Print Edition for The Observer for Wednesday, February 1, 2023

ND responds to emergence of ChatGPT

University, faculty consider threat of generative artificial intelligence in education, society

By LIAM PRICE and ISA SHEIKH associate news editors

The university of notre dame’s campus is buzzing with the recent emergence of artificial intelligence, but its implementation has sparked concerns among students and faculty about the potential loss of jobs and ethical considerations.”

That introduction wasn’t written by The observer. prompted with brief instructions to provide a lede — in ap style — for this story, the artificial intelligence (ai) chatbot chatgpT offered the preceding paragraph, delivering results in a matter of seconds.

as the spring semester begins, an increasing number of conversations in classrooms, faculty offices and dorm rooms have been occurring around the potential of ai in education. in a communication

to faculty, sent by the office of academic standards (oas), the chatbot is described as “a large language model, which generates text from prompts by predicting what sentences should follow prior sentences based on historical correlations of words.”

The university first took notice of chatgpT in mid-december when a student was caught in a computer class final using the site, according to oas director and faculty honor code officer ardea russo.

The conversational software is often shocking in its speed and capability. directed by The observer, chatgpT created detailed course syllabi with week-by-week specific readings, thematic poems and even songs in the voice of particular songwriters about specific topics.

“i sit behind a desk, with my pen in hand / i’m searching for the truth,

in a world so grand,” the chatbot’s simulated Taylor swift wrote — in less than a second — in the opening of a song about student journalism. chatgpT is just one piece of the ongoing artificial intelligence revolution that threatens to remake the ways in which much of the professional and academic worlds function.

for instance, google has developed an ai model that generates music based on any text you give it; dall-e, a project of openai, the same research lab that developed chatgpT, can create ai art with strikingly specific results. openai has entered into a contract with microsoft search engine bing, shaking up the future of online searches. already, most interviews conducted by The observer are automatically transcribed using a program called otter.ai.

Courtesy of DALL-E Art made by generative AI when cued with “graphic art for a newspaper with students using artificial intelligence for classwork.”

University response

russo said she has been the point person on the administration’s response to chatgpT. under the direction of vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education fr. dan groody, she

has convened a faculty working group and sent two communications out to faculty members on the matter. The working group has convened experts from “all over the

Observer Staff Report

c ampaigning for the student body government elections began Tuesday after three tickets received the 700 required signatures for placement on the ballot and to officially enter the race. The three tickets for

Service mourns gun violence

president and vice president, respectively, are as follows: d aniel Jung and a idan r ezner; p ablo o ropeza and g riffin m c a ndrew; d erick w illiams and hunter b rooke. a ll the candidates are sophomores.

Judicial c ouncil will host an election debate s unday

Student government tickets announced epidemiologist criticizes covid-19 policies

By ISA SHEIKH associate news editor

Jay bhattacharya, an epidemiologist and economist from stanford, was “blacklisted” by Twitter the day he joined the app. he carries a business card identifying himself as a “fringe epidemiologist,” quoting an email from francis collins, then the director of the national institutes of health, to anthony fauci. bhattacharya,

an academic at the center of many of the nation’s debates over lockdowns, delivered an address Tuesday night to an event hosted by the economics department.

bhattacharya was introduced by economics department chair eric sims as someone whose “views have not always been popular, and have sometimes contradicted official messaging from governments and public health professionals.”

at 7 p.m. in d uncan s tudent c enter’s m idfield c ommons. The election will be held f eb. 8 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. via nd c entral, which students will be able to sign into using their n otre d ame email and password. r esults are expected to be announced later that night.

By EMMA VALES news writer

fr. pete mccormick, assistant vice president for campus ministry, presided over a prayer service to end hatred and gun violence in the basilica of the sacred heart monday.

The altar was lined with candles, each accompanying a notecard with the name of a city that experienced gun violence in the past month. Jan. 2023 was a month with a record number of 49 mass shootings.

sims pointed out that bhattacharya’s advocacy has been rooted in the economic principle of tradeoffs, as well as following the science where it led him.

“in his work and in his commentary, dr. bhattacharya has questioned the wisdom of widespread masking and lockdowns, pointing to the high potential costs to society and noting that the

a student speaking at the service said that according to the gun violence archive website, “a mass shooting is defined as an event in which a minimum of four people are injured or killed, not including the shooter.”

The service began with an opening hymn and remarks from mccormick. Then, a passage from the gospel of matthew 5, known as the beatitudes, was read. This well-known chapter of the bible preaches blessings for all people, including those who mourn, peacemakers and those

who are persecuted.

The gospel reading was followed by a reflection from margaret pfeil, a teaching professor in the department of theology and the center for social concerns. pfeil reflected on the beatitudes and said that they are “an invitation to feel good” and a call to become peacemakers.

pfeil discussed her personal experience with the phillips family who were affected by the sandy hook elementary school shooting in 2012. pfeil concluded by quoting st. francis of a ssisi: “w hile you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”

Two students then came forward to speak the names of 49 cities that experienced gun violence during the past month. The sheer amount of cities that the students listed emphasized the significance of the issue at hand.

mccormick concluded the service by leading a prayer for

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Wednesday “Dealing with Russia: Lessons from Cold War Sovietology”

Jenkins Nanovic Halls 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Lecture and lunch.

“Why It Matters to Talk about Abortion on Campus”

Carrol Auditorium 5 p.m. Lecture at SMC.

Thursday

“The Unintended Consequences of Peace” Hesburgh Center 12:30 p.m. - 1 p.m. Arie Kacowicz speaks. Holy Cross Trivia

Friday “Race, Punishment and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration” Geddes Hall 4 p.m. - 5 p.m. Lecture.

those who have been involved in gun violence and for an end to gun violence.

“Give us strength to walk in more ways to stand against injustice, to pray and advocate for peace,” mccormick said.

Upon departure, campus ministry handed out an informational flier with statistics about gun violence in the U.s and action items to take to prevent gun violence. The flier cited James 2:14-26, which says that “prayer bears fruit in action.” action items listed include sending a letter to representatives and other local leaders, joining various campus ministry faith and justice initiatives and promoting safety on campus. contact becky czarnecki at rczarne2@nd.edu to stay involved with campus ministry faith and justice initiatives.

Contact Emma Vales at evales@nd.edu

benefits of such mitigation strategies might be smaller than belief,” sims said. “he’s been courageous in speaking out for what he believes and what the science tells him, and he’s become an outspoken proponent of the principles of free speech and academic freedom.”

speaking in the debartolo Performing arts center’s decio Theatre, bhattacharya discussed the adverse effects of pandemic policy, emphasizing that for many of these effects, the blame lay not in the virus but in the decision to put lockdowns in place, which he deemed “an unnecessary overreaction.”

bhattacharya spoke about his childhood visits to the Kolkata slum his mother grew up in and the rural hospital he spent a year at while a medical student as representations of global poverty’s manifestations in india.

he also recalled the panic over the h1n1 swine flu epidemic in 2009, remembering how the panic

subsided when the infection fatality rate was revealed to be much lower than previously expected.

These two pieces of background led to bhattacharya’s skepticism around covid-era public policy. This ultimately brought his voice to the forefront of an international conversation around the virus. conducting a series of studies early in the pandemic identifying the infection fatality rate, bhattacharya and his colleagues found that a far higher number of people had antibodies for the virus than expected, meaning that far more people had covid-19 than hospitalizations indicated, and a far smaller percentage were experiencing severe disease or death. he argued not only that the risk was lower than expected, but that decisions were made in a one-size-fitsall manner.

“We knew early in the pandemic exactly where the risk was, there’s a thousand-fold or more difference in the risk of dying from infection from the youngest to the oldest,” bhattacharya said. “but the public health messaging was that we’re all in it together and that young people

needed to sacrifice their lives in order to protect older people. The decision was made without really a discussion of the population at large.”

he then went through cases in which the policy response to covid-19 caused harm across the globe.

cataloging a dramatic rise in extreme poverty, bhattacharya cited a World bank report to argue that the advances made by globalism and development economics had been pulled back, pushing millions of people into starvation.

“now when they wrote this, they wrote it saying that the pandemic caused this, that the virus caused this, but this is not the pandemic. This is not the virus. This was the decision by Western governments to lock down, which had knock-on economic consequences around the world,” he said.

“We reversed a generation of poverty reduction with the decision to lockdown,” he continued.

chronicling the ways in which other health efforts — such as measles and polio vaccination in africa and cancer screenings around the

world — were put on the back burner as part of the covid-19 response, he demonstrated how deaths had risen related to those conditions.

he argued that the global approach to managing the covid-19 pandemic allowed those diseases and others like tuberculosis to reemerge in extreme ways, particularly among the poor.

school closures were also discussed. he described Uganda’s experience, where millions of children were completely removed from school for two years, with no internet or Zoom to provide a substitute for in-person education. many of the families were pushed further into poverty, feeding into issues of sex trafficking and child labor. millions of students in Uganda will never return to school as a result of the extended lockdowns and economic reverberations, bhattacharya claimed.

he contrasted the american approach with the swedish approach, where children were in-person for school with “no disruption, no masks” and no student fatalities were reported. Teachers in the country, bhattacharya said, were similarly unlikely to see fatality.

he continued his “depressing litany” of statistics with mental health harms and the exponential rise in serious suicidal ideation among young people.

bhattacharya ultimately said lockdown policies were “at the luxury of the laptop class,” driving global and domestic inequalities far deeper.

discussing covid-19 and the ways in which churches responded, bhattacharya said considerations of human equality and dignity were challenged by the pandemic response.

“The message i heard from some of the churches, that treating each other as biohazards is an act of love. i don’t think that’s the right message. i’m a christian. i don’t think that’s the message i believe,” he said.

following his address, bhattacharya answered audience questions. Junior merlot fogarty asked about the University’s booster mandate, requiring students to receive their fourth shot. bhattacharya called the decision “a bad idea.”

“i don’t think there’s almost any benefit for the vast majority of people here,” he said. bhattacharya pointed to scientific arguments against requiring further doses, as well as the approach taken in norway and denmark, where only those above 50 are given the booster unless for some medical reason urged by their doctor.

bhattacharya called for a reckoning among his field and scientific bureaucrats who had shut down academic debate over the issues at hand.

“The starting point is an open acknowledgment of error,” he said. “Until that happens, there’s no chance of gaining back the trust of the majority. no matter what your position on lockdowns and whatever are, it’s clear we failed. it’s very clear that we didn’t stop many people from getting covid.”

Contact Isa Sheikh at isheikh@nd.edu

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University,” russo said, including two experts who work specifically on generative ai russo described the mixed reaction to chatGPT among both faculty and administration.

“i think there are concerns and excitement,” she said, adding that “the reason i was immediately concerned about it was because of the academic integrity side of it. i think it could be a really cool technology to use. i’m not opposed to it in general. The reason i wanted to start working on it right away was because i was concerned about students using it as a shortcut, rather than as a tool to their learning.” in her communications to faculty, russo has outlined two approaches to addressing chatGPT. First, creating assignments that use the chatbot as a part of the assignment itself, or secondly, designing “assignments that are chatGPTproof.” in guidance to faculty, russo wrote that “the more specific your assignments are, the less chatGPT can do.”

russo emphasized the variability of chatGPT response quality. The faculty guidance says that “even when the responses given are technically correct, the quality of the content varies greatly. sometimes it does extremely good work and other times it does not.”

How ChatGPT works

chatGPT uses a generative ai model, nitesh chawla said, referring to algorithms that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos.

chawla is the director of the Lucy Family institute for data and society and a professor of computer science and engineering at notre dame. he explained that like existing search engines, chatGPT can be used to find answers to user questions. but producing a unique response in whichever form the user asks for makes chatGPT, in chawla’s words, “a search engine on steroids.”

chatGPT is an “engineering marvel,” chawla said, but it cannot actively seek out new information in the way that humans do.

“if you are given a situation that you have never ever encountered before in your life, you would go, ‘oh, i need to learn it,’” chawla said. “now, that is what chatGPT is not doing. chatGPT is basically saying, ‘you have taught me everything that i could be taught and i will answer based on what i have been taught.’”

chawla described how the ai sources its learning through human training.

“chatGPT is, in the simplistic way, a massive language model that has been trained with an extremely large volume of text or documents, which has also been trained with some human feedback into it, which has allowed it to learn or correct itself,” chawla said.

russo emphasized to The observer that chatGPT can, on occasion, very confidently provide incorrect information.

“The overall accuracy of chatGPT is something we should pay attention to. how reliable is it

really? i guess we don’t know that yet,” she said.

chawla also expressed concern about the accuracy of chatGPT and similar language models.

“chatGPT will string words together based on what it has seen,” he said. “now, what if those answers or their responses are not grounded?”

“We have to really be very careful and say, ‘chatGPT is a valid tool for functions a, b and c do not use it beyond that,’” chawla said. “We haven’t put those guardrails up yet.”

Generative AI in the classroom

The administration’s largely open-ended approach has allowed faculty to take disparate approaches to chatGPT and other ai tools. While some have outright banned usage of the site in their classes, andrew Gould, a political science professor, wrote new sections into his syllabi about ai tools, allowing students to consult the program.

“You may consult artificial intelligence (ai) technology such as chatGPT. You must still convey the truth about your sources and the truth about your own contributions to the essay,” Gould’s “european Politics” syllabus specifies.

“however, ai technologies have not been trained on material about recent events. moreover, ai technologies can produce output that is incorrect. if you quote or paraphrase from ai output in your written work, you must cite the ai source.”

ai technologies “can respond to queries with useful summaries and syntheses of conventional wisdom,”

Gould told The observer.

“i found that asking [short response] questions that are similar to the kinds of questions i asked my students, the very good ones that i’ve gotten from chatGPT seem like b+ or b answers to me, but very good responses,” Gould said.

When asked about the possibility of a student attempting to pass off a chatGPT essay as their own work, Gould said he has “zero” concern.

“it’s very difficult to, in an unacknowledged way, use chatGPT, add some course-specific material and

not reveal that chatGPT played a role in formulation of the argument or the evidence or the overall structure,” he said.

dan Lindley, another political science professor, disagrees, forbidding use of generative ai in his classes. he said the development of ai in education is taking academia “by storm,” and called the recent developments “a frightful prospect” and “bad for education.”

“i think it’s a potential threat to the learning process. anytime students can take the easy way out, it’s not as good as the hard way in,” Lindley said. “Learning how to write is not easy, and learning how to write is associated with clarifying your own thoughts and trying to simplify things that are difficult. and chatGPT takes that all away.”

Gould said that in his experimentation with the technology, there are gaps in the site’s current ability.

“asking questions that really take some expertise, it seems to fall flat, so i would not be impressed if the student said in an email, ‘here’s this comment’ [in response to a course question]. i would think the student didn’t really get it,” Gould said.

he’s nonetheless impressed with the site’s abilities to work so quickly.

“but getting a b+ in a half a second or less. That’s pretty impressive. Like you could say, ‘oh gee,’ but to me, it seems pretty powerful. and then areas outside of my expertise, the answers seem great,” he said.

Challenging status quo education

susan blum, an anthropologist who most recently wrote the book “Ungrading: Why rating students Undermines Learning (and What to do instead),” said the emergence of ai prompts larger questions about the education system itself.

“We talk about academic integrity, but there’s really a deeper issue that we almost never talk about, which is, what is the purpose of education? Why are the students there? What do they actually want to get out of what they’re learning,” she said.

blum, who’s also written a book

specifically about plagiarism and college culture, approached the issue of ai being used in the classroom with a retrospective view of technology affecting educational environments throughout her lifetime. For example, she said she remembers the advent of calculators, which some worried would have a detrimental effect on students’ abilities in math.

“‘You had to do the math yourself by hand, because students have to learn how to do math.’ Well, maybe they do, maybe they don’t, but i use a calculator all the time,” blum said. “People would think now that it’s a very silly argument that we should forbid calculators.”

“i see chatGPT as another development in the continuous invention of new technologies that will have a role to play in our lives. i see this as an educational problem, not an ethical problem,” she added.

Gould similarly believes that generative ai programs “have the potential to transform radically the nature of work throughout the economy throughout the world,” and for professors to implement a “blanket policy not to consult it or use it is a mistake.”

“do we sit students in a room and have them write by hand so that they can’t consult anything? some people are proposing that,” blum said. “maybe we have to really rethink our teaching.”

blum said ai technologies will be practical for students hoping to achieve high test scores, making it so appealing for students that a ban might not be effective.

“Until we have more interesting stuff, this is going to be something that students turn to, and i think forbidding it won’t work,” blum said.

The University is conscious of those ideas. russo said that courses should have a deeper aim to encourage learning among students, above the simple pursuit of grades.

“i think that the more motivated they are to learn the material because it’s interesting and relevant, the less they’ll want to go online and just turn in something. i feel like our students should want to be better

than a machine,” russo said. “and so i’m hoping that that will be enough to deter students. You know, when you’re at a dinner with friends and a conversation topic comes up, you’re gonna want to chime in on the conversation, not be like, ‘well, let me see, let me put this into chatGPT and see what chatGPT thinks about it,’” she added.

Implications for the future

russo, chawla, blum, Gould and Lindley all shared an agreement that generative ai is still in its infancy and will continue to grow and adapt.

“i think there’s a general awareness that we’re in a very early period of chatGPT and i understand there’s a new version coming out, which will be even better. i know that the current version doesn’t know anything that happened past 2021, but the new version will be updated. so i think there’s a general awareness that we want to kind of wait and see where it goes,” russo said.

Gould said chatGPT will continue to improve and get rid of current flaws in the content it produces. “That’s why i think we should engage, not prohibit,” he said.

he discussed the broader societal impacts of such technology, which he predicts will rapidly take shape in the years to come.

“i think we’re just at the beginning of figuring out what the impact is. i have shared with seminar students my concern that employers hire us for our skills and abilities to do things for them. They do not hire us for our emotions,” Gould said.

“so i think we, and people entering the job market, have to ask ourselves, ‘what can i do that ai cannot do?,’ or ‘what can i do with ai that ai cannot do by itself?’ That, to me, seems like a pretty serious question. and so yeah, there’s the danger that ai can replace the kind of general skills and intellectual work that we train our students for.”

Contact Liam Price at lprice3@nd.edu and Isa Sheikh at isheikh@nd.edu

controversy ensues over student chants

By ISA SHEIKH associate news editor

at the last home game of the season, on nov. 19, the notre dame Fighting irish routed the boston college eagles during a 44-0 game, with offensive moments set to the band playing “celtic chant.” The piece was composed in the summer of 1998, and is accompanied by arm-pumping routine led by the cheerleaders. The music is also accompanied by less-sanctioned profane chants of “f*** you Zahm” ringing out through the student section.

That snowy morning, students swiping through instagram stories saw a post from the notre dame student Government account, with an image of the band presented over a blue background.

“students! at today’s game during the celtic chant, remember: There are kids in the stadium! Fr. Zahm was a great priest who gave his life in service to notre dame,” the story read.

The thinly-veiled rebuke of the chants appeared after concerns raised by faculty, student body president Patrick Lee told The observer.

“Just like we are elected to serve the students — and we’ll listen to any student concern — we also keep an

ear open to faculty and administrative concerns just in case there’s any kind of gap that we can bridge in that relationship,” Lee said. he said the concerns fell on sympathetic ears in student Government.

“We agreed with the concerns that the words of the chant do not necessarily represent the shared values of the notre dame student body. and thought that it was worth the effort to remind students of why they might refrain from that particular channel,” Lee said.

The music has been a part of irish football games for 24 years, and “celtic chant” composer Ken dye, the director of the band, told The observer that the piece was written because he felt the band needed a piece for the offense.

“it is a strong piece that brings out the power of our band and drums,” dye wrote in an email.

dye also said the fist-raising began at the same time as the music began to be played.

“This choreography was started spontaneously by the students and cheerleaders, and has been in place since 1998,” he wrote.

The explicit chanting was a more recent innovation, one dye doesn’t approve of.

“i hadn’t noticed it until recently.

i think there are more appropriate words that should be devised by our student section,” he wrote.

chief among the advocates for the cessation of the Zahm chants is notre dame engineering professor and alum Todd Taylor. he’s reached out to leaders across notre dame, from the top brass of athletics, to student affairs, to the congregation of holy cross. Taylor said that he first noticed the chanting six or seven years ago.

“my wife and i sit right behind the students in the corner of the endzone just in the first few rows in the upper deck, and it’s just very apparent what they’re doing. and as i talked to more and more people — and it really doesn’t matter if it’s a student, if it’s a member of holy cross, if it’s a professor or alumni — everyone says the same thing. They can’t really believe that it goes on,” he said.

Taylor, who lived in Zahm house as an undergraduate, argued that the chants are offensive for a number of reasons.

“it’s the wrong thing to do. screaming profanities in large groups in a public space is just not right, number one. number two, it is not the notre dame way. This is not what the students are here to do. it’s not why they’re here. it’s not what

we prepare them to do in the future. and number three, a lot of students really have no idea why they’re doing it. and so they have no background, they have no context. They didn’t even know Zahm was named after a priest,” he said.

Taylor fondly recalls the brotherhood and community he experienced in Zahm house, but says that it has no bearing on his advocacy around the chant.

“it’s interesting to me that we have a chance disparaging a dorm that doesn’t even exist as a dorm right now,” Taylor said. his proposed solution is simple.

“i think the ultimate solution, which is what i requested initially, was to shut down the chant. Just turn off the music, stop playing it. it’s very simple,” he said. “i’m very open to other alternatives, if someone is creative enough to figure out how to stop 8,000 students from doing something they’ve done for years and years and years and years. Typically, when you change those traditions or you want to change that culture, you have to change some of the underlying principles or reasons behind why that is what it is. no one seems to be willing to turn off the chant.”

because of reluctance on the part of leaders that Taylor has spoken to,

his advocacy has taken a different shape.

“We’ve gone to Plan b, which is trying to do a communication aspect. i’ve seen one instagram post which was actually an instagram story, not a post so it lasted, you know, 24 hours and nothing since. i’ve reached back out to a number of leaders, reached back out to the head of the cheerleading organization to try to again sponsor some more creativity, some more solutions, some other ideas,” he said.

Taylor understands that some might not understand why he’s dedicated so much time to this cause.

“some of my classmates are like, ‘don’t you have bigger problems to work on?’ Well, yeah, and i’m working on those too. so again, just put it on the list of things that need to be solved and worked on and fixed. This falls into the category of a wrong thing to do.

We can argue about the level of wrongness. but it’s kind of an absolute no-brainer. Two minutes. You solve it and you kill it. and nobody wants to make the decision. i don’t understand why, so it’s going to stay on my list of things that need [to be] worked on while i’m here, being a part of the community,” Taylor said.

Contact Isa Sheikh at isheikh@nd.edu

e xperts discuss social justice in film screening

By MAXWELL FELDMANN news Writer

The Kroc institute for international Peace studies hosted a film screening and panel discussion Tuesday night exploring themes of social justice, freedom of speech, activism and political dissent as a form of patriotism.

The panel was composed of four experts: olivier morel, a film scholar, dory mitros durham, an expert on institutional racism and law and

the associate director for the Klau institute for civil and human rights, daniel nerenberg, the communications associate for Just vision and atalia omer, a well-published professor of religion, conflict and peace studies at the Kroc institute.

The film, titled “boycott” and directed by Julia bacha, is a non-profit project that documents grassroots activism around the israel-Palestine conflict, and highlights the impact of anti-boycott laws on free speech.

bacha’s Just vision, an

organization which “fills a media gap on israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement,” according to its website. it has previously produced similar documentary films critical of israel’s role in the israelPalestine issue. The film follows several court cases in which ordinary individuals and organizations went to court over state laws requiring contractors to sign pledges promising not to boycott any goods from israel, or their contracts would be

terminated. The laws, which have passed with bipartisan support in 35 states, are seen by some as an attempt to silence criticism of israel and stifle free speech protected under the First amendment.

Throughout the panel discussion, the experts delved into the complexities surrounding the film, exploring questions of justice and social activism, the history and influence of filmmaking and the importance of free speech.

morel emphasized the unique

ability of cinema to tell stories that are rooted in the experiences of ordinary people, and the role of the filmmaker in shaping political narratives. he also praised bacha’s and Just vision’s ability to “film at street level, allowing the audience to be caught in the dreams and the nightmares of someone.”

nerenberg discussed the broader implications of anti-boycott laws, seeing them as the “tip of the iceberg in attempts to censor free speech.”

he acknowledged the emotional impact of the film, but also noted that it “does not depict a myth of equal power between israel and Palestine.”

durham explored the potential impact of the supreme court’s decisions on these cases, and the likelihood of the court taking on the case in the future. she pointed out the importance of understanding the motivations behind the laws, and the “strange bedfellows” of political supporters.

atalia omer concluded the discussion by acknowledging the power of film to educate and engage audiences on complex issues, and to help bridge the gap between different perspectives.

after the panel, audience members added their perspectives, raising questions about how to engage with those who may view the film as propaganda and how to promote peace in the face of ongoing conflict. in response, the panel emphasized the importance of protecting free speech, promoting human rights and working towards a more just and equitable world.

Contact Maxwell Feldmann at mfeldma3@nd.edu

Why we need more flex points

Jane Miller s cene Writer

Flex points. The time and time again coveted entity. o ur lack of them is the number one complaint among students. Why do we have so many meal swipes but hardly any flex points? Why can’t we use a meal swipe at Au b on Pain?

Well, buckle up folks because for the first time in the past ten years we have an actual reason for needing more flex points: inflation.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that since the 2020 c ovid-19 pandemic, world market prices have skyrocketed for basic goods. e gg prices surpassed $3 for only the second time in history as of 2022. b read prices are up 18 percent from pre-pandemic times.

Food prices at restaurants have soared as a result of the increase in ingredient cost. The price of a c hick Fil A sandwich has gone up by 17% since July 2020, and on top of that, campus prices for fast-food chains are notorious for being significantly higher than they are off-campus.

It is shocking that in light of these steadily increasing prices, the amount of flex points designated to each student has remained unchanged since before the pandemic. In fact, students have received the same number of flex points since as early as 2016 (the only exception being in 2017 when the dining hall was under construction). h ow is it possible that, while prices for meals at campus restaurants have increased by several dollars in some cases, the university has yet to provide students with additional meal funding in its default plan?

The “ b lock 250” plan, standard for each incoming student, provides 250 meal swipes and $500 of flex points to spend on restaurants and fast food places on campus. o ver the course of 17 weeks at college, that divides out to be a little less than $30 a week. o r about two m odern m arket salads. This may be sustainable for some students, but others, specifically students with dietary restrictions, this is extremely difficult. The vegan station at n orth d ining h all has only three options every night, hardly adequate for a hungry college student who already may struggle to receive proper nutrition because of their diet.

The dining hall is not always the most convenient. s ometimes, with a night of studying ahead, it’s more efficient to grab a salad or sandwich than to trek to the dining hall and wait in line for the night’s special. Flex points are a much needed safety net for when life becomes hectic or when dining hall food just isn’t calling our names.

I do not mean to be unreasonable; I do not fault n otre d ame for doing what other college campuses are and attempting to save money after a strenuous period caused by the pandemic. h owever, the increase in the price of tuition would indicate that the University already has the adequate resources to recover from any financial injury that the pandemic would have induced.

The rise in prices at restaurants on campus was no small thing, and n otre d ame has a duty to respond to this. It is n otre d ame’s responsibility to compensate for the recent rise in prices with the proper rise in flex points. It is simply not fair for current n otre d ame students to have their food accommodations significantly diminished from what they were in years past. An increase in flex points is long overdue. o ne would think that with the time we’ve had to recover from the pandemic the school would have taken the proper measures to provide students with this. h owever, since this is clearly not the case, we must call attention to this issue and demand the proper compensation that students deserve for their food needs.

You can contact Jane at jmille95@nd.edu.

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

2023’s crucial ballot boxes

As we settle into 2023, American politics has really simmered down to a near standstill. The country just emerged from the most enigmatic midterm cycle in recent history, with voters rebuking President b iden’s administration just enough to flip the balance of the h ouse of r epresentatives while simultaneously giving the White h ouse symbolic victories like a slightly bluer s enate and scattered victories for abortion protections across the country. As the new year rolls on, nothing exciting seems to be happening in Washington. b eyond the dramatic interlude during Kevin m c c arthy’s chaotic election as s peaker of the h ouse, the news have not been all that exciting for those with a keen eye for whatever goes on inside the b eltway. Perusing through the politics sections of the n ew York Times, vox, cnn or Fox n ews rarely leads to interesting reads. For some reason, even stories like President b iden’s handling of classified documents or the impending debt ceiling impasse do not seem to garner the degree of attention and interest for the general public. It is still too early to even dream of 2024’s race for the White h ouse, so it is only natural for everyone to look the oth

er way regarding former President Trump’s quest for another shot at the o val o ffice. Americans seem checked out of politics so far this year, and nothing of consequence appears to be coming anytime soon. Where will elections be interesting around the world this year?

Nigeria: Africa’s most populous country heads to the polls in late February, as n igerians vote to elect m uhammadu b uhari’s successor. b uhari has been in office since 2015. Universal issues like youth unemployment, insecurity, stubbornly high inflation and access to education have all been important points of contention throughout the campaign, along with more unique ones like suppressing Islamist militants in n orthern n igeria. The election is contested by n igeria’s two main parties, the incumbent All Progressives c ongress and the People’s d emocratic Party, as well as by a surging third party candidate running under the banner of the n igerian Party. With over 93 million registered voters, this will likely be 2023’s largest democratic exercise.

Cuba: Although c uba is a c ommunist oneparty state, and its parliamentary elections will not yield any surprises, m arch’s elections are the first since the c uban r evolution to not involve Fidel or r aul c astro. As the island nation wrestles with a steep economic crisis accentuated by cov I d ’s impact on its tourism industry, additional American sanctions, record immigration levels and sky high inflation, the sustainability of c uba’s political model must be called into question. o ne cannot help but pay a close eye on the future of one of the world’s remaining c ommunist holdouts as it endures its toughest challenge since the s pecial Period in the 1990s.

Argentina: s everal key players in Latin America have elected progressive or left

leaning governments in the last few years, upending the region’s geopolitics. Argentina, Latin America’s third largest economy, is due to go to the polls this year as the country struggles against a 94.8% inflation rate, burdensome sovereign debt and a sluggish economic recovery since the pandemic. The incumbent governing coalition, built as a marriage of convenience between Peronism’s multiple factions, heads into the election highly fractured and deeply unpopular. As President Alberto Fernandez mulls a second term, voices within his own party scoff at the idea and are in the midst of maneuvering to replace him at the top of the ticket with someone deemed more palatable to the Argentine public. Juntos por el c ambio, Argentina’s largest opposition coalition is also likely to hold divisive primaries that pit various heavyweight politicians against each other, while libertarian firebrand Javier m ilei threatens to upend the Argentine establishment in an independent bid for power. If the polls are to be believed, it is more likely than not that Peronism will be ousted come d ecember, but the latent possibility of a three way race with markedly different visions for the country’s future keeps this as interesting as it gets.

Pakistan: After prime minister Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, Pakistan returns to the polls this year along with Khan’s hope for a comeback. Pakistan’s democracy has always been fragile, and the country’s military is a repeat offender when it comes to taking over the country. Khan has a real chance of winning, but polling is scant and often unreliable, leaving this fall contest as one of the most intriguing ones to come.

Turkey: Turkish President e rdogan has run Turkey since 2003, and this election will once again grant voters the opportunity to either reelect him or rebuke him. The Turkish economy has struggled with high inflation lately, and this election is perhaps e rdogan’s toughest challenge at retaining power in over two decades. e rdogan has attained a high profile on the international stage as of late due to the r usso-Ukrainian War, and this too will determine the choice Turkish voters make come m ay.

e lections in Guatemala, s pain, Thailand, Poland, Zealand and Greece will also dominate 2023’s electoral calendar, and all pose important consequences beyond their borders, as the decisions made by all these governments inevitably impact the lives of millions due to their regional and sometimes global significance. e ven if they are not our home countries, they are still worth keeping up with, especially as the world becomes increasingly interconnected in this new age.

Pablo Lacayo is a senior at Notre Dame, majoring in finance while minoring in Chinese. He enjoys discussing current affairs, giving out bowl plates at the dining hall, walking around the lakes and karaoke. You can reach him at placayo@nd.edu.

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

Pablo Lacayo reliable r amblings

When scoTUs comes to south bend

Devin Humphreys Life, Law and the Lord

Well, I was the doof.

Last october, I wrote a piece in which I laid out my thoughts on how recent cases that had come before the supreme court had changed how we should understand the impact of the chevron doctrine. To remind everyone: the chevron doctrine sees justices follow a two-step program for figuring out who decides what congressional legislation means. step one: is the statute ambiguous? If so, go to step two: has the relevant administrative agency given the statute a reasonable construction? If so, defer to that agency construction. If step one or two fails, the court interprets the statute. In that october piece, I argued that when the supreme court unanimously decided in A h A v. becerra to stop using the “traditional tools of statutory interpretation” rather than follow the chevron flowchart explicitly, “the court adopted a decision that walks like it doesn’t overturn chevron, talks like it doesn’t overturn chevron, but yet basically overturns chevron.” While I still mostly stand by what I wrote then, recent events require me to elaborate, and in a crucial sense change, my view on this legal doctrine.

It is sometimes easy to forget how special an institution notre dame is in many respects, but the one that’s germane here is the incredible access we have to various justices of the United states supreme court. In my two and a half years at this institution, four sitting supreme court justices — Justice barrett, Justice Thomas, Justice Alito and, most recently, Justice Kavanaugh — have given public speeches to notre dame law students, and chief Justice roberts is also known to have enjoyed the occasional notre dame tailgate as well. These haven’t all been your standard, somewhat ubiquitous “v IP gets ushered in, gives speech, shakes hands, kisses babies and is whisked away” events either. my time at notre dame has blessed me with the opportunity to have direct interactions with some of the members of our nation’s highest court. From having lunch with Justice Alito and 10 fellow law students and undergrads in the fall of 2021 to taking Justice barrett as a professor for statutory interpretation with fourteen of my classmates just last fall, notre dame Law school has given me unparalleled access to the most influential jurists in all the land.

Just last week, this track record of unparalleled access continued with Justice Kavanaugh’s visit to campus. Justice Kavanaugh was the keynote speaker at the notre dame Law review’s annual Federal courts symposium,

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and this year’s topic was the history and structure of the Administrative Procedure Act. since the APA provides the scaffolding for the vast majority of administrative agency actions in modern federal government,

I realized that if Justice Kavanaugh ended up taking questions, it would potentially be an opportunity to ask him directly to clarify the A h A v. becerra decision (which he wrote), so I signed up for the lottery for a seat in the eck hall courtroom. And then the email came:

I had secured a seat for Justice Kavanaugh’s keynote address! so on monday the 23rd, I was admitted to the courtroom, where we were each handed a card with a Qr code to submit questions electronically. Questions had a 160-character limit, so I spent the next 15 minutes (before the Justice’s talk began) drafting, revising, and drafting again. Just in time to submit before Justice Kavanaugh began speaking, I had it: “does your decision in A h A v. becerra to stop at using the ‘traditional tools of statutory interpretation’ return to the letter of chevron or reject its spirit?”

my efforts paid off. Justice Kavanaugh decided to structure the event as a Q&A from the get-go, and with dean G. marcus cole moderating, we hit the ground running. my question was the first that dean cole selected to ask the Justice. Given that Justice Gorsuch recently called for the project of chevron to be given “a tombstone that no one can miss,” I half-expected Justice Kavanaugh to decline to answer such a direct question about this important area of administrative law. Instead, though, Justice Kavanaugh took the opportunity to very helpfully clarify his view both of what the chevron doctrine actually is and what A h A v. becerra did accordingly. Per the Justice, “you’re either a footnote 9 chevron person or a non-footnote 9 chevron person, and I’m a footnote 9 chevron person.”

Footnote 9 of chevron insists that the classic “is-thestatute-ambiguous” and “was-the-agency-reasonable” test only applies when a statutory ambiguity exists after a court has used the very same “traditional tools of statutory interpretation” that Justice Kavanaugh discussed (admittedly without citing chevron) in his unanimous A h A opinion. Generally, if a justice is abiding by footnote 9 of chevron when deciding a case involving an administrative agency, then chevron itself doesn’t stand for all that much. This is because when judges use all of the traditional tools of statutory interpretation, they typically arrive at an answer as to what a statute means. If this happens, and judges don’t throw their hands in the air and say “this is too hard, therefore the statute is ambiguous,” then there is no opportunity to look at how an agency interpreted the statute since chevron itself says courts and judges only do that when they cannot

resolve such apparent ambiguities themselves.

This is big news for the future of the administrative state more generally, and whether you prefer wider federal agency discretion or more significant agency constraint, there’s both good and bad news in Justice Kavanaugh’s answer to my question. on the one hand, given that Justice Kavanaugh is now on record as believing that chevron properly understood (including footnote 9 of chevron) should be applied in cases involving agencies’ statutory interpretation, those who would prefer overturning chevron outright have one less vote to work with toward that end, significantly decreasing the likelihood that an overhaul of such a fundamental doctrine of administrative law will succeed. on the other hand, though, since footnote 9 of chevron significantly restricts the extent to which agencies will see their interpretations deferred to by the federal courts, a more intentional emphasis on footnote 9 might not “basically overturn chevron” as I had prognosticated in october, but it will make chevron less relevant to how the supreme court decides cases involving administrative agencies in the years to come.

I have two takeaways from last week’s events: first, while many of the opportunities I’ve had to interact with those on the supreme court while at notre dame have come through serendipitous right-place-right-time sorts of encounters, this particular instance of Justice Kavanaugh answering my question in a meaningful way seems to have been an instance of Jesus’s “ask, seek, knock” gospel in action. second: sometimes, the best we can hope for when trying to understand a newly released case is to have accurately identified the point on which future decisions will turn. my october piece wasn’t wrong, but it certainly wasn’t 100% right either, and so it is with much of how we understand case law in general. It’s our job, as members of the legal profession, to do what we can to clarify unclear law, whether as advocates, judges, clerks or professors. This week, it was an incredible honor to play a small part in that ongoing work.

Devin Humphreys is a 3L at Notre Dame Law School. When he isn’t serving as the sacristan at the Law School Chapel, singing with the Liturgical Choir or Chorale or competing at a quiz bowl tournament, he’s sharing his thoughts on the legal developments of the day with anyone who will listen. For advice on law school, hot takes on Mass music and free scholarly publication ideas, reach out to Devin at dhumphr2@nd.edu or @DevinJHumphreys on Twitter.

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

Student body campaigning

The campaigning period for the student body president and vice-president election has begun. We are very excited to announce that three tickets were able to secure enough of your signatures to officially become candidates for the student body election. Listed in alphabetical order by last name of the presidential candidate, these tickets are:

daniel Jung (president) | Aidan rezner (vice president)

Pablo o ropeza (president) | Griffin mcAndrew (vice president)

derick Williams (president) | hunter brooke (vice president)

Please make your voice heard on e lection day: Wednesday, Feb. 8 from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. This year, Judicial c ouncil will transition to nd c entral to administer the student body election. students will need to visit the nd c entral page, and log in using their notre dame email address. Upon signing into nd c entral, students will be notified that there is a ballot available for them to cast their vote.

based on the tremendous support you’ve given these candidates by signing petitions, we are

confident that this election cycle will foster dialogue and participation beneficial to the student body. To learn more about the candidates and their platforms, we encourage you to follow campaign social media accounts, visit campaign websites, read physical campaigning materials and discuss the election with your friends. You will also have the opportunity to hear from your aspiring student leaders firsthand at the student body President and v ice President debate on sunday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. in d uncan student c enter’s m idfield c ommons. To ensure that the questions at this debate tackle the issues you care about most, we invite you to submit questions through this form.

The student body president and vice president have a significant impact on your life as students at notre dame. They vote on the allocation of student activities fees. They influence the amount of resources available to fund your clubs, residence halls and other organizations. They represent the student body to University administration and the notre dame Police department and they directly advise the d ivision of student Affairs on student life policies. All these

responsibilities are bestowed on your elected leaders with the understanding that they represent the views of you: the student body. Your participation in the election is critical to attaining this ideal.

As a reminder, candidates and those working on their campaigns must abide by the rules of the c onstitution (available on the Judicial c ouncil Website), particularly Article X v, s ections 1 and 2. If you have any questions about how these rules are applied, or any other questions pertaining to elections, please do not hesitate to contact jcouncil@nd.edu. Let’s make this a clean, fair and substantive election cycle.

have a great week, and Go Irish!

In notre dame,

Madison Nemeth senior, Judicial c ouncil President Koryn Isa junior, Judicial c ouncil v ice President of e lections

Feminism needs intersectionality

In the latter nineteenth and early twentieth century, the suffrage movement gained momentum and initiated the first wave of feminism: a global movement that has continued to live on for decades. Feminism continues to fight for women’s equality in order to create a more equal society that does not discriminate on the basis of gender. however, not all women are included in the feminist movement since racist suffragists have excluded the voices of black women. so while feminism claimed to be a sisterhood between all women, discrimination and exclusion were taking place within the very movement that aims to fight against oppression. how can the feminist movement claim to be for all women when it excludes women of color?

our society was built by, led by and made for men. We live in a patriarchal society that allows men to hold the power while women are pushed to the side to create room for male dominance and success. however, not only do we live in a patriarchy, but also in a nation built on white supremacy, both of which serve as the infrastructure for our society. more specifically, we live in a society where the idea of success was made to be fulfilled by cisgender, white, heterosexual, middle-class men. This leaves any other identity that falls outside this norm vulnerable to oppression.

The mainstream feminist movement is largely made up of white women. Therefore, while white women experience oppression because of their gender identity, they also experience white privilege because of their racial identity. Thus, the term “white feminism” accurately refers to the mainstream movement as it does not include the wide variety of women’s diverse identities. racism, classism, homophobia and other forms of oppression are a feminist issue for these identity traits are present in many women’s identities. combating racism should become an essential part of the feminist movement, along with classism and homophobia, as all women have different intersecting identities that impact the way they experience the world. As martin Luther King once said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Feminism can not just fight for equality in one area since many individual’s experience oppression in multifaceted ways.

According to this article, intersectionality, a term coined by professor Kimberle crenshaw, describes how race, class, gender and other individual characteristics intersect and overlap with one another. The feminist movement adheres to the experience of cis-gendered, straight, white, middle-class women who focus on gender inequality instead of other forms of oppression since women with this specific identity only experience injustice in this area. on the other hand, intersectional feminism takes into account the full person by acknowledging all aspects of an individual’s identity to promote the inclusion of diverse groups of women who experience various forms of oppression and privilege. Instead of only looking at the issue of gender inequality, intersectional feminism looks at all forms of injustice that impact women.

Intersectional feminism gives us a lens to observe how the world impacts different groups of people. It is both a tool and a solution for analyzing and combating all forms of oppression. While using an intersectional feminist lens can bring attention to a variety of problems we face nationally, it can also highlight global issues faced by humankind as a whole. Issues of poverty, homophobia, sexism, racism, religious freedom, education and more are all feminist issues. Feminism is more than what meets the eye, it is an essential strategy for ending injustice all over the world to promote equality for all of humanity. Instead of creating a “onesized fits all” solution to combating injustice, intersectional feminism gives us the means to look at the root of a variety of issues to find unique solutions that address specific problems. Although gender inequality is an important issue, intersectional feminism is so much more than a movement for women, rather, it is a movement that promotes human flourishing, equality and justice.

Identity is complex. It contains a multitude of diverse traits that make up humanity. People can experience both privilege and oppression, while others experience exclusively one or the other. Intersectional feminism allows us to look at all the components of our identity and how they determine our experience in the world. In the context of the feminist movement, how can intersectional feminism promote inclusion? Well, it starts with the equal recognition of privilege and oppression in white women’s identity. All women deserve to be a part of a movement that represents them. mainstream feminism needs to start representing a wider diversity of identities, instead of only focusing on the parts of your identity that experience inequality. In order for feminism to be more inclusive, white women need to use their privilege to amplify marginalized voices that continue to be drowned out and silenced. many women of color are doing important work to make critical societal changes, but the hard work goes unnoticed because of the racial and gender hierarchy embedded in our society. Women must support all women, not just the ones with the same identity as them. As the famous black lesbian feminist Audre Lorde explained, “change means growth, and growth can be painful. but we sharpen self-definition by exposing the self in work and struggle together with those whom we define as different from ourselves, although sharing the same goals. For black and white, old and young, lesbian and heterosexual women alike, this can mean new paths to our survival”. It is time for us to recognize our differences and acknowledge all injustices so we can unite in the fight towards overarching equality.

Grace Sullivan is a first-year at Notre Dame studying global affairs with a minor in gender studies. In her column I.M.P.A.C.T. (Intersectionality Makes Political Activist Change Transpire), she is passionate about looking at global social justice issues through an intersectional feminist lens. Outside of The Observer, she enjoys hiking, painting and being a plant mom. She can be reached at at gsulli22@nd.edu. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

defend democracy like a champion today

It’s been two years since we collectively witnessed a failed insurrection and attack on the United states capitol, and the threats to America’s democracy remain serious.

In its nationally-representative health of democracy survey, taken weeks before the midterm elections, The rooney center for American democracy uncovered a series of findings with grave implications for the future of our republic. For both democrats and republicans, the results showed strikingly low support for various, core democratic values — including free speech and voting rights. Just over half of republicans surveyed continue to doubt the integrity of both past and future elections. And more than half of republicans and one-third of democrats in the sample held the belief that the United states is currently on the brink of a new civil war.

Taken alongside continued threats to voting rights and elections and the rampant spread of disinformation, these findings tell a story of how deep divisions and widespread distrust — of each other and our institutions — threaten to compromise our entire democratic system.

more than 200 years ago, the Framers of the constitution engrained a series of participatory rights into our founding documents as a means of forging a public square that would direct and maintain our country’s democratic system. In the words of legal scholar John hart ely, these provisions were “centrally intended to help make our governmental processes work, to ensure the open and informed discussion of political issues, and to check our government when it gets out of bounds.”

however, the Founders’ framework was deeply flawed, and set America on a journey — at times a struggle, with blood and tears — to live up to the ideal that democracy allows government to truly reflect all of us. suffragettes like susan b. Anthony, Alice Paul, Ida b. Wells and elizabeth cady stanton, and civil rights trailblazers like Fannie Lou hamer, ella baker, dr. martin Luther King, Jr. and diane nash laid it all on the line fighting for voting rights. As the late-great representative John Lewis, a giant in this fight, reminded us in his parting words: “democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the beloved community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

All considered, the story of our democracy is defined by a sense of ownership and responsibility — where “We the People” are tasked with upholding the core values and functions of our democratic system, by playing a direct role in preserving and embodying them.

so how can we reconcile this history and our shared burden with the present moment, where the threats of distrust, disinformation and division pervade political reality? If we are endowed with a duty to uphold our constitution and the democracy it creates, what tools are at our disposal to combat these challenges, two years after a violent attempt to overturn a free and fair election? how can we keep our republic when there is such

widespread misunderstanding of, and sometimes contempt for, the inalienable truth that it is, truly, ours?

This spring, the rooney center and the hesburgh Program in Public service are presenting a semester-long series, nd democracy Talks, focused on bringing our notre dame community together to answer these exact questions. And we invite you — members of this community, of all backgrounds, perspectives and disciplines — to join us in these efforts.

First, we invite you to join us for the series, beginning Feb. 8, where we will host various scholars and guest speakers for interactive discussions on their work related to the state of American democracy. subjects that we will work through, together, include our democracy’s complex foundational history, political parties, voting rights and the health of democracy. At each talk, you will have the chance to ask questions, think critically and engage with these guest speakers. The goal is that by learning about the important pillars of democracy we will all be better able to champion it throughout our daily lives.

second, undergraduate students are invited to join the rooney center’s new hesburgh democracy Fellows program. This program is open to any student who is passionate about the work of understanding and preserving American democracy, regardless of their course of study. As a hesburgh democracy Fellow, you will have the opportunity to build community with other fellows and receive exclusive access to opportunities for sustained engagement with the work of the center and its programming, throughout and beyond this semester’s slate of events.

Undoubtedly, these will be tough conversations on the complex state of our democracy, the future of our country and the role we each play in shaping it. but they are necessary. because, as dr. matthew hall, director of the rooney center, has made clear, “the preservation of democracy and the democratic spirit in the American public is an essential part of notre dame’s larger mission to fight oppression and injustice in our society.”

In this season — amid mounting challenges to our democratic system and a growing need to figure out how to best preserve it — we must come together to better understand the task at-hand and what we must do to confront these questions.

We hope you will join the rooney center and the hesburgh Program to critically engage these topics alongside other members of the notre dame community, and fight alongside us to discern what it will take, from each of us, to defend democracy like a champion today.

Claudia Francis associate director for undergraduate programming and center advancement, rooney c enter for American democracy

Nicholas Crookston senior

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Grace Sullivan I.m.P.A.c .T.

By ANDY OTTONE

Scene Writer

A casino, a rest stop, a Texas BBQ restaurant and a touring heavy metal band. What do they all have in common? Murder, lies and a woman who finds herself caught up in all of it.

Poker Face, whose first four episodes out of ten are out right now on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, is the most recent project by Rian Johnson, the mind behind mystery films such as Knives Out and Glass Onion. With those credentials, it’s not surprising that he can competently craft a weekly murder mystery. However, the various cases, while always entertaining, are not the show’s only strength; that would be the main character Charlie Cale, played by Natasha Lyonne (“Russian Doll,” “Orange is the New Black” w). A woman on the run from her former employer, Charlie is a complex character, torn between her own self-preservation and her desire to do what is morally right. Oh, and one small detail: She has the uncanny ability to instantly tell when anyone is lying to her.

One might assume that having a character who can tell when someone is lying would make for a dull show, or that the cases would be solved quickly. The real fun is watching Charlie sort out what is the truth and where the lies fit into the puzzle. The best part? The audience

knows more than Charlie most of the time. Presented in the “howcatchem style,” the episodes typically present the first part of the episode as establishing the murderer, the victim and the crime itself. We as the audience know how it all goes down. Most shows would have the sleuth come in after the murder, and piece together the rest from there. Poker Face sets itself apart by jumping back in time to the episode’s start, showing the events from Charlie’s perspective and explaining how she found herself embroiled in the episode’s death. Sometimes, the death is even a result of Charlie’s actions in the town, creating a further sense of obligation to help solve the mystery. The thing I love most about the show is the fact that it allows itself to be an episodic series, lacking a real overarching plot across most episodes. Charlie is on the run, and her former boss Cliff Legrand (Benjamin Bratt) is on her tail. Beyond that, every episode is free to tell its own story. Charlie as a character drives the show, and it is immediately obvious that the character was written for Lyonne, who also serves as an executive producer. When we meet Charlie, she thinks she’s already had enough excitement in her life and is content in her life as a cocktail waitress at a Vegas casino. When she becomes embroiled in a criminal conspiracy involving her co-worker and the owner of the casino, she goes on the run rather than silently accepting her role in the criminal operation. That is what makes the character so compelling. It would be

a lot easier for her to keep her head down and keep driving through these towns rather than try and help their people out. The first episode establishes her as paranoid, suspicious of most people (due to her ability to catch lies), but also believes that there are fundamentally good people out there — the type of people she usually meets who usually wind up dead — and it’s her duty to do good by them even if it puts herself at risk.

It’s hard to craft a good mystery, and one might argue revealing the identity of a killer takes away the suspense. Despite this, Poker Face manages to not only create compelling mysteries for its protagonist to unravel, but by bringing the audience in on the means, motives and methods, the show becomes all the more satisfying when she brings the truth to light.

Contact Andy Ottone at aottone@nd.edu

“Poker Face”

Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Benjamin Bratt

Favorite episode so far: “Episode 3: Dead Man’s Hand”

If you like: “Knives Out,” “Glass Onion,” “Columbo”

Where to watch: Peacock

By ROSE ANDROWICH

Scene Writer

Paris Fashion Week is more than just beautiful clothes. The designs are interconnected to the beliefs of the companies. Fashion is a way of expression. Fashion week shows the fascination with style. each designer tries to encapsulate many facets while branding their products.

Maison Margiela

Maison Margiela is a Parisian haute couture house founded on ideas of nonconformity and the subversion of norms. Maison Margiela made its comeback after years of absence from fashion week. The collection matches the overall branding of the company, especially the non-conformity aspect. The non-conformity is reflected through the intentional design choices curated by John Galliano. The clothing from Maison Margiela shown at Paris Fashion Week 2023 aligns with the philosophy. The designs featured unique silhouettes and deconstructed looks. The silhouettes were cut against lower hemlines, and sheer fabric was used for layering. Several shirts depicting Mickey Mouse were used in the show providing an interesting spin on haute couture despite the brand being primarily punk-chic.

Chanel aims to be “A wardrobe freed from constraints and superfluity, tweaked with masculine accents, created a visionary allure that has become timeless and yet wildly

modern.” The looks at Paris Fashion Week reflected the timelessness of Chanel’s signature style. The silhouettes designed by Virginie Viard were timeless but still innovative. In several looks, the cuts were altered from the conventional style. Chanel used their signature fabric tweed in a number of looks. Outfits were accessorized with black and white bow chokers. The bows are more vintage Chanel while the choker is more modern. The scene for the fashion show was inspired by the animals in Coco Chanel’s apartment, a more subtle approach for the line to take. Coco Chanel is still a relevant aspect of the brand as they frequently take inspiration from her ideas.

Yves Saint Laurent

YSL staged 10 pieces total, the items taken from Anthony Vaccarello’s women’s collection. YSL initially gained attention by placing women in trousers for all occasions. Creative Director Vaccarello furthers this approach in his fashion and design philosophy. Vaccarello wants men and women at the same level. The looks used neutral tones, black mainly used to highlight the silhouettes. The line has gained attention for the sharp tailoring and the celebrities who wore Vaccarellos designs. Jenna Ortega, the star of Netflix’s series “Wednesday,” wore a black hooded backless gown designed by Vaccarello.

Emily Bode

emily Bode has been deemed the down-to-earth luxury

fashion brand. She launched her New York based brand in 2016. Her designs have been spotted on Harry Styles, Jordan Peele and the Jonas Brothers. This year at Paris Fashion week Bode showed her debut women’s collection titled “The Crane estate.” She took inspiration from her mother in designing this collection. Bode’s mother often wore her finest gowns to eat dinner alone. The collection differs from other designers who created looks that did not differ much in silhouette and color. Bode curated casual streetwear looks and sophisticated evening gowns. Needless to say, I enjoyed the so-called new “emily in Paris.”

Fendi

In the haute couture show, Fendi showcased 40 different looks. Since 1925 Fendi has been synonymous with excellent craftsmanship, creativity and timeless style. They are known for their specialized bags and their fur workshop, which has existed since their founding. The collection consisted of evening wear with unique twists such as a deconstructed blue gown with a lace silhouette under it. Several of the dresses were sparkly with sheer fabric (a recent trend). Fendi’s collection also used florals as one of its focal points. Towards the end of the show, after styling evening wear gowns, Fendi created a sunrise through the use of a pantsuit.

Contact Rose at randrowich@saintmarys.edu

Happy Birthday: follow the path of least resistance. Explore the unfamiliar, and you’ll develop concepts that will make life easier. Invest time and money in what’s important to you. k eep moving toward your target with an open mind and positive attitude. r elationships will stabilize if you are willing to give and take. Don’t jeopardize your health; protect against illness and injury. your numbers are 5, 11, 16, 28, 35, 38, 47.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Turn an idea into something with moneymaking potential. hone your skills and present what you have to offer. r ecognize who needs your help and who intends to take advantage of your kindness and good nature before you commit.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A proposal someone makes will tempt you. r ely on yourself, not others, if you want to get ahead. Set your own goals instead of trying to follow in someone’s footsteps. Don’t let someone’s bragging make you feel inferior.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Don’t give up when you should get moving. home, family and getting things in order will help put your mind at ease. An emotional issue will escalate if you let anger lead the way. use moderation and your imagination, and success will be yours.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Make a financial move that lowers taxes. you can sell items you no longer use and ease the stress the changing economy brings. A partnership will prompt you to reevaluate prospects and protect what’s yours. Personal gain is apparent.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): By offering your services, you’ll position yourself for success. Be true to yourself and do the best job possible. Just take on what you can handle and do your best; your effort will improve your profile and credibility. Manage money wisely.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Dig in and live up to your promises. Don’t expect someone to swoop in and take over. Plan strategically and execute your plans flawlessly, and progress will be yours.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Inconsistency will be your downfall. g ather information and decide your next move based on your findings, \feelings and what you want. Don’t feel the need to give in to someone trying to bully you. honesty will clear up an emotional setback.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Be a good listener. Size up situations and keep an open mind. g o directly to the source to avoid misinformation. you may need to visit someone in person to get a clear picture of their situation and how it affects you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): l eave nothing to chance. Ask for proof in writing in order to avoid disappointment. Saying yes to someone before you have all the facts will leave you in a precarious position. A job prospect looks inviting but difficult.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): g o with the flow, find your rhythm and make your mark. Take care of business before moving on to something that’s more fun. Don’t let a money matter disrupt a friendship or your plans. Don’t trade in one set of problems for another.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A curious mind will lead to innovative options. Don’t be afraid to do things differently. Set a course that helps you expand your qualifications. A change at home will turn out better than anticipated. Believe in yourself.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Put your to-do list in order of importance and start working toward an end goal. The proper sequence of events will make your life easier and encourage others to participate. A friendship will be affected by your course of action.

Birthday Baby: you are curious, sensitive and intuitive. you are determined and persistent.

Super Bowl LVII preview and prediction: Chiefs vs. Eagles

Andrew McGuinness Associate sports e ditor

In some ways, the Kansas city chiefs and Philadelphia eagles are in similar spots. both teams, after years of suffering, are looking for their second super bowl in their last five years. both have a superstar player with the last name Kelce. They are led by a do-it-all quarterback with gobs of talent and playoff experience. There is a healthy mix of players who have been to the super bowl before and those about to taste a stage like no other not just in football, but in all of sports, for the first time.

but there are also quite a few key differences. seeing the chiefs play deep into January has become an expectation.

Kansas city has made the AFc championship Game five years running, which just so happens to coincide with the year Patrick mahomes took over the reins at quarterback. All he has done since is lead the chiefs out of decades of despair. Kansas city has become one of the league’s model franchises, with long-time eagles head coach Andy reid guiding him and his supporting cast.

The eagles also sparked a turnaround with a quarterback change, enshrining Jalen hurts with the permanent starting role in 2021. After experiencing the typical highs and lows of a firstyear starter in a respectable 9-8 campaign that ended with hurts being totally overwhelmed in a Wild card loss to the bucs, improvements by hurts himself and to the roster around him by general manager howie roseman have turned the eagles back into a powerhouse. Less than a year ago, people were not even sure if hurts would be the eagles’ starter this year. now, he is an mv P finalist for the nFc

champions. not bad. of course, neither team’s arc is that simple. There are still doubts about hurts and questions about mahomes’ supporting cast — not to mention both quarterbacks’ health. It all adds up to an intriguing 57th edition of the climactic conclusion of an nFL season, one that has the potential to be a legendary game but can only bestow the same status upon one of these two teams.

Kansas City Chiefs: 14-3, AFC No. 1 Seed

Divisional: Beat Jacksonville 2720, Conference: Beat Cincinnati 23-20

For all of the dominance and state Farm commercials mahomes has been featured in over the last five years, it feels weird that this is *only* his third super bowl appearance. It feels like some of the biggest storylines of their season have focused on what the chiefs do not have rather than what they do. sure, Tyreek hill left without another star wideout arriving to replace him. Yes, mahomes suffered a high-ankle sprain that could still be lingering when the big game arrives.

What the chiefs do have, however, is merely the league’s best offense, according to Football outsiders’ defense value over Adjusted (dvoA) metric. hill may be gone, but that just means mahomes and Travis Kelce are as dominant as ever. Kelce’s 1,138 receiving yards were over 400 more than any other tight end. mahomes is once again an mv P finalist and is tied for third in Pro Football reference’s approximate value statistic. both are future hall of Famers looking to solidify their legacy with a second ring.

Kansas city also compares well at offensive line. The chiefs’ unit was ranked as the fourth-best offensive line by Pro Football

Focus, giving mahomes time to make the ridiculous plays he seems to have perfected by now. rookie Isiah Pacheco also emerged down the stretch at running back, rushing for 754 yards since Week 10 and averaging over five yards a carry in that span.

JuJu smith-schuster quietly finished just shy of 1,000 receiving yards. both he and marquez valdes-scantling are capable of making plays if the eagles focus too much on other players.

Kansas city needs to find a way to do something almost no one has been able to do against the eagles — make sure their strength of stopping the run lives up to the billing. The chiefs allowed the eighth fewest rushing yards during the regular season. Their lone Pro bowler on defense is at defensive tackle (chris Jones). And three-time Pro bowler Frank clark is lined up next to him at defensive end.

The Kansas city defense does not force a lot of turnovers, which hurts. They are also 22nd in completion percentage against, although they were good at limiting big plays. In other words, the key for the chiefs’ defense is to bend, don’t break and contain the eagles’ run game. If Kansas city can hold the eagles to field goals or fourth-down stops, they can create the type of momentum that mahomes, Kelce and reid know how to capitalize off better than almost anyone.

Philadelphia Eagles: 14-3, NFC No. 1 Seed

Divisional: Beat NY Giants 387, Conference: Beat San Francisco 31-7

The eagles’ first two playoff games have presented a chickenand-the-egg type of conundrum. should you be more concerned that Jalen hurts has not quite looked himself after missing two games and admitting he is not at

100% due to a shoulder injury or impressed that the eagles have hung up 69 points in two playoff games, including 31 against the league’s no. 1 defense in the 49ers, regardless?

The answer might be a little bit of both. Although given that hurts will be seven weeks removed from the injury, perhaps the former has a slight edge. hurts is not the end-all, be-all of Philadelphia’s offense the way mahomes is for the chiefs. but the eagles will be counting on hurts to deliver the game of his career against the league’s no. 17 defense, according to dvoA. each of Philadelphia’s three running backs has found the end zone in these playoffs. devonta smith and A.J. brown are elite threats at wide receiver, and dallas Goedert is a top-five tight end. In other words, hurts is not lacking help.

Yet despite the gluttony of players the eagles have at skill positions, the key to the team’s success is its line play. Gm howie roseman has always prioritized building from the inside out. And it is more evident than ever with this team, arguably the best one of his tenure. All five members of the eagles’ starting offensive line are either Pro bowlers or Pro bowl alternates, including hall of Fame hopefuls Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson. on defense, the eagles came within two sacks of tying the 1984 chicago bears for most sacks in a season. Four eagles had doubledigit sacks, with local product haason reddick leading the way with 16. T.J. edwards and Kyzir White have taken steps to solidify the linebacking core. darius slay and James bradberry form one of the top lockdown duos at corner. c.J. Gardner-Johnson was tied for the league lead in interceptions despite missing five games with a lacerated kidney.

There just is not much of a weakness with this eagles team. Their defense is first in dvoA and their offense is sixth. even their special teams have been on the rise after a rough start. Was their path here relatively easy? Yes. did the eagles still dominate nearly every foe on their path here? Also yes. no matter how you feel about their journey, Philadelphia deserves to be here.

The Pick

Any advantage the eagles may have on defense feels likely to be neutralized by Kansas city’s edge in experience. While the eagles did win the super bowl, only four of their 22 non-special teams starters are the same as super bowl LII. most of the team had never won a playoff game before this year. They are going up against a coach as experienced as any in reid and a duo in mahomes and Kelce who always seem to rise to the moment.

still, Philadelphia is not to be taken lightly. They have looked like the nFL’s best team for almost the entire season. but as their head coach nick sirianni has said, “It’s not about who’s the toughest, it’s about who’s the toughest the longest.” The chiefs have been somewhere between tough and impossible to beat in big games under mahomes. super bowl Lv II, perhaps as doubted as mahomes has been since establishing himself as a clear-cut superstar, feels like the type of moment where a great one decides he simply is not losing.

Chiefs 31, Eagles 30.

Contact Andrew McGuinness at amcguinn@nd.edu.

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

Irish men’s tennis splits weekend series in Lexington

By NATE MOLLER s enior sports Writer

The Irish men’s tennis team headed to Lexington, Kentucky, this past weekend, taking on Washington in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff.

The n o. 1 doubles team of freshman s ebastian d ominko and senior c onnor Fu set the tone for the Irish early, winning their opening match 6-1. Although n o. 2 doubles went the way of the huskies, the Irish earned an exciting victory in the n o. 3 matchup.

s enior m att h alpin and freshman e van Lee got broken early in the set. b ut they broke back when they were down 4-5 to stay alive. b oth sides then held serve, and the set went to a tiebreaker to decide the winner. After saving two match points, Lee hit a volley that bounced twice on the net. It then dribbled over to give the Irish duo the set.

In the singles matches, d ominko led things off for the Irish, winning by a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 margin.

Although senior m att c he and graduate student Addy

vashistha would drop their matches in straight sets, Fu won his singles match 6-1, 7-6 to give the Irish the lead heading into the final two singles matches.

The Irish needed just one win in the final two matches. s ophomore Jameson c orsillo clinched it for the Irish by earning a 6-1, 6-4 win. s ophomore Yu Zhang was also leading 7-5, 4-2 before the match was called.

o n s aturday afternoon, the Irish faced fifth-ranked Kentucky with a bid to the ITA n ational Indoors on the line. Although the Irish lost quickly in the n o. 3 doubles, the n o. 1 and n o. 2 doubles teams bounced back to give the Irish the advantage after doubles play. d ominko and Fu won 6-3 for their fourth consecutive doubles victory. c he and Zhang fought back from an early break point to

win the set in a tiebreaker. s ingles play did not go the way of the Irish though. They fell at n o. 2, n o. 3 and n o. 4 singles. d ominko fought valiantly for the Irish, winning the first set 6-2 and coming within two points of winning the match. h e ultimately lost, however, in three sets, and Kentucky earned a 4-1 victory.

Contact Nate Moller at nmoller2@nd.edu

Notre Dame fencing dominates annual DeCicco Duals

were all in s abre, where the closest bouts were 5-1

“We have a lot of energy, I love it,” assistant coach r olando Tucker-Leon said, “ I really loved the energy, we had a lot of energy and positivity. We fight, I really loved it.”

This energy was palpable throughout the entire afternoon, as bout after bout Irish fencers were cheering on their fellow teammates as they dominated the weekend.

While the Irish did lose some bouts against their second opponent of the afternoon, c leveland s tate, they ultimately won by a large margin on both teams.

The men notched 21 wins to the v iking’s six. o ut of these, six were one-touch bouts. o f the six, the Irish only won two. With this, however, four out of the six victories for c leveland s tate came out of one touch matches.

and they took care of the remaining 26 matches handily, only three of which were one-touch bouts.

The men’s team dropped two points against Purdue, one in sabre and one in foil.

University of c hicago was the closest matchup for the Irish. h owever, n otre d ame sealed their victory. The men’s team lost six matchups, spread throughout all three disciplines, while the women’s team only dropped two, both in sabre.

In their last matchup of the morning, n otre d ame women’s team swept m ichigan, only allowing four bouts to reach the maximum nine touches.

The men’s team lost five bouts but pulled through in the end.

By AIDAN THOMAS, OLIVIA SCHATZ and ANNIKA HERKO sports e ditor, Associate sports e dior and sports Writer

The n otre d ame Fencing program hosted the annual d e c icco d uals this past weekend, welcoming in a series of d ivision II and d ivision III programs, as well as club teams. b oth the men and women went 12-0 on the weekend, as the meet served as an opportunity to work their depth and tune up for bigger tournaments to come.

“We were able to give some more space to our second and third line,” assistant coach c hristian r ascioni noted after the tournament. “ o verall, a very good amount of bouts. An interesting weekend.”

Saturday

n otre d ame faced Wayne s tate ( d ivision II) in their first match. Leading off for the Irish in foil was freshman Paulo m orais who won his first bout 5-2. They were delayed slightly as the sensors on their blade tips seemed not to be reading correctly — this happened occasionally throughout the tournament. The men went 7-2. For the women in foil, Tianji Lukina, d aena Talavera and Ariadna Tucker all lost to their competitor Ludovica m ancini from Wayne s tate in competitive, well-paced matches. h owever, as she was their only female fencer in foil, the Irish women won 6-3 in

that blade. In epee, r iley r obinson won a back-andforth match against his competitor that caused everyone not currently in a bout to come and watch. Against the Warriors, n otre d ame’s women’s team won 24-3, and the men took a 20-7 victory.

n otre d ame faced Florida (a club team) in the third round of the tournament. Grant d orill, h enry n adile and Konrad c zyzewski won all of their bouts for sabre. The most exciting one was c zyzewski’s second bout against Florida’s b rian s eol.

b oth fencers came out strong from the beginning, screaming in celebration with each point scored. In the one point bout, c zyzewski came out victorious. b oth the women’s and men’s teams went undefeated in sabre helping the Irish to a 26-1 win in the match for the women and 25-2 for men vs. the Gators.

In the fourth round of the competition, n otre d ame fenced against Lawrence ( d ivision 3). Anne m yler 5-3 got the first win in epee for the Irish women’s team. Graduate student m iriam Grady then defeated her competitor 5-0 in bout with elegant footwork and swift strikes (the Lawrence team did not have names on the back of their uniforms). Grady seemed to have no trouble handling her but moved decisively with each touch. After losses in their first bouts, Tontcheva and c ucala battled to 5-4 and 5-2

victories, respectively, over their competitors by taking up aggressive attacks. The Women’s team went 7-2 in epee helping the Irish go 6-3 in the match. The m en’s team went 24-3 in epee and 20-7 in their third match of the day.

After the match, sabre coach c hristian r asconi was impressed with what he saw out of his young team and noted how he thinks they can improve.

“We were not starting with the first line, but had the second and even third line in and most of them are freshmen. It’s a very good opportunity to build their experience. We started a little slower than we were expecting but so far they’ve done a good job. We need to learn to be ready at the right moment. When we’re starting, we absolutely need to be ready.”

After a dominating morning, the Fighting Irish opened up their afternoon set against d etroit m ercy. Again, n otre d ame did not take their foot off the gas as both the men’s and women’s teams defeated d etroit m ercy, 27-0.

The men’s team only gave up 8 points to the Titans, all of which were lost in the e pee bouts. e ven with these small downfalls, the closest matchup was 5-2 in two separate matches.

The women’s team were in a similar vein, only giving up 11 points throughout the first round, eight of which were in e pee. The other three points

The women also dominated with a 23-4 victory over the vikings. Again, the Irish had six one-touch matches. All four of c leveland s tate’s victories were won in this manner.

To close off s aturday’s tournament, both the men and women’s teams defeated their last opponent d enison 27-0.

While the Irish undoubtedly dominated the tournament, it is important that there is an opportunity for regional schools to participate in tournaments like this. In addition, due to the level of competition, n otre d ame was able to rotate their roster and have younger faces fence for the Irish.

“It’s a great thing,” TuckerLeon said. “We are bringing new people and many more people are falling in love with this sport and it’s something I really love to see.”

Sunday

s unday morning was faced with similar energy from the Irish. When asked about his expectations for s unday’s matchups, Tucker-Leon responded:

“ o f course I have expectations to beat everybody and win all the matches and have a lot of fun.”

The Irish surely did meet Tucker-Leon’s expectations as on the day the men and women’s team combined dropped a total of 23 points: there was a total of 324 points up for grabs on s unday.

s tarting early at 9 a.m. against Purdue, n otre d ame was ready. The only loss for the women’s team against the b oilermakers was in foil,

“ s omething we need to keep in mind is even though lately we are used to win[ning] that we need to be thinking that we can not take these victories for granted and fight every single point for the victory,” Tucker-Leon said.

The Irish wrapped up their efforts with wins over c ase Western. The men won 23-4 and the women triumphed 27-0. In total, the women won three of their matches via a 27-0 scoreline on s unday, dropping five bouts in total on the day. r ascioni noted that the Irish did well to focus on their own improvements while not losing focus. “It’s the perfect occasion to work on some specifics. At the same time, keeping the focus on winning the bouts. Keeping it very simple.”

The Irish also mixed it up in the tournament finale, with some fencers switching away from their speciality to try a different weapon.

“It’s fun sometimes for the kids to try some different weapons and work some different skills, always minding that we try to not drop any bouts,” r ascioni said.

The Irish head to the n orthwestern d uals for another smaller tournament next weekend. They will then return to the e ast coast to face some higher-level competition at d uke.

“It’s never easy. We work a lot in the training sessions to get them ready. We try to keep the focus always high and to adapt to different situations,” r ascioni said. “To fence more expert fencers or to face a little less challenging situations.”

Contact Annika Herko at aherko@nd.edu, Olivia Schatz at oschatz@nd.edu and Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu.

RYAN VIGILANTE | The Observer

Two Irish fencers face off against each other at the DeCicco Duals in Purcell Pavilion on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 28-29. Notre Dame won 12-0 in both the men’s and women’s competitions on the weekend.

Irish take home four events, 23 top-ten finishes at Lenny Lyles Invitational

By NATE MOLLER s enior sports Writer

The irish track and field team was back in action this weekend at the Pnc Lenny Lyles indoor invitational in Louisville, Kentucky. The irish had a strong showing, finishing with 23 top-ten finishes and four event titles.

The strength of the team’s distance program was on full display in the 3000m, where freshman ethan coleman, junior carter cheeseman and graduate student Kevin berry all set facility records. coleman came across the line first in a blazing-fast time of 7:58, which was good for the ninth fastest time in school history.

notre dame head coach matt sparks was very pleased with the performance of his athletes in the 3000m.

“our men’s distance runners are starting to come around,” sparks said. “it was really nice to see carter cheeseman and ethan coleman in the 3K both have breakthrough performances. That’s ethan’s first race in uniform as a freshman. he’s ninth in school history with that performance in

his first college race.”

in the mile, the irish tallied another victory with freshman John schuler crossing the line in a time of 4:07.22. Freshman cJ singleton finished second behind schuler with a time of 4:08.66.

sparks was excited about schuler’s performance and the success of his young men’s distance team.

“We got another win from John schuler in the mile, which was a facility record. We have a good group of young men’s distance runners who are freshmen. They’re still trying to figure some things out, but they are doing some big things already,” sparks said.

although the irish have had a fantastic distance team for years, many of the team’s top athletes have graduated in recent years.

“on the national stage of cross country the last couple of years, we have been able to finish top ten to fifteen on both sides, but that was with veteran leaders like maddy denner on the women’s side and Yared nuguse, dylan Jacobs and danny Kilrea [on the men’s side],” sparks said.

sparks acknowledged that this

season has largely been a transition year for a men’s team that is in search of new leaders. one of these leaders, sophomore carter solomon, will be making his track debut in the coming weeks.

“The men’s team especially this year has been a bit of a transition with some new faces stepping up in carter solomon, who will make his [track-season] debut in a couple of weeks,” sparks said.

although there have been some growing pains, sparks is excited that his younger athletes are gaining confidence and performing better as of late.

“it’s a bit of a growing pain trying to get those guys to assert themselves and find the confidence that the guys before them had,” sparks said. “We have seen them start to come around, with some of the freshmen guys finding their way.”

on the women’s side, sophomore sophie novak also won the mile with a time of 4:47.76. sparks said he hopes that novak can build off of this success in the coming weeks.

“sophie novak is a sophomore that is starting to find her way to

keep up with the women’s team. in the coming weeks, we just want to see her keep being more competitive,” sparks said.

in the shot put, junior michael shoaf won the event with a throw of 18.84m. shoaf also took second in the weight throw with a throw of 19.78m.

sparks described shoaf as a leader for the entire men’s track team.

“our go-to leader of our entire men’s track team is michael shoaf, and he just continues to find ways to win, week after week,” sparks said.

sparks hopes shoaf can continue to move up the ncaa list and ultimately reach the national meet.

“We just need to get him to move up on the ncaa list a little bit more,” sparks said. “i think he’s 21st right now. Top 16 is what we are working towards to try to make the national meet. he’s winning, but we just need to keep finding some more distance to get him in there.”

sparks also discussed sophomore Jadin o’brien’s consistency across the board, which is necessary when she competes in the heptathlon.

“Jadin o’brien is super consistent now that she is an upperclassman within the program, and she has been fourth at the national meet two years in a row,” sparks said. “To work towards a national championship, you need to be consistent week after week as she competes in a variety of events every weekend.”

sparks praised o’brien’s ability to compete with athletes in a variety of areas to help prepare her for the heptathlon at nationals in albuquerque.

“You may not see her winning an event, but she is competing at the highest level with people that are special in their events. she competes with the best high jumpers on our team everywhere we go, as well as the shot put. she’s not throwing the shot put at the national meet, but she’s competing with national-level shot putters week in and week out,” sparks said. “When she’s able to do that, we expect big things from her when we get to albuquerque in a month or so.”

Contact Nate Moller at nmoller2@nd.edu

Paid a dverT isemen T

Without Albert in the 2023 lineup, where does women’s soccer go from here?

By J.J. POST sports Writer

over the weekend, notre dame women’s soccer star Korbin albert announced via instagram that she will be forgoing her remaining collegiate eligibility to play professionally with French soccer club PsG.

in the long term, a lbert’s departure to a champions League club represents a major win for the program in pitching itself as a destination for recruits. but, it is difficult to imagine a greater loss for the irish to endure heading into the 2023 season.

The 2023 lineup already was set to be headlined by some major departures before the loss of albert. olivia Wingate provided consistent production at forward. mackenzie Wood brought a steady hand to the goalkeeper position. brianna martinez was a staple starter at wingback.

but none of those losses came with as much of a wholistic impact on notre dame’s play as a lbert. The sophomore’s influence was not necessarily limited to one phase of the game. she was arguably the team’s best creator and finisher and was a consistent contributor to the irish press.

To make matters worse, the irish do not have a clear pre-existing replacement for a lbert on the roster. While it is a foregone conclusion that the irish will not be able to match the raw talent of a player heading to play for PsG at just 19 years old, perhaps the bigger issue is that they do not have an obvious “next man up” at her specific position either.

While some of the other lineup switches seem cut and dry. Junior ashley naylor should take over for Wood at goalkeeper. one of

sophomore Katie coyle or junior ellie ospeck figure to fill martinez’s spot at wingback. but albert’s consistent presence on the pitch meant nobody but the irish coaching staff truly knows who her existing backup would be. so where do the irish go from here? The good news is that notre dame does have multiple potential paths. The most obvious option would almost certainly be the transfer portal. Love it or hate it, the portal has become the undisputed top location for teams to find short-term roster supplements.

Three of the four teams that participated in this year’s college cup added at least one transfer before the season that would go on to contribute to the squad’s postseason run. michigan state exploded from big Ten bottom-dwellers to national top ten challengers in two years in large part thanks to being perhaps the single most active Power Five team in the portal. The irish themselves got a boost from transfer participants in their resurgent 2022 campaign. That included the aforementioned Wood and jack-of-all-trades graduate student midfielder ashley Zugay.

There’s no one correct way to work the Portal. Penn state returned to the top of the big Ten with the help of Penelope hocking, a known all-american talent who was seeking a new challenge after four highly successful years at Usc. Florida state received major contributions in their acc title run from onyi echegini. The highly underrated midfielder was proven in the sec but had never gotten a huge spotlight at mississippi state.

Two of michigan state’s most influential pickups in their aforementioned Portal rebuild were Lauren debeau and ruby diodati. both were mid-major standouts

who made seamless transitions to Power Five play. Texas advanced in the ncaa tournament for the first time since 2017 in part thanks to a boost from adding Jilly shimkin, a former top recruit who wanted a fresh start after falling out of the starting lineup at Penn state. Point is, game-changing players enter the transfer portal for all sorts of reasons. it is unknown precisely what notre dame’s options might be should they go diving into the portal. but it would seem imprudent by all accounts for the irish to not check what prospects could be available. one of the things that makes head coach nate norman and company’s potential search easier is notre dame’s other option to replace a lbert: moving a player already in the irish lineup into her spot. While notre dame never showed a true backup to albert over the course of 2022, they do have several players already in the lineup who have the tools to play her role.

senior maddie mercado played the position alongside a lbert in 2021 before moving to forward to replace the departed sammi Fisher. The irish could shift her back to the midfield and instead search for a replacement forward.

Freshman Laney matriano held down defensive midfield while showing the technical and passing ability needed for a more attacking role. notre dame could slide her to forward and look for a new defensive midfielder instead. The bench is also an interesting unknown to keep an eye on over the course of the irish’s spring scrimmages. The irish relied heavily on the pairing of albert and senior forward Kiki van Zanten last season. maybe the irish have a player who could take a lbert’s

spot that simply never got the chance to shine.

sophomore midfielder sophia Fisher played in every irish game as an attacking midfielder off the bench. however, she was never able to get a full run with the first team. This spring could provide a major chance for her to stake a claim in the now vacated no. 10 spot. Freshman midfielder berkley mensik earned a pair of starts during the season. but she never found a consistent role in the rotation as she bounced between stints at wingback and forward. could her dribbling ability and quickness find a home at attacking midfield?

Perhaps the most interesting option of all would be another transfer — one that was brought in last year. Graduate student forward/ defender Kristina Lynch figured to be a major part of notre dame’s 2022 campaign, and for good reason. The former national player of the year at Penn high school returned home to michiana as a graduate transfer with plenty of experience, winning two titles with Florida state. but she never saw the field for the irish due to a lingering injury sustained over the summer. ostensibly, Lynch could be eligible for a sixth year as a result of her injury. could the Granger native who played all over the field with the seminoles opt in for one last ride at attacking midfield?

regardless of how notre dame fixes the new mac hermann Finalist-sized hole in their lineup, spring scrimmages should make for fascinating viewing. between the losses of albert and Wingate, notre dame has to replace over half their total goal-scoring output from 2022. and finding the right attacking combination to successfully build off the program’s best season in years might be norman’s toughest job yet as irish coach.

The irish built their 2022 run upon two building blocks from a solid-but-unspectacular 2021 campaign: solid defense and brilliance on the part of albert. The former should remain a staple for 2023. after all, the irish are slated to bring back all three preferred starters at center back. The latter, be it through the existing improvements or a home run Portal add, will need to come from elsewhere. Contact

Paid a dverT isemen T

MAX PETROSKY | The Observer

Irish sophomore Korbin Albert breaks out of a tackle from an NC State defender during the teams’ Oct. 6 matchup where the Irish won 3-0.

Irish look to overcome difficult schedule to reach new heights in 2023

By OLIVIA SCHATZ Associate sports e ditor

After coming in fifth during the 2022 Acc c hampionship, the notre dame men’s golf team is back for their spring season. d espite their success throughout the regular season, the Irish had a disappointing end, and this year they are back hungry for more.

despite a solid fall performance, notre dame only checks in at 37th in the nc AA rankings. And their upcoming schedule will make improving that number quite a struggle.

notre d ame will kick off their official spring season by traveling to Panama c ity b each, FA where no. 13 Florida state University will be hosting the Watersound Invitational. The meet includes no. 17 Alabama, among

other strong competitors.

despite the challenging start of their season, the Irish managed to churn out a solid fall. In early s eptember, the Irish hosted the Fighting Irish classic where they placed fourth, only three strokes behind no. 5 north c arolina for third.

Throughout the fall notre dame traveled to four other tournaments, placing top ten in all of them. That is no small feat. “We have a tough conference,” head coach John handrigan said. “Ultimately the best in the country for college golf. s o we got a lot of work towards, as far as being in the Acc .”

Four Acc schools are in the top 15. however, handrigan’s squad is preparing hard to be ready to face this competition. The team just returned from a practice trip to Florida

and will be back there this weekend to get some more time on the course.

“We’re going back this weekend, we do a lot of qualifyings when we’re down to see which players are gonna qualify and are going to get into the lineup,” handrigan said. “We’re working hard to get ready for that. And obviously we have a great indoor facility to practice on, but there’s nothing like playing on grass. s o, we get down to Florida as much as we can to prepare for that first event.”

While the official lineup for the Irish this spring still isn’t set, there is clearly lots of talent. s enior Palmer Jackson is both a captain and one of notre dame’s stars. c urrently ranked at no. 83, Jackson is the highest-rated member of the team. Jackson holds the record for lowest career stroke average at

notre dame with 71.25 and has helped the Irish place at multiple tournaments.

Graduate student Andrew o’Leary is another crucial member of this Irish squad. o’Leary is another captain and has proved himself both on and off the course. having two experienced and talented golfers is a luxury for the Irish, one handrigan does not take for granted.

“For sure our two captains are definitely by far our strongest leaders on the team,” handrigan said about Jackson and o’Leary, “They’ve led our team for a couple years now and do an excellent job and they both have very high standards and expectations for our program. They hold our standards high to the players on our team and they’re great people… they have done a phenomenal job of

illustrating what it takes to be successful for notre dame and notre dame golf.”

The Irish captains are not alone, as the team goes ten players deep, each hoping for a long, fruitful season. notre dame has five official tournaments before their attempt at a postseason run. These tournaments will pit them against some of the toughest competition in the country.

“The last two years we’ve been one of the strongest teams in the conference,” handrigan said. “And, we are going to compete to do the same thing this year.”

The Irish will fly down to have their first official tournament of the season on Feb. 19 at the sharks Tooth Golf c lub.

Contact Olivia Schatz at oschatz@nd.edu

Veteran Irish ready to reach the next level of play and performance

By MATTHEW CROW Associate sports e ditor

For the n otre d ame women’s golf team, the 2021-22 season was one of transition. With a young roster, the Irish struggled to keep up with the top teams in an extremely competitive A cc b ut with nearly all of their key players returning and the team getting healthy at the right time, they are ready to take a big step forward in 2023.

The program underwent a major shake-up in the offseason when head coach s usan h olt announced her retirement. In 16 years with the Irish, h olt brought the program to new heights. The team went to four conference championships and their first-ever nc AA c hampionship berth under her guidance. h olt was a sixtime conference coach of the year during her n otre d ame tenure.

Following h olt’s retirement, Irish men’s head coach John h andrigan was elevated to the d irector of Golf position and tasked with selecting a coaching staff capable of elevating the team to elite status once again. h andrigan is confident that the program

is well-positioned for the present and future with new head coach c aroline Powers e llis and assistant coach Kari b ellville leading the way.

“I’m really excited about the staff that is in place to lead and direct our women’s golf program,” h andrigan said. “I think they’ve made some wonderful strides and changes over the fall semester and I’m excited to see more of what they bring to the program, especially this spring with a talented team.”

h andrigan praised the effort that e llis and b ellville have put into recruiting talented players to n otre d ame.

“With recruiting, they’re hitting the trail and going after it pretty hard,” h andrigan said. “Getting on the road and seeing some of the best players in the world.”

b ut the Irish will need a strong showing from their current roster to find success in 2023. Thankfully, they seem to have the pieces needed to do so. n otre d ame returns all five of its players who competed in the 2022 A cc c hampionship, led by junior c hloe s chiavone, who finished in 24th place and qualified for the nc AA r egionals.

s ophomores Jackie Feldman

and m ontgomery Ferreira joined s chiavone in the top 50. The Irish finished 12th in the A cc last season. b ut e llis and b ellville are highly motivated to bring them back to the top of the conference.

“As coaches, I think they have very high standards and that’s what we expect at n otre d ame,” h andrigan said. “I’m excited about what they’ve implemented, as far as trying to build our program to be a competitive one at n otre d ame and in the A cc .”

n otre d ame enters the spring on the heels of what was a successful fall season. h owever, it was also one marred with injuries that prevented several top players from competing at times. The Irish began play in s eptember at the b adger Invitational, where they earned a secondplace finish out of 13 teams. Ferreira took home the individual title at the event.

They followed their debut with a pair of top-five finishes at the b arbara n icklaus c up and the Ivy Intercollegiate. Ferreira and senior Lauren b eaudreau lead the way for the Irish in those impressive showings. b oth players placed in the top ten in both events.

After making a trip to Kansas for the m arilynn s mith s unflower Invitational, n otre d ame wrapped up their fall slate in late o ctober. They finished tied for seventh among a strong o lde s tone Intercollegiate field.

o ver the next several months, the team’s primary objective was getting healthy for the spring season.

“The women’s team has battled some injuries over the course of the fall, so the goal is to try to get all the women healthy and ready to compete this spring,” h andrigan said. “In the fall, when they weren’t as healthy as they could be, it made it tough to compete at the highest level.”

Fortunately, the Irish appear to have accomplished that goal. The Irish were at full strength this past weekend when they traveled to o rlando for a preseason practice trip.

“They just finished a practice trip this past weekend in o rlando and had a lot of success,” h andrigan said. “Players were playing well and [were] pretty close to being 100% healthy, which is the most important thing because we have a very strong team on the women’s [side].”

Those winter trips to Florida have been vital for n otre d ame’s preparation. Weather conditions have obviously made it nearly impossible for the team to practice outdoors in s outh b end in recent weeks.

“We were fortunate to have both teams get down to Florida and get some prep in,” h andrigan said. “We have a great indoor facility here to practice on, but there’s nothing like playing on grass, so we get down to Florida as much as we can to prepare for that first event.”

For the Irish women, that first event will require a return trip to Florida for the c olumbia c lassic from Feb. 11-13. That will be the first of four regular-season competitions for the Irish in advance of the A cc c hampionship in April.

It’s never easy for a team to find instant success with a new coaching staff. That is especially true when that staff is trying to replace one of the best coaches in program history. b ut the Irish are confident in their ability to do just that.

Contact Matthew Crow at mcrow@nd.edu

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