Suspect assaults local man
Notre Dame Security Police (NDSP) is investigating the assault of a Mishawaka man that occurred Saturday on campus, police said. The assault occurred around 4:15 p.m. on a pedestrian path between Alumni Stadium and Eck Baseball Stadium. Witnesses told police the victim and the suspect argued, and then the suspect struck the victim in the face, knocking him to the ground. Police said the suspect fled before NDSP arrived at the scene. The victim received medical treatment on the scene from the Notre Dame Fire Department for a possible head injury, and police said an ambulance transported him to a local hospital. Police described the suspect as a white male about 5’6″ to 5’8″ tall and 150 to 165 pounds in weight. He was clean-shaven with dark hair, wearing a blue Notre Dame track style jacket and blue jeans. Witnesses told police that another man accompanied the suspect. The second man was also a white male, about 6′ to 6’1″ tall with a red-colored goatee and mustache. Police reported that he wore a blue Notre Dame sweatshirt, blue jeans and a blue and green beanie hat. Police said anyone with information about this matter contact NDSP at (574) 631-5555.
Through the non-profit partnership Rebuilding Together, Saint Mary’s students are working with economically disadvantaged homeowners in the South Bend area to transform their homes. Olivia Critchlow, assistant director for the Office of Civic and Social Engagement, said homeowners apply to the program and are chosen based on their need. She said Saint Mary’s has volunteered with Rebuilding Together for eight years and will donate $3,500 to remodeling one of the 25 houses that were chosen this year. “This becomes the Saint Mary’s student experience,” she said. “The students have hands-on opportunities to see a complete transformation.” Critchlow said this year’s home rehabilitation will be in South Bend’s River Park neighborhood and provides an opportunity for the South Bend community to serve together. “Students will be doing the unskilled labor, which includes painting, light landscaping and other exterior work,” Critchlow said. Skilled laborers will work on the houses the weekend before the student volunteers do, Critchlow said. Plumbers, electricians and roofers will attend to major details, while students work on minor details. Students do much of the manual labor required to remodel the homes of single-parent families and elderly individuals in order to ease some of their burdens, Critchlow said. The rebuilding gives particular relief to families in a tough economic time. “The experience will also give students an opportunity to meet members of the South Bend community and hear their stories,” Critchlow said. “It is an incredible feeling of accomplishment and community for all involved.” Critchlow said Saint Mary’s Office for Civic and Social Engagement will collect donations for constructing the sponsored house. According to a press release from Critchlow, the South Bend Medical Foundation will also host a blood drive April 11 to raise funds. For every unit of blood collected, she said the Foundation will donate $5 to the effort. Volunteering with Rebuilding Together is different than participating in other volunteer opportunities, Critchlow said. “In the rebuilding project, an entire group works together to work on a house in the morning and see its complete transformation by the time that they all leave in the afternoon,” she said. Critchlow said although the volunteer experience is short, it leaves a feeling of accomplishment. “Unlike other volunteer experiences, where volunteers wait for a few months to see the outcome, the Rebuilding Together project gives students the opportunity to see the outcome within a few hours,” Critchlow said. “They get to see a face-lift on the house that they’ve been working on for half of a day.” According to Critchlow’s press release, 80 percent of Saint Mary’s students participate in service before graduating. “It is through service events like Rebuilding Together, that bring our students together with those in need in the community to connect in very real and tangible ways, that truly help to make our world a better place,” she said. Critchlow said the house rebuilding will take place April 21 and students who want to volunteer should sign up by April 18.
Eva Niklinska, Katelyn Wray, Mason Zurovchak and Kimmy Sullivan were elected to serve as the class of 2017’s Junior Class Council in a run-off election Friday.The winning ticket garnered 510 votes (50.15%), while the ticket of Elizabeth Fenton, Louis Bertolotti, Conor Bradley and Shannon Hodges earned 507 votes (49.85%), Fenton said. Seventy-seven sophomores abstained from voting, but abstentions in a run-off election are not counted in the final vote count, according to the Student Union Constitution.In the original election, held last Wednesday, the Fenton, Bertolotti, Bradley and Hodges ticket received 496 votes (46.97%), while the Niklinska, Wray, Zurovchak and Sullivan ticket earned 466 votes (44.13%), Fenton said. 94 students abstained, making up 8.9% of the vote, Fenton said. The amount of abstentions led to neither ticket earning a majority of the vote, resulting in a run-off election.The winning ticket is excited to carry out their platform next year, Mason Zurovchak, the winning ticket’s candidate for treasurer, said.“We are grateful to Elizabeth, Louis, Conor and Shannon for a hard fought election.” Zurovchak said. “We look forward to carrying out the various legs of our platform and bringing the class together next year.“We are honored to be serving the class in these positions, and we are excited to get started.”Niklinska, Wray, Zurovchak and Sullivan will take office April 1.
Representatives of UNITE HERE, the labor union representing Ameristar Casino employees, described their campaign against the casino during the most recent Labor Cafe discussion sponsored by the Higgins Labor Program — a series of monthly discourses dedicated to educating the Notre Dame community about labor issues.Dominique Wilson, a representative from the Chicago-based UNITE HERE Local 1 chapter and employee at Bluechip Casino, and Stuart Mora, a UNITE HERE staff member and University alumnus, described the current boycott against Ameristar. The casino’s employees are asking for consumers to boycott the gambling venue as they campaign to keep their health insurance as it is.According to a UNITE HERE press release, Ameristar employees would like the consumer boycott to continue until the casino agrees to maintain the employees’ current healthcare plan.Ameristar, a casino owned by Las Vegas-based company Pinnacle Entertainment, proposed a healthcare plan that could charge employees up to $4,000 per year in payroll deductions — an amount that, for several workers, accounts for almost a quarter of their annual wages.Wilson said Ameristar’s refusal to maintain their employees’ health insurance has drastic implications and creates a significant financial burden for many of its employees.“[Bluechip and Majestic Star employees are] all going to back [the union workers] in this boycott because we don’t want them to lose — because then, we lose as well,” Wilson said. “We are not just going to let this happen to Ameristar or any other Casino in our union.”Wilson said while Ameristar’s union initiated the boycott, other casinos such as Majestic Star and Bluechip stand in solidarity. Wilson said the result of the negotiations with Ameristar will set the stage for negotiations with other casinos.“The way they negotiate everything that one company does, the other usually follows suit,” Wilson said. “If Ameristar can come in and take away health insurance and wages from […] Ameristar workers, when we sit down in a few months to talk to Majestic or Bluechip, they are going to do the same thing.“They’re going to say ‘Ameristar isn’t paying insurance. They’re not paying good wages, so why should we?’”Mora said the campaign for health insurance with Pinnacle Entertainment’s casinos is hardly a new issue.“There’s been a fight in each of these casinos over the last four years to keep that health insurance,” Mora said. “Pinnacle Entertainment is a Las Vegas-based company. [Ameristar] is their only union property out of 15 casinos.”Both Mora and Wilson said Pinnacle Entertainment has demonstrated resistance towards unions in the past. Wilson said many of Pinnacle Entertainment’s employees are not union workers and, at one point, the company fired several employees for expressing a desire to form a union.Wilson said the next steps for UNITE HERE union employees include a pledge campaign and several boycott Fridays, as well as a larger social action event April 25. Wilson said she hoped the community and consumer support would result in the boycott’s success.“When these casinos came, they promised to get people off of welfare, and now they’re basically trying to take it [health insurance] back and put people on assistance from the government and nobody wants that,” Wilson said. “We just want to go to work every day like we’ve been doing and get our insurance and get paid for what we’re worth and take care of our families.”Tags: Ameristar, Chicago, Higgins Labor Program, Labor Cafe, UNITE HERE
On Sunday, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the nun who gained international fame for her ministry to the poor and sick, was officially recognized as a Catholic saint. Thousands packed St. Peter’s Square in Rome for the canonization Mass with Pope Francis — including about 35 Notre Dame students, just beginning their study-abroad programs. Junior Morgan Paladino, the student minister for the fall semester in Rome, said the group arrived at 4:45 a.m. for the 10:30 a.m. Mass. “It was a lot of waiting that didn’t really feel that long because of the camaraderie of being there, sitting on the ground together, some people sleeping, some people talking, all just excited for what was to come,” Paladino said in a Facebook message. In hand were tickets Paladino had requested for the group from the Missionaries of Charity in Rome. Mother Teresa founded the religious order in Kolkata, India — formerly Calcutta — in 1950 after feeling called to serve the poor there. Over the next several decades she traveled around the world, founding Missionaries of Charity houses and speaking against poverty and abortion. Her many trips to the United States included a visit to Saint Mary’s in 1974, according to the Notre Dame Campus Ministry website.Critics questioned the quality of her order’s medical care and her philosophy of suffering, but she became an icon of ministry to the poor. After she died in 1997, Pope John Paul II sped up the customary canonization process, allowing her to become a saint just 19 years later. The Notre Dame group — composed partly of students attending John Cabot University in Rome, partly of third-year architecture students and partly of those visiting from the Dublin program — was among the first inside the square, where a giant portrait of the soon-to-be-saint was set up. They introduced themselves to the people around them: Paladino and her friend met a woman who said she worked for UNICEF and had met Mother Teresa several times. “It was such a new perspective — to hear someone iconic and revered described as a personality one might encounter at a United Nations meeting,” Paladino said. As the Mass began, the students watched Pope Francis emerge into the square. As is the case for many St. Peter’s services, the Mass included segments in multiple languages, including Begali and Albanian (the newly-Saint Teresa was ethnically Albanian), as well as Italian, Latin and English. The actual canonization, however, began just after the opening rites. “For Mother Teresa, mercy was the salt which gave flavour to her work, it was the light which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering,” Pope Francis told the crowd, according to an article from Reuters. Paladino said the crowd was initially as silent as she thought 100,000 people could be. “And I tell you, as soon as the pope had spoken her name, ‘Madre Teresa,’ the crowd roared and cheered and clapped,” she said. “It was a riveting moment, knowing that such a magnificent example of holiness and service in our time would now be recognized as a saint, as someone we could pray to for intercession.” Tags: canonization, Mother Teresa, Rome, St. Peter’s Square
On Thursday, the Snite Museum hosted a “Valentine’s Day recovery program,” poking fun at Tuesday’s holiday and allowing members of the South Bend community to explore the museum’s art collections.Titled, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”, the event was part of the “Third Thursdays at the Snite” program, according to Sarah Martin, curator of public programs and education at the museum.“Every month, we try to come up with something different to really kind of get people’s interest piqued to come into the museum and rediscover artworks, or kind of fall in love with their favorite artworks all over again,” Martin said.“This month, because it fell so close to Valentine’s Day and after Valentine’s Day, we thought a kind of recovery program from Valentine’s Day, or an alternative program to Valentine’s Day, might be a good idea.”The event featured a number of romance-themed activities: Participants could write love letters to themselves, create dating profiles for the works of art and go on tours of the galleries to learn about artists who had failed in their love lives.At the love letter-writing station, students could choose to craft their letters using a Mad Libs template, a blank template or a pre-written template. Patrick Button, a third-year law student, was one of those who used a Mad Libs template to write himself a love letter.“Apparently I love myself, even if I don’t have guns or rocks,” he said, reading from his letter. “It’s a nice thing to do after class, write Mad Libs valentines to yourself.”Junior Jacqueline Pilato said she came to the event as part of an art history course she is taking this semester.“We are required to come to a couple talks at the Snite and write about our experiences, so I picked this one because I saw the description and saw that it’d be a sarcastic take on Valentine’s Day,” she said.“I thought it’d be interesting, something different than the Renaissance and Baroque-type art that we’re learning about right now.”Mary Rattenbury, the Friends of the Snite Museum coordinator, said she thought the event was a good way for others to explore Snite’s galleries and look at Valentine’s Day with a sense of humor.“I think it helps us not take some parts of life so seriously, especially young people that might not have a relationship. And holidays can bring people down, so this gives you a new approach to it,” Rattenbury said.“I’ve been lucky to have been married for 38 years … but you know, I just think it helps you be less anxious and have a little fun with bringing life to art, by putting some storylines in with portraits or paintings.”Tags: Snite Museum, Valentine’s Day, What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Who they are:Presidential candidate Gates McGavick is a junior from Seattle, Washington, studying English. He has been very involved in dorm life; currently, he is the president of Keough Hall, and he has previously served as the student senator for Keough. Junior Corey Gayheart is running as McGavick’s vice president. A native of Fairborn, Ohio, Gayheart has served as senator for St. Edward’s Hall, as class council representative and as a student ambassador for the department of development. He is majoring in political science.Top priority: Improving dorm lifeWhile McGavick’s and Gayheart’s main effort to improve dorm life — repealing the three-year housing requirement — does not seem feasible, their proposed “solutions-based” plan to approach the administration includes some changes to work on “bolstering dorm life.” Their plan to tackle the housing requirement includes working on building a waiver system in the event their attempts to appeal are unsuccessful. The waiver system has the potential to be problematic, as students may feel “other-ized” at the prospect of being fit into a box to gain the waiver, but it does show they are trying to stay realistic with their goals and preparing a back-up plan. They also cited the need for repairs in many of the dorms. “There are literally buckets hanging from pipes,” McGavick said of the state of some dorms. Improving water quality and getting rid of pests, including bats and bugs, in affected dorms are also priorities to make the dorm experience more equal, McGavick said. Best idea: Improving the blue light system on campus With the help of Campus Safety and the Notre Dame Security Police (NDSP), McGavick and Gayheart plan to evaluate the current blue-light system, an emergency-call-station system with a few locations on the outskirts of campus, including by the lakes and near Twyckenham Drive. In addition to improving the position of and making repairs to current blue lights, the ticket also wants to look into adding more locations around campus, including in areas that are frequented more often by students. Worst idea: Hosting student government members from other universities Working and collaborating with student leaders from other colleges could be a very fruitful idea, but hosting those students on campus and planning tailgates for them hardly seems to be the most productive use of student government resources, especially for a ticket that claims to prioritize “making student government more fiscally responsible” in their platform. Most feasible: Reforming senateMcGavick and Gayheart brought up several potential changes for student senate: moving the meetings to Monday nights to streamline the flow of information for Tuesday hall council meetings; allotting time for public comments at the end of senate meetings; increasing the training for incoming senators; and ending closed senate meetings. These goals are all extremely feasible. Not all will reap the same amount of benefits, but some — especially ending closed senate meetings and better preparing senators for their positions — could have a big impact on how senate functions as representatives for the student body. Least feasible: Repeal three-year housing requirementThe three-year housing requirement has already been passed for approval by the Board of Trustees; vice president of student affairs Erin Hoffmann Harding has announced the University is in the midst of seeking funding for two new residence halls in preparation for this requirement, which starts for the class of 2022. McGavick and Gayheart have said they would take a “solutions-based” approach, but with the plan already so far in the works, it seems extremely unlikely the administration will backtrack on such an enormous decision. Bottom Line: A different kind of experience, transparency and realistic goalsHaving both served as hall senators — and McGavick currently serving as a hall president — the McGavick-Gayheart ticket brings a slightly different kind of leadership experience than most student government tickets in the past. They said their experience requires a more day-to-day kind of accountability, which is underlined by their advocacy for more transparency in student government, including ending closed senate meetings. While some of their ideas — specifically repealing the new housing requirement and standardizing the Moreau experience — seem lofty and impractical, most of their platform is extremely realistic, which would increase their potential impact on student life.Tags: 2018 student government, Gates McGavick, McGavick-Gayheart, platform, Student government
In celebration of the arts at Notre Dame, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center hosted its annual event, Art Attack @ DPAC, featuring live performances by a number of performing arts groups on campus including PEMCo, The Echoes, Halftime, Notre Dame Swing and Unchained Melodies, along with information tables regarding jobs involving the arts, auditions and upcoming shows. Art Attack @ DPAC is a chance for the performing, visual and literary arts at Notre Dame to be recognized and to recruit new members who have an interest in the arts. Emma Farnan | The Observer A student visits a booth at Art Attack @ DPAC.Senior Lydia Costello, executive producer of Not So Royal Shakespeare Company, said she joined the club her freshman year and subsequently found an amazing community and lifelong friends.“I think the strong community aspect is really the case with a lot of the performing arts clubs on campus, and I think that’s why we have such a thriving arts community as a whole on Notre Dame’s campus,” Costello said.Senior and artistic director of the Pasquerilla East Musical Company Shane Dolan said the arts at Notre Dame was a supportive community.“We encourage people to get involved and audition even if they are scared because the community will help support them,” Dolan said. “And if people aren’t interested in performing we also have a community for backstage work, directing, stage managing, helping with costuming and more.”Freshman Zoe Case, who attended the event to learn more about the arts at Notre Dame, said the event encouraged her to audition for a few of the performing arts clubs.“I was involved in a lot of visual arts clubs in high school, but not any performing arts clubs,” Case said. “After coming to [Art Attack], though, I feel comfortable joining a couple of the clubs here because the community seems so great.”The event also provided students with information regarding the visual arts. Sophomore Meg Burns and junior Rachel Mills, representatives from the student programming committee at the Snite Museum of Art, promoted the museum’s various events for students on campus that are based on the works of art at the museum.Mills said the Snite is a great resource on campus for students to enjoy.“People walk by the museum all the time, but not that many people come in, so we are reimagining what the space of the art museum can be through collaborations with all different student groups,” Mills said. “In the same way, letting people know in the beginning of the year how the arts can really connect to anything they are interested in through the variety of student groups we have [at the Art Attack], is important.” Senior and executive producer of Student Players Tyrel London said Student Players lets students “put on theater with a purpose.” “We look to plays that try to challenge structural inequality and systems of violence in a way that isn’t too didactic so people can digest that information better,” London said. “And that’s the reason why people should be involved in art. Art is the lens through which we can help make meaning in the world, and we live in a world where we could use some good meaning right now.”Editor‘s note: a previous version of this story incorrectly stated the name of a student organization at the Art Attack @ DPAC. The name of the organization is the Not So Royal Shakespeare Company.Tags: art attack, debartolo performing arts center
Riedinger House at Saint Mary’s was full of mystery while stories from “Quiet Hours: Revealing the Mysteries” were shared over hot apple cider and doughnuts. “Quiet Hours” is a collection of ghost stories written by three Saint Mary’s alumnae.The event was sponsored by the Saint Mary’s Class Gift Campaign. Senior Maura Newell, co-chair for the Class Gift Campaign, and Sierra Jacob, assistant director of the Class Gift Campaign, said that the event has become a bit of a Saint Mary’s tradition. Class Gift Campaign opened up the doors of the usually mysterious Riedinger House in the hopes of raising awareness for philanthropy on campus, they said.“People always wonder ‘what’s in that house,’ so just an opportunity to open up a little about the history of Saint Mary’s,” Jacob said.The house was built with donations to the College, and was intended for educational purposes by offering home economics majors the chance to run a mock household. Now, the house is mostly used to entertain visitors to campus. In the brief moments during the event, the house was returned to its former educational purpose and served as an example for giving, Jacob said.“This fall we are trying to create awareness around philanthropy. Did you know that your tuition is reduced because donors give back to the college each year?” Jacob said.Jacob said the event was not meant to raise funds, but to raise awareness.“We are just trying to create awareness, and then donor challenge is … where students donate in order to help us reach certain goals,” Jacob said.The event means to create awareness in the hopes of gaining contributors for the Class Gift Campaign, which enables current students to give back to the Saint Mary’s community.“One of the goals of Class Gift Campaign is to increase awareness of students towards philanthropy and trying to get students to give, so this is one of our events that raises awareness for what we do,” Newell said.Both Newell and Jacobs put effort into planning and organizing the event, but many other people including their committees and other organizations also helped to bring it all together.“While planning the event we worked with residence life, and [resident assistants] and [hall directors] read ghost stories from ‘Quiet Hours,’ … we organized the space, we have it catered, we have doughnuts and cookies and hot chocolate and cider so kind of a fun event in the spirit of fall and Halloween,” Jacobs saidThe book that they read from is a collection of ghost stories from students while they were at Saint Mary’s. It helps to share stories about the community across generations of Saint Mary’s students, Newell said.“I think it is fun to see how interested [students are] in learning more about Saint Mary’s and hear the stories of Saint Mary’s,” Newell said.The event is not only educational about Saint Mary’s history and about how students can get involved in the future, but also about building community in the present. It helps students to connect across age and interest divides in a common history and cause, Jacob said.“I think it is an opportunity for people to be together to occupy the same space: different years, different majors, the Office of Residence Life, Phonathon and student giving,” Jacob said.Jacob said she hopes that the event plays a part in the positivity of the Saint Mary’s experience and helps students to realize the community they are a part of.“Cultivating community and create a memorable event that when you are looking back at your time at your Saint Mary’s experience maybe that is something that sticks out,” she said.The event also had the simple draw of entertainment, Newell said.“Bonding and telling stories and sitting around in a little house is really fun for students,” Newell said.The event has the greater motive of gaining donors for the Saint Mary’s fund, which is returned to the community and the campus almost immediately, Jacob said.“If you donate to the Saint Mary’s fund, it is the greatest impact on campus. It essentially goes to whatever the college needs most,” Jacob said.Tags: Class Gift Campaign, ghost stories, Quiet Hours, Riedinger House
Maxwell Johnson, a professor of liturgy at Notre Dame, spoke at Saint Mary’s third installment of its “Heritage of Hospitality” lecture series Wednesday evening.In his talk, entitled “Guests at the Table, Hospitality to Strangers: Receiving the Body of Christ to Be the Body of Christ,” Johnson explored how communion and the Eucharist create a community of Christ in the Church.Beginning with a holiday anecdote, Johnson said Scripture points us towards the implications of the Holy Communion.“For Christmas this year, my wife and I received a lovely, beautifully framed calligraphy piece with these words from Hebrews 13:2 on there: ‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that, some have entertained angels without knowing it’ — or as another translation has it — ‘have entertained angels, unaware,’” Johnson said. “What a focus this provides for us tonight on the Communion Rite and its implications.” Johnson said each element of Mass comes with its own meanings. For example, Johnson described the sign of peace, which he said is more than a time to interact with fellow laypeople.“This is not a time for greeting our neighbors. It’s a time not to say hello to as many people as possible,” he said. “It’s rather a symbolic gesture that we need to do deliberately and sincerely with maybe just a few around us as we impart to others the blessing of Christ’s peace.”In examining the events of worship, Johnson said the Eucharist is fundamental to our unification with Christ.“The gift of the Eucharist, the very body and blood of Christ given and poured out for us, continue to do over and over again what baptism has already done — to build us up as the body of Christ itself,” Johnson said. “We are what we eat and then we’re sent as that community as the body of Christ into the world in order to say to the world this is our body, our blood given and shed for you. In other words, the Eucharist forms us to be little Christs ourselves.”Those who have encountered Christ are called to show kindness to those in need, Johnson said.“Showing the hospitality to strangers is one of the great implications of our sharing the bread and cup,“ he said. “And so we should ask ourselves, perhaps, who are these strangers in need of our hospitality today? … If we ourselves as members of the Eucharistic Church the Body of Christ, are aliens, pilgrims and sojourners ourselves, then we dare not and cannot be a church of walls and divisions.”Following Johnson’s lecture, Sister Catherine Osimo reflected on the Eucharist’s reinforcement of community and connected this value to the College’s campus.Osimo said she was glad to see students of all backgrounds feel comfortable attending the day’s event.“I do hope that the students here of whatever brand, that they do feel welcome,” she said. “ … To see you as Liturgical ministers, and to see you lecturing and passing the basket and all of that, it just gives us and me a sense of pride. That, you know, you’re all in a family together. … Eucharist is about the diversity.”Tags: Eucharist, heritage of hospitality, Holy Communion, lecture