Print Edition for The Observer for Wednesday, November 16, 2022

ND announces booster mandate

University requires all students to receive bivalent COVID-19 booster

Observer Staff Report

a ll n otre d ame students — undergraduate, gradu ate and professional — are required to receive the covid -19 bivalent boost er vaccine, director of u niversity h ealth s ervices ( uhs ) e dward Junkins announced in an email m onday.

s tudents had previously been required to receive the initial covid -19 vaccine and a booster.

Those who do not re ceive the bivalent booster will not be able to enroll in classes for the 2023-2024 academic year, the email said. s tudents can apply

PARK | The Observer

The final years of the enduring notre dame Fieldhouse

By SPENCER KELLY, AVERY POLKING and THOMAS DOBBS

From the a rchives r esearchers

This week, the men’s and women’s basketball teams ramp up their seasons at the Joyce c enter, their home since 1968. b efore the cur rent venue was built, howev er, i rish basketball played at the n otre d ame Fieldhouse, a structure formerly located next to l aFortune s tudent c enter, and now home to the commemorative Fieldhouse m all.

o nce the Joyce c enter (ini tially called the “a thletics and c onvocation c enter”) was completed in 1968, the u niversity planned to

demolish the then-vacant Fieldhouse. h owever, a pas sionate campaign led by an unlikely campus demo graphic emerged to save the structure. The final years of the n otre d ame Fieldhouse feature a fascinating trans formation of the historic building, one last hurrah which added another rich chapter to the n otre d ame history books.

Fieldhouse saved by an unlikely ally Dec. 6, 1968 | William Luking | Oct. 17, 1969 | Gaetano DeSapio | Nov. 20, 1969 | Paul Gallagher | Nov. 24, 1969 | Paul Gallagher | Dec. 2, 1969 | Tim Treanor | Jan. 9, 1970 | Paul Gallagher |

by Avery Polking

a ny n otre d ame student who approaches l aFortune s tudent c enter from the northeast crosses a tree-en circled space now known as Fieldhouse m all. yet, con trary to its name, no field house is seen anywhere in the vicinity. b ehind this university crossroads is a long and arduous his tory of the old n otre d ame Fieldhouse and debates over its demolition.

The n otre d ame Fieldhouse was a multi-pur pose arena which housed an array of sporting events in the first half of the 20th century. h owever, senti ments started to stir against

its existence in 1969 when the u niversity shared plans for the Fieldhouse’s demoli tion. s oon, though, a group of passionate art students and faculty as well as others who cherished the tradition of the Fieldhouse as a n otre d ame landmark expressed their objections.

The administration and the newly-formed u niversity a rts c ouncil ( uac ) butted heads for three months at the end of 1969 over the question of demolition. d r. James Fern, a rt d epartment c hair, or ganized a rally to promote his proposed $1.3 million renovation plan for the

g en Z rep elected

By SAM GODINEZ news writer

on nov. 8, at the age of 25, maxwell Frost became the first generation Z congressman-elect in the country. representing Florida’s 10th district, Frost will take his seat in the house of representatives on Jan. 3, 2023, for the 118th united states congress. students tended to say that a younger representative can offer greater representation.

“hearing the news of Frost’s elec tion really excited me because i do feel more represented with him be ing the first gen Z congressman,”

SDB hosts annual event

By CHLOE CODDINGTON n ews w riter

on Tuesday, the student diversity board (sdb) at saint mary’s hosted its seventh annual mosaic celebration. students so cialized by listening to music and eating light snacks in haggar hall. at the event, sdb president crystal ramirez and vice presi dent anaís Juliano mingled with fellow students and class peers.

{Editor’s note: Crystal Ramirez is a former associate news editor for The Observer.} at every table, there was a centerpiece highlighting the ac complishments and continued progress of the college commu nity toward diversity, inclusion and equity. The accomplishments showcased ranged from years 2015 to 2021. some of these

Researched

Courtesy of Ashley Loutzenhiser

UHS orchestrated a flu vaccine blitz in September. Students can receive the COVID-19 bivalent booster, an additional COVID-19 booster, at the on-campus bivalent booster vaccination clinic in January.

DIANE

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Today’s Staff

Wednesday

GIS Day

246 Hesburgh Library

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.

9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Join us for GIS day to learn more about geospatial tech.

Fall Choir Concert O’Laughlin Auditorium 7:30 p.m. Come join the Saint Mary’s singing groups. Free to the public.

Thursday

The Revolutionary City - Lecture

Hesburgh Center C103 12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m. Mark Beissinger from Princeton to speak.

Web Design Workshop Bond Hall 334 4 p.m. - 5 p.m. Learn the basics of HTML coding.

Friday

Plato’s Lemonade Stand - Lecture Jordan Auditorium 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Philsopher Thomas Quinn discusses book.

Notre Dame Men’s Basketball Purcell Pavilion 7 p.m. Game versus Lipscomb Bison.

Saturday

Saturdays with the Saints Geddes Hall 10:30 a.m.

Sr. Ann Astel lectures on Saint Bernard.

Notre Dame Football Notre Dame Stadium 2:30 p.m. The Fighting Irish take on Boston College in the final home game.

Sunday

Basillica Mass Basillica of the Sacred Heart 10 a.m. and noon Mass will be held. All are welcome.

Saint Mary’s Basketball

Angela Athletic and Wellness Complex 1 p.m. The Belles v. Defiance.

Sports

Jose Sanchez Cordova Aidan Thomas

Claire Lyons Viewpoint Andrew Marciano

SAM GODINEZ | The Observer

Alvarado junior Walsh Hall

Mike McKeough junior Alumni Hall

“Day in the Life.”

de nicola center holds conference

By MARCELLE COUTO news Writer

Last weekend, n otre d ame held its twenty-sec ond e thics and c ulture Fall c onference.

The d e n icola c enter’s website described the con ference as an event that brings together “the world’s leading c atholic think ers, as well as those from other traditions, in fruit ful discourse and exchange on the most pressing and vexed questions of ethics, culture, and public policy today.”

The theme of this year’s conference, “a nd i t Was Good: o n c reation,” fea tured daylong programs with several presentations, colloquiums, discussion panels and plenary keynote lectures. m any explored the questions of whether it was plausible to believe in a created universe, the theo logical implications of cre ation or the role of humans within the created world. a s such, the theological discussion centered mostly around the first three chap ters of the book of Genesis.

h owever, this was not the only topic, as present ers also explored matters of philosophy, physics, math ematics and artistic, liter ary or creative expression.

r egarding this year’s theme, the de n icola c enter wrote, “ i n the created world, Pope Francis writes, we are able to perceive ‘a grammar written by the hand of God’ (Lumen Fidei). i f creation is a language, what can we discern regarding the cre ator?” The conference ex plored “the many facets of the created world and the

act of creation, including questions of cosmology, teleology, natural ends, natural law, the i mago d ei, creaturely status, ecology, stewardship, cocreation, recreation, redemption and more.”

n otre d ame students and faculty as well as guests from all over the country enjoyed a complimentary reception on all the days of the conference, meals and daily mass at the b asilica of the s acred h eart.

“ i think in particular for me it was a gift to be able to speak to the speakers and ask them questions,” said aviva Lund, a n otre d ame senior who attended the conference. “ o ne of my favorite talks was ‘ c reating the b eloved c ommunity,’ and it was really cool to see how they incorporated c atholic s ocial Teaching as well as the philosophy of agape to then go back to our communities and be present both on an individ ual and group level.”

s he added, “With that, it was really exciting after ward to be able to talk to the speakers directly one on one and ask them for their advice on how i could incorporate that into my own life as a student here.”

Lund said she was also grateful for the opportu nity to listen to other stu dents and scholars.

“ s ince the first confer ence in 2000, this annu al event has become the most important academic forum for wide-ranging conversations that engage the c atholic moral and in tellectual tradition from a variety of disciplinary points of departure,” the

de n icola c enter wrote. a ccording to the website, past conference speak ers have included n obel Laureates and this year, speakers included r obert Pogue h arrison, s imon c onway m orris, Jacqueline r ivers, Kristin c ollier and a lasdair m ac i ntyre, dis cussing subjects rang ing from “ c reating the b eloved c ommunity” to “ n eural o rganoids and c himeras.”

m ac i ntyre, of the de n icola c enter itself, has been a continual lecturer throughout all 22 years of the conference. h e has made contributions to mor al and political philosophy and is especially known for his book, “a fter v irtue,” in which he examines the his torical roots of the concept of virtue.

This year, he present ed on “The a pparent o ddness of the Universe: h ow to a ccount for i t?,” which poses an argument against the notion that the universe is odd and unpredictable. Through what m ac i ntyre calls “sin gularities,” “humans are able to think, speak and act in an unpredictable manner.” s ingularities are “unpredictable utterances; whoever predicts it is the author.”

a ccording to m ac i ntyre, because we believe there is “no place for oddities within a law-governed, determined and probabi listic universe,” we tend to assume the universe is no such thing. h owever, because “God created hu mans in h is image,” this therefore involves the “pos sibility for humans to act creatively,” and creativity itself can be either benign or malignant as m acyntyre defines. This includes, as m ac i ntyre boldly suggests, the ability to act in ways God cannot predict.

b ecause God’s omni science involves knowing everything there is to be known, and singularities are necessarily expressions of thought and not physical

Vaccine

for religious or medical exemptions.

“ b ivalent booster vac cines provide an additional layer of protection against covid -19 and, unlike pre vious monovalent boost ers which were designed only to protect against the original virus that causes covid -19, the updated bivalent booster vaccine protects against both the

occurrences in themselves, “God must respond to them as they happen,” m ac i ntyre said.

i n addition, m ac i ntyre posits singularities are concurrent with the recent discoveries of quantum physics as well as the the ory of “emergent properties of the universe.”

m ac i ntyre also argues against a strictly dualistic view of minds and bodies, claiming that the physi cal is constantly taking on new forms; “human be ings are bodies informed by the soul, and not bod ies containing souls,” he said. h e added, “We are all the outcomes of deci sions that could have been otherwise.”

o ther prominent lectures examined the question of how mathematics came to exist in the universe, the role of the arts, lessons from c s . Lewis for modern society, a new manifesto for contemplative realism and the question of wheth er there was a cosmic plan for the universe.

The closing plena ry lecture by e lizabeth Lev’s, an art historian at d uquesne University, was titled “ c reation, c omplementarity and s aint John Paul ii in m ichelangelo’s s istine c eiling” and explored the masterpieces of the s istine c hapel, revealing a de tailed analysis of their sur prises and mysteries.

a dditionally, the de n icola c enter partnered with s tanford University’s “ b oundaries of h umanity” project this year, which seeks to advance the dia logue on “human place and purpose in the cosmos, particularly with respect to conceptions of human uniqueness and choices around biotechnological enhancement.”

The speakers, schedule and recordings for this year’s lectures can be found on the conference website.

Contact Marcelle Couto at mcouto@nd.edu

original virus that causes covid -19 and the o micron ba .4 and ba .5 variants,” Junkins said in the email.

The cdc recently recom mended a bivalent booster for those over 5-years-old who received their last booster at least two months ago in a n ov. 11 report.

The email, which did not mention any requirements for faculty or staff, said the University will hold an oncampus vaccination clinic in January. The deadline is m arch 1, 2023.

said notre dame first-year mac Johnson.

in addition, the impact of the con gressman’s election offers a voice to a different perspective on pressing is sues, another student said.

“it’s so important for Gen Z to gain representation in congress because our generation offers a fresh perspec tive on divisive issues,” saint mary’s sophomore mari Prituslky said.

Tommy rafacz, a first-year in o’neill hall, seconded that the con gressman-elect offers a new voice in the house.

“i think it’s good to see fresh voices and perspectives that should come with a new generation,” rafacz said.

david campbell, professor of american democracy at notre dame, said that age does not get as much attention as other identity factors.

“but it should, because when you look at public opinion, young peo ple often differ from older people in many of the positions that they take and those views should be represent ed in the system,” he said.

campbell also said that a younger representative is more likely to lean toward the extreme positions of his party.

“a younger person coming up in either party is more likely to be on the extreme wings of the party,” he said. “and that’s because they have come of age in an era when the parties are highly polarized.”

although there is a difference in age brackets between younger and older politicians, campbell does not believe that there will be a significant change in political representation.

“i’m not sure that it does represent any kind of dramatic change, in that it’s still a relatively small number [of younger candidates],” he said.

nonetheless, certain issues on both parties will become more im portant as younger candidates be come elected.

“We know that this is a group — and this is actually true on the left as well as on the right — that are far more accepting of LGbT people,” campbell said. “We also know that young people in general are more concerned about the environment than their elders… i would expect both parties actually to take the en vironment more seriously than they have.”

mike mcKeough, a junior in alumni hall, emphasized how Gen Z representatives can better reflect the values of young people.

“We’re getting different viewpoints that reflect a different demographic of the population,” mcKeough said.

Finally, campbell believes that younger politicians are more in clined to use social media as a means to facilitate communication with their voters.

“We usually think of younger can didates as being very media savvy, much more so than their elders,” he said. “[so] i’d be interested to know whether or not there’s any evidence that Frost was more adept at using social media or communications strategy than either his immediate opponent or other candidates in that same area.”

Paid a dverT isemen T

community honors transgender lives at vigil

By PETER BREEN news Writer

Editor’s note: This story con tains mentions of violence.

c ommunity members gath ered around the Grotto on monday evening for a prayer service in remembrance of those who lost their lives due to anti-transgender violence. Prism nd and the Gender relations c enter (Grc ) cosponsored the vigil.

molly d oerfler, Prism nd president, led the memorial in mourning for the 32 known transgender people who lost their lives to acts of violence based on gender identity in 2022.

“These victims, like all of us, are loving partners, par ents, family members, friends and community members,” d oerfler said. “They worked, went to school and attended houses of worship. They were real people who did not de serve to have their lives taken from them.”

a ccording to d oerfler, 2022 has seen an uptick in legislation that does not uphold the dignity of transgender and gender

non-conforming persons.

“i n addition to praying for those who lost their lives, we pray for quality of life for the living and an end to discrimi nation,” she said.

doerfler encouraged com munity members to participate by coming forward to light a named candle to place by the Grotto.

“Tonight, we will read the names of those who have died and light a candle in their memory to proclaim the im portance of life, the value our people bring to society and the human dignity that all people have,” she said.

Thirty-two lost names and stories were then delivered aloud, starting with regina a llen.

brianna c happell, notre dame student government di rector of LGbTQ+ initiatives, was one of eight student speak ers sharing the epitaphs of those murdered in acts of antitransgender violence.

“Kathryn ‘Katie’ newhouse was a 19-year-old a sian a merican neurodivergent transgender woman,” chappell stated. “she was an i llinois na tive who had a passion for hik ing, sightseeing and advocating

for trans rights. on march 19, 2022, she was killed by her fa ther in Georgia before he died by suicide using the same weapon.”

raymond “ray” muscat, chappell continued, was a 24-year-old grocery worker de scribed by coworkers as a kind soul with a glowing smile.

“on may 8, 2022,” she said, “muscat was shot and killed by his girlfriend in independence Township, m ichigan.”

a fter the last name, Kenyatta “Kesha” Webster, was called, prayer inten tions were offered by sopho more e lijah mustillo for the souls of all those murdered this year, and in years past, as a result of anti-transgender violence.

Following intentions, mustillo invited those gathered to join in praying the Lord’s Prayer. Then, everyone shared a sign of peace.

a rlene montevecchio, Grc director, closed out the memo rial at the Grotto, thanking stu dent leaders of both Prism nd and the Grc

montevecchio directed stu dents to “safe spaces” on cam pus —naming Prism nd, the Grc, campus ministry and the

University counseling center (Ucc ) as “folks on campus who want to provide a safe and in clusive community here.”

before concluding, montevecchio said she urged the audience to remember the victims names that were just read off and cautioned about the continual dangers of antitransgender violence.

“some of these cases involve clear anti-transgender bias. i n others, the victims’ transgender

status may have put them at risk in other ways, forcing them into unemployment, poverty or homelessness,” montevecchio said. “These deaths also high light the intersections of rac ism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. may all of us continue to work for justice, peace and love in our world, today and every day.”

Contact Peter Breen at pbreen2@nd.edu

Expand your mind with exciting research from outstanding faculty.

Nov. 18 (vs. Boston College)

The Economics of Baby Booms and Busts

From the mid-20th century baby boom to the recent pandemic baby bust, changes in fertility can have significant and far-reaching consequences. Join economist Kasey Buckles for a discussion of how economic factors affect people’s fertility decisions, why birth rates are declining, and what this trend means for the future of labor, education, and policy in the United States.

Kasey Buckles Professor of Economics

To explore the entire Ahead of the Game series, visit al.nd.edu/aheadofthegame. A video of each lecture is available online one week following the event.

Paid a dverT isemen T

PETER BREEN | The Observer

A candle burns in the Grotto in honor of Kathryn “Katie” Newhouse. During the vigil, 32 deceseased transgender people were remembered.

Fieldhouse place with hopes of preserving it not as an athletic institution, but a center for the arts.

Those who opposed the Fieldhouse and advocated for its demolition did so for aesthetic reasons, some calling it obsolete, ugly and awkwardly situated. The ad ministration, for one, sought to raze the Fieldhouse be cause it was an “eyesore and architecturally unsound.”

n otably, the 1969 rally fea tured an endorsement from s tudent b ody President Phil m cKenna as well as a pledge from Fr. h esburgh himself to do “all he could” to delay the demolition. h esburgh fur ther announced his admi ration for the UA c for their determination in defense of the Fieldhouse.

After three months of so cial action by the UA c , on January 8, 1970, they re ceived a letter from Fr. h esburgh declaring a sixmonth moratorium on the fieldhouse demolition. This constituted victory for the UA c , but Fern’s labor was not over yet. h e now had six months to set plans for the new art institute and to raise the funds required.

Twilight in the life of the Notre Dame Fieldhouse

Jan. 12, 1970 | Paul Gallagher | March 13, 1970 | Dan O’Donnel | April 20, 1972 | Observer Staff | July 10, 1975 | Andy Praschak | Nov. 13, 1975 | John Hannan | Researched by Spencer Kelly

While the n otre d ame Fieldhouse is best remem bered as a sports venue, the twilight of its life was spent in a reimagined role as a center for arts and culture.

d ays after the University granted a six-month demo lition moratorium for the Fieldhouse, The o bserver reported that renovations would begin promptly; “to morrow at 4:15,” to be precise.

University Arts c ouncil c hairman Tom Kronk prom ised that the new Fieldhouse would spark a “cultural renaissance on the n otre d ame campus.”

h owever, renovations were now estimated at $1.8 million — over $14 mil lion today. Kronk believed funds could be raised, but by m arch, the Arts Finance c ommittee reported that “no major contributions” had been received.

At the end of the demolition moratorium, the University extended it indefinitely, keeping the Fieldhouse alive but in a precarious position.

b y 1971, the Art d epartment had settled into the Fieldhouse. d epartment c hairman Thomas Fern said the building housed class rooms, studios and an art gallery, serving 800 students in total.

h owever, the Fieldhouse remained unrenovated, and money was still lacking. Fern reported “rather piddling” donations totaling $3,500, nowhere near the millions needed. s till, Fern main tained that the Fieldhouse should stand, saying “[it’s an] educationally valuable space and a viable space.”

The University remained noncommittal on the Fieldhouse’s future.

“You just kind of handle it on a year to year basis,” Fr. b lantz of the o ffice of s tudent Affairs said. “As you can see parts of the building are not in good repair. You don’t want to make any long term commitments with a building like that.”

The mid-1970s saw flickers

all saint mary’s faculty and staff.

— literal and figurative — of the “cultural renaissance” that Kronk had promised. In 1972, the Fieldhouse hosted a light sculpture exhibit. In strikingly poetic terms, The o bserver described how “on the darkness shrouded main floor of the Fieldhouse, [the sculptures] stand out as highlights of brilliant colour [sic] and muted, coloured shadows.”

In 1975, the Fieldhouse held a ceramics workshop, hosting students, teach ers and professional potters from around the country.

“This is the first time a workshop of this type has ever been offered in ce ramics,” art professor b ill Kremer said.

“I can’t stress enough the convenience of the Fieldhouse for purposes such as this,” Kremer added. “I really hope the University doesn’t continue the discus sion of tearing it down.”

Kremer admitted that the Fieldhouse was in decay ing condition, noting that “students had to patch the roof.” Kremer was a staunch Fieldhouse supporter, though, citing its abundant space for creativity.

“We give everyone stu dio space, so they can de velop their personality and not have their work thrown in with a mass of others,” Kremer said. “It helps them establish identity.”

Indeed, it seemed that the Fieldhouse itself was a key part of n otre d ame’s identity overall. Whether it was facilitat ing athletic or artistic en deavors, the Fieldhouse was always a space where the n otre d ame community could come together.

The fall of the Notre Dame Fieldhouse Oct. 11, 1980 | John McGrath

for me,” Juliano said.

| Feb. 2, 1983 | Margaret

Fosmoe | March 1, 1983 |

Robert Walsh and Thomas

Piernek | Researched by Thomas Dobbs

With the Fieldhouse show ing its age by the early 1980s, students shared diverging opinions on its future.

o bserver Production m anager John m cGrath pro posed that the Fieldhouse be converted into a “first-class student center.” m cGrath advocated for the conver sion of the wFieldhouse due to its “enormous size, its central location on campus and its rich tradition.”

d eirdre m urphy, an ar chitecture student, helped m cGrath outline a tentative floor plan. The plan includ ed spaces such as a bowling alley, a 350-500 seat movie theater, a full-size night club and coffeehouse, and a multipurpose area for bas ketball, volleyball, or tennis courts.

m cGrath estimated the Fieldhouse renovations at $2.5 million. r epurposing an existing structure, m cGrath argued, would be less expensive given the cost of new student dormitories under construction, which he claimed “will cost the university over $3 million” each.

n ot all students shared m cGrath’s enthusiasm for the potential of the Fieldhouse. s aint m ary’s e xecutive e ditor m argaret Fosmoe wrote that “the days of the Fieldhouse are gone.” After planned renovations of the structure fell through in the 1970s, Fosmoe pointed out that the art department occupied the space even as it “continued to decay around them.”

It appears that the University recognized this decay and scheduled the

Fieldhouse demolition for the week of spring break of 1983.

r obert Walsh (‘86) and Thomas Piernek outlined the storied history of the Fieldhouse in an ode to the structure in its final week before demolition.

The building func tioned as the football lock er room for Irish legends George Gipp, Jesse h arper and Knute r ockne. The Fieldhouse also had a rich political history, serving as the venue for a 1935 convo cation featuring President Franklin d r oosevelt and a site for a 1937 “nationwide tour against communism” featuring then- d irector of the F b I J. e dgar h oover.

Walsh and Piernek con cluded that the demolition of the Fieldhouse showed that “ n otre d ame has more important priorities” than preserving its history. While they predicted that future students would appreci ate the fiscal conservatism the University showed in electing against renovating the Fieldhouse, the current students “can find consola tion only in the often heard phrase, ‘ n otre d ame … not quite the great University it intends to be.’”

Today’s student body would surely reject the as sertion that n otre d ame is no longer a “great universi ty.” s till, when n otre d ame demolished the Fieldhouse, this campus lost not just a sporting arena or an art space or a political venue but a piece of its history, now remembered only by a small pillar and a plaque at Fieldhouse m all.

Contact Spencer Kelly at skelly25@nd.edu, Avery Poling at apolking@nd.edu and Thomas Dobbs at tdobbs@nd.edu

accomplishments included the opening of the LGbTQ+ center and the announcement of Katie conboy as president-elect of saint mary’s in 2020. other highlighted accom plishments included the welcoming of redgina hill as executive director of inclusion and equity in 2019 and saint mary’s recognition of martin Luther King Jr. day as a college holi day in 2018.

“I have really felt the impacts and seen firsthand how the hiring of dr. redgina has affected the campus and the students having a direc tor for Inclusion and equity, and a decision that has worked to make saint mary’s diverse, inclusive, and equitable for all,” ramirez wrote in an email.

The student diversity board has hosted an annual mosaic celebra tion for the past seven years. The en tire college community was invited to participate in the event, including

After the event, when asked what sdb does for the community of saint mary’s college, ramirez said the three pivotal roles of the organi zation is to celebrate, advocate and educate on the diverse student body.

“And for us, it’s been develop ing what that word means for us and what that word means for the campus over the past four years for me and the past two for Anaís,” she said. “It’s learning to go beyond the boundaries of diversity that come to mind. Which you know, are like race, ethnicity and looking to things like being able-bodied, not ablebodied, your religious affiliation, your gender identity or sexual iden tity. so it’s just been looking into all of these different backgrounds that make you who you are and make up your identity.”

Juliano added that sdb is a place for everybody in the community to feel welcomed.

“That’s the part that I love about sdb is that everybody has a place somewhere, and sdb is that place

At sdb, ramirez and Juliano said they have unique opportunities to meet new people from all walks of life as well as work with prominent faculty and staff members, such as Liz bauman and Liz Palmer.

“being part of the student diversity board does get you the chance to elevate other voices, whether that be of your own, or the voices of students that you’ve heard concerns for the changing that they want to see. And so in this role, you have the privilege of being able to have a seat or conversations, to set the agenda, to have a voice that hopefully echoes the voice of the students,” Juliano said. “It’s been a privilege to kind of be able to do that and sit at different committees and at different boards through these questions we have to hope fully influence the student impact and influence the changes on cam pus through what we’ve learned through student engagement.”

events such as the annual sdb mosaic celebration provide outreach

to the members of the saint mary’s college community about the ac complishments of the board’s goals.

In addition, events like mosaic tell students that they belong.

“You can be whoever and be a part

of the board, because in you, being yourself you bring a diverse identity to saint mary’s,” ramirez said.

Contact Chloe Coddington at ccoddington01@saintmarys.edu

CHLOE CODDINGTON | The Observer

Commemorative tote bags for the Saint Mary’s Student Diversity Board’s Mosaic celebration were displayed Tuesday in Haggar Hall.

Christmas starts now

Caitlin Brannigan Twitter Manager

I love looking out my window and being greeted by a winter wonderland. I love curl ing up in my bed with a book and a cup of hot chocolate. I love making snow angels and flailing around on the quad, hurling snowballs at my friends until our fingers are numb.

That said, my brain is still trying to pro cess the fact that campus is covered in snow in November. The rapid switch from 70 de gree weather to freezing makes me wonder what happened to autumn. I’m from New Jersey, and I usually don’t expect this level of snow until at least January. It’s really messing with my perception of time.

Up until the recent snowfall, I was in the camp that Christmas needs to wait its turn. Listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving was tolerable. d ecorating and watching Christmas movies before the holi days was unacceptable.

However, with this much snow on the ground, South b end weather has kickstarted Christmas for me. My mindset has com pletely switched. I would not be surprised by the sight of a brightly lit Christmas tree somewhere on campus. I would not bat an eye if the dining hall decided to exclu sively play Christmas music from now on. It snowed, so any reservations I have about the Christmas season starting early are out the window.

With that out of the way, my Christmas hot take is that the stop motion puppet movies are better than the live action ones. “Elf” doesn’t do much for me, but I will always be really excited to watch Snow Miser and Heat Miser waddle around insulting each other. This discussion is, of course, excluding “The Polar Express,” which is an absolute classic and my favorite Christmas movie of all time. I didn’t like it when I first watched it, but my siblings made me watch it with them at least 20 times, which according to them is the only way to get the full “Polar Express” ex perience. I would not recommend watching it unless you are able to take in its complete beauty, which may or may not be by watch ing it over and over again. The story is great, the animation is amazing and the music is just perfect.

Mariah Carey has defrosted. “All I Want For Christmas is You” is a masterpiece for the next month or so and should be treated as such. “O Holy Night,” specifically the cover by Jungkook of K-pop band b TS, will be listed about five times on my study playl ist until January 1. With the change in the weather, I suddenly have a renewed inter est in playing the piano — Farley Hall may have to tolerate an unfortunate rendition of “Jingle b ells” on the chapel piano at least a few times before the semester ends.

I am so excited to celebrate Christmas! Thank you South b end weather for making it start early.

You can contact Caitlin Brannigan at cbrannig@nd.edu.

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

How misinformation/ disinformation on social media is destroying our democracy

Kelly Harris bridgeN d

Social media has given a platform for individu als to share their voices faster and to a broader audience than ever before. At our nation’s founding, it would have been unimaginable to predict that anyone would be able to speak at any time from anywhere. This phenomenon has lent itself to the creation of a new type of speak er, a bolder ego unafraid of sharing what is on their mind. In reaction, our government is stuck with a thought-provoking dilemma of what “free speech” truly entails in this day and age. The or atory vehicle that social media has become pro vides several cultural stresses on the democratic structure, such as an overload of information, the creation of a hive mind and radicalization. Perhaps the greatest threat to democracy, which works in tandem with the aforementioned, is the growing misinformation and disinformation online.

Anyone can fall into the snares of believ ing and spreading false information. This was evidenced by a study done by researchers at MIT which found that “false news stories are 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than true stories are.” That study becomes even more potent when looking at a mass of individu als, where it was mentioned that “it takes true stories about six times as long to reach 1,500 people as it does for false stories to reach the same number of people.” Another study that exemplifies the true might of this swelling issue is done by PEW Research Center which found that “62% of Americans get their news from so cial media” and “two-in-three U.S. adults (64%) say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current is sues and events.” These numbers become even more alarming when noticing that this study was conducted in 2016, and one can assume that with social media gaining more influence almost daily, the percentages of adults that re ceive their news from social media has increased since then. In addition to this, recent contro versies such as the 2016 and 2020 elections, the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have further contributed to the public’s perception of inaccurate information in their daily news consumption.

If speech has lost its value in society and is no longer desired to be truthful, then what exactly drives speech to be productive? The founding fathers, with Madison serving as a preeminent example, believed that speech would be a tool to uphold the democratic structure by allow ing people to put forth their best argument and allow society to choose the superior. However, platforms, in the form of social media, have sanctioned speech that is innately worthless with the intent to troll and solicit a reaction. The more salacious a headline, the more engagement it is bound to receive. Not only does this culti vate fake news, but it also changes insights of the general public. Fake rhetoric allows for radi calization and a strengthening of ideals through an echo-chamber. It also may allow for individu als to feel overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information available and discourage them from participating in the wider political sphere.

This problem then breeds bigger issues such as the political polarization that seemingly widens each day. Thus, our democracy is on its way to facing a grave peril.

The question now beckons — which approach should the government enforce to tackle this menacing predicament? To start, it should be noted that the government would be greatly overstepping its power to combat this problem, because it has no jurisdiction over these social media platforms as they are private entities.

One should ask themselves if they believe that social media should be held accountable by the government for allowing false information to be spread. Is the problem so dire that it would re quire the government to encroach in the private sector?

To answer this, there are two salient schools of thought that are worth mentioning. The first of which is libertarianism, which essentially believes the marketplace of ideas should be al lowed to occur naturally and be shown defer ence from the government. Justice Kennedy, who prescribes to this ideology (Fish, Stanley Eugene, “What Is the First Amendment For?), has shown his wariness to the government’s “chilling” speech. On the other side lies consequentialism, which argues that speech should be regulated by the government if the harms outweigh the ben efits of the speech. A growing outcry in favor of consequentialism has emerged with false infor mation being spewed across a myriad of social media channels. Consequentialists would most likely believe that the threat posed by misinfor mation is too hazardous and thus should be con trolled by the government.

Personally, I identify more in the libertarian camp. I struggle with allowing a government to have control over censoring voices, as this could eventually lead to the silencing of opposing voices. However, I do think that social media has transformed speech as we understand it and that the government must adjust to our new reality. The government should not have the power to dictate what constitutes “false” information, but perhaps it should put pressure on social media misinformation warning, and I think we should ensure that apps begin to make this the norm in order to address this problem. Regardless if this is the answer or not, something must be done to stop the spread of misinformation. Maybe then people will be able to have more productive con versations about politics and can come to un derstand their own beliefs on a deeper and more truthful level.

Kelly Harris is a senior at the University of Notre Dame majoring in political science and minoring in digital marketing, musical theatre and Glynn Honors.

She is originally from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and resided in Pangborn and Johnson Family Halls. If you wish to reach Kelly with any questions or concerns feel free to email kharri22@nd.edu.

BridgeND is a multi-partisan political club com mitted to bridging the partisan divide through respectful and productive discourse. It meets on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. in Duncan Student Center W246 to learn about and discuss current political issues, and can be reached at bridgend@nd.edu or on Twitter @bridge_ND.

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

slices of life: The world of literary fiction

Elizabeth Prater spark nd

When you dedicate a whole column to writing about lit erature, you may find yourself responding to the ultimate question: “What is your favorite book?”

While I certainly have several, I always find the need to add a qualifying statement, as if these works are not sub stantive on their own.

“It takes a while to get into it,” is a go to of mine. And when they ask, “What is it about?” I also find myself fum bling for a concise explanation. “Well, it’s hard to put into words.”

I love books that are about nothing.

Plot-wise, the literature I read doesn’t consist of much. There is no one-sentence summary that can define the book, or act as an enticing logline. The commerciality of these works is meager to none.

Literary fiction is often defined as following “nonconventional plot structures” and being character-driven. These novels aren’t typically able to fit neatly into a spe cific genre, and they are most notable in the ambiguity of their endings.

one of my top-of-mind examples is Julie otsuka’s “The swimmers.” The novel follows the lives of a group of rec reational swimmers who visit the same pool. Throughout the book, the reader jumps in and out of their perspec tives and experiences through free, indirect discourse. however, nothing significant happens. If anything, the crack that forms at the bottom of the concrete pool, one of the only fundamental events which occurs in the novel, is more metaphorical than physical. The incident causes rifts and strains within the relationships of the swimmers.

“The bell Jar” by sylvia Plath is another book where when I recall reading it, I remember more about the way it

made me feel, rather than specific scenes or instances that take place. The premise is that a college student (esther Greenwood) goes to new York city for a summer intern ship to pursue journalism. however, declaring that the setup is what the book is “about” would be a disservice. most of the scenes are vignettes about her interactions with the people she meets, and most importantly, her dissent into mental illness. You experience esther’s dis illusionment with the world as she grapples her loss of adolescence. You encounter her dissatisfaction with the grievances of the world.

I am often left curious and unsatisfied when I read these kinds of literary fiction novels. There is always something slightly vague and incomplete in the endings, as we never truly experience a true resolution, since there often wasn’t an explicit conflict in the first place. The formulaic relief that we experience when reading or watching our favorite genre-specific media doesn’t hold true for the world of “plotless” literary fiction. It’s indecisive, confusing and messy.

After reading all of this, you may wonder how I am a marketing major, as I don’t seem to be doing a very good job “selling” this kind of literature. And you would be cor rect. however, I think there’s something more realistic and contemplative about these kinds of books.

In contrast, classic storybook endings are more idealis tic than truthful. but more than that, in the bustle of rou tine, we don’t always get to see the full range of a person’s life. even with people we are close to, we often see slices of their experiences. The rest is up to speculation, interpreta tion or is disregarded.

many “slice-of-life” books may seem to be dull upon hearing about its contents. some follow a person’s day do ing seemingly trivial tasks (“The remains of the day” by Kazuo Ishiguro). others contain stream-of-consciousness descriptions that make up the bulk of the word count (“To

the Lighthouse” by virginia Woolf). however, I find that they are the most accurate in depicting the scope of our observation of people’s lives.

In all honesty, we only get to be with those around us for a brief amount of time. conversations are snippets into a person’s livelihood, and we often don’t get to see every facet of them. I think this honesty and limitation of human connection is exactly what literary fiction thrives on. A part of us wishes we could see more, but we must be content with the glimpse we are provided of another’s world.

In the same way, the atmosphere of college life is like peering into vignettes. We only get to see scenes and se lected fragments of strangers, and even friends, as we ebb and flow through the quotidian patterns demanded of us. class. dining hall. Library. dorm. These are the spaces in which we get a glance of what the day looks like for the people around us. It’s not always the most exciting or glamorous, but it’s raw, and it’s real. And I think that can didness is what makes literary fiction worthwhile.

so, what’s this column about? Perhaps a synopsis would not suffice. but then again, this is no piece of literary fiction.

Elizabeth Prater is a junior at Notre Dame double majoring in marketing and the Program of Liberal Studies (great books). She is interested in the cultural implications of analyzing classics and literature under a contemporary lens. When she isn’t writing, she loves playing the violin, hiking in the PNW, going to concerts with friends and offering unsolicited book recommen dations. Elizabeth always appreciates hearing from readers, so feel free to reach out eprater@nd.edu or @elizabethlianap on Twitter.

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

Hate has no place here

Last Wednesday, bridgend hosted a debate between the college democrats and college republicans. What was intended to be an educational conversation and a model for civil discourse instead spiraled into a display of rac ist, transphobic and antisemitic rhetoric from the college republicans’ representative. We believe that the college republicans must be held accountable for their hateful words, if not by our University’s administration then by concerned students like us. This letter is not about liber als being unable to listen to opposing opinions or being intolerant of different viewpoints. It is about taking a stand against the growth of hateful sentiment on notre dame’s campus and holding those who perpetrate it accountable. You don’t have to just take our word for it: Listen to what the college republicans’ representative said during the debate, which you can watch on YouTube.

The republican debater’s election denial, promotion of QAnon conspiracies about Jan. 6, transphobic character ization of deeply personal experiences for trans children, comparison of Judaism’s position on abortion with Aztec child sacrifice, dogwhistles on race when discussing deI and promotion of nationalism are not just factually inaccu rate and problematic. These statements are unacceptable and harmful to our community at notre dame. What was meant to be educational was instead speech based on in flammatory lies and group defamation. For these reasons, we unequivocally condemn his statements.

It seems that the republican debater’s intent was to use inflammatory speech to elicit a reaction from the crowd. he could have spoken on a wide range of legitimate policy positions enumerated in the republican national committee’s official platform. he could have embraced civil discourse and been respectful toward the college democrats’ debater. Instead, he drew on conspiracy theo ries, alt-right rhetoric and dangerous nationalist ideas. The debate could have been an opportunity for educational, civil discourse, but instead it was an event that made stu dents in the audience and those watching the recording feel unsafe and unwelcome at their own university.

Unfortunately, what we witnessed last Wednesday is not an isolated incident of hate speech and political extrem ism. rather, it represents the emergence — or rather, the explosion — of antidemocratic and hateful sentiments at notre dame.

Last year, the editor-in-chief of the Irish rover pub lished a homophobic article, arguing that the affirmation of LGbTQ+ students’ sexuality was inconsistent with the University’s catholic mission, purposefully timed after national coming out day. her argument was that truly loving and including queer students unconditionally is uncatholic. This year, the rover’s articles included assertions that selling Pride-related products at the bookstore was tantamount to heresy.

We also held our first-ever PrideFest last year, a major milestone for notre dame’s LGbTQ+ students. And yet, some students were overheard ridiculing the event, mock ing what notre dame had become and showing disgust for the celebration. remarks like these are disheartening. on top of that, the Young Americans for Freedom put up a sign in the duncan student center last year that read “Lia Thomas is not a woman.” This isn’t emblematic of the notre dame family that we have touted and embraced. Last Wednesday, when the college democrats’ repre sentative blake Ziegler called out an antisemitic comment made to him during the debate, members of the audience booed him. It is disgusting and highly offensive that an antisemitic comment was made on stage by the college republicans’ representative, but even more so that stu dents of this university booed someone who was simply holding his opponent accountable for insulting his religion.

{Editor’s note: Blake Ziegler is a Viewpoint columnist for The Observer.}

These actions of hate need to be addressed and need to be condemned.

When students at the University of notre dame, a presti gious academic institution, are allowed to make offensive comments in an official, public capacity, they normalize it for extremists everywhere. We may not realize it in the

moment, but for people watching this debate with hate ful ideologies in their hearts, it is validating. We allow it to become an academically sound argument, when it’s pure lies and hate. Introducing such ideas under the guise of “academic debate” and “intellectual freedom” does not make them legitimate — it just gives them an undeserved place at this university. And, by giving them a place here, we use the power and prestige that comes with the words “University of notre dame” to tell the world that hate is acceptable.

We want the notre dame administration to formally condemn the dangerous rhetoric promoted by college republicans at the bridgend debate and commit to re quiring comprehensive anti-bias training for student club officers.

notre dame’s motto is to be a force for good, but we can’t do that when we don’t uphold our educational mission of pursuing the truth — rather than promoting conspiracy. We proclaim the promise of the notre dame family above all else, but we are not treating all of our members with love and respect. We are the Fighting Irish, but what are we fighting for if not the dignity of our own home?

With love for notre dame and hope for its future, Alexandra Conley junior Riya Shah senior Anna Guzman senior Benjamín Rascon Gracia junior Katie Werner junior Megan Keenan junior Sydney Dittmar junior college democrats board members

Kill your darlings: Notes on letting go

Kate Casper outsider Instincts

Letting go has never been easy for me. In fact, it’s one of my least favorite things to do — because, often, letting go feels like losing. Whether it’s letting go of a person or a feeling, a place or a sense of nor malcy, things will change, and change can be dreadful.

but, I’m convinced we can’t escape it. We let go all the time: maybe we’re letting go of our daily trips to the huddle to stock up on study snacks because we’re running out of Flex Points; maybe we’re let ting go of old friends who know all our secrets but have now become strangers on the morning walk to class; maybe we’re letting go of all the “sure things” that aren’t so sure anymore, like football games and half-decent weather. If we aren’t letting go, we aren’t living.

I always loved this quote from William Faulkner. he said, “In writ ing, you must kill all your darlings.” I liked it because it was honest. In life and in poetry (because life is like poetry), we have to learn to let go of some beautiful things. In life, we let go of people and ideas and habits and places; In poetry, we let go of words and phrases and verses and stanzas.

This summer, I wrote a poem called “cigarettes in the Writing room.” I spent months working on it, collecting countless pages of raw material and revisions, crafting cool lines that would never make it to the final draft. but there was so much beauty in the things I had to let go of, so much beauty in the darlings I killed.

And I didn’t do it for no reason — sometimes, we kill our darlings when they don’t fit with the storyline or when they disrupt the flow; sometimes, we simply outgrow them. I think my poem outgrew some of the lines I once loved, but that won’t stop me from keeping those lines scrawled in my moleskin notebook, always available for me to use at some other time or place.

Letting go of a good thing is not a closed door; letting go can be gentle.

I think often we conflate letting go with finality. We block numbers, archive posts, pretend things never happened. Growing up, my nana taught me how to cut people off — she’d cut people out of photos and tape them back together again, constructing new realities where those people never existed and nothing ever hurt.

When I’d ask her about the doctored photographs, she claimed she didn’t know who the missing person was, but she always knew. It was often one of her kids’ ex-boyfriends or a back-stabbing friend — dar lings that unfortunately went sour. These days, she tells me, “don’t do what I did.” she tells me to keep the photos as they are. I figure this is her way of telling me I can let go gracefully.

my mom sent me a text a few weeks ago. she said, “see yourself as frolicking in a beautiful field of flowers, and sometimes folks will walk into the field and stay a bit and sometimes just having them walk on the outskirts will bring joy … and sometimes people will stay, and sometimes people will leave. And sometimes you’ll tell them to go, sometimes you’ll tell them to come back. And sometimes, you’ll be alone. And you’ll be fine.”

A month from now, when the semester ends, and the dorm buildings and dining halls close for winter break, there’s going to be a lot of let ting go for a lot of people. some will let go of life on-campus, as they prepare for study abroad in the spring. others will let go of their first semester of college. A lot of us will let go of our monday-Wednesday lunch group, or the people we cross paths with on the way to our class es. maybe we’ll let go of the study spot we wore to death or a dining hall meal we got tired of. We all will kill the darling that is fall semester 2022, and we all will be fine.

someday, I’m sure, we’ll look back at all the darlings we’ve had — all the places, people and things we’ve loved — and smile. We’ll light candles for our darlings, say hello to our darlings and we’ll probably always find a way back. so when you kill your darlings, do it with love.

I want to close with a quote from maya Angelou: “Love liberates. It doesn’t bind. Love says, ‘I love you, I love you if you’re in china, I love you if you’re across town, I love you if you’re in harlem, I love you. I would like to be near you. I’d like to have your arms around me, I’d like to hear your voice in my ear, but that’s not possible now, so I love you. Go.’”

Kate Casper (aka, Casper, Underdog or Jasmine) is from Northern Virginia, currently residing in Breen-Phillips Hall. She strives to be the best waste of your time. You can contact her at kcasper@nd.edu.

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

spes Unica: A reflection on leading a retreat and a call to others

Gabriel Ibarra In swift We Trust

I’ve been missing from the pages of The o bserver for a while, but I am back and refreshed after a great weekend s pes Unica retreat. As the 50th retreat in this biannual series, s pes Unica retreats are a hidden gem among the many retreats that happen around the tri-campus community. Though I was a leader this time around, this retreat was still one I actively participated in as if I was liv ing it out. For context, this was my first official s pes Unica retreat, but my third spiritual retreat at h oly c ross. The first was at s ophomore Anchor d ay, an over night retreat that served as a spiritual check-in for those in their second year of h oly c ross. After this, I did not go on any s pes Unica retreats, but I did attend our m arian Pilgrimage. d uring this pilgrim age, we traveled around from Indiana to travel to Illinois and Wisconsin, vis iting holy sites centered around m ary. h ighlights include going to m arytown in Libertyville, the University of s aint m ary of the Lake in m undelein and the s hrine of o ur Lady of Good h elp in c hampion. This was a multiple-day trip that introduced m ary to several students in new and exciting ways. b ut, these were not s pes Unica retreats, also known as s P es

s P es is a retreat open to the stu dents of the tri-campus, c atholic or non- c atholic, geared to help students deepen their spirituality and relation ship with God. At s P es , and in my own leadership, it is to meet God where you are and search for h im in your own way. m odeled after a testimony/talk and small group reflection framework, this series of retreats is a big deal to the c ampus m inistry team here at h oly c ross. s P es is led by students that have been to at least one previous and want to continue going to s P es in a new way. I took the opportunity to lead s P es 50 because I have wanted to grow in my faith life. I find that many people around me don’t realize that I am as faithful as I am. This is a complicated dynamic to be a part of because of the context of my relationship with c hrist, h is c hurch and me. In my talk, and in my everyday life, I let people know that I am c atholic and proudly queer. I won’t divulge into the theology or catechesis on c atholics and homosexuality, but I will explain that it isn’t easy. I took it upon myself to take this retreat as a time to work on my rela tionship with c hrist as a way that could explore the relationship I already have with h im.

As many of you know, if you’ve fol lowed my columns, I have put time into thinking about Ace at n otre d ame. And after further consideration of the possibility of my role in the lives of fu ture catholic youth, I knew I needed to continue to fortify my relationship with God. Part of this is to do my own work. s P es values personal prayer and

reflection; highlighting adoration and contemplation as moments to work on your relationships with God. This layer is what I was looking forward to as a retreatant. o n the flip side, it took me by surprise how much I enjoyed talk ing about my faith and helping others through theirs as a leader. m y talk was centered around the changing nature of one’s relationship with c hrist and the fundamental importance of knowing your status as a c hild of God. These are the two key facets of my own faith. As a future catholic school educator, it is im portant to me that one day my students grow to learn the depths of love God has for them. As a retreat leader, it was important for me to make sure my re treatants knew that same message, that God so deeply loves them. This is be cause of the fact that it is a struggle I’ve had to deal with throughout my life. s o what? If you have read this far into my article, thank you. And I’ll get to the point I am trying to make soon enough. What I want you, readers of these arti cles, to know is that there is a call to join in community with each other. I know that not everyone is c atholic or religious at all, but everyone needs someone. And I think that a weekend away from the books and from the world showed me that I needed it sooner than I expected. I found that I wanted to be more au thentically connected to people. As the photographer of the weekend, I had my phone out a couple of times to take pic tures or to check the team’s Group m e for updates on the plan for the weekend. b ut it was refreshing to sit in conversation and get to know one another in deeper relationships. Part of this column is to be authentically me and broadcast what the experience of a h oly c ross c ollege student is like to the greater tri-campus community, but part of me also wants to invite you to get to know one another in ways that don’t involve a cell phone. s o, find a retreat near you, go phoneless for a couple hours and enjoy the chang ing landscape we’re experiencing right now. h oly c ross has the s P es retreats once a semester and is always open to the tri-campus; my email is listed if you are interested in attending it. There is so much to do without time on earth, make it count.

Gabriel B. Ibarra is a Chicago native cur rently attending Holy Cross College, major ing in visual arts on the studio track with a minor in elementary education. If not crying to any of Taylor Swift’s re-recordings, you can find them somewhere in the tri-campus causing chaos with laughs, pointed jokes and one of many emotional support water bottles in hand, or leading Holy Cross College’s First Generation Club as the vice-president. Learning to write for a newspaper is harder than expected, so they can be contacted on Twitter @gbenito11 or via email at gibarra@ hcc-nd.edu.

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

By CAITLIN BRANNIGAN scene Writer

I recently watched the 2005 film “Pride and Prejudice,” based on Jane Austen’s 1813 novel of the same name. It was excellent. m any movie adaptations of books struggle to convey their lengthy events in a completely different medium, but this is not the case with “Pride and Prejudice.” The writing succeeds in staying true to the book and creating an enjoyable movie. r eaders of the novel will appreciate the actors’ interpretations of their respective characters. h owever, you could watch the film without read ing the book and immensely enjoy it.

This made me think back to my days of watching the Percy Jackson film adapta tions, which were terrible. They were incred ibly loose adaptations, and the antithesis of everything the “Pride and Prejudice” film did well.

The novel series Percy Jackson & the o lympians by r ick r iordan is about a 12-year-old half-hu man son of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, who goes on adventures with his demigod friends and saves the world multiple times. It consists of five books covering Percy’s life over

a few years at a magical camp for demigods on Long Island.

I loved the book series. It was a staple of my middle school experience. I would stay up ex tremely late to read about how Percy and his friends defeated monsters. I would read the series at the dinner table with my family, which was admittedly rude. b ut I was so ab sorbed in the writing, I physically could not put them down until I was finished. The characters had so much depth, the plot was fast-paced and the references to Greek mythol ogy were incredibly interesting.

The film adaptations of the first two books in the series, “The Lightning Thief” and “ s ea of m onsters,” were a disappointment. They changed key elements of the original Percy Jackson we know and love, like the char acters’ personalities and the monsters they encounter. r eading the series and knowing how badly the movie portrayed the storyline was painful. b ut the films don’t just fail as adapta tions, they fail to be good movies. e ven for peo ple who didn’t read the books, the movies were just plain unenjoyable. They could not stand on their own if they were not tied to the Percy Jackson series.

The pacing in the movies was jarring and the emotional development of the characters felt awkward and forced. Although the acting was decent, the characters felt one-dimensional at times. The focus of the films rested much more on the action and fight scenes than anything else.

d isney+ plans to release a television series adaptation of Percy Jackson. The good news is that r ick r iordan is on the writing team for the show. h opefully, his influence will re sult in a series that stays true to the books, only deviating from the original plot in ways that are entertaining, improve upon the novels and translate their events for the silver screen.

The episodic format is also promising for the upcoming Percy Jackson release. T v shows typi cally can better adapt their source material because they have a longer runtime compared to movies. “Pride and Prejudice,” similarly, had a T v series adaptation on the bbc that was much more faithful to the original story.

d espite this, I am still scared of how it will turn out. The Percy Jackson movies have perma nently lowered my expectations.

Contact Caitlin Brannigan at cbrannig@nd.edu

By ANDY OTTONE scene Writer

o n n ov. 26, 2021, the theater world mourn ed the loss of composer s tephen s ondheim. s ondheim, 91, passed away due to cardiovas cular disease at his home under the loving care of his husband Jeffrey s cott r omley. o ne year after his passing, we look back at his career through his works, those he inspired and the leg acy he has left behind.

s ondheim’s debut in the theater world was actually not as a composer but as a lyri cist. h is first two b roadway credits were for “West s ide s tory” and “Gypsy.” The first piece that he both composed and wrote lyr ics for was “A Funny Thing h appened on the Way to the Forum,” which earned him his first Tony Award for b est m usical. h e contin ued to serve as both composer and lyricist on further shows of his such as “ c ompany,” “Follies,” “ s weeney Todd: The d emon b arber of Fleet s treet” and “A Little n ight m usic.”All of these shows were critical and commercial successes.

h owever, every show s ondheim wrote didn’t necessarily receive praise. b oth “Anyone c an Whistle” and “ m errily We r oll Along” were commercial failures, though both have seen softer reception in recent years. After both shows failed to make an impact,

s ondheim swore off songwriting and proclaimed he’d pursue different art forms. b oth times, he came back to the theater.

In 1984, “ s unday in the Park With George” debuted, earning s ondheim a Pulitzer Prize. The revitalization of his career continued with “Into the Woods” in 1987; “Assassins” in 1990; “Passion” in 1994; and his last production, “ r oad s how” in 2008. A few months before his passing, s ondheim confirmed he was working on a new musical titled “ s quare o ne,” but it has since been shelved by his collaborators.

s ondheim in his lifetime mentored many up-and-coming composers in the theater in dustry. c omposer Jonathan Larson received guidance from s ondheim on his project, “ s uperbia,” after they met at a workshop. s ondheim’s influence was so impactful that Larson’s autobiographical musical “Tick, Tick… b oom!” features s ondheim as a char acter. s ondheim took another budding lyricist under his wing. h is promising b roadway debut landed him a job adapting “West s ide s tory” into s panish with s ondheim. m any know him today as Lin- m anuel m iranda, creator of the widely successful “ h amilton” musical and composer of “ m oana” and “ e ncanto.”

s ondheim’s legacy can be seen in his consis tent presence on stage and on screen. s ondheim’s

“ c ompany” gained popularity after a revival on the London stage, where the main charac ter was played by a woman instead of a man. This revival moved to b roadway where it won the 2022’s Tony Award for b est r evival of a m usical. “ s weeney Todd” and “ m errily We r oll Along” are open ing on b roadway in the 2023 b roadway season, and an “Into the Woods” re vival is currently in progress.

o n screen, there have been many adapta tions of his works, including two versions of “West s ide s tory” and feature-film adapta tions of “Into the Woods” and “ s weeney Todd.” An adaptation of “ m errily We r oll Along” is currently in development, but won’t hit the silver screen for a while. The “ m errily We r oll Along” film is di rected by r ichard Linklater and produc tion plans to spend 20 years shooting the film to reflect the time span of the musical.

If film adaptations aren’t your speed, I recommend listening to cast recordings of the shows he has produced. If you’d like to learn more about his life, a notable docu mentary “ o riginal c ast Album: c ompany” shows s ondheim’s work as a compos er by documenting the production and cast recording of a b roadway show.

Contact Andy Ottone at

By MARCELLE COUTO scene Writer

o n Thursday, Friday and s aturday, the n ots o- r oyal ( nsr ) s hakespeare c o. performed an only slightly abridged “The Winter’s Tale” (circa 1609-1611), which, with its almost symmetrical split into two halves of dark tragedy and comic romance, illustrates — perhaps more clearly than any other s hakespearean play — the genre of tragicomedy.

The tragedy of King Leontes seems, at first glance, irreversible and terrifying, like that of s hakespeare’s greatest tragic protagonists. h e suffers from irrational jealousy, much like o thello, and tries to destroy the person on whom all his happiness depends. Like o thello, his jeal ousy stems from a characteristic perversion of the masculine and fear of inadequacy, founded on meager fantasies. Unlike o thello, however, Leontes does not need a diabolic tempter such as Iago to poison his mind against Queen h ermione. Leontes is annihilated by his own fantasies.

It is horribly frustrating for the audience to perceive such unjust conclusions come to frui tion, and nsr nicely portrays the suddenness of Leontes’s speculations with a red light flashing and haloing around him as he broods with his thoughts. d ominic Keene, who plays Leontes,

stay longer in s icily, she does so with just the cor diality necessary for the occasion and encour aged by her husband. In any case, s hakespeare removes from Leontes the motive and occasion of a plausible distrust of his wife. All observers in the court of s icily are incredulous and shocked by the King’s accusations. e ven so, Leontes is not an unsympathetic character. Like o thello, Leontes cherishes his wife and realizes with horrifying intensity the fearful cost they both must pay for his suspicions. They sacrifice not only his mar riage but his enduring friendship with Polixenes, his sense of pride in his children and his de light in the warm consideration of his subjects. Whatever the psychological cause of this obses sion, it manifests itself as a revulsion against his wife’s entire behavior. In contrast, h ermione, played by n andini s adagopan, stands proud with honor, glistening with the tears only an innocent sufferer could illume.

Indeed, all of s hakespeare’s later plays feature journeys of separation, apparent deaths and tear ful reconciliations. “The Winter’s Tale” uses a more formal structure to evoke the antithesis of tragedy and romance. It is sharply divided into

see tyrannical jealousy producing a perpetually stormy winter spiritual climate; in b ohemia, we witness a pastoral landscape and the shearing of sheep evoking the sweetness of the

The two halves of the play are intensified by par allels: both begin with c amillo ( s ammy Kacius) on stage and proceed to scenes of confrontation and jealousy in which, ironically, the innocent cause of jealousy in the first half, Polixenes ( r yan m antey), becomes the jealous tyrant of the second half. The parallelism reminds us of the cyclical nature of time and the hope it brings for renewal as we move from tragedy to romantic comedy.

The view of human depravity is pessimistic as if infected by the melancholy spirit of great trag edies. And because humanity is so bent on de stroying itself, restoration is both more urgently needed and more miraculous than in the festive world of earlier comedies. r enewal is mythically associated with the seasonal cycle from winter to summer.

Editor’s note: A longer version of this story is available online.

Contact Marcelle Couto at mcouto@nd.edu

‘THE HANDMAID’S TALE’ SEASON FIVE:

NEVER GIVING IN

By SOPHIA MICHETTI scene Writer

Any fan of the e mmy Award-winning, “The h andmaid’s Tale” could not deny their anticipation for the premiere of the show’s fifth season on s ept. 14. s treamed on hulu, “The h andmaid’s Tale” ex pands upon m argaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, telling the story of June o sborne’s life after being forced to become a h andmaid under the theocratic country of Gilead. As a h andmaid in this dystopian world, June o sborne was faced with bearing children for the c ommander whose house she lived in under the guidelines of his wife. I think it’s safe to say the show is set on a pretty wild premise, but fans have shown dedication to watching the characters’ strength against a belief structure that sees them as property.

The fifth season of “The h andmaid’s Tale” bluntly opens with a simple question: What now? In season four, fans saw June ( e lizabeth moss) fi nally escape Gilead and return to her husband and friends as a refugee in c anada, but her intense need for revenge against the vile c ommander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) was at the forefront of her mind until she tore him apart in last season’s finale. After being cleared of charges, June has to deal with the question of whether she is able to move on with her husband and young daughter.

This season deals heavily with forgiveness and our attempts at change. June and her husband Luke ( o -T Fagbenle) do their best to readjust to living as a married couple, but they are still pulled into Gilead when they are reminded that their older daughter is still there. There’s a particularly striking scene in the second episode where we see cuts between scenes of June watching a ballet performance and scenes of s erena Joy Waterford (Yvonne s trahovski) conducting a performance of her own at her hus band’s televised performance, which is a very clear way of telling the audience that their rivalry isn’t going anywhere. moreover, Gilead never leaves June as we see rising sentiment for Gilead’s theocratic structure in c anada itself, making the characters’ safe place no longer so. Though the characters liv ing in both c anada and Gilead attempt to change their living conditions, everyone finds it’s not that easy.

And some characters are meant to stay in contact with each other. June would love nothing more than to never see s erena Joy again after all of the abuse and hate she faced from her in Gilead, and yet, she finds herself helping the c ommander’s wife to have a baby in a barn this season. however, even though s erena has put June through so much pain, June ul timately decides that change can only happen if we stick to our principles in every situation.

The directors’ passion for the story this season

is just as deeply embedded in the show as June’s beliefs. Though the show invites various directors to this 10-episode season, oss directs multiple episodes, including the finale. While constructing scenes of June fleeing Toronto with her daughter while Gilead’s influence grows, oss was deeply thinking of the current refugee crises in our own world, showing how a dystopian show like “The h andmaid’s Tale” can help us think through our own present-day problems.

“The h andmaid’s Tale” is dark and twisting, but you can’t help but be amazed as the actors beau tifully tell a story of human strife and strength against collecting vices of governments and soci ety. The show allows us to see what happens when we make all the wrong choices in our world, but it still conveys that we should never give in to letting injustice take over our lives.

Contact Sophia Michetti at smichett@nd.edu

Happy Birthday: A resourceful approach to life will help you avoid regret. This year, a simple yet thoughtful way of handling situations will bode well for you. Distance yourself from those who exaggerate or turn minor problems into complex situations that require time, energy and money to fix. refuse to let your emotions point you in the wrong direction. Choose personal gain as your goal. your numbers are 4, 16, 19, 28, 31, 35, 42.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): you can have fun without going overboard. Call on people who share your beliefs and concerns, and you’ll find a quick fix for something troubling you. your actions, dedication and ability to accomplish things will bring rewards.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): refuse to let your emotions get in your way. uncertainty will leave you questioning what to do next, but if you dissect a situation, a simple solution will arise that’s unique. This path will combat any negativity you receive from outside influences.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): your home is your castle, so fix it up to suit your needs. Comfort and convenience will encourage you to get more done in a shorter period, leaving room for other opportunities. A proposal you make will be well-received.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): let your mind wander, and you’ll discover something you didn’t think or know you could achieve. having faith in yourself will pay off and make others realize your worth. Wheel and deal, and you’ll come out on top. Ask and you shall receive.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Slow down, observe and adjust anything that may get in your way or cost you financially. It’s Ok to think big, but when it comes to putting your ideas to the test, look for bargains. Change only what’s necessary and spend what is needed.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): visit a place you’ve never been before or sign up for something that offers information that can help you bring about a change you want to pursue. find a way to use a gift you possess to get ahead. Do what comes naturally.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): get instructions before starting something new. Ask questions, make suggestions and be precise about the responsibilities you are willing to handle yourself. Concentrate on completing whatever task you assume, and choose to work alone if possible.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Set high standards and prioritize self-improvement. Be creative and look for unique changes you can implement to add comfort to your home without going over budget. Withhold your true feelings if it will put you in a compromising position.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): find your passion and see where it leads. give your all, and you’ll get the returns you desire. Stick to the truth and to those who offer honesty and loyalty. Change only what’s necessary to avoid confusion and worry. Protect your assets.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Don’t share personal information. Ask questions and listen attentively, and you’ll be able to assess whatever situation you face. A change will turn out to be better than anticipated and give you the boost you need to reach your goal.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Shake off bad vibes someone sends your way and do your own thing. your strengths are being innovative and coming up with ideas and concepts to help you reach your goal. A positive attitude will carry you to the winner’s circle.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): you’ll be ahead of your time and raring to go, so do what you do best. Promote and present your plans, and you’ll charm and persuade others to join in and help you reach your target. Personal growth will be enlightening.

Birthday Baby: you are friendly, possessive and compassionate. you are intelligent and practical.

Jumble | DAvID hOyT AND JEff kNurEk

sudoku | ThE MEPhAM grOuP

Tunney: Top five games of CFB Week 12

Joseph Tunney Sports Writer

5. Montana @ Montana State (-1.5), 2 p.m.

College Gameday goes to Bozeman, Montana, in the heart of Big Sky country for the Brawl of the Wild. The college football slate doesn’t have as many big games this week, so the ESPN crew chose to highlight a game that is one of the most unique in college football. Both of these teams are not in contention for the College Football Playoff, since they play in the FCS, a division below the power programs of college football.

However, Montana State is ranked third in the FCS, and Montana is ranked 16th. Both teams are on track to make the 24-team FCS playoff, but this game will be pivotal for seeding and a conference champion ship. In Montana State’s last game, the Bobcats broke re cords in a 72-28 demolition of Cal Poly. Running back Marqui Johnson scored five touchdowns as the Bobcats rushed for 554 yards. After losing three straight games, Montana got back on track. Last week, the Grizzlies routed Eastern Washington 63-7. Montana leads the ri valry with 73 wins compared to just 41 for the Bobcats, but the rivalry has been much more even the past 10 years as each team has five wins.

4. Illinois @ No. 3 Michigan (-17.5), noon

Since Michigan’s win over a top-10 Penn State team three weeks ago, the Wolverines have played a brand of foot ball that some would con sider boring. The Wolverines have focused heavily on the run and leaned on their de fense to beat three inferior teams. The Wolverines may have lost their second-string running back, Donavan Edwards, due to injury in their last game.

An absence of Edwards turns a position of strength for the Wolverines into one with a concerning lack of depth behind Heisman contender Blake Corum. While Corum has shown that he can carry the ball over 20 times a game, the Wolverines’ rarely-used backups will also need to be ready in the event that they are called upon. Illinois rose meteorically through the Big Ten West but two straight losses to Michigan State and Purdue dampened their

spirits. With four teams now tied for first in the Big Ten West, the race to the Big Ten Championship game is truly wide open. Running back Chase Brown has the most rushing yards in the coun try, and he is trending in the right direction after an in jury last game.

3. No. 4 TCU @ Baylor (+3), noon

At first glance, this line may look like insanity, but it makes more sense when you realize how TCU has played this season. Predicted to finish in the bottom half of the Big 12, the Horned Frogs shocked everyone en route to a 10-0 start. TCU’s strength is their high-flying offense headed by quarter back Max Duggan. Their of fensive talent has allowed them to get out of some big holes, such as an 18-point deficit against Kansas State. Last week, however, their offense was largely shut down by Texas. Give credit to TCU for being able to come out with a 17-10 win, but the tape of this game should serve as a blueprint for how coach Dave Aranda and his Baylor Bears can craft a winning game plan. After three straight wins heading into last week, Baylor lost 31-3, humbled by Kansas State. Quarterback Blake Shapen threw two intercep tions in the Bears’ worst of fensive performance of the season. The Horned Frogs have won six of the last sev en games in the series. This is the most pivotal game in the series since 2014, and a win for the Horned Frogs puts them that much closer to a College Football Playoff berth.

2. No. 10 Utah @ No. 12 Oregon (-3), 10:30 p.m.

After spending time off of the field due to personal issues, Utah running back Tavion Thomas came back with a bang last week with 180 rushing yards against Stanford. The Utes started off slow against Stanford, but behind the legs of Thomas and the arm of Cameron Rising the Utes roared to a 42-7 victory. Utah’s defense also held Stanford to just 22 rushing yards through utter domi nation of the line of scrim mage. The Utes did not allow a Stanford first down in the entire second quar ter. They also had seven sacks.

Oregon is coming off of an extremely disappoint ing loss to their rivals to the

north, Washington. Their chances in this game large ly depend on if quarterback Bo Nix can get healthy after suffering an ankle injury last game. After Nix left, the Ducks couldn’t move the ball against Washington, ultimately leading to a gutwrenching loss. Both teams have two losses, so the play off is out of the question. However, the winner of this game will get into the top 10 and be in a strong posi tion to play in the PAC-12 Championship and a New Years’ Six Bowl game.

1. No. 7 USC @ No. 16 UCLA (+2.5), 8 p.m.

The number one spot is another key PAC-12 con test. USC represents the PAC-12’s last hopes for a playoff team, as they go across town to play UCLA in the Rose Bowl in a ranked matchup. USC has respond ed to their one-point loss to Utah earlier in the season with one-score wins over Arizona and California and a rout of Colorado. Caleb Williams had an other amazing game for the Trojans against Colorado, accounting for five touch downs on the day. After trailing 3-2 after the first quarter, the Trojans locked the Buffaloes down on the way to a 55-17 win.

The win was significantly soured, however, due to the loss of running back Travis Dye for the rest of the sea son to a leg injury. “There’s no way we would be sitting here… if it wasn’t for him,” head coach Lincoln Riley told media after the game. UCLA is coming off of a surprise loss to Arizona, where the defense was unable to generate key stops. Running back Zach Charbonnet rushed for 181 yards and three touch downs, but UCLA’s de fense was unable to handle Arizona quarterback Jayden de Laura. If UCLA wants to beat USC, they’ll have to stop a much better quarter back surrounded by potent weapons. UCLA’s chances for a conference champion ship largely hinge on this game.

Contact Joseph Tunney at jtunney@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessar ily those of The Observer.

Observer on the Ground: Navy traditions

By MADELINE LADD AND LIAM COOLICAN Associate Sports Editors

As the weather in South Bend turned frigid over the weekend, we were re warded with a trip to sun ny Baltimore. Believe it or not, the weather at kickoff Saturday afternoon was 70 degrees with bright sunshine. We departed South Bend in the early afternoon on Friday and quickly became well-ac quainted with the Charlotte airport as we waited out our four-hour layover. Two flight delays and a plate of nachos later, we arrived in Baltimore late Friday night and immedi ately settled down in our hotel overlooking the waterfront.

We took advantage of the lovely Saturday morning by waking up early (for college students, that is!) and tak ing a leisurely stroll along the beautiful Inner Harbor and into Federal Hill. Irish fans abounded throughout the city. Although plenty of Navy fans had made the short trip from Annapolis as well.

We stumbled upon Sam’s Bagels, a quintessential East Coast bagel shop, packed with locals and football fans alike. It more than lived up to its reputation. For the curious: yes, they had Old Bay-flavored bagels.

No, we were not quite cra zy enough to order one. We ate our bagels outside before taking the short walk to the stadium.

Once we arrived at M&T Bank Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Ravens, we checked out the tailgating scene be fore heading up to the press box. It was definitely more akin to a professional football tailgating environment, as no tents were allowed. And given the fact that the stadium is right downtown, the lots were much smaller.

That didn’t prevent Irish and Midshipmen fans alike from enjoying the unseason ably warm November after noon. The two groups of fans mingled among each other, showing once again why Notre Dame and Navy have one of the friendliest rivalries in college football.

Once we settled into the pressbox, we took the el evator down to the field to watch warmups. As the teams

left the field, the 4,000-plus Midshipmen, composed of 30 companies, marched onto the field in perfect formation.

The student experience at the Naval Academy is so dif ferent from that of our own, especially on a game day. Experiencing it firsthand gave us an even greater respect for their service to our country.

Once each company was in position, the band began to play the The Star-Spangled Banner.

Standing on the same field as the Midshipmen as the col ors were presented and two fighter jets roared overhead at the conclusion of the national anthem is not an experience we’ll easily forget.

Just before kickoff, three parachutists descended on to the field with perfect land ings. And at halftime, we were able to take in the impres sive Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon. All in all, it was cer tainly not a typical college gameday experience. But the Naval Academy’s unique tra ditions make it an incredibly special place.

After the game, as is tradi tion, the two teams joined together in front of the USNA band for the playing of “Notre Dame, Our Mother” and “Navy Blue and Gold,” Navy’s alma mater. It is clear these two programs have an im mense amount of respect for each other.

Upon arrival at the Baltimore airport Sunday morning, we decided to stop by Miss Shirley’s, a Maryland classic. After seeing that the Food Network said Miss Shirley’s has “the best pan cakes in Maryland,” we knew we had to try them out for ourselves. We can both con fidently say that the title lived up to the test.

After connecting in Charlotte once again, al though thankfully with a much shorter layover this time, the plane descended through the permacloud which had invaded South Bend in our short absence. We let out a collective groan as we saw the snow-covered ground. But we were grate ful for our short foray into Baltimore.

Contact Madeline Ladd at mladd2@nd.edu. andLiam Coolican at lcoolica@nd.edu

The Observer accepts classifieds every business day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Notre Dame office, 024 South Dining Hall. Deadline for next-day classifieds is 3 p.m. All classifieds must be prepaid. The charge is 5 cents per character per day, including all spaces. The Observer reserves the right to edit all classifieds for content without issuing refunds.

The mental health crisis of collegiate athletics

Bella Rogers Sports Writer

Editor’s note: This column discusses eating disorders and mental health concerns.

The mental health crisis in college athletics is an ep idemic growing more fatal every day. In the spring of 2022, it felt like almost ev ery week, there was news of a student-athlete taking his or her own life.

Even outside the more extreme situations, men tal health issues have in creased in student-athletes, and the resources are not catching up fast enough. Larger contributions to this crisis are stigmas surround ing counseling services, the “typical” athlete mindset, lack of support from coach es, overworking athletes and eating disorders.

The stigma surrounding counseling for student-ath letes is a substantial issue currently being discussed in the media. In the athletic community, there has been a big push for easier access to these services.

The stigma, however, pre vents young athletes from pursuing these services. The stigma around this topic consists of the use of negative labels that affect their view on this kind of treatment.

There is a general consen sus, right or not, that tak ing advantage of counseling is a sign of weakness for young student-athletes. The “hero” complex adds to this resistance to seek help, in fear of seeming lesser than their peers. Even when ath letes decide this is the right choice, these services are not robust enough to keep up with the demand, adding another issue to the existing ones.

The “tough athlete” mind set worsens the stigma, especially in team envi ronments. In athletics, competitiveness is key, so comparison is inevitable. Self-sufficiency is prized, and needing help does not align with self-sufficiency.

It needs to be a priority that no matter what, ath letes take care of themselves first. This lack of priority is difficult to overcome be cause fellow teammates, administrators and coach es, even more, see asking for help in this way as a shortcoming.

Even more than coach es seeing counseling as

an inconvenience and not necessary for peak perfor mance, they are generally more concerned with team results than individual well-being.

When athletes are recruit ed into college, they are seen as pieces of meat, for lack of a better phrase, and so their personal happiness is put on the back burner, and their physical strength, speed and endurance are prized above all else.

Coaches are generally not trained, or not yet trained adequately, to handle men tal health concerns on their respective teams. This dis connect means that stu dent-athletes suppress their needs for fear they will be treated differently or not given the same opportuni ties. Athletes are taught to push through all physical pain, but the sporting com munity’s drive has escalat ed to the point of pushing past emotional pain, which can impact all parts of an athlete’s life.

This mentality is rooted in the athletics institution as a whole, and so it is difficult to break this cycle.

Pushing past pain is good to a certain extent. That is how elite athletes contrib ute to winning programs. However, pushing can get to the point of overwork ing and burnout. Athletes are starting to train at elite levels at very young ages in hopes of being accepted into a competitive college pro gram. This premature train ing means competitiveness is at an all-time high, and burnout and injuries are too. Working athletes past a certain point can create irreversible injuries, which are both incredibly physi cally and mentally taxing. These injuries can negative ly impact school work and even last a lifetime.

Athletes, in general, are isolated from their “NARP” (non-athletic regular per son) peers, but when they are isolated from these people as well as their teammates, mental health struggles become even more difficult. Resuming normal life is not easy when your main identity is being an athlete.

Whether you are injured or taking time off for men tal health reasons, separat ing yourself from the team is uncomfortable for many student-athletes.

A current and large aspect of college athletics worsen ing the mental health crisis

is eating disorders and lack of discussion of nutrition. Eating disorders mental ly and physically damage young men and women in athletic programs. This is sue usually arises through pressures from coaches, peers and the athletes themselves. Although both men and women suffer, young women are more likely to develop eating dis orders. By nature, women often compare themselves to one another more be cause of the media and oth er societal pressures.

Although the “trend” right now is to be the clas sic gym girl toned from lift ing, being strong does not always equate to beauty in the minds of young women, unfortunately.

Athletics generally con tributes to this unhealthy mindset and lifestyle be cause it adds unnecessary pressures and makes the sport seem to be the cause of body dissatisfaction. An endurance athlete may wish she had more muscle, but a strength-focused athlete may want to be in a smaller frame. Many athletes will justify their weight loss or gain as something they did for their commitment to their sport and their need to perform better, but the majority of the time, it is not the case.

Coach pressures add to this also because often times, a certain body type is best for a sport, and so coaches want their athletes to mold to that ideal stan dard, which can be very destructive.

Even more, many athletes pass away very young be cause of eating disorders developed by their respec tive sports. These unfor tunate statistics highlight how deadly eating disor ders are in the athletic community.

When circling back to the majority of these contribu tions, support, especially from coaches, seems to be a leading issue. The solution to this problem of worsen ing mental health could be reforming how coaches lead teams. More education for athletes, too, on how they can take advantage of re sources around them and how they can put themself first is also a great step.

Although there is no “I” in the team, there is also no team without the play ers. Although it seems

Saints drop two games, fall to 2-5 record

By AIDAN THOMAS Sports Editor

Holy Cross Saints women’s basketball played a second straight tough opponent to open up conference play and, subsequently, dropped to 0-2 in CCAC play. The Saints battled defending conference regular season champion, Saint Xavier, and kept it close early. However, the Cougars used a big third quarter to pull away and win 83-64.

Saint Xavier finished 21-1 in CCAC play last season and finished as the tournament runner ups. They entered the contest receiving votes in the national polls, the second straight opponent of such stature for the Saints.

The performance was certainly an improvement from Holy Cross’s confer ence opener, an 85-37 defeat to Indiana University South Bend.

o n Saturday, sophomore guard Jordyn Smith led the Saints with 14 points while also chipping in four re bounds and two assists.

The game got off to a lowscoring grind of a start. The Saints didn’t score for the first 4 minutes and 41 sec onds, missing their first four shots and turning the ball over three times.

However, the Cougars only opened up a 5-0 lead in that slow start, keeping Holy Cross within reach. o ver the final 4:20 of the quar ter, the Saints allowed just three points and ripped off a 9-0 run, entering the break down just 12-11.

Saint Xavier scored the fi nal three points of the first quarter and then dominated the start of the second, to taling 16-2 run to open up a 25-13 advantage.

The Saints got back within four points on a couple of occasions, but they never clawed all the way back. Smith scored the Saints’ fi nal five points to pull within 38-30 at halftime.

d own just eight, the Saints had their eyes on a stun ning upset. But Saint Xavier outscored the hosts 25-14 in the third quarter to seize control.

Spurts of five, six and eight straight points on differ ent occasions sparked the Cougars during the stretch. Smith’s triple at the end of the period cut the deficit to 19 points at 63-44.

The result was virtually

resolved entering the final ten minutes, and the two squads battled to a fourthquarter stalemate with 20 points apiece. The Saints never got closer than 17 points.

They finished the game shooting 35.2% as a team and were just 2-15 from three-point range.

Four Saints did finish in double digits for scoring, with freshman guard Audrey Tallent matching Smith’s 14 points. Sophomore for ward Grace Adams added 13. And junior forward Neva Longhofer chipped in with 11 points.

However, it was not enough to counter a scorch ing 56.1% shooting effort by the Cougars. Saint Xavier’s Alyssa Streeter led all scor ers with 22 points on 10-14 shooting.

Saints fall in non-con ference battle

Looking to break a twogame skid, the Saints couldn’t quite get on the right side of the result in their non-conference battle with Spring Arbor.

Playing at home, the Saints got big efforts from Smith and Adams, who com bined for 44 points. Adams added 11 rebounds for the double-double.

However, only one other player had more than seven points, and the top-heavy effort wasn’t enough. While the third quarter ended Holy Cross’s hopes in Saturday’s contest, on Monday evening, it was the second quarter. The Saints led 13-12 after ten minutes, but they shot 20% in the second quarter and were outscored 24-13.

In the third quarter, the Saints heated up, but they couldn’t seriously close the gap. They got within six at 55-49, but Spring Arbor’s Alana Nelson dropped in four straight to nudge their lead back to ten points.

The next time the Saints were that close was after pair of free throws from Adams with 23 seconds to go to make it 77-72 in favor of the visitors.

Spring Arbor closed it out for the 79-72 win, improving to 4-0. Holy Cross fell to 2-5. They’ll look to improve on that mark against Governors State on Wednesday night in a conference game. Contact Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu

don’t want things to be dif ferent this year. We want to show that we’re a domi nant program and we’re here to stay and really, you know, come into this first meet and show everybody we picked off right where we left off,” Linder said. “ i f things are unfortunate and just don’t go our way, we’re definitely gonna get back [to s outh b end] and make sure that next meet we’re gonna get back and kick the hell out of everybody.”

Linder carries this pres sure more than others on his team. a s one of the best fencers in the country, Linder must prove him self as another contender. d espite being alone on the strip, Linder has the support of his teammates behind him, especially that of grad uate student sabre Jared s mith, who Linder beat in 2020 to win the national championship.

“We feed off of each other. i t’s incredible, the chem istry is really amazing,” Linder said of his team mate. “We’ve known each other for a long time and we know what to say to each

other if we’re getting a little confused or something is not going right. We’re right there to help one another.”

When Linder was absent, s mith took home first place in the acc tournament. This year, the two will be competing together again.

“ i t’s something taken for granted — having your teammate back there that supports you all the way through – and just being a dog out there with you. i t’s incredibly important.”

Linder said.

s mith is not the only teammate Linder has by his side.

i n 2021, Linder and his sister graduate student sa bre Kara Linder became the first brother-sister duo to win individual titles in the same year.

“ i t’s an incredible op portunity,” said Linder. “a nd just cementing that legacy of the brother-sister and having someone on the team who is a fam ily member who loves you, who takes care of you and is there for you when you need it and vise-versa. There is nothing better than that. a nd the chemistry is right there and it is important.”

The Linder duo look to recreate Luke’s freshman

year, as the two head out together this season.

While Kara Linder was unable to win last sea son, she did finish in 5th in the ncaa tournament, and helped bring the i rish home their national championship.

a s the i rish head out on their 2022-23 season, Linder will play an important role in the future success of the program. a nd despite the im mense pressure on him and the team, he is ready for any thing that is thrown at him.

“ i t’s really the mentality

— the mindset — coming here giving everything we can, knowing what this pro gram is,” said Linder. “ i t’s not just about us, but leav ing the legacy behind.”

Contact Olivia Schatz at oschatz@nd.edu

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GRACIE LEE | The Observer Irish junior sabre Luke Linder congratulates graduate student sabre Jared Smith at the 2022 NCAA Fencing National Championship. Linder and Smith finished in seventh and sixth place, respectively.

the youth and the more ex perienced fencers, so we need to be patient to work with the freshmen and teach them our mentality, our culture and make sure they are ready soon.”

r ascioni also empha sized the role of the more experienced fencers in helping newcomers adapt to the intense environment of college fencing.

“ o n the strip, no matter how many people you have behind you, it’s an indi vidual sport. You are alone. What the upperclassmen do is help the freshmen un derstand how to face those lonely moments on the strip when it’s just you and your opponent,” he added.

That freshman class add ed 23 new fencers to the Irish ranks, highlighted by foilist c hase e mmer and epeeist e szter m uhari. e mmer is currently the top-ranked men’s junior foilist in the world and 26th overall. h e finished 20th overall at the senior World c hampionships this July and recently won a junior World c up event held in London. m uhari is current ly the 27th-ranked wom en’s epeeist in the world. Additionally, she’s a former world n o. 3 in the junior ranks. s he finished last sea son by earning 15th place at the World c hampionships in c airo and a silver med al at the junior e uropean c hampionships.

Grady’s experience has allowed her to understand where they’ve fallen short in years past and she cred its the new talent with a sense of hunger that has helped the team overcome complacency.

“ o ur focus wasn’t where it needed to be [in 2018]. It felt like people took the winning for granted and didn’t keep putting in the work. The problem then is that if you don’t have that drive to keep improving then other teams are go ing to catch up. This year, we have a huge freshman class and they’re all really hungry and bringing a ton of energy,” she said.

s ophomore foilist n icole Pustilnik, who finished

sixth at the national cham pionships last year, spoke about the level of prepara tion the team has under gone to prepare for the new season.

“We do our lifts twice a week in the mornings and we’ve been ramping up on conditioning. Then it’s just a lot of training and prac tice every afternoon for two and a half hours,” she said.

Junior sabre Luke Linder, the 2021 individual na tional champion, echoed Pustilnik’s sentiment.

“ e very day we come in and it’s all the intensity we can give. If we take a day off, we don’t want to feel like we’re leaving some thing on the table and not having a good enough practice. That effort adds up throughout the season and that’s our mentality,” he said.

That preparation will be put to the test this s aturday in Philadelphia at Penn’s e lite Invitational, the first meet of notre d ame’s 20222023 season. The competi tion will see the Irish fence Princeton, Long Island University, Temple (women’s only), Air Force (men’s only), north c arolina and Penn.

The matchup to watch will be their seasonopening bouts against Princeton. The Tigers fin ished fourth at last year’s national championships and had an individual champion in women’s foil as m aia Weintraub de feated n otre d ame’s Amita b erthier in the final. They also handed n otre d ame’s women’s team one of just three regular-season losses in 45 contests last year.

Linder was clear about the importance of get ting off to a strong start this weekend and issued a statement of intent for n otre d ame Fencing.

“Last year we won and we don’t want things to be dif ferent this year,” he said. “We want to show we’re a dominant program and we’re here to stay. This first meet is about showing ev erybody that we picked up right where we left off and that we mean business.”

Contact José Sánchez Córdova at jsanch24@nd.edu

Notre Dame to host Southern Indiana

By TYLER REIDY sports Writer

The Fighting Irish men’s bas ketball team will look to snap a six-game losing streak against in-state opponents Wednesday night. southern Indiana and notre dame will share the hardwood for the first time ever. The matchup kickstarts the 2022 Gotham classic. notre dame, after two narrow victo ries, can open a season 3-0 for the first time in five years. The screaming eagles are 1-1, hav ing lost 97-91 at missouri and then defeating southern Illinois 71-53 in their home opener.

Southern Indiana keeps climbing with consistency

Led by third-year head coach stan Gouard, the screaming eagles are making their division I debut this season. They made 23 ncAA division II Tournament appearances prior to the switch. southern Indiana competes in the ohio valley conference and was picked to finish 7th in the ovc preseason poll. The program has not put forth a single losing season in the 21st century, adding an 18-8 campaign last year.

senior guard Jelani simmons is rolling out of the gate for UsI. he averaged 14 points per game between the last two seasons and has scored 41 through two games. With a 16-27 start from the field, he took home ovc Player of the Week on monday. Trevor Lakes, a graduate trans fer from nebraska, has made his mark as well. he hit six threes in the opening loss to mizzou and has collected 11 rebounds through two games.

Junior guard Gary solomon stepped up on sunday, collect ing 16 points and nine boards. Junior guard Tyler henry has been the primary option off the bench for coach Gouard. he has already made 13 trips to the free-throw line and scored in double-figures during both games.

Flying high in the second half

games, that amounted to a 10377 post-break margin. notre dame must either open the game up early on or limit UsI’s late success to avoid another near-upset.

Six does the trick for Notre Dame

counterintuitive, selfish ness may be the answer.

b eing selfish and owning your need is how you can be the best teammate.

As a student-athlete at n otre d ame, I have learned over these two years that putting myself first is the best thing I can do for

my overall well-being in the short and long term. r unning yourself into the ground is rewarding during the race, but after, the con sequences are not worth the few minutes of success.

Contact Bella Rogers at irogers@nd.edu.

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

notre dame could not pull away easily against radford and Youngstown state, and the same story might unfold again Wednesday. southern Indiana has been sensational in the second half through two games. Against missouri, the screaming eagles jumped from a 28% shooting mark in the first half to 71% in the sec ond. They also exploded for 14 three-pointers after half time, outscoring the Tigers 60-50 in the final 20 minutes. southern Indiana then out scored southern Illinois 43-27 in sunday’s second half. In two

Graduate guard marcus hammond’s knee injury and the tightness of games one and two have roadblocked notre dame’s depth. outside of junior forward matt Zona’s two minutes of ac tion, the Irish have rolled with the same six players. Graduate forward nate Laszewski has expanded his game enough to carve out a significant inte rior presence. his back-to-back double-double performanc es carried him to Acc Player of the Week recognition on monday. Though he brought in 10 rebounds on sunday, he went without a field goal in the sec ond half. That’s where gradu ate guards cormac ryan and dane Goodwin emerged, each contributing 10+ points in the second half. similarly, when Goodwin went 1 for 8 from the floor last Thursday, Laszeswki and graduate guard Trey Wertz combined for 46 points.

In addition to the veteran chemistry, notre dame’s two most highly-touted freshmen are growing more confident by the minute. Guard J.J. starling has gone 5-8 from distance through his first two collegiate games. he had his first signature moment on sunday, dialing up a pair of game-deciding triples. In that game, he demonstrated

a keen ability to create looks off the dribble, layering on the Irish offense. meanwhile, forward ven-Allen Lubin has started 7 for 8 from the field, even drilling a three-ball on sunday. head coach mike brey has the utmost in confidence in both of them. starling played 37 minutes last time out while Lubin saw the floor for 23.

Irish continue to protect home court

Last season, notre dame went 9-0 in games decided by ten points or less at Purcell Pavilion. They have already locked up two such victories to open this year’s campaign. on opening night, the Irish finished the contest on a 13-5 run, punctuated by cormac ryan’s game-winning layup. Then, in sunday’s 88-81 tri umph, notre dame went 6 for 6 from the field, 2 for 2 from three-point range, and 4 for 4 on free throws in the final 4:30. Will the Irish finally display dominance from start to fin ish? It remains to be seen, but the track record is certainly still there when the going gets tough.

Wednesday night’s game will tip off at 8 p.m. and will be available on the Acc network. The contest will mark the half way point of notre dame’s season-opening five-game homestand, which will con clude with Lipscomb on Friday and bowling Green on Tuesday.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

MARIA GORECKI | The Observer

Irish graduate student guard Dane Goodwin goes up for a layup during Notre Dame’s 79-76 home win over the Radford Highlanders.

Notre Dame fencing eyes three-peat

127 days: Irish look to stay atop the fencing mountain in 2022-23

By JOSE SANCHEZ CORDOVA s ports Writer

b arely hours after n otre d ame fencing claimed its 12th national title in Purcell Pavilion earlier this year, the championship count down clock on the wall of their locker room was up dated. The clock read “361 days,” right above the 2023 n ational c ollegiate Fencing c hampionships logo. That sign — now down to 127 days — is a marker of the unwav ering championship aspira tions of the most dominant varsity athletics program at the University of n otre d ame.

s ince head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia took over the program in 2014, n otre d ame has won four national titles. They’ve earned five conference championships and crowned 13 individual national champions. That phenomenal run of success could reach new heights this season. The Irish seek to complete the first threepeat in collegiate fenc ing since Penn s tate won

six consecutive titles from 1994-2000.

Graduate student epeeist m iriam Grady, who returned to the program for a fifth year on the back of a strong season, still wants more. Grady is also one of the few remaining fencers on the squad from the 2018-2019 season, the last time n otre d ame failed to win a nation al title.

“ c oming off two national championship wins, we’re feeling good and we know we have what it takes to win another one, so the expecta tions are very high,” she said. “ b ut it’s very difficult to win three in a row, even when you have the best roster. I still remember my fresh man year, when we were coming off two back-to-back wins and still had one of the strongest rosters and we fell just short. It’s really hard, so we definitely have our eyes set on creating history.”

It’s only natural that the success of the program has brought with it a lot of ex pectations. It has also put a target on the backs of n otre

d ame’s fencers. For Grady and the team, those expecta tions are nothing more than just motivation to prove they belong at the top.

“We all have that burden of being number one,” she said. “Whenever we step on the strip, we know that teams fight extra hard against us just because we’re n otre d ame. We know that and have to be willing to show them who we are and why we’re number one.”

That mindset is the prod uct of an experienced n otre d ame team that returns 10 of the 12 fencers who com peted at the national cham pionships last year. d espite this, sabre coach c hristian r ascioni spoke about an interesting dynamic that emerged within the team with the large incoming freshman class.

“It’s a particular situation this year because we have a lot of seniors and also many freshmen, but not many sophomores and juniors,” he said. “It’s a big gap between

By OLIVIA SCHATZ Associate sports editor

In 2021, then-freshman Luke Linder was the first Irish fencer to win the men’s sabre individual nc AA championship since 2000. The following sea son, Linder tore his la brum and rested for a large part of his sophomore season. h e came back in time to go 15-8 and finish seventh at the national championships. n ow, as a junior, Linder is healthy and ready to pick up where he left off.

“You know, freshman year, I did win the individ ual title. s ophomore year, I tore my labrum and I was out for a pretty long time,” Linder said. “ s o this year, I am really trying to stay healthy so I can compete all season long. Give all I can for the team as well as reclaim the individual title... just so there is not a

drop-off and [prove] I am still one of the best in the country.”

Linder finished 12-4 in his freshman season and it was highly anticipated he would continue his suc cess as a sophomore. e ven with his injury, Linder went 25-2 on the season but did not compete in the A cc tournament. h e came in second in nc AA regionals.

n otre d ame fencing is back in action s aturday when the team travels to Philadelphia to compete in the e lite Invitational at the University of Pennsylvania.

h owever, as the return ing national champions, there is immense pressure for the Irish to do well in their opening meet.

“It’s incredibly impor tant to show [up and win]. Last year we won and we

Luke Linder aims to reclaim individual title, three-peat with Irish

RYAN VIGILANTE | The Observer

Irish junior foilist Amita Berthier scores a touch against Ohio State’s Camilla Rivano during her 15-11 individual semifinal win at the 2022 NCAA Fencing National Championships held in Purcell Pavilion. Berthier won 17 bouts in pool play as the women’s team tallied 102 points to launch Notre Dame toward its 12th national title.