Observer the
The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s Volume 44 : Issue 81
Thursday, January 28, 2010
ndsmcobserver.com
Protesters deliver letter, ask for policy change Students and faculty hold a ‘No Home Under the Dome’ rally, NDSP denies group entrance to Main Building By JOHN TIERNEY News Writer
Demonstrators attempted to deliver a letter addressed to University President Fr. John Jenkins demanding that sexual orientation be included in Notre Dame’s non-discrimination clause to Main Building Wednesday. The letter was accepted by an administrative assistant from Jenkins’s office See Also after student Full text of organizers of letter to the “No Home Jenkins Under the Dome” demonpage 8 stration and faculty participants were denied access to the building by a Notre Dame Security Police (NDSP) officer. The letter, part of an initiative to add sexual orientation to the University’s non-discrimination clause and formally support a gay-straight alliance on campus, asked that the University “move beyond words and into concrete actions which fully bring [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and ally students] into equality at Notre Dame.” The protest organized at the corner of Angela Blvd. and Notre Dame Ave. Over 200 participants walked up Notre Dame Ave. to Main PAT COVENEY/The Observer
see PROTEST/page 8
Demonstrators walk a letter for University President Fr. John Jenkins from the entrance at Notre Dame Avenue to Main Building with purple tape over their mouths. They asked that sexual orientation be added to Notre Dame’s non-discrimination clause.
Students gather for FOTO sponsors Haiti benefit concert President’s address By JOHN CAMERON News Writer
AP
President Barack Obama makes his first State of the Union address Wednesday. By LIZ O’DONNELL News Writer
Students gathered in the LaFortune television lounge to watch President Barack Obama speak about the nation’s economy and healthcare reform dur-
INSIDE
TODAY’S PAPER
ing his first State of the Union address on Wednesday evening. Obama opened the speech by encouraging Congress to work together in the upcoming year to help return the nation to its former state of prosperity.
see OBAMA/page 6
Students packed the LaFortune Ballroom Wednesday night for the “Hearts 4 Haiti Benefit Concert.” The concert — sponsored by Friends of the See Also O r p h a n s “FOTO raises (FOTO) — raised funds funds for for Haiti relief Haiti” following the Jan. 12 earthpage 6 quake that devastated the nation’s capital of Port-auPrince. The concert featured The Undertones, student-musician Pat McKillen and the Notre Dame Brass Band. The Undertones performed 1990s classics such as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The songs were followed by both originals and covers by McKillen, which
SUZANNA PRATT/The Observer
The Undertones, an acapella group, performs at the “Hearts 4 Haiti Benefit Concert” Wednesday night in LaFortune Ballroom. included a surprisingly successful acoustic rendition of Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok.” “I thought the concert was a great showing of the talents and generosity of Notre Dame
students,” freshman Erin Wright said. FOTO, a student club founded by Notre Dame junior Michael
see CONCERT/page 8
LaFortune computer cluster remodel page 3 ◆ Men’s basketball falls to Villanova page 24 ◆ ‘Book of Eli’ review page 12 ◆ Viewpoint page 10