Print Edition for The Observer for Wednesday, March 29, 2023

President Conboy explains lack of comment on decision

SMC holds Dobbs panel Admitted students visit ND

By ALYSA GUFFEY

editor-in-chief emeritus

o n June 24, 2022, the u nited s tates s upreme c ourt ruled on d obbs v. Jackson women’s h ealth o rganization, overturning r oe v. wade and returning the abortion debate back to states.

s aint m ary’s c ollege p resident Katie c onboy did not release a statement that day in June, even as leaders of religious colleges across the country — including u niversity p resident

By MATTHEW BRODER news writer

n otre d ame admissions

welcomed over 600 admitted students from the class of 2027 and their families to campus for a dmitted s tudent d ays on s unday and m onday, an annual event that offers prospective students the chance to see what life is like as a student at the u niversity.

“ w e are really thrilled to welcome these families,” vice president for undergraduate enrollment m icki Kidder said. “The number

one predictor of whether a student enrolls in a university is if they have visited campus, so this is an incredibly important opportunity for new members of our family to experience and fall in love with n otre d ame.”

p rogramming began s unday when optional tours of campus were offered. For some, this was their first time on campus. n icholas Jacob of c olumbia, m aryland, was among them. d espite the stormy

Panel discusses 50 years of women at Notre Dame West Lake houses TRIO programs

By KELSEY QUINT news writer

The campus-wide celebration of 50 years of women at n otre d ame came to its close m onday evening with a panel discussion between five women who have both witnessed and enacted change toward women’s empowerment.

e ach panelist was selected for her unique perspective and contribution to the tri-campus community. The panel was broken into four sections that traced the evolution of women on campus.

Women at Notre Dame before 1972

Kathleen s prows c ummings, the r ev. John a o ’ b rien collegiate professor of a merican studies and the director of the c ushwa c enter for a merican c atholicism, remarked that there were women on campus before the famed year of 1972.

“There were women who earned bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and even doctorates from n otre

d ame,” c ummings said.

“They would do that in a variety of ways, like summer school. Though the direct admission of women into the undergraduate program is 1972, women were certainly present on campus all along in a particular way.”

Father hesburgh’s decision to co-educate m ary b liley reflected on her own unique experience as the first and only woman to receive a bachelor’s degree at commencement in 1972.

b liley explained that when the merger between s aint m ary’s and n otre d ame was proposed, she laid out a plan to earn a degree from n otre d ame. b ut when the merger fell through, b liley had already completed all the credits that went towards a bachelor’s in business administration, a degree that was not recognized by s aint m ary’s c ollege.

“ i n January of 1972, i received a letter from s aint m ary’s stating that i would

By KATIE DOBELHOFF news writer

o n the west side of campus — bordered by s t. m ary’s l ake, p angborn h all and l ake l ot — lies a building with two distinct purposes.

The second floor of west l ake h all holds dynamic classroom spaces, computer labs offices and display areas for design programs in the c ollege of a rts and l etters.

w ithin a rts and l etters, n otre d ame offers industrial design or visual communication design majors for those interested in design. They also offer a collaborative innovation minor. yet, west l ake h all does not just serve as an academic building; it also serves as an integral way of serving the s outh b end community.

The first floor of west l ake hall contains classrooms and offices for the u s d epartment of e ducation’s T rio p rograms, guiding s outh b end students as they progress through middle school, high school and the college application process.

n otre d ame hosts two

T rio college access and preparatory programs: Talent s earch and u pward b ound.

n otre d ame’s T rio Talent s earch program was established in 1980, originally housed in g race h all. They expanded into west l ake and now serve around 750 students from grades seventh to twelfth. s tudents come from virtually every community school in s outh b end.

Talesha r edding, an advisor for Talent s earch, said the program prepares students for secondary education by offering tutoring and class mentorship. They also instill positive study habits and assist students through the college admissions process by helping them navigate Fa F sa and applications, she said.

r edding works mostly with students at John a dams h igh s chool.

“ we prepare workshops each week for each grade level. we also make contact with each student and plan events for all of them,” she said.

see wesT laKe PAGE

ALYSA GUFFEY | The Observer

College President Katie Conboy and her executive leadership team wrapped up the College’s final discussion in a series on abortion.

see women PAGE 5

KELSEY QUINT | The Observer

Panel members and student government organizers pose on stage for a post-discussion photo in Jordan Auditorium on Monday.

see smc PAGE 3 see sTudenTs PAGE 5

Have a question you want answered? Email photo@ndsmcobserver.com THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, M A rch 29, 2023 | NDSMCOBSERVER COM

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Today’s Staff

Want your event included here? Email news@ndsmcobserver.com Question of the Day: t he next f ive D ays: Pencil or Pen? Brittney Ferguson senior Pasquerilla West Hall “Pen.” Annemarie Foy senior Cavanaugh Hall “Pen.” Tyrah Taylor sophomore Pasquerilla West Hall “Pen.” Angel Gonzalez sophomore St. Edwards Hall “Pencil.” Matt Heilman senior off-campus “Pen.” Kaitlin Mohlenkamp sophomore Badin Hall “Fine point gel pen.” ndsmcobserver.com P.O. Box 779, Notre Dame, IN 46556 024 South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 Editor-in-Chief Maggie Eastland Managing Editor Ryan Peters Asst. Managing Editor: Gabrielle Beechert Asst. Managing Editor: Hannah Hebda Asst. Managing Editor: José Sánchez Córdova Notre Dame News Editor: Isa Sheikh Saint Mary’s News Editor: Meghan Lange Viewpoint Editor: Claire Lyons Sports Editor: Andrew McGuinness Scene Editor: Anna Falk Photo Editor: Sofia

Thursday “The Invasion of Iraq in Historical Perspective” Eck Visitors Center

Friday COVID-19 and the Future of Health Care Jordan Auditorium

Editor’s Note: A fencing story printed Monday, March 27 was corrected Tuesday, March 28 to clarify the outcomes and records of some of the individual fencers and Notre Dame’s overall score. The Observer regrets these errors.

p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Panel discussion.

Notre

The Irish face the University of Illinois Chicago.

a.m. - noon Lecture by Bernard Nahlen on health care. Notre Dame Baseball Frank Eck Stadium

SMc

f r. John Jenkins — did so. c onboy has still not made a public statement on the r oe or d obbs decision on behalf of herself or the c ollege.

When asked at a panel Tuesday night why she thought the reversal of r oe was not something for the c ollege to release a statement on, c onboy said it “was very hard to think about how to respond in a meaningful way that would reflect all of [ s aint m ary’s] identity.”

Yet her team talked internally about how to best approach the divisive subject of abortion once students returned.

“ e ven though we didn’t make that statement, we did begin planning even last summer and having conversations about what it would mean for our students to return to our campus in what is a changed a merica,” c onboy said.

s he explained that leaders at s aint m ary’s knew that some students would feel a triumphant victory for a cause they believed in, while others might feel the loss of a legal right.

“We knew that we would have to find spaces for dialogue on campus and that careful planning for that dialogue would be more important than any lofty kind of public statement might be,” she said.

Tuesday’s panel served as the final event in the Post- d obbs Program s eries, featuring members of c onboy’s executive leadership team.

d aniel h oran, chair of the a cademic Program c ommittee that presented the series, said the purpose was “to offer students, staff and faculty the opportunity to learn about a range of issues related to the us s upreme c ourt decision last summer to overturn the r oe v. Wade decision.”

church teachings frame abortion conversations on campus v ice president for mission Julianne Wallace clarified the c atholic c hurch’s teaching on abortion at the beginning of the panel.

“The c atholic tradition asserts that from conception, new human life is sacred. a ll new human life is sacred and the life and the well-being of the woman who is carrying that life is also sacred,” Wallace said.

a ccording to a 2022 Pew r esearch survey, 56% of c atholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, Wallace said.

“What this [statistic] tells me is this is a complex issue.

a nd what we have learned from media and from public discourse is that it seems like a very simple issue,” she said. “ s o our responsibility as a c atholic institution is to expand beyond a very binary understanding of life and abortion.”

Later on, panelists added that roughly 62% of the c ollege’s student body reports being c atholic — down from 80% a decade ago.

i n response to a question on how effective dialogue can happen at an institution that is also focused on maintaining its c atholic identity, c onboy explained that the s aint m ary’s community has a unique opportunity to discuss moral and theological issues through a c atholic lens, without infringing on open dialogue.

“a ll of the pieces of your student experience i think are infused with something that is coming from the c atholic identity as a college,” c onboy said.

Quoting former n otre d ame President f r. Theodore h esburgh, c onboy stressed that the c ollege’s c atholic identity does not inhibit but rather enhances debates on moral issues.

“[ f r. h esburgh said] ‘the c atholic university is where the c atholic c hurch goes to do its thinking,’” c onboy said. “That is a place where we can do that kind of thinking.”

‘It’s not a single issue’ r edgina h ill, vice president for inclusion and equity, referenced a quote by a udrey Lorde that “there is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” h ill

elaborated that discussions about abortion should address health disparities such as access to healthcare and historical discrimination.

“ i t’s important for us to interrogate how this decision has an impact on the disparities that exist within healthcare, especially for people of color within this community,” h ill said.

Provost b arb m ay spoke after h ill, saying that academic freedom at the c ollege means faculty “are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects.”

While this allows faculty to have certain conversations in their classrooms, m ay added that the academic freedom clause also states that faculty “should be careful not to introduce their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to the subject.”

“a s you think about our

policy, take that broadness into account,” m ay said. “ i f a student asks about it, and it’s not relevant, you don’t have to talk about it. i f you’re not prepared to talk about it, you don’t have to talk about it.”

resources for students

Panelists offered several resources for students during the discussion, including consultations at the h ealth and c ounseling c enter — which operates with patient confidentiality — and c ampus m inistry pastoral care.

i n addition, Title i X protects all students at the c ollege who find themselves pregnant or a parent, vice president for student enrollment and engagement Lori Johnson said.

Contact

Alysa Guffey at aguffey@nd.edu

Paid a dverTisemen T

Paid a dverTisemen T

Fintan o’Toole lectures on new book

By LIAM KELLY news Writer

o n Friday afternoon, famed Irish writer Fintan

o ’Toole spoke at n otre d ame on his new book “We d on’t Know o urselves: A Personal h istory of m odern Ireland.”

o ’Toole’s book, part autobiography and part history, details the evolution of Ireland from a conservative to a modern society.

When writing the book,

o ’Toole said, he tried to answer why there was not “more violent social conflict in the r epublic of Ireland, in the 1960s, 70s and 80s” despite profound social change.

o ’Toole explained that during this time Ireland began its transition from the “backwater of Western e urope” into “one of the most globalized economies in the world.”

o ’Toole argued that while in the 1980s the “traditional hierarchies [in Ireland] looked more solid than ever” with referendums to ban abortion and divorce passing overwhelmingly, these hierarchies were actually on the verge of collapsing.

In his book, o ’Toole writes that “‘Ireland,’ as a notion, was almost suffocatingly coherent and fixed: c atholic, nationalist, rural… but Ireland as a lived experience was incoherent and unfixed.”

o ’Toole detailed what he called the “six ambiguities” that explain the collapse of an apparently stable ideological structure in Ireland. These instances of “cognitive dissonance,” o ’Toole said, allowed Ireland “to

change massively, while not actually understanding that it is changing, and therefore not resisting that change.”

The first of these ambiguities o ’Toole described was the history of mass migration from Ireland.

“What characterizes Ireland is this contradiction between people and place,” o ’Toole said.

o ’Toole described mass migration as the “price that society pays” to retain its conservative culture.

“The Irish state after its foundation sustains itself as a conservative place because it exports most of the people who might have trouble, who might be unhappy, who might be kicking against the system, because they can’t get jobs, because they can’t have their aspirations fulfilled,” o ’Toole said.

o ’Toole then described the ambiguity of “repressive freedom” which Ireland experienced during much of the post-independence period. While the r epublic of Ireland had become entirely independent of b ritain and attained freedom in that sense, it had many institutions and parts of its culture that were in fact very repressive, o ’Toole said.

“There’s a disjunction between Irish people’s sense of themselves as being free and the way that society actually works,” o ’Toole explained.

o ne of these repressive institutions was the “ m agdalene Laundries” which forced certain women who were considered to be a “moral danger” to work without a judicial process,

o ’Toole said. Ireland also had the highest rates of mental hospital incarceration ever recorded in the world, o ’Toole added.

“We learned how to tolerate completely contradictory narratives of Irish freedom,” o ’Toole said.

The third of o ’Toole’s ambiguities is the decline of agricultural life in Ireland.

o ’Toole detailed how the dramatic decline of agricultural life was actually caused by the very people who sought to conserve it.

o ne way this transition occurred, o ’Toole said, was Ireland joining the e uropean Union in 1973. While the move was opposed more by those in urban areas, it was supported by farmers who wanted access to markets in e urope where they could receive higher prices for beef. This influx of capital into rural Ireland opened up more opportunities for younger Irish people. This was then followed by the expansion of free education to the high school level, o ’Toole explained.

o ’Toole described that “the initial beneficiaries of this revolution were actually the old conservative farming class.”

“It allowed people of a certain generation to think that they were still living in a very conservative Ireland, even though they were in fact the most enthusiastic participants in these two huge processes of change: joining the e uropean Union and the education revolution,” o ’Toole said.

o ’Toole then described how the initial reaction to

the troubles in n orthern Ireland displayed a contradiction between Irish people’s sense of nationalism and their willingness to fight at that moment.

“This whole idea of dying for Ireland is very, very profoundly imprinted on our sense of ourselves,” o ’Toole explained.

When the troubles began in n orthern Ireland in the 1960s and the I r A became resurgent, these nationalistic ideas surprisingly did not lead to civil war, o ’Toole said.

“The r epublic… just pretends it’s not happening and manages to sustain this for a couple of decades,” he said.

o ’Toole argued that this pacifism, despite the strong nationalism regarding n orthern Ireland, prevented war and further problems for Ireland which would have prevented it from modernizing.

In his fifth ambiguity, o ’Toole described what he calls the “gamble of 1958” in which Ireland tried to modernize while retaining its ideological structures.

“Irish people were able to actually be living lives which were very radically changed, while at the same time deciding that it was more comforting, in the process of change, not to overturn all the structures and all the institutions but rather to hold onto them,” o ’Toole stated.

Although the ideological coherence in Ireland remained largely intact through the period of modernization up until the 1980s, the “gamble of 1958”

soon failed after that.

“ b y the time you get into the 21st century and things start to unravel, they unravel very, very fast because maybe underneath the reality was not as monolithic as it seemed,” o ’Toole said.

Finally, o ’Toole discussed the capacity of the Irish people to not confront the things that they think need to change.

“ m ost people learned, because they actually had to, how to navigate their way around apparently unchangeable power structures,” o ’Toole said.

o ne example o ’Toole provided was how birth control was allowed in c atholic schools for women only as a means to regulate women’s menstrual cycles and not to prevent pregnancies.

o ’Toole characterized these seemingly illogical norms as “transitional states that get you from a culture of obedience and orthodoxy into one of defiance.”

Addressing all six ambiguities, o ’Toole acknowledged that while they may be “ways in which you actually don’t grasp your own reality” and can cause “a lot of hypocrisy to continue,” they allowed Ireland to transition “from a very conservative, inward looking society to one of the most liberal societies in e urope, and certainly one of the most globalized economies in the world without profound social conflict.”

Contact Liam Kelly at lkelly8@nd.edu

LIAM KELLY | The Observer

Irish writer Fintan O’Toole spoke at Snite Auditorium on Friday afternoon about his new book “We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland.” The book details the transition of Ireland from a conservative and isolated nation to a modern and globalized one. O’Toole examines how this change occured without a large amount of violence.

conditions, he was impressed by what he saw.

“c ampus was really pretty,” he said. “I liked the history of everything.”

e ven for those who have been on campus before, an official tour gave the chance to see parts of campus that are harder for normal visitors to access.

“It was really cool to see the inside of the dome,” r yan m c c arthy, a prospective student from Washington d c ., said.

Later that night, students gathered at a student-only event called “ c lass of 2027 c onnect.” The event, held in the d ownes c lub within c orbett Family h all,

West Lake

r edding and the other advisors at T r I o also organize trips to universities to show high school juniors what life as a college student is like.

“We want to give them the opportunity to experience being on campus and living on campus,” she said.

Through an immersion program in Washington d c ., Talent s earch students went on college visits, watched a baseball game and visited the n ational m useum of African American h istory and c ulture.

The first floor of West Lake

featured music, games, photo booths, food and other experiences that were reminiscent of d omerFest, an event held during Welcome Weekend for incoming first-years.

“It gives admitted students the opportunity to meet and begin forming relationships with fellow members of their class,” Kidder said.

s unday evening also featured a “University Welcome” event in Purcell Pavilion. s everal speakers addressed the admitted students, including Kidder, assistant vice president for campus ministry Fr. Pete m c c ormick and senior Jack d avis. e ach of them emphasized the community aspect of n otre d ame, as well as how easy it is to feel

h all is also home to another n otre d ame T r I o program, Upward b ound. With n otre d ame’s chapter established by Fr. Theodore h esburgh in 1966, Upward b ound serves as one of the oldest college preparatory programs of its kind in the nation.

They offer opportunities for high school students in both the academic year and the summer to enrich their learning and gain insight into the college experience.

Upward b ound is similar to Talent s earch but is more rigorous and features a smaller group of students. Whereas Talent s earch helps high school and middle school students, Upward

editor-in-chief of The o bserver in 1980.

at home on campus.

“c oming to n otre d ame has been this very, very special experience where even though I left where I’m from, I’ve come to this other place that is home,” d avis said.

o n m onday, admitted students were given the opportunity to visit common spaces of several residence halls and engage with rectors and hall staff, something members of previous classes were unable to do because of the pandemic.

“

o ur residential communities are such important and distinguishing features of a n otre d ame education,” Kidder said. “To share this with admitted students is an important and distinctly n otre d ame experience.”

b ound only extends into the high school curriculum.

“ s ome students start in Talent s earch then switch into Upward b ound, though it is more selective,” r edding said.

s tudent Jennifer Leon participated in a summer internship through Upward

b ound with the n otre

d ame c enter for c ivic Innovation, where she helped develop a Lead

r emediation Kit.

s he wrote of her experience on the c enter for c ivic Innovation website.

“ s ince I am still in high school, working with the n otre d ame Lead Innovation Team and learning more about lead

in this class?”

Information sessions in d e b artolo Performing Arts c enter and m cKenna h all on the topics of financial aid, academic advising, alumni networking and the n otre d ame s cholars Program, as well as an academic and student services resource fair in d ahnke b allroom were also offered m onday. s tudents and their families had the chance to wrap up their time at n otre d ame on m onday evening with a special m ass celebrated in the b asilica. h osting thousands of guests on campus during the academic year while ensuring the academic and residential experiences of current students are not disrupted poses many logistical challenges, Kidder

remediation helped me gain a better perspective on public health,” she said.

m any participants in T r I o programs are potential first-generation college students who may not be aware of the options they have after high school graduation. r edding summarized the realization many students have after partnering with Talent s earch and Upward

b ound, saying, “I don’t have to just get a high school diploma. I can also get a secondary diploma and open up a range of options for myself and my family.”

Through her internship and work with Upward

b ound, Leon uncovered the options available to her as

said, but n otre d ame admissions considers experiences like these essential for prospective students.

“It is an important and wonderful way to celebrate n otre d ame with new members of our family who will eventually call this campus home,” she said.

While organizing everything is a challenge, Kidder believes that it always pays off in the end.

“We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to welcome new students to our community and appreciate the many partners across campus who help us to do so in a distinctly n otre d ame way,” she said.

Contact Matthew Broder at mbroder@nd.edu

she discerned her career path.

“Ultimately, public health became a potential area of study I could see myself wanting to explore further in the future,” she said.

b ecause of students like Leon, r edding said her favorite part of her work as an advisor is opening up new perspectives for students.

“It may start with just one generation, then you get several people behind you that may want to pursue a college education. It really is a wonderful thing.”

Contact Katie Dobelhoff at kdobelho@nd.edu

not graduate,” b liley said. “In April of 1972, my senior year, d ean r aymond called me in and said, ‘ m ary, you are going to graduate from the University of n otre d ame, you are going to be the first female undergraduate and you will be the only female in the class’ … m y claim to fame is that Father h esburgh gave me my diploma and kissed me.”

c ummings went on to describe a misconception — that 1972 somehow pinpoints a date of immediate equality. The culture at n otre d ame didn’t change quickly or easily, she said.

“There [were] the early years in which the ratio of men to women on campus was 17 to 1,” c ummings said.

In addition to female minority in the student population, c ummings said there were also very few female professors.

s he proceeded to quote r osemary m ills, the

“ n otre d ame has admitted women as students for eight years, but it has yet to accept them,” m ills wrote. “And the difference between admittance and acceptance is the difference between the success and failure of co-education.”

Katie c onboy, who currently serves as the 14th President of s aint m ary’s c ollege, recalled witnessing these early years of women on campus. As a doctorate student, c onboy taught an introductory e nglish writing course. In teaching this course, she had one student encounter in the fall of 1984 impacted her for a lifetime, she said.

“I walked into my class on the first day of class, and there were 25 white men and one black woman,” c onboy said. “And I just had to stop for a second and say to myself, what is this experience going to be like for her? h ow can I ensure that her voice is heard, that she has a place

In June 2020, c onboy’s office received a call from that student.

“It turned out that [the student] had just been on a panel that was promoting a book called b lack d omers,” c onboy said. “ s he had written one of the c hapters, and in it she’d written about the class and her experience … n ot only was she the only woman and the only person of color in that class, but she never had another woman professor.”

r ecent advancements in gender equity

Although the integration of women at n otre d ame has been a long process, the panelists express pride for how far the University has come.

c arolyn Woo, former dean of the m endoza c ollege of b usiness, believes the best way to empower women is to serve as an example.

“In those days, business schools were not run by women. In fact, there were more women

presidents of universities than women deans,” Woo said. “If people ask me what is the most impactful thing that I have done here, it was simply to succeed … there is this real thing called a glass ceiling, that if one person breaks it, it all of sudden really does open up for other women.”

Woo also said that, when it comes down to it, “the whole empowerment of women is really just being able to recognize their potential … basically to say, ‘yes, women can.’”

Goals for celebrating a century of co-education

c onsidering the next 50 years, the panelists agreed the University is headed in the right direction. What’s next, Woo said, is to include more females in senior leadership and to “start helping women see how they can use their success.”

Indi Jackson, a 2017 n otre d ame graduate, former student-athlete and current regional director at n otre d ame echoed this message

through her own experiences.

“ o nce you get in a position of power, oftentimes, especially if you’re a double minority, you have to bust down that door, and you have to drag your chair to the table,” Jackson said. “ b ut when you are in that position, when you talk about empowerment, it’s about inviting others to the same table. I know as long as women continue to do that, as long as our allies continue to do that, there’s a future that we can’t even imagine.”

Jackson explained that each individual woman’s success is a success for all women.

“I commend all of you for being here, listening to these wonderful women’s stories,” Jackson said. “Take them in, share them and know that for all of us to succeed, you have to make room for everyone at your table.”

Life is short. here’s my bucket list.

Hannah Hebda

Assistant managing editor

A couple of weeks ago on the drive to m idway before spring break, a friend asked me where I would go if I had to choose one place in the world to travel to. o f course, with how indecisive I am, I couldn’t pick just one destination. There are so many places I would love to visit and adventures I am eager to experience in my life. In fact, I have a rather lengthy bucket list I would like to accomplish in my lifetime. s o, in the spirit of this question, here is a condensed version:

1. Finish this column on time s elf explanatory. It’s already late … sorry c laire.

2. Sunrise and sunset on every continent s o simple. s o ambitious.

3. Skydiving, preferably in Hawaii s orry, mom. I talk about this all the time and it drives her insane. The h awaii part is great. The jumping out of a plane and parachuting (to my possible death) part … not so great.

4. Backpack through Europe

m y best friend’s mom has talked to me, extensively, about how she took a few months after college and did this by herself. m y friend and I want to do it together. We’ll see if that actually happens.

5. Northern Lights

I really, very badly, want to take a trip, stay in a glass igloo and watch the n orthern lights. h ow cool would that be?

6. Learn how to play the piano

This one seems pretty achievable, but then again, I am quite possibly the least musically inclined person ever. Just ask my old piano teacher. s ister Geraldine was a sister at a local congregation, s isters of the d ivine r edeemer, and she was sorely disappointed by the capabilities of my brothers and I. I’m determined to learn for both her and my second-grade self.

7. Egypt

o ne word: Pyramids. I want to see them. Also, the

n ile r iver and the s phinx. All must-do’s in e gypt, or so I’ve heard. I mean, we spent all of that time in middle school learning about the e gyptians, so why wouldn’t I want to go see everything in person?

8. Visit every U.S. National Park with my brothers

A couple of years ago my brothers, my dad and I went on a trip to Las vegas, Utah and Arizona. We hiked in Zion and visited the Grand c anyon. The following year, we did a c alifornia road trip and explored d eath valley, Joshua Tree, King’s c anyon, s equoia and Yosemite n ational Parks. Along with a few others, I think we’re up to 10(ish) parks, and I want to make it to all of them.

9. Antarctica

I’m not really sure how I’m getting to this one. I’ve done the research; I just need to acquire the funds. When that (hopefully) happens, I’ll do the polar plunge and see some penguins.

10. Kilimanjaro

This is another ambitious one. I’ve always wanted to go to Africa, for plenty of reasons (African safari, mission trip, etc.), but for some reason, I want to hike Kilimanjaro. Just think about the view from the top.

11. Honorable mention: Run a marathon

The h oly h alf counts. s tay posted.

I have about 100 more bucket list items that I would love to cross off, including more sentimental ones that pertain to family and friends, but I don’t want to be too sappy here. I’m not sure if I’m being naive or just too ambitious, but I’ll keep dreaming and, hopefully, I will make it through all of them. I just want to have a life well-lived.

o f course, I’m open to hearing any, and all, thoughts, suggestions, edits or additions you wonderful readers have for my list — my email is below.

You can contact Hannah Hebda at hhebda@nd.edu.

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

Save the Office for the Common Good

To the s aint m ary’s administration, b oard of Trustees and community:

o n m arch 8, s aint m ary’s vice president of mission Julianne Wallace emailed s aint m ary’s students, staff and faculty detailing changes to the d ivision of m ission. As written in the email, the c enter for the s tudy for s pirituality and the c enter for Faith, Action and m inistry will act as branches for the m ission d ivision. o ne of the major changes announced is the expungement of the o ffice for the c ommon Good ( oc G). As the student leaders in this office, we unanimously raise our voices in opposition to this change and its implications on the future of community outreach at s aint m ary’s.

The m arch 8 email was the first form of communication we received regarding the reorganization of the d ivision of m ission. It was not until m arch 24 — over two weeks later — that we had an in-person explanation from the administration about the details of this transition. We have been told that these decisions were “student-driven,” yet we were not asked for input during the decision-making process.

At s aint m ary’s c ollege, the oc G serves as a bridge between s aint m ary’s students, staff, faculty and the broader s outh b end and m ichiana areas. It was previously known as the o ffice for c ivic and s ocial e ngagement. o ur programs include b eyond the b elle, a day time teachers‘ aide and an after-school tutoring program; Food Waste Fighters, a food recovery and composting program out of n oble Family d ining h all; the s ustainable Farm, a functioning farm on s aint m ary’s property that promotes ecological justice and grows its own produce and smc votes, a nonpartisan campaign to increase voter registration, participation and civic engagement on our campus. We also organize and lead s ervice s aturdays and e xplore the b end programming which allow the s aint m ary’s community to get involved in and enjoy the broader s outh b end community.

This is just a glimpse as to all the programs and opportunities the oc G offers s aint m ary’s students, staff and faculty.

The email we received on m arch 8 from Julianne Wallace writes that the “reorganization will bring all of our programs in line with best practices and unify the work of our student-facing offices.”

This unification would bring together programs from the oc G and s ustainable Farm with c ampus m inistry. As it currently exists, the oc G serves an important role in providing all smc students with service and outreach opportunities regardless of their faith affiliations. The oc G does not focus solely on faith-based work, which has allowed us to create a space for students who are not religious to serve the community. o ur programs are non-exclusive. To associate all community programming and volunteer opportunities with faith has the potential to alienate the 38% of s aint m ary’s students who do not identify as c atholic. In direct alignment with the mission of

s aint m ary’s c ollege, the oc G welcomes students from all walks of life.

Although we, as student leaders for the oc G, were hired through federal workstudy to work for specific programs, our office operates with a strong sense of collaboration. n one of us have worked solely for the programs we were hired to do. o ur well-rounded experiences, broad understanding of community service and teamwork skills can be attributed to the community we have built within the oc G. We are better students, better citizens and better people because of our involvement in the oc G, and, in particular, with the mentorship of our directors r ebekah Go and m aria Gonzalez- d iaz.

The s aint m ary’s community thrives in large part due to our close-knit community. m any may not know the name of our office but are familiar with the faces within it. r ebekah Go, director of the oc G, and m aria Gonzalez- d iaz, assistant director of the oc G, are an integral part of the success of our programs. Under this new organization, both will be demoted with decreases in salary and a higher number of expected hours worked. We believe this to be a slight to the hard work and dedication both r ebekah and m aria have done for the s aint m ary’s community. These changes are based neither in justice nor meritocracy.

oc G programming does not owe its success to its hierarchical leadership. m any students who have participated in our programs are unaware of our official titles, designated roles or even office name. o ur office is known for its resourcefulness and, as Julianne Wallace praised in our m arch 24 meeting, “radical hospitality.” As student leaders, we simply followed r ebekah’s and m aria’s examples. It has been our focus on building interpersonal relationships that directly contribute to the success of our programming.

As students at s aint m ary’s c ollege, each of us is receiving an education and social experience that emphasizes c atholic social teaching and the c ollege’s values of inclusivity and service. We have developed into citizens who will speak out against injustices and stand for what is right. We stand with the oc G and ask that administration honor the dedication r ebekah and m aria have proven to the s aint m ary’s community.

All 12 student leaders employed by the o ffice have signed and contributed to this statement.

Libbey Detcher, senior Jeanett Ochoa , junior Emily Rusch, senior Yajali Rodriguez , senior Valentina Rubio, sophomore Catherine Reynoso, sophomore Suzanne Rivas, senior Delia Lopez , senior Anahy Torres-Vega , senior Jacquelyn A Junco, senior Galilea Falcon, senior Dakota Freel, junior march 27

Would you choose it again?

Dane Sherman saints Among Us

n ervous herds of students whisked by us. m y friend and I sat in gorgeous leather seats staring at the illustrious carpeting, ceilings and huge windows of the ballroom. b oth of us leaned on a small cocktail table with a basic white sign flashing the words “LG b TQ/Prism nd.”

s ome of the admitted students pretended not to see the sign at all. s ome students giddily making new friends truly didn’t. o thers stared at our table with a desire to come up, but were not comfortable enough to out themselves in front of all the other admitted students.

From the few brave souls that decided to venture to our table, one question emerged over and over again. It was an especially stark question when an admitted queer student of color described a fear to attend n otre d ame and hesitantly asked, “Would you choose it again?”

I remember college decision season — the beginning of cov I d — when we hoped to be back to school in a few weeks after we “flattened the curve,” and before reality dashed those hopes.

The suspense. The build-up. n ervously clicking into the portal at just the right time. e veryone’s breath held. c -L-I- c -K. m y finger timidly hit the view decision button.

b efore the computerized confetti even began to fall, my entire quarantined family around me began to erupt in screams of excitement. I had gotten into my dream school: s tanford.

Going to any university, but especially a “prestigious” private institution is an incredible privilege, one ascribed to very few. As of 2021, only 37.9% of adults over the age of 25 hold a bachelor’s degree, with the percentage attending private universities like n otre d ame or s tanford far, far lower. That’s a fact I see reflected in my own family; my older siblings and my mom don’t have college degrees at all.

h owever, for those in the position to choose, making a college decision can feel life-defining. In many ways, it is. n o matter what options we hold, these decisions can put a lot of weight on the shoulders of an 18-year-old who barely has figured out what they want in life.

It is closing the door on one version of your life that you will never get to live. Whether it’s a different school, a job, community college or some other life path, going to college is letting go of another opportunity, another version of yourself. m any versions of ourselves exist out in the cosmos in lives we will never get to live.

I applied to 10 schools and got into seven of them. o f the seven, n otre d ame was not on my list of contenders. I forgot to check the decision until a couple of days later, showing my dad on the phone with a disinterested “ o h, I got in.” The screams, computer, confetti and excitement were not there for n otre d ame.

When I got into s tanford, it spread like

wildfire. I got a random email from my high school principal where he wrote, “ d ude, s TA n F ord !!!!!!! s o awesome, well-earned and richly deserved. s o proud of you, and so appreciative of all that you do.” Texts flooded from family and friends who described pride and the no-brainer decision.

o riginally, what moved n otre d ame up on my list from last place was they offered me a lot more money than anywhere else. Forcing me to give the conservative, c atholic, midwestern school a chance.

I made elaborate spreadsheets giving point values to different aspects of the college experience that I wanted. I played ball with my dog for hours, listening to music, hoping genius would strike like lightning. I stress-baked cookies hoping the chocolate chips would provide comfort. m y monthly playlist for April 2020 was “got note from stanny admissions counselor, I think I’m going there.” The playlist is accompanied by an overly dramatic picture of two school logos and “T he cho I ce ” emblazoned above.

With cov I d in the air, schools tried to pull out all the stops for recruiting. A couple of schools sent me their gear. o thers sent me stickers and a couple sent personalized letters about my application. s tanford sent me a virtual reality headset to “visit” their campus with. n otre d ame sent me people to talk with — current students, graduates and a whole community of people who told me about their life here. In my conversations with s tanford graduates, they described concern for the common good, the beautiful fountains on campus, taking quick trips to s an Francisco and incredible speakers who come regularly.

s ince deciding on n otre d ame, I’ve seen the best we have to offer.

Professors who I consider not only dear mentors, but friends — sharing books, ideas and exciting intellectual conversations over coffee, food and office hours. Friendships which have challenged my beliefs and given me the tools to build a more just world. A class with 7 of 9 students being ordained African priests or classes on development with graduate students who have spent 20 years in the field. A political climate that isn’t homogenous, where every idea I share must be backed up and rigorously debated. s taying up till two in the morning eating Insomnia cookies and discussing abortion, where my belief is in the minority. m ost of all, a student body that cares — one who spends their mornings in service to those experiencing homelessness, spends their days studying the economics of poverty, and their evenings working with local unions to create more just economic relations.

I’ve also seen the worst of n otre d ame.

b latant racism and classism by classmates to each other. A professor told me that my family and other LG b TQ+ families weren’t real families, handing me a b ible to profess my family’s sins. b eing relentlessly cyberbullied, receiving death

threats and being mocked for who I was when running for student body vice president last year. b eing asked while going around the dining halls collecting signatures for a non-discrimination petition, “Well-done, medium-rare or rare? h ow thoroughly do you wish to be cooked in hell?”

e ventually, through the dozens of phone calls with students, alumni and faculty, I realized the tension inherent to n otre d ame — a tension that excited me. A challenging intellectual environment that would make me grow and learn the power of friendship with people who I severely disagree with. A place where too many still feel on the outside looking in and too many still exert their privilege to maintain their exalted status, where too many feel empowered to bully others they deem less.

As Fr. h eburgh used to say, n otre d ame exists as a lighthouse and a crossroads. A lighthouse that stands apart, shining with the wisdom of the c atholic tradition, while the crossroads is where “differences of culture and religion and conviction can co-exist with friendship, civility, hospitality and especially love.”

Living in the mix of a lighthouse and a crossroads to me is the best opportunity to be a global citizen, to help build the beloved community and to live a life in pursuit of justice. That may not be the right path for everyone and it is not always the four years you were promised in being invited into the “family.”

The saints of this column are the people who have recently been through the taxing college process that doesn’t work its magic for everyone. n ot everyone got into their dream school; not everyone can pay to go to their top-choice institution even if they got in, and those who choose not to attend four-year universities can feel entirely excluded.

This column is especially for the saints who must choose one version of themselves instead of another. I’ve resigned to the fact that these will not be the best four years of my life. I know I would have been happier at s tanford, but n otre d ame was the right choice for me. n otre d ame has caused tremendous pain but also made me grow stronger, like a sword forged in the fire. I would choose it again — the good, bad and absolutely ugly.

Dane Sherman is a junior at Notre Dame studying American Studies, peace studies, philosophy and gender studies. Dane enjoys good company, good books, good food and talking about faith in public life. Outside of The Observer, Dane can be found exploring Erasmus books with friends, researching philosophy, with folks from Prism, reading NYTs op-eds from David Brooks/ Ezra Klein/Michelle Goldberg or at the Purple Porch getting some food. Dane ALWAYS wants to chat and can be reached at @danesherm on twitter or lsherma2@nd.edu.

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

The false promise of labor

Carlos Basurto eudaemonic banter

As I traversed through the latter half of my moreau course, answering the weekly reflection prompts and consuming the wide catalog of videos and readings, I once again noticed a trend that has bothered me throughout the entirety of the career selection process. even though I had always been rather certain of my path, I supposed this class’s content — some of which is (allegedly) dedicated to discernment — could not possibly cause me any harm.

Instead, what I discovered was rather disturbing, and it went seemingly unseen both in the provided course questions and the recommended class conversations. This issue is not exclusive to the class, but it is present in every discussion dedicated to pondering one’s future in the workforce. b e it an official academic resource, a dialogue with a family member or one of the infinite YouTube videos that are quick to capitalize on the anxieties of a kid being thrown into the real world, it seems the fundamental goal of having a job has been meticulously misconstrued in our society.

c hoosing a career has been framed as a method of self-realization when this is not necessarily the case. All the contrary, this is a dangerous and disingenuous supposition that is perpetuated by a culture that fetishizes labor.

We are being misled when considering an industry. o ur potential labor in the distant and the abstract is purposefully being depicted as a cure-all that is, in essence, not inherent to human nature.

To work is not instinctual; it is not imprinted into human dn A. but as one talks more and more about their preferential job, others tell the prospective worker to tie in their life’s mission or ultimate ambitions to their work. They propose to not merely

see working as a means to an end, but rather that work is the end itself. This line of thought is not simply illogical, but actively deceiving. Labor has been glamorized: It is promoted and marketed far beyond what it realistically is.

What is the purpose of working? To what end does one attain employment? money, primarily.

Though there are plenty of exceptions to this, financial gain does tend to be the main purpose behind a job as a concept under modern capitalistic civilizations. And in such contexts, the first characteristic of a “good job” is that it makes a lot of money, first and foremost, followed by all of the other personal comforts or optional moralities. here, it does not matter how joyous, charitable or fulfilling a job is. If no proper income is acquired through it, it is usually unsustainable. To make up for this cruel fact, such societies have twisted the very conception of a job.

Thus, the issue at hand is that a constrained view of a “good job” is being portrayed as not only a requirement but the source of a “good life.” Yet, in the grand scheme of things, money and modern labor are rather new concepts. They are inventions that have been adopted as a societal convention out of convenience. They are unnatural. They are commonplace in our society but, as they stand, are not a necessity or inherent quality of our existence. A human’s nature does not rely on nor is intrinsically connected to labor. As such, one will never achieve a genuine eudaimonia through it alone.

It is noteworthy to mention that this is not to claim that a person cannot be helped during their discernment processes, but to exclusively ensnare the identity and value of a person by an activity meant to generate income is a great violation of their innate humanity. humans are not born to find the most effective way to find joy in their vocation. A vocation should serve the person, not the other

way around.

Worst of all, it is as if we have been set up to inadvertently deceive one another in the pursuit of mutual encouragement, failing to critically consider the reasons behind our actions. o ur environment lends itself to our willing submission. It is easier to excuse the flow than to question it.

If we are not careful in our depiction of labor, we may walk ourselves down a path that leads only to either life of perpetual unawareness or eventual despair. When one gambles it all on achieving selfrealization in their work eventually they abandon all required introspection outside of labor and minimize their personhood to their relation to their work. Is that what we are? c reatures of making and spending money? Are we brought into this world to slave away our days under a vague promise that may never come around? To think this way is to allow inaction to dictate our every move; there is nothing sadder than that.

most importantly, we must avoid spreading lies regarding selecting a career. It is not sufficient to recognize that there is more to life than to work, but we must act on it every single day. We must never forget the fundamental truth that one does not live to work: o ne works to live.

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

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

Everyday desensitization

Piled up upon a foot of snow, a lonely Grubhub delivery robot sits, frozen and helpless. c ara and I are quick to run to its side. We crouch in the chilled night air, teaming up with a random student passing by, all of us dusted by the still-falling snow and laughing at the absurdity of the situation. but the robot proves to be much too heavy for three young girls to carry. And so, we leave it behind, deserted in a pile of ice.

“I don’t really like those little things anyways,” the girl (whose name I don’t know) admits. I agree that I find the robots an odd mixture of creepy and cute, with the creepy ultimately edging out the latter. “s ometimes I’ll be walking next to one on the sidewalk, and then suddenly I’ll stop and think about how ridiculous it is,” our new friend adds before parting ways and disappearing into the frost-bitten night.

she described the process of desensitization. In the few weeks since the little Grubhub delivery robots arrived on campus, we collectively stopped staring at them, harassing them and laughing at them zooming by. now, they’re just as part of the campus as hayes-healy.

d esensitization occurs when we forget the uniqueness or shock of something after it’s been introduced — when we no longer see something that’s odd as odd, and when we accept it as mundane. It’s a process of forgetting through constant overstimulation.

In small ways, I’ve become desensitized to silly things like the Grubhub delivery robots. In

other ways, I’ve become desensitized to cruel and dystopian realities. I can scroll past an image of Kylie Jenner wearing the head of a lion, or d oja c at painted with bright red paint and wearing 30,000 tiny crystals without giving them too much thought. I snort at the ludicrousness of it all, perhaps send the post to my friends, and then keep on scrolling.

A couple of days ago, when rewatching “The hunger Games: c atching Fire” with my friends, I marveled at the similarity between The c apitol’s fashion and the very real outfit choices of today’s celebrities. In her series “The hunger Games,” suzanne c ollins illustrates The c apitol as a place of extreme opulence, where its bourgeoise citizens deck themselves out in feathers, alter their bodies to resemble animal fur and even consume special drinks to make them throw up after a feast. It’s an exaggeration of current celebrities’ lifestyles and illuminates the contrast between the wealthy elite and the rest of society who are just struggling to find a piece of bread.

but after a glance at new York Fashion Week, I found myself wondering just how exaggerated The c apitol really is. Perhaps c ollins’ novel is not as dystopian as it seems.

b ecause of my desensitization to hollywood’s hedonism, I forget how sinful it all is: that everyday people should struggle to pay their hospital bills and put meals on their plates while celebrities toss aside millions of dollars on makeup and perfume for one night of luxury.

e very shift at the dean’s office in hesburgh, I make a cup of coffee in the break room. As I stand, leaning over the counter, listening to the grumbles of the Keurig machine, I read over the posters on

the wall. There’s one for an upcoming student play, another for a research grant, and then, my eyes settle upon the one that reads, “s T oP T he bL eed.” There, sitting among posters about student events and academic resources, are rules on how to stop your coworker from bleeding out.

how desensitized have Americans become to the idea of gun violence? how can we possibly feel safe inside our homes, our schools, our churches, knowing that anyone at any point could walk in carrying a rifle? how desensitized are we that we send our children off to school in the morning knowing that the school two blocks down had an intruder two weeks earlier?

As Americans, we have become desensitized to the horrible realities we’re forced to face every day. since entering college, I chose not to be as updated with the news, finding it disheartening and frustrating. When I travel back home and watch c hannel 5 with my parents, I’m always shocked by their ability to let stories of murders, kidnappings and mass shootings drone on in the background of their everyday life. Unlike me, they are no longer overwhelmed by the true terror of it all. The corruption. The prejudice. The blood.

Let us be sensitive to these crimes. Let it overwhelm us. Let us be filled with rage, so that we may demand justice.

Gracie Eppler is a sophomore Business Analytics and English major from St. Louis, MO. Her three top three things ever to exist are ‘70s music, Nutella and Smith Studio 3, where she can be found dancing. Reach her at geppler@nd.edu.

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

Gracie Eppler

The soapbox

By ANGELA MATHEW manager of Talent and Inclusion

e laine h sieh c hou described her 2022 novel, “ d isorientation,” as the story of what happens when “a student who is clueless about race finds out the most racist secret at her school.”

Ingrid Yang is a 29-year-old TaiwaneseAmerican Ph d student who has spent nine years writing a dissertation on Xiao Wen- c hou, the (fictional) “father of c hinese-American poetry” who had died a few years earlier. s he spends her days in the archive at b arnes University trying to unearth new interpretations from poems she’s re-read hundreds of times and popping one too many antacids.

As a campus satire, “ d isorientation” explores Ingrid’s growing disillusionment with academia and her reckoning with o rientalism on her campus. It begins when she discovers an odd annotation near one of Xiao Wen- c hou’s poems — a note in bold, black ink, taunting her tentative interpretations scrawled in pencil. e ager for a distraction from her fruitless research, Ingrid goes on a wild goose chase to find out who could possibly have been visiting the archive and communicating with her in the margins.

In an entertaining turn of events, the normally timid Ingrid hires a private investigator. s he finally ends up breaking into the note writer’s

house, and she discovers the note was written by Xiao Wen- c hou who had faked his own death. What’s more, the purported Asian-American poet was actually a white man named John s mith who wore yellowface and wrote about made-up experiences living in the diaspora.

Ingrid grapples with this discovery in secret, realizing that her nine years of work would become obsolete if people knew the truth. o n a personal level, she starts, for the first time, at 29, questioning the hierarchies of race. s he starts examining the racism she internalized in childhood, “ignoring the few other Asian students in her grade as though they were invisible” and “laughing the hardest of all her white friends at an invented character named Ying Ying, who worked in a nail salon.”

o ne of Ingrid’s favorite activities while procrastinating used to be to read postcolonial Ph d student v ivian vo’s articles about race and “enjoy a hearty portion of schadenfreude” laughing at her “snide, holier-than-thou tone” and “whiny activism.” b ut now, discovering John s mith’s deception, she starts to feel uncomfortable when the men in her 89% white e ast Asian studies department make assumptions about what her upbringing as a child of immigrants must have been like.

h sieh c hou tackles Ingrid’s growing consciousness of her identity with humor and complexity. s he is constantly exploring and making

fun of both sides, mocking the righteousness of activists like v ivian vo while also commenting on mainstays of anti-Asian racism like yellowface, fetishization and the “model minority” stereotype.

c onsidering Ingrid spent nine years studying at the same university, it seems implausible that she suddenly agrees with liberal activism after mocking it for so long. Additionally, it seems unlikely that she never questioned or criticized the authenticity of Xiao Wen- c hou’s works before discovering the truth about his identity. h owever, since the book is a satire, maybe it’s not as important to consider the realism of the characters.

Though h sieh c hou makes fun of both sides, “ d isorientation” definitely feels more like a direct political commentary than traditional satire. In a piece for The n ew York Times m agazine, h sieh c hou explained that nearly everything that happened in the novel was drawn from real life, right from a comic opera starring 40 white actors in yellowface to a white poet using a c hinese pen name.

The brilliant tone of the book will make you laugh at the outrageous and absurd and then leave you disoriented at the enduring realities regarding race in America.

Contact Angela at amathew3@nd.edu

By ROSE ANDROWICH scene Writer

When I watched Paris Fashion Week this year, I found myself in awe of the designers. Their commitment to curating new designs demonstrated art is present in fashion. After Paris Fashion Week, I wondered what would come next for the designers. After staging their inspired collections in Paris, fall-winter collections would come only a few weeks later. r anging from versace’s 78 pieces to c hanel’s 66 pieces, each collection was inspired and innovative in its carefully curated stylistic choices.

chanel

The collection‘s silhouettes were designed by v irginie v iard. c hanel described the collection as being “afloat with an asymmetrical silhouette in movement, a feminine-masculine spirit transversed by camellia motifs, an eternal code of c hanel.” The camellia is a flower from c hina that symbolizes strong love. c amellias have been a symbol of c hanel since c oco c hanel was inspired by a performance of Alexander d umas’ ”La d ame aux c amellias.” After seeing the performance, she wore the flowers herself and put them on designs. The c hanel c amellia b racelet takes inspiration from one of c oco’s 1933 designs.

The collection contained references to many signature elements of c hanel’s brand. The looks used a tweed fabric the brand has used since 1924. c oco c hanel was inspired by menswear that made use of this fabric.

coperni

c operni has made headlines for its combination of fashion and technology. In s ept. 2022, they made the choice to spray a dress onto b ella h adid —something previously unseen in fashion. The fall-winter collection was innovative from a technological standpoint, as it included a robot walking on the runway.

The innovation was not limited to technology. c operni’s collection contained various silhouettes, and the looks contained bursts of colors in the almost entirely neutral-toned collection.

Vivienne Westwood

v ivienne Westwood is known for being the pioneer of b ritish-punk fashion. The designer passed away at the age of 81 in d ec., and the fall-winter v ivienne Westwood collection paid tribute to the late founder. The collection was designed by her design partner and husband Andreas Kronthaler. The collection was infused with the style v ivienne Westwood was especially known for and had several looks using tartan fabric. It also implemented

the innovative tailoring techniques the brand is known for.

Versace

d onatella versace curated the brand into what it is today. s he curated the fashion house’s reputation for sophistication, especially in women’s fashion.

“This collection starts from the understanding and appreciation of the body that we have always had in our heart at versace,” the founder said of the fall-winter collection. ”We applied the lessons learned in the Atelier to ready-to-wear: the construction, the tailoring, the beauty of fabric.”

The collection’s intentionality in curating these pieces is reflected through its use of leather. The bold fabric stood out among widely used fabrics in a few looks within the collection. hermes

The h ermes collection is titled “A s hifting Palette.” d escribing the collection, the brand said, “monochrome silhouettes reveal enchanting colors. Incandescent reds and browns converge with soft rose gold and radiant yellow, while black captures the light.”

Read the rest of this story on our website.

Contact Rose at randrowich01@saintmarys.edu

THE SEASON OF THE STICKS: SOUND OF SUB LEAVES STUDENT BODY TEARY-EYED

By OLIVIA SCHATZ senior sports Writer

After months of preparation, the s ound of s U b music festival hit student eardrums Friday night.

“The goal of s U b is to create events that are going to get as much of the student body excited as possible,” said n icole c ampbell, s U b ’s concert committee chair. “And we really wanted to create a concert that would bring as many people in.”

At promptly 4 p.m., students began to line up outside s tepan c enter. d espite the chilly weather and lack of seating, the line continued to grow in anticipation.

“We looked for artists who would spark an immediate reaction,” said c ampbell, “and then we built up the festival aspect because we wanted to make sure there were things for people to do even if they weren’t here for the music.

b ullock wowed the stage with a series of her own tunes. With a country twist and a few ballads, b ullock was clearly taking in her well-deserved spotlight. Fellow first-year Libby Garnett followed with a more indie take. c ompletely flipping from the previous performer, Garnett used her time to share her excitement, as well as her nerves, to the audience; at one point, Garnett turned around to make sure the audience was real and not a figment of her imagination. To finish

out the student performers, junior Luke h olem took the stage. h olem was welcomed with a group of friends in the audience wearing a T-shirt with h olem’s face on it.

b riscoe, a bluegrass duo of Truett h eintzelman and Philip Lupton, took the stadium by storm. Probably the most unexpected performance of the evening, it only took one song before half the audience was looking up the duo’s Instagram accounts. Filled with banjo breaks, harmonica and sax solos and a pair of twangy voices, b riscoe had the entire arena dancing to songs that very little knew. m ixed in with their set with an all-too-familiar cover of “Ain’t n o s unshine.”

c helsea c utler came out branding a Kelly green n otre d ame long sleeve, which prompted a series of “Go Irish!” shouts from the crowd. d espite being ill, c utler performed just as lively as ever. c utler was banging her head and dancing across the stage, even jumping on her drum set (which she then stated she regretted). After a series of performances, c utler brought out her good friend n oah Kahan to sing “c razier Things,” a song Kahan was featured on in 2020. Kahan was tucked to the side for the majority of the song, allowing c utler to shine. After singing a few more songs of her own, as well as “ s tay n ext to m e,” a song she was featured on with Quinn X c II, c utler

SITTING DOWN WITH SAMUEL B. JACKSON, ‘20

By ANDY OTTONE scene Writer

I had the great pleasure of recently sitting down with n otre d ame alumnus s amuel b Jackson ‘20 for an interview regarding his recent work with the s teppenwolf Theatre c ompany in c hicago, as well as his journey after graduating.

Editor’s note: the audio for the first two questions was not recorded fully due to a technical error, but notes taken during the interview serve to fill in the gaps.

The interview began with m r. Jackson detailing his journey after his graduation. h is story with n otre d ame did not end after graduation, as he worked in admissions for some time before attending c olumbia University to receive his master’s degree in fine arts. h e joined the s teppenwolf Theatre c ompany in 2022 with the show “c hoir b oy.”

“And so through that I worked again, and I found jobs through ‘c hoir b oy,’ which is how I found my next gigs, including ‘ c hlorine s ky.’” I asked Jackson what he particularly enjoyed about s teppenwolf, and he placed an emphasis on the community and its available resources.

s amuel b . Jackson ( s J): I also love the history of [ s teppenwolf]. The history of it really really

intrigues me … There is a tradition that’s been around for a couple decades now where everyone who is in a dressing room writes one line from that show and then, of course, they date it. b eing able to go into my dressing room every morning or evening and seeing the great Laurie m etcalf or r ainn Wilson, just people like that, who are super super accomplished. It really inspires any actor really, but especially one just starting out. To know that they have made a space so graciously and have welcomed me so wholeheartedly and to their space and to their family, it really means a lot and you can definitely feel that in every interaction.

Andy o ttone (A o ): s teppenwolf has a long and storied history as a company, with you participating in their recent production “ c hlorine s ky.” Would you please tell our audience about the show in your own words?

s J: For sure! “ c hlorine s ky” is about the journey of the main character, the titular character s ky. A journey that largely revolves around becoming increasingly self-aware and self-secure regarding issues such as racism, colorism, texturism; and even issues as deep as abuse, manipulation and sexual assault and harassment. very deep topics considering all of the characters are in high school, but I think the subject matter is comple

mented very well by — whether it be community

promised to watch Kahan’s performance from the crowd. h owever, I don’t think she ever made it.

With pigtail braids and overalls, n oah Kahan started his set off with an electric performance of “False c onfidence.” Kahan’s stage was filled with smoke, as well as neon lights that changed to fit each song’s mood. As someone who has been a fan of Kahan for quite some time, his performance was energetic and emotional all at once. Going through his repertoire of “ s tick s eason,” as well as some songs from previous albums, the audience matched his energy.

Although his performance was undeniably excellent, it also had a sense of whiplash to it. Kahan would frequently go from an upbeat song like “ s he c alls m e b ack” to a somber one like “ o range Juice,” forcing his audience to come along for the ride. Kahan then had a quick break before returning with “The v iew b etween v illages.” o ne audience member shouted for the extended version, which Kahan has teased online. This ultimately prompted a chuckle from the singer before the lights turned into a bright white. This was followed by his most known song “ s tick s eason,” the song that he said “changed his life” as well as the first single from his album.

Read the rest of this story on our website.

Contact Olivia Schatz at oschatz@nd.edu

comments or nostalgic music or phrases used in the early aughts, which is the time setting of this piece. And, yeah, I guess more particularly for the plot, it’s essentially about two young girls navigating life as growing b lack female students and understanding how the aforementioned “-isms” kind of take place and root in their lives, and how that challenges their lives and their interactions, both with each other and themselves.

A o : n ow I want to talk about your time at n otre d ame. In your last year as a student you were our leprechaun at football games, where you typically did a move called the “death drop,” which I also saw you perform in “ c hlorine s ky.” h ow did this move find its way into “c hlorine s ky”?

s J: s ince the show deals with becoming the full version of yourself and loving that version that you see, whether it be when you look in the mirror and you look at yourself. d o you love that person? The show deals with those themes. o ur director thought it would be great to bring in elements of voguing, which is a style of dance that originated in n ew York by b lack and brown queer, particularly [transgender], individuals, and it was all about self-expression, among other things.

Read the rest of this story on our website.

Contact Andy Ottone at aottone@nd.edu

Happy Birthday: Take your time; get organized. Preparation will help eliminate mishaps and misunderstandings. Stay in control and push forward with your issues and the goals that matter most to you. The hard work you put in this year will make a difference for years to come. Trust and believe in yourself, and refuse to let anyone get in your way. Think big, but be reasonable. Doors will open. your numbers are 7, 18, 21, 24, 30, 35, 48.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Distance yourself from anyone who tries your patience. Spend more time on personal goals, not arguing with someone about something that doesn’t matter. focus on your options and how to make the most of your time. Success will follow.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Pay attention to detail and present what you have to offer with pizazz. how you portray yourself and your lifestyle will flip a switch in someone who can help. Share what’s important, but not too much about your personal life.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Stick to the script and you won’t get caught off guard. If you want others to take you seriously, display what you can do with precision and detail. Share with people who have track records of living up to their promises.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): you’re all ready to go. Pour your energy into something concrete that will benefit you instead of bending to the likes of someone else. learn from the experience and you won’t make the same mistake twice.

Personal growth is favored.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Step in and take over. your insight and openness will encourage others to go to bat for you. Don’t let a change someone makes disrupt your plans. Avoid unpredictable situations or liability to your financial well-being.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Don’t waste time when you can accomplish so much. Put your blinders on to help you ignore interference that comes your way, and allow yourself to focus on whatever carries you to your goal. A personal change will give you the edge you need in a competition.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): keep your emotions out of the mix when dealing with professional situations. Protect your reputation by fulfilling your duties and keeping an open dialogue with your partners, peers and loved ones. Mix business with pleasure, and you’ll dominate what happens next.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): you’ll get the most done if you work alone. A home improvement project will pay off and put you in a better financial position. let your creative imagination take over, and you’ll dazzle everyone with your comments or propositions. romance is favored.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Don’t let anyone limit your achievements. Set your course and follow through. Build a solid foundation to satisfy your needs, regardless of what others do or say. Don’t let anyone disrupt your day or your plans. Distance yourself from liars and cheaters.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Stick close to home. getting into a feud with a friend, relative or colleague will stop you from getting things done on time.

Discipline will help you override any interference you encounter.

Pay attention to your personal goals and update your image.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): keep the momentum flowing and you’ll discover innovative ways to turn your attributes into a lucrative endeavor. keeping a low profile and working alone will prove beneficial. Don’t present your plans until you are prepared and confident; you’ll achieve your desired results.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Don’t get down; refuse to argue or let someone interfere with your plans. Working toward your goal will feed your imagination and encourage you to surpass your original objective. Believe in yourself and everything will fall into place.

Birthday Baby: you are outspoken, emotional and heroic. you are adaptable and pioneering.

Moller: 2023 MLB predictions

Nate Moller senior sports Writer

With m ajor League b aseball’s o pening d ay just a couple of days away, it’s time to predict each division and pick a preseason World s eries champion.

AL East

Predicted finish: Yankees, Blue Jays, Rays, Orioles, Red Sox

The AL e ast has the reputation of being the toughest division in baseball, and 2023 should be no different. The n ew York Yankees, Toronto b lue Jays and Tampa b ay r ays all made the postseason last year, and all three teams seemed poised to make a run at the division again. It seems likely they will all find the playoffs, as they have each improved their rosters in the offseason. o utside of the three favorites, the b altimore o rioles greatly exceeded expectations last year, and they will also look to make a playoff push with their young team. The r ed s ox are likely to lag behind with a roster lacking depth from top to bottom.

AL c entral

Predicted finish: Twins, Guardians, White Sox, Tigers, Royals

The last few seasons, the AL c entral has been won by mediocre teams, and this year will likely tell a similar story. Last season, the Twins and White s ox were plagued by injuries, allowing the Guardians to run away with the division in s eptember. The c entral figures to be a three-team race again as the r oyals and Tigers both have young,

inexperienced rosters that won’t be ready to make a playoff push. The Twins were the most injured team in baseball last year, and if they are healthier, they should have a great chance to win the division. Their rotation has a bunch of mediocre pitchers, though, and they will likely need s onny Gray, Pablo Lopez or Joe r yan to emerge as a true ace. Although I’m taking m innesota, the Guardians and White s ox should be within five games of the Twins by the end of the season, making this one a real toss-up.

AL West

Predicted finish: Astros, Mariners, Rangers, Angels, Athletics

The Astros somehow improved their incredibly talented World s eries-winning team from last year by adding All- s tar Jose Abreu at first base. They should run away with the West again. b eyond the Astros, the m ariners, r angers and Angels will hope to make a playoff push. The m ariners made a great run at the end of last season on the backs of Julio r odriguez and Luis c astillo and this talented roster should allow them to make the playoffs again. o n paper, the r angers should be in the mix. After adding Jacob deGrom, n athan e ovaldi and Andrew h eaney to their rotation, they now possess one of the most talented rosters in baseball. The Angels are definitely on the outside looking in, butwith superstars m ike Trout and s hohei o htani, anything is possible. The Athletics will truly need a miracle if they are going to be in the mix.

NL East Predicted Finish: Phillies, Mets, Braves, Marlins, Nationals

The n L e ast may rival the AL e ast for the best division in baseball this year. The Phillies, m ets and b raves are all teams with World s eries aspirations, and this should be a backand-forth race all season. I am taking the Phillies to win the n L e ast after an amazing run to the World s eries last year, but the loss of r hys h oskins for the season due to injury is a tough blow. The m ets will look to keep pace behind the arms of m ax s cherzer and Justin verlander, and a talented lineup from top to bottom. The b raves still have most of the key pieces from their World s eries team two years ago, and they will look to win the division for a third year in a row. The m arlins and n ationals should find themselves at the bottom of the division throughout the season.

NL c entral

Predicted Finish: Cardinals, Brewers, Cubs, Pirates, Reds

The c ardinals have lost in the Wild c ard round in each of the last three seasons, and they will look to make a deeper run after adding Willson c ontreras behind the plate. s t. Louis will be the favorites to win the division ahead of the b rewers, who have a great starting rotation and bullpen but lack hitting. The c ubs find themselves in an interesting position after scrapping nearly their entire roster last year, but they added talent this offseason in d ansby s wanson, Jameson Taillon and Trey m ancini. They likely won’t contend this

year, but they should be much improved. The Pirates and r eds, meanwhile, figure to be in the middle of a rebuild.

NL West Predicted Finish: Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks, Giants, Rockies

The Padres possess a star-studded roster that includes m anny m achado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan s oto and Xander b ogaerts. In theory, they should win the division. I am sticking with the d odgers, though. Although the d odgers were surprisingly quiet in the offseason, they still have Freddie Freeman, m ookie b etts and Will s mith in the field. The d odgers’ starting rotation has more depth than the Padres as well, with c layton Kershaw, Julio Urias and n oah s yndergaard. The d - b acks have some solid arms in Zac Gallen, m errill Kelly and m adison b umgarner to go along with some young talent in the field, and they should be much improved. The Giants struck out with c arlos c orrea this offseason and failed to make a splash elsewhere, so I expect further regression from them this year. The r ockies lack much pitching depth at all, which will make it difficult to win games at a home ballpark that heavily favors offense.

p layoff p redictions

Wild Card

(6) Tampa b ay r ays def.

(3) m innesota Twins

(4) s eattle m ariners def.

(5) Toronto b lue Jays

(6) Atlanta b raves def. (3)

s t. Louis c ardinals

(5) s an d iego Padres def.

(4) n ew York m ets

Divisional Series

(1) h ouston Astros def.

(4) s eattle m ariners

(2) n ew York Yankees def.

(6) Tampa b ay r ays

(5) s an d iego Padres def.

(1) Los Angeles d odgers

(6) Atlanta b raves def. (2)

Philadelphia Phillies

Championship Series

(1) h ouston Astros def.

(2) n ew York Yankees

(6) Atlanta b raves def. (5) s an d iego Padres

World Series

(1) h ouston Astros def.

(6) Atlanta b raves

The American League side was fairly straightforward. The Yankees and Astros have the most talented rosters, and they seem set to meet in the AL cs again. o nce again, I anticipate the Astros eliminating the Yankees behind superior pitching and home field advantage. The national League, on the other hand, doesn’t really have a true favorite right now. Although I picked the d odgers and Phillies to win their divisions, the Padres and b raves have the talent to catch fire at the right time and pull off some upsets to meet in the n L cs . I expect the b raves to prevail in that series behind their starting pitching, but ultimately fall to the Astros in a rematch of the 2021 World s eries.

The Astros won the World s eries pretty easily last year, and with an improved roster, they should repeat as World s eries champions in 2023.

Contact Nate Moller at nmoller2@nd.edu.

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

student pitcher Payton Tidd then added a pair of rb Is of her own with another single, capitalizing off of a bases-loaded opportunity.

A sacrifice fly by sophomore infielder Jane Kronenberger chased Jaguar starter Isabelle Waggner out of the game, but the damage wasn’t done. s enior outfielder m acie e ck laced an rb I single to right field to push the lead to five.

Junior catcher c arlli Kloss then cleared the bases with a standing triple

into the left corner, sparking a string of self-inflicted wounds by the Jaguars. o n a routine ground ball, Kloss scored on a high throw that could have ended the inning. m itchell, who hit the ground ball that scored Kloss, would come home for the final Irish run of the inning on a wild pitch.

Though the Irish offense slowed down after its first-inning explosion, it never fully ceased until the game’s end. n otre d ame would push their lead to double digits in the second inning by means of another wild pitch. In the third, junior infielder m ac v asquez belted her first career home run to make it a

12-0 ballgame.

c atcher r achel Allen would expand the lead further in n otre d ame’s final turn at the plate. With runners on first and second and two outs, the sophomore slammed a threerun shot to center field. The Irish left m elissa c ook s tadium having scored in all four innings that they came to the plate.

A combination of Tidd, sophomore s hannon b ecker and freshman m icaela Kastor in the circle pitched a complete game

shutout. Tidd worked the first two innings, allowing 3 hits onjust 26 total pitches. b ecker then entered for the next two, holding the Jaguars hitless while throwing 28 total pitches. Kastor then slammed the door shut in the fifth, closing out the run-rule win with a 1-2-3 inning.

The Irish will now look ahead to another set of A cc games, with Pittsburgh visiting for a weekend series.

The Panthers are currently 0-6 in conference play and should provide

an opportunity for n otre d ame to boost their record heading into a major road test against fourth-place Louisville the following weekend.

Irish softball will be back in action at m elissa c ook s tadium this weekend against Pittsburgh. First pitches are set for 6 p.m. on Friday, 1 p.m. on s aturday and noon on s unday. All three games will be broadcast on A cc n etwork e xtra.

Contact J.J. Post at jpost2@nd.edu

through the fourth inning, when the i rish opted to make a pitching change. To start the fifth inning, the i rish brought in graduate left-handed pitcher a idan Tyrell, who would work the next four innings.

The b ulldogs, meanwhile, went with a different approach. s ubstituting in a new pitcher at the beginning of each inning, b utler was able to stymie the i rish offense for a short time. r elief pitchers d awson Taylor, c ole g raverson, g abe Pancratz and n ick m iketinac combined for six strikeouts and only allowed one hit over their four innings of work.

i n the sixth inning, b ulldog head coach b lake

b eemer turned to c olin

d avis out of the bullpen to face the top of the i rish lineup.

a fter getting Prajzner to ground out, d avis worked himself into a jam. h e hit Zyska with a pitch, issued a walk to graduate infielder c arter Putz, and then hit another batter— graduate outfielder b rooks

c oetzee iii — to load the bases.

That gave junior catcher

d anny n eri the chance to double the i rish lead. n eri made good on his opportunity, sneaking a sharply hit ground ball through the hole between first and second bases to drive in two.

d avis would bring an end to the i rish scoring chance by inducing a line out to short from junior outfielder TJ Williams, who was pinch-hitting, and striking out freshman infielder e stevan

m oreno. The two insurance runs proved to be all

n otre d ame would need, though.

With Tyrell dealing on the hill, b utler was unable to generate any offense in response. Tyrell gave up only two hits and struck out four while working from the fifth inning to the the end of eighth. h e gave way to freshman c aden s pivey, who sat the top of the b ulldogs lineup down in order to seal the victory in the ninth.

b utler falls to 5-19 with the loss, while n otre d ame improves to 13-9. The i rish now turn their attention to a looming weekend series against n o. 13 n orth c arolina. The Tar h eels will travel to s outh b end to play the i rish in a three-game set beginning f riday, with first pitch set for 6 p.m.

Contact Ryan Murphy at rmurph22@nd.edu

hockey

con Tinued from Page 14

(22) and shots (95). i n Jan., he scored a highlight-reel goal against f rozen f our qualifier m innesota, spinning off a check and roofing a shot on elite goaltender Justen c lose. With his ability to move between center and wing, Janicke will be a key piece. h e could anchor a number one line with current sophomore Justin Janicke and junior Landon s laggert, forming a unit that could be lethal at its full potential.

r olston departs early for Original Six franchise

Junior forward r yder

r olston opened the offseason by signing with the nh L’s c hicago b lackhawks.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound

b oston native will begin his professional career

with c hicago’s ah L affiliate, the r ockford i ce h ogs. The terms of the entry-level deal are three years at an $895,000 cap hit through 2025-26. i f you do the math, that means the contract’s duration won’t begin until next year. h owever, r olston will be on a professional tryout through the end of this season, rendering him eligible for the ah L postseason. The ice h ogs currently hold the c entral d ivision’s last playoff spot with nine games remaining. Whether or not r olston heals up in time for the postseason is still unclear. h is junior season concluded abruptly when he suffered a broken collarbone against Wisconsin at the end of Jan. e ven so, he finished third on the i rish with seven goals, 13 assists and 20 points. d uring the year, he earned three different four-game point streaks, including one right

before his injury. The rebuilding b lackhawks, who traded with the c olorado avalanche for r olston’s draft rights in a pril 2021, are excited to see how his speed translates to the next level.

r olston wraps up his i rish career with 53 points in 93 games played. h is father, b rian, played 17 nh L seasons, tallying 761 career points and winning a s tanley c up in 1995.

Bakich, Primeau head to E ch L

Two more i rish forwards have inked professional deals over the past 10 days. s enior s olag b akich and graduate c hayse Primeau have both moved on to the e ast c oast h ockey League. b akich agreed to an amateur tryout contract with the r eading r oyals, an affiliate of the nh L’s Philadelphia f lyers, and has already played three

games. Known for his tenacious playing style, b akich logged 33 points in 108 games at n otre d ame. The d allas native led all i rish forwards with 39 blocked shots in 2022-23 and registered two points in the b ig Ten quarterfinal round.

m eanwhile, Primeau journeyed south on his first professional contract with the f lorida e verblades, a Panthers’ affiliate. Like b akich, he has already played three games with his new team, registering three shots in his debut. a skilled face-off man and netfront presence, Primeau played four collegiate seasons at o maha before transferring to n otre d ame. i n his final year, he led the i rish with 23 points on eight goals and 15 assists. Primeau’s 53.3 faceoff win percentage also paced the team.

Paid a dverTisemen T

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

MEGHAN LANGE | The Observer

The Fighting Irish celebrate after 2-2 tie game against Ohio State at the Compton Family Ice Arena on Feb. 11 for their Senior Game Night.

Notre Dame softball dominate IUPUI 15-0 run-rule win

By J. J. POST

Associate s ports e ditor

n otre d ame softball got back to its winning ways on Tuesday afternoon, cruising past Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) 15-0 at m elissa c ook s tadium. The five-inning victory marked n otre d ame’s sixth run-rule win of the season.

The runs came early and often for the Irish, who plated nine in the first inning alone. That represented n otre d ame’s highest-scoring opening inning this season.

Junior infielder Karina Gaskins fired the opening shot of the offensive salvo, singling down the left field line to score senior infielder Joley m itchell. Graduate

see soFTbALL PAGE 12

Player updates announced in offseason

By TYLER REIDY sports Writer

After posting a 16-16-5 record and missing the nc AA tournament, the Irish hockey offseason is in full swing. Two of the team’s three h obey b aker Award nominees, senior goaltender r yan b ischel and senior forward Trevor Janicke, announced m onday they would return for the 2023-24 season. m eanwhile, three Irish forwards have signed professional contracts over the past two weeks.

With bischel’s return, the Irish already have a headstart on next year’s nc AA Tournament aspirations. The netminder took the conference by storm in his first full season as notre d ame’s starter, securing the b ig Ten Goaltender of the Year award. As of this week, bischel’s 1,183 saves still lead the nation, and his .931 save percentage ranks third in America. o ver the season’s final 13 games, bischel stopped 40-plus shots on four different occasions, carrying notre d ame back into postseason contention.

Janicke, a 2022-23 alternate captain, will also remain in s outh b end after a productive year. The Anaheim d ucks draft pick led all returning players in goals (eight), assists (14), points

Irish senior forward Trevor Janicke

off

in a 3-1 win. Notre Dame hockey had a 16-16-5 record for the 2022-2023

ND hockEY

SOFIA CRIMIVAROLI | The Observer

stands

against Wisconsin goaltender in game on Jan. 28, 2023 at Compton Family Ice Arena that ended

season. Janicke received a Hobey Baker memorial Award nomination.

SOFIA CRIMIVAROLI | The Observer

Irish graduate student Payton Tidd pitches in game against Syracuse on March 24 at Melissa Cook Stadium. Notre Dame softball beat Syracuse 10-2. The team has a 19-8-1 record this season so far, with upcoming games against University of Pittsburgh starting on March 31.

earn such recognition this season. s he led the club with 252 kills and 2.83 kills per set, and 303 individual points. s he will be a big part of the team’s offense next year as they look to build upon r ockwell’s first season.

8. Sonia c itron, sophomore guard (women’s basketball)

n otre d ame women’s basketball continued their trend of excellence with another strong season in 2022-23, highlighted by sophomore s onia c itron. c itron played more than 1,000 minutes, which translated to a team lead in points (484) and points per game (14.7). s he also paced the i rish in both three-pointers made and three-point percentage at 48 and 40%, respectively. c itron and teammate o livia m iles found themselves on the a ll- acc First Team at year’s end, capping off their successful season.

7. Daniel r usso, junior forward (men’s soccer)

The n otre d ame men’s soccer team posted a strong 8-7-2 record this past autumn, thanks in large part to junior forward d aniel r usso’s teamleading six goals and 16

points. The team thrived on their depth, but r usso led the way while earning Third-Team a ll- acc honors and c ollege s occer n ews n ational Player of the Week from o ct. 23-30. h e will be an integral part of the offensive attack for the i rish in 2023 as they look to advance past the first round of the acc Tournament and beyond.

6. Nate Laszewski, graduate forward (men’s basketball)

a lthough the final season of m ike b rey’s tenure at n otre d ame did not go as well as hoped, n ate Laszewski was a consistent bright spot on the floor for the Fighting i rish. The 6-foot-10 Florida native started all 32 games during the 2022-23 campaign, racking up 438 points and 230 rebounds, both the most on the team. h e also posted an impressive three-point percentage at 39.2% and led the team in free throw percentage at 84.7%, while finishing just one block behind the team lead of 23. Laszewski was truly a do-it-all player on the court.

5. Eszter Muhari, freshman epee (fencing)

The n otre d ame fencing team took home its third consecutive and 13th overall national championship in m arch of 2023. The team featured numerous

superstars, none better than e szter m uhari, a freshman who put together an incredible 19-2 record in her first season in s outh b end. The native of b udapest, h ungary, capped off her near-perfect year by winning the national title in women’s epee m arch 26. m uhari is set to be an integral part of the team again next year as they look to continue their fencing dynasty.

4. Jadin O’Brien, sophomore hurdler/jumper/sprinter (women’s track and field)

The sheer number of track and field athletes at the collegiate level makes winning the acc Women’s i ndoor Field Performer of the Year a ward nearly impossible, yet n otre d ame’s own Jadin o ’ b rien, a sophomore out of Pewaukee, W i , did just that. o ’ b rien thrived in essentially every competition she participated in, highlighted by her record-setting 4512-point performance in the pentathlon.

That score was enough to win her the national title in the event. o n top of that, o ’ b rien is also the newest owner of the U s TF ccca Great Lakes Field a thlete of the Year award.

m ost incredibly, she accomplished all of this in only her second year competing at the collegiate level.

3. r yan Bischel, senior goalie (hockey)

The first, and only, senior on this list is n otre d ame hockey’s top performer of 2022-23, r yan b ischel. b ischel finished the season with an astounding .931 save percentage ( sv %), the third best in college hockey, and a .938 mark in b ig Ten play (first). h e helped n otre d ame clinch home ice for a first-round playoff series despite the i rish ranking n o. 53 out of 60 d ivision i teams in scoring offense. i n honor of his success, b ischel was named b ig Ten Goaltender of the Year and earned nominations for the h obey b aker (best player in the nation) and m ike r ichter (best goalie) a wards. The best part? h e is coming back next year to rep the blue and gold.

2. Korbin Albert, sophomore midfielder (women’s soccer)

i n any normal year, Korbin a lbert, superstar sophomore midfielder out of i llinois, would be a slam-dunk choice to rank atop this list.

a lbert recently signed with Paris s aint-Germain (P s G) after a sensational year with the i rish women’s soccer team, where she posted 16 goals and five assists (37 points) in

22 games, as well as six game-winning scores. P s G is world-renowned for producing generational talents, including Kylian m bappe and Lionel m essi on the men’s side. a lbert will be greatly missed on the field at n otre d ame, but her accomplishments are sure to continue overseas as she enters her prime years as an athlete.

1. Michael Mayer, junior tight end (football) m ichael m ayer will be a first-round pick in the 2023 n FL d raft after being the most reliable target for the Fighting i rish for more than just the past year. i n 2022 specifically, m ayer reeled in 809 yards, an average of 67.4 per game, along with nine scores. i n doing so, he captured the record for most career touchdown receptions by a n otre d ame tight end. h e also set the tight end record for most singleseason scores this year. i n honor of his excellence, m ayer was named a consensus a ll- a merican, n otre d ame’s first at the tight end position since Ken m ac a fee in 1977. i t is difficult to argue that he is not the best tight end in i rish history.

Contact Charlie Morris at cmorri27@nd.edu

LILY WILDER | The Observer Irish junior forward Daniel Russo dribbles the ball in game against DePaul on Sept. 6 . The Notre Dame team tied the game 1-1.

BASEBALL

Irish maintain strong record, shut out Butler 4-0

By RYAN MURPHY s ports Writer

n otre d ame baseball continued its strong homestand with a shutout victory over visiting b utler on Tuesday afternoon. b eneath sharp blue skies and a crowd of 319 at Frank e ck s tadium, the Irish topped the b ulldogs by a 4-0 score.

The Irish pitching staff was excellent while helping n otre d ame improve to a perfect 4-0 in midweek contests. After starting last Friday’s game against Louisville, junior Jackson d ennies again took the hill for the Irish. d ennies had his best performance of the season, striking out six of 12 batters faced across four innings of no-hit ball. After d ennies sat down the first three batters of the game, the Irish came to the plate and looked, at first, as if they were going to run

FEATUrED AThLETES

away with the game. b utler starting pitcher Jon v ore issued a four-pitch walk to sophomore infielder Jack Penney, then graduate infielder Zack Prajzner singled Penney to third base to put the Irish in scoring position right away. With graduate outfielder Jack Zyska at the plate and second base empty, Prajzner attempted to steal. The throw by b ulldog catcher Kollyn All ricocheted into center field, allowing Penney to score the game’s first run. Prajzner advanced to third on the play and was brought home by Zyska’s sacrifice fly.

n otre d ame led 2-0 after the first inning of play, but that scoring pace would not continue. The bats went quiet for both the b ulldogs and the Irish for the ensuing four innings. d ennies continued to make quick

Morris: Top 10 Notre Dame athletes of the fall and winter sports seasons

By CHARLIE MORRIS sports Writer

As n otre d ame’s spring sports start up at the onset of the spring equinox, Irish fans will have the opportunity to frequent Arlotta s tadium for lacrosse games or the diamonds for baseball and softball. With campus shifting toward the final athletic season of the 2022-23 school year, I invite you to join me in looking back at the top performers from the fall and winter seasons. The following 10 athletes exceeded expectations during their latest season of play while donning the blue, green and gold.

10. Benjamin Morrison, freshman cornerback (football)

o ne of the biggest storylines of training camp for the famous n otre d ame football team was freshman cornerback b enjamin m orrison winning a starting spot over several veterans

on the roster. m orrison improved as the season progressed, and his rapid development peaked with a three-interception game against b oston c ollege on n ov. 19. h e continued showing great hands-on defense, racking up six total picks in 13 games. o nly two players in all of college football had more interceptions, and he was the only freshman with more than four. h e is set to be a key piece of the Irish defense in 2023.

9. Lucy Trump, freshman outside hitter (volleyball)

The future of the n otre d ame volleyball team is bright, with head coach s alima r ockwell getting more comfortable in her new environment and Lucy Trump showing signs of stardom in her inaugural season. Trump was named A cc Freshman of the Week on n ov. 28, becoming the first and only Irish player to

MAX PETROSKY | The Observer Irish tight end Michael Mayer catches the football in night game against Clemson on Nov. 5 . Notre Dame beat then No. 5 Clemson 35-14. Michael Mayer holds all of Notre Dame’s major tight end records. see FeATUred PAGE 15

SOFIA CRIMIVAROLI | The Observer

Irish graduate student right-handed pitcher Blake Hely pitches in 2-1 loss against Louisville on March 26.

see bAsebALL PAGE 13