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Volume 53, Issue 111 | thursday, april 4, 2019 | ndsmcobserver.com
ND Dining to implement new system Notre Dame will now donate its food waste toward renewable energy furthers debate bid By THOMAS MURPHY Associate News Editor
Observer Staff Report
Notre Dame is one of six locations that applied to host the 2020 presidential election debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Wednesday. Three cities will be selected as hosts by the nonpartisan organization, POLITICO reported. Other locations v ying for the spots include Belmont University in Nashville, see DEBATE PAGE 3
Campus Dining at Notre Dame produces over 400 tons of food waste annually — 10 percent of the University’s overall waste. W hile in the past almost all of this food waste would end up in a landfill, Campus Dining has partnered with the Office of Sustainability to implement the Grind2Energ y system, which converts food waste into renewable energ y with reusable byproducts. Senior program director of sustainability Allison Mihalich said the project follows the lead of the Environmental Protection Agency’s hierarchy of reducing food waste: consume
less, feed hungry people, feed animals and then use the waste for composting or industrial purposes. Inspired by this hierarchy, Grind2Energ y will dramatically reduce Notre Dame’s waste, Mihalich said. “We’re estimating north of 400 tons, and that means we can avoid approximately 270 tons of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere, which will have lasting effects,” Mihalich said. The project consists of three tanks — one at the Center for Culinary Excellence and one at each dining hall — that grind and hold food waste for two weeks before being emptied and transferred to
Notre Dame community embraces ‘Mustrd’ app By THOMAS MURPHY Associate News Editor
From the fog of social media, group chats and phone notifications, a new app called “Mustrd” has recently gained visibility on Notre Dame’s campus. Created by senior Kevin Dingens and first released on March 9, the app has been building momentum since brightyellow Mustrd merchandise first appeared at student parties, bars and across social media two weekends ago. Dingens said Mustrd may not seem unique on its surface, but a closer look reveals how the app fills the need for casual event planning with friends. “Mustrd is just another social media app, which doesn’t sound very exciting, but essentially what makes it different is its event-based group chats,” Dingens said. “ … My quick elevator pitch is that it optimizes casual social gatherings using
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spontaneous event-based group chats.” A combination of GroupMe, Snapchat and Facebook, Mustrd puts a time, location, description and an invite list on a group chat that disappears when the event ends. Each of these social media platforms had a hand an inspiring Mustrd, Dingens said. “I kind of got the idea for this from a giant GroupMe that I have that has existed since my freshmen year. We essentially post who wants to go to dinner, sand volleyball, anyone driving back to Chicago, that kind of thing,” Dingens said. “It worked well, but I just thought that it was a really inefficient way of organizing casual events.” W hile the idea for Mustrd drew from other existing social media apps, Dingens added Mustrd is really designed to fill a need for organization for a certain kind of specifically casual event that other apps fail to
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effectively address. “I was just really frustrated with the way that current social organization works on a moral casual level,” he said. “Obviously, you have Facebook events, but those are for birthday parties or even just party parties. I don’t really know what else Facebook events are used for, honestly. Leggings protests? Dorm events? Not getting dinner or rock climbing with a group of friends or bowling off-campus.” Nate Myklebust, a senior at the University of Wisconsin who worked with Dingens as the app’s designer, said in an email that central to Mustrd’s purpose is a informality rooted in cultural and social norms. “[We] wanted to harness the low commitment, casualness of everyday social events and empower people to easily organize them on the f ly,” Myklebust said. “It’s supposed to be casual and see MUSTRD PAGE 3
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Homestead Dairy, where the methane produced by the food waste will be harnessed for energ y. The energ y produced will be used to heat Homestead Dairy’s farm with excess energ y being sold back to the electrical grid. The process’ solid and liquid byproduct will be used for dairy bedding and fertilizer, respectively. W hile the tank built for the Center for Culinary Excellence is already in use, director of Campus Dining Chris Abayasinghe said the dining halls’ tanks should be completed by summer. “We are in the process today of seeking the install for North and South by the end of April,” he said. “We’re actually waiting for
the weather to cooperate … because in order to anchor the evacuation tank, we have to be able to pour the concrete.” For almost a decade, the University had been looking into ways to minimize waste and environmental impact, with faculty performing multiple research projects over that time. Mihalich said it was ultimately the work of students that pushed Notre Dame towards a solution. “It wasn’t until the student projects were presented to the University leadership that we realized this isn’t just a commitment we made for ourselves,” she said. “It’s something that the students see WASTE PAGE 4
O’Neill Family Hall builds unity
ANNA MASON | The Observer
O’Neill Family Hall, founded in 1996, brings together its residences through section outings such as sporting events and dinners. By JESSICA REGG News Writer
Proudly standing in the center of West Quad lies O’Neill Family Hall, home of the Angry Mob. Established in 1996, O’Neill stands out against other residence halls due to the traditions and unity shared between its 261 residents. “The first thing that should
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come to your mind when you think of O’Neill is sections,” John Desler, junior and outgoing president of O’Neill, said. “You go in with like 14 or 15 freshmen from your class, live in the section, and just become best friends with all of those guys.” Desler said he enjoys such a heav y emphasis on section see O’NEILL PAGE 4
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