Print Edition for The Observer for Monday, February 21, 2022

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Volume 56, IssuE 49 | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

Supply chain affects ND Notre Dame Hammes Bookstore faces inventory challenges

By MAGGIE EASTLAND Associate News Writer

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story was published online on Feb. 18.

Garth Brooks announces return to Notre Dame Observer Staff Report

Even Notre Dame’s signature Kelly green is not safe from supply chain issues interrupting industries across the globe.

As supply chain complications persist into 2022, the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore confronts a number of lingering inventory

MAGGIE KLAERS | The Observer

see SUPPLY PAGE 3

Due to on-going supply chain shortages, Hammes Bookstore is experiencing issues with instore and online inventory distribution.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story was published online on Feb. 16.

Country music star Garth Brooks will return to Notre Dame Stadium for a concert May 7 at 7 p.m, according to a University press release.

Brooks performed his first concert at the Stadium in 2018, during which he promised the crowd he would return.

One of the best-selling solo artists of all time in the United States, Brooks initially planned to make Notre Dame his last stop, but scheduling challenges related to COVID-19 caused him to not end the tour at the Stadium, according to the release.

The concert at Notre Dame will be Brooks’ only stadium tour appearance in Indiana, Michigan or Illinois.

Tickets will go on sale Feb. 25 at 10 a.m.

Saint Mary’s welcomes Students compete prospective nursing majors in ‘Survivor’

By GENEVIEVE COLEMAN Saint Mary’s News Editor

Courtesy of Mike Guyette

After losing the first ND Survivor challenge Saturday, members of the green tribe strategize on who to vote out before tribal council.

By CLAIRE REID News Writer

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story was published online on Feb. 18.

Seven Saturdays, 24 students, one survivor.

Almost 22 years after the first season of the reality competition show “Survivor” aired on CBS, Notre Dame students gathered in the Joyce Center on Saturday afternoon for the first installment of ND Survivor, a multi-week competition based on the hit television show.

NEWS PAGE 4

Over the ensuing six Saturday afternoons, students will participate in physical and mental challenges and vote each other out of the game until one survivor remains. The final survivor will win a $25 gift card of their choice.

Mike Guyette, a sophomore from Albany, New York, is the host of ND Survivor and organized it with the help of some friends and classmates. He began watching “Survivor” in the spring of 2020 during the pandemic lockdown.

“I’d watched it for a few months, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is see SURVIVOR PAGE 4

VIEWPOINT PAGE 6

On Saturday, Saint Mar y’s hosted admitted students who intend to major in nursing w ith the Office of Admission’s newly created nursing prev iew day programming.

Interim v ice president of enrollment management Sarah Gallagher Dvorak explained the reasoning behind creating a specific admissions event for students considering a nursing career.

“We traditionally have a ver y large number of students admitted each year who have an interest in nursing,” Dvorak said.

“That, combined w ith the opening of our new Center for Integrated Healthcare Education (CIHE), gives us a wonderful opportunit y to show off the facilit y and give these students a glimpse into what a wonderful program we can offer here.”

Dvorak also detailed her hope that more students would enroll in the nursing program if given exposure to the program early.

“Our goal is to introduce

SCENE PAGE 9

the nursing program and our state-of-the-art facilit y to our admitted students and hope that ultimately results in more students enrolling at Saint Mar y’s who are ready to pursue the rigor of a nursing degree,” she said.

W hile the event was only recently launched, Dvorak noted that she suspects the event w ill become regularly scheduled.

“This is the first year for this event, and I would suspect that we’ll make this an annual event for admitted students,” she said.

In addition, Dvorak described ways the marketing department w ill continue to promote the nursing department to incoming students.

“We are working w ith the marketing department on a number of things,” she said.

“We have an email that goes out to students and parents all about the Center for Integrated Healthcare Education and a letter w ith a f lyer on the CIHE w ill be going out in a couple weeks.

Our v ideo intern also created a short v ideo that highlights a nursing student and takes you through the new

HOCKEY PAGE 13

high tech simulation labs, classrooms and the exam rooms.”

Dvorak noted the importance of creating majorspecific admissions events, similar to the prev iously established science, technolog y, engineering and math (STEM) prev iew days.

“Rather than focus on broad exposure to Saint Mar y’s, which we do in many of our events, we aimed to let these students and families dig a bit deeper into their academic area of interest — in this case, nursing,” Dvorak said. “We are once again hosting the STEM prev iew day as well [on] Sunday w ith the same goals in mind. Facult y and current students from these departments w ill also be on hand to speak w ith families and answer their questions.”

Describing the schedule of events, Dvorak said students could interact w ith administrators, facult y and current students throughout their v isit.

“We [plan to] do a welcome from me and President Conboy, followed see NURSING PAGE 4

M LACROSSE PAGE 16

2

TODAY

The observer | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

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The Saint Mary’s Lacrosse team poses for a picture to celebrate their win against Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin this Saturday February 19, 2022. The Belles beat Edgewood 20-6 this weekend. This was their first game of the season.

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Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Study Abroad Student Panel 1030 Jenkins Nanovic Hall 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Q&A session to follow.

Blood Drive Duncan Student Center 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Sponsored by the American Red Cross.

Irish Jig Dance Lesson LaFortune Ballroom noon - 1 p.m.

Learn the traditional Celtic dance.

Artful Yoga Snite Museum of Art 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Relax and recharge with yoga in the galleries.

“A Conversation with Marcus Freeman” Mendoza College Jordan Auditorium 11 a.m. - noon Free public lecture.

Catholic Mass in Portuguese Geddes Hall Chapel 7 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Guidance in English will be provided.

Fr. Pete and Friends Legends 8 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Explore the question “Why does faith matter?”

Glee Club Performance LaFortune Ballroom 6 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Performance features international songs.

Theatre: “Cyrano” Philbin Studio Theatre, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Buy tickets online.

Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra Leighton Concert Hall 8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Tickets available online or in DPAC.

News

Supply Continued from page 1

challenges, including difficulties sourcing Kelly green clothing items to sell online and in stores, director of strategic initiatives Gracie Gallagher said.

Since the merchandising industry is fairly forward looking, Gallagher said the Kelly green shortage has not yet affected customers, but it might become prevalent next fall if supply chain complications prevent her team from chasing down enough of the color.

“W hen we’re hearing in the fall, ‘There’s no Kelly green,’ you might not necessarily notice that immediately, but you might notice it next year,” Gallagher said. “Is the supply chain going to open up enough that we can chase a little bit more with Kelly Green? Otherwise, right now, [we] don’t necessarily have the amount of Kelly green that we would normally want.”

Last football season, the bookstore also faced difficulties stocking every size, adequately staffing stores and maintaining the same volume as previous years.

Customers may have been surprised when they could not find their size, or they might have noticed the bookstore looked a bit sparser than usual, Gallagher said.

W hile most customers were understanding, Gallagher observed many surprised reactions that Notre Dame — despite its resources and reputation — faced the same supply constraints as any other merchandising company.

“A lot of people know Notre Dame as an incredible place, a place that has very good resources and the ability to give lots of financial aid and offer top tier products in the bookstore,” Gallagher said.

“The fact that the supply chain woes were impacting a place like Notre Dame was kind of surprising and humanizing to people.”

Gallagher said the bookstore also faced supply challenges for personal technolog y. Staff members often had to wait months longer than anticipated for computer replacements.

Business professors, including Katie Wowak, who specializes in operations analytics and supply chains at the Mendoza College of Business, also referenced the delays faced when replacing office equipment and computers.

From a wider scope, Wowak said recent supply chain issues have spurred businesses to change the way they think about their operations and fostered new interest in formerly overlooked supply chain operations.

“I think that COVID really

ndsmcobserver.com | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | The Observer

exposed how fragile supply chains are and how global they are,” Wowak said.

Before the pandemic, lean supply chains were the name of the game, but pandemicinduced bottlenecks have encouraged businesses to re-evaluate the low cost justin-time inventory strateg y, Wowak said.

“Companies really tried to operate lean,” Wowak said.

“They don’t want to keep a lot of safety stock or excess inventory on hand because that can be expensive for them.”

Holding safety stock and excess inventory adds costs for companies, but the inability to provide products to customers in times of shortage also hurts profits, leading some firms to beef up inventory as insurance against shortages and bottlenecks.

Many manufacturing companies shut down when the pandemic struck. This included many large factories in China where COVID-19 was first discovered. Businesses with lean supply chains quickly burned through their inventory and were unable to order more input materials to solve the problem.

At the same time, Wowak said consumer buying habits changed as people spent more time at home and demanded more household and home improvement products such as at-home fitness equipment, baking products, lumber and even toilet paper.

Manufacturing firm closures created the initial shocks to global supply chains, but a slightly different problem persists today: bottlenecks.

Wowak defines a bottleneck as a step in the supply process that has the lowest capacity or a rate limiting factor within a supply chain.

“A big component of

[bottlenecks] is ports,” Wowak said. “If capacity at one portion of the supply chain is limited, that’s restricting all of the f low from upstream in the supply chain in order to get down to the consumer.”

Major ports often lack adequate space and manpower to unload products from cargo ships, Wowak said. This means the inventory lies idle inside cargo ships, unable to reach the consumers demanding it.

Gallagher said port bottlenecks shrunk and slowed inventory for the Notre Dame bookstore, especially during the initial phases of the pandemic.

“It started when we couldn’t get our shirts and sweatshirts and shoes off of the tanker ships off the coasts at various ports, and then that is just a ripple effect,” Gallagher said.

Later in the pandemic, shortages of certain products — including all things Kelly green — added on to port problems already straining bookstore inventories.

Businesses and economists are still grappling with the question of how long these supply complications will last.

“It’s a million dollar question of how long these things will last,” Wowak said. “I think it’s going to last for an extended period of time. I don’t see timelines getting shorter at all.”

Managers see the light at the end of the tunnel for the Notre Dame bookstore and anticipate a better inventory position before the 2022 football and holiday seasons.

“We’re still seeing some of that impact, but we are getting more positive reports on the supply chain opening up more towards the end of this year,” Gallagher said.

“It should be easier to get our hands on the volume of product and the kinds of product that people are used to seeing.”

In the short term, companies can try to mitigate supply issues by accumulating more inventory to buffer supply shocks and changes in demand, Wowak said.

Gallagher said the Notre Dame bookstore maintained a buffer of inventory stored up from when people were buying less merchandise during the height of the pandemic; however, those reserves were quickly used up once stores reopened and merchandise became harder to source.

In 2021, merchandise and bookstore managers were forced to face the tough realities of supply chain limitations.

“This was hard because we could only be so proactive,” Gallagher said. “We had to be f lexible in that we got products or sold products at different times of the year than we would normally.”

At one point in the middle of the football season — during an unusually warm week — the bookstore ran out of most of its warmer temperature inventory.

“We didn’t have any tshirts. Our t-shirt volume count was so low, so we put out our winter gear, and then we got this huge shipment of t-shirts in November,” Gallagher said.

Many decisions last football season were characterized by trying to make the best of shortages and supply constraints, Gallagher added.

“It was hard to be as problem solving as we all would’ve liked to have been,” she said.

Looking for long-term solutions, Wowak said companies should start

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exploring plans to add more suppliers, a move which could have prevented the supply shocks that occurred when many international manufacturing hubs went dark.

“W hen you get additional suppliers, you kind of spread out the risk from your supply chain,” she said. “That’s a long-term fix that can help [companies] mitigate supply chain issues moving forward.”

Wowak thinks there will be a “fundamental shift” in how companies source their inputs, with many likely opting to purchase the same component from multiple suppliers, a strateg y called dual or multi-sourcing.

“I think we’re going to see companies move really away from lean operations and keep more inventory on hand,” Wowak said. “And I think we’re going to see a shift in the degree of domestic sourcing.”

Given the impactful changes on the horizon and the everyday impact of supply chain bottlenecks, Wowak said student interest in supply chains has reached a new high.

Specifically, students have taken greater interest in the introduction process analytics course she teaches, one she believes should really be titled “supply chain management.”

“Before COVID I would always have to sell the importance of supply chain management. ‘I promise you it’s a legit thing,’” Wowak would tell her students. “And now, you don’t have to say anything. You just say ‘supply chain’ and everyone’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, I totally understand.’”

Contact Maggie Eastland at meastlan@nd.edu

4

NEWS

The observer | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

Survivor Continued from page 1

totally something I could do with my friends,’” he said.

That summer, Guyette’s brother hosted a “Survivor”-inspired competition for Guyette and 19 of his friends. Although Guyette did not win, he said it was such a success that he and his friends played again the following summer. That time, he won. Following his victory, he decided to bring the fun of “Survivor”-style competition to his friends at Notre Dame this year. They rented an Airbnb over fall break where they played out a season.

After playing three seasons with friends, Guyette said he wanted to organize a season with “random people” and began promoting ND Survivor on Instagram at the beginning of the semester.

“We put posters around campus, and because of that, we got like 130 people to fill out the interest form,” he said. “I emailed all those people and asked them to submit a full application, and 42 people ended up doing that. I guess the whole thing was spread by word of mouth. I chose 24 people — 21 of them I had never met before.”

Guyette said applicants were evaluated for enthusiasm and uniqueness. Some of the applicants he selected are huge “Survivor” fans while others have never seen the show.

“Some people are big athletes, some are extremely smart, some do theatre and arts,” he said.

“Overall, they’re as different as possible. We have freshmen to fifth-years.”

Saturday afternoon, the 24 contestants were split into six teams known as tribes. The tribes competed in two challenges and participated in two tribal councils — meetings where the losing tribe must vote out a member. For the first challenge, three members of each tribe were given a volleyball, and each had a chance to knock

down six cardboard boxes set up by another tribe. The last tribe to knock down all six boxes lost the challenge. The green tribe lost and took part in tribal council while the other tribes waited in another room.

The second challenge consisted of three parts: running, math and shooting a basketball. Two members had to run five times around the gym and each lap earned them a number. Once a tribe’s runners collected all five numbers, two additional members multiplied the numbers. If their answer was correct, then the final tribe member had to shoot a three-pointer.

“The last team to do all three was the loser, and unfortunately that was the green tribe again,” senior and contestant Nicholas Trittipo said. “They had tribal council, and that was the end of ND Survivor day one.”

Now that the contestants have been familiarized with the structure of ND Survivor, future Saturdays will feature three challenges and three tribal councils. On the last Saturday, Guyette will hold a final tribal council where contestants who were previously voted out will vote for a winner among the final remaining contestants.

As the host, Guyette said he is most excited to meet new people “in the context of ‘Survivor’” in the coming weeks.

“I’m meeting 24 people who seem super cool, but I’m ... watching them backstab their friends and go off in challenges,” he said. “These things are so cool to me.”

He hopes to host a season of ND Survivor at least once a year until he graduates.

“I totally want to build the ND Survivor community,” he said. “I’m planning to turn this into a club and have ‘Survivor’ watch parties too.”

Contact Claire Reid at creid6@nd.edu

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ND professor publishes sociology research

By GABBY BEECHERT News Writer

Notre Dame assistant professor of sociolog y Joel Mittleman recently published research addressing education disparities among gay, straight and bisexual students, and how these disparities also ex ist among gender, birth cohort and race.

According to Mittleman, it seems that women have always performed better in school than their male counterparts.

But Mittleman found that the group w ith the highest levels of undergraduate and graduate degree attainment are not women.

Mittleman’s research found that gay men across all racial and ethnic groups surpass all other groups in the attainment of high school degrees, college degrees and professional or doctoral degrees.

“There’s one group for whom the patterns are completely clear, which is gay men,” Mittleman said. “Gay men, no matter what data set — I’m using academic outcome, I’m looking at birth cohort — consistently outperform straight men and often outperform straight women.”

This finding, Mittleman said, has important implications.

It means that women’s outperformance of men in school cannot be based on biological sex differences. If gay men are outperforming women, there is nothing about being biologically male that prevents high academic performance, Mittleman said.

Nursing Continued from page 1

by an over v iew of the nursing department by [nursing science director] Sue Anderson,” she said. “[Admitted students w ill] be introduced to facult y, participate in a student panel and most importantly, they w ill do six different handson sessions in the facilit y.

They w ill spend time in each of the follow ing stations: mot her/ba by/p e d i at r ic s, adult/acute care, mental health/psychiatric nursing, exam rooms and t wo skills labs. They w ill be involved in these activ it y stations and w ill be super v ised by facult y and current students.”

Senior nursing major Isabella Thompson-Davoli discussed the importance

The academic achievements of gay students and straight students, according to Mittleman, relate to the intersection of gender and sexualit y.

“There’s a lot of research about the way that boys can feel the pressures of masculinit y and how that can undermine their academic performance,” Mittleman said. “There’s an idea that tr y ing really hard in school and being a v isibly committed student is not what a real man would do.”

Mittleman theorized that this culture of masculinit y alienates male gay students, which makes it easier for them to perform well in school.

This relationship bet ween masculinit y and academic performance, however, impacts other groups as well.

One of these groups is the contemporar y cohort of women of color in the LGBTQ+ communit y.

According to a Business Insider article regarding Mittleman’s research, women who identif y as LGBTQ+ may also “shy away from academic achievement because of its association w ith femininit y.”

But, the relationship bet ween lesbian women and academic success has always been complicated.

W hen looking at data for the entire U.S. population, lesbian women earn more college degrees than straight women. However, Mittleman noted, older generations of white lesbian women are the ones experiencing this advantage. W hen looking at contemporar y cohorts, straight women hold an advantage over lesbian

women.

This disadvantage, he said, manifests itself through the suspension and expulsions rates of LGBTQ+ women.

“I did find that the higher rates of suspensions and expulsions for queer girls versus straight girls are entirely concentrated among girls of color,” Mittleman said.

“Among white girls, there’s no difference between queer girls and straight girls, but [among] girls of color, there’s a big disparit y.”

Data regarding bisexual students and their academic performance is not as clear cut.

“At the population level, bisexual men and bisexual women are roughly at parit y w ith their straight zcounterparts,” Mittleman said. “However, in recent cohorts — among whom reported bisexual identification is highest — bisexual men and, especially, bisexual women are disadvantaged compared to straight men and women.”

Mittleman said he believes his work addresses an area of research that has historically been lacking, and that it also highlights the contemporar y LGBTQ+ experience in academic settings.

“I’m glad that the paper is getting some attention among Notre Dame students,” Mittleman said.

“W hatever I can do to affirm and lift up the experiences of queer students at a school where it seems like they could be easily devalued is important to me.”

of introducing students to nursing skills early in their college careers.

“Exposing potential nursing students to actual nursing is ver y important because it’s such a hands-on major,” Thompson-Davoli said. “A lot of girls really like the science aspect of nursing but then when we get into the actual patient care and nursing, they realize it’s not the major for them. So I think it’s important [that] girls see what they’re actually getting into before they spend a year or t wo in a major just to find out it’s not for them once they start classic nursing classes.”

Junior nursing major Erin Dotson was one of the students who assisted at the event. She noted her excitement to share the CIHE’s new technolog y w ith potential

incoming students.

“It was rewarding to be able to show off the nursing facilit y and the state-of-theart equipment were are using to better our education,” she said.

Contact Gabby Beechert at gbeecher@nd.edu

Contact Genevieve Coleman at gcoleman01@saintmarys.edu

News

ndsmcobserver.com | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | The Observer

5

University researchers develop new techniques to explore chemistry of the galaxy

By MARCELLE COUTO News Writer

This month, the “Astrophysical Journal” published an article highlighting the advances for the exploration of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Namely, it brings individuals closer to unlocking the history behind the formation of the elements in the universe.

Physics professor and one of the leading contributors behind this research Timothy C. Beers described the work he does within the University.

“What I and my colleagues do are observations of individual stars,” he added. “Ideally, they are stars that are extremely old, because the oldest ones provide the cleanest signatures of where and how the different elements came to be.”

Beers also discussed expanding the physics department to include astronomy.

“Although it is a physics department, we are in the process of making it a physics and astronomy department,” Beers said. “Within this context, what we do is broadly referred to as nuclear astrophysics.

What we’re trying to understand is the origin of the elements, or how the periodic table emerged.”

Beers exemplified the challenges of probing into the mysteries of origins by giving the example of the sun.

“Even though the sun is 4.5 billion years old now, at the time it was born, it inherited the previous 7.5 billion years of previous chemical evolution,” he said. “So, the gas with which the sun was

made had already been ‘polluted,’ or ‘enriched,’ by previous generations of stars. What that means is, if you only have the sun to look at in terms of details regarding the elements, they are hard to interpret because you have many different contributors.”

Beers continued by explaining the process of dating stars.

“If you go back in time, to the point where individual stars are being born of more and more pristine gas, they have not had much previous contribution from other generations,” Beers said. “Then you stand a chance to say ‘Oh, this signature came from this kind of object’ and so forth.”

The difficulties in observing the night sky lie in unveiling what Beers appropriately deemed as ‘fossils.’

“These long-lived stars were formed just after the time the previous massive, short-lived stars died, so they really are just like fossils,” Beers illustrated. “The challenge is finding them and interpreting them.”

Beers noted his research team is trying to determine the composition of objects, like stars that have exploded.

“What we are trying to figure out for the most part is the nature of objects which are no longer there,” Beers said. “These are stars that live typically short lives [a couple million years], explode, their gas gets distributed and then the low-mass stars that do live billions of years are formed from this gas.”

Discerning the chemical makeup of stars principally lies within the field of spectroscopy,

a technique Beers has dedicated decades perfecting for large-scale surveys. Spectroscopy is the study of light, which is dispersed into constituent colors and absorption lines. By examining these probes, it is possible to determine any number of properties of the studied objects, as the spectra are influenced by the composition of their gas.

Spectroscopy may be used to determine the elemental compounds within the field of chemistry or gain insights into the composition and velocity of astronomical bodies.

Until recently, Beers stated scientists did not believe high-resolution spectroscopy could be used in studies.

“In the early days, low-resolution spectroscopy was thought to be the end product of our studies,” he said.

Now, researchers find they are instead, “the calibration objects, the ones that tell you what to pick out for a more detailed study,” Beer said.

Beers also noted most stars have similar material to the sun.

“The vast majority of stars in the night sky are spectroscopically similar to the sun,” he said. “You have to find the rare ones that are deficient in their heavy metals.

Metal-poor stars in our part of the galaxy only occur about one in a thousand, and the most metal poor only occur about one in 10,000. I have worked, along with my colleagues, to develop new ways to find these kinds of objects, and we did.”

Beers detailed the logarithmic nature of the scale used to determine the metallicity of stars. It is helpful to recall the Richter scale,

where each level on the scale represents a drastic change in the strength of an earthquake.

In essence, the metallicity of stars is compared to that of the sun, which has a ratio of iron to hydrogen, represented by [Fe/H], set to zero. [Fe/H] = -1 represents a star whose metallicity is 10 times below that of the Sun, and –2 equates to 100 times lower, and so on.

“When I got started there were only a few stars known below [Fe/H] = -2,” Beers explained.

“Now, we have a handful below [Fe/H] = -5 —100,000 times below the sun — and at least two approaching [Fe/H] = -8, or 100 million times lower than the sun.”

Despite the progress over the years of research dedicated to these star searches, the problem was to acquire larger samples for study, according to Beers.

“How do we make that transition from the relatively small numbers from the spectroscopic samples?”

Beers posed, “What we’ve done along the way is to train a new technique, that is, precision filter photometry. All you have to do is take a picture through a given filter, and it relates to the metal signatures of the object. Now, we have known about this for a long time, but the problem was that the accuracy was always low.”

Along with his colleagues, Beers has worked to refine this process, and employ a multiplexed approach to target stars of the greatest interest with high accuracy.

Beers affirmed that he is “working hard so the next generation of astronomers does not have to work

quite as hard.”

He discussed how this next generation will have better technology at their disposal.

“The next generation will still be doing spectroscopy, but at much higher resolution; without the tools and my colleagues have been building, they would have to target many stars at random. These higher resolution surveys will already have a long list of ‘targets’ — not one star at a time, but 500, 1,000 or 5,000 stars in one go, fed into multiple spectrographs.”

“By the 1980s , we had only found about 20 stars below [Fe/H] = -2 on the scale,” he said. “We have confidence that we have now identified 500,000 stars below thus value.”

On a good night, Beers used to spectroscopically examine fifteen to twenty stars. Now, a good night can yield information regarding 15 to 20,000 stars.

“You want to make sure those are the 15 to 20,000 you care about,” he said. “You can ‘fairly’ study a sizable sample, or you can ‘unfairly’ study the ones you care most about.”

Beers remarked that he and his team are truly interested in the origins of the universe.

“Ultimately, we are interested in origins,” he said. “We want to know something deeper about not only where we came from, but a detailed picture that emerges from work like this — one that fills in the gaps that we don’t usually consider.”

Contact Marcelle Couto at mcouto@nd.edu

SENATE

Senate discusses Student Life Survey

By LIAM PRICE Staff Writer

Notre Dame’s student senate convened for its fifth meeting of the spring semester Wednesday night on the second f loor of the LaFortune Student Center. During the meeting, the senate approved an order to establish a Student Life Survey.

Student body vice president Matthew Bisner opened the meeting by approving last meeting’s minutes and giving general announcements.

Bisner encouraged senators to write transition documents for their successors.

“We are approaching April 1 pretty quickly,” Bisner said.

In the process of senate transitions, Bisner told the senators, “your voice can kind of get lost, so do be in touch with your successors as they’re elected, I believe in the coming two weeks or so.”

Bisner also gave updates on campus COVID-19

procedures after meeting with University administration on Friday.

With a high demand at the beginning of the semester for diagnostic tests, Bisner explained, testing was limited to “only significant others and roommates.”

After positive test rates rose to 20%, the campus positivity rate is back down to about 6%, Bisner said.

There were no general orders planned for the meeting, but Keough Hall senator Benjamin Erhardt motioned for resolution SO 2122-17 — an order to establish a semesterly Student Life Survey — to be moved to general orders, which was approved.

Director of communications and co-author of the resolution Claire Crafts clarified that the survey was different than others Notre Dame students have been asked to take.

“This isn’t a student version

of the Inclusive Campus Student Survey,” she said.

“This is very particular to the student union and ‘What are topics like on campus that you think student government should be addressing?’”

After questioning, the senate voted on the order, which passed unanimously.

Bisner then moved the senate back into new business, and Erhardt began discussing new orders. Orders SO 2122-18 and SO 2122-19 called for a referendum and succeeding an amendment to the Student Body Constitution regarding the adjustment of Student Union funds allocation methods.

The purpose of adjustment, Erhardt said, is to shift a greater percentage of Student Union funds to clubs.

“And with so many clubs on campus, and with a campus population growing and expanding, there is a concern that possibly it may strain on the amount of

money each club can get,” he said.

Having a referendum on student undergraduate student ballots would provide key input for the senate on how best to allocate the funds, explained co-author of the orders and Fisher Hall senator Maclane Farrel.

“Every year, you pay $190 into the fund,” Farrel said.

“And so, we want to believe, or we want to hear the opinion of the students on where they want their money to be spent.”

When Bisner opened debate, Knott Hall senator Abraham Figueroa asked for caution with the resolution.

“I would rather have a piece of legislation that is thoroughly researched actively by a committee before we start voting on anything,” he said.

Bisner decided to send the orders to an Ad Hoc Committee on Financial Affairs, but the senators motioned to overturn Bisner’s

decision by a vote of 11 to 10 and vote on the order on a later date.

With the orders of business finished and the f loor open for announcements, St. Edwards Hall senator Michael Jekot yielded time to his constituent, junior Eoghan Fay. Fay delved into the Chinese government’s arrest of Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai. “I’m asking this Senate to call on the University to give Jimmy Lai [an] honorary degree to show that this University does not now, nor ever will, have any [ties with] Marxist oppression,” Fay said.

After further business regarding Siegfried Hall’s Day of Man fundraiser for the homeless, the Bengal Bouts fundraiser and sophomore prom tickets, the meeting was adjourned.

Contact Liam Price at lprice3@nd.edu

6

The observer | Monday, February 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

Inside Column

Thank you Allison Thornton Photo Editor

When I first joined The Observer as a second-semester first-year at Saint Mary’s College, I never imagined that The Observer office in the basement of South Dining Hall would become my second home. Yet, over the past two and a half years, The Observer has become one of the most significant parts of my life. Some would say that it is one of my most prominent personality traits as a college student. So, as I write my final Inside Column with the Photo Editor byline, I would like to look back at some of my favorite memories of being a part of The Observer.

I can think of the first one covering the Fiesta Bowl with Sports Editor Mannion McGinley, Assistant Managing Editor Colin Capece, and Assistant Sports Editor Aidan Thomas.

This trip was one of the best experiences I have had with The Observer. Adventuring around Scottsdale, Arizona, and sharing laughs and quality conversations with some of the best people was the best way to start 2022. Despite the Irish loss, it is a memory I will cherish forever.

The second was when I covered the Camping Bowl my sophomore year. I traveled to Orlando, Florida, with then-Assistant Managing Editor Charlotte Edmonds. That bowl game was the first time I had photographed a real football game. Being in that stadium taking photos for the first time was surreal. Seeing my images printed on paper put the biggest smile on my face.

The third core memory was when I worked as my first senior Insider. For this Insider edition, we normally print photos and stories of every single senior football player. I was assigned to look through all of the football photos and find pictures for each player. And, let me tell you, it was the hardest thing I had to do while working production, to this day. To paint you a picture, it was getting to be about 4 a.m., and then-Systems Administrator Stephen Hannon was working sports production. After editing around 30 photos in total, we needed just one more. This picture was of number 80 of the graduating senior class on the 2019 team. After hours of searching, we found one. He was spotted on the sidelines of a photo. It was not the best picture to print, but we had no other choice. So, we ran the blurry image of number 80 in the senior Insider issue. To this day, when I think about it, I just can’t help but laugh about how tired Stephen and I were and how hard we laughed when we finally found that blurry sideline photo.

For my last memory, I will be traveling back to The Observer’s office on a Sunday in October of 2019. I was pulled into Kelli Smith’s (2019-2020 Editor-in-Chief) office and was asked to take over the photo department. At that moment, I didn’t know how long I would be managing this fantastic department. Almost two and a half years later, I am still here and struggling to let go. I know the department will be in great hands, but I just can’t help to think about how much of my college career is dedicated to The Observer. I just never thought it was going to end.

In a couple of weeks, I have to let go. I can’t wait to graduate and look back at all the fantastic people I have met and the fond memories I have. I wouldn’t be who I am today without the people at The Observer and the experiences I have had. So, I will save the rest of my thoughts for our commencement edition for graduation season in May. But I would like to thank all of the current and past Editorial Boards I have worked with for giving me the opportunity to continue doing what I love. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for The Observer.

You can contact Allison at athornton01@saintmarys.edu The views expressed in this Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Submit Letter to Followaus on Twitter: the Editor: @ObserverViewpnt

viewpoint@ndsmcobserver.com

Observer Editorial: #SaveTheBatt, support student journalism Last Thursday, leaders of the independent student newspaper The Battalion at Texas A&M University were given an ultimatum by their university’s president: Stop printing immediately and be subsumed under a new department of journalism, or lose resources like its office space and longtime faculty advisor. The student leadership and faculty advisor of the 129-year-old publication were not included in the initial discussions of the president’s decision, the Battalion reported, and the paper’s leadership was asked to provide an answer to the university by the end of the following day.

The announcement led to backlash on social media and sparked larger discussion of the importance of independent, student-led journalism. In response to the backlash, Texas A&M University President M. Katherine Banks told The Battalion in an email last Friday the publication will be allowed to print until the end of the spring semester, after which they must halt printing and become an entirely digital publication. On Monday, the university announced two student leaders from The Battalion and its faculty advisor will join the university’s existing working group for creating the new journalism degree. Banks also announced that after seeking “additional community feedback,” she may consider alternative solutions that would allow The Battalion to continue printing weekly editions.

Support for the continued printing at The Battalion has been voiced by Dallas Morning News Editorial Board, the faculty senate of Texas A&M and various other student organizations at the university. The Observer Editorial Board also offers its support to the student leaders and staff of The Battalion.

The suppression of independent journalism is dangerous, and we implore Texas A&M and President Banks to reverse their decision.

We at The Observer are grateful for and proud of our status as an independent publication, editorially autonomous from the Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy, as well as the Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross administrations.

While we collaborate with the Gallivan Program and its leaders to involve as many student journalists with our paper as we can, we have no official affiliation with the department. We partner with the University to utilize our offices in South Dining Hall and provide pertinent news and information to the tri-campus, especially during the pandemic, but we have complete discretion over all our print and online content.

In this way, independent student journalism is a vital source of accountability in the tri-campus.

Because we are independent, we are able to dissent from decisions these institutions make if we as an Editorial Board believe it is fair. The only way we can create an allinclusive tri-campus community is if, in an effort to promote growth, we are able to publicly identify where administrations have fallen short. We provide the information that

people with inf luence need to create policies that do right by the entire tri-campus community.

As a paper run completely by students, The Observer is uniquely connected to the tricampus population. Especially regarding the concerns of the student body, we understand the stories that need to be told because we live out every single day alongside fellow students. We sit with them in class, eat with them at dining halls, live with them in residence halls and off-campus housing and cheer on our athletic teams with them. We operate first and foremost to serve students and provide them with a platform to make their voices heard. Through all five sections of our paper, we have provided coverage that matters to our peers since 1966.

The Battalion has been run by students for even longer, operating and printing continuously since 1893, save for a brief period during World War I. The paper serves the Texas A&M community with the same mission of community and truth The Observer has. According to The Battalion, university administration has never had oversight over the content published. The final decision on all content published digitally and in print has always been up to the editor-in-chief.

Holding administrations accountable is just as important in College Station, Texas, as it is in South Bend, Indiana.

The news coming out of Texas A&M is not only disturbing because of the administration’s attempt to move the newspaper under an academic department and thus impinge on its independence, but because of the order to stop printing. Distribution of a physical paper is not only a longstanding tradition, but also still serves a number of important purposes. College newspapers generate revenue through advertisements in their print editions. The Battalion reported they had already finalized $61,000 in advertising deals for the remainder of the semester when Banks informed them of her decision.

Additionally, print media has historically carried the weight of accuracy, journalistic integrity and reliability in reporting, which has become all the more important in the fast-moving digital age. By demanding printing cease on the College Station campus, President Banks would be robbing current and future generations of skills that can be used after college in the professional journalism field. While we applaud the university’s decision to create a new department for journalism, the administration must also consider what is best for a college campus that already has a rich tradition of print journalism. Having a strong digital presence and printing a physical paper together is the best way to reach the largest audience with reliable reporting and quality content.

We write this editorial because President Banks’ decision is a threat to independent student journalism — to the voice of a student body — every where. And so, as an independent student newspaper, The Observer is here to lend The Battalion its voice, asking the administration of Texas A&M to reverse its decision as soon as possible.

Support independent student journalism, and #SaveTheBatt.

The observer | Monday, February 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

7

Partisanship on the Supreme Court in a post-Breyer era Blake Ziegler News with Zig

Last month, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement after 27 years of service on the Court. Progressive groups had been pressuring Breyer to retire over the last few years, arguing that a more progressive voice should hold his seat.

Although Breyer had previously resisted their pleas, now that his departure is official, these groups may finally get their wish. President Biden has promised to announce his nominee to replace Breyer by the end of February, with many expecting him to fulfill his campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Court.

Although Biden’s nominee will be a historic pick, some have regarded Breyer’s replacement, no matter who it is, will have little influence on the Court’s functionality. There’ll still be a 6-3 conservative supermajority, which ensures that the liberal voices of the court will rarely join majority opinions, especially on landmark cases. The coverage of Breyer’s retirement certainly conveys a lighter attitude than what was granted to President Trump’s three nominees, as the ideological makeup was at stake. Now, with a conservative grip cemented on the Court for likely decades, one may conceivably presume that replacing a liberal justice with another liberal justice doesn’t matter.

However, that outlook is severely flawed and misunderstands the role of dissents in the judiciary. It is certainly likely that the three liberal justices will remain in the minority, particularly on high-profile cases. Yet, their dissents are of vital importance.

First, dissents offer the ability for the majority opinion to be refined. Regardless of a case’s outcome, it’s necessary that the Court’s opinion provides clear guidance on the law and address all the issues at stake. While one may disagree with the content of an opinion, everyone can appreciate the necessity of

polished writing, particularly in lawmaking where semantics matter heavily.

Second, although it is unlikely, dissents can also sway the Court. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once explained that a dissenting opinion may become the majority opinion as many as four times in a single term. While that number appears insignificant, the lesson learned is that dissents have the potential to become the Court’s official opinion.

Third, as Justice Ginsburg described them, dissents are “appealing to the intelligence of a future day.” Although a dissent may not reflect the law of the land today, it lays the groundwork for future legal opinions when current rulings are potentially overturned. At times when the judiciary formally recognizes its mistakes, a dissent provides the framework and reasoning to rectify that injustice.

In this sense, dissents strengthen the Court and the legitimacy of the law in our nation. The late Justice Antonio Scalia was correct to assert that dissents “augment rather than diminish the prestige of the Court.”

Even if Biden’s nominee remains in the minority (absent the possibility of a liberal majority in the future), their contributions to the Court through dissents offer a powerful toolset for current and future judicial rulings. Despite this, some may ignore my praise for dissents and reiterate the liberal minority’s lack of influence on current cases. In this view, as long as liberal voices are in the minority, their dissents don’t matter. While the argument does have merit, it still doesn’t deny the significance of Breyer’s departure and the burden it leaves for his successor.

To understand the ramifications of Breyer’s retirement, one must understand the judicial context of his tenure. Breyer stems from a time of judicial moderation and compromise where the Court wasn’t overtly political. He served alongside the likes of Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter, conservative justices who, despite their politics, cooperated with liberal justices like Breyer to

reach compromises on rulings.

Moreover, like other justices from the time of his appointment, his confirmation process lacked the partisan bickering and politicking we see today.

When he was confirmed in 1994, he received 87 votes in the Senate, an overwhelming majority we haven’t seen in recent Supreme Court justices.

Breyer represents a time where the judiciary lacked the clear partisanship we see today on the Supreme Court. At the time of his confirmation, the Republican Party wasn’t engaging in hypocrisy on whether the president can nominate justices in an election year, which I’ve written on before.

Throughout his career, Breyer built consensus with conservative justices to produce rulings that generally satisfied liberals and conservatives. As the Court becomes more politicized and partisan, Breyer’s departure potentially signals the end of compromise and cooperation above political ideology on the Court. While it reflects the increasingly polarized nature of our nation’s politics, it also threatens the preservation of our rights and liberties.

I use the word “potentially” to convey that this prediction is not firm. Breyer’s successor, no matter who it is, will play a pivotal role in determining the future of the Court’s demeanor and relationships between justices. The future Supreme Court justice has an opportunity to follow in Breyer’s footsteps as a mediator and consensus builder, a firebrand that champions liberal causes or something else entirely.

Only time will tell.

Blake Ziegler is a junior at Notre Dame from New Orleans, Louisiana, with double majors in political science and philosophy. He enjoys writing about politics, Judaism and the occasional philosophical rant.

For inquiries, he can be reached at bziegler@nd.edu or followed at @NewsWithZig on Twitter if you want to see more of his opinions.

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

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

A question for a simp Oh, it feels so good to be back. Did you miss me? Because I have missed you, cherished Obser ver readers. It’s been 9 months since I graduated from Notre Dame and you, my previously captive audience, were released from the grips of my enthralling sports coverage and scathing hot takes. But now, I have been issued a summons.

The recent publication of a certain Letter to the Editor, “A whisper of a thrill,” has exerted a gravitational force not unlike a supermassive black hole, pulling this once proud physics major back into the fold of his glor y days. It is this monumental distortion in the fabric of The Obser ver’s space-time publication schedule that has me pondering a single question of the author: W hat was this simp on when he wrote that, and where can I get some?

In case you didn’t self-aggrandize your burlyembracing, mahogany-eyed self enough already, I guess congratulations are in order? Like, we get it, bro. You broke parietals. Sick. Way to f launt your sin in the face of all of us pure-hearted current and former domers who — whether because of conscious choice or for lack of an amorous accomplice — upheld the sanctity of our incredibly fragile sexual and emotional chastities by refusing to violate the 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not engage in boy-girl slumber parties during the witching hours.”

Seriously, dude, you couldn’t have just walked

around the lakes holding hands? Maybe just shared a kiss under the Lyons arch? Hell, even a ring by spring would’ve been appropriate. But nope. Instead you have to give me f lashbacks to the second weekend of my freshman year when I was awoken to discover my roommate had brought a girl back to the room post-parietals without doing the courtesy of kicking me out.

(The details of what happened that night are between me, God and Zahm House’s stuffed moose, Ignats, who I slept under on the basement couch after seizing a chance to slip out).

Furthermore, you are now setting an unrealistically high standard. No other dude at Notre Dame is ever going to be able to match the level of this romantic gesture. None will ever be able to duplicate the fair y-taleness of getting a highlight reel of their post-intercourse doting published in The Obser ver. All those budding ND Marriage Pact relationships are now bound to fail because you, my friend, have set the bar too high.

I hope you’re proud.

But allow me to equivocate. Maybe I’m not being fair. Perhaps you and your companion didn’t, to use Iago’s words, make “the beast with two backs.” Maybe you just emulated Joe Biden, sniffing her hair and nibbling her fingers until you fell asleep, dreaming of that moment when you would awake to continue your clean, wholesome, good ol’ fashioned Catholic intimacy.

I’m sorr y if I assumed incorrectly. You know what they say about assuming: it makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me,” kind of like how airing out your dirty laundr y (or should I say bed sheets?) for the entire tri-campus to see makes an ass out of you and the poor souls unable to avert their eyes from the catastrophe before them.

Let’s all just thank our lucky stars Erin Hoffmann Harding isn’t still at Notre Dame. If she managed to (unilaterally or collaboratively) get an entire dorm disbanded for reasons that have not entirely been disclosed to the public, just imagine how she would feel her hand was being forced by such f lagrant disobedience of du Lac. Finally, allow me to offer two pieces of parting advice to this pretentious prophet of passion.

First, mind that “intoxicating prescription” thing you have going on (but again, hmu with whatever gave you the confidence to put that in print). And second, in the future, either go big or go home.

I’m not entirely opposed to getting my fanfiction from The Obser ver, but you gotta make it worth my time; other wise, keep it between the sheets.

Happily contributing to the discourse of this reincarnation of “The leggings problem,” Hayden Adams class of 2021 Feb. 17

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The observer | MondaY, February 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

Art and the Church: Madonna and the child Trever Lwere On the Other Hand

If it were a country, the Catholic Church, with an estimated 1.2 billion followers, would be the most populous in the world. Nations have had their fair share of trouble in keeping large swathes of people under a common identity. Yet, the Church has stood the test of time. How has the Church been able to attract and sustain such a large following over such a long period of time? To attempt to answer this question, it is as important to understand the means through which the Church has managed to unpack its intricate ideas for its following of largely ordinary people — i.e., evangelization.

As I understand it, evangelization has two chief aims: accuracy and accessibility. Firstly, evangelization aims to paint the most accurate representation of the ideas of religion as presented in the guiding canonical works, such as the Bible. The Church and its agents have a responsibility — and motivation — to remain faithful to the founding documents of the Christian faith. That is, their work of bringing the flock in must be in concert with the teachings of the Church itself. Secondly, evangelization is also aimed at making the intricate ideas of the religion readily accessible to its followers — to translate the seemingly distant, elusive and mystical ideas of God and religion into readily accessible and humanly comprehensible terms. In sum, to take the Church to the people. A plethora of means have been employed to achieve these two ends, including music, the performing arts, translation of texts into different languages, instruction and art. Of all these, I contend that art best accomplishes the two aims of accuracy and accessibility.

The use of art for evangelical purposes can be traced back to the earliest civilizations. During the Egyptian civilization, which lasted over 30 centuries, from 3100 B.C. up until its conquest by Alexander in 332 B.C., the Egyptian pharaohs oversaw the erection of giant pyramids as demonstration of Egypt’s divine powers, among other purposes. With the advent of Christianity in the ages that followed, art continued to play an important role in the work of the Catholic Church. The earliest apostles, together with lay men and women, oversaw the construction of cathedral. One example is the gothic Milan cathedral in Italy, which is as spectacular a work of art as it is a human endeavor. Church buildings around the world have made it tradition

to use iconographic stained glass for their windows, which bear various messages adapted from the Bible and other canonical texts of the Christian faith. This iconographic representation of various features of the Catholic faith can be found on the stained-glass windows of the Basilica of the Sacred heart as well as on the walls of the library.

The painting of “The Madonna and the Child,” on display in the Snite Museum here on campus, best encapsulates the role of art in evangelization. This is a painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the child Jesus. The painting is set in heaven with angels prostrating before Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Mother Mary, presented to be of a preeminent stature, carries baby Jesus on her lap, with a fixed gaze on her child. She is adorned in a dark blue veil and cloak with her chest and womb areas painted in gold. Baby Jesus is holding a finch in one hand, which carries a thorny branch in its mouth. He has his other hand stretched out. Above them are two angels who are prostrating before Mother Mary and Christ. The frame of the painting takes on a gothic shape and is imbued in gold paint.

The painting is a depiction of Mother Mary’s gracious acceptance of God’s call to be the protector and earthly nurturer (together with her husband Joseph) of the Son of God. Her acceptance of this responsibility was not only in service to the heavenly kingdom but a blessing to the world, earning us salvation. She not only accepted this responsibility with grace, but also executed it with diligence as depicted by her attentive, focused gaze on Jesus. Therefore, through this painting, the Church reminds her people that God has called each of us to the service of His kingdom, and of humanity. In this way, the Church is able to tell as well as show its followers what its teachings are about.

Using art, the Church is able to paint a human imagination of Christ’s love for us all. “Madonna and the Child” invites us to reflect on the nature of Christ’s love for us all. Christ, being God Himself as part of the Holy Spirit, is pure. The image of baby Jesus seen in “Madonna and the Child” invokes the purity of a child’s love — selfless, innocent and bearing no prejudice.

This has the effect of helping the viewer, believer or not, to imagine the nature of Christ’s love as being like that of a child. Christ is also presented stretching out His hand which is a symbol of the blessings He bestows upon the world. We are therefore able to know and see Christ’s love as represented in a piece of art better than a song or a sermon might have helped us understand.

Art has the power to convert mystical matters into

humanly comprehensible terms. The Church and its agents have used art work to make the gospel more accessible to its flock. In the same way, “Madonna and the Child” invites us to reflect on and appreciate the sacredness of God, and the Holy Family. The artist paints a picture of heaven where angels prostrating before Mother Mary and Christ. The entire painting is imbued in gold which portrays the heavenly scene as exquisite.

This portrayal of Christ and Mother Mary endears the Holy family to the viewer and enhances the viewers’ perception of the Holy Family as sacred and therefore deserving of all praise. Such illustrative power can inspire Christians and motivate their faith even more effectively.

Some argue that art can sometimes oversimplify Biblical teachings and hence fail to capture their salience. Others argue that artists impose their own imagination and interpretation on the Church’s teachings. For example, the creator of the character of Jesus in the movie The Passion of Christ created a representation that has become a reality for many people but has no proof of certainty whatsoever. Because artists are not experienced theologians (with a few known exceptions) or divine in any known way, their imagination cannot be very reliable. The implication of this is that while art might achieve the goal of accessibility, it can only go so far in accuracy because artists are subjective, and their works are heavily influenced by their thinking.

These ideas raise important questions to help us better understand the use of art in the evangelical work of the Church. How much free rein does the Church give to artists who paint images that represent a reality of the likeness of the teachings of the Church? If there’s no control on what artists can represent through their work, how do we trust their own imaginations to be the closest to the Church’s true teachings? By answering these questions, we can better understand the effectiveness of art in representing religious ideas. Yet, while art may not be the perfect way of achieving the two means of accuracy and accessibility, a strong case can be made for it as our best attempt for now.

Trevor Lwere is a senior from Kampala, Uganda, studying Economics and Global Affairs with a minor in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). He is a deejay in his free time and can be reached at tlwere@nd.edu or @LwereTrevor on Twitter.

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

9

The observer | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

By JUSTIN GEORGE Video Unit Leader

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is the ninth film of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM) franchise and third film to bear its name. (Seriously, stop naming sequels the same thing as the original.) The “plot” follows a group of influencers who buy up the majority of a small town in rural Texas to … do something involving food trucks? It’s never really explained, and the rest of the film really just ignores this, so you can too. Long story short, the young, stupid kids with big dreams anger Leatherface (Mark Burnham), who has been in hiding since the events of the 1974 classic and a bloodbath ensues. Listen, we’re not here for plot or character development or any of that nonsense, where here for a massacre involving a chainsaw that takes place in Texas, and all three of those requirements are fulfilled in spades. If you want a thought-provoking character study, find another flick.

For those of you still with me, let’s dive into the gory details of this splatterfest. Despite bearing the same name as Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece, this film could not possibly feel more different. The Cinema Verite style, the grimy 16mm feel, the sheer grossness and the oppressive heat found in the original TCM is gone. Instead, we get gorgeous digital cinematography, gloriously gory kills and a rainy night in Texas. This entry into the TCM franchise dares to go beyond the “don’t go in the house” style

By MARY O’CONNOR Scene Writer

In our current age of technological advancements, our lived experiences are becoming more and more intertwined with other people. The line between private and public life slips farther and farther into oblivion as our society continues to evolve towards digitalization.

In the midst of all this progression, it’s easy to wonder how much is too much. New technologies, such as the Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home, are examples of how smart devices have infiltrated households across the United States. Often, consumers blindly trust these convenient devices that are actually collecting personal information on users. The omnipresence of these lurking listeners is on the forefront of people’s minds now more than ever, as the concepts of surveillance and personal privacy enter the limelight.

“Kimi,” a new film streaming on HBOMax, starring world-renowned actress Zoë Kravitz, is a great representation of the fears surrounding surveillance and the growth of technology in the modern age. In the film, Kravitz plays Angela Childs, an introverted work-fromhome tech analyst who struggles with bouts of agoraphobia. She analyzes data from Kimi, a network of speech-activated devices that allows users to perform simple tasks, like turning off lights or streaming music, with ease. When listening to the data stream, Angela

of the other entries, instead opting to follow the route of other slasher films and have Leatherface take a more active role than a simple burly enforcer who bends to the will of others. It’s the perfect mix of early-2000s gore, late 2010s slasher revival and the legacy of the original.

Now, onto the important part: The kills. This film is absolutely brutal, which is no surprise given that it was produced by Fede Alverez, the madman behind the 2013 “Evil Dead” reboot. The effects are a brilliant combination of CGI and practical effects, which gives the gore a stylized, yet realistic feel. This film is not for the faint of heart, I found myself wincing at some of the injuries depicted onscreen. The violence is visceral — the kind of stuff you feel deep in your gut as you watch it unfold. The characters are not just killed, they are maimed. That’s not to say, however, that this film isn’t a ton of fun for seasoned horror fans. There is a standout scene involving a bus that, barring bad dialogue, is perhaps the most entertaining scene in the entire film.

Horror isn’t just about bloody violence, it’s also about tension. While the 1974 “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” is hard to measure up to, 2022’s “TCM” is not short on dramatic tension, albeit a different kind. The original has this frenetic energy that makes you feel like you’re involved in the action. The 2022 reboot has a classic slasher tension, including some moments where you feel like if you breathe too loudly, you’ll

put the characters at risk.

I’m gonna level with you. I thought I was going to hate this movie, as I did with “Halloween Kills,” but I was pleasantly surprised when a smile appeared on my face as the credits rolled. By all accounts, it makes no sense that I actually enjoyed this film.

I’ll be the first to admit that it has plenty of issues from dialogue that sounds like it was ripped from a Twitter thread to a sheer lack of character development to a weird plot point involving a gun, but I had so much fun watching this film that I’m willing to overlook these flaws. It’s no masterpiece, but for an 80-minute gorefest starring one of my favorite horror icons, how could I possibly complain?

uncovers a brutal murder that was picked up by a Kimi device. When she attempts to report the crime to her superiors, Angela’s life is put in danger by the corrupt company operators who want to protect their brand and ensure customers never learn the extent of Kimi’s abilities to hear their everyday activities. Ultimately, Angela escapes the various dangers that come her way and finds justice for the woman whose murder was recorded by the Kimi device.

Immediately after watching “Kimi,” my mind ran to the various moments in which my Amazon Alexa spontaneously lit up without anyone saying “Hey, Alexa,” the phrase meant to make the device tune into conversations. I was filled with fear surrounding the role that technology plays in my life. As someone who hardly ever reads the fine print on privacy policies and terms and conditions, I realized I’m unaware of the true extent of technology’s infiltration in my private life. Like so many others, I place blind trust in the technologies I have embraced as ways to make my life easy and convenient. “Kimi” was my wake-up call, as it forced me to think about my blatant disregard of my understanding of my own privacy.

Despite its eerie portrayal of technology, “Kimi” also placed emphasis on how technology is a positive force in people’s lives. Interestingly, the Kimi device functions as both the thing that puts Angela in danger, but also saves her life. When Angela is trapped in

her apartment with dangerous men, she uses the Kimi device to confuse and disrupt her captors. Ultimately, this device is a huge reason why she makes it out of this situation relatively unscathed. The Kimi device is also the only reason Angela is able to deliver justice to the murdered woman. The evidence of the crime was recorded and discovered on the device. Directors interestingly chose to not entirely push viewers towards a disdainful view of technology. Rather, each person is invited to draw their own conclusions about the implications of the advancements of our technological age.

“Kimi” left me with a renewed sense of awareness about the role that technology plays in my life, and invited me to reexamine my definition of privacy in our modern era of fast-paced communication and constant access to others.

Contact Justin George at jgeorge3@nd.edu

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2022) Director: David Blue Garcia Starring: Elsie Fisher, Sarah Yarkin, Mark Burnham If you like: “The Texas Chainsaw Massare,” “Halloween” (2018), “Evil Dead” Where to watch: Netflix

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Contact Mary O’Connor at moconn25@nd.edu

“Kimi” Starring: Zoë Kravitz, Rita Wilson Director: Steven Soderbergh If you like: “Black Mirror,” “Bladerunner” Where to watch: HBOMax

w MAGGIE KLAERS | The Observer | Image sources: Den of geek, Rotten tomatoes

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The observer | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

By JOHN CLARK Scene Writer

Back in 2020, The Strokes released their sixth album, “The New Abnormal,” and in doing so, aged gracefully into their status as a legacy act. They’re not necessarily doing anything new, but they’re doing what they’ve always been good at and doing it well (which is more than one can say for other legacy acts). The question for pop band, Animal Collective, is where they stand with their latest album, “Time Skiffs,” released over 20 years into their career. Unlike The Strokes — who basically only ever did one thing — Animal Collective, in the tradition of musical chameleons of rock like David Bowie, have never lingered for long on a single aesthetic. A mark of a great musical artist, in my humble opinion, is always managing to produce new music that sounds totally different from what they’ve done before while still totally sounding like themselves. With “Time Skiffs,” Animal Collective maintains that standard musical exploration.

“Time Skiffs” is Animal Collective’s best outing possibly since their 2009 breakthrough album, “Merriweather Post Pavilion.” I wouldn’t call it “Dad rock,” but it does have a distinct “Dad” energy. Animal Collective albums to me always paint sonic portraits of landscapes.

“Centipede Hz,” their goblin mode album from 2012, presents a desert beneath a beating red sun, whereas their 2005 album, “Feels,” situates itself deep within the garden of Eden. “Time Skiffs” is a twilight forest, intimate,

By MATHEUS HERNDL Scene Writer

In the long and sordid pantheon of movies that did not need or deserve a sequel, 2019’s “Tall Girl” stands as a shining example. The “film” tells the story of Jodi Kreyman (Ava Michelle), the titular tall girl, and her tragic life as a white, upper middle-class attractive woman with supportive friends and family who also happens to be six feet tall and is thus occasionally mocked for her height.

“Tall Girl 2” follows the three months after the ending of the first film after Jodi selflessly hijacks her sister’s graduation prom to deliver an impromptu speech condemning the two people who made fun of her and asserting her confidence in her height, turning her overnight into the most popular girl in school and giving her the confidence to start a relationship with her childhood best friend, Jack Dunkleman (Griffin Gluck).

The “plot” of “Tall Girl 2” sees Jodi dealing with her anxiety after she is cast as the school musical’s lead, as well as her relationship struggles with Dunkleman in one of the worst cases of forced conflict that I have ever witnessed in any movie ever.

Although Jodi’s incessant victim complex from the first movie is less apparent in the sequel, she remains

verdant, content and laid back, but not quite nocturnal.

On the album, it is clear that Animal Collective is playing with a full deck of cards. This is to say that every member of Animal Collective contributed to the album, which is not always the case. “Merriweather Post Pavilion” and their previous effort, 2016’s “Painting With,” for example, did not feature Deakin (Josh Dibbs). The twilight forest aesthetic of “Time Skiffs” is reminiscent of his 2016 solo album, “Sleep Cycle.” In fact, it seems to me that this is the Animal Collective album most creatively driven by him, as opposed to Avey Tare (David Portner) and Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), who are typically described in reviews as the arbiters of each album’s musical direction.

One of the most novel aspects of “Time Skiffs,” to me at least, is the dub timbre of the rhythm section. The rhythm carries on deep, steady and drenched in reverb. The album is notably less hyper and manic than their previous two studio albums. Animal Collective’s music is always very emotional, but it establishes its nuanced emotional aesthetics sonically before adding specificity lyrically.

The dubby aesthetic keeps the music calm, finding a happy medium between the long, mellow, atmosphericreflective songs and the active, hyper-passionate bangers that defined the two poles of 2005’s “Feels,” one of their best albums. “Strung with Everything” is the most intense song on the album, with its stopping-and-starting and grand piano-pounding, and it toes the line perfectly between those poles. The entire album is drenched in beautiful harmonies and the graceful playful melodies

for which Animal Collective is known. The harmonies which had fueled Animal Collective’s breakthrough with “Merriweather Post Pavilion,” here serve to augment the intimacy of the twilight forest aesthetic of “Time Skiffs,” demonstrated best on the lead single, “Prester John.”

“Time Skiffs” is a gorgeous album that demonstrates Animal Collective is still committed to exploring the frontiers of music and still refuses to be pinned down by genre designations. Animal Collective continues here what it has always done: welcoming, surprising and challenging listeners by wearing their hearts on their sleeves in new and fascinating ways. In their discography, “Time Skiffs,” carves out a spot for itself in its emotional sketches of the life that accompanies the fulfillment of the wish to provide for their loved ones that they expressed so long ago in their breakthrough single, “My Girls.”

as unlikable as before, she is rude to her parents, tries to ditch her boyfriend during a date, dumps him in front of the entire school, kisses another boy the very same day, skips her best friend’s birthday dinner and is continuously rude to her parents who support her unconditionally. The problem here is that Jodi is never punished or deals with the consequences of her actions, and by the end of the movie, she hasn’t learned anything and is essentially in the same position as she was at the beginning. The side characters aren’t much better. Most can be described in one or two sentences and fit perfectly into the tired archetypes of other teen dramas such as the “mean girl” or “theatre kid” and are as one dimensional as you can expect.

With this being yet another original Netflix high school drama, the cliches and tropes present in “Tall Girl 2” are too many to count. The terrible dialogue, the love triangle, the quirky token minority best friend and the musical plot line are just some examples.

There’s nothing here that you haven’t seen in shows like “Riverdale” or “Gossip Girl” but at least these had some sort of stake or mystery in them to keep the viewers even slightly intrigued.

Overall, what bothers me the most about “Tall Girl 2” isn’t its predictability or boring plot, but the fact that this movie even exists in the first place. It shows

that Netflix remains committed to its policy of producing quantity over quality which is how garbage, such as this movie or “Kissing Booth” gets made in the first place. In the age of digital streaming, film makers face less of a risk as they are still getting subscription money regardless of whether or not the movie is watched by everyone. This is why they don’t feel the need to make even the slightest effort to create interesting projects. I truly cannot recommend this film to anyone except to the most extreme masochists, as “Tall Girl 2” doesn’t even have the decency to be one of those “it’s so bad its good” type of movies. I will be truly shocked if we ever see a “Tall Girl 3.”

Contact John Clark at jclark20@nd.edu

“Time Skiffs” Artist: Animal Collective Label: Domino Favorite Tracks: “Prester John,” “Strung with Everything,” “Cherokee” If you like: Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, mellow indie pop

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Contact Matheus Herndl at mherndl@nd.edu

“Tall Girl 2” Starring: Ava Michelle, Sabrina Carpenter, Griffin Gluck, Anjelika Washington, Luke Eisner Director: Emily Ting If you like: to suffer, migraines, boredom, wasting time Where to watch: Netflix

CLAIRE REID | The Observer | Image sources: Domino, the guardian, netflix

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ndsmcobserver.com | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | The Observer

Crossword | Will Shortz

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Horoscope | Eugenia Last Happy Birthday: Maintain order, have a plan and don’t drift off course.

Sticking to a budget and enforcing boundaries will help ward off excess and loss. Creativity used efficiently will be groundbreaking and help get things done cheaper and faster. Efficiency is the goal to strive for, and maintaining balance, integrity and good relationships will be the byproducts of good intentions.

Your numbers are 5, 9, 21, 26 32, 46, 49.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Connect with someone who always gives you sage advice. Map out your plans and adjust based on sound suggestions.

Don’t let anger or physical action take over when intelligence and discipline are required to reach your goal.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Make your move. Show others you are the boss and that you are savvy enough to build a solid foundation to live life and do the things that bring you the peace and happiness you deserve.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Put your head down and do what you must do to be happy and effective. Refuse to let anyone coerce you into situations detrimental to your health or well-being. Trust in facts, not what someone wants you to believe.

CANCER ( June 21-July 22): Take a unique approach when dealing with someone close to you. Be a good listener and choose patience over frustration and anger. Give others the option to live life their way, and you’ll find it easier to let yourself do the same.

LEO ( July 23-Aug. 22): Getting along with others will be difficult if you don’t allow everyone to think and do for themselves. Sharing and caring are the best ways to reach amicable relationships. Fewer demands and more support will get better results.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): You can’t move forward if you don’t let go of the past. Share your feelings, and offer reassurance to those you love by incorporating a warm and healthy environment. Listen to what others have to say and want, and find common ground.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): An emotional response will cost you. Look at whatever situation you face and consider how to navigate your way to a happier place. Set standards that are attainable, and go about your business. Taking the high road will draw positive attention.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Stop being so hard on yourself and others.

Look for the good and the positive in everything and everyone, and it will give you hope and ideas that will help you make a difference. Think big, adopt minimalism and make lifestyle adjustments.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Consider what you enjoy doing and what your skills are, and you’ll come up with a plan that allows you to earn your living doing something you want. Let your heart guide you and your expertise help you find your destiny.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Read the room. Be sensitive to what’s going on around you. Choose your words wisely, be direct and build up people instead of making them feel small. How you handle others will determine how they treat you.

AQUARIUS ( Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Put everything you’ve got into maintaining what you have. Don’t let what others do interfere with your decisions or push you in a direction that isn’t in your best interest. Follow your heart and do what feels comfortable. Please yourself.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Incorporate who you are into what you do, and prosperity will follow. Bring about change that suits trends, and you will make others take notice. Honor your promises and follow through with your plans, and positive change will occur.

Birthday Baby: You are generous, romantic and helpful. You are unpredictable and trendy.

Sudoku | The Mepham Group

Jumble | David Hoyt and Jeff knurek

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Sports Authority

Sports Authority

Celtics find where they should be Matthew Crow Sports Writer

As the calendar shifted to 2022, the Boston Celtics were at a crossroads. After reaching three Conference Finals in four years, they seemed well-positioned to be a top team for years to come.

However, their upward trajectory was put into serious doubt during the 2020-21 season, as they slogged their way to a middling 36-36 record before quickly exiting in the first round of the playoffs.

Standing at 17-19 heading into the new year, it began to feel like last season’s disappointment was not merely a singular down year, but rather the start of a troubling trend.

The good faith built up from previous years’ consistent success was gone. Fans and prominent media members alike called for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to be split up and said that they could not coexist. They lacked the ability to make their teammates better, and they would never lead a team to a championship. It wasn’t just that the Celtics were losing, it was how they were losing. They frequently blew 20-point leads with lackadaisical effort. They were one of the worst clutch teams in the league, and their offense often felt far too stagnant and isolationheavy. There were even some who believed that the team should fire rookie head coach Ime Udoka before he finished his first season.

Jump forward to today and the Celtics have suddenly found themselves on a tear. They enter the All-Star break having won nine games in a row before a surprising slip-up against the Pistons. During that stretch, they became the first team in NBA history to win three consecutive road games by at least 30 points, highlighted by Tuesday night’s 48-point obliteration of the division-rival 76ers. Since January began, they have posted the best record in the Eastern Conference and the best net rating in the entire NBA. So how did they manage this turnaround, and is it just a flash in the pan or a true harbinger of what’s to come?

According to the popular narrative, it all began on January 31st with a seemingly innocuous, if somewhat cryptic, tweet from Jaylen Brown: “The energy is about to shift.” The national sports media has since latched onto Brown’s tweet as the inciting moment for Boston’s resurgence (as the team proceeded to win their next eight games). But while it’s nice to be able to point to one specific moment when everything changed, the true impact of the message is debatable. For one, Brown himself has said that his tweet was not referencing the team. But beyond that, the Celtics strong stretch of play actually began several weeks prior, and

there are legitimate reasons for this improvement.

The most important factor might simply be health. Over the past few seasons, fans have notso-affectionately dubbed the team the “Hospital Celtics” due to them being constantly decimated by a high number of injuries and Covid-related absences. The winning streak coincided with a rare clean stretch of health, and it seems likely that the team can continue their winning ways if they stay healthy.

Improvement on the defensive end has also played a major role.

The Celtics had been solid defensively all season, but over the past few weeks, they have really embraced their defense-first identity and heightened their intensity as a unit. This commitment has surely paid off; they have allowed an outrageous 11.3 points per 100 possessions fewer than the league’s second-best defense since January 23rd.

They have also gotten standout play from key role players, specifically their pair of Williamses.

Robert Williams III has flourished in his first year as a full-time starter, leading the NBA in field-goal percentage while doubling as one of the league’s most intimidating rim protectors. Grant Williams has simultaneously emerged as a highly efficient shooter and a versatile hub defensively.

Finally, the Celtics made several savvy trades at last week’s deadline, notably acquiring guard Derrick White and forward Daniel Theis in exchange for packages headlined by Dennis Schröder and Josh Richardson. While Schröder and Richardson were solid contributors off the bench, the new additions are much better fits for the defensive-oriented Celtics, as White and Marcus Smart now form the league’s stingiest backcourt tandem. The addition of Theis ensures that the team’s rotation consists entirely of elite defenders.

Overall, it feels like what the Celtics needed most was time.

Time to learn and embrace Udoka’s system on both sides of the court, time to get healthy and time for the front office to make the aggressive moves needed to push the team over the edge. The new Celtics are playing teamoriented offense coupled with hard-nosed and gritty defense and are having fun doing so.

Most importantly, they are winning games, and in a wide-open Eastern Conference with no clear favorite, there’s no reason why it can’t be them in the NBA Finals come June.

Contact Matthew Crow at mcrow@nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Why the Bengals aren’t a Super Bowl team Tom Zwiller Sports Writer

For someone who does not gamble (I am only 20, after all), I certainly was living and dying with every single play of Super Bowl 56.

The game was an instant classic, with the Rams down by a touchdown in the third quarter, only to complete a game winning drive for the ages to give the Rams their second Super Bowl championship.

However, if you have been reading my work at all this year, this was not a surprise. I used my trusty ZLO model to predict that the Rams would snag a Super Bowl in SoFi against the Bills in early September. And while I may have gotten the opponent wrong, I was 100% right about the Rams, giving myself (and ZLO) a little more credibility.

However, as much as I want to pat myself on the back for that one, I want to focus on the Rams opponent more than the Rams themselves.

In ZLO’s preseason simulations, the model gave the Bengals a low chance of winning the division and predicting a final record of 7-10. And to be fair, that take only looks bad with hindsight; at the time, I seriously doubt anyone saw the Bengals as a Super Bowl contender (538 projected the same record).

So, where did ZLO go wrong?

Here’s the thing: I do not think it did. While the Bengals certainly had an immaculate run through the playoffs, I 100% believe they exceeded expectations. Here’s why:

DVOA For those of you who do not know what DVOA is, it is an advanced metric created

by Football Outsiders. DVOA stands for Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, meaning that the ratings it gives each team take into account the quality of the opponent a given team has played. On offense, the higher your number the better, while on defense, the lower the better.

The Bengals were an average team, ranking 17th (0.0%) with their offense ranking 18th (1.8%), their defense 19th (2.9%) and their special teams unit ranking 8th (1.7%). Their estimated wins based on those numbers: 8.4.

According to DVOA, the Bengals were undoubtedly not the worst team to make the playoffs; that honor goes to the Steelers (24th, -10.4%), but they

were far from the best (Dallas 30.9%).

And yes, I know, a lot of good that did them. So instead, let’s look at the Conference Championship contenders.

The Rams finished the regular season in fifth (21.6%), the 49ers sixth (19.5%) and the Chiefs ranked seventh (17.5%). By rank, the Bengals are a significant outlier. And that’s not the only way the Bengals are outliers.

EPA EPA is another egghead stat, but one I find helpful. Expected Points Added (EPA) is a way to measure how likely a team is to score in a given drive. EPA measures the change per play in your expected points. Moving forward increases your EPA; moving backward decreases it.

For example, if you have the ball on your own 25 (according to Pro Football Reference), your expected points would be .607.

Say you gain 10 yards; your expected points jump to 1.267 for an EPA of .66.

Now, your QB gets sacked, and you lose five yards. Now it is 2nd and 15, and your expected points drop to 0.0489, meaning you have an EPA of -1.218.

Another thing EPA does is shows that the Bengals are an outlier team (again). NFELO charts out the EPA/play putting offensive EPA on the x-axis and defensive on the y (see the website to view the graph!).

From the graph, which divides teams into different tiers, the Bengals are simply an average team. Cincinnati has a defensive EPA of -.4 (good!) and an offensive EPA of .01 (average).

Those two EPAs plot Cincinnati in the middle of the pack, making them an average team overall (and arguably the worst division winner and third-worst playoff team overall). The Bengals are in the company of the Browns, Broncos and Vikings, and nobody believed they were Super Bowl teams.

And I know, I know, those teams did not make the playoffs; the Bengals made the Super Bowl. I am not trying to dispute that; the Bengals made the Super Bowl (and almost won it).

However, I am trying to dispute the notion that the Bengals are primed to be a Super Bowl team next year.

Joe Burrow and JaMarr Chase have undoubtedly opened a championship window for the Bengals, and the franchise will

be a severe problem for teams in the AFC next year.

However, just because you make a Super Bowl does not mean you are guaranteed to make it back the following year. Just ask the 2003 Panthers.

The 2003 Panthers were 11-5 and went on a historic run, beating the Cowboys, Rams and Eagles before coming up short against the Patriots.

According to Pro Football Reference the Panthers were projected to finish 8.6-7.4, but they severely overachieved.

They did so mainly because their defense ranked 8th in yards against, with an offense that ranked 16th in yards for.

Instead of returning to the Super Bowl the next year, the Panthers finished 7-9, 3rd in the NFC South.

Now, look at the Bengals.

DVOA and EPA suggest that the Bengals massively overachieved this season, with an offense ranked 13th in yards for and 18th in yards against.

And even if you think that the Bengals are simply a few linemen away from a return trip to the Super Bowl, and are better than the Panthers were, think again.

The 2020 Saints went all-in on winning the Super Bowl.

They had both a top-5 offense and defense. Tampa Bay ended their season as Brady cruised to a seventh Super Bowl. Being perfect on paper is not enough; that’s why we play the games.

It is nearly impossible to win a Super Bowl; it takes the perfect concoction of on-thefield talent and luck. Look at Dan Marino, the greatest QB to never win a Super Bowl. He made it once as the MVP of the league and never returned.

Burrow could be next.

I doubt that is going to be the case. The Bengals have a franchise QB and a rapidly improving offense, they are in good shape if they can build a good offensive line and add to their defense. I think the Bengals are incredibly likely to hoist Lombardi in the next handful of years.

But for now, let’s pump the brakes on the Bengals. They were just overachieving and defying probability. And that’s the thing about probability: It always gets you.

Contact Tom Zwiller at tzwiller@hcc-nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

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sports

ndsmcobserver.com | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | The Observer

Softball

HOCKEY | 2-1, 4-2

Continued from page 15

Irish sweep Spartans

By NATE MOLLER Sports Writer

The No. 11 Irish (23-9-0, 15-70-5-1-0 B1G) got a much-needed series sweep this weekend on the road in East Lansing, beating the Michigan State Spartans (11-20-1, 5-17-0-1-0-0 B1G) by scores of 2-1 and 4-2.

Irish find way to win on Friday The Irish were outshot 3722 on Friday night, but they managed to get the victory.

Sophomore forward Landon Slaggert’s goal in the third period was the difference.

The first period got off to a relatively slow start for both teams with neither team getting much of anything going over the first fifteen minutes.

The best chance for the Irish came off the stick of senior defenseman Spencer Stastney.

His wrister rang off the post with 13 minutes remaining in the first period.

The Spartans gained some momentum on their first power play of the game, forcing Irish graduate student goaltender Matthew Galajda to make a couple of point-blank saves.

The Spartans then successfully got one past Galajda with just 11 seconds remaining on the power play to take an early 1-0 lead.

Head coach Jeff Jackson applauded the Spartans for their stingy defense.

“They don’t give you a whole lot. They try to keep you outside a lot in the perimeter,” Jackson said. “You just have to find ways to generate offense.”

The Irish started to get things going offensively in the second period. After some chances, freshman forward Hunter Strand got the Irish on the board just over five minutes into the period. Strand scored off of a wrist shot from the faceoff dot to tie the score at a goal apiece.

The Irish nearly grabbed the lead at the end of the period when freshman forward Justin Janicke fired a shot from the middle. However, Michigan State goalie Pierce Charleson got a shoulder to it and kept the game tied after the second period.

Landon Slaggert then gave the Irish the lead early in the third period, tipping in a blocked shot from Strand. The Spartans would get a powerplay moments after the Irish goal, but the Irish defense held strong to keep the game at 2-1.

Junior forward Trevor Janicke seemingly put the Irish up by two goals with 3:57 left in the game. But the insurance goal was ruled a high stick. After the play, there was a scuffle in front of the net. Irish senior forward Graham Slaggert and Michigan State’s Cole Krygier were disqualified from the game.

The Irish then limited the Spartans’ attempts from there on out to earn a Friday night victory in East Lansing.

make eleven saves, but they only scored once at the end of the game, and the Irish won comfortably by a score of 4-2.

Irish earn series sweep on Saturday

Irish prepare for playoffs

The Irish dominated Saturday night, taking an early 2-0 first period lead and ultimately winning by a score of 4-2 to earn a series sweep at the Munn Ice Arena.

It was Justin Janicke who got the scoring started for the Irish, scoring a tap-in goal from in front of the net 6:30 into the period. Janicke was assisted on the play by graduate student forward Jack Adams and Stastney.

The Irish added another goal at the end of the first period off of the stick of Adams. Adams was assisted by Justin Janicke.

The freshman sent the puck near the front of the net, allowing Adams to slip it by Spartans’ goaltender Drew DeRidder. The Irish took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

The Irish continued to put pressure on the Spartans in the second period, and they took a commanding 3-0 lead during 4-on-4 play at the beginning of the period. This time it was graduate student Chase Blackmun who scored, firing a wrist shot past DeRidder for his second goal of the season.

The Spartans narrowed the Irish lead to 3-1 at the 12:23 mark of the second period when Jeremy Davidson scored from just outside the crease.

The Irish took back a threegoal lead just over a minute later in the second with Spencer Stastney sending a shot from the point that got by DeRidder. That goal marked Stastney’s careerhigh sixth goal of the season.

The Spartans had some looks in the third, forcing Galajda to

Stastney thought the Irish showed that they are ready for playoff hockey with their victory on Saturday night.

“We played playoff hockey this weekend,” Stastney said.

“It was a real gritty weekend, low scoring games so we were getting pucks deep, not making mistakes and getting ready for playoffs. They [Hunter Strand, Jack Adams and Justin Janicke] are all great character guys and great players. When they are scoring it is exciting and great for our team moving forward.”

Although the Irish currently remain fourth in the Big Ten standings, they move within one point of the Buckeyes in the third with this weekend’s sweep. The Buckeyes do not play next week, so if the Irish can get more than one point in their final regular-season series against Michigan, they will earn the three seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

Despite the importance of the standings, Jackson is focusing on getting his team to play their best hockey of the year ahead of the playoffs.

“For me, it’s more about playing well at this time of the year and get our team to peak going into the playoffs,” Jackson said.

“The focus has been let’s get our game in order before going into the playoffs.”

The Irish will return to Compton Family Ice Arena next weekend against Michigan, who is currently first in the Big Ten. Contact Nate Moller at nmoller2@nd.edu

Edmoundson would shut dow n scoring for the next three innings. In the sixth though, the Volunteers sealed the game, snagging six hits on Becker for four runs.

Thursday evening, the Irish took on the Wisconsin Badgers, falling there as well, 2-1. Wisconsin grabbed a run off of senior pitcher Pay ton Tidd in the top of the first.

Then, the teams went scoreless until the top of the sixth when the Badgers scored again on Tidd.

After Holloway and Becker took on the morning, Tidd pitched all seven innings allow ing five hits, the t wo earned runs and grabbing seven strikeouts.

At the bottom of the seventh, the Irish rallied. With the bases loaded, junior Joley Mitchell hit a single to bring freshman pinchrunner Emily Tran home.

Despite that, the Wisconsin defense was able to tag the t y ing run out at home before the Irish could tie up the score.

Friday was the least offensively productive day for the Irish. The squad saw t wo hits against USF. One came from senior right fielder Emma Clark and another from graduate student first base player Sarah Genz but neither could get home.

Becker opened for the Irish but only stayed one inning as she gave up her first earned runs of the years. After scoring three on Becker and four more on Holloway, the Bulls shut out the Irish, 7-0.

Saturday rolled around

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and the weekend shifted for the Irish. The team stepped up to meet LSU and defeated the Tigers, 8-6.

The Irish had to come from behind, though, as Tidd — who pitched another full game — allowed all six runs in the first t wo innings. She recovered, however, shutting dow n the Tigers for the rest of the game.

Graduate centerfielder Abby Sweet led the scoring charge grabbing t wo runs followed by Clark, Hanks and four others.

The Irish tied the game through the first five innings, but it was a misplayed right-field hit from second base player Miranda Johnson sending Hanks and Biggio home in the seventh that all but sealed the game. Tidd sat the Tigers in order, closing w ith a strikeout to officially put a stamp on the game.

The series finale was the icing on Saturday’s cake for the Irish. Against their highest-ranked opponent in the series, the Longhorns, the Irish came out on top, w inning 9-2.

With a combined effort in the circle from all three pitchers, the Irish kept the Longhorns from scoring after the second inning.

Tied through four, the Irish exploded in the top of the fifth scoring seven runs and ultimately sealed the game.

Notre Dame ends the grueling weekend w ith a 2-3 record and moves to 7-3 on the year. They play North Florida, Iowa, Princeton and Florida Gulf Coast (t w ice) next weekend over three days.

Contact Mannion McGinley at mmcginl3@nd.edu

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sports

ndsmcobserver.com | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | The Observer

Athlete of the Week

Coleman dominates, Shoaf claims award for third time

By AIDAN THOMAS Associate Sports Editor

Two new honorees on the women’s side and some Notre Dame records on the men’s side highlighted the sixth week of voting for Obser ver Athlete and Team of the Week awards.

Women’s Athlete of the Week: Meghan Coleman, Notre Dame Tennis In a heated week of voting, sophomore Meghan Coleman earned the tricampus Women’s Athlete of the Week by a razor-thin margin. Coleman played a pivotal role in Notre Dame’s upset of No. 16 Washington.

Coleman teamed up w ith classmate Yashna Yellay i at No. 2 doubles and claimed a 6-3 v ictor y. That allowed Notre Dame an early advantage and helped the Irish claim the doubles point.

In singles, Coleman played on the No. 5 court, and she dominated her counterpart w ith the Huskies. The Indianapolis native cruised to a 6-0 v ictor y in the first set. In the second set, she had little issue, recording a 6-3 v ictor y to claim another point for the Irish. Notre Dame ultimately won 5-2, w ith Coleman grabbing two of those points and dropping just six games over three undefeated sets.

Honorable Mention: Katie Haas, Saint Mar y’s Lacrosse Saint Mar y’s senior Kate Haas became the first Belle to claim a spot in the week ly awards, delivering a six-goal performance in the season opener. Haas started hot, assisting on the Belles’ first goal ten seconds into the

clash. Haas went on to score four times in Saint Mar y’s ten-goal first quarter. She finished w ith six goals and an assist, t y ing a career-high in goals.

Men’s Athlete of the Week: Michael Shoaf, Notre Dame Track & Field A weekend of career-bests for Notre Dame sophomore Michael Shoaf put the Irish thrower back in a familiar spot: atop the voting for the tri-campus Men’s Athlete of the Week. For the third time in six weeks, Shoaf claimed the award after another fantastic effort this past weekend.

Competing at home in the A lex Wilson Inv itational, Shoaf placed in both the weight throw and the shotput. In the weight throw, the sophomore launched his best effort 20.08 meters.

It was a career-best throw that earned him third in a deep and talented field of throwers. However, it was in his primar y event, the shotput, that Shoaf shone even brighter. In his six throws, Shoaf broke his prev ious school record of 18.91 meters on three different occasions. His high-water mark was 19.48 meters, which was enough to claim v ictor y by nearly half a meter.

The double career-best effort and Notre Dame record earned Shoaf his third Men’s Athlete of the Week award.

Honorable Mention: Chris Giuliano, Notre Dame Swimming Freshman Chris Giuliano etched his name into the Notre Dame record books w ith Irish records in the 50 and 100 Freest yle. The

efforts earned him an 11thplace finish in both events at the ACC Championships.

Team of the Week: Notre Dame Women’s Tennis Notre Dame Women’s Tennis claimed team of the week w ith their v ictor y over No. 16 Washington this week. The Irish welcomed the Huskies to Eck Tennis Pav ilion and walked away w ith a 5-2 v ictor y. It represented Notre Dame’s first ranked w in and saw the Irish improve to 7-3. Notre Dame claimed the doubles point to stake themselves to an early advantage. In singles, the Irish dominated when needed. Junior Page Freeman cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 v ictor y at the No. 2 singles, and the Irish’s depth won out on the lower court. Coleman won at No. 5, sandw iched by v ictories from sophomore Yashna Yellay i and freshman Maria Oliv ia Castedo at No. 4 and No. 6, respectively. The dominant show ing in pulling off the top-20 upset was enough to earn team of the week.

Notre Dame opens ACC play against UNC and Duke this coming weekend.

Nominees Men’s Athlete of the Week: Shoaf (ND Track, 4th nomination), Chris Guiliano (ND Sw imming, 1st), Blake Wesley (ND MBB, 1st), Mick Sullivan (HCC MBB, 1st), John Michael Bertrand (ND Baseball, 1st) Women’s Athlete of the Week: Coleman (ND Tennis, 1st), Haas (SMC Lacrosse, 1st), Oliv ia Miles (ND W BB, 4th), Jayda Miller (HCC W BB, 1st) Contact Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu

ND SOFTBALL | 2-3

Irish fall in first three, win final two ranked games

By MANNION McGINLEY Sports Editor

After a 5-0 series to open the season, weekend two of the 2022 season was a bit more of a roller coaster for Notre Dame softball.

The Irish got off to a rock y start, going 0-3 in the first three games but, to close the St. Pete Clear water Elite Inv itational, Notre Dame defeated No. 21/22 LSU and No. 11/9 Texas.

At 10 a.m. on Thursday, the Irish took on No. 18/15 Tennessee, falling 11-3. The Irish opened the weekend facing Ashley Rogers in the circle.

As coach Gumpf had hoped, they were able to produce off of her. Senior left fielder Leea Hanks, sophomore infielder Karina Gaskins and senior second base player Quinn Biggio were able to bring home one run each for the Irish

w ithin the first t wo innings.

W hile it was enough to get Rogers out of the circle, those runs didn’t go unanswered.

In her t wo innings, graduate student pitcher A lex is Holloway allowed seven earned runs.

To start the third, both the Irish ad the Volunteers saw new arms as Irish freshman pitcher Shannon Becker and Volunteer Erin see SOFTBALL PAGE 13

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The observer | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

ND MEN’s lacrosse

MAGGIE KLAERS | The Observer | Photo Courtesy of ND Athletics

No. 4 ranked Irish open season against Detroit Mercy, ready for heavy competition

By NATE MOLLER Sports Writer

Editor’s Note: A version of this story was published on Feb. 18.

The Irish men’s lacrosse team comes into 2022 with high expectations after a disappointing 2021 season that saw the team lose to Maryland in the quarterfinals of the NCA A Tournament. The Irish are currently ranked fourth

by Inside Lacrosse, and they will look to prove that ranking over the course of the year against one of the toughest schedules in the country.

When asked about goals he has for his team this season, head coach Kevin Corrigan spoke about how his team’s sole focus is to continue to improve as the season progresses and win as many games as possible.

“Our only goal is to get better everyday and get as close to our potential as we can,” Corrigan said. “I have never really been big in setting goals because the goal is to win every single game.”

Corrigan is pleased with the work his veteran players have put in during the offseason, and he believes this will set

his team up well for the upcoming season.

“We have a number of accomplished players who have worked like they never have before,” Corrigan said. “They set their best tone for our guys everyday, and as a result, I think we have had a good, hard-working team that gets about their business everyday and does everything they can to improve everyday.”

While Corrigan acknowledged his team has some well known players, he also mentioned a group of athletes who fly under the radar nationally, but are some of the best players in the country at their position.

“We’ve got some knowns in a guy like [junior attacker] Pat Kavanagh, who had a terrific year last year, but he is not the type of kid to rest on his laurels,” Corrigan said.

“But we’ve got some guys that I don’t think have gotten the attention that are as good as anyone in their country at their position. Guys like [graduate student midfielder] Wheaton Jackoboice, [graduate student] Ryan Hallenbeck as a short stick midfielder, [graduate student midfielder] Morrison Mirer, [sophomore midfielder] Eric Dobson and

[senior attack and midfielder] Griffin Westlin are playing the best lacrosse of their careers.”

Corrigan mentioned that he is very impressed by the play of graduate student defender Arden Cohen, who has acted as a leader for the team’s defense.

“He is just so good right now. He’s just so solid in every aspect of what he’s doing.

He’s leading the defense along with a new graduate transfer in Jason Reynolds,” Corrigan said.

Corrigan also believes junior goalie Liam Entenmann is ready for a breakout season.

“He has elevated his game to a point where he can be as good as anybody in the country, and all our guys have confidence in him,” Corrigan said.

Corrigan is confident his team will be successful if everyone does their assigned job.

“If they do their job, we can be really good if everybody just stays focused on that.

Nobody has to be extraordinary or feel the pressure to do something extraordinary,” Corrigan said.

Corrigan hopes his team can put aside last year’s disappointing quarterfinal loss and focus on what lies ahead this

season.

“I hope they’re more motivated by a chance of what they can do this year than with anything that happened in previous years. I feel like we have enough to worry about with what is on our plate right now, and the fact is that we have a team that is good enough to win the national championship if we play at the level we are capable of playing at,” Corrigan said.

The Irish have one of the toughest schedules in the country with their ACC conference play and a challenging non-conference schedule. The Irish have games scheduled against No. 3 Georgetown, No. 1 Maryland, No. 2 Virginia, No. 5 North Carolina as well as two games against No. 9 Syracuse and No. 8 Duke apiece.

Corrigan knows that this schedule will prepare his team for the tournament, but he also knows that the Irish will have to win a lot of tough games to even make it there.

“We know that this schedule can prepare us, but we also know that we need to manage this schedule to even be in the tournament,” Corrigan said. “The key for us is not to look ahead of us and not look

behind us but to stay focused on exactly what we need to do everyday.”

Corrigan hopes his team can rise up to the moment this season and play well in challenging games.

“I hope that we can be at our best when we need to be,” Corrigan said. “It’s not to put pressure on anybody, but one of the things about being the last team standing is you have to meet the moment.”

The Irish have already played two exhibition games, and Corrigan is pleased with what he has seen so far.

“We learned that we’ve got a lot of different areas that we are good at. I was really happy with our play in the middle of the field, but that will get more challenging. Both offensively and defensively, we did enough to know that we are capable of doing a lot. We weren’t always as consistent in doing that as we would like to be,” Corrigan said. “I was happy with our scrimmages, but with the challenge of our schedule, we will continue to learn about ourselves and refine our sense of ourselves over the course of the year.”

Contact Nate Moller at nmoller2@nd.edu