence to go out in the front of that lead group,” Sparks explained.

“To see her step up early in the year and assert her self really just shows me how she’s grown as a per son since she’s been here.”

The Irish still have work to do in order to close the gap with the teams that defeated them, but at this stage of the season, that is a position they are com fortable with being in.

Last year, Notre Dame finished fourteenth at the same meet and went on to place fifth at the NCAA Championship, so a fourth-place result is encouraging for the team.

“I’m really excited about where we are,” Sparks said.

“A year ago, we had a lot of things on the list that we knew we could improve upon and it took us eight weeks to figure them out. This year, we’ve got a shorter list, so we’ll just work through those things over the coming month.”

On the men’s side, an in experienced Notre Dame team needed some time

to get acclimated in their first major meet of the season, but used a strong finish to take the victory in the 5-mile race.

“There was some con cern how the younger guys that we were count ing on were going to step up in a pressure situation like we had this weekend, and they put the coaches’ minds at ease by the way they were able to finish the last half of the race,” Sparks said.

“They went out a little bit conservative, which had our nerves a little high, but they displayed a lot of confidence…and ran like mature veterans.”

Running in front for Notre Dame was graduate student Kevin Berry, who finished tenth in his first time suiting up for the Irish following his trans fer from Princeton, where he set a school record in the 5k and was an All-Ivy League Performer.

“[Kevin] is new to elite running, he was not a highly recruited kid out of high school,” Sparks said.

“The Princeton staff did a great job of developing him and he’s taken some steps since he’s been here, really finding himself as a runner. He’s run fast times, but he’s never com peted on a national level at the end of the season, so we need to help nur ture him to be successful when it matters most.”

Just behind Berry, Irish sophomore Carter Solomon and freshman Izaiah Steury finished less than a second apart in thirteenth and fourteenth places just two weeks af ter the duo took first and second at the National Catholic Invitational.

While most Notre Dame

freshman are redshirted to allow further time for development, Steury im mediately stepped in as one of the Irish’s leading runners.

“We knew it would be hard to keep him on the bench,” Sparks said. “He’s trained so well over the last month that we knew we needed him in the lineup.”

Sparks credits Steury’s focused mindset with

having him ready to com pete at an elite collegiate level.

“He just goes into this zone; you can see it in his eyes,” Sparks said. “He flips the switch when it’s time to compete. It’s a unique skill set that will help carry him far in the sport.”

Beyond their top-three finishers, Notre Dame’s depth was the difference maker that guided them to

victory, even without one of their top runners in AllAmerican sophomore Josh Methner, who is expected to debut for the Irish at their next meet. Alabama put three runners in front of Notre Dame’s first, and Tennessee added two more, but strong efforts from the Irish’s fourth and fifth men, senior Matthew Carmody and junior Carter Cheeseman, pushed them over the top.

“The thing we take a lot of pride in is the depth of our team, and that’s what you saw that allowed us to win,” Sparks said.

“We feel like we’ve got ten to fifteen guys that are almost interchangeable, that if we need somebody to step up, we can always call on the next guy up and be successful.”

Dennis Vandenberg

Date: October 28 Time: 11:00 a.m.

Location: Pfeil

By Angel Cortes, Ph.D.

Date: November 4 Time: 11:00 a.m.

Location: Pfeil

By Anthony Monta, Ph.D. &

Date: November 18 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: Pfeil Board Room

By Clyde Ray, Ph.D., Edwige Tia, and David Lutz, Ph.D.

Date: December 2 Time: 11:00 a.m.

Location: Pfeil Board

The Irish now turn their attention to their final regular season meet, the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on October 14th. The Nuttycombe field is expected to be very strong, as over 20 of the top 30 teams from last year’s NCAA Championship on both the men’s and wom en’s sides will be racing. Notre Dame will look for continued improvement in their final race before beginning postseason preparations.

Contact Matthew Crow at

MAX PETROSKY | The Observer

A Notre Dame runner keeps a steady pace amidst a sea of competitiors at the Joe Piane Invitational hosted by Notre Dame this past weekend. The Irish men claimed the victory while the women would place fourth.

Notre Dame baseball establishes their process amid staffing changes

By JOSEPH TUNNEY Sports Writer

On Saturday, the Notre Dame baseball team played in their second of two intercollegiate scrimmages, hosting the Cincinnati Bearcats in a doubleheader of seven in ning contests.

Notre Dame baseball is coming off of argu ably the best season in program history, having made the College World Series in a season high lighted by knocking off top-ranked Tennessee in the Knoxville Super Regional.

However, head coach Link Jarrett opted to leave for his alma mater, Florida State, in the offseason.

Notre Dame found their new head coach in July, hiring Shawn Stiffler. Stiffler coached Virginia Commonwealth (VCU) for 10 seasons, leading them to NCAA tournament ap pearances in 2015, 2021 and 2022. Every head coaching change brings a period of transition, and it’s no different for the Irish.

Stiffler also hired a new crew of assistant coaches, with Logan Robbins, Seth Cutler-Voltz and Ryan Munger helping to get their first season as Irish coaches off the ground.

“They coach the guys very, very hard every day,” Stiffler said of his assistants. “Knowing that those guys are there and we can trust them to coach the players and build relationships with the players is huge for me.”

The new staff inherits a roster with talented play ers still in the fold, with 11 graduate students on the 40-man squad. Graduate student first baseman Carter Putz went 4-5 over both games, hitting two singles, a double and a triple.

In the first game, CJ Dean hit a home run in the top of the first in ning to have the Bearcats ahead 1-0. That score held until the top of the fifth inning. Kameron Guidry walked, and second base man Lauden Brooks suc cessfully laid down a sacrifice bunt. Later in the frame, Dean drove in his second run of the game with a single to put the Bearcats up 2-0.

In the bottom of the

sixth, graduate student Brooks Coetzee reached on a Bearcat throwing er ror and advanced to sec ond courtesy of a wild pitch.

After sophomore Jack Penney walked, gradu ate student Zack Prajzner executed a successful bunt to put two runners in scoring position, who Putz knocked through with a two-RBI single to tie the game.

In the top of the seventh, the Bearcats were able to load the bases courtesy of two walks and a single.

A lightly hit ground ball to third base turned into the play of the game, as a throwing error from the Irish led to the bases be ing cleared.

The Bearcats were able to hold on to take the first game 5-2.

After a 5-minute inter mission, game two be gan as a duel between the pitching staffs.

The Bearcats scored their only run in the top of the fourth inning, as a ground ball got just be hind a diving Penney for a two-out single good for a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the fifth, Putz hit a tri ple and was driven in on a groundout by Prajzner. An inning later, junior Connor Hincks stepped in and hit a clutch pinchhit double with two outs to plate what would come to be the winning run to split the fall-ball series.

For the Irish, this series was successful in sev eral way. The games gave good reps for all players involved, allowing coach Stiffler and his staff to evaluate a good amount of players and see them in a game environment. Even in a veteran-laden team, a few freshmen were able to see some action in a glance toward the future.

David Lally pitched two scoreless innings, strik ing out four of the six bat ters he faced.

“Lally showed that he’s going to be ready to take on some high-leverage in nings early,” Stiffler said of the freshman. Estevan Moreno took the field as third baseman in the first game in an effort for him to “try and get as many reps as he can.”

Although unable to col lect a hit, Moreno showed signs of becoming a play er of interest in the begin ning of his Irish career.

“I think he has a very promising future,” said Stiffler after the game.

After a long break of summer ball, fall ball and an intersquad scrimmage, Stiffler said the chance to play another school is a teaching opportunity.

“To throw a team in with a different uniform on just adds another ele ment of trying to evaluate your guys, because some guys rise to the occasion when they see a differ ent color across the field, other guys maybe reserve themselves a little bit or pull back,” Stiffler said of

the scrimmages.

Similar to spring foot ball or other out-ofseason contests, the scrimmages mainly serve to provide crucial data points for the coaches to put players in the best possible positions come springtime. Stiffler and the Notre Dame staff seem to be employing an approach that aims to get the most out of each rep, practice and scrimmage. The results will come, but the process has to be es tablished first.

“Right now we’re just trying to learn how to

practice, how to go about our business every day, how to go about our work,” Stiffler said. “We’re get ting better at that, so I’m more focused on that than anything else, like try ing to win baseball games in February or October.” Stiffler and the Irish staff want to make sure their players are ready for the games that really mat ter, and this starts with tomorrow’s practice. Winning each day is their key to success.

Contact Joseph Tunney at jtunney@nd.edu

ChanCelor Gordon |

The Notre Dame Baseball team dogpiles in celebration of a series victory over Tennesse in the Knoxville Super Regional this past summer, advancing them to the College World Series in a historic season.

dowd comes up big, Irish topple eagles 2-1 at Alumni stadium

By ANNIKA HERKO s ports Writer

o n Friday night, The n otre d ame men’s soc cer team took down b oston c ollege in Alumni s tadium. The now 5-31 Fighting Irish beat their conference rivals 2-1 after coming off a win against Kalamazoo.

n otre d ame freshman forward Wyatt b orso had the game’s first goal (his second of the season) in the 16th minute, assisted by sophomore defender Kyle Genenbacher. In the 40th minute, sophomore e no n to also scored his second goal of the sea son, assisted by junior d aniel r usso and junior goalkeeper b ryan d owd.

Within eight minutes of the second half, the e agles found the back of the net. s ophomore Jack b urgess scored unassisted for his first goal of the season.

As the game wore on, b oston c ollege got more

physical as they looked to even up the score. In the last twenty five min utes of the game, they re ceived three yellow cards, including one on their leading scorer s tefan s igurdarson. d efender d iego o choa committed five fouls during the game and at one point, the refer ee seemed to indicate that if he had anymore, o choa would receive his second yellow card of the game.

After the game, n otre d ame head coach c had r iley was excited about the growth he’s seen in his young players.

“I think that for any body in their first year of playing and playing big minutes in regular games, it’s about consistency. I think that their biggest challenge is how they will consistently perform at a high level,” r iley said. c onsistent play will be key for all members

Irish men win, women take fourth at competitive Joe Piane Invitational

By MATTHEW CROW s ports Writer

o n Friday morning, n otre d ame cross coun try hosted the Joe Piane n otre d ame Invitational.

The n o. 14 men’s team used a balanced effort to win the meet, while the n o. 8 women battled a trio of Top-Ten opponents and earned a fourth-place finish.

The meet began with the women’s 5000m, one of the most highly an ticipated regular season races in the country this season.

n otre d ame head coach m att s parks spoke af ter the meet about the valuable experience that comes from facing elite teams like n o. 1 nc s tate, n o. 3 n ew m exico, and n o. 10 Alabama.

“[The meet] gives us a taste of where we need to be, what we need to

work toward over the next eight weeks as we prepare for the national cham pionship,” s parks said. “It’s the nice thing about these early season meets; you get a measuring stick against the best teams in the country.”

d efending national champion nc s tate put three runners in the top six to take first place with a score of 55, followed closely by n ew m exico’s 68 and Alabama’s 70. n otre d ame placed fourth with 144 points.

The Irish were led by a strong eighth-place fin ish from All-American junior o livia m arkezich. Also scoring for the Irish were graduate student Anna s ophia Keller and senior Katie Thronson in 24th and 25th, graduate student m addy d enner in 35th, and sophomore

ChanCelor Gordon | The observer

Irish junior forward Daniel Russo lunges for the ball in a matchup against Boston College at Alumni Stadium, where the Irish claimed a 2-1 victory against the Eagles and brought their record to 5-3-1.

soccer

nd cross country

soccer

A herd of Notre Dame men’s cross country runners keep the pace to claim victory at the Notre Dame hosted Joe Paine Invitational on September 30, 2022 in South Bend, Indiana. The women’s team took fourth.