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College campuses gripped by anti-Israel protests

Amid crackdowns at other universities, ND protests quietly

By LIAM KELLY Notre Dame News Editor

Over the past week, protests against Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza on university campuses have engulfed college campuses across the country.

While protests have been common across campuses since October, when Israel launched its invasion of Gaza following Hamas’ initial attack on October 7, the protests increased in magnitude last week when students at Columbia University camped out in tents and refused to

leave. The New York Police Department was called Thursday, leading to the arrest of over 100 demonstrators, many of them students. Columbia decided to hold classes virtually this week, in response to anti-semitic sentiments expressed at the protests.

Protests then ensued at New York University, where 133 demonstrators were arrested Monday, and Yale University, where 60 protestors were arrested. Similar demonstrations have been made in the midwest nearer to Notre Dame at the

University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota.

Although pro-Palestine demonstrations have taken place at Notre Dame this semester, there have been no major protests or encampments set up on campus at the scale of other universities.

When asked about the policy of the Notre Dame Police Department towards protests of this nature, University spokesperson Sue Ryan referred The Observer to the section on demonstrations in the University’s

SMC reveals graduation lineup

By ELIZABETH BURT News Writer

On April 16, Saint Mary’s College sent out an email releasing the name of the 2024 commencement speaker as well as the individuals who will receive honorary doctoral degrees during the commencement ceremony.

According to the email sent out announcing these three women, Patti Phillips will deliver the 2024 Commencement address.

Phillips is the current chief executive officer of Women Leaders in Sports and the former executive director of the Kansas City Sports Commission’s

Women’s Intersport Network. “Her story will inspire our graduates and the Commencement audience,” Saint Mary’s College President Katie Conboy said in an email. “We are so pleased to confer upon her the degree of honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.”

Michelle Egan, chair of the Commencement Committee and special assistant to the President, helped appoint the commencement speaker and believes her voice will be beneficial and meaningful for this year’s graduating class.

“She is committed to developing women leaders in sports

Protests

du Lac standards of conduct, which require that protests be “peaceful and orderly,” and must be registered in advance with the Vice President for Campus Safety and University of Operations. The standards also require that the demonstrations be organized by students and adhere to “time, place and manner” restrictions so as not to disrupt campus activities.

Although University policy may prohibit demonstrations of the kind organized at Columbia and Yale, some students and organizations expressed their support for the demonstrations at these universities.

Fadwa Kamari, a graduate student and member of the club Student Voices for Palestine, argued protests should be allowed in the name of open debate.

“Academic institutions are supposed to be a place where diverse opinions and actions for change are born,” she said. “Instead, we’ve seen institutions all over the country strip students of their freedom of expression and take extreme measures to suppress anyone who speaks out against them.”

Kamari praised students at Columbia and Yale for “reclaiming their academic spaces … from a hostile, repressive environment.”

Occupation Free ND, a proPalestine alumni group, also

affirmed its support for the protests in a statement to The Observer.

“We support all students fighting against the moral bankruptcy of our universities, just as students in 1968 did against the Vietnam War and the students of 1988 did against South African Apartheid,” the statement read.

Occupation Free ND specifically criticized the University’s association with aerospace company Lockheed Martin, which the organization claims makes the University complicit in what it called a “genocide.“ The organization argued the University is focusing too much on profit.

“Universities like Columbia,

Yale, Notre Dame, etc. pretend to be centers of learning, wisdom and freedom, but the reality is these institutions have multi-billion dollar endowments and leaders who make seven-figures,” they said.

Francesca Freeman, a graduate student, also called the situation in Gaza a “genocide” and praised students for protesting against it.

“As Palestinian liberation activists at Notre Dame, we stand in solidarity with student activists across the country against the genocide in Gaza,” she said.

The protests at college campuses have attracted national attention, with President Biden condemning “the antisemitic protests” while also

convicting “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

Former President Trump similarly condemned the protestors, but put the blame for their actions on Biden.

“You have very radical people wanting to rip the colleges down, the universities down, and that’s a shame,” Trump said. “It’s really on Biden. He’s got the wrong signal, he’s got the wrong tone, he’s got the wrong words.”

When asked if they agreed with Trump’s statements, the Notre Dame College Republicans club declined to comment.

Contact Liam Kelly at lkelly8@nd.edu

Students reflect on admissions before deadline

By GRACE TADAJWESKI Associate News Editor

“I was really nervous to leave high school, but also ready and excited to leave high school,” junior Mary Grace Walsh said. “I wish I could go back and tell senior year Mary Grace, ‘Don’t worry. You’re going to find your people, and it’s going to be really hard, and you won’t always be sure, but it all works out.’ [Notre Dame is] a place that’s filled with a lot of joy and love and warm fuzzy feelings for me.”

With the May 1 commitment deadline just one week away, prospective college students around the country are finalizing their post-high school plans.

Earlier in the semester, Notre Dame held two in-person admitted students days, which were termed “The Rally,” and online admitted student sessions as well. High school senior Michael Camilleri applied and was accepted to Notre Dame through the restricted early action application process.

“It’s always been on my mind, and it’s always been a dream and goal to go here,” incoming freshman Michael Camilleri said. “But within the last few years, I really got my heart set on coming here instead of thinking about it like, ‘Oh, it would be nice to go to Notre Dame someday.’ So during the process of looking for colleges, I found that Notre Dame is actually the place that I really want to be and not some impossible goal.”

Because Camilleri found out he was accepted in the winter, he did not apply to any other colleges. Camilleri grew up familiar with Notre Dame, and he participated in the Notre Dame Vision high school summer program.

The program “really kind of solidified, ‘Oh, this is my top choice,’” Camilleri said.

According to Camilleri, meeting people through the program such as camp counselors affirmed the idea that he could see himself on campus. Similarly,

freshman Kaitlyn Dooley found a sense of goodness in the people she met at last year’s admitted student days.

“That was probably the thing that sold me, coming here and having literally no expectations, because I knew nothing about here other than I applied,” Dooley said. “Having no expectations coming in, it just felt very comfortable, very welcoming.”

Dooley thinks interacting with people at Notre Dame is what “sold” her into attending. Dooley discovered the University through college search filters and applied for regular decision.

“It was very much not a top contender,” Dooley said. “I kind of forgot I applied to it and was very much not tracking [the application status] when the decisions were coming out for regular decision.”

Dooley found out that she was accepted when she received an email inviting her to attend admitted students day because she missed the initial email stating she was accepted. While she was much less familiar with Notre Dame a year ago, according to Dooley, her time here has only affirmed what she thought to be true of the school.

“I think it affirmed and grew what I thought to be true that it was a great school with a good environment,” Dooley said. “I think the community is even better than I expected, particularly in the dorm I’m in. I knew they had the whole dorm culture stuff, but I didn’t expect it to be as fun and [have as] great [of] people, my closest friends.”

Coming into his college search, sophomore Demi Olawoyin was focused more on the degree and less on the school. However, he knew he wanted to attend a school with a faith background.

“As I transitioned from junior to senior year [in high school], I’d say I was praying a lot for more discernment and just whatever school I end up going

As the May 1 deadline for college committment approaches, prospective students have famiarlized themselves with the campus and participated in admitted student days in preparation for their final decision.

to just let it be the right one for me,” Olawoyin said.

Olawoyin had heard of Notre Dame from his sister, who was a big fan of the school, and admired it for its campus. Olawoyin ended up applying to the University through the regular decision process.

“The day I found out, I was really excited,” Olawoyin said. “I was jumping around like ‘Oh wow, I got into Notre Dame.’”

According to Olawoyin, talking to counselors and current Notre Dame students is what set the school apart from other universities.

“I just really liked the culture at Notre Dame based on the experiences I heard from those students I spoke to. I’d say that was definitely the tipping factor in me choosing Notre Dame,” Olawoyin said.

Olawoyin is “100 percent” happy with his decision to attend Notre Dame, despite originally wanting to stay closer to his home in Houston.

Additionally, Olawoyin found a Nigerian community here, which is something that he was not expecting to find.

“The biggest thing I’ve experienced here — community,” Olawoyin said. “There are a lot of different communities

you can involve yourself in which I think is really important. Regardless of whatever you’re studying, you can always mingle and mix with people of different backgrounds. I think there are a lot of students with similar backgrounds as you, regardless of where you come from.”

While Olawoyin is the first in his family to attend Notre Dame, Walsh said that Notre Dame was “in my blood.” Although Walsh’s aunt, uncle and father attended Notre Dame. Walsh said that the school was not only appealing because of her family history.

“I thought that Notre Dame was going to be my first college decision, but it was not,” Walsh said. “I got accepted into [Loyola University Maryland], hours before I opened my Notre Dame decision, and I had about three hours of really, totally spiraling of being like, ‘Oh gosh, like, do I know what I’m doing? Is this where I want to be?’ I got really good financial aid from [Loyola University Maryland]. I was reminding myself that even if I didn’t get into Notre Dame, there were really good things ahead. But then I got in.” Walsh wanted to go to Notre Dame since she was a kid because she wanted to attend a

school with a strong theology, Catholic roots and community.

“It didn’t take me that long to decide,” Walsh said. “I knew that Notre Dame was the place that I really wanted, and I also felt a lot of peace with Notre Dame.”

At the time Walsh was considering colleges, she was also discerning religious life and considering what it means to be called somewhere.

“I really felt in addition to really wanting to go here, I felt it was where I was meant to be,” Walsh said. “And that there were people that I needed to meet and things I needed to do, and it was a community where I would learn a lot and grow a lot and be challenged in a lot of really good ways.

“I was just telling someone the other day that I feel like I’m finally at a place in my life and in my time at Notre Dame where I feel like I belong, like I have a home,” she added. “I mean my family is great, and I love my home, but I never imagined that there would be another place where I could feel that way. Notre Dame has become that for me in many, many ways.”

Contact Grace Tadajweski at gtadajwe@nd.edu

ALYSA GUFFEY | The Observer

ND Sustainability hosts Earth Month events

By ROSE ANDROWICH News Writer

Throughout April, Notre Dame Sustainability hosted a series of events as part of their Earth Month. The events include green tours held weekly and a campus tree tour.

Senior and sustainability intern Joe Golden led a green tour on April 19. Morgan Munsen, a senior research and partnership program manager at the Nanovic Institute, said she felt excited to attend the green tour because of her interest in sustainability at Notre Dame. She also mentioned the Nanovic Institute’s current efforts in trying to grow their research about sustainability.

“I was really excited to see this green tour so that I could get myself up to date on a lot of the current happenings in sustainability around the campus as the Nanovic Institute seeks to grow its research profile in sustainability. [Specifically, in] thinking about how we can bring European [perspectives],” Munsen said.

Geory Kurtzhals, the senior director for sustainability, also noted some of the office’s efforts toward decarbonization with the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The University has invested in geothermal infrastructure and a hydroelectric project in partnership with South Bend.

“The geothermal work helps to decarbonize our heating and

Speakers

and beyond. She is a charismatic leader who will be a very powerful voice for our graduates to hear before they leave Saint Mary’s,” Egan said in a later email.

When asked about the process of choosing the speakers and the honorees, Egan explained they choose from a list of nominees compiled from names submitted from students, staff, faculty, trustees and alumnae. From that list, they choose individuals to recognize “for outstanding achievements in their respective fields, significant contributions to the life of the College and/or their contributions to other recognized organizations nationally or internationally.”

Alongside Phillips, Saint Mary’s alumna Frances Bardello Craig ‘64 and humanitarian Sister Norma Pimentel, MJ are being awarded Honorary Doctorates.

Craig is to be honored as an Honorary Doctor of Science, recognizing her contribution to the field of computer strategy and software development.

After graduating with her bachelor of science degree in mathematics, she went on to found her own company, Computer Strategies, in 1988. The company has since evolved into hosting

cooling systems, while the hydroelectric project is an example of using a renewable electricity source,” Kurtzhals said.

Kurtzhals said the Office for Sustainability also has several partnerships with operational teams at Notre Dame. The office recently partnered with Notre Dame Transportation services to support the adoption of electric vehicles as part of the motor pool rental program.

Kurtzhals said the office has also worked with building services to build trust in Notre Dame’s recycling system.

“Another partnership includes our work with Building Services to rebuild trust in Notre Dame’s recycling system,” Kurtzhals said. “Recycling has been a challenge worldwide, not just at Notre Dame. Our partnership with Building Services represents incremental work toward updating campus infrastructure, processes and awareness of recycling opportunities.”

Kurtzhals said that in addition to their partnerships, they also engage with students, faculty and staff “to promote a greater understanding of sustainability,” which includes their Earth Month Promotion.

“This month, we’ve offered over a dozen events and engagement opportunities — several of which highlight the sustainability-minded features of Notre Dame’s campus and the partnership required to carry out sustainability work,” Kurtzhals said.

nearly 400 employees and been renamed Unanet.

“There’s no hard and fast rule to have an alumna receive an honorary degree every year, but we welcome the opportunity to honor one of our own,” Egan said. “[Craig] has broken so many glass ceilings throughout her career and is such a positive role model for our graduates.”

Sister Norma Pimentel’s humanitarian work “is reflective of all four of Saint Mary’s core values,” Egan said.

At the United States-Mexico border, Pimentel currently works with and is the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in San Juan, Texas with a focus in ministry oversight and providing shelter, food, and other necessities to migrants coming into America. Since her appointment in 2004, Catholic Charities has provided aid to over 100,000 people at the border.

She is to be honored as an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, recognizing her work as a Sister with the Missionaries of Jesus and for, what Egan says is her “radical imitation of Christ reaching out to the poor.”

“All of these women are noteworthy in their life accomplishments,” Egan said in her email. Contact Elizabeth

Barbara Hellenthal, associate professor of the biological sciences and curator for the Museum of Biodiversity at Notre Dame, also led a tree tour on April 19.

Hellenthal noted during the tour the walnut trees planted by the Congregation of the Holy Cross were placed as a moneymaking venture in the late 70s and not part of Notre Dame’s campus property.

Golden said the trees at Notre Dame are important because of their history and how tree canopies help reduce the overall outside temperature on campus.

“These trees have such a deep

and rich history with Notre Dame. They not only are beautiful, but they’re so diverse, and they create this canopy that helps reduce the heat,” Golden said.

Golden and Hellenthal in their respective tours pointed out a tree with a ring attached located on God Quad. Golden said the tree was planted during Father Sorin’s time, and the ring on the tree was used for horses.

“This tree has been here since Father Sorin was here,” Golden said. “They used to hook up their horses to this hook and go to the post office.”

Golden noted a project undertaken by the Office for

Sustainability attempts to reduce the waste of 250,000 candles burned at the grotto by sending the candle wax to Quality Compound Manufacturing LLC, who uses the candle wax for industrial purposes. Notre Dame also sends the candle jars to Notre Dame’s candle supplier to be cleaned.

Munsen said the project shows how sustainability can be furthered by one person thinking creatively about a solution.

“It takes one person to have an idea,” she said. “Talk to another person and think creatively about a solution.”

Contact Rose Androwich at randrowich01@saintmarys.edu

Courtesy of the Snite Museum of Art

Notre Dame Sustainability has hosted a series of events this April as part of Earth Month, such as a green tour and a campus tree tour, with the aim of boosting engagement and incentivizing decarbonization.

The semester of suffering well Notre Dame’s subway alumni are invaluable

I wish someone told me it’s allowed to suck when you’re crying in front of CJ’s or at the Grotto or in LaFun or in a very public spot of North Dining Hall.

It’s allowed to suck, and you’re allowed to hate everything, and yet, it’s also allowed to be a blast — when you’re dancing in someone else’s dress, flirting with a friend’s RA, going home with the girls and sleeping on their couch, calling it the best sleep of the semester.

The truth is, it’s allowed to be whatever it needs to be. It’s allowed to be hard. It’s allowed to be great. It’s allowed to be absurd. It’s allowed to be extremely boring. It’s also allowed to be negative 20 degrees, and you’re allowed to skate to class on the icy sidewalks, turning your brisk 10-minute stroll to DeBart into a 21-minute near-death experience.

I admit, this semester has sucked in many ways, but I’m sort of grateful — because even in the sucking, there was hope and lots of love, and I won’t forget it.

I won’t forget that time I swore I said something super profound when it was really just profoundly stupid — because “men aren’t really men until they act like men,” sort of sounds like a line from Socrates.

I won’t forget when Clare and I ranked every single Keenan Revue skit. The news skit was unequivocally the best, but the submarine skit was a close second.

I won’t forget my walk of shame, which was really just me leaving my girlfriends’ apartment wearing the plastic safari hat I acquired from Lizzie’s birthday party.

I won’t forget the groundhog not seeing his shadow, but Mother Nature somehow still blessing us with an extra long winter and no sunlight. I might never trust that groundhog again.

I won’t forget curling up with Emily and Caroline in my Twin XL bed, and all of us dozing off after a long girl talk.

I won’t forget my ex-talking phase pulling up to my friends’ party, and me high-fiving him because a side-hug simply didn’t feel appropriate.

I won’t forget my phone dying during the Holy Half and having to listen to myself breathe for six more miles. I also had to listen to the girls behind me, also breathing for six more miles.

I won’t forget the time I told a boy he looked like the Lorax and then DMed him later that night to reiterate that I sincerely meant it as a compliment.

I won’t forget the FaceTime calls from Amelia and Emily, missing them and missing Rome and missing those places we’ll share forever, the language which floats in the streets, the wine which goes for three euro (my favorite part).

I won’t forget sitting outside of the reading room for three hours with a friend, talking about how we plan to embark on a period of singleness to “find ourselves.” Go Irish, stay single!

I won’t forget that first trip to Brooke and Haley’s apartment, how my friends welcomed me home to South Bend after my months abroad, and it feeling like no time had passed.

I won’t forget dancing the night away at Farley formal with Annelise, her twirling and dipping me, and feeling weightless on the Dahnke dance floor (also almost flashing 50 people when I felt weightless on the Dahnke dance floor).

I won’t forget showing up to my consumer behavior exam 30 minutes late. Don’t ask.

I won’t forget the early morning trips to O’Shag to keep Clare company and all those breakfast burritos from Charron Commons.

I won’t forget the time a guy told me I looked like a

beluga whale, and all my friends yelled at him and told him, “That’s our friend, you can’t say that” and also “She doesn’t even look like a beluga whale.”

I won’t forget sprinting to Irish Flats, clutching Helen’s hair straightener and then ripping my white leather pants on the way there. The white leather pants were one of many casualties during that weekend.

I won’t forget rolling around in the grass with Haley and then winding up in some random Sted’s offcampus house. They gave us pizza, and we all became friends, though I don’t remember most of their names.

I won’t forget the lake walks. So many lake walks. Good lake walks, bad lake walks, extra bad lake walks.

I won’t forget crying over brunch with Molly and Sarah at Dainty Maid because life is so fleeting.

I won’t forget those frequent calls to Fife between classes and our spontaneous drives to coffee shops to “do homework” when we never have any real intentions of “doing homework.”

I won’t forget huddling around a big table in the jungle on a Sunday night with the senior girls doing homework, thinking about how this time next year, they’ll be elsewhere, and that’s terrifying but I’m also so so happy for them, and this article is dedicated to them.

I won’t forget my sisters. My girls. The people who make this whole thing worth it. The people who make the sucking suck less. The people who help me suffer well.

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

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

You can walk into a bar in Boston, New York, Baltimore, Chicago or Philadelphia, and everyone will know the greatest of all university fight songs, the Notre Dame Victory March. You can’t say that of any other university fight song.

On the beach in North Wildwood, New Jersey, many flags are flown: the Italian tricolor, the Irish tricolor and the flag of No Shoes Nation. But perhaps the most popular of all is the flag of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Very few of the people flying the Notre Dame flag are traditional alumni of Our Lady’s University, but they play another important role: subway alumni.

Most other colleges have fans that are largely linked to their fanbase by state boundaries: Ohio State, Penn State, Alabama. But one walk around the stadium at the Blue-Gold game or through the parking lots on any given football Saturday of the fall, and one can see that Notre Dame’s fanbase is national in scope. That is a gift.

Notre Dame alumni always have a home in cities across the country — and in some cases, the world — because of the fanbase. These people actively root for our university, possibly without ever stepping foot on campus. Walking through the O’Hare Airport or the Philadelphia Airport wearing a Notre Dame sweatshirt is a guarantee to get one or two “Go Irish” chants thrown your way or even a friendly conversation. Hundreds of thousands of people have a fondness towards Notre Dame.

I was connected to Notre Dame long before I went to school here, because of my family’s Irish-Catholic identity and passion for sports. Combining the two gave us one obvious team to root for, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Passionate Notre Dame fans loyal to the Fighting Irish despite having no formal connections to the University are

often called subway alumni. The subway alumni get their name from the “throngs of Irish and immigrants who jammed the subway lines from the New York City boroughs to Yankee Stadium” for the Army v. Notre Dame games of the 1900s. These immigrants were symbolically connected to the university by way of their Irish and Catholic identities. Subway alumni remain an incredibly important part of our fanbase as they show Notre Dame’s far reach beyond the university community.

In the early days of college football, “’Notre Dame was the only truly national university,’ said the football scholar Michael Oriard, who played [here] in the 1960s. ‘Once they discovered they were connecting with Catholics all over the country and saw it was a tremendous advantage, they embraced it.’”

On game days, the parking lots of campus are filled with Notre Dame students, Notre Dame community-members and opposing team fans, but another important group’s presence adds greatly to the excitement: subway alumni.

Notre Dame’s subway alumni value Notre Dame. Notre Dame needs to continue to recognize their value and their authentic connection to the university. This relationship should not be diminished because it is not an academic one. The emotional connection, which is often multigenerational, of subway alumni has a magnificent value that a dollar number cannot be assigned to.

Erin Drumm is a senior at Notre Dame studying American Studies, journalism and history. She is from Philadelphia and spends her summers (and every weekend possible) at the shore in Cape May County, New Jersey. Outside of The Observer, Erin can be found cheering on the Fighting Irish and the Phillies, reading and talking about pop culture and history. She can be reached at edrumm@nd.edu.

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

Kate Casper Outsider Instincts

Erin Drumm Drummer’s Circle

The complexity of simplicity

As tensions run high and finals loom on the horizon, some students will begin to reach their breaking point. Allow me to speak of something many of us find deeply paradoxically frustrating, but may not quite have the words for: that is how unsatisfying simple answers are. Still, I believe it may be helpful, in its own way, for us to be fully aware of its simplistic nature.

The truth of the matter is this: the key to happiness, the fountain of joy, the secret ingredient to the perfect life, is vexingly simple. This is a harrowingly complex fact to accept.

Anyone that has invested their time and effort into consuming and following the directions of self-help books or YouTube videos that promise to cease procrastination — allegedly granting their consumers with the confidence and power to commit to an effective lifestyle — will be able to attest to this. Thing is, these tutorials and fabled paths to contentment are nothing more than structure to an otherwise painfully obvious and strangely heartbreaking reply to all and every single one of our questions. They may provide a methodology and further detail, but the fundamental knowledge is already embedded into all of us.

If you merely want your instinct reinstated once more, I can write it out for you. Though, you don’t need me to tell you any of the following.

The key to happiness is to do all of the following per day (within reason and absent extreme circumstances):

Exercise. This is the top factor, easily. Move, jump, scream! Get your heartbeat up for at least 30 minutes, it doesn’t matter when or how. Ignore the delusional body standards and the hyper-specific metrics. Ignore everyone and everything beyond what is most helpful for you and you alone. Have fun with it!

Sleep as much as your body needs, and then a little more. 7-8 hours in a set pattern is the official recommendation, but the truth is you simply have to know and follow your sleep cycles and nap appropriately. Listen to your body for additional information.

Eat healthy. Have a balanced diet near your maintenance level that avoids processed foods, though not at the cost of your

joy. Yes, eat your veggies and your fruits, but allow yourself to eat your burgers and fries too if you feel like it. Simply balance it back somehow at the end of the day. If you also achieve item one, you’re halfway there.

Dream, and then, do it. Every day, work towards something — anything. It can be big or it can be small. Seek a desire to build towards and don’t let go.

Find a way to approximate all of the above. No one actually gets to do everything on this list properly every day. We are not robots and we shouldn’t restrict ourselves to pure routine nor expect perfection. Give yourself the reasonable leeway you need and make it sustainable.

Lastly, be kind to yourself, to others and to the world around you. Learn to care. Learn to hurt. Learn to cry. Learn that life has meaning and it need not make sense. Learn to value the people around you and learn to say “I love you.” Learn that there are sad days and there are bad people too but neither of these are reasons to stop being kind.

And as a bonus, to go beyond, connect with the world Become aware of where you are and live it. Remember: the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair, a child’s laugh, a bird’s chirp, an all-nighter, a scrape on the knee, your friend’s embrace and your goodnight farewells. Take a good deep breath. Sense it, feel it and find the beauty in it all.

That’s all there is: seven items. You can delve further into every mechanism but the ideas themselves are simple. Healthy body, healthy mind. Healthy mind, healthy body. These lead to good relationships and self-realization. Truly, there are not that many components to keep track of. To be happy, on paper, is simple.

Yet if that is so, why is it that so many struggle? How come so many fail?

When it comes to the mental health crisis confronting this country — particularly my generation, but perhaps the entirety of humanity as well — many of us find ourselves at a loss. It is not merely a matter of isolation, but a desperate search for a hidden cheat code in the fabric of existence, a true final step to acquire so it all magically clicks and we become happy. Social media has made this idea seem very accessible, with all the flashiest, most successful people readily available to display wealths of motivational speeches and share secret techniques to prevail and prosper.

But, when it comes to what we genuinely seek, there is no classified information; that strikes at the core of our being.

We don’t like simple things. We tend to dislike thinking of ourselves as simple creatures.

Our egos personify everything, our brains claim the title of the greatest storytellers and we engulf ourselves in the most minuscule details. And while that is fun, it may not always be true. We love to gossip of the possibilities, adore drowning in the fictions and the superfluous. We engage in such imaginations because doing so grants justification.

We want the answer to happiness to be complex. We want some secret formula, something we must have missed, something that goes beyond our capabilities, because if not, what does that say of us? If it is so obvious and so easy, why is it that its spark is so fleeting?

We need it to be a complicated, difficult feat to be happy — a long journey with trials and tribulations. Otherwise, it is our fault. Otherwise, we are not enough. Otherwise, why are we the way we are?

But this train of thought is the fallacious result of believing a commitment to simplicity to be simple. To accept simplicity for what it is and live in it is where the complexity lies.

In other words: To be happy is easy. To be happy with being simply happy is hard. It is against our very nature.

Genuine contentment is counterintuitive for we must exit our storytelling carousel, permit ourselves to be simple and come face-to-face with the fact that there is nothing more to uncover. There are no missing parts of this puzzle. You already have all the tools to achieve that which you desire, all you have to do is cease your fictions and bring it forth into reality. It’s that simple.

How complex.

Carlos A. Basurto is a sophomore at Notre Dame studying philosophy, computer science and even some German on the side. When not busy you can find him consuming yet another 3+ hour-long analysis video of a show he has yet to watch or masochistically completing every achievement from a variety of video games. Now, with the power to channel his least insane ideas, feel free to talk about them via email at cbasurto@nd.edu.

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

Watch out for Hitler

They see the lives. The monstrosity. They see it. But it’s not new. Where’s the bridge between the previous paragraph and this one? There’s none. Ideas matter. Leaders should learn quickly. That is the point. This ideas matter.

I — an opinionated overzealous younger version — once called a hospitable and inspirational professor friend a noisemaker. The audacity! It was the heat of the moment in a political exchange. I know he forgave the mistake.

“This one is young,” he must have reasoned, like all elders do when young people spew nonsense. The thinking at that point was that all academics shout with no power. But I was wrong. Ideas matter. They always have. Wrong and bad politics alike today everywhere is born of people who listened to and read certain people and ran with their ideas, however half-baked or ill conceived. But academics, like the politicians they inspire, grow. When either stops growing, society pays the price. Where “private” individuals pay private prices for their ignorance, political leaders often grow at the expense of whole societies. That leaders should be (quick) learners then cannot be overstated.

When the Israeli state started to organize itself to respond to the Hamas onslaught (I resist the temptation to say reaction. I can no longer call it a reaction. Hogwash. 1,200 lives. No. It was cold-blooded murder. That much is clear.), the head of the United States government was quick to make it rain. It wasn’t enough that they had underwritten the Israeli state for quite a while. No. He made it rain with such enthusiasm. 34,000 bodies, a Netanyahu threatening to leave the leash and an Iran later, they want to act surprised. They knew the end. They just lacked the courage to admit it. Leadership takes courage — moral courage. Now they are regretting. [South] Africans told them loudly it’s genocide. Everyone sees it. If you don’t agree with the technicality. The murder category should help. They see the images.

Why should we care when our states act erratically, imperialistically on our behalf and in our name? In the Congo, the UPDF plundered the DRC at some point. Ugandans are now paying. Kagame’s men are now in the DRC. America is everywhere. Even in Botswana. For what? They know best. Why should we care about imperialism and violence committed in our name? What happens when we remain complicit in crimes our states commit on our behalf? What effect does it have on our collective psyche? On our national hearts if you believe in such things?

Aimé Césaire warned us:

“They prove that colonization, I repeat, dehumanizes even the most civilized man; that colonial activity, colonial enterprise, colonial conquest, which is based on contempt for the native and justified by that contempt, inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it; that the colonizer, who in order to ease his conscience gets into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal [the general called the Palestinians that], accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends objectively to transform himself into an animal. It is this result, this boomerang effect of colonization that I wanted to point out.”

I don’t take pride in saying doom, and I’m not suggesting anything by this article. But I empathize with those who say to the American or Israeli state, “not in our name.” They know Césaire. They’ve heard him. Violence does not spare the perpetrator. You legitimate colonialism, violence and colonial violence, and in doing so you create your own Hitler. The boomerang. It soon turns on you. We almost saw him at the Capitol. It is not that far-fetched: “that no

one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization — and therefore force — is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is morally diseased, which irresistibly, progressing from one consequence to another, one denial to another, calls for its Hitler, I mean its punishment.”

Cesaire’s point was simple. Hitler did to Europeans what Europeans had done to ‘other’ people all over the world for long. They shouldn’t have been shocked. It was only a matter of time. Had we paid attention to Cesaire (who teaches him at Notre Dame?), we would know that every time we allow our state to act erratically, immorally in our name, we feed Hitler, we placate him, appease him, we rub his belly, and as Malcolm X famously or infamously said, depending on the side your conscience allows, when he – Hitler – steps out of Landsberg, the chickens do eventually come home to roost. My words carry power. This is no prophecy on the fate of the U.S. It cannot be. It must not be. But it’s unfolding in the South. We bicker about it. The other. The other. They are coming for us. For our jobs. For our dreams. For our children. What do we do? We shudder. We are scared. We can’t sit idly by, can we? So what do we do? What’s the program? That should be the question.

Editor’s Note: This is the abridged version. You can read the rest of this column at ndsmcobserver.com.

Olemo Gordon Brian is a junior at Notre Dame studying political economy. He is currently studying abroad at SOAS University of London. He is deeply interested in Africa’s development and the emancipation of man. You can contact Olemo at bolemo@nd.edu.

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

Carlos Basurto

Eudaemonic Banter

Olemo Gordon Brian

The Double-Giraffe View

By DELANA CATES Scene Writer

I know I’m not alone when I say, “Yeah I know that band. I was ‘emo’ in middle school.” The All-American Rejects are the prime example of this genre. From blasting “Gives You Hell” after arguments with my parents over eyeliner to listening to “Move Along” through corded headphones while crying over a two week-long relationship, The All-American Rejects were a staple of awkward preteen years for myself and so many other angsty children of Generation Z.

Naturally, after seeing an advertisement pop up for an All-American Rejects concert right down the road at Four Winds Field, I became possessed by nostalgia. After getting a few friends (all recovering emo kids) on board with this adventure, I had to sit and think to myself, “When was the last time I’ve actually listened to an All-American Rejects song?”

For a couple of weeks leading up to the concert, I did some catching up. They lived up to my dreams and had some bangers. Along with being excited for their oldies from the mid to late 2000s, I was getting excited about new songs like their sexy 2017 song “Sweat” ...

Later, just a short time before The All-American Rejects were set to perform, my friends and I made our way down

the aisle of burnt, plastic baseball seating peppered with fans. We showed our wristbands and walked down onto the baseball field, ballpark food in hand. We started looking for prime spots to see the band from our awkward alternative childhoods.

When The All-American Rejects came out, the crowd went wild and so did I … but probably not for the same reason. Yeah, it was great music … but Tyson Ritter! He came out in a disco ball-esque neon green space suit and a standard black beanie. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Who am I looking at?” Not complaining, as I’m certain the 40 going on 25-year-old Cillian Murphy twin could pull off just about anything. The lead singer’s outfit was in major contrast to the luscious-locked guitarist, Mike Kennerty, who was wearing jeans with a striped shirt paired with a white collared undershirt. It reminded me a little bit of Walt Jr. from “Breaking Bad.” The sounds of beloved favorites like “Dirty Little Secret” were just as good in the 2020s as they were in the 2000s, and their new songs were candidates for my day-to-day playlists. This definitely wasn’t the band I remembered, but their new songs had a refreshing sort of nostalgia that reflects authentic growth ...

As the concert went on, drunken millennials got worse and worse at pretending like they knew the lyrics to half of the songs. I asked the woman next to me, a local in her

mid-30s who was there with her son, what she thought of the show. She expressed her excitement as a 15+ year fan of the band but admitted to not knowing any of their new songs. She told me that if someone were to go back in time and tell her teenage self that she would be at an AllAmerican Rejects concert with her own child, she wouldn’t believe them ...

The concert ended in a nail-biting encore, as the crowd begged The All-American Rejects to sing two of their mostfamous songs, “Move Along” and “Gives You Hell.” During “Move Along,” I watched the millennial mom, her son and the undergrad students sing, dance and laugh together. As the final chorus came up in “Gives You Hell,” the entire stadium pounded our fists into the air and chanted till our vocal cords gave out. This is in my top five moments when South Bend felt like a community and not just a college town.

The concert was a fun time, and it honestly sparked a discovery of this new era of The All-American Rejects that matured with me. I guess something good did come out of my angsty, awkward emo phase in middle school.

Editor’s Note: This is an abridged version. Read the full version of this article at ndsmcobserver.com.

Contact Delana Cates at dcates01@saintmarys.edu

By MARGUERITE C. J. MARLEY Scene Writer

As the academic year draws to a close, most students never want to read anything again, but with more free time, they’ll be able to read fiction. So, with summer upon us, here are my top recommendations for fun summer reading.

5. ‘Book Lovers’ by Emily Henry

This is a romance book for people who hate romance books. Nora Stephens is an editor who has worked her way up the corporate ladder and is forced to spend the summer in a small town made famous by a book she edited with her sisters.

I was hooked when the book opened with the main character introducing herself as the stuck-up New York girlfriend who gets left for the small-town girl.

Emily Henry has a gift for writing tongue-in-cheek romance novels that never really feel like you‘re reading a romance novel. It captures the reason that people like to read and makes for the perfect light summery read.

4. ‘The Viscount Who Loved Me’ by Julia Quinn

Season three of “Bridgerton” is coming out on May 16, and now is the perfect time to get into the series. Kate Stifled has resigned to being a spinster but agrees to accompany her younger sister Edwina to London for the 1813 social season.

Anthony Bridgerton has resigned to marriage to continue his title, though he does not believe he will ever indeed find love.

As a fan of the second season of Bridgerton, I was captivated by the evolving relationship between Anthony and Kate. My curiosity led me to the book, and I was not disappointed. The book‘s narrative style allows us to delve deeper into their thoughts and emotions, creating a more intimate connection with the characters. And while some may dismiss the “enemies to lovers” trope, it‘s a beloved theme for a reason.

3. ‘The Rachel Incident’ by Caroline O‘Donoghue

The story of a college senior in her last semester of university and her relationship with her gay roommate and his relationship with her professor in early 2000s Cork. “The Rachel Incident” is a funny, heartfelt novel about finding your place in the world after graduation, Irish identity in the modern day and stress over what you’re supposed to do with your English degree once you graduate.

The framing device of looking back on your college years reminded me of hearing my dad reminisce about his college years. The book is full of enough twists and turns to keep you guessing while keeping you invested from page one until the end.

2. ‘Pineapple Street’ by Jenny Jackson

For everyone still mourning the end of “Succession,” this is the perfect novel, covering the lives and times of the

families on the Upper West Side of Manhattan through the eyes of three women. The eldest daughter of a wealthy New York family deals with her choice to stop stock training to stay home and raise her child, a middle-class New England girl who married into this overly wealthy New York family, and the youngest daughter who has fallen in love with someone she shouldn’t have.

I’m such a sucker for stories about the top one percent, and for those of you like me who love to watch messy rich people drama, this book is perfect for you.

1. ‘Romantic Comedy’ by Curtis Sittenfeld

“Romantic Comedy” follows a writer at an SNLlike variety show. It follows Sally Mitlz, a sketch comedy writer who has watched several of her average-looking male coworkers end up with mega stars. She writes a sketch following that premise when a famous country star comes on the show. The sketch then flashes forward to the pandemic when they get into contact again.

As a devoted “Saturday Night Live” fan, I can tell that the author has done a lot of research into how these kinds of sketch shows work. It’s a great read, and I really liked how the author covered the pandemic in a way that felt natural without being too preachy.

Notre Dame women’s lacrosse prepares for ACC Tournament showdown with Clemson

By J.J. POST Senior Sports Writer

Notre Dame women’s lacrosse will begin their quest for postseason success on Wednesday, squaring off against Clemson in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament.

The Irish enter postseason play with a considerable amount of momentum, seeking an appropriate conclusion to a regular season that’s included a number of historic feats. This year’s iteration of Notre Dame women’s lacrosse already has the best regular season winning percentage of any finished season in program history. They recorded the first win over a No. 1-ranked team in program history when they beat Northwestern on February 16. But now they have their sights set on one more milestone: a first ACC championship.

To make a run in Charlotte

ND MEN’S LACROSSE

though, they’ll have to start with a tough draw in a quality Tigers squad. The two teams met in March, in South Carolina. It was then that the Irish took part in their only overtime game of the season, a dramatic 14-13 victory sealed by a game-winning goal from senior Mary Kelly Doherty.

With the stakes for games heightened, expect Notre Dame to lean heavily on the experience of a veteran-laden core. Graduate students and seniors abound on this Irish roster — the team’s starting lineup in their final regular season game against Louisville contained ten, and four more entered the game off the bench.

The graduate student trio of Kasey Choma, Madison Ahern and Jackie Wolak spearhead the Irish attack, with help from another graduate student in Arden Tierney and senior Abby Maichin. Doherty teams up

with fellow seniors Kelley Denes and Ali McHugh to add strong box-to-box play in the midfield. And graduate student Olivia Dooley is a key part of the defense that protects yet another senior Lilly Callahan in net. In short, this is not a Notre Dame squad that fazes easily.

But their experience will be put to the test by a Clemson squad that boasts a strong core itself. Among the most important players is goalkeeper Emily Lamparter, who boasts the best save percentage in the ACC. Lamparter was the reason Notre Dame required two overtimes to separate from the Tigers in the teams’ first matchup, as she made a pair of impressive stops at the conclusion of both regulation and the first overtime period.

Clemson also boasts a number of impressive freshmen — including another standout from the two teams’ first meeting, Kayla

Macleod. Macleod scored a game-high five goals against the Irish in March, including an outburst of three tallies in four minutes to turn a 12-9 Notre Dame lead into a 12-12 stalemate. Macleod was one of three Tiger rookies to be named to the conference allfreshmen team, Regan Byrne and Natalie Shurtleff being the others. The young guns help take some of the weight off the shoulders of senior Claire Bockstie, who leads the team with 41 goals on the year.

Should Notre Dame advance, they’d likely face a familiar foe in the semifinal round. Boston College

looms as the third seed in the bracket, and the probable opponent for the second-seeded Irish. The Eagles eliminated Notre Dame from both the ACC and NCAA tournaments last season, padding a 5-0 all-time record against the Irish in postseason play. Notre Dame will have immediate history on their side should the two teams face off though, as the Irish won the regular season meeting between the two teams 15-14 to notch their first win in Chestnut Hill in two decades.

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

Notre Dame men’s lacrosse to close regular season with Final Four rematch at Virginia

By J.J. POST Senior Sports Writer

Notre Dame men’s lacrosse will wrap up their regular season on Saturday with a matchup with a familiar foe.

Despite all the success Irish men’s lacrosse has accumulated over the last few seasons, no program has had their number quite like the Virginia Cavaliers. In the past 766 days, Notre Dame men’s lacrosse has lost just three regular season games. The Cavaliers account for two of those defeats.

Virginia will also be out for revenge given the result of the last meeting between the two squads, which came in the semi-finals of last season’s NCAA tournament. A wild match saw the Irish fall behind late before finding a last-ditch equalizer and an eventual walk-off winner in overtime. Notre Dame would go on to defeat Duke and capture the program’s first national title.

The contest between the two squads shouldn’t lack for fireworks this year either. Notre Dame has defended their title in impressive fashion this year, currently boasting a 9-1 record and a national No. 1 ranking. The Irish did lose early on in

the year to Georgetown, but have since responded with seven consecutive victories — including a triumph over Duke, the team ranked No. 2 in both Inside Lacrosse and USILA’s respective polls.

The Cavaliers have also enjoyed a strong campaign, but have dealt with a recent slide in form. The ’Hoos started the year 10-1, but will enter Saturday’s matchup on a two-game losing streak, suffering road defeats to Duke and Syracuse each of the last two weekends.

Barring an upset win by North Carolina over Duke, the game on Saturday will likely be the first in a pair of games between Notre Dame and Virginia, with the two squads currently on pace to square off in the semi-final round of the ACC tournament.

On the field, the Cavalier attack is paced by the graduate student duo of Payton Cormier and Connor Shellenberger. The pairing have amassed 125 combined points this season, with Cormier doing the majority of his damage as a threat in front of net (48 goals) and Shellenberger as a creator (41 assists). Cormier leads the nation in goals on a per-game basis, currently

averaging 3.69 tallies a contest. Virginia has also seen freshman McCabe Millon provide support alongside his more experienced attackmates, with the rookie currently boasting 52 points on the year.

A potent Irish midfield will face a stern challenge from a Cavalier squad that’s done a great job of making opposing teams uncomfortable in transition this spring.

Virginia ranks second in the

nation in turnovers caused, and also has the secondbest clearing percentage nationally. The Cavaliers lead the country in ground balls caused on a per-game basis.

With both teams gearing up for postseason play, Saturday should mark a major chance for both teams to make a statement. The road to a national title runs through South Bend at present — not literally, with the NCAA semifinals and final

being held in Philadelphia once again this year — and a win over Virginia would be further evidence that Notre Dame is the class of both the ACC and country. For the Cavaliers, a win would end an ill-timed stretch of poor results and provide proof of concept as their chase for their first national title since 2021 looms.

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

Graduate attacker Pat Kavanagh (left) cuts away from a defender during Notre Dame’s game against North Carolina on April 20 at Arlotta Stadium. Kavanagh has scored multiple goals in five straight games.

20): You’ll gain the most from working alone and being secretive regarding your plans until you have everything in place. Sharing personal information will backfire, forcing you to head into damage control, leaving no time to get things done. Don’t give in to emotional manipulation.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Pay attention, fact-find, study, and use the knowledge you gain to improve yourself and your pursuits. A physical change will lead to compliments and give you the boost and confidence you need to further your agenda. Believe in yourself, and everything else will fall into place.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Use your energy wisely. Choose self-improvement and pastimes that promote positive thinking. Don’t limit yourself; be creative, and you’ll discover exciting ways to use your skills creatively and your imagination freely. Refuse to let outside influences cause emotional setbacks and insecurities. Do your very best.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Follow-up is essential. Whatever you decide to do, have a plan and oversee every detail. Your input will make the difference and give you leverage when it counts. Don’t put emotional pressure on yourself or allow others to make your life difficult.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Take your experience, knowledge, and skills and put them to good use. It’s up to you to make a difference and navigate your way to your desired destination. Relationships will require insight and patience, but you’ll make headway as soon as you understand what others want.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Rely on your charm and intelligence, and you’ll get what you want. Put pressure on yourself to tidy up and finish what you start. The progress you make will ease pressure and help you lower your overhead. A move or lifestyle change will be easier than you anticipate.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Follow your heart and pick up the pace. Added discipline will help you reach your goal in record time and with a unique twist that will capture the imagination of those you encounter. Opportunity comes with change, dedication, and a solid plan. Reach for the stars.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Keep your eye on what’s important to you and take action to protect what’s yours. Don’t make promises you don’t want to keep or offer a false impression to someone to spare feelings. A direct and honest approach will save time, money, and reputation.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Get your house in order. Go over money matters and clear up paperwork. Refrain from letting someone talk you into something costly or uninviting. You can’t always please everyone. Put yourself first and relax and rejuvenate. A change will lift your spirits.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Pay attention to contracts, agreements, and joint ventures. Watch where your money goes and look for a way to lower your overhead. Don’t let what others do tempt you to follow. You are best to do your own thing and simplify your lifestyle to fit your budget.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You’ll gain clarity if you make changes, try something new, or look for opportunities to bring in more cash or make your life easier. Rethink how you use your space, and you’ll devise a plan that saves you time, space, and money.

Birthday Baby: You are emotional, intense, and forthright. You are imaginative and opportunistic.

of Swarbrick’s tenure — a desire to be first, a leader in new frontiers. The latest evolution of this principle is in streaming, with Notre Dame airing one regular season game exclusively on Peacock each of the last three seasons. This was an idea that Swarbrick engineered — an idea he admitted that hasn’t always gone smoothly. But in a way, that’s sort of the point.

“I wanted to be a leader in that space. We were the first college to ever have a national television contract. We were the leader. We were the first one to have Lindsey Nelson doing highlights to the whole word. We were the leader in radio,” Swarbrick said. “This was clearly the future, I wanted to be first. I wanted to be first not just to claim the flag — I wanted to be the first one to figure out how to do it. Because it’s not the same.”

Moving on from Notre Dame

Board of trustees chairman Jack Brennan had a unique recommendation for Swarbrick about how to spend the beginning of his time away from the job.

“He said, ‘I want you to promise one thing.’ I said ‘OK, what’s that?’ He said, ‘Promise me you won’t do anything for six months,” Swarbrick said. Swarbrick admitted that will be a challenge for him. The state of college athletics bothers him, and he wants to be a part of the solution. He will nonethless make an effort to follow that tip.

The talk ended with Swarbrick providing two different pieces of advice. The first was to his successor, who he believes has a better base than he did as a lawyer of nearly 30 years, but there will still be a learning curve.

“There’s not much I can tell him. He loves this place as much as anybody I’ve ever met,” Swarbrick said. He did tell Bevacqua to continue embracing the school’s differences and stick to who Notre Dame is.

The final word was for those hoping to start a career in sports themselves. Passion is important, but Swarbrick cautioned that there’s so much more to working in sports than just that. And in his eyes, that’s the way it should be.

“Don’t be afraid to go do something else first,” Swarbrick said. “And then you’ve got a [transferrable] skill. If you really distinguish yourself in something then when you’re interviewing with me or Pete, you’ve got a different story to tell.”

And with that, Swarbrick concluded the story of his 16year tenure as the face of Notre Dame sports. Contact

O’Brien sets Irish heptathlon record

By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor

The Notre Dame track and field team began a busy stretch in its spring season over the past weekend. The Irish sent competitors to the Mt. SAC Relays (Walnut, California), the Wake Forest Invite (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and the Jim Green Invite (Lexington, Kentucky).

Out in California, senior Jadin O’Brien added another achievement to her decorated college career. The graduate student set a school record in the women’s heptathlon, scoring 6115 to claim fourth place overall. Additionally, because she scored better than 6000, O’Brien automatically qualified for the 2024 US Olympic Team Trials. At Wake Forest, Notre Dame shined in the women’s 800-meter run. Freshman Gretchen Farley won the event with a time of 2 minutes and 7.72 seconds, beating out graduate teammate Kate McAndrew by 67 hundredths of a second. Freshman Kaleigh Gunsiorowski also finished inside the top 10, taking ninth with a time of 2:10.63.

Graduate student Claire Sievern took eighth place in the women’s 800-meter invite by running in 2:03.92, and junior Molly Grant earned fourth in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:26.19. Now the ACC’s 3000-meter steeplechase leader, graduate student Olivia Markezich snatched second place in the event with a 9:36.33.

On the men’s side in North

Carolina, sophomore Daelen Ackley became the lone top10 finisher by running the 1500 in 3:40.77. His time positioned him in 10th place.

Notre Dame produced another event winner in Lexington, as sophomore Reese Sanders triumphed in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. Her time of 59.89 seconds put her in the ACC’s top 10 for the season. Freshman Ellis Weekley (1:02.78) and sophomore Molly Bennett (1:03.37) took fourth and eighth place, respectively, rounding out a successful event showing from the Irish. Sanders and Weekley also factored into a sixth-place Notre Dame run of 3:51.29 in the 4x400-meter relay. Also on the track, graduate student Michelle Quinn ran the 100-meter dash in 11.85 seconds to take sixth place. In the high jump,

senior Madison Schmidt registered a second-place jump of 1.82 meters that now ranks second in the ACC. Junior Kendall Burgess (5.71 meters) and sophomore Sarah David (39.62 meters) each took third in the long jump and javelin, respectively. Finally, senior Emma Albano claimed fifth in the hammer throw (57.11 meters), and graduate student Olivia Fabry stuck a landing in sixth in the pole vault (3.45 meters).

More impressive Irish results populated the leaderboard on the men’s side. Graduate students Jacob Ranker (52.07 seconds) and Joey Zayszly (54.19 seconds) respectively claimed second and seventh in the 400-meter hurdles. Both hurdlers also contributed to a secondplace finish in the men’s 4x400, accounting for half of a 3:14.20 time. In another

400-meter event, freshman Jack Ahart slotted into third on the dash with a time of 47.90 seconds.

Notre Dame’s success again continued in field events, as graduate student Michael Shoaf added to his strong year with a second-place shot put toss of 18.79 meters. Graduate student Cole Targgart added a sixth-place finish in the discus throw, delivering a distance of 52.53 meters.

This upcoming weekend, the Irish are once again scheduled to compete in three different competitions. Notre Dame’s itinerary includes the Penn Relays (Philadelphia), the Drake Relays (Des Moines, Iowa) and the East Coast Relays (Jacksonville, Florida).

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

SOFIA CRIMIVAROLI | THE OBSERVER

Senior Jadin O’Brien competes in a hurdles event during the Notre Dame Invitational on Jan. 20 at Loftus Sports Center. O’Brien set a program record in the heptathlon over the weekend, posting a score of 6115.

Irish seek eighth consecutive midweek win after impressive weekend sweep at home

By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor

In the midst of a trying season in conference play, Notre Dame baseball found what it needed most over the weekend. The Irish picked up a sweep of Boston College at home, outscoring the Eagles 36-7 and slamming the door on a 10-game losing streak within ACC play.

Now holding an overall record of 20-18 overall and 5-16 in league action, the Irish will attempt to keep a different streak alive in Wednesday’s home tilt against Central Michigan. Notre Dame has won each of its eight midweek games this season, including three on home field this month. Ahead of a proveit weekend series with No. 8 Wake Forest, the Irish cannot afford to break that trend against the Chippewas.

Believe it or not, the last meeting between Notre Dame and Central Michigan did not occur on a quiet, midweek afternoon. Try the NCAA Tournament. The Irish defeated the Chippewas 10-0 and 14-2 during the 2021 South Bend Regional before coming within a game of the College World Series at Mississippi State.

Pitching, Penney and power

While on its 10-game ACC losing skid, Notre Dame went without the full services of several key components. The pitching staff surrendered seven or more runs in all but one game, allowing at least 10 on five occasions. Junior shortstop Jack Penney went 7-for-37 at the plate, extending a disappointing start to

the season into conference play. And an offense that ranked among the nation’s most powerful through the season’s first month hit a grand total of seven home runs.

To Notre Dame’s benefit, all three of those aspects snapped into form against Boston College. It started with the pitching, which headlined the weekend with a seven-inning no-hitter in Sunday’s 13-0 win. Remember the statistic about the Irish staff allowing seven runs in games? Notre Dame conceded only seven runs across the entire series against the Eagles, taking loads of pressure off its bats.

Senior right-hander Matt Bedford opened the weekend by bouncing back in a major way. After North Carolina teed off on him a weekend prior, Bedford allowed just one earned run in five innings on Friday. More impressively, he did it without his sharpest stuff, striking out no batters in his outing for just the second time all season. On Saturday, freshman right-hander Jack Radel dealt with all kinds of baserunner traffic (nine hits in five innings), but he gave the Irish a chance to win with only three runs allowed. Behind him in the bullpen, graduate transfers Bennett Flynn and Nate Hardman locked down a 9-4 win with four innings of one-run baseball.

On Sunday, Tobey McDonough answered the call, entering the game unexpectedly after a comebacker sent sophomore starter Rory Fox out. It would have been impressive for the graduate

transfer from Brown to keep Notre Dame in the game — let alone contribute to a combined no-hitter. But he did just that, recording 10 outs and allowing just one baserunner. Don’t look now, but McDonough has allowed a single earned run in his last 10 innings pitched after a brutal start to ACC play.

As the pitchers performed, so did Penney, who compiled seven hits and six runs driven in across 12 atbats against Boston College. Throughout the season, Penney’s problem hadn’t been his .200 batting average. Rather, he wasn’t doing enough extra-base hitting to make that average tolerable. Prior to kickstarting his active seven-game hitting streak on April 13, Penney went 10 straight games without a double, triple or home run, contributing very little to change the tides of a largely stagnant Irish offense.

Since that hit streak began, Penney’s power has come back to life. He has four doubles, one triple and two home runs in his last six games after going over a month without a long ball. Penney has also scored 10 runs in those six games, indicating that the bats around him are maximizing his contributions. Entering Wednesday’s game, Penney’s .253 average, .376 on-base percentage and .467 slugging percentage all suddenly clear the numbers he posted a season ago.

Along with Penney, Notre Dame as an offensive unit rediscovered its power stroke over the weekend as well. The Irish battered 11 home runs against the Eagles, touring the bases in every way

imaginable. Senior outfielder T.J. Williams went deep on the first pitch Notre Dame saw on Friday night. Later in that game, freshman catcher Carson Tinney legged out an inside-the-park home run before belting a grand slam on Sunday.

Chippewas mirroring

Notre Dame’s post-pandemic evolution

Over the last four years, Central Michigan has paralleled Notre Dame’s course on a season-to-season basis. In 2021, both teams reached the NCAA Tournament. In 2022, they both went back and had more success — Notre Dame by going to Omaha and Central Michigan by nearly upsetting Florida in the Gainesville Regional final. A season ago, they both won 34 games, narrowly missing out on the postseason field. Now, they both have five conference wins and must really get going to keep any dreams of June baseball alive. However, unlike the Irish, Central Michigan has struggled much more deeply in non-conference play, posting a 13-27 overall record with its 5-13 mark in Mid-American Conference games. In year one under head coach Jake Sabol, the Chippewas have played 31 of their 40 games away from home and have had mixed results against Power 5 opponents. As an example, a March sweep saw Oklahoma State hang 34 runs on the Chippewas, who later turned around and handed Michigan State a 10-0 loss. Over the weekend, Central Michigan traveled to Orlando to face another elevated opponent — UCF. The

Chippewas won 2-0 on Friday thanks to a gem of a start from Ben Vitas. The senior right-hander claimed MAC Co-Pitcher of the Week honors by dealing a 133-pitch, complete-game shutout for Central Michigan’s first blanking of the season. However, the team’s lack of pitching consistency (CMU has no pitcher with an ERA below 4.40) made itself known in the weekend’s final two games, leading UCF to outscore the Chippewas by a 40-5 margin between Saturday and Sunday.

At the plate, Jacob Donahue leads Central Michigan’s qualified batsmen with a .378 batting average and .933 OPS. Though he went 1-for-11 in Orlando, he put together a five-hit game two Sundays ago against Bowling Green. Donahue is one of two Chippewas (Jake Brill) with a dozen stolen bases this season, helping Central Michigan lead the MAC with 84 thefts.

In the power and production departments, Central Michigan leans on Danny Wuestenfeld and Ely Stuart, who both have five home runs. Wuestenfeld has a 68RBI 2022 season in his background, and he has driven in 26 runs with a teamhigh 13 doubles this year. Stuart, a former transfer from UC Riverside, leads the Chippewas with 32 runs batted in.

Notre Dame and Central Michigan will begin their game at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening at Frank Eck Stadium.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

Irish golfers compete in ACC Championships

By TYLER REIDY

Over the weekend, the Notre Dame men’s and women’s golf teams competed in the ACC Championships in North Carolina. The men’s squad finished seventh with a nine-over par score of 861 at Charlotte Country Club, while the women’s group took 12th with a 26-over par count of 890 at Porters Neck Country Club.

Men

On the men’s side, North Carolina claimed the team championship, placing

three golfers inside the top 15. Michael Brennan (Wake Forest) and Frederik Kjettrup (Florida State) tied for first place individually with three-round scores of 206.

Notre Dame’s team total of 861 placed it just ahead of NC State and Louisville in the middle of the pack.

The Irish, like the rest of the field, played their best golf in the weekend’s first two rounds, with their five golfers averaging a round score of 71.5 heading into the final day.

In his first career postseason event, Jacob Modleski

finished as Notre Dame’s top golfer, taking 11th place with a score of 212. The freshman scored well all weekend, going 71-69-72 across his three rounds. Not far behind him, senior Angelo Marcon’s 214 placed him in a tie for 18th place. One of the few golfers to end the weekend with his best round, Marcon shot 71-73-70 across the championship.

Three more Irish golfers

— graduate Palmer Jackson, freshman Rocco Salvitti and sophomore Nate Stevens — placed inside the individual top 40. Jackson tied for 30th with a 218, delivering

a team-best score of 68 in round two. Behind him Salvitti tied for 37th with a 220, while Stevens tied for 40th with a 221.

Women

The women’s team didn’t perform quite as well on the coast, finishing last among the 12-team field.

Three teams — Wake Forest (23-under), Clemson (16-under) and Virginia (8-under) — ended the weekend under par. Rachel Kuehn of Wake Forest claimed the individual championship, shooting 10-under with a final round 67.

Notre Dame’s top finisher, Chloe Schiavone, tied for 17th place by scoring at even par. The senior scored consistently throughout the weekend, shooting 71-74-71.

A stroke behind her, graduate student Lauren Beaudreau tied for 20th place overall, posting an eagle on the parfive 18th hole in round two.

Further down the leaderboard, junior Montgomery Ferreira tied for 50th, freshman Alexsandra Lapple claimed 52nd and freshman Mimi Burton earned 58th.

SWARBRICK CHAT

Former athletic director Jack Swarbrick talks changes in college athletics, his future plans

By ANDREW MCGUINNESS Sports Editor Emeritus

A major transfer of power became official last month when former NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua officially took over as Notre Dame’s athletic director. The University announced last summer that Bevacqua would succeed Jack Swarbrick, who took over the role in July 2008, with Bevacqua working under Swarbrick throughout the academic year to get a feel for the role.

Notre Dame and the college sports landscape are in a much different position than when Swarbrick arrived. The Irish have won 10 national championships in five different sports during his tenure, the most of any athletic director in school history. The biggest part of Swarbrick’s legacy is arguably what he’s done off the field, impacting everything from campus architecture to athletic facilities and the school’s media capabilities.

Swarbrick recapped all that and more last Thursday in a public talk at DeBartolo Hall. The event was hosted by Maria Wainscott, a senior at Notre Dame who planned and hosted the interview as her capstone project for the sport, media and culture minor. Here are the most noteworthy points from the hour-long conversation.

Changes to college athletics

Oh, where to begin? From the allowance of athletes to profit on name, image and likeness (NIL) in 2021 to the advent of the transfer portal in 2018 and the massive conference realignment that will take place starting next year, Swarbrick saw it all in his 16 years at the helm. Swarbrick, now and in the past, is clear about his position. Athletes having greater rights than they did in the past is a good thing.

“It’s a fundamental shift in the relationship between the student athletes, the university, not just here, but everywhere. And by and large, it always is very positive. Very good for the student athlete. We were the first university in the country to advocate publicly for extending name image and likeness rating system. We were an early proponent of allowing transfer without the penalty of the lost year of competition or last year of eligibility. Both were driven by the same core principle,” he said.

But the current free-for-all situation is unsustainable, Swarbrick added.

“I had an NBA player say to me, ‘Boy, I wish we had this form of free agency’ ... If we want to have additional compensation for student athletes, fine, but let’s be honest about that, let’s call it what it is. Let’s figure out what it should look like and how it should be regulated. Right now, you can do anything you want, financial transaction, and call it NIL. It sort of ruins the whole purpose of NIL,” he said. One thing that hasn’t changed is Notre Dame football’s lack of conference affiliation. The Irish remain in a power position in the college sports landscape, and as long as that remains the case, don’t expect that to change.

Other areas of college sports are changing, though. Another new change for 2024-25 is the College Football Playoff’s expansion from four teams to 12. Swarbrick had a heavy hand in creating the new format, which automatically rewards a spot to the winners of the four major conferences (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC) and the next highestranking conference champion, plus seven at-large bids. The top four seeds will receive a first-round bye to the round of eight, which Notre Dame is automatically ineligible for, given it can never win, a concession

Swarbrick was happy to make.

“A lot of our fans weren’t happy with the fact that [Notre Dame] can’t have a bye, even if we’re ranked in the top four. The reason for that was that everybody else plays 13 games to qualify for the playoffs, we only play 12. So the way to address that for me … was to say okay, we’ll treat championship week, when you all playing the conference championship game, as our bye week. So we are getting a bye,” Swarbrick said.

However, further consolidation of college football could result in more changes. The Big Ten and SEC are head and shoulders above the rest of the sport, which could further shift the tides.

“We already have two power conferences. That’s the reality,” Swarbrick said. He also said that waiting to implement the 12team playoff now, as opposed to two years prior when the concept was developed, is what ultimately led to the death of the Pac-12.

‘Be Irish’

One un-newsworthy but interesting peek into Swarbrick’s mentality was the slogan he tried to, but never could quite instill: “Be Irish.” It may not sound much different than the classic “Go Irish” chant that fills Notre Dame Stadium every fall. But to Swarbrick, it encapsulates

not just Notre Dame’s special identity, but the school’s equally special commitment to it. At a time when many schools are trying to keep up with modern trends, Swarbrick’s focus has always been on doubling down on Notre Dame’s most unique traits.

“Go Irish is a cheer. Be Irish is a value statement … having our own identity, our own sort of values, and it reflects that. Be Irish. Be one of us. Believe in college athletics the way we believe on it. Act on that,” Swarbrick said.

While the phrase didn’t catch on, Swarbrick attempted to instill the thought behind it across the world of Irish athletics. That meant focusing on head coaches and making sure their sights are set in the right place.

“I’m leaving behind the best compliment of coaches in my 16 years. The coaches we have here now are really good and the future of these coaches is incredibly bright,” Swarbrick said.

When asked about what it takes to build a championship culture, Swarbrick said, “You have to be clear that that’s your expectation. You’re always maxed out at whatever goal you set for yourself. And I always told our coaches, look, we love conference championships, hope we win a lot of them, but that’s not our goal. Our goal is national championships for Notre Dame. You’re not always

gonna get there, but if you don’t send an expectation, if you don’t begin the year by saying, ‘What do you have to do to win a national championship?’ You are never getting there.”

Media landscape

Bevacqua is very experienced in this area from his time at NBC Sports and his six-year tenure at the PGA. However, Swarbrick built Notre Dame up from a passive player in this area to a leading force, a development that started with the creation of Fighting Irish Digital Media (now Fighting Irish Media) in 2011.

“I get the legacy question all the time, and I never answer without talking about Fighting Irish Media (FIM). There are a number of things I’m proud of, but that’s very high on the list,” said Swarbrick.

FIM’s growth meant so much to Swarbrick because he was starting from ground zero when it came to the University’s digital communications capacity. After talking with University president Fr. John Jenkins, he convinced him that developing FIM would benefit not just athletics, but create something that could be used by the University as a whole.

The same principle behind the creation of FIM explains much see

COURTESY OF NORA MULLIGAN

Athletics director emeritus Jack Swarbrick (right) sits in conversation with University of Notre Dame senior Maria Wainscott (left) during Wainscott’s capstone project for the Sport, Media and Culture minor. Swarbrick served as Notre Dame’s director of athletics from 2008 to 2024.