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Volume 52, Issue 63 | thursday, january 18, 2018 ndsmcobserver.com
Students participate in Urban Plunge ND students attend seminar, examine challenges facing marginalized groups in US cities over break By TOM NAATZ News Writer
Over winter break, many Notre Dame students participated in the Urban Plunge through the Center for Social Concerns (CSC). The Urban Plunge is a three-day program in which students immerse themselves in the challenges facing marginalized people in cities across the country. Most students participate in programs either in or near their hometowns. Melissa Marley Bonnichsen, the CSC’s social concerns seminars director, described the Urban Plunge as a “101” for students. “We usually have students that have either a good amount of service in high school or have had the opposite, maybe nothing,” Marley Bonnichsen said.
“And they are looking to do something very positive over break or try out this program.” The goals of the Urban Plunge are twofold, Marley Bonnichsen said. The first, she said, is to encourage students to engage with the challenges facing their local communities. “The assumption is that either they are very familiar with services offered to people on the margins there, or this might be the first time they have considered what poverty looks like in their backyard,” Marley Bonnichsen said. Marley Bonnichsen explained that the second objective aims to educate participants on the role the Church plays in combating poverty. “How do faith based see URBAN PAGE 4
Photo courtesy of Cecilia Hall
Students who traveled to St. Louis as part of the Urban Plunge program over winter break connected with local community members. The program allows students to engage with people in low-income areas.
Saint Mary’s seniors start to teach in classrooms By GINA TWARDOSZ Associate Saint Mary’s Editor
Senior education majors at Saint Mary’s are beginning their transition into student teaching this week. The students will begin teaching at local elementary and secondary schools and will work on their portfolios, lesson plans and testing. Maeve Sullivan is an elementary education major with a minor in mild intervention which, she said, consists of “helping
students who have mild cognitive or physical disabilities.” “Education is becoming more inclusive to those who are cognitively and physically disabled, and mild intervention is why I got into education,” she said. “Indiana has mild, moderate and severe categories of [educational] intervention.” Samantha Allen said she has always wanted to be a teacher and is glad to be teaching kindergarten this semester. “I really enjoy having students
learn how to tie their shoes,” she said. “It’s such a small thing that people don’t realize they learned at one point, and the students feel so overwhelmed at the beginning — to the point of tears — and it’s so sad but a little bit funny. I teach them the steps, and then we go over the steps each time — shoes come untied every five minutes, so there’s always a learning opportunity. It’s truly the joy of my day. They see TEACH PAGE 4
Notre Dame Chorale performs, tours Northeast By ANDREW CAMERON News Writer
The Notre Dame Chorale went on an eight-day domestic tour over winter break, performing seven concerts throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and
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Connecticut. Of the club’s 65 members, 52 singers went on the tour, senior and tour commissioner Jennifer Richardson said. She also said the concerts featured a wide range of musical genres — from renaissance to Christmas carols
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to folk music — and the tour served as an important opportunity for members of the club to get to know each other. “We make sure they stay with different people every night, see CHORALE PAGE 4
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University agrees to settle lawsuit Notre Dame reached an agreement to resolve a lawsuit filed by an unnamed student alleging he was unjustly dismissed from University less than a month before his graduation, according to a status report filed Nov. 10. With the agreement having been reached, the case was subsequently dismissed, according to a court document filed Dec. 27. The lawsuit, filed in April of 2017, alleged Notre Dame mishandled the Title IX case involving the unnamed student — referred to as John Doe in court documents — and conducted an investigation full of “procedural flaws, lack of due process and inherent gender bias, designed to ensure that male students accused of any type of sexual misconduct or harassment — concepts that do not apply to John’s conduct — are found responsible.” The Title IX investigation was launched as a result of a complaint by Doe’s ex-girlfriend, referred to as Jane Roe in court documents. The lawsuit alleged Doe underwent “a
difficult moment in his life when he was experiencing episodic depression including suicidal ideation, and was clearly in need of mental health resources and formative remedies.” According to the lawsuit, Roe perceived Doe’s repeated texts reaching out for support at that time as harassment and dating violence, and the University subsequently deemed his conduct to be sexual harassment. The University then launched an investigation, which ultimately resulted in Doe’s dismissal. The agreement reached between Doe and the University, according to a status report filed Oct. 6, was contingent upon “resolution of certain related disputes between Jane Roe and John Doe, one of which may need University consent.” Then, according to the Nov. 10 status report, Roe and Doe “reached a resolution, including the University as needed” and Doe requested “the Court maintain the temporary stay to facilitate ongoing efforts to finally resolve this and related matters and to submit an appropriate stipulation to dismiss.”
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ND W Basketball PAGE 12
Observer Staff Report