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Volume 55, Issue 54 | Monday, March 29, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
ND weekend clinic distributes vaccines Two-day clinic administers over 5,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses for those eligible in Indiana By MAGGIE EASTLAND Associate News Editor
Through the joint efforts of the Indiana Department of Health, St. Joseph County Health Department, Notre Dame and many volunteers, 5,760 vaccines were administered at the two-day mass vaccination clinic in Compton Family Ice Arena on Friday and Saturday. The effort was part of a statewide movement to accelerate vaccine rollout. Two similar
clinics were held at the Indiana Motor Speedway and Ivy Tech Community College in the weeks leading up to the Notre Dame clinic. Those who received a free one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Friday or Saturday were required to pre-register in order to verify their eligibility and expedite the vaccine administration process, Mark Fox, deputy health officer for St. Joseph County, said. The mass clinic came together with the help of
medical professionals who administered the shot, the National Guard who managed logistical concerns, Notre Dame officials who helped control traffic and parking, city and county police forces who directed traffic on roads surrounding campus and volunteers who served as translators for Spanish-speaking residents receiving the vaccine. Sue Ryan, Notre Dame director of media relations, said the state of Indiana played a larger role in organizing the clinic
than the University. “This is [the state’s] clinic,” she said, “We’re just offering our space to host the event.” The state was in charge of most of the clinic planning, including setting up the tents and hiring the medical professionals, but Notre Dame provided important support with traffic and volunteer interpreters, Fox said. Fox also said Notre Dame’s proven record of traffic and parking management made it an ideal location for the state to
host a mass clinic. The state developed a carefully detailed plan for an outdoor drive-thru clinic that ensured the vaccine distribution operated efficiently, Fox said. One of the steps taken to expedite the process was the streamlined pre-registration. “Most times the registration process is what slows down vaccine clinics,” Fox said. “Having it pre-registered improves that.” According to volunteers who see CLINIC PAGE 3
Professor speaks about civil rights By BELLA LAUFENBERG News Writer
In a lecture Friday hosted by the K lau Center for Civ il and Human Rights, Jeanne Theoharis, author/co-author of nine books on the civ il rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, spoke about my ths surrounding the movement. Theoharis is a distinguished professor of politica l science at Brook ly n College. Her book, titled A More Beautiful and Terrible Histor y: The Uses
and Misuses of Civ il Rights Histor y, was the framework for Friday’s lecture. In the book, she describes how misuses of the historica l civ il rights movement to curb more recent protests can be detrimenta l to the cause. During the lecture, Theoharis said America has concocted a nationa l fable of the civ il rights movement — effectively hiding the truth under layers of nationa lism
BELLA LAUFENBERG | The Observer
see LECTURE PAGE 4
Professor Jeanne Theoharis joined the lecture over Zoom to discuss the civil rights movement and the myths of its retelling over time.
Observer Staff Report
First-Gen Week celebrates students By ALYSA GUFFEY News Editor
For its second annua l firstgeneration, low-income (FLI) student week, the Office of Student Enrichment hosted a variet y of events to both highlight the experience of these students at Notre Dame and educate others. This year, the week featured mainly v irtua l events and touched on a variet y of topics that are informationa l not only to first-generation and low-income students but a lso to the whole communit y, director of student enrichment Consuela Howell said. Socia l justice was a lso at the center of the week’s lineup, Howell said. “We didn’t have a
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specific theme,” Howell said. “However, given many of the things that were going on in the countr y as it related to socia l justice and rea lly a focus on different t y pes of inequa lities, we felt we wanted to touch on that in some way.” Professor Dom Cha loner hosted a discussion Monday on env ironmenta l inequities, a topic Howell said students had suggested in prev ious years. “We have had students who have mentioned or suggested [env ironmenta l inequities] in the past any way, and it did seem like a good time to set that up in and we were excited to have it be a part of FLI week,” Howell said. A nother topic Howell said students were heav ily
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COVID policies remain
interested in learning more about was investments, leading to the office of student enrichment reaching out to finance professor Carl Ackermann to lead a workshop entitled “Rea l World W hatever: Investing” Tuesday over Zoom. In his v irtua l ta lk, Ackermann spoke about the basics of investing, mentioning t wo ways people primarily invest: stocks and bonds. nd on universit y campus.” “The way a bond usua lly works is this, right, a company goes out and borrows a certain amount of money from an investor. During the life of the bond the company promises to pay regular interest pay ments to that investor,” Ackermann said.
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“But now, if you instead hold stock in a company, right, you actua lly have ow nership in that company and after the bondholders are paid their promised amount.” Ackermann a lso informed students about different t y pes of retirement plans they might have in their careers and how to have the best outcomes whether an employee has a 401(k) or a 403(b). FLI week finished w ith a “words of encouragement” day on Friday, when uplifting messages from a lumni and other members of the communit y were shared on socia l media throughout the day. Assistant director see FIRST-GEN PAGE 4
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In an email Friday, the Universit y notified students that all campus safet y protocols relating to mask wearing and personal travel w ill remain in place. This decision follows Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s Tuesday press conference in which he announced the state mask mandate w ill turn into a mask adv isor y April 6. “Given the number of people who live, work, interact, and study on our campus and the risk of contagion, it’s critically important that we as a Universit y communit y continue to follow all of our campus health and safet y protocols, and wearing your mask is an essential part of these protocols,” the email said. In addition, the email adv ised students, facult y and staff to report their vaccination status to the Universit y after receiv ing the final dose of the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as these numbers w ill impact future decisions on campus in the summer and see POLICIES PAGE 3
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