
6 minute read
Le Mans Hall hosts end of year block party
By MOIRA Quinn news Writer
o n Tuesday evening, Le m ans h all hosted an event in s tapleton Lounge as an effort to bring the students of s aint m ary’s together one last time before the stress of finals season kicks in. i t was initially supposed to be an outdoor block party located at the recently built b elle’s Patio, but the event was moved indoors due to inclement weather.
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“ i t was originally supposed to be a barbecuetype thing outside, but the weather did not permit, so we moved it to s tapleton,” s alwa a hmed, a hall director of Le m ans h all, said. “We originally wanted to have lawn games and have that type of vibe, but we changed it to board games, and we also have a lot of food. i t was all my ra s’ idea, and i think they did a great job.” a s a hall director, a hmed has dedicated a lot of her time toward bringing the community living in Le m ans together through events like this.
“ i feel like it is a special dorm because it’s mainly a lot of upperclassmen, so you have to cater tographs, artifacts and old newspaper articles, including those from The o bserver. to them a little bit differently than you would to other dorms,” she said.
“ e vents like this help with that by creating a space for residents to grab games and hang out, but they can also easily go to the r eignbeaux Lounge and study with friends afterwards.” e mma b aran, a sophomore at s aint m ary’s, was an attendee of the event. b aran is planning on living in Le m ans for the 202324 school year, and she said she is excited about calling herself an upperclassmen.
“ i view living in Le m ans as a symbol of a s mick stepping into the final phase of living on campus,” she said. “a ll the girls that you are going to be living with here are the ones you have bonded with over the last two years, and Le m ans kind of signifies that ending. e vents like the block party cultivate a community within the hall that makes your last year living in the dorms that more special.”
While b aran intends to live in an off-campus house her senior year, she said she is going the dorms more than she thought she would.
“ i ’m really going to miss just being able to walk down the hallway and see all of my friends,” she said. “ e ven if it’s late at night, i can just go into anyone’s room and hang out without having to drive to their homes or anything like that. i feel like a lot of other colleges promote the idea of living off campus for the majority of your college years, but i think the dorms are what make the tri-campus community even more special.”
Contact Moira Quinn at mquinn02@saintmarys.edu do a deep dive into what sources exist in our college archive,” she said. “ b ecause of the history of discrimination both nationally and also on our campus, these stories are really buried.” i t was at this b oard of Trustees meeting that Wagman first met Jacqueline Leskovec, a member of the b oard of Trustees and smc graduate from the class of 1974. Leskovec is also one of the founding members of Pride smc , an affinity group of s aint m ary’s c ollege.
Leskovec was not only in attendance at the event, but had a whole case of artifacts from her time as a LG b TQ+ student at smc in the early 70’s.
“ b ack when i was a junior, Professor Penny Jameson had created a class called Psychology of Women,” Leskovec said, pointing to the textbook in the case, which come with a placard describing how this class allowed Leskovec to further understand her sexuality. “ i held on to those two textbooks from that class because they were one of the first texts that came out that talked about the psychology of women.”
“ i think its really important to make this known,” Leskovec said about the exhibit as a whole. “There is my story, other stories, they could all be hidden unless someone steps forward and makes them known.”
“ h opefully, it will bring some awareness to people to know now this is not a passing thing. This is something that is our history, its entire history of the college.” o ther displays of the exhibit ranged from timelines of events, pho - e mma Feller, a senior involved with the project, had a hand in creating a timeline for the exhibit.
“ i started with a timeline and then i found a lot of cartoons, photos, quotes from The o bserver, from the archives from like 1973 until now,” she said.
Feller talked about the range of opinions her research dug up.
“Generally, it was more on the positive side but i did include some of the negatives because i wanted to show that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine when talking about such a silenced group of people.”
Feller also talked about the obstacles she ran into while researching and creating her part of the presentation.
“ i t was very hard to find s aint m ary’s specific research because a lot of times, n otre d ame would silence the community and in the background, s aint m ary’s would be there trying to uplift.”
“ i think the timing of it is very prevalent,” Feller added. “ i ’m very proud that we were able to put all this together considering the current climate and that everyone felt empowered to actually talk about this even more so.” s ophomore m ac Weberh ess also is a student in Wagman’s class who helped with the presentation.
“ i was looking specifically at the trans experience at s aint m ary’s and what that has looked like over pretty close to two decades,” Weber- h ess said. “ m ostly because there is not a lot of information prior to the 2000’s.”
“There is a lot to sift through,” Weberh ess said about the biggest struggles of their research. “ n ot a lot actually pertains specifically to s aint m ary’s, there is a lot more that pertains heavily to n otre d ame, which is influential of how we conduct ourselves here.”
Weber- h ess talked a lot about transgender pride events. “There was a Transpride protest in 2016. That was meant to show a lot of support for queer and trans students here in light of the election.”
They also talked about how it was learning about events like these that made them most excited about the queer history of s aint m ary’s. “ i do like the picture that comes from that protest in 2016 and i think it’s because you can tell it is s aint m ary’s, you can tell that it the green outside of m c c andless [ h all].” h owever, according to Weber- h ess, with the positive again comes the negative.
“ e very other article, it felt like something was negative. i can’t pick out any single thing because its just insidious,” Weber- h ess said. “ i t’s not always just in your face ‘ i ’m going to be homophobic’ or ‘ i ’m going to be transphobic’. o r just like, ‘ i don’t care to be positive to other peoples’ existence’ and the casual way of bigotry.”
Weber- h ess also found in their research that “There’s a lot out there that pertains more to n otre d ame than s aint m ary’s. s o like a lot of negative things were coming out of n otre d ame.”
Wagman discussed how the class will be donating the project to the c ollege’s archives.
“ i n 10 years when the next person says ‘ h ey, what is the queer history of s aint m ary’s?’, there will actually be a collection.”
Contact Katelyn Waldschmidt at kwaldschmidt01@saintmarys.edu
Holy Cross
that the c ollege needs to do a better job of sharing its sense of mission and its success with the world.
“The great story of h oly c ross c ollege is one that too many people don’t know about. We have to do a better job of elevating our brand and elevating our profile,” he explained, adding that good fiscal stewardship “is always foremost on our minds.” c lark then looked to the future, and once again highlighted his forthcoming five year strategic plan which will be released next month, following approval from the c ollege’s board of trustees. c lark described the plan as,“inspirational, aspirational and operational.” a lthough he did not describe the plan in detail, c lark shared that the plan will focus on five central themes: cultivating zeal for mission, affirming the importance of a liberal arts education, providing a transformational student experience, advancing the mission of the college and growing the college strategically and sustainably. c lark concluded his “ s tate of the c ollege” speech by asking his audience to pray for h oly c ross c ollege and describing his love for the c ollege.
“We need you to champion h oly c ross c ollege and be proud of the place [that] this is,” c lark said to the students and alumni watching the speech.
“ h oly c ross c ollege is a special place,” c lark said. “ it’s a place in which we are intentional about forming the next generation of innovative scholars, courageous citizens, virtuous leaders and hopeful disciples.”
Contact Liam Kelly at lkelly8@nd.edu
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