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Volume 56, Issue 65 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
Executive leadership starts term Lee-Stitt administration details their preparation and excitement for next year By BELLA LAUFENBERG Assosciate News Editor
On April 1, Patrick Lee and Sofie Stitt began their terms as Notre Dame student body president and v ice president, respectively. Lee and Stitt were elected at the beginning of Februar y. Since then, the t wo said they have been hard at work preparing for their term and assembling their cabinet. “It’s a year, but it’s short and f lies by,” Lee said. “W hat we’re focused on doing is turning this energ y and empathy and passion into ever y single one of our 365 days.” Stitt said the pair has been training for taking the
position since before they were elected, but that the preparation has intensified in recent weeks. “Patrick and I have been preparing for this role since before we announced that we were running. We have been working on fully understanding exactly what this looks like, in practice, especially after the election,” she said. “We’ve been meeting w ith prett y much ever ybody under the sun, spending a lot of time in transition meetings.” After an inter v iew process, Lee and Stitt chose Nicole Baumann as their chief of see GOVERNMENT PAGE 5
ND names new provost Observer Staff Report
Courtesy of Nicole Baumann
From left, vice president Sofie Stitt, president Patrick Lee and chief of staff Nicole Baumann. The new administration took office on April 1.
Long-term trends fuel competitive admissions
The Board of Trustees elected historian and former dean of the College of Arts and Letters John T. McGreevy as the next provost of the University, according to a press release Tuesday. The appointment, effective July 1, was made with the consideration of University see PROVOST PAGE 3
Howard named Hall of the Year By CLAIRE REID Associate News Editor
A decade after winning Hall of the Year in 2012, the Howard Hall Ducks won the 2021-2022 Hall President’s Council Hall of the Year contest. Keough Hall won the Men’s Hall of the Year award this year, and Cavanaugh Hall won Women’s Hall of the Year award. The three
winners will all celebrate by holding Dome Dances in the Main Building in the 20222023 academic year. Clare Brown, a junior and the 2021-2022 Howard Hall president, said her dorm specifically tried to focus on diversity and inclusion efforts this year. She said Howard hosted 15 events of various see HOTY PAGE 5
Data Courtesy of Don Bishop
Notre Dame’s acceptance rate over the past 13 years. Fueled by national trends, the admissions process has increasingly become more competitive since the school adopted the Common App in 2009. By MAGGIE EASTLAND and RYAN PETERS Assistant Managing Editor, Notre Dame News Editor
Editor’s Note: The Observer spoke with associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment Don Bishop to gain insight into the increasingly competitive Notre Dame admissions process. This article is the first in a series analyzing different trends and development in admissions. Following two decades of the number of applicants surging, Notre Dame admissions are now
NEws PAGE 4
more competitive than ever. In the 2022 cycle, only 12.9% of applicants gained admission, and associate vice president for undergraduate admissions Don Bishop said deposits are ahead of schedule, meaning only a few applicants will be accepted off the waitlist. “This year we’ve admitted 765 fewer students than we did in 2010, and we probably won’t have to admit many more. We might have to take some off the waitlist, but right now our deposits are running ahead,” Bishop said. “Not only do we have 12,000 more applications than we had 10 years
VIEWPOINT PAGE 8
ago, but we’re also admitting 750 fewer to get the same size class.”
Applications and student rigor increase dramatically The increase in competitiveness over the last decade follows a nationwide trend at other top private universities. At Notre Dame, applications have skyrocketed 131% since 2004. Application numbers have risen in part due to a larger high school population and a trend in which students apply to more schools. see ADMISSIONS PAGE 3
SCENE PAGE 10
Dance Marathon raises funds By MEGHAN LANGE News Writer
On Saturday, the women of Saint Mary’s College held their sixteenth annual Dance Marathon. With additional support from members of the tricampus community, the club was able to raise $210,059.28 for Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. This year’s donation total bypasses last year’s total of $207,921.26 by over $2,000.
M SOCCER PAGE 16
Saint Mary’s College held its first Dance Marathon on April 20, 2006. The first marathon raised $21,047.42 and was named “Best New Marathon” at the Children’s Miracle Network Dance Marathon Leadership Conference of 2006. Lauren Doriot is a senior at Saint Mary’s and the president of Saint Mary’s College Dance Marathon. see DANCE PAGE 4
TRACK AND FIELD PAGE 16
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The Notre Dame baseball team huddles up during their game against Michigan on Tuesday. After their successful 2021 season, expectations are high for the team. The Irish have not yet disappointed, winning eight consecutive games with a 21-5 record.
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Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Belles Love Through Loss Ministry Room at Saint Mary’s College noon - 1 p.m. All are welcome.
Community Prayer Service Ministry Room at Saint Mary’s College 9:30 a.m. - 10 a.m. All are welcome.
Celebration of the Lord’s Passion Basilica of the Sacred Heart 3 p.m. All are welcome.
Morning Prayer Basilica of the Sacred Heart 9 a.m. All are welcome to attend.
Solemn Easter Vespers Basilica of the Sacred Heart 7:15 p.m. All are welcome.
Take Back the Night March around campus 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. Walk to help break the silence of sexual violence.
The Power of Stories St. Joseph County Public Library 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Brings together visual and verbal stories.
Stations of the Cross Basilica of the Sacred Heart 7:15 p.m. All are welcome to attend.
Paschal Vigil Mass Basilica of the Sacred Heart 9 p.m. All are welcome to attend.
Student Easter Mass Basilica of the Sacred Heart 9 p.m. All are welcome to attend.
News
Admissions Continued from page 1
“Students used to apply to five to eight schools. Now the average is probably closer to 10 to 15 schools,” Bishop said. Notre Dame applications increased by 2,369 in 2021 and 2,866 in 2022, significantly higher than the 834 average over the last 18 years in the only two years when applicants were not required to submit a test score. The only other year with an increase greater than 2,000 was 2011, two years after Notre Dame adopted the Common Application. The prevalence of the Common Application has played a large role in students applying to more schools, Bishop said. Once filled out, a student can send their Common Application to several schools, in some cases without tailoring the application to the specific school. Applicants to Notre Dame must fill out a supplemental application in addition to the Common Application. “Any school that joined the Common App two things happened — they eventually got a boost in applications, but their yield rate went down,” Bishop said. Notre Dame joined the Common Application in 2009 and initially saw small gains in the number of applicants along with slight decreases in the yield rate (the percentage of admitted students that enroll) in the two years following. Despite the new ease of application, the yield rate gradually recovered in the following years, peaking at 58.4% in 2019. The number of applicants is not the only thing that is increasing. The qualifications of each applicant are also reaching new levels. Notre Dame’s applicant pool has seen the number of applicants that score within the top 1.5% of the nation on standardized tests increase by fourfold, Bishop said. “Some schools make it part of their strategy to increase the applicant pool without trying to discern whether the student is a potential
Provost Continued from page 1
President Fr. John Jenkins’ recommendation and the help of a search committee consisting of elected and appointed faculty and students, the release said. Jenkins and the committee considered a group of candidates with backgrounds in an array of disciplines and experience at almost half of the nation’s top 25 universities, according to the release. McGreevy served as the chair of the history department from 2002 to 2008 before becoming the dean of the College of Arts and Letters until 2018. He graduated magna cum laude from Notre Dame in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in history before earning master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Stanford University. The provost, the second-ranking officer at the University behind the president, oversees the overall operation of the University’s academic enterprise.
ndsmcobserver.com | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | The Observer
match,” Bishop said. “We’ve quadrupled the number of students at the very top of our pool, but we’ve not tried to quadruple our entire pool. We tried to do it more strategically for the students that we think have more of a likelihood for gaining admission.”
Recruiting strategy changes help drive increase in competitiveness In addition to the introduction of the Common Application, Bishop partially attributed the spike in applicants to changes in the University’s recruiting strategies over the past 13 years. In 2009, 14,357 students applied to Notre Dame, according to the University’s admissions data. In 2021 and 2022 respectively, 23,642 and 26,508 students applied. A rise in yield rate accompanies the jump in applications. In 2009, the University saw a 50.2% yield rate compared to a 57.8% rate in 2021. Bishop began working in Notre Dame admissions immediately following his graduation, left to pursue other opportunities, then returned to Notre Dame in 2010 in his current position, initiating changes in how the admissions department reached out to students. “I was brought back and given more resources, and we had a different mindset of how to do things, and it’s largely worked,” he said. Changes implemented upon Bishop’s return included recruiting students beginning their junior or even sophomore year of high school instead of only during their senior year, placing a larger emphasis on the University’s academics when recruiting, increasing staff travel and interaction between applicants and current students and stressing Notre Dame’s friendliness and unique identity, Bishop said. “A lot of students who are comparing us to other schools see the friendliness of the students and the willingness to help each other, and they compare that to the competitive nature of some of other places that they’ve gone to see,” he said.
“They see more collaboration, more team orientation, more ‘I’m going to walk in the room and try to get smarter’ as opposed to this more narrow, frantic imperative that ‘I have to prove I’m the smartest person in every room I walk into.’ That is not the Notre Dame way.” Bishop said the greater emphasis on the University’s academics during recruiting has largely led to the increase of the caliber of students applying. In 2005, 80% of the top test scorers who applied gained admission to Notre Dame, Bishop said. Now less than 40% of those top test scorers gain admission. This trend demonstrates the increase in the number of top test scorers applying and the weakened emphasis Notre Dame admissions has placed on test scores, Bishop said. “We quadrupled the number [of top test scorers applying], so there’s still more of them in the class,” he explained. “Whereas they were 27% of the class back in 2005, they are now about 70% of the class, but it could’ve been everybody, so we’re not using test scores as much.”
2,369 and 2,866 in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Bishop said Notre Dame has grown significantly over the past few decades and is already the third-largest school compared to other selective private research universities. “Cornell enrolls about 3,300 freshmen. Penn enrolls 2,400. If we enroll our 2,050 goal, we’re the third largest,” he said. “In 2004, we were at 1988 … if you go back to 1990, we were around 1,900 students and in 1980 we were around 1,700, so we’ve already grown more than our peers over the last 40 years.” While increasing the class size is a possibility, Bishop said more planning would be needed. “The question stands: could we grow some more? That’s always a possibility. Because of the residential commitment and investment here, we’d need to have an economic model that hired more faculty and built more dorms,” he said.
Bishop looks to the future of Notre Dame admissions Looking to the future, Bishop said admissions does not aim to further decrease their admission rate. “A lot of our peers that are real competitors are at the 5 to 8% admit rates,” he said. “We’re not trying to be them, and we’re not going to be.” At the same time, Bishop said there is no formulated plan to increase the class size or decrease the number of applicants by limiting the number of high schoolers the admissions department contacts. One policy Bishop said admissions will evaluate is whether or not the University will remain test-optional. Beginning in the 2020-2021 application period, applicants have not been required to submit standardized test scores. The change in policy is correlated with application increases of Paid Advertisement
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Unlike some selective universities, Bishop said a lack of space is not the problem, pointing to the remaining nine holes of the Burke golf course. “We’re not landlocked like somewhere like NYU or Harvard,” he said. “We have plenty of space to use but there’s a whole set of metrics there that you’re going to have to look at.” Selectivity and Notre Dame’s unique mission are two considerations, he added. “If Notre Dame’s trying to be one of the most selective schools, it’s much harder to have a lower admit rate when you’re larger than everybody,” Bishop said. “Remember, we’re not trying to appeal to everybody generically. We’re trying to appeal as a faith-based, leading Catholic university.” Contact Maggie Eastland and Ryan Peters at meastlan@nd.edu and rpeters5@nd.edu
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NEWS
The observer | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
Professor in Pakistan descibes turmoil By ISA SHEIKH Associate News Editor
Allegations of an American conspiracy, the legacy of political dynasties and tensions over the War on Terror all came to a boil last week when Pakistan’s National Assembly removed its prime minister, Imran Khan, through a vote of no confidence. Khan joins a long list of Pakistani leaders who haven’t finished a full term, but he’s the first to be removed by a vote of no confidence. Former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, United Kingdom and United Nations Maleeha Lodhi referred to the events as “seven days that shook Pakistan.” On Monday, Shehbaz Sharif, the brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was elected. Nawaz Sharif, Khan’s predecessor, was removed in 2017 following revelations about corruption in the Panama Papers and is currently in exile. Susan Ostermann, assistant professor of global affairs and political science for the Keough School of Global Affairs, has been in Pakistan this semester for research. Ostermann is an expert on law and social norms in South Asia, and has watched the turmoil unfold from on the ground in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. She referred to the recent transfer of power as “a real coming of age moment for democracy.” Ostermann said the political turmoil of the past few weeks has been brewing for longer than the recent skirmishes between political parties. “The negotiations that have resulted in a move towards the no confidence motion have been going on for a while. The small
Dance Continued from page 1
“We raise funds and awareness for Riley Hospital for Children down in Indianapolis,” Doriot said. “All the money that we raised throughout the year goes to Riley directly and they can use it for whatever is needed at the hospital at the time, which is pretty cool. You can see all of our donations across the entire hospital. So, we’ll be dancing and fundraising all day for Riley Hospital.” Doriot also described what Dance Marathon means to her. “This is a club far greater than myself,” said Doriot. “So being able to give back to all the sick kids at Riley and help their families is just, it’s so inspiring and awesome.” According to the official Miracle Network Dance Marathon website, “Miracle Network Dance Marathon is a program of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals). CMN Hospitals raise funds for over 170 children’s hospitals that support
number of people who defected from [Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)] and agreed to be in coalition with the opposition, which is [the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)] and [the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N)] and a number of other parties,” Ostermann said. The PTI, which swept into power in 2018 under the banner of former Pakistan cricket captain and 1992 World Cup victor Khan, built a unique coalition, Ostermann said. “[Khan] cobbled together votes from a fairly unusual group of people, in the sense that it was a lot of younger folk, a lot of students, some fairly conservative religious folk, some elites. It’s a very interesting coalition, which worked really well for coming to power but also proved problematic in the end in the sense that this loose coalition did fall apart,” she said. As the PTI’s coalition fell apart, and a move to remove Khan came clear, Khan alleged that the effort to remove his government was a foreign conspiracy orchestrated by the American government. Khan said he would resign his position and appoint a caretaker government for 90 days until elections would be called. Ostermann explained that Khan’s conspiracy allegations were used to dismiss the National Assembly and delay the no confidence vote. “There was a planned no confidence motion on the third of April, and there was quite a lot of political demonstration on the part of both the opposition and PTI in the weeks leading up to that. On the actual day of the no confidence motion, the deputy speaker [of the National Assembly], who’s from
the PTI party, and not the speaker, essentially refused to allow the no confidence motion to go forward on the grounds of foreign interference,” Ostermann recalled. This led to a constitutional crisis where opposition members took their case to the country’s Supreme Court. Ostermann, a self-identified “courts junkie,” went to watch the proceedings for one day of deliberations. Ultimately, Ostermann said the court ruled in favor of the opposition and ordered that a vote of no confidence had to go forward. “It was clear to the five-member panel that this was a big deal, and that they needed to hear all of the evidence. They allowed four and a half days of testimony and held extra hours than they normally would during Ramadan. Eventually on Thursday night, after much anticipation, they finally did decide that the deputy speaker’s actions were unconstitutional,” Ostermann said. The vote went forward minutes before the court’s deadline, and Khan was removed despite four adjournments and other obstacles. Ostermann said that despite the country’s fragile democracy, it is notable that the PTI accepted the court’s mandate even if it did not agree. “Imran Khan stated that he would abide by whatever the Supreme Court chose, which was a really big deal for Pakistan,” Ostermann said. “The military has taken over many times… and there’s always been this question about how stable the democracy is, because it’s only truly democratic for a short period of time. Alternating power between different parties and not with the military… this was a big deal.” Many in the country believe
Khan’s allegation of American involvement in the crisis, though the State Department has repeatedly denied his claims and Khan has provided little evidence. Mahan Mirza, Ostermann’s colleague in the Keough School and director of the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, tweeted before the attempted votes to remove Khan. “While it is easy to scapegoat mysterious ‘foreign’ elements when things don’t go your way, @ImranKhanPTI’s allegations are not incredulous,” the tweet read. Mirza, originally from Pakistan himself, noted that American reliance on Pakistan through the Cold War and the War on Terror and its historic support of military power within Pakistan provided context. His tweet continued, “The evidence? History. With #Afghanistan lost, [for the United States,] a ‘neutral’ #Pakistan is unacceptable in the neighborhood of #China, #Iran, & #India.” Ostermann said given America’s history, she can understand how Khan’s argument might be well received. Despite that, she said she doesn’t currently believe the claims are substantiated. Based on conversations with sources “fairly high up” in the Department of State, Ostermann said the United States government is not interested at this moment in regime change in Pakistan. Ostermann also noted that the officials are not anti-Khan. “They are not in any way antiImran Khan, and they have stated that they are not. They would love if the Biden administration paid more attention to South Asia, but all eyes are on Ukraine and Russia. They couldn’t get the Biden administration’s attention
on this issue to save their lives,” she explained. Ostermann also discussed the military looming over all political events. “The Pakistani military is incredibly powerful. It has ruled the country intermittently since independence. It is very competent, and that’s one of the reasons why it has been able to sort of take over from time to time. There’s the relief of knowing that somebody is in charge,” she said. “There is the sense as well that within the U.S. government and within the security establishment, that they would actually sort of prefer the military because they”re easier to deal with.” The military’s refusal to step in and take over during the National Assembly debates or court deliberations is a sign of progress for democracy in the country, Ostermann said. “The fact that it stood back in this particular case, is a huge change from the past when there might have been this moment of crisis,” she said. Ostermann said as an outside observer without a team, she’s rooting for democracy in Pakistan, especially when democracy in neighboring India is coming under question. “One of the things that I have said to my friends here who are Khan supporters and who are upset is this is democracy working. At the very latest, in August of 2023, there will be other elections,” she said. The move to remove Khan “may end up being a strategic miscalculation for the PML and PPP.”
the health of 10 million kids each year across the U.S. and Canada.” The site also states that “donations go to local hospitals to fund critical life-saving treatments and healthcare services, along with innovative research, vital pediatric medical equipment, child life services that put kids’ and families’ minds at ease during difficult hospital stays and financial assistance for families who could not otherwise afford these health services.” Dance Marathon began when a 13-year-old boy named Ryan White was diagnosed with HIV/ Aids following a bad blood transfusion. The summer before he would start his first year at Indiana University, Ryan passed away. In 1991 to keep his memory alive, a group of Ryan’s friends started Indiana University Dance Marathon. The movement grew from there, now there are over 350 schools that participate in Dance Marathon. Junior Margaret Harper also spoke on her experience with Saint Mary’s College Dance Marathon. “It means so much to me to be a part of this,” Harper said. “I want
to work with kids when I’m older and I just think it’s an absolutely incredible cause because these kids are the future. They deserve a chance to give this world what they’ve got inside of them.” This year the club of over 140 members had a total of 366 people registered to participate in the actual Dance Marathon itself. Julia O’Grady the Executive of Alumni Outreach for the club explained what it’s like to work behind the scenes of this momentous event. “It’s definitely cool to be behind the scenes of making this day happen. Tthere’s so much that goes into it that I didn’t realize, and not even just for today, but throughout the whole year,” O’Grady said. “There’s a lot of different events and there’s a lot of planning that goes into it and a lot of teamwork. So it’s been really cool to be a part of that, and honestly, it’s an honor.” Dance Marathon Day started at around 10 a.m. and ended roughly at 10 p.m. The committee members and dancers stayed in Angela Athletic center for twelve hours taking part in games, obstacle courses, information tables
and of course dancing. Bella Burke is a Junior at Saint Mary’s and is a member of the morale dance committee. Burke described her favorite part of Dance Marathon. “I think I like how selfless everyone is,” Burke said. “We all understand that this is so much bigger than us and so much bigger than today, especially through our committee. Riley outreach focuses on the kiddos and their families, telling their stories and being able to hear their stories throughout the day of the marathon really pus things into perspective.” Vice President of Finance for the club Kathleen Soller has a unique perspective on Dance Marathon. “I am a Riley kid,” Soller said. “I received treatment for cancer at Riley Hospital in 2017. So, this is a cause that’s very near and dear to my heart. I was a part of Dance Marathon when I was in high school and when I came to Saint Mary’s I was very excited to see that they had a dance marathon here. Over the past four years this has been a huge part of my college career. I spend countless hours every week working on this. So,
this is kind of the heart and soul of my life here at Saint Mary’s.” With Soller’s personal connection to Riley Children’s hospital, the Dance Marathon took on a whole new meaning for her. “I love seeing all these people come together and support Riley Hospital for Children,” Soller said. “Everyone at Saint Mary’s is from all across the country, most of them have never even heard of Riley. So, for them to come and support a cause that they may not even know about means so much to me. It’s so special that everyone is willing to come together and support these kids and their families, even if they don’t know who they are.” Sarah Kerston, a Saint Mary’s sophomore, commented on the impact Saint Mary’s has at Riley Hospital. “We’re a small school, but we do a lot for this one hospital in Indianapolis,” Kerston said. “It’s amazing to see all of us come together for a cause that’s bigger than ourselves.
Contact Isa Sheikh at isheikh@nd.edu
Contact Meghan Lange at mlange03@saintmarys.edu
News
Government Continued from page 1
staff. Baumann is a sophomore liv ing in Pasquerilla West Hall and majoring in marketing. She worked w ith Lee and Stitt during their campaign as a platform adv isor and tabled at North Dining Hall. Lee explained that they chose Baumann as chief of staff after the election concluded because they believed she was the best candidate. “I’m not really all about solidif y ing your department directors and chief of staff before you w in because it seems like trading help and favors, and so we didn’t do that at all. There’s only two people who helped us w ith the campaign who are currently ser v ing right now,” he said. “[Nicole] gave the best answers by far, and I knew that she would work incredibly hard.” Lee, Stitt and Baumann all praised their group dy namic,
HOTY Continued from page 1
sizes that focused on these efforts, including a performative allyship panel and the Howard Tunnel of Love event in March. “Basically, we turned the Howard arches into a tunnel of love and inclusion,” Brown said, describing Tunnel of Love. “We put a bunch of quotes, poems, ref lection prompts, f lags … up inside of the arches and had it up all day.” She said the event also displayed timeline of Notre Dame’s successes and failures in becoming more inclusive. In organizing Tunnel of Love, Howard partnered with many diverse campus groups including the Gender Relations Center, Multicultural Student Programs and Services, PrismND, the Student Coalition for Immigration Advocacy, Access-ABLE, the Black Student Association and the Latinx Student Alliance. Howard previously held Tunnel of Love, Brown said, but the event had not taken place in a few years. Another successful event that returned after a multi-year hiatus was Howard Hall Family Reunion, a Howard-wide weekend retreat at a camp in Michigan the weekend after Welcome Weekend. “We hung out and bonded and talked about what our values are as a community,” Brown said. “Sixty people went out of the 140 Howard residents, so it was really, really fun.” She said the dorm’s strong sense of community was
ndsmcobserver.com | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | The Observer
5
say ing that their weaknesses complement each other. Stitt called their dynamic “wonderful,” and said she is excited to see how it progresses through the next year. Lee said while he tends to think about the bigger picture, Baumann helps him to be more detailoriented. Lee also noted that Baumann has a “high EQ” and works well w ith the department directors. The chief of staff’s main responsibilit y is to oversee the executive cabinet, while the v ice president presides over the senate. Baumann said she has spent a lot of time one-on-one w ith executive cabinet members to develop strong working relationships. Lee explained the cabinet all participated in an onboarding weekend in March where they journaled about their plans for the year and the steps they would take to get there. Lee emphasized how excited he is about the executive cabinet members’ passion.
Even though they have been ser v ing in their positions for less than two weeks, the Lee-Stitt administration has already been hard at work. In the coming weeks, the administration is holding many events, including “Take Back the Night” on April 13 and Demin Day on April 19. The diversit y and inclusion department is beginning work to prov ide resources to the first-generation low-income students in the incoming class of 2026. The administration is also working on uploading a platform tracker on their website that w ill be available for students to track their progress on projects across all the departments. Lee noted that accountabilit y can be scar y but is important for all parties involved. “Accountabilit y is difficult and scar y for ever yone,” he said. “But accountabilit y also can drive progress and light a fire under ever yone to make sure that
we’re delivering on what we say.” Lee highlighted his plan for bringing back the Student Life Council (SLC) — one of Lee-Stitt’s major campaign promises. Lee said he env isions the SLC being a forum for all parties to come to the table and listen to each other. He said he hopes that bringing back the SLC, which originated during the 1960s, w ill improve communications between administrators and students. Lee and Stitt say another focus that they are working toward is improv ing their communication w ith the student body. Stitt explained that social media w ill be ver y important for them. She highlighted Instagram and a podcast that they w ill be recording soon. “We hope that there has been some v isible changes already in our communication st yle, tr y ing to keep it brief and to the point and student-facing,” she
said. “We want to make sure that all of the good work of students and clubs and student government is being w idely broadcasted. So, we’re going to be doing that through social media and traditional avenues like email, as well as a podcast.” Lee, Stitt and Baumann all expressed gratitude for being in their positions. Stitt said she is honored to ser ve the “best school on Earth” w ith “the coolest people” she’s ever met. Lee noted that he doesn’t take his position for granted. “The gift of ser v ing in this position is not something that we take lightly, and we want to make the students ver y proud,” Lee said. “That’s what we’re building our team around, that’s the culture we’re tr y ing to build and that’s what we’re working towards really ever y day.”
“really solidified” after the retreat. That same community spirit empowered this year’s residents to plan and host their own dorm events, including an album release party for Taylor Swift’s “Red (Taylor’s Version),” organized in November by two firstyear students. Brown said the event attracted “probably over 100 people,” the most she has ever seen in Howard’s main lounge, nicknamed “the Pond” at one time. Brown said she is also proud of two other accomplishments this year: Howard’s greenNDot training numbers — over 44% of residents completed training this year — and the dorm’s annual Totter for Water event which raised $10,000 for Engineers Without Borders in September. “My heart is just filled with joy and love for everyone in the dorm,” Brown said. “I’m just so happy for everyone and proud to have been a part of it and to see the Howard community finally get the recognition that it deserves.”
this and more. “Our dorm typically has seven distinct, unique and amazing section cultures that each complement each other,” Meacham said. “We were able to get all of the sections of Keough to come together this year to create a vibrant community that was consistently excited to improve Keough throughout the year.” The Kangaroos last won Men’s Hall of the Year in 2009 and were determined to win this year despite a new rector, two new assistant rectors and several R As who had transferred into Keough. “We created a dorm culture that was excited about all things Keough and were able to get heav y attendance at a variety of different events,” Meacham said. “This includes getting over 70 residents greeNDot trained, having our largest signature event ever and having hall government meetings with over 50 people.” Meacham said Keough’s popular chariot race signature event and following toga party had an “incredible turnout.” “We had over 19 dorms come out in the freezing rain to race in wooden chariots for charity and had over 350 people attend a toga-themed dance in the middle of winter,” he said. “That’s dedication to the dorm if I’ve ever seen it!” He added that “The Marilyn, ”a mini-golf tournament where each section builds a hole, and “Keough Kitch,” the dorm’s food sale business which donates a portion of its proceeds to mission work in Kitete,
Tanzania, were also particularly successful this year. The dorm also piloted a new signature event in the fall called Marilyn’s Mansion — a week of Halloween-themed events that culminated in candy donations to local schools. Meacham said that his favorite event was the elaborate funeral Keough held for its fourth-f loor fish. “Eighty-plus people attended with full formal attire, and it featured a bagpiper, prayers from our new rector, Deacon Gabe, and an opera singer to sing a song in the memory of the fish,” he said.
sure we were cheering all these girls on,” Schroeder said. The Chaos also introduced a new signature event this year, “Cavaret,” described by Schroeder as “dinner and a show courtesy of the Chaos.” Over 100 Cavanaugh women served food to students and community members at the campus-wide event featuring 12 students groups and performers sharing their talents on a stage set up outside on North Quad. At the end of the night, Cavanaugh residents enjoyed a hall dance. The women of Cav also further developed their internal community, creating first-year and international student commissioner positions on the dorm’s hall council and continuing their annual celebration of National “Chaos Never Dies Day,” a real national holiday that takes place every November 9. “It’s a celebration of chaos … we usually have breakfast for dinner and a whole celebration,” Schroeder said. “We made stickers this year which was awesome.” She added she feels honored to have served as Cavanaugh’s president this year. “The women here are just incredible and love each other every day, regardless of title,” she said. “I think it’s so special they get to show this next year with Dome Dance. I’m really grateful for this community and all the things it means to many, many people.”
Keough wins Men’s Hall of the Year Patton Meacham, the 20212022 president of Keough Hall, said the Keough Kangaroos plan to celebrate their Men’s Hall of the Year win with a “huge cookout” featuring free food, yard games and karaoke when the weather improves. He said the dorm’s main goals this year included maintaining existing traditions and strengthening Keough’s dorm identity and connections with other dorms. He feels they accomplished all of
Cavanaugh wins Women’s Hall of the Year Although the Chaos of Cavanaugh Hall had not won a Hall of the Year award since 2009, junior and 20212022 hall president Molly Schroeder said the dorm has facilitated a strong community for many years. “It’s been a very internal community, and it’s not one to usually seek outside validation,” she said. “Regardless, we have a really strong spirit of tradition and a wonderful community of both women who live in Cav currently and alumni who are always cheering us on.” She said one of the dorm’s proudest moments this year was winning the interhall f lag football championship after an undefeated season. Over 40 women played on the team, and over 100 people attended the championship game. “In addition to that, we would have a Cav spirit section that would come out to every football game to make
Contact Bella Laufenberg at ilaufenb@nd.edu
Contact Claire Reid at creid4@nd.edu
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The observer | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
Lessons from my time as a columnist
Inside Column
Take a chance, make a friend
Julianna Conley Anna Hurt Social Media Editor
I like to think out loud. So, when I was brainstorming for this column, I said out loud, to myself “what should I write my column about?” to which my roommate jokingly replied “you should write it about me.” She was just kidding, but I think she’s an excellent topic to write about. She was what we like to call a pretty-much-random roommate. When I decided to study abroad in Rome, my friend told me she knew a girl who was also going and that she thought we would get along really well. So, without knowing who this person was really at all, I requested to live with her for my semester in Rome. I cannot overstate how wonderful this decision was for my study abroad experience and beyond. I have gotten to know someone I would have otherwise missed on campus at Notre Dame, someone who I know will be a lifelong friend to me. Honestly, the way we talk to each other you would think we knew each other since birth instead of since January. Just like freshman year at Notre Dame, I came to Rome trying to get used to a new city, a new school and a new roommate. And just like freshman year, it was facing all this newness together that allowed my roommate and I to become friends. Now we have standing dates on Thursday mornings to walk around Rome and see different churches. We travel together on the weekends and cook together on weekdays. She is a wonderful person to talk to, to spend time with and to pray with. I am forever grateful to have met her this semester. All this to say that it pays off to jump into new friendships blindly. For every horrible random roommate story there’s another beautiful friendship waiting around the corner. It has been incredibly freeing for me to be able to put my trust in someone like her, even though I haven’t known her for very long. It makes me think about all the people I might be missing out on being friends with because I am too scared to make that friendship “first move.” So like the nursery rhyme tells us, we need to “make new friends, but keep the old.” Even if you’re a little introverted like I am, try to let yourself be vulnerable to new people. There is so much joy to be found in sharing parts of yourself with others. Life is simply too short to do anything else. Try to get to know those people who you cross paths with often. Let them be more than acquaintances. I always say to my roommate now that it makes me sad I hadn’t met her sooner. When you think about it, there are so many people just waiting out there who could be your best friend. Throw your caution to the wind and talk to that person you always see eating at the same time as you in the dining hall. It could be something so spectacular that you’re able to write a whole column about it. You can contact Anna at ahurt3@nd.edu The views expressed in this Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Follow us on Twitter: @ObserverViewpnt
In My Own Words
Before I even chose a college, I knew I wanted to write for the school newspaper. When a columnist dropped mid-semester of my first-year fall, I applied to fill the spot and joined The Observer family in October. Save a “sabbatical” I took to serve as my dorm’s vice president, over the last four years, I’ve grown accustomed to sharing my unsolicited opinions with the Notre Dame family. As sad as I am to think that my biweekly oversharing is coming to an end, I can’t help but be grateful for all the joy this small little corner of the universe has brought me — and all the lessons too.
Lessons learned from my time as a columnist: Never underestimate the difference planning ahead makes. As my poor friends and poorer Viewpoint editors can attest, I am not a titan of time management. I frequently show up sweaty to classes because I had to power walk from my apartment since I left late; I’ve become infamous for staying at events an hour after I announce I need to leave; I can count on one hand the times I’ve started a Viewpoint column earlier than the afternoon it was due. But I will say, despite my prevailing cockiness that I think can write the next Pulitzer-prize winner in an hour, the few times I’ve afforded myself more than a couple of panicked hours to scribble down my rambling thoughts, that pre-planning has made a huge difference. The columns I regret most are the ones that had great potential but were executed sloppily in haste. Take it from a girl who wrote her entire senior thesis in one stressful, sleepless week: giving your work the attention it deserves will make more than just your finished product better. The harder you find it to talk about something, the more you need to talk about it. My need for full, unredacted honesty has become a bit of a joke among my family. While I do concede perhaps, I didn’t need to admit I’ve carried around loose pork in my pocket, as a general rule, the less I want to write about something, the more I know I need to. Whether I’ve been opening up about feeling unexplained sadness my sophomore year or confessing years of emotional struggles regarding my body image, the columns I’m most proud of are the ones that garnered emails from people letting me know I made them feel less alone. I realize everyone doesn’t have access to a tricampus newspaper. But everyone has the opportunity to be honest and upfront about the parts of their lives that aren’t sparkly. If you’re feeling insecure about something, odds are someone else is too. Just knowing someone else out there is experiencing the same thing can make a world of difference. You can’t judge a person off one interaction. I’ve definitely been guilty of hearing a problematic comment in class and writing someone off as insensitive or reading a column in the newspaper and making a snap judgment about their morals. My sophomore year, I wrote about learning to find a silver lining in the unexpected quarantine through the opportunity to spend time with my elderly grandmother and sisters. Alas, in an effort to stress the positive, I swung the pendulum too far, minimizing the tragedy of the pandemic. When The Observer tweeted one particularly poorly written line, memes were made, tweets were circulated, and I felt as if the entire school hated me. While the criticism of the column was more
than valid, the people judging my situation only knew one part of the puzzle. They didn’t know the column had originally acknowledged the tragedy and conceded not everyone has a good home life but that it had to be cut for space in the paper. They didn’t know how stressed my family was about my dad’s unemployment, didn’t know we were dealing with a very sick ninety-year-old. And they couldn’t have known! They shouldn’t have known! I take full responsibility for writing a tone-deaf column, but I also take comfort in realizing the experience made me a more generous listener. As someone who once wanted to list “watching little boys watch little girls” as one of life’s greatest joys — thank you to my best friend and editor, Kat Machado, for letting me know that under no circumstances should that phrase ever be printed under my byline — I know firsthand that when you’re writing and speaking, it’s easy to assume everyone will be coming at your message with the same mindset and inside knowledge that you had when you said it. The next time someone says something you’re not sure about, give them a chance to explain before you condemn. We all misspeak. More people are paying attention than you think. My sophomore year, I went to the career center for help deciding what to major in, and in a brief moment of frustration, I started crying. Embarrassed by my emotional display, I apologized, explaining I’d been feeling out of sorts recently. To my surprise, the counselor nodded knowingly. “Oh, I know,” she said. Even after she explained she knew because she read my column, I felt momentarily taken aback. All this time, I’d assumed I was shouting into the void, with only my mother, roommate and editor reading the biweekly musings I turned into the newspaper. As it turned out — both for better and for worse in my tenure — more people are paying attention than I realized. More people know your name than say hello. More people think you’re cool than will ever tell you. It’s easy to feel like what you’re doing doesn’t matter or like no one notices if you come to class or not, but I promise you one person sitting in the back of the room is aware of your presence. Every compliment matters. I’ve written about this before, but I feel strongly enough that it bears repeating: tell people the nice things you think about them! Every email I’ve ever received in response to a column, short or long, personal or pedestrian — every single bit of kindness passed my way has meant more to me than its writer could ever have known. I’ve used this phrase in so many columns, it’s become a personal cliche, but: we live in a great, big world where it’s easy to feel small. Absolutely tell the people you love that you love them, but perhaps more importantly, tell the people you don’t know when you appreciate them, too. You never know. To a scared girl living two thousand miles from home, writing her thoughts down in a paper written by people immeasurably cooler than her for a school that felt incomprehensibly big, those silly little offhand comments from strangers made all the difference. Julianna Conley is a senior studying sociology and pre-health studies with a minor in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy. Though she is forever loyal to Pasquerilla East B-team athletics, Julianna now lives off campus. She can be reached for comment at jconley4@nd.edu or @JuliannaLConley on Twitter. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
The observer | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
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A call to psalmody Devin Humphreys Life, Law and the Lord
I am a convert to Roman Catholicism. As I write this column, I’m celebrating 10 years since my confirmation (a late confirmation in my diocese, the Diocese of Saginaw, which confirms its cradle Catholics in 2nd grade). My baptism, confirmation and first reception of Holy Communion in 7th grade came two years after our family made the decision to transfer from the public elementary school in our village to Sacred Heart Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Having fallen in love with the theology of the Catholic faith, I was elated when our family had the conversation in 2012 about converting, and I largely haven’t looked back since. But the funny thing about calling myself a convert or sharing that story with other people is that almost without exception, the person on the other side of that conversation is interested to know what exactly I converted from. And my answer is less than satisfactory, because it’s not really as though our family was in the practice of a particular faith before we found the Catholic tradition. The result, then, is that I typically identify my pre-convert self as a “non-denominational Protestant” — non-denominational because we didn’t have a church and Protestant because I wasn’t Catholic. Except that’s not really the end of the story. No, our family didn’t have a church we went to on Sundays in my earliest years, but yes, they saw me formed in a Protestant tradition, and the best evidence I have to support that proposition was that the Bible was my textbook of faith. It was a 66-book Protestant Bible rather than a 73-book Catholic one. And perhaps the key formative moment of those years to my faith today was an incident in 3rd grade in which I made an attempt at reading through the Bible cover-to-cover. Despite a valiant effort, though, I ended up throwing in the towel at the Psalms. Let me emphasize — I was sufficiently transfixed by the Book of Numbers for that to not be my stopping point. The historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah gave me no pause. It was “those miserable Psalms,” to steal a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, that induced my 3rd grade self to give up on a Bible read-through. And while I can’t totally pinpoint why the Psalms posed this sort of difficulty, it might have been because at that point in my life I wasn’t
really a fan of poetry. Even the book of Job, which is right before the Psalms, alternated between prose and poetry enough that you could tell what was going on in the story, but it was the character of Fear from “Inside Out“ who put words to my sentiment on arriving at the Psalms in the 3rd grade: “Boo! Pick a plotline!” And so I gave the Psalms a rest. Of course, in 5th grade, when I started going to weekly school mass while at Sacred Heart, I started hearing responsorial psalms, but I didn’t really associate those with the Book of Psalms because (1) you repeated a response and (2) that response wasn’t always the first verse, which led 5th-grade Devin to conclude that the setters of these texts to tunes had really, technically, created new texts. So, while the responsorial psalm quickly became a favorite part of the liturgy for me, I dissociated my favorable outlook on responsorial psalmody from the actual book itself. The Book of Psalms continued being background jibber jabber in my life of faith. Until Ash Wednesday 2018. It was my first year at Michigan State University, I was attending an Ash Wednesday Mass at St. John Church and Student Center, and Fr. Ryan Riley was giving the homily. Every Ash Wednesday, the responsorial is Psalm 51 (“Have mercy on me, God, in accord with your merciful love”), and this was no exception. Fr. Ryan preached about King David. Psalm 51, after all, is one of many of the Psalms whose authorship is attributed to him, and as its first two verses note, it was written “when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba.” The point of Fr. Ryan’s homily was that as we begin Lent, we should have a penitential focus, and that regardless of the severity of our iniquities, mercy awaits those of us who are willing to truly, authentically answer the call to “repent and believe in the Gospel.” It was at this moment that I heard a voice that could be none other than our Heavenly Father himself. With His characteristic acerbic wit, he said, “Devin, David wrote these Psalms as a penance. The least you could do would be to read them.” At the start of Lent in 2018, then, I made a second attempt at a read-through of the Psalms, only to stumble away from my resolve by like day five. I had experienced personal divine revelation, and still my heart was hardened to embracing the poetry of the Psalms for what it is. Then, when we sang Psalm 51 for Ash Wednesday of 2019, our Heavenly Father spoke to me again: “After Mass, go ahead and Google
just how long it would take to read the Psalms cover-tocover. The answer might surprise you.” So after Mass, I investigated the matter and found full read-throughs of the Psalms on YouTube that took between 4 and 5 hours. That was it — if it only took 4 hours not just to read the Psalms but to read them out loud, I had no excuse. So I got some friends of mine together on the Wednesday of Holy Week that year, in one of the basement lounges of St. John’s, and we read the Psalms, all 150 of them, out loud. There were the familiar Psalms, like Psalms 22 and 31 that Jesus quotes while on the cross, or Psalm 34, the “taste and see” song that has a bazillion musical settings. And then there were the oddball Psalms, like the 176-verse-long Psalm 119, which is really 22 distinct eight-line poems, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The marathon psalm reading bore great spiritual fruit, so on Ash Wednesday of 2020, I was resolved to organize another. While COVID got in the way, my friends and I still held a marathon Psalm reading on Wednesday of Holy Week over Zoom. We did the same thing in 2021, though spread out over a couple of days rather than in one sitting so that some of my law student colleagues could participate. But as this year’s Holy Week comes to its apex at the Triduum, I found myself called to share this story more broadly, and so I have written this week’s column. I challenge you, dear reader, to take four hours over the course of the upcoming Triduum to read the Psalms, out loud, in their entirety. If you can’t do it in one sitting, break it up. If you don’t have four hours, even broken up, to dedicate to this pursuit, then at least go for a selection — the aforementioned 22, 31, 34, and 119, plus Psalms 1, 139, and 150, make for a solid subset. But mark my words: “those miserable Psalms” aren’t really “so depressing” after all. Devin is a member of the Notre Dame Law School’s class of 2023. Originally from Farwell, Michigan, he is a 2020 graduate of Michigan State University’s James Madison College. In his free time, he sings with the Notre Dame Folk Choir and discusses the legal developments of the day with anyone who will listen. Inquiries into his surplus of law journal articles and note ideas can be directed to dhumphr2@nd.edu or @DevinJHumphreys on Twitter. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
You are responsible for helping Mikey Colgan Collegiate Crossroads
When patients need a kidney transplant, they will have to complete five to seven eight-hour dialysis sessions per week until they are up for a transplant. If a patient is then fortunate enough to receive a kidney, the person then has to hope that the body will not reject the kidney. In order to combat potential rejection, patients have to take some medications. Despite the aid of this post-transplant treatment, the body still rejects the kidney in a lot of cases. This can lead to being put back on dialysis and hoping for another kidney to come around. While in many cases, rejection occurs despite the best efforts of patients and doctors, it often happens because of one misstep in the process: the patient does not take the medication. Imagine that. Your life is on the line. You will have to revert back to hours on dialysis. All you have to do to significantly improve your odds is take your pills, and you don’t. Unfortunately, the reality is it’s in human nature to make self-sabotaging decisions. This sentiment was taken from Jordan Peterson’s “12 Rules of Life.” After running through the dialysis example, Peterson writes that we are also far more likely to give our pets their necessary prescriptions than ourselves. While it’s nice that we show so much care for our pets, it’s alarming to see how little we care for ourselves. Seeing as this is a common cause of problems for people, Peterson made his second rule of life: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.
I have definitely suffered from self-sabotage throughout my years. Throughout high school, I was always determined to become a great basketball player for my high school team. I quit running and tennis to put all my time into school and basketball. With these big plans in mind, I planned out in my mind how I would transform into a better player. I knew I would need to play Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), lift weights, train daily, etc. I was confident that I would take those steps and then change my trajectory as a player. However, whenever the time to put in work came around, I found myself in my bed watching a TV show or eating whatever treat I could get my hands on. Instead of putting in actual work, I just lived with the hope that it would all come together some way or another. Well, unfortunately for me, my 135 pound frame in high school did not exactly spark fear in my opponent’s eyes. While I wanted to be a better player so badly, I did not care to address my habits and decisions. I just did what felt comfortable and ended up making minimal progress throughout the years because of it. Ultimately, I did not treat myself with the level of care or respect I owed to myself or my family and friends. While this is a fairly unimportant example, this commitment to yourself becomes more and more important as you age. As college students, our ability to be disciplined and make the right decisions for the sake of things like our health or work will soon affect far more people than just ourselves. Most students are 18 to 22. The average age of a first-time parent is just below 30. In the next five to 10 years, many of us will have families we need to provide for and tend to in a myriad of ways. It sounds bleak, but if
you continue eating donuts and drinking like a fish, you may not be there long for your kids or significant other when they need you. If you don’t discipline yourself and work hard in your professional life, you can find yourself without a good paying job to give your family what they need. In addition, if you’re acting in such an undisciplined manner forever, how do you think your future kids’ work ethic or discipline will look? It’s wild to think about now, but these examples really will come into play in the near future and show why it is absolutely crucial to treat yourself with care. In reality, it is actually selfish to do otherwise because of the effect it can have on those closest to you. Similar to being instructed to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others on a plane, you must address your problems first so you can then help others. With that said, this is a process that will never be perfected, but starting now will put you ahead of schedule for your loved ones when the time comes to have bigger responsibilities. So, when you’re making one of many decisions today, think about what you’d want your closest friend to do and simply do that. Mikey Colgan is a sophomore from Boston, Massachusetts, studying finance and Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics (ACMS). He is an avid college basketball fan and resides in Morrissey Hall. He can be reached at mcolgan2@nd.edu or @Mikeycolgs15 on Twitter. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
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The observer | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
Spring in the halls of Saint Mary’s Madeline Law Trivial Matters
Regardless of the Midwest’s inability to commit to a change in season, it’s officially spring! The birds are singing, the spring athletes are sport-ing and students are knocking on doors in the residence halls of Saint Mary’s. Yep, that’s a certain sign of spring. In the last few weeks, the annual tradition of surveying prospective rooms in Le Mans and Holy Cross Hall has been taken up once again. Rising sophomores, juniors and seniors tackled the project with varying degrees of zeal as the room selection lottery drew near. The advantages and disadvantages of each dorm are debated with regards to ceiling height, walking distance to different key buildings, tunnel access, whether or not the room has a sink and more. Room dimensions are poured over and preference lists are made. And new this semester, everyone’s thoughts about the upcoming interclass housing has buzzed its way into the conversation. But that’s not necessarily what I want to talk about today. The thing about the dorms at Saint Mary’s is that the beautiful old buildings that serve as residence halls hold a special challenge: no two rooms are the same. This gives each hall a wonderful personality because it reminds those who move in each year of the rich history of the buildings (including the resident ghosts … they’re mostly friendly. I promise). Take Le Mans Hall, for example. While it’s not the oldest building on campus (that would be the stately Holy Cross Hall), it’s a patchwork of floors, wings and rooms that all used to serve different purposes. To my knowledge, many rooms were indeed meant to house the women who lived and learned here. In the Infirmary Wing, the rooms were, well, infirmary rooms. Then there’s the East and West
Mains, Library Wing, the Annexes, Queen’s Court under the chapel and the fifth floor with the largest singles but only accessible by stairs. Some rooms have no sinks; some have sinks. Some even have a full bathroom attached. Some have little hallways or no closets (just odd little wall niches with clothes rods) or fireplaces — nonfunctional, of course. I’m sure there are still quite a few quirks of which I’m unaware. I know of these wonderful idiosyncrasies because my roommate and I also took part in the tradition. We met over a period of days to walk each wing of Le Mans last year, knocking on doors of the rooms we’d marked off on the room dimensions list. Oh, the dimensions list —the red herring of room selection. I’m not sure how this all works over at Holy Cross or Notre Dame, but here the list of room dimensions, in addition to the floor plan, is the starting point for this whole process and the reason for wandering the halls alongside the ghosts. It may be a generalization, but no matter what amenities or arrangements each room offers, the most heavily weighted factor of room selection is square footage. Bigger is better, says the student. It’s nearly an unspoken agreement that the goal of this annual tradition is to claim the biggest room you can after the first year initiation of living in the little copy-and-pasted dorm rooms of McCandless or Regina Hall. (I guess not next year, though … it’ll be interesting, that’s for sure). You see, the size is also the trickiest part of the whole shebang. Those dimensions listed on that PDF, wherever they were taken, are often misleading. The numbers aren’t false, as far as I know, but what they fail to describe is how the square footage of each room is distributed between the room proper, the closets and the little nooks and crannies. A room may claim an attractive number, but the reality of the layout might be an awkward set up of an immovable
built-in vanity, a sink with an unnecessary door and closets that just aren’t big enough to fit the two dressers, so a desk gets shoved in there instead in order to walk a decent path through the room. The more I think about it, this all seems like quite a task for college students bogged down by other GPA-affecting duties. I know most Belles will readily admit this, too, and yet we still do it. So why the effort? We’re not suffering in smaller rooms, not by any heavy meaning of the word. Most of the time we’re not even uncomfortable. We may have roommate squabbles, mostly contained in our first year, but we are blessed with a place to live, seemingly unlimited drinkable water, easily accessible food, indoor plumbing, etc. You get the picture. Forgive my little soapbox moment, please. Maybe our hunt for the bigger catch is an internalized material priority, maybe it’s a leftover reflex from sibling squabbles, maybe it’s just a basic human instinct to find comfort, and we’ve associated comfort with space — who knows? I’m sure you have a few guesses yourself, dear reader. Maybe we just like discovering a few more residential hall secrets. While it may be trivial to some and defining to others, I don’t think it will cease. We still need some sign of spring with all these gray skies! And I’m curious to see if the interclass housing will influence the springtime wanderings of the Belles. Madeline Law is a Saint Mary’s junior from Petoskey, Michigan. She studies English literature and communication studies with a minor in theater. If you can find her, she’ll either be adding books to scattered to-read lists or re-reading old favorites. Reach her at mlaw01@saintmarys.edu and send book suggestions. The views expressed in this column are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Observer.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The open secret of the University Counseling Center I have a unique perspective on how this lovely University of ours has changed over time. You see, I got to be an undergraduate twice, with about a decade separating the experiences. Even though I was a Philosophy major back in ‘08, I was pretty well known amongst friends as an amateur therapist. I was always happy to listen to anyone, and I managed to help some people. And, wounded healer that I tried to be, I’d often ask for their help in return. I gave out a lot of cries for help in those days, and talked to a lot of people. Easily dozens. But none of them even knew to suggest the University Counseling Center (UCC) to me, before it was too late and I needed to go on medical leave. I only have one memory of the UCC from back then. I had to get some paperwork filled out for the leave. My intake was with someone who seemed to be in training. As the saying goes, we don’t remember what people say, we remember how they make us feel. I remember that person making me feel like they were interested in the hot gossip surrounding why I had become so depressed; I didn’t feel like they were quite so interested in helping me solve my problems. But seasons change, and I was thrilled to come back a decade later. 2019 was the best year of my life. To ease the transition from full time work to student, I went to the UCC a few times. I didn’t need much help by then but appreciated the support anyway. I also made a point to listen to my fellow students’ perspectives on the UCC. Now a Psychology major, the UCC’s effectiveness was important to me. Unfortunately, most didn’t have a high opinion of it. At least people knew about the resource, unlike when I was a sophomore. But most said it hadn’t helped. And those I met most in need of therapy had tried it with no success. It’s important to be fair when offering a critique. The UCC has a monumental task. Notre
Dame has 8,000 undergraduates. The UCC isn’t staffed for long term care. It’s an open secret that the UCC has a policy of seeing students for only a few sessions. The focus is on helping those who only need brief assistance, and directing those with deeper problems off campus. The UCC doesn’t have an enormous staff and has to triage its resources appropriately. But if we’re going to have empathy for the UCC’s position, I think it’s even more important to empathize with our struggling students. Imagine you’ve finally made it, a Golden Dome First-year. And you’re struggling. You’ve never gotten therapy before, and maybe your parents aren’t over the stigma. But you finally get up the courage to go to the UCC. Now, the therapist knows they only get to see you a few times. That puts up a wall. I don’t care whether the counselor is aware of it or not: therapists who can only see a patient a few times put up a wall. Certain topics and traumas shouldn’t be covered if they can’t receive appropriate care. This delicacy guarantees the intimacy of therapy has been violated. Carl Rogers was an amazing teacher to the discipline, and we forget his wisdom at our peril: the relationship between therapist and patient is paramount. It is the cornerstone of any progress being achieved, ever. And our UCC’s resources and policy guarantee that relationship is crippled. Pretending this isn’t a danger is shortsighted and reckless. So your first experience with therapy is with someone shooing you along. A bad vibe like that is enough to scare off many already hesitant to seek therapy. And if you return, they give you a referral. Off campus. Let me repeat: off campus.
Now, let me clue in the administration to something: the world off campus essentially does not exist to Notre Dame students. Oh, we’ll go to house parties off campus. We might walk over to Eddy Street Commons. If you’re a senior with a car, there’s a chance you’ll do some things off campus. But a first-year? I was a townie as a first-year, and I never once went off campus while the sun was shining. To most students, resources off campus essentially don’t exist. How are you going to go to an appointment at 3 p.m. every Tuesday when you don’t have a car? And you have to interrupt your class schedule? And Zoom? Assuming telehealth continues post pandemic, how many first-years can guarantee an hour in their dorm all alone, especially living in a quad? Or shall we ask them to divulge their deepest fears in a study room, hoping they don’t get interrupted? Worse yet, off campus therapy means insurance is involved. Which means parents are involved. So you’ll have to tell mom and dad their Golden Child is having serious problems. But why would someone with anxiety be anxious over that? And anyway, the UCC didn’t help you, why would the off-campus therapist be any different? Notre Dame likely hopes that rectors, RAs and ARs can fill the gap. But none of those people have psychological training, and they cannot provide the anonymous presence that psychological care absolutely requires. They certainly didn’t do me any good. Do I get my eight years back? Cavanaugh Hannan class of 2020 March 29
The observer | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
By MARCELLE CUOTO Scene Writer
On Sunday, audiences gathered at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to contemplate the Passion of Christ through a unique artistic medium. The story that inspired innumerable dramatizations throughout the centuries was now featured in a contemporary adaptation, conjoining various genres of popular music in a work designed to vivify and elucidate the Passion of the Christ within the imagination. Even more impressive than this idea was observing how students collaborated in the creation of meaningful poetry and the composition of spirited music, producing an amalgamation of stunning pieces. Just as the Folk Choir's goal was to enrich one's memory, so does the figure of Memory herself guide the audience through the events of the Gospels. The lessons and themes of the play are displayed by none other than the Spirit, who initiates sweet moments of reflection through her solos. There is an emphasis on the feelings experienced by each character, making the narrative approachable and inviting. Each instrumentalist and vocalist embodied the feelings they were designated to communicate, and the purity of the notes and beauty of the music outpoured as a result. The presence of musical parallels created cohesion
By JUSTIN GEORGE Scene Writer
“Nosferatu” — 1922 This is THE vampire film. The expressionistic lighting and set design, underlying sense of dread and one of the most frightening vampire designs put to film all combine to make this the definitive vampire film. “Nosferatu” is best viewed at midnight on a moonless evening in the dead of winter.
“Vampyr” — 1932 Despite being overshadowed by Tod Browning’s “Dracula” — which came out a year prior to Carl Th. Dreyer’s take on the vampire film absolutely blows “Dracula” out of the water. “Vampyr” is brimming with unsettling imagery and stunning visual effects. It is one of the most original takes on the vampire film that I’ve seen.
within the performance, allowing the audience to grasp the connections present within Scripture, as was the case with Mary Magdalene's anointing of Jesus' feet and the foot washing of the disciples. Both continually emphasize the significance of the washings as a shining moment of selflessness as the chorus repeats the action itself during Magdalene's reflections. Finally, Magdalene and the chorus reiterate the same theme as they remember the washing of Jesus' body in preparation for his burial. Another notable parallel was the decision to feature a prologue and epilogue, both taking place within the context of Holy Saturday. While the disciples are concerned with their grief, desperation and search in the past for answers in the opening, the conclusion displays transformed sentiments and a knocking — a hint to the incoming Resurrection. The influence from the African American spiritual was yet another aspect of the ending piece's impact. Whenever the chorus stood to embellish the force of a particular scene, soaring and radiant chords would overflow the atmosphere. Words like ”innocence” received a beautiful, prolonged suspension, and the quiet, gentle murmurings of “We have abandoned him” displayed the pangs of guilt as they echoed in the conscience of those recalling the Gethsemane scene. Whisperings of tension would build at key moments, like when the high priests stirred the crowd to side with them for the punishment of Jesus.
The music expresses the meaning of the text to its fullest intensity. In the Palm Sunday scene, the chorus sings the phrase “Can we believe our eyes?” with notes that mount, swell and climb upon each other, reflecting the growing realization stirring within the people. At the foot washing scene after Jesus explains the apostles will no longer see him, the apostles' confusion is most easily perceived through the long-held wailings of “Master, where are you going?“ The way the piano sparkles with panicked schisms within the happenings of the Gethsemane scene portrays the undergoing chaos. “Passion” also made a point to illustrate the tangible, physical aspects of the story. At the carrying of the cross, the choir physically stomped to evoke the procession. Or, when recounting the agonizing final breaths before Jesus's death, the chorus joined to animate the inhale and exhale. Even the banging of the nails upon the cross could be heard in tangent to the ongoing melodies. To produce a work of this length and magnitude was an incredible accomplishment. However, this brilliant effort was not confined to Sunday, as the Folk Choir will continue to present “The Passion” on tours and will also record an album in Israel. It is an experience that all must partake in, as the depth of the work remains too great to describe.
actually scary. Gone was the black and white austerity of previous films, replaced with vibrant technicolor and rivers of blood. Christopher Lee embodies everything that makes the Count terrifying, right down to the bloodshot eyes and deadly fangs. Lee is the highlight of this film and gives perhaps the best portrayal of Stoker’s infamous bloodsucker ever put to film.
and I love every second of this film. The soundtrack also goes way harder than it needs to. Come for vamps, stay for the mullets and quippy dialogue.
“Black Sunday”— 1960 The crown jewel of Italian gothic horror is Mario Bava’s directorial debut, following a witch who was burned at the stake and her undead henchman as they seek revenge for her death by killing her executioners' descendants. It sounds like a wild ride, and it is. Filled with stunning atmospherics, amazing costume and set design, chiaroscuro lighting and brilliant direction from Bava, this is probably the best vampire film that you’ve never heard of.
“Salem’s Lot”— 1979 “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”— 1948 Listen — the '40s were a bad time for vampire films. Despite this, Universal managed to pull together a wholly funny satire of their own films starring Abbott and Costello that features a rogues' gallery of Universal monsters, including Bela Lugosi reprising his role as Count Dracula. Fun for all ages and altogether goofy, this one might not be nearly vamp-y enough for some.
I know it’s a miniseries, but I don’t care. This adaptation of Stephen King’s chilling novel is helmed by “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” mastermind Tobe Hooper — and I feel like that should be enough to get you to watch it. If not, it is one of the most genuinely chilling pieces of vampire media I have seen and has my favorite vampire design of all time. Go watch it.
“The Lost Boys”— 1987 “Horror of Dracula”— 1958 This is the last Dracula film on this list, I promise. After Hammer Films purchased the rights to the Universal monsters in the '50s, they set about making them
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Joel Schumacher’s stab at a horror film is dripping with style and is one of the more unique takes on vampires that I’ve seen. Decking out the vamps in ‘80s goth glam fashion like a crew of rejects from The Cure is certainly a choice,
Contact Marcelle Cuoto at mcuoto@nd.edu
“Interview with the Vampire”— 1994 This is by far the most sympathetic vampire film on this list. It’s strange to care about a vampire, let alone be moved by their stories and feel a deep connection to them, yet “Interview” succeeds on all of these fronts. Bolstered by brilliant performances and beautiful design choices, this is an utterly immersive film that is unforgettable.
“30 Days of Night”— 2007 A town on the Alaskan tundra is besieged by vampires in the dead of winter. The inhabitants of the town must learn to fight or die. Need I say more?
“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”— 2014 This is a feminist vampire film about a female vampire in Iran who skateboards around killing men who disrespect women. Perhaps the most unique take on the cinematic vampire on this list, Ana Lily Amirpour is one of the most exciting voices in horror and is a filmmaker every self-respecting fan of the genre should keep on their radar.
“Midnight Mass”— 2021 It’s a Netflix show. Get over it. I make the rules around here. I can’t tell you too much about this series or else I run the risk of ruining it, but the gist of it is priest brings miracles, renewed faith and a whole lot of mysteries to a small, dying town. Go watch it — it’s only seven episodes. Contact Justin George at jgeorge3@nd.edu
EMMMA KIRNER | The Observer | Image sources: Moviejawn, deviantart, pixabay, nd folk choir
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The observer | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
By JP SPOONMORE Scene Writer
When the word ‘multiverse’ pops into your head, you probably imagine the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) or, more specifically, movies like “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.” But what if I told you we could go deeper than just superheroes and aliens? What if you had the chance to see every possibility, every consequence of every choice you ever made? What if you not only could see those branches in your life, but you could live inside them and adopt those hypothetical memories as your own? These are the questions raised in A24’s experimental hit, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Outside any caped cameos, I think this film did a better job than the MCU ever could. I cannot emphasize enough that “going in blind” is the best experience for this film. Even so, I will give some basic background so that you have a sturdy foundation before security guards start turning into pinatas and rocks contemplate existentialism. This multiversal chaos centers on Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese immigrant who owns a laundromat and is struggling with her marriage, family expectations, a rebellious daughter and — worst of all — taxes. The movie’s narrative focus is personal and consumable. Its “scale,” though, is bigger than reality itself. Yes, the universes and kung fu fighting both serve as metaphors for generational trauma, but unlike other action films that force it in for a bare minimum story, this film makes these elements the actual catalyst for its armageddon. The smartest choice that directors Dan Kwan and
By MAGGIE CLARK Scene Writer
Last week, many tri-campus community students (including me) got the chance to revisit a timeless tale of love, family and, most importantly, ABBA. As part of their SunTostal programming, SUB offered a screening of the beloved “Mamma Mia!.” While I am sure many students watched the movie on this special night, I watched it with some of my section in my dorm as part of a spa night before our formal. I think the evident prevalence of “Mamma Mia!” this week on campus offers the perfect opportunity for me to gush about what has become one of my favorite movies. One of the reasons I love “Mamma Mia!” is, obviously, the music. I think it is incredible that the writers of the musical managed to take seemingly unrelated ABBA songs and make them into a sensical story. On top of that, the music is not only good but also extremely fun. The movie practically begs viewers to sing or dance along with it, making it more of an experience than a
Daniel Scheinert made when they wrote this film was splitting it into two chunks: the multiverse we all know and love and the hidden layer of potential beneath. The first half is an electric blast of quirky fight sequences and goofy characters. The second half is one of the most hopeful, heartfelt stories I have seen in a long time. Where other stories of family trauma tend to focus in on a single, generational divide, this story sees Evelyn juggling conflicts with both her judgmental father and depressed daughter. We constantly see where Evelyn’s choices cause her older and younger family members to oscillate between happiness or suffering in life. Language barriers and unacceptable lovers drive each character’s cultural isolation into bursts of hatred and regret. Through all of the wackiness shown on screen, the tragic authenticity is what elevates this story past its competitors. Evelyn’s daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), has an especially difficult subplot, one which sees her struggling with the meaninglessness of the world. She reduces everything to statistical probabilities, analyzing any heartfelt apology or shattering failure into numbers on a board. Her self destruction is a hard watch when Evelyn’s helping hand only makes it worse. Thankfully, the duo’s climax is a fantastic montage of music, imagery and comedic action that encapsulates the universal importance of family support in our hardest times. Joy’s subplot is vital to shifting the film away from the cliche, universe-jumping action flick that it first appears to be. Once her side of the story emerges in Part II, the facade of formulaic action drops to let the family drama take center stage. After the emotional climax reaches its peak, the film regains a sense of stability that honestly dulls viewer
satisfaction. The resolution provides an additional note of hope, but I think those extra minutes slow down too much compared to the breakneck insanity of the previous two parts. I still appreciate it being there even though it breaks the exhilarating half life I would’ve had leaving the theater. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the kind of film that surprises you in every way. Fun, heartfelt, hopeful and nihilistic, the story stands apart from any other multiverse concept. It realizes the truest potential a multiverse conflict can be: a struggle of hope against regret. Evelyn could be anything with the press of a button, yet she chooses to stay connected to her own mistakes because they make her who she really is. The suggestion that one’s identity grows from their past makes this film more than just an action flick, endowing it with a message that everyone should hear.
film alone. I also think that the popularity of “Mamma Mia!” in general is due to what I consider its second best quality: setting. Even though I have never physically been to a quaint, Grecian hotel, I feel like I am transported to one every time I watch “Mamma Mia!.” The opening scene of the waves crashing into the shore as Sophie sings “I Have a Dream” acts as a portal to this place, and the ending reception scene with “Take a Chance on Me” leaves viewers with the felicity of having attended an energetic island wedding. Unlike a lot of other musicals, the fact that the film’s music comes from ABBA and not from someone like Stephen Sondheim gives it an almost universal appeal. For example, the collective gasp/scream that sounded when “Dancing Queen” played at my formal was one of the moments in which I felt true unity with the Notre Dame community. I believe that “Mamma Mia!” is one of the reasons that ABBA remains so popular with my generation, despite the fact that the band originally rose to fame half a century ago.
Perhaps the most important aspect of “Mamma Mia!” is this universality. In moments like the one at my formal, the movie acts as a source of unity. I do not think I have ever met anyone who cannot find some appealing aspect of the movie. Because of this appeal, I cannot remember a sleepover at home, a field day at my all girls private school or a movie night in my dorm during which “Mamma Mia!” was not a likely option for a film to watch. Even though the film contains sentimental elements — Sophie trying to find her father, Donna’s contemplation of her love life, the value of friendship in Donna and the Dynamos and the mother-daughter relationship between Donna and Sophie — it is also comedic in those very same areas. Because of this, I think there is something for any audience member of “Mamma Mia!,” and that it is one of those movies that you should watch at least once. After that, I can certainly say that even if you do not watch it again, it will never truly “[slip] through your fingers.”
Contact JP Spoonmore at jspoonmo@nd.edu
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong Director(s): Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert If you like: “In the Mood For Love,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse”
Contact Maggie Clark at mclark34@nd.edu
MAKAYLA HERNANDEZ | The Observer | image sources: Screenrant, jimmy akin,, chill movie, , ign, insider, amazon
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Crossword | Will Shortz
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Horoscope | Eugenia Last Happy Birthday: Make your move. Consider what makes you happy, and push to incorporate it into your daily routine. Self-improvement, honing your skills and setting yourself up for advancement will give you the confidence to go one step further than you’ve ever gone. Live up to your expectations, and the rewards you receive will give you hope for a better future. Your numbers are 5, 13, 20, 29, 32, 37, 44. ARIES (March 21-April 19): Follow through with intentions. Don’t let anyone push you in a direction you don’t care to go. Follow your instincts and your heart, and take charge. It’s up to you to pursue your goals and take responsibility for your happiness. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Take the initiative to get things done. Don’t wait for someone to make a move. Step up and take charge. Your independence and leadership qualities will help you get things done and get ahead. Set high standards and expectations. Be open minded towards a season of change. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Make your point heard. Be direct about what you want and why. Set guidelines and boundaries, and stick to your plan. You don’t have to keep up with anyone. The only person you must please is yourself. CANCER ( June 21-July 22): Offer exciting suggestions. Bring about change that makes a difference to the outcome of something that matters to you. Update your look or your qualifications, and it will help you convince others that you are ready for a new challenge. LEO ( July 23-Aug. 22): Common sense will pay off. Put more thought into the way you handle your finances. Stretching your intake to fit your overhead will take pressure off you. Use charm and finesse, and you will make an impression on someone influential. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Listen carefully, and respond with clarity. Share your vision, and consider similar experiences as guidelines to secure getting what you want. A good connection with someone who shares your sentiments will give you the courage to pursue your goal. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Do it yourself if you want something done. Make use of your time and talent, and you’ll reach your destination. A reward will give you the incentive to pick up the pace and set your sights on something that encourages growth. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Tweak your space at work or home to make it convenient. Don’t begrudge yourself the time or pleasure of something that brings you joy or peace of mind. Refuse to let anyone dump responsibilities that don’t belong to you in your lap. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Take better care of your health and wellbeing. Don’t take a risk or let someone put you in a vulnerable position. Stay on top of your expenses, and refuse to overspend on something you don’t need. When pushed, push back. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Say what’s on your mind, but be ready to back your claims. Attitude will play a role in how well you do and who you impress. If a little charm is coupled with common sense and a willingness to compromise, you’ll gain ground. Love may be in your future if you keep an open mind. AQUARIUS ( Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Do your homework; jot down facts and figures to back your words. Preparation is essential if you don’t want someone to railroad you into something unfavorable. Show compassion and offer suggestions, but do your own thing. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Leave nothing to chance or unfinished. When it comes to delivering your promises, accuracy and promptness are the best ways to gain respect. Self-improvement will turn out better than anticipated and boost your confidence. Romance is on the rise.
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Jumble | David Hoyt and Jeff knurek
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Rowing
SPORTS AUTHORITY
Fix the inequity that had Griner in Russia Mannion McGinley Assistant Managing Editor
I am not a law yer, and I am not a diplomat. I am not a war strategist. Nor am I an international relations academic. I do not know the right path for ward through Brittney Griner’s arrest and her developing situation in Russia.
Here’s what I do know. W hat I do know is why Brittney Griner was in Russia in the first place, and it’s much more complex than just play ing a basketball game. Brittney Griner, like the rest of the star athletes in the W NBA, is so drastically underpaid compared to her male counterparts in this countr y that she must play in other countries in her off season to make the majorit y of her money. Countries like Russia and Latv ia are thousands of miles away from family, friends and primar y fan bases. LeBron James? Steph Curr y? Tom Brady? They would never. The idea wouldn’t even cross their minds. Brittney Griner may not sit on the same throne in her sport as these men do in theirs. Still, she is a valuable asset to ever y team she plays on. Griner is a seventime W NBA A ll-Star center who plays for the Phoenix Mercur y in the U.S. and the UMMC Ekaterinburg overseas. Breanna Stewart, the W NBA’s current LeBron James (in terms of skill level and notoriet y), plays overseas. As did Sue Bird, the W NBA’s Michael Jordan — if you w ill. And Diana Taurasi, who — for the sake of the metaphor — is the W NBA’s Kobe (and Griner’s teammate on both the Mercur y and formerly on Ekaterinburg), plays abroad too. Stewart is considering giv ing up her Seattle Storm contract for the money she receives from the overseas play. Bird told “60 Minutes”
she remembers her first W NBA salar y because it — at less than $ 60,000 — was one-tenth what she could make overseas. Now, as the stars of their sport, Stewart and Taurasi make “ma x salar y” in the W NBA, earning $228,094. Griner, a star in her ow n right, earns a contract worth $227,900. That’s not nothing, but w ith the locations they play in and the appearance commitments that come w ith play ing basketball, this money feels like under-compensation.
Here’s why it feels that way. W hile W NBA ma x imum salaries are capped at just under a quarter of a million dollars a year, the minimum salar y in the NBA for the 2021-22 season ranges from $ 925,258 to $2.6 million per year. The experience a given player possesses decides where they fall in that range. This means, though, that someone who does not once leave the bench for an NBA team earns four times what a W NBA star earns in a year. That is atrocious and is indicative neither of the player’s talent nor her dedication to the game. It is not bad luck that Brittney Griner got caught w ith a vape in a Russian airport and is now detained. There are several factors that go into that indiv idual moment. However, the reason she was there is the product of systemic pay inequalit y that has left women w ithout an alternative option. Overseas games keep them af loat. W hy can’t we pour that kind of money or attention into them here? Clearly, the fan base is possible. It ex ists in other countries. Make money off the sport here and bring that money to the women who devote themselves to the game. Contact Mannion McGinley at mmcginl3@nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Write Sports.
Email Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu
Continued from page 16
“We definitely saw improvement from the morning to the afternoon in most of the boats,” Stone noted. Both other Varsit y Four boats finished second in their races as well, w ith the second Varsit y Four also cutting off 9.5 seconds from their morning time. W hile they were impressive, the weekend’s best performance came from the second varsit y eight squad, powered by some mid-day lineup changes. “I think we were tr y ing to look for a little bit of a better f low in the boats,” Stone explained. “We have the power and the fitness. We definitely got it out of the second Varsity (Eight).” After finishing in 7:00.7 in the morning, the Irish mixed up the lineup a little bit. Junior Isabelle Keren and sophomore Avery Ericksen moved from the 1V8 boat to the 2V8. Despite the hail and rain significantly worsening the conditions, the Irish
improved their time. While the Ohio State squad’s time increased by seven seconds, Notre Dame improved to 6:57.2. They didn’t quite catch the Buckeyes, but it was good for a second-place finish, 18 seconds clear of the Sooners.
Irish prep for Big Ten Invite Fresh off the competitive weekend, the Irish jump back into the fray in just a few days. They race three times this weekend in the Big Ten Invitational in Sarasota, Florida. For Notre Dame, it represents three of their final four races in the regular season. They’ll race twice Friday and once Saturday, all against three other teams. Friday morning, the Irish face Iowa, Duke and Minnesota. Duke represents one of just three ACC opponents the Irish see during the regular season. A top-15 team, Duke is buoyed by their Varsity Eight, which has garnered ACC Crew of the Week honors in two of the past four weeks. Stone spoke about the unknowns of in-conference
opponents, just about a month out from the ACC Championships. “It’s a little bit of an unknown. There are limited weekends to race, so most ACC coaches are trying to use these weekends to race out of conference,” he said. Later on Friday, the Irish face their stiffest competition of the weekend. They’ll take on Michigan, Brown and Indiana. “Michigan is a top five or six team, Brown is pretty close to that,” Stone said. “We’re going out and getting an opportunity to race fast crews and get a chance to see where we are.” The Irish finish by facing Dartmouth, Iowa and Michigan State on Saturday. “We look at it as we have four races. Three this weekend, three opportunities to go down the race course,” Stone noted. “We have a pretty good idea of what our strength and weaknesses are and what we need to fine-tune for the ACC Championships.” Contact Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu
SMC Softball
Belles light up Olivet for 24 combined runs in doubleheader By J.J. POST Sports Writer
This weekend, Saint Mary’s softball swept a pair of games against Olivet College, dispatching the Comets 12-0 and 12-1 in a pair of five inning games. In the first game of a Sunday doubleheader, a seven run first inning got the Belles off to a flying start and set the tempo for a dominant allaround performance. The Belles batted around the order entirely before the Comets were able to register their first out of the game, when starting pitcher Malaya Shireman chased just seven batters into the inning. Saint Mary’s plated all seven runs in the inning before any batter got out. The bulk of that scoring came as a result of a pair of two RBI hits by McKenna Myers, who singled, and Alexis Rauch, who doubled. From there, the scoring explosions dried up for the most part, with another Rauch hit in the second inning bringing home another runner before the Belles went scoreless in the third. Another burst of offense followed in the fourth inning, however, with a single by Grace Renschen and a double by
Shelby Dellasandro bringing in three more runs to bring the lead to double digits. And in the fifth inning, an error in the outfield brought home Myers for the twelfth and final run. On the mound, Mandi Hettinger notched her first win of the season in a three inning outing, allowing four hits and maintaining the shutout that Grace Renschen would finish out in the final two innings. Renschen would only allow two hits in her short runout, also striking out a pair of batters. The offensive outpouring for the Belles continued in their second game of the day, starting off with a five run first inning to once again set the tone for a dominant performance. After a pair of Comet errors helped load the bases for Hettinger, the first baseman brought in the opening runs of the day with a double to left field. McKenna Shoupe would plate two more in the next at-bat with a single, before eventually scoring herself on a single by Libby Bierbaum. The offense would cool down for the next two innings, before another seven run burst by the Belles broke
the game wide open in the fourth. A pair of errors and a walk loaded the bases to start the inning, before Rauch cleared them with a grand slam over the right field fence. Following two quick outs, a pair of singles would set up a base clearing double by Bierbaum to push the lead to 11. Bierbaum would later cross the plate herself on a single by Winnie Tomsheck to close out the onslaught of scoring for the inning and series. Bierbaum also went the full game on the hill for Saint Mary’s, allowing just five hits in five innings as well as just a single run. The sophomore also struck out six batters while walking just one to take home her second win of the season with a complete game. The pair of wins have Belles currently sitting at a 6-7 record on the season. Saint Mary’s will now look ahead to a pair of doubleheaders slated for later this week, with a home showdown against Trine University on Wednesday and a trip to Alma College on Friday both on the docket. Contact J.J. Post at jpost2@nd.edu
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sports
ndsmcobserver.com | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | The Observer
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ND WOMEN’S TENNIS | 5-2, 3-4, 6-1
Irish take down No. 8 Miami, split Senior Day matches against Florida State and Oakland By MATTHEW CROW Sports Writer
Notre Dame women’s tennis concluded its home slate w ith a trio of matches this weekend, including two major tests against ACC opponents. After picking up a huge w in against No. 8 Miami on Friday, the Irish suffered a tight defeat against Florida State in the first half of Sunday’s doubleheader but bounced back to w in their home finale against Oak land. Notre Dame entered the weekend play ing some of its best tennis of the season after earning a pair of road w ins against Boston College and Sy racuse the prev ious week, and the Irish carried that energ y into the Miami match. In doubles, Julia Andreach and Yashna Yellay i kicked things off w ith a 6-2 w in on court No. 2, and the No. 41 ranked pairing of Page Freeman and Maria Oliv ia Castedo took dow n Miami’s Daevenia Achong and Eden Richardson, ranked No. 20, by a score of 6-4 to give the doubles point to the Irish. Heading into singles, the Irish continued their impressive play against a strong Miami team that featured
three of the nation’s top 100 players. Freeman, ranked No. 90 in singles, was dominant in a 6-1, 6-3 v ictor y on court No. 1 against Miami’s No. 48 Richardson. Soon after, Andreach won 7-5, 6-2 on court No. 2 against No. 28 Achong to give Notre Dame a 3-0 advantage, one point away from taking the match. Irish sophomore Meghan Coleman dropped a hardfought three-set match on court No. 6, but a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 w in by freshman Nibedita Ghosh on court No. 4 clinched a Notre Dame v ictor y. With the w in in hand, Notre Dame’s Castedo fell 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 on court No. 5, but the Irish were not done yet, as Yellay i emerged v ictorious from a 7-6, 5-7, 7-6 battle on court No. 3 to make the final score 5-2 in what was a statement v ictor y against a top-ten opponent. Notre Dame head coach A lison Silverio was pleased w ith the mental fortitude that the team played w ith, regardless of the outcome. “The piece that was most impressive was our fight and resiliency,” Silverio said after the match. “It’s always exciting to play great tennis, but at the end of the day, if
we’re out there controlling the pieces that we can control, then I certainly believe that we’re going to be successful.” They would need to bring that fight on Sunday, as the match against Florida State was tight throughout and went dow n to the w ire. Before play began, though, Notre Dame honored Maeve Koscielski, the team’s lone senior, ahead of the final home matches of the season. Silverio spoke about the impact Koscielski has had on the team during her Irish career. “[Koscielski] has had so much grow th throughout her time and experiences here and she’s someone that has been a great leader and teammate w ith whom the girls can speak to and be supported by,” Silverio said. “She’s been a great example of hard work and dedication and we’re ver y grateful for her commitment to the program and to Notre Dame.” As doubles play began, the Irish were unable to replicate the success they had against Miami and Florida State earned t wo quick w ins to claim the opening point. Castedo was defeated 6-2, 7-5 on court No. 6, but w ins
ND MEN’s LACROSSE | 18-8
Irish thrash Golden Eagles By MOLLY FER A Z ANI Spor ts Writer
Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse team took the win against Marquette Tuesday night in Milwaukee, making this their third win in a row and bringing their record to 5-4. The Irish were led by junior attack Jake Taylor with five goals. Graduate student midfielder Wheaton Jackoboice added four goals. The first period started off slowly for the Irish, with the Golden Eagles scoring the first goal within two minutes. Notre Dame’s defense kept up their energy, however, forcing multiple turnovers and winning ground balls. The Irish picked up momentum five minutes into the period, beginning with Jackoboice’s first goal. Marquette’s goalie Michael Allieri held his ground with a few additional saves despite Notre Dame’s vigorous offensive attack. The Irish offense held control of most of the rest of the first period, picking up the pace with around five minutes left and scoring three goals in a row. First, junior attack Pat
Kavanagh scored, followed by senior midfielder Quinn McCahon. Kavanagh also assisted Taylor’s first two goals. Jackoboice closed the quarter just as he had opened it. This time, his fourteenth goal of the season gave the Irish a 6-2 lead. Notre Dame took control of the ball at the beginning of the second period. Chris Kavanagh did not hesitate, scoring twice within the first three minutes. He was assisted by senior attack Griffin Westlin, and freshman midfielder Will Angrick, respectively, bringing the score to 8-2. The action passed between the two teams for a while in the middle of the game, both defenses holding their own. Taylor and Jackoboice both pulled hat tricks in the first half, helping to bring the Irish to a 12-5 lead at the close of the second period. Marquette started strong in the third period, with Bobby O’Grady scoring his 36th goal of the season. They held the energy for a while but the Irish defense responded well, not allowing a goal. The game went scoreless for nearly seven minutes. However, Taylor broke up the lull, scoring his
16th goal of the season assisted by McCahon. Chris Kavanagh took two shots on the goal in the last ten seconds of the period. Marquette picked up their offensive energy this quarter, but Notre Dame would not let them catch up. Liam Entenmann made five saves within the third quarter. The Irish retained their lead at 14-7 at the end of the period. The Golden Eagles put up a good fight, but the Irish offense dominated. They put away any little remaining doubt, scoring four more times in the fourth quarter. Graduate student Michael Fay notched the Irish’s last goal, scoring his first of the season within the final minute of the game. The Irish displayed their increasingly explosive offense in this one. The victory puts Notre Dame in a good place to finish off their season in the next three games against North Carolina, Syracuse, and Duke. The Irish first take the field next on April 21, at home, against the Tar Heels. Contact Molly Ferazani at mferazan@nd.edu
from Yellay i (3-6, 6-4, 6-0) on court No. 3 and freshman Carrie Beckman (7-5, 7-6) on court No. 5 levelled the score at 2-2. On court No. 1, Freeman battled for three sets against Florida State senior Petra Hule, ranked No. 6 in the nation, but ultimately fell in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 nailbiter. Shortly after, Andreach pulled out a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 v ictor y on court No. 2, leaving the 3-3 match to be decided on court No. 4, where Ghosh faced off against the Seminoles’ Lesedi Jacobs. The first t wo sets were split, each w ith scores of 6-3, before Jacobs claimed a 6-4 v ictor y in the final set to w in the match for Florida State. Despite the painful loss, the Irish still had a chance to finish their home season on a positive note, as they faced Oak land shortly after the conclusion of the Florida State match. Notre Dame breezed through doubles play, as Freeman and Castedo won 6-1 on court No. 1 while Beckman and Ghosh did the same on court No. 3. In singles, the Irish altered their lineup from the prev ious matches in the weekend. Oak land picked up a tight w in on court No. 1, but straight-set v ictories
M Soccer Continued from page 16
draft throws into their proposed plan. Major League Soccer is yet to provide any indication that they would move the draft. If it isn’t moved, teams that lost their top players to professional soccer would be unable to field said players in postseason games if they chose to play MLS. “They’re essentially saying to me, and all the other players who are on track to graduate in three and a half years, ‘your senior year, Paddy, you will not be able to compete for a National Championship or an ACC championship’. Because I’ll be graduating in December of 2023,” Burns said. “That aspect is tough. To ask a team to compete in the fall, have four or five guys, then to lose them and compete again in the spring for championships. It’s hard. And the other aspect of that is that some players are on three and a half year scholarships. That’s what they were given when they came in here. They’re definitely going to be gone in three and a half years because they’re not going to pay for a full semester out of their own pocket if they can’t afford it. So all of those little
from Castedo, Coleman, Koscielski, freshman Katherine Bellia and sophomore Sydney Sforzo helped Notre Dame take home the 6-1 w in. Despite not getting the desired outcome against Florida State, Notre Dame’s high level of play over the last few weeks prov ides the team w ith an optimistic outlook as they head into the homestretch of the season. “Hav ing w ins against a team like Miami is great and builds the confidence and belief in our program and in each of our players,” Silverio said. “It’s a great way to keep the momentum going into the postseason.” The Irish (13-9, 5-6) w ill have t wo more chances to continue building that momentum before the ACC Tournament, as they hit the road this weekend to play Wake Forest and NC State in their final regular season matches. “I’m fully confident in our team,” Silverio said. “As we continue to trust our preparation and make excellent choices each day, we w ill be more than prepared for battle on Friday and Saturday.” Championships.” Contact Matthew Crow at mcrow@nd.edu
elements with regards to the MLS draft are significant obstacles that, in my opinion, will not be overcome. I do not believe MLS will be pushed around by college soccer and be told what to do.” The other core concern raised by Notre Dame and other opponents of the 21st-century model regards the extent it would affect and stretch schools’ background and support staff resources. Many college soccer teams’ support personnel such as trainers and sports information directors do not exclusively work within college soccer- and serve jobs with other teams at universities that would leave them overworked or unable to work with the soccer team at all if the season was extended. “For the coaches that are desperately pushing for this 21st-century model, it’ll be interesting to see if they’re willing to tape the boys’ ankles in the training room and put stats on the scoreboard while the games are going on,” said Burns. “Because those are the jobs that need to be done for college soccer to work and for us to be able to play.” Contact J.J. Post at jpost2@ nd.edu
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Sports
The observer | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
SPORTS AUTHORITY
Moller: Eight overreactions after watching Major League Baseball’s Opening Weekend Nate Moller Sports Writer
The 2022 Major League Baseball season is underway. Most teams are four games in w ith over 150 games to play. The opening weekend doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. But, just for the fun of it, let’s overreact to some of the happenings from opening weekend.
The Colorado Rockies are contenders Colorado was a surprise team in free agency this offseason, gaining Kris Br yant in the offseason in a surprising move. Through four games this year, the Rockies sit at 3-1 heading into Tuesday night after an impressive first weekend that saw the Rockies take two of three from the Dodgers. The pitching for the Rockies has been stellar so far w ith the team only conceding 15 runs over these four games, and German Marquez looks like he has the stuff to be a stellar ace for the Rockies. In a div ision where ever yone expected the Dodgers to dominate and the Giants and Padres to contend, maybe the Rockies can contend as well.
The Brewers will be the most disappointing team of 2022 Ever y year there is a
team that disappoints, and based on opening weekend this year, it could be the Brewers. The Brewers dropped t wo out of three at Wrigley to start the season, and then on Monday night, they lost to the Orioles. The hitting could be a major concern for the Brewers if opening weekend is any indicator. Over their first four games, the Brewers have scored just nine runs, and the team has already struck out a staggering 27 times. Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff lead the starting rotation, but this won’t matter if the Brewers can’t score. Christian Yelich has looked good at the plate so far, but the Brewers w ill need others to step up if this team is going to be as good as they were expected to be.
Byron Buxton will win AL MVP Bu xton has show n f lashes of brilliance the last couple of years, but ever y single year he seems to crash into a wall and get injured. This year, Bu xton looks brilliant yet again. He already has three home runs and t wo doubles, and he has an OPS of 1.478. In addition to the hitting, Bu xton is arguably the best center fielder in the game. His speed also makes him one of the best base stealers in the game as well.
If Bu xton can finally stay healthy and continue to hit even half as well as he is right now, he w ill be in the conversation for AL MV P.
The Blue Jays will win the World Series This was my preseason prediction, and I w ill stand by it after the first weekend. The Blue Jays are currently 3-1, and they have show n that they can w in highscoring and low-scoring games. V ladimir Guererro Jr., George Springer, and Teoscar Hernandez have been tearing it up at the plate for the Blue Jays. A ll three players are batting well over .300 currently. If the hitting can stay on this level, this w ill be a ver y tough team to beat considering they have a starting rotation that consists of Kev in Gausman, Hy un Jin Ry u, Jose Berrios, and A lek Manoah.
The A’s might not be all that bad The A’s current team pay roll is less than some indiv idual players’ salaries in the league. However, the A’s might not be as bad as people thought coming into the season. The A’s did lose their first t wo games against the Phillies. However, they won the series finale and then they beat the Tampa Bay Rays 13-2 last night. The A’s should not be a good baseball team this year by any means, but
they have proved the world w rong many times before. For some reason, this season feels like it could have some “Moneyball”t y pe magic to it in Oak land.
The Dodgers will not win the NL West The Dodgers came into the season as over whelming favorites to w in the NL West, but after losing the season’s opening series to the Rockies, there might be more question marks w ith this team than many expected. The Giants and Padres also figure to be in the mix, and this div ision could be up for grabs. With a lineup that has Mookie Betts, Justin Turner, Trea Turner, Ma x Munch, Freddie Freeman, and Cody Bellinger, the Dodgers should be the best team in baseball, but a lot of those guys are getting older, and they might be prone to regress this season. The starting rotation w ill be led by Walker Buehler, a bona fide ace. But aside from him, the Dodgers turn to veteran Clay ton Kershaw and hope other pitchers can step up over the course of the season.
The Angels will have yet another disappointing season The Angels are one of the most perplex ing teams in baseball, as they have t wo of the leagues’ stars in Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. They dropped three of four
to the Astros to start the season. Not only that, they did not look like a good team over the majorit y of the series. In four games, they surrendered 20 runs and only crossed the plate 10 times. If the Angels are going to bounce back, they w ill need Noah Sy ndergaard to have a bounce-back season, and they w ill likely need to get another good arm in the rotation as well. They w ill also need some more firepower at the plate to complement Trout and Ohtani. It is going to be a tough task for the Angels to finally break through and make the playoffs.
The 2022 season will give us the craziest wild card race ever With a third w ild card added this season, there is bound to be plent y of chaos as mediocre teams jousting for the last playoff spot. Through Monday’s game, there are already a ton of teams that are hovering around the .500 mark. The AL Central, for example, has four 2-2 teams. I expect there to be four or five teams fighting out for that third spot in both leagues once September rolls around. Contact Nate Moller at nmoller2@nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
SMC Tennis | 8-1
Saint Mary’s squad falls to Kalamazoo, prepares to take on Hope in next conference matchup By OLIVIA SCHATZ Associate Sports Editor
The Saint Mar y’s Belles saw an 8-1 loss against the Kalamazoo Hornets Tuesday evening. The competition started off tough for the Belles in doubles. The first match saw senior Meredith Heckert and junior Kaly n Borger battle throughout the set. Eventually, the pair lost 8-6 in second doubles to the Hornets. Junior Kathleen McLeod and freshman A lay na Campbell battled through a
host of long rallies but never broke through. Despite the fight, they lost 8-0, a score that didn’t ref lect the back-and-forth rallies that persisted through No. 1 doubles. Senior Nik ki Rust and sophomore Katie Hunter ended the doubles w ith an 8-2 loss, and the Hornets went into singles w ith three points on the Belles. The Belles also took devastating blows w ith singles. Rust opened up the afternoon but ultimately fell 6-1, 6-0 to opponent Meghan Killmaster. The singles matches
would continue to see the Belles lose w ith little to no scoring. In similar fashion, Hunter lost the six singles 6-2, 6-0, followed by Heckert losing 6-0, 6-4 and then Campbell losing the first singles 6-0, 6-3. Finally, Borger would notch the first Belles point in the afternoon. Borger won the first game 6-1, before a close 7-5 second game where she secured the point. McLeod battled throughout her match. The first game saw a score of 5-5. Hornet Ella Knight scored,
before McLeod answered, bringing the score to 6-6 and forcing a tiebreaker. Here, McLeod lost 7-3 before falling 6-0 in the second game. Kalama zoo is currently undefeated in the MI A A (50) while Saint Mar y’s has a 3-2 record. With only four matches left, the Belles hope to outperform both their opponents and their prev ious performances to carr y out the rest of their season on a high note. Saint Mar ys has a week to rest up and prepare for their match against Hope
College. The Fly ing Dutch have a 12-7 record compared to the Belles’ 6-9. It’ll be a tough matchup for the Belles. The t wo teams have both played Calv in this season. Calv in handed the Belles their other conference loss that had a score of 7-2, but Hope, rather than losing w ith that score, toppled Calv in 7-2. The Saint Mar y’s Belles host the Fly ing Dutch next Tuesday, April 19, at 4 p.m. Contact Olivia Schatz at oschatz@nd.edu
sports
Track Continued from page 16
w ith the top 24 best marks in the countr y qualif y ing for the meet. “That performance put her firmly on the bubble to qualif y for the national meet in the multi,” Sparks said. Brady w ill be competing in the multi again this week w ith the hope of further improv ing her position in the national standings. “She’s going to California to compete in the Mt. Sac Relays and do the multi again this week,” Sparks said. W hile Brady competed Thursday and Friday when the weather was better, the weather turned for the worse in Knox v ille as the weekend went on, making it difficult for athletes to get good marks and times. “It was snow ing at times dow n there. It was really w indy,” Sparks said. “It was what you might call a character building meet. You have to go out there and compete no matter what the conditions are, don’t worr y about your time and just tr y to beat people.” Graduate student thrower Rachel Tanczos had a strong performance as well, placing fourth in the discus throw w ith a throw of 48.32m and fifth in the hammer throw w ith a throw of 60.12m. Sparks was pleased w ith the improvements he is seeing from Tanczos. “Rachel Tanczos still keeps getting a little bit better,” Sparks said. “She had a slow start to the outdoor season much like she had a slow start to the indoor season. She ended the indoor season on a good note, so we hope she continues to make big steps ever y week.” Other notable marks from the Tennessee Relays came in the javelin throw w ith senior Gabe Diederich taking second w ith a toss of 45.58m. On the men’s side, juniors John Keenan and Austin Parsons took third and fourth in the javelin w ith throws of 64.16m and 64.01m, respectively. At the Joe Walker Inv ite in Ox ford, the conditions weren’t much better, making it difficult for the women’s distance runners to record good times. Sparks discussed what he saw from junior Oliv ia Markezich, who competed for the first time this outdoor season at Ox ford. “She was a little bit off, which is why we wanted to get her started in an event that wasn’t her marquee thing w ith the steeplechase being her main event for the year, and she w ill race that in two weeks,” Sparks said. “It was just a starting point. She has trained well
ndsmcobserver.com | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | The Observer
and she has looked strong in practice. We just had to break the outdoor track rust off, and she w ill be ready to go in two weeks when we put her in the steeplechase.” This weekend, the team w ill return to action w ith three separate meets. The men’s distance team w ill head out to California to compete in the Mt. Sac Relays and Br yan Clay Inv ite, and the majorit y of the remaining team w ill compete in the Louisv ille Inv ite. A lthough the majorit y of the men’s distance team w ill be racing, graduate student Yared Nuguse w ill take this weekend off to prepare for the long outdoor season ahead. “Yared still won’t race,” Sparks said. “We are anticipating a big outdoor track season from him. He’s training really well. As a result of that, he is not going to race for a while because we feel like he w ill be racing in June and July.” The men w ill race ever y thing from the 800m to the 10,000m in California, and Sparks is hoping his team can replicate their success from the indoor regular season. “We had some strong performances during the indoor season and then some guys struggled at the national meet,” Sparks said. The main reason the men are traveling out to California is to get qualif y ing times for the regional meet at a race w ith nice conditions. Sparks hopes that seniors Dylan Jacobs and Matthew Carmondy among others can get regional qualif y ing times. “Dylan Jacobs had a great regular season, and Matthew Carmody had a great conference meet to run for the w in there,” Sparks said.
“I would love to see those guys pick up where they left off for the most part and get their national qualif y ing marks out of the way in California. That’s why they are both going out there to make sure they don’t have to deal w ith the w ind and the rain.” Sparks acknowledged that
the men’s distance team has not raced much this year in order to target this meet and get a qualif y ing time early in the season. “They have sat out a couple of meets in lieu of going to this one big meet,” Sparks said. “We would like to knock out as many regional qualif y ing marks Paid Advertisement
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as we can this weekend in California.” The Mt. Sac Relays w ill run from April 13-16, the Br yan Clay Inv ite w ill run from April 13-15 and the Louisv ille Inv ite w ill run from April 15-16. Contact Nate Moller at nmoller2@nd.edu
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The observer | Wednesday, April 13, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com
ND MEN’s soccer
Irish speak out against proposed year-round model By J.J. POST Sports Writer
This week discourse in the college soccer world erupted regarding the 21st Centur y Model, a proposal to be voted on at the Div ision One college council that would extend the collegiate soccer season into the spring. This includes mov ing all postseason play, such as the ACC and NCA A Tournaments, into the spring. Among the potential problems are rosters changing from fall to spring, due to scholarship length and the MLS Draft. Concerns about the strain on students-athletes of a yearround competitive schedule have also been raised. The proposal has been backed by a number of prominent programs. North Carolina and Clemson, for instance, announced their support. But one school has made clear its vocal stance against the proposal: Notre Dame.
Burns, Irish speak against new model. ANYA RUFFINO | The Observer
Irish sophomore defender Paddy Burns controls the ball during Notre Dame’s Elite Eight matchup with Pittsburgh on Dec. 4, 2021.
out
Sophomore fullback Paddy Burns announced the team’s unanimous decision to
oppose the proposal Monday morning on Tw itter and Instagram, posting an official statement detailing the reasons behind Notre Dame’s opposition. In an inter v iew w ith the Obser ver, Burns made clear that the team was both informed and united in their decision to stand against the 21st-centur y model. “We watched the v ideos that the 21st-centur y model prov ided. We read through the PowerPoint slides that they gave us. And to be quite frank, it was a no-brainer on our end,” Burns said. “It was a ver y consistent thought process from all players. We all made our ow n indiv idual decisions. Our coaches were great. They had no input. Our coach wouldn’t even tell us what he would prefer. It was solely up to the players and, indiv idually, no one supported this model for several different reasons.” Said reasons, Burns explained, are centered around both the players and the teams’ support staff. Regarding the players, he discussed the importance of the spring offseason to
developing relationships off the field. Burns noted at Notre Dame, where the communit y of dorm culture is emphasized as a crucial component of the school life, the proposal would all but eliminate the possibilit y of enjoy ing said culture and building friendships away from the soccer team. “I’m in St. Edwards Hall, and no other soccer players are in the dorm. I absolutely love it here,” said Burns. “It’s ver y healthy to have friends outside of soccer. This spring w ith no competitive fixtures, I’ve been able to immerse myself in dorm life a lot more, making new friends and developing new interests.”
MLS Draft, scholarship length provide concerns. Burns also discussed the implications of the proposal for players currently on pace to graduate early due to either scholarship length or the presence of the MLS draft in Januar y. The 21st Centur y Model prov ides no clear statement on the w rench the see M SOCCER PAGE 13
RoWING
Track and FIELD
Irish compete in Tennesse Relays, Joe Walker invite
Irish row in Ohio State Regatta
By NATE MOLLER
By AIDAN THOM AS
Sports Writer
Spor ts Editor
The Irish faced some difficult weather this past weekend at the Tennessee Relays in Knox v ille and the Joe Walker Inv ite in Ox ford, Mississippi, but they had some strong performances nevertheless. One of the top performers of the weekend came from freshman A laina Brady in the heptathlon. Brady took home second in the event, scoring 5,573 points. That point total puts Brady third on the all-time list at Notre Dame and also currently gives her the eighth best time in the countr y. Head coach Matt Sparks was ecstatic about Brady’s performance, which should put her in a great position to qualif y for the national meet
MAX PETROSKY | The Observer
see TRACK PAGE 15
Irish freshman hurdler Cari Isemann competes in the Notre Dame Invitational on Jan. 22, 2022. She placed fourth in the 60m hurdles.
The Notre Dame row ing squad took on some tough conditions at the Ohio State (OSU) regatta this past weekend. The Irish raced the Buckeyes in a dual race in the morning before adding the Ok lahoma Sooners into the fold, racing both squads in the afternoon. “Tough conditions. Cold, rainy, hail,” Irish head coach Martin Stone said. “The 2V race against Ohio State and Ok lahoma, the hail was coming dow n so hard, we couldn’t see in the launch. One thing that stood out was how positive we were given the tr y ing conditions.” Notre Dame faced a tall task in the morning against a ver y strong Buckeyes’ squad. Ohio State swept the morning races, and each boat won by at least 10 seconds. Four of the six races ended w ith Ohio State w inning by more
than 20 seconds. “We didn’t get dow n on ourselves after the morning session. Ohio State is ver y, ver y good,” Stone said. “To come back and race competitively against Ok lahoma felt prett y good.” Indeed, the Irish rallied against the Sooners in the afternoon. The Buckeyes continued to dominate, w inning all six afternoon races. However, the Irish beat Ok lahoma in three of the five races the Sooners rowed in. After a rock y start and thirdplace finish in the third Varsit y Eight, Notre Dame looked much improved in the third Varsit y Four. After row ing the race in 8: 04 in the morning, the Irish cut nine seconds off their time. They came in just t wo seconds behind Ohio State and finished second, 9.6 seconds ahead of the Buckeyes’ second boat. see ROWING PAGE 12