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Volume 52, Issue 77 | thursday, february 8, 2018 ndsmcobserver.com
Rector of BreenPhillips Hall dies Observer Staff Report
Sr. Mary McNamara, rector of Breen-Phillips Hall, died Wednesday afternoon from complications resulting from a recent stroke, according to an email sent to students from vice president for student affairs Erin Hoffmann Harding. Sr. McNamara was a native of Cleveland and has served as rector of Breen-Phillips Hall since 2012. “Our deepest condolences and prayers are with the residents of Breen-Phillips
Hall, fellow rectors and other members of the Residential Life team, as well as with Sr. Mary’s religious community, extended family, campus colleagues and friends,” Hoffmann Harding said in the email. A memorial service for Sr. McNamara will be held in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in the coming days. Hoffmann Harding said the University Counseling Center (UCC) and Campus Ministry resources are both available to members of the Notre Dame community.
Student body election results in runoff No ticket clears fifty percent, students to vote again By COURTNEY BECKER News Editor
The 2018 student government presidential election will continue with a runoff election between the McGavickGayheart ticket and the Kruszewski-Dunbar ticket, Judicial Council announced Thursday night. While none of the three tickets — McGavick-Gayheart, Kruszewski-Dunbar and Gannon-Moran — achieved the required 50 percent of
University updates policy on contraception Observer Staff Report
In a letter emailed to University employees Wednesday, University President Fr. John Jenkins announced further changes to the policies regarding access to contraceptives via University health insurance plans to take place within the year. “I write to announce steps based on Catholic principles that nevertheless provide
access to some of the coverage that members of our community seek,” Jenkins said in the e-mail. The new system will involve abandoning a third party, government-funded plan used by the school to provide contraception as dictated by a federal regulation, as this plan covers abortifacients. However, so as not to “burden” those who use contraception but rely on the University
for health insurance, the school will cover some contraceptives in its insurance policies. The change follows a court ruling exempting Notre Dame from the aforementioned regulation. “I have reached the conclusion that it is best that the University stop the government-funded provision of the range of drugs and services through our third party administrator,” Jenkins
Observer Staff Report
An email signed by University Health Services (UHS) director Sharon McMullen announced Wednesday to the Notre Dame student body that a “graduate student/professional school student” was recently treated for “symptoms associated with tuberculosis (TB).” “The student has been tested at a local hospital and the
NEWS PAGE 2
VIEWPOINT PAGE 7
Mary in our campus community, the tickets are going to try to postpone the runoff election about a week, just to give everyone the proper time to kind of deal with that,” Ross said. “ … At the moment, there’s no campaigning for the runoff election. The candidates have all been told they’re able to post a simple statement on their Facebook pages or their social media, whatever, that we’ve gone to a runoff, but that’s going to be it for now.” Due to election timelines
Roxane Gay discusses writing on trauma
see POLICY PAGE 4
ND reports potential tuberculosis case results are pending,” the email said. Due to privacy concerns, the UHS is not releasing the student’s name or “identifying information” at this time. “Due to the public health implications of this disease and out of an abundance of caution, UHS staff members are working closely with the St. Joseph County Health Department to identify others who may have come in
votes to win the election, senior Matt Ross, the Judicial Council president, said the candidates all agreed to suspend campaigning and attempt to postpone the runoff election. Ross said they candidates came to this agreement in order to respect the Breen-Phillips Hall (BP) community as they mourn the death of their rector, Sister Mary McNamara, who died Thursday. “The tickets have decided that due to the loss of Sister
contact with this individual,” the email said. According to the email, individuals who are determined to have been “close contacts” with the patient will be able to take a TB test in the coming days. Students will be able to take the test at UHS in St. Liam Hall; faculty and staff will be able to take the test at the University Wellness Center. see TB PAGE 5
SCENE PAGE 9
KATELYN VALLEY | The Observer
Popular author Roxane Gay delivers a lecture at Saint Mary’s Wednesday night. She discussed the need for inclusive campuses. By MARTHA REILLY and GINA TWARDOSZ Saint Mary’s Editor and Associate Saint Mary’s Editor
Though her bestselling books deal with tropes such as outrage against gender conventions and opposition to institutionalized sexism, Roxane Gay did not always identify as a feminist, she said in a lecture in the O’Laughlin Auditorium at Saint Mary’s on Wednesday. “That was the problem for me growing up is that when
I thought of feminist, I just thought of ‘oh, angry, manhating, nobody likes that,’” Gay said. “It’s easy to say ‘I’m not a feminist’ because you want to be liked, you want to be part of the world and you want to be accepted. It’s challenging.” This incorrect interpretation of feminism, Gay said, survives because fearing change comes more easily than seeking reform. “The people who create those caricatures are afraid of see GAY PAGE 3
IRISH insider inside