Print Edition for The Observer for Wednesday, April 10, 2024

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VOLUME 58, ISSUE 68 | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

Partial solar eclipse goes over campus Community members crowded the quads and Irish Green to observe the rare cosmic event

By ISA SHEIKH Editor-In-Chief

After weeks with largely cloudy and rainy weather, Monday was intensely sunny. Until it wasn’t.

From 1:53 p.m. to 4:08 p.m., the tri-campus was in the path of a partial solar eclipse. With the eclipse reaching its peak of approximately 96.6% of totality at 3:09 pm, students and community members crowded the quads and Irish Green to observe the rare cosmic event which won’t be seen again in the United States for another 20 years.

While some students drove south to experience total eclipse elsewhere in the state, others gathered on campus, pulling

couches from Dillon and other dorms onto South Quad and donning eclipse glasses to take peeks at the sky during an engineering class outside Stinson-Remick Hall.

Notre Dame bought 70,000 pairs of free eclipse glasses in preparation for the eclipse, on top of months of events and planetarium shows in advance of the astronomical event. Many were warned not to view the eclipse without the glasses because of risk of eye damage, though that didn’t stop everyone.

“We’ve all sneaked a peek at the big guy,” senior Corbin Hite said.

This was North America’s see ECLIPSE PAGE 5

PETER MIKULSKI | The Observer

This Monday saw students and community members donning eclipse glasses to observe the partial solar eclipse from 1:53 p.m. to 4:08 p.m., with the cosmic event reaching an approximate peak of 96.6% of totality.

Rwandan genocide survivor speaks on its legacy

ND to establish Jenkins Center Observer Staff Report

By LIAM KELLY

Notre Dame will establish the Rev. John Jenkins, C.S.C, Center for Virtue Ethics, the University announced in a press release this morning.

The new center, which is a part of the Notre Dame Ethic Initiative, will support “preeminent” scholars in the field of ethics and develop undergraduate courses on “justice and the common good.” The Center will

Notre Dame News Editor

Angélique Gakoko Pitteloud, a documentary filmmaker, writer and a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, and her husband, former Swiss ambassadortotheUnitedStates,Jacques Pitteloud, spoke in the Hesburgh Center for International Studies auditorium Tuesday afternoon about the legacy of the Rwandan genocide.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide in which approximately 800,000 of the minority Tutsi ethnic group were massacred during a roughly 100-day period in 1994.

In her remarks, Gakoko Pitteloud emphasized that while 30 years may seem like a long time to many people, it does not to her.

“Of course it was a long time ago, but for us it will always be like yesterday,” Gakoko Pitteloud said.

Gakoko Pitteloud recounted her harrowing experiences during the genocide, explaining that she hid under a neighbor’s bed while her friend’s family lay dead on the street outside.

She said three of her brothers, hundreds of her neighbors and approximately 80% of her closest friends were killed during the genocide.

“I was incredibly lucky to survive,” she said.

NEWS PAGE 4

LIAM KELLY | The Observer

Angélique Gakoko and Jacques Pitteloud discussed the living legacy of the 100-day Rwandan genocide on its 30th anniversary Tuesday.

Gakoko Pitteloud escaped and joined members of her extended family in Switzerland, where she met her husband. Although she was able to escape the massacre, Gakoko Pitteloud stressed how the trauma of the event remains with her. “[Genocide] destroys much more than human beings. You leave behind your innocence,” she lamented.

“You are suddenly immersed into a world of fear, a world of pain, a world of loss [and] a world of nightmares.”

VIEWPOINT PAGE 7

Nevertheless, Gakoko Pitteloud said she finds hope in those people who helped her survive.

“I have witnessed the saving grace of humankind: heroes and heroines filled with love, compassion and strength,” she stressed. “They stood up for us when everyone else ran away.”

Following Gakoko Pitteloud’s remarks, theology and peace studies see GENOCIDE PAGE 4

SCENE PAGE 10

also seek to foster dialogue and discussion about virtue ethics and contribute to the “ethical formation of Notre Dame students and faculty.”

According to the press release, funding for the center was made possible through the contributions “of several members of the University’s Board of Trustees, along with other benefactors.”

Jack Brennan, chair of the see JENKINS PAGE 4

University to award honorary degrees Observer Staff Report

At the commencement ceremony for the Class of 2024, Notre Dame will award four honorary degrees to leaders in business, science, the arts and the Catholic Church, according to a University press release.

The recipients include business leader John Brennan, pharmacologist Sabine Hadida, Cardinal Christophe Pierre and Jaume Plensa, an internationally renowned artist. The distinguished

W LAX PAGE 12

leaders will be honored alongside Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the chief executive officer of Feeding America, who was announced as the recipient of the Laetare Medal in March.

Brennan will be named an honorary doctor of laws.

Currently the chair emeritus, he joined Vanguard, an investment management company, in 1982 and has served as president, CEO see DEGREES PAGE 4

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Notre Dame experienced a partial solar eclipse Monday afternoon with 97% totality occuring at 3:09 p.m. Students gathered on Irish Green for a watch party and the physics department provided thousands of free solar eclipse viewing glasses to onlookers.

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Wednesday

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Poetry and Conversation Reyes Family Board Room 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Hear from speakers.

Richard III Washington Hall Lab Theater 7 p.m.

Tickets available at the LaFortune Box Office.

Fridays at Four HCC Ave Brew 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Wine tasting with community and conversation.

Notre Dames Children’s Choir O’Neill Hall of Music 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Enjoy live music and desserts.

Tales from The Nine Bells Leighton Concert Hall 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Music inspired by Chinese folk legends.

Take Back the Night Marion Island and the Grotto 3:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Sexual assault awareness walk.

Madeleva Lecture SMC Carroll Auditorium 7 p.m.

Professor Natalia Imperatori-Lee speaks.

Hesburgh Library Hackathon Hesburgh Library 6 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Enjoy some pizza, join a team and compete.

Anne of Green Gables: The Musical SMC Moreau Center 7:30 p.m.

Watch a timeless story about love and home.

ND Symphony Orchestra Debartolo Perfoming Arts Center 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Attend spring concert.

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Genocide CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

professor Fr. Emmanuel Katongole and peace studies and global politics professor Ernesto Verdeja joined Pitteloud and Gakoko Pitteloud on stage for a conversation.

Pitteloud highlighted the importance of labeling the event a genocide and not simply a civil war or a sectarian conflict.

“Once we enter the phase of genocide, which I also witnessed, that’s something totally different. It crosses all the red lines that one can imagine,” he said.

Pitteloud recounted of wanting to puttheviolenceduringtheRwandan civil war in 1993 which predated the genocide out of his mind when he was in the Swiss strategic intelligence service; however, the next year he was stationed in Rwanda when the genocide occurred.

“At some point evil always catches up with us,” he remarked.

Pitteloud put blame on the international community for failing to stop the genocide. He explained how the United States had plans to send paratroopers to Rwanda to try to put an end to the genocide, but never acted upon the plans. “[The international community] failed the Rwandan people, we betrayed them. We just watched as hundreds of thousands of people were killed,” he said. “We have a collective moral responsibility.”

Gakoko Pitteloud emphasized the role art can play in helping people recognize each other’s common humanity.

“Art can help us all to understand, to humanize these victims not as a number,” she said.

Beyone helping people heal, Gakoko Pitteloud also stressed that preserving memory through art is necessary in order to prevent genocides from occurring again.

“If you don’t have the memory of the victims, you kill the victims twice,” she said. “History is the key so as to prevent things from happening again.”

While Gakoko Pitteloud turned to the arts after the genocide, Jacques Pitteloud explained he made it his mission to bring justice to Rwanda through international law.

“I realized [perpetrators] were not being brought to justice by anyone, and it blew my mind,” he said.

Jacques Pitteloud said he hopes prosecutions can prevent future injustices.

“I see signs of hope in the fact that we have established some sort of an international mechanism,” he said. “There is this growing awareness that we will not let crimes against humanity go unpunished, even if it takes 20 years, 30 years.”

In his concluding remarks, Pitteloud warned the audience to avoid the dehumanization that can occur in times of political polarization.

“Dehumanization starts by not accepting that other people can have different thoughts,” he said. “If there’s one lesson it’s the lesson of accepting each other, it’s the lesson of not characterizing the other side as animals.”

Contact Liam Kelly at lkelly8@nd.edu

Students face delays in new FAFSA application process

By ELIZABETH BURT News Writer

The Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) for many students is the key to their education. For junior Phoenix McClellan, the FAFSA is now a roadblock for her to access vital information allowing her to stay in school.

“As a low-income independent student, I rely on being able to submit an independent student verification … I have been unable to do that due to the government not releasing [that] information,” McClellan said.

For many students like McClellan across the country, FAFSA delays could ruin their chances of getting aid or into college at all.

Across academia, these delays have been hurting many institutions’ ability to provide aid packages, guarantee enrollment data and finalize next academic year’s budget.

Jenkins CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

University’s Board of Trustees, said the new center will aim to create “a dedicated arena in which the enduring relevance of virtue ethics thrives,

Degrees CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

and chair of the board. Brennan also serves as a member of the University’s Board of Trustees.

Hadida, who will recieve an honorary doctor of science, is a senior vice president and San Diego site head at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

She was awarded the 2024 Breakthrough

According to Inside Higher Ed, vice president of enrollment and communication at Augustana College, W. Kent Barnds, wrote on his LinkedIn “This will be the latest that I’ve been able to award aid to college-bound students in the 32 years that I have been doing enrollment work.”

Barnds is not alone in this struggle.

This issue has drawn congressional attention, forcing Republican lawmakers to request a federal inquiry into the process of federal financial aid, which is drawing attention to the “challenges” and “insufficient information” that students have had to face within the new system.

Jon Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education, believes there is a problem with the creditability of the Department of Education, according to Inside Higher Ed. “They keep slipping. Because errors keep being announced. Because people can’t rely on what they’re

hearing,” Fansmith said.

Citing terrible chat features and long wait times for the department’s assistance line, sophomore Ella Addison said the FAFSA has been “nothing but unnecessary stress” for her and her family. McClellan also mentions that while attempting to reach out to the virtual help desk, she received no assistance on the reason why she was locked out of her FAFSA paperwork for weeks.

Because of these issues and further delays, enrollment numbers are continuing to drop across the board, with the number of FAFSAs completed being about 2.8 million lower than last year, with the high school class of 2024 having a 33% decline in FAFSA completion comparatively.

With over 330,0000 applications containing inconsistent tax information, the Federal Student Aid office of the US Department of Education states 5% of submitted applications for aid need to be reprocessed. This

error, just one of several others, contributes to the increasing nationwide dilemma of whether or not students are going to receive financial aid in time for the upcoming deadlines.

Many colleges and universities across the country are pushing back the deadlines for financial aid information and enrollment deposits. Saint Mary’s College took to Instagram to post about an extended deadline, moving the enrollment deposit date to May 15th for the class of 2028. For current students, however, there has been limited information given about how the errors and delays willaffecttheirfinancialaidpackages.

Saint Mary’s director of student financial services, Jenna Zwiller, sent a email to the student body inviting students to a FAFSA Clinic on April 10 in order to help students better understand the 2024-2025 FAFSA application process.

where faith and reason flourish, and where major moral ideas unite people, rather than divide them.”

In a statement, Jenkins emphasized the mission of the new center.

“In an age of moral confusion and

uncertainty, this center will provide a powerful voice and compelling vision,” he said.

Director of the Ethics Initiative and professor of philosophy, Meghan Sullivan said the center will continue Jenkins’ legacy.

“Father Jenkins’ legacy will

thrive and expand through this center, ensuring that his deep commitment to civil dialogue, intellectual and spiritual humility, human flourishing, and the common good will be at the core of Notre Dame’s work in the world,” Sullivan said.

Prize in Life Sciences and the 2023 Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, along with her co-recipient Paul Negulescu, for her revolutionary work in drug development and research. Hadida earned a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in pharmacy from the University of Barcelona in Spain.

Pierre has served as the apostolic nuncio to the United States since 2016. He will receive an honorary

doctor of laws. According to the press release, “Pierre has devoted his life in service to the Catholic Church around the world, first as a parish priest and later as a member of the Vatican diplomatic service.”

Plensa will receive an honorary doctor of fine arts in recognition of his sculptures and public art installations, including “Endless,” which greets visitors at the entrance of the Notre Dame Raclin Murphy

Museum of Arty and “Tale Teller VI” displayed on campus since 2014. His art “invites contemplation about connections among spirituality, the body and collective memory and focus on supporting global human rights and denouncing oppression, inequality and injustice.”

The honorary degree recipients will be recognized at the commencement ceremony on May 19.

Contact Elizabeth Burt at eburt01@saintmarys.edu

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SMC panel discusses food waste

By AYNSLEE DELLACCA Saint Mary’s News Editor

The environmental studies department hosted a panel discussion late Tuesday afternoon in Carroll Auditorium titled “Urban Food Waste: Environmental, Social and Spiritual Dimensions,” which was open to the public.

The panel consisted of Jim Conklin, the board president of Cultivate Food Rescue (CFR), Karim Tinoco, sustainability foods and kitchen programmer, Fr. Dan Horan, professor and director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality and Abbie Kawalec, a junior and Care for Creation coordinator for the Center of Faith, Action and Ministry. Sally Geisler, assistant professor of environmental studies and Justice Education served as the panel’s moderator.

The event showed various clips from the 2014 documentary, “Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story,” to spark discussion between the panelists.

After an hour of documentary clips and the panel discussion, the floor was open to audience members for questions.

The panelists first discussed the standards and set expiration dates created by legislation, retail stores and the general public for the quality of fresh food.

“Something that’s not talked about enough in the food waste conversation is the responsibility our retail stores have, not only to change their standards that they have at the moment, but what they do with that food waste afterwards,” Tinoco said. “I am a strong believer that we should hold these institutions and these companies accountable for their own ways and how [the food is] discarded.

Yet, as a general public, we haven’t done that.”

In addition to the abundance of food waste, Tinoco said it’s also important to pay attention to the

waste that begins at harvest. Much of the produce originally harvested is thrown away or discarded due to its appearance and appeal for general consumption. If, for example, a fruit had scarring or bruising on the surface, most grocery stores wouldn’t allow it to be stocked, so the harvesters throw the fruit away before it’s packaged to be sold.

Conklin agreed with Tinoco.

“I would back up a step and say they’re our standards at the grocery stores,” she said. “We create the standards as consumers. So as an American consumer, we look for abundance and perfection. We’re not going to shop at the grocery stores that are light on the shelves or their produce doesn’t look the highest quality.”

Kawalec explained how Saint Mary’s Sustainable Farm helps prevent food waste caused by harvest.

The Sustainable Farm provides fresh food to nearly 30 food-insecure families during their growing season. Any food leftover is sold at the weekly farmer’s market, which is open to the tri-campus and South Bend community.

She points out a trend of customers finding produce with scarring, bruises or malformations as “more endearing” than they likely would at traditional grocery stores, which highlights the difference of consumer standards based on where they purchase their produce.

Horan introduced poet and environmental activist Wendell Berry’s belief that advanced economic societies are “​ disengaged and disconnected from the source of the food that we consume” in that inhabitants are prone to ignorance of the “sense of connectedness to the earth.” He applied this concept to how people allow themselves to willfully discard edible food because of their removal from the harvesting process.

Clonkin later explained how CFR is currently in conversation

with a local congressman about the Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, which aims to better regulate the “best used by” or “sell by” dates to extending the shelf life of produce.

According to Clonkin, versions of this act have been introduced in Congress eight times since the 1980s, and none have passed. “​​We need food date labels that are clear to the consumers. States vary. Some states have zero regulation on standards, and some states have more. But all states are radically different on what they require,” Clonkin said. “So as a food manufacturer, you’re actually producing different dates, depending on the state that you’re shipping into. So there really should be some business reason to pass this legislation, but some lobbying effort in Congress … has really stopped this formula shape legislation for a long time.”

The conversation then transitioned to the environmental impacts of food waste around the globe. Kawalec explained how agriculture’s rapid expansion has created a scarcity of important resources such as phosphorus, which provides nutrients to crops in the soil. She emphasized the difference between poor and healthy agricultural practices, pointing to alternative methods for sustaining the environment and preventing climate change.

“So to destigmatize agriculture, it’s not always bad. There are ways that we can engage in healthful farming practices that can not only benefit our communities but also benefit our Earth,” Kawalec said.

Tinoco states that agriculture accounts for approximately 3034% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, making food the second leading contributor. He further explained how current agriculture practices are the leading cause of deforestation, soil acidification and eutrophication.

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Tinoco said he doesn’t believe these outcomes were intentional, however. Many of the herbicides and pesticides developed for agriculture were invented after World War II, at a time where the global population was booming and quick innovation was necessary in order to feed such an fast-growing population. Tinoco added that history can no longer excuse current agricultural practices.

“These techniques are kind of necessary in order for us to produce at the rate we are producing now. But just like we were able to innovate then, it’s time for us to innovate now and find ways that kind of go back to the way nature does things automatically,” Tinoco said.

Bringing in a lens of spirituality, Horan mentioned a concept Pope Francis included in his 2015 encyclical letter known as integral ecology, or the idea that everything is connected. He compared this to Tinoco’s descriptions of agricultural causes to climate change, and how feeding the human population negatively effects the environment.

“The hubris of human persons, especially in very wealthy, very affluent, very comfortable societies such as our own is that we are beginning to believe our own kind of delusions about our separateness, that we think we are above and over and against the rest of creation,” Horan said. “We need to produce more because so much more is being wasted, and that produces even further waste ... When we think about everything being connected, we can think about ourselves as part of an ecosystem of integral sets, as Pope Francis said, embracing an integral ecology.”

Contact Aynslee Dellacca at adellacca01@saintmarys.edu

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Eclipse CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

second total lunar eclipse in seven years, and the eclipse made its way from Mazatlán, Mexico to Maine. Keith Davis, the director of the digital visualization theater and an associate professor of the practice in the physics and astronomy department, explained what a solar eclipse is.

“We are going to see a partial solar eclipse,” he said just as the eclipse began. “So starting a couple of minutes ago, the moon is in the right place to cast its shadow on the earth and we’re going to be in that shadow.”

Kelly Harrington, a firstyear advisor in the College of Science, was volunteering at the watch party at the Irish Green.

She said community members had begun taking spots on the lawn at 11:45 a.m., more than two hours before the eclipse even began.

Heather Kennedy, the college’s undergraduate affairs program coordinator, was another volunteer.

“There’s all ages. We’ve seen even like tiny little toddlers,” Kennedy said. “It’s been really, really cool. People have their chairs and blankets.”

Davis said the eclipse was responsible for a gradual dimming on campus, but because of the exposed 3% of the sun, it wouldn’t be truly dark on campus.

“So it’ll feel fairly sudden, but it’s a constant motion,” he said.

Davis added there are other experiences as part of the partial eclipse, including the shimmer and shadows.

“During the later parts, when much of the sun is covered, you will see what are referred to as shadow bands. So we think that turbulence above in the high atmosphere is taking that little sliver of sun and kind of diffracting it, making the shadows a little weird,” he said.

Davis also mentioned any space with a small hole is always projecting an image of the sun, which took a different shape on Monday afternoon.

“Most of the time you don’t notice it because it’s a round image of the sun and it just looks like anything. But if you take like a colander and hold it out, you will have a bunch of projections of the little that whatever curvature is blocked. So you’ll see that little crescent shape and a whole bunch of little projected images.

It’s pretty cool,” he said.

Davis emphasized a lot of work went into planning the event.

“I’m so excited that there’s so many people here and I’m so excited that we have a nice, clear, beautiful day. So I just want people to have a good time, [to] view it safely or learn a little about how the sun and the moon and the earth move and how that creates the world that we experience,” he said.

Contact Isa Sheikh at isheikh@nd.edu

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THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

How to not hate yourself Kate Casper Outsider Instincts

The thing about hating yourself is you rarely know it’s happening.

It might come out during moments of ultimate shame and embarrassment—that time you lashed out for no reason or turned in your 7th late assignment of the semester (because 11:59 p.m. is pretty much the same as 12:02 a.m. which is also pretty much the same as 12:20 a.m. with a note of apology to your favorite professor).

The thing about hating yourself is that it’s often easier than loving yourself — because loving yourself takes time; it takes grace; it takes a great deal of courage.

I realize it’s tremendously easy to be tremendously hard on yourself. It’s easier to run from yourself than it is to face yourself and say “it’s okay” and also “I love you anyway.”

I hope we all want to love ourselves anyway, weep for ourselves and dance for ourselves and afford ourselves grace and tenderness.

But it’s hard. It’s like plucking rose petals—I love me, I love me not.

We always seem so unsure of ourselves.

Christina told me the other day that when we think about our friends and who they really are, we don’t hesitate. We think of their hearts, the way they smile and laugh, the way they care for their people, the way they go so hard on Thursdays and mean so well.

We don’t think about the worst things they’ve done or said. We don’t think of their shortcomings. Perhaps we think of their wounds, but only because the wounds make them more beautiful, make them more human.

Christina is, of course, right. Who we were last weekend or last Tuesday has no bearing on who we are today; it has nothing to do with our hearts, which occasionally leak and spill and love. It has nothing to do with our love—the love we learn, the love we choose, the love we give and receive.

I always thought, when you know someone’s heart, you can’t look away.

But I was wrong.

We can look away, but we shouldn’t. It’s a choice. My roommate always says love is a choice. She’s right.

So, I guess, perhaps we could choose to love ourselves a little better.

This is, How to not hate yourself: Take a shower Put on clothes (real clothes) Resist the urge to Uber Eats. Walk to the Dining Hall.

Ask a friend, “How are you, really?” and make them tell you everything that is or isn’t going on in their lives (trust me, this really works) Make a list. Any list.

Write a love note to one of your friends (bonus points if it’s to Katie McCurrie) (she’s the best) Listen to “(It Goes Like) Nanana” by Peggy Gou or “Squid Game & Do It To It (Zedd Edit)” Chirp one of your friends on the quad (“Hey, pretty lady, you are lookin’ good today”) Root for your ex-situationship’s team in March Madness (it’s good for your soul, I swear) Brush your teeth Have an intimate moment at the Grotto (not that kind of intimate, though).

Initiate that coffee date you’ve been putting off all semester.

Let yourself say no and also let yourself say yes.

Call your mom.

Eat a Hawaiian roll.

Run home to the girls.

Run home to the boys.

Run home from the bar and log it on Strava.

Run. Just run.

Run to the people who feel like love.

Hype up your favorite campus power couple.

Tie a sweater around your shoulders.

Tie your sweater around someone else’s shoulders.

Turn in your assignment at 11:59 p.m. Just try.

Kate Casper (aka, Casper, Underdog or Jasmine) is from Northern Virginia, currently residing in Rome. She strives to be the best waste of your time. You can contact her at kcasper@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

LinkedIn is evil and so are we Carlos Basurto Eudaemonic Banter

To be evil is a tricky subject. Most certainly, to be malicious would be a qualifier, but that is not what I speak of here. Rather, to be evil is to be immoral: to violate and inhibit an inherent goodness. And how could smothering someone’s humanity be anything other than that? Worse yet, to pressure people into doing so by their own coerced volition is nothing more than cruel deceit. Yet there could be no other way, right? Everyone I have ever spoken to that knows anything about the corporate world has cited LinkedIn as essential. It is simply what must be done. Part of our existence. Divinely bestowed. That’s just the way it is.

If that were so, how tragically sad it would be.

LinkedIn is not the source, but a putrid symptom of a greater societal evil, of a festering wound that spreads and consumes the light of sincerity. That is, we have been taught to hide who we are. We have been taught to lie to one another, but worst of all, to lie to ourselves in the pursuit of capital. We are victims of a system that produces physical wellbeing at the expense of the human spirit. And once one of us gives in, we all must follow, for we cannot dare fall behind. If we do, we will be punished.

Take one glance at your LinkedIn feed and tell me with all honesty that this is how people feel and think. Look me in the eyes and tell me this is true. This is not a matter of formality, vocabulary or syntax, but a matter of the people, their meaning and their lives, behind the words — who they really are beyond their fake stories. The posts that were not written

by ChatGPT were canned responses to canned questions, interlaced in a cycle of nonsensical chatter. This mentality that permits such nothingness to define us is a dangerous one, because once you become what you preach to be, what is left? Do you really feel fulfilled with merely this? Is that all there is to your life?

Even more importantly, it besmirches all human contact. Everything is a transaction, every greeting a negotiation tactic and every farewell a declaration of victory over the other.

Tell me, as you write that overtly formal, heavily-edited email to someone whom you care naught about, from whom you simply seek a favor, do you believe your lies? You will write that you hope this email finds them well.

You will write that you wish them the best of regards. You will create small talk, ask them about their vacation, their family, their hopes, but it is all a facade when the time comes to write about what you truly meant to. This email could have been two sentences long.

You simply must follow the rules. After all, you do not know them, you would never have spoken to them were it not something you needed from them. So, what are you speaking about? What do all these wishes and pleasantries amount to? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Do not believe I speak from a place of superiority. Quite the contrary, I must shout to the heavens or else my hypocrisy will consume me whole. Why, you are more than encouraged to look me up on LinkedIn! Connect with Carlos Basurto, vouch for his abilities, click all the links and be amazed by all his extracurriculars and his GPA. He leads his life to

expand how lustrous the profile is, for there are thousands if not millions of others better, and all those people must have a greater value. In the end, this is all there could possibly be to being Carlos Basurto, no? That is the entirety of a human being, right?

I am not certain who this Carlos Basurto is, but he is not me.

I do not blame you or I for this state of affairs, but to blind ourselves to this violation of our being cannot be the solution. Let us have, at bare minimum, a degree of shame: a degree of rage.

This is not a matter of perspective, for we become the lies we tell. How is it that “fake it till you make it!” is an encouragement rather than a harrowing threat? When we “highlight our best” we do not align and associate ourselves with positive qualities, we change our entire worldview to fit this capitalistic system’s desires. We erase ourselves and become whatever works best, produces the best output, fattens the bottom line most. This is not growth, this is not flourishing, this is spiritual suicide. And everyone around us claps as we do. We will receive awards and recognitions, our efforts will result in fame, money and prestige. This is what matters most, no? Those without privilege have no choice but to do so when the alternative is to starve in such an individualistic world. Those with privilege will hold onto these things tighter than they do to their loved ones.

Why, who needs love when you have networking? Who needs passion when you have generational wealth? Who needs sincerity when you have a cold, calculated and perfectly tailored mask to wear?

If we permit this system to proceed without friction, if we stand by and willingly redefine ourselves into one of the many boxes we have been told we should fall into, if we contribute to the destruction of the human spirit, how is it that we can be anything but evil?

We are not machines, with machine hearts and machine minds! We are not “agents of change” nor “visionary entrepreneurs” nor “leadership advocates” nor any of these meaningless tags. What in the world are we talking about? We are human! We defecate!

We bleed! We die!

Our passions and dreams have been weaponized against us, reduced to mere decor in our public profiles and bargaining chips to climb an infinite ladder made out of gold. Gold may be shiny, but it too is cold to the touch. It most certainly cares not for us.

I wish for a world where there is no need to lie or reduce oneself. I wish for a world without LinkedIn and networking events, without career centers that train one to speak hollow words that do not merely create a false image, but defile what we could have been. I wish for more, I suppose. I just wish for something genuine.

Carlos A. Basurto is a sophomore at Notre Dame studying philosophy, computer science and even some German on the side. When not busy you can find him consuming yet another 3+ hour-long analysis video of a show he has yet to watch or masochistically completing every achievement from a variety of video games.

Now, with the power to channel his least insane ideas, feel free to talk about them via email at cbasurto@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

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Ross Lynch is famous, but Disney women are pop-stars Erin Drumm Drummer’s Circle

The Driver Era, composed of Ross and Rocky Lynch, graced the sold-out Stepan Center with their presence on Friday. After seeing the performance, there is no doubting the talent and star power the group holds, but there is also no doubting that most people in the crowd knew Ross Lynch from his Disney days. When Lynch mentioned what he referred to as “the ‘Teen Beach Movie’ song,” “On My Own,” his solo from “Teen Beach Movie 2,” the crowd went wild.

Ross Lynch starred as Austin Moon, in Disney’s Austin and Ally and as Brady, in the popular Disney franchise, “Teen Beach Movie.” Lynch has since appeared in other roles as Jeffrey Dahmer in “My Friend Dahmer” and Harvey Kinkle in “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.”

Lynch’s top five songs on Spotify include three “Teen Beach Movie” songs, which is a testament to the staying power and popularity of the movie soundtracks.

While Ross Lynch has the rock-star personality, he has not been able to do what so many Disney women have: become a mega-star.

One might argue that Ross Lynch is currently a mainstream pop star, but certainly not in the same way that Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter are mainstream pop stars. These three artists all currently have songs in the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 and bring a sort of glitter pop je ne sais quoi to their performances.

In terms of acting, Disney men and women seem to perform with equal success. For example, Ryan Gosling, Zendaya, the Sprouse Twins, Keke Palmer, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. But in music, Disney women tend to outperform their male counterparts.

The Jonas Brothers might be considered the most famous male musicians to rise out of the Disney Channel.

During their rise to fame, however, three separate and individual female acts were also rising to fame, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato.

The Disney generation preceding Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers produced two mega-stars, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, who appeared on Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club. Justin Timberlake worked with a group in NYSNC; Britney was always a solo act.

While the Jonas Brothers and Justin Timberlake were able to break out of their association with Disney Channel, the women of Disney Channel have done so two-fold.

Many former Disney stars actively try to counteract their Disney personas. Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” era is among the most famous. Lynch’s on-stage persona differs from his Austin Moon character in both the subject matter he sings about and the amount of clothes he wears. The campus rumor that Notre Dame made Lynch contractually agree to keep his shirt on was dispelled when Lynch progressively took off the three layers of jackets and shirts he arrived on stage in throughout his set.

Women are dominating the pop scene. James Hall of the Telegraph says, “We are firmly in the era of femaledominated music” with “seven of the eight nominees for the flagship Album of the Year category” being women at this year’s Grammys.

Hall asserts that music is moving away from groups and towards individual performers, which could be why the women of Disney tend to outperform their male counterparts, who, at least the most famous of them, have tended to gravitate toward group acts.

This includes Ross Lynch who was a member of pop-rock band R5 from 2009-2018 before the Driver Era was created in 2018. The name

recognition of Ross Lynch, as a former Disney star, rather than the Driver Era, could be a contributing factor in their success. After all, I was asked multiple times if I was going to “Ross Lynch” on Friday and Ross Lynch was the star of the show. Ross Lynch has amassed a total of 11.2 million followers on Instagram, while the Driver Era has 1.6 million.

When I sent a photo of the Driver Era on stage in my family group chat, my dad said and I quote “?”. My dad can sing the words to many Olivia Rodrigo songs. This is probably more of a reflection on the fact that he has four daughters, rather than a reflection on the fame accrued by each performer, but recognition is currency in the fame game.

Ross Lynch and many of the men of Disney Channel are talented and have star power, but they’re no Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo or Britney Spears.

This isn’t to say that the men of Disney have not been successful in music or that Ross Lynch can’t perform in Madison Square Garden within a year of playing the Stepan Center like last year’s Sound of SUB headliner, Noah Kahan, but rather that no pop-princess shines quite like a former Disney star.

Erin Drumm is a senior at Notre Dame studying American Studies, journalism and histor y.

She is from Philadelphia and spends her summers (and ever y weekend possible) at the shore in Cape May Count y, New Jersey. Outside of The Observer, Erin can be found cheering on the Fighting Irish and the Phillies, reading and talking about pop culture and histor y. She can be reached at edrumm@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

INSIDE COLUMN

We beat the odds, Becca Aynslee Dellacca Saint Mary’s News Editor

I met my best friend in my seventh grade math class. The new kid in a new middle school, my only goal for the day was to make a friend. So I looked to the girl to my right and said, “Hi! My name’s Aynslee, what’s yours?”

I don’t need to bore anyone with any of the embarrassing details, but after weeks of convincing and a science class project later, we exchanged numbers and never looked back.

Nearly seven years later, I sit with her on the phone for hours at a time, discussing anything under the sun from childhood trauma to what we’ve treated ourselves to this week. As I walk in circles around my dorm room, I tell her every minute of my weekend, and afterwards she tells me hers. It’s become a routine at this point, a result of now living four hours away.

If I were to ask myself on the first day of seventh grade if I thought I’d be best friends with her for as long as I have, I honestly don’t know what I would say. My younger self would have never let her hopes of finding a best friend reach such heights, to believe I found someone that would put up with me for as long as she has.

I miss her every day. I knew that I would the day we decided we’d be attending different colleges. As we sat in a cluttered practice room in the corner of the performing arts wing, the dreaded day many high school seniors faced came to fruition: life will never be the same. And neither of us had anything to say to each other.

What do you say, when “your person” has confirmed the fears of every high school friendship? We allowed our dreams of becoming roommates, attending parties and taking classes together become more of a delusion than possibility as we dedicated the next four years to higher education, four hours apart. Neither one of us were to budge; she was Hoosierbound, and I was to become a Belle.

Silent tears ran down both of our cheeks in that glorified broom closet as we resolved to stay friends after high school.

I couldn’t even imagine it at the time, spending four years apart from someone I hadn’t spent longer than a week away from for six years. I remember having heard that staying connected with your friends from high school is nearly impossible, as oftentimes people move onto the next steps of their life. However, we beat the odds. My best friend of six years will soon become my best friend of seven, and it’s like we never missed a beat.

I’d never call myself wise or someone with any profound answers, but as we come closer to the end of the school year, I’d like to share how we did it, how we stayed friends through arguably the hardest year of college.

Honestly, it was the little things. Such a cliché phrase, yet it sums up the best way to keep any type of relationship alive.

It could be sending a quick Instagram reel or a text message about some new coffee order to try, but it’s the principle of letting the other know we’re thinking of them that matters most.

We started our freshman year of college promising to call at least three times a week. That didn’t last past October, as hard of an effort as we made. But we do call at least once a week, and that has made all the difference. Though a smaller amount of effort, the urgency to hear from one another was more powerful as it became less of a goal to achieve and more of a time to look forward to. For us, less structure means more opportunities for spontaneous tea sessions and tagging along virtually on side quests to the store, which in my opinion, will always be more valuable than a time slot.

You can’t blame each other for being busy. With her involvement in her exercise science major, her church, and her newfound friend group, her life was often too busy for time with me. And my involvement with my campus jobs and Transpose as well as my responsibilities as a newly-minted news editor make me unreachable at times. We both recognize that neither of us are at fault for being too busy, rather

we celebrate one another’s interests and new chapters. I’m so proud of my best friend in everything she has accomplished thus far, and there’s never been a doubt in my mind she’s proud of me too.

Coming home is a big deal, and we make it so. We are fortunate enough to attend college within our home state, making it easier for the both of us to come home for breaks or the occasional weekend. Every time we get the chance to see each other face-to-face becomes the “final count-down” and the highlight of the week. More often than not, she’s back in town before I am, to which I always make a point to stop at her house for a quick reunion celebration in her driveway. We make sure to plan things together while we’re home as well, which could range from her staying at my house for the majority of spring break to getting a coffee together before heading back to college.

Finally, we allow the distance between us to help us grow closer together. Kind of a paradox, I’m aware. But the distance from each other became an opportunity to grow as individuals and recognize how incredibly special we are to each other.

Throughout everything we’ve experienced (and survived) together, I’ve realized since it was when we bounced back from the hardship and the turmoil that we became closer than before. This is exactly what the distance has become for us, another obstacle to overcome.

I hope that you have someone in your life who means just as much as my best friend means to me, who loves you unconditionally and supports you without hesitation. Give them a call, if you do. And if you don’t, there’s time yet to find them. Put yourself out there, believe that this person is out there waiting to find you too. And don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to the girl sitting next to you in math class.

You can contact Aynslee at adellacca01@saintmarys.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

8

THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

The tip of the iceberg Homelessness today recasts a major social problem. As a form of poverty lived in extremis, it tears at the heart of our nation’s democratic beliefs and ruptures the body of our social welfare state. Without question, the forms of homelessness have changed over the past 150 years, but the underlying structure has remained the same: alienation, destitution and illness (physical, mental, spiritual). Not since the depression years of the 1890s and 1930s has there been such fervent concern over the conditions and causes of homelessness.

In fact, the homeless outlier in America has journeyed from the freight train to the shelter. We have come a long way from the tramps and hoboes, “rail-squatters ranged in nomad raillery,” as Hart Crane put it in his poem, “The River.”

Historically, the hobo, a romanticized figure of the waning frontier, symbolized the migratory worker in an age of industrial expansion. Skid row “bums” represented the stationary life in an era of industrial surplus. The “bum” was a hobo who had reached the end of the line—who was indeed down and out, yet managed to work sporadically and supply some needed demand for the casual labor market in urban centers.

Contemporary homelessness, however, reflects an economically and socially superfluous population, a new form of uprootedness that finds single men and women—and families—drifting amid the parks, street corners, emergency

rooms and shelters of our cities. In part, the new homeless are the fallout from our most recent migration, that is, the dislocation resulting from the movement to a postindustrial society, which has accelerated over the past 45 years.

From the steam-driven engine of the locomotive to the information-based “engine” of the computer and internet, the homeless (in one form or another) have been a significant fixture of our social landscape.

All of these forms of homelessness share a common crisis in social standing. Their ranks squat at the terminus of a given frontier, industrial or postindustrial, and reveal who has been sacrificed and left behind in the broad leaps toward a nation’s progress and wealth.

However, that wealth has been spread very unevenly. For instance, the top 10% of Americans garner 70% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 50% get the trickle-down — a mere 2%. The homeless have always stood as a stark reminder of the radical maldistribution of income and wealth in the US — the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

Many measures are needed to reclaim the homeless today, such as major investments in community mental health and drug treatment centers, subsidized housing, continuum of care shelters that offer an array of vital services and inexpensive single-room occupancy hotels.

But we should aim higher and target prevention. This would entail improving the lot of the poor and working class

as well.

Since living in America has become an unaffordable proposition for too many of our compatriots, we must lift the minimum wage to a living wage, which would be, on average, $20 per hour. Still, at that wage, 43% of gross income for a single person would be needed to afford a one-bedroom apartment (median price equals about $18,000 per year nationally).

To further prevention, we must institute broad-based policies such as wage subsidies, guaranteed jobs in the public sector and a universal basic income for those individuals making less than $40k per year. Also, if we value sustainable work, then we must foot the tuition bill for the economically disadvantaged to attend vocational training programs, community colleges and public universities.

Such measures will not only stem the flow of homelessness in the future but also keep the bottom 50% of Americans from slipping through the growing cracks of our economy.

Adaptation requires a commitment to ensure a social environment that does not destroy but nurtures our collective hopes and dreams. We need to build a supportive nation that works to secure freedom, choice and opportunity for everybody, and not just the upper crust.

Benedict Giamo professor emeritus of American studies University of Notre Dame

I am not a stupid American Gracie Eppler The Soapbox

On the bleak train ride from Stockholm to Oslo, I eavesdrop in on the two men sitting catty-corner to me. One is dressed like a bank teller, the other like the type of guy that would lecture me about cryptocurrency. Bank teller dude has a thick accent I later place as Polish, but Crypto-man’s accent is a little more, well, cryptic.

“Americans will never know the beauty of sitting on a train and riding it from one country to the next,” bank teller dude said. “Their train system is garbage.”

Crypto-man agrees. “I spent a month in America. I had to drive everywhere. Traffic was terrible and the emissions were horrific.”

I nearly insert myself in their conversation right then and there. I want to argue that America is so much bigger than they can comprehend. I want to admit that we don’t think the Amtrak system is perfect, but that Europe isn’t perfectly faultless either. But most of all, I want to stare them dead in the eye and whisper, “You’re obsessed with us.”

Three days into my spring break trip across Scandinavia, and I’ve drained 85% of my data. So now, I must entertain myself by being nosy rather than scrolling through TikTok. While nibbling on a cardamom bun in a bakery in Copenhagen, I overhear the couple to my left complaining about the upcoming US election. “Trump or Biden again,” says the woman. “It’s almost embarrassing.”

“It is embarrassing,” her partner decides.

In the lobby of our cozy hostel in the heart of Stockholm, my friends and I listen in on the debate two randos next to us are having about American schooling systems. While we play Rummy 500, the travelers hate on America’s lack of language diversity and the rigidity of their college engineering programs. “In America, everyone wants you to speak English,” says American hater, number one-million. “Most of

them won’t learn another. I’m from the Czech Republic, and I learned German for college and French for after.”

“It’s just sad,” says her friend, American hater number onemillion-and-one. “And then they come here, and they expect us to speak English to them.”

I want to snort at the irony. The two American haters are, in fact, having this conversation to each other in English. I want to sniff at them and say, “The reason that you’re able to have this conversation right now is because of English. It’s the common language. In America, we have diversity, so we speak English too as a neutral way of communicating.”

The European mind cannot comprehend America’s depth, America’s multiplicity. Since arriving in Stockholm, not one day has gone by where I don’t feel my Asian-ness. Not a second has passed where I don’t wonder, “What do they think of me?” I am keenly aware that I do not belong.

“It’s not that I believe America is perfect,” I explain to our pub-leader as my friends and I walk the streets of Copenhagen, our boots skidding across the cobblestone, our plastic cups full of whiskey and gin. “But I also think Europe’s no utopia either.”

“Of course not,” the pub-leader agrees. He’s loud and drunk and messy, and has had a LOT of opinions about us Americans. He calls us “woo-American-girls,” because the seven of us like to put up our arms and shout “WOO!” while dancing around.

“What’s wrong with your country is that you are built upon an outdated Constitution,” the pub-leader continues as we wind our way through an alley speckled with pubs and shops. “You love your Constitution. You can’t let it go.”

It’s hard to argue with that. It’s hard for me not to sit there and bash on America with him. But I feel my skin prickle. For as much as I acknowledge America’s faults, for as often as I’ve come across racism and bigotry and xenophobia in the States, I also cannot accept these blanketed statements about the country I’ve been blessed to live in my entire life.

A woman in Oslo assures me that any of the homeless

women I come across aren’t actually Norwegian. “They’re brought over here from Romania,” she promises me. “Norway takes care of its people, and we trust our government. There is no super rich and no super poor.”

She means it as a way of reassuring me. But what I hear instead is that Norway takes care of its people, and no one else. Any struggling migrant from a neighboring country will be politely escorted out. They will not be offered a place to stay.

Perhaps I should have inserted myself. Maybe I might’ve disputed and spat and bared my teeth. But I cannot change their minds about America any more than they can change my mind about Europe. At the end of the day, I recognize America’s faults, but I also see its distinct beauty.

We are flawed because we are a country built on the intermixing of multiple races, religions and cultures. Bank teller dude and Crypto-man are right — we do need to improve our train system. The pub-leader is correct that we need to change our ideology towards the Constitution. There are so many areas we need to improve upon, so many ways in which we can grow to be even more inclusive, accessible and just.

When our plane touches back down in O’Hare, I take a glance around at the fellow Midwesterners gathering their bags. I note the different shades of their skin, the patterns of their clothes and the food they snack on. I drag my bag past a food hall with Qdoba and Panda Express and McDonalds. I marvel at the bustle of the taxi-ride pickup area. And I think while staring out the window of our Uber that I belong.

Gracie Eppler is a junior business analytics and English major from St. Louis, MO. Her three top three things ever to exist are ‘70’s music, Nutella and Smith Studio 3, where she can be found dancing. You can reach her at geppler@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

9

THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

By PETER MIKULSKI Scene Editor

So far this year, Notre Dame’s Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Co. has produced “Love’s Labor’s Lost” (essentially a 1598 romcom) as well as “Rodeo and Juliet” (a spaghetti western reimagining of the original play). They do this sort of thing — light comedy and melodrama — really well. So when they announced their intention to perform “Richard III,” I was intrigued. “Richard III” is rife with death and shooting and strangling and poisoning and stabbing and more. Its kill-count? At least 12. I was eager, and nervous, to see how they would handle it.

(Editor’s Note: Peter Mikulski is not associated with the Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Co., but several Scene copyeditors are.)

Their production is violence-forward; that’s a surprise, coming from the people who inserted “Rasputin” by Boney M. into “Love’s Labor’s Lost” and a square dance into “Rodeo and Juliet.”

Director Josh Lehman explicitly stages what are, in the text, implied deaths. I’m curious to what extent this was an artistic decision or a practical one meant to keep the action going and the plot clear in a production that fits roughly 4,000 lines into about two hours.

Still, Not-So-Royal brings the comedy. Rivers and Grey (Anna Falk and Andrew Arcidiacono) are

By CLAIRE McKENNA Scene Writer

When Beyoncé announced her new album during the 2024 Super Bowl, the internet exploded with enthusiasm. “It’s a country album!” everyone seemed to think, but we were all corrected via Instagram. “Cowboy Carter” isn’t a country album.

It “is a Beyoncé album.” Even so, as a southerner, I really wanted to be the one to cover this album for Scene. Ultimately, it has taken me a week to come up with the words to describe the triumph that is this album.

“Cowboy Carter” is an example of what happens when someone embraces the plurality of the world.

This album is not country, but it is country. The basic properties are all there: guitar picking, fiddles and singing about America and horses. That list is not to limit what the genre of country music is, but to speak to the narrowness of what people believe it to be. Beyoncé rejects the need to settle into any genre, while speaking to themes that are familiar to

played as two velvet-vested, cocktail-drinking, cigarette-smoking, cocaine-snorting dandies. The Princes in the Tour (Sam Capodicci and Madison Denchfield) are played as two little caricatures of Edwardian boys in very short khakis and very long ties. I wouldn’t call these characters “comic relief,” though. Instead of making the play less tragic, they actually make it infinitely more tragic. When an evil character dies, good riddance! But when a funny character you like is brutally murdered on stage? That’s disturbing — really disturbing. This production made me laugh, but it also made me squirm. Some people like that sort of whiplash, and some people don’t: I belong to the first camp. I don’t think Shakespeare intended “Richard III” as a feel-good comedy, and this company gets that.

Dominic Keene aces the titular role, also mixing tragedy and comedy. He’s the sort of villain who charms you whether you like it or not, adding to the unsettling air of the production. Likewise, Brittany Alvarez is a great Margaret — deranged in a way that’s both depressing and endearing. Hannah Smith as Catesby is similarly compelling, playing with the dissonance between her goody-goody delivery and her despicable character. Will Barrett and DJ Adams play several characters, but their best moment is as Murderer 1 and Murderer 2 in a dialogue that blends the witty and the soul-crushing.

Tommy Liddy is a solid Clarence, who grounds the play’s first half (which is relatively light) with

a serious performance. Ryan Palmer plays Stanley with solid craftsmanship and good technique too.

The costumes and sets are very effective — very nice to look at, too — and they never get in the way.

This show rarely falters, but when it does, it gets dour. When the actors were “serious,” when they did the A24 protagonist voice, they stumbled under the weight of the piece — but when actors leaned into the production’s tragicomedy, they thrived.

While I was worried the Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Co.’s twee proclivities and comedy chops would ruin “Richard III,” that’s ultimately what made the play a hit.

country music listeners.

The album is a feast of different musical styles and songs that somehow come together into a cohesive whole. There are samples from songs like Nancy Sinatra’s hit “These Boots Are Made for Walkin.’” There are new renditions of “Blackbird” and “Jolene.” Beyoncé even sings a small section of Italian aria “Caro Mio Ben.” Through it all Beyoncé sings, raps, growls, belts and proves that nothing is beyond her reach.

At one hour and eighteen minutes, this album also showcases the pros of length in a music culture that accepts shorter and shorter songs and albums.

Yes, there are short songs on “Cowboy Carter,” but most of the songs clock in at over three minutes.

The longest song is two minutes over that at five and a half minutes long. Compared to some other newer albums — such as Ariana Grande’s new album at 35 minutes long — the length of “Cowboy Carter” allows Beyoncé to develop an album that is fully elaborative, immersive and thematic. It also simply gives us as listeners more to enjoy.

The album stands well on its own, but it also a part of a larger whole. It is act ii of a trilogy of albums that Beyoncé is releasing, with the first part “Renaissance” released back in 2022. While not official, many fans believe that this trilogy is, in part at least, a reclamation of music that was pioneered by Black artists. This project is continued in “Cowboy Carter.” The album includes homages to Black participation in country music with references to the Chitlin’ Circuit, commentary by historic Black country artist Linda Martell and features by emerging Black country artists Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts.

“Cowboy Carter” asks you to look deeper at what you imagine country music to be. Black inf luences are everywhere in this country’s past in present, but they are often erased or overlooked. In this musically masterful album, Beyoncé presents Black musical inf luences on a platter for everyone to reckon with.

(P.S. What ever happened to the proscenium arch?

Whatever happened to a theater where the actors work on the stage and the audience sits in the house? It’s always a thrust stage or theatre-in-the-round these days.

I understand that, more often than not, it’s the venue that picks the company rather than the company that picks the venue — that you take what you can get. And the Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Co. uses its thrust stage well.

Today, however, the most radical decision a theater production at Notre Dame could make would be to keep the actors on the stage, and not indulge in audience interaction. Trust that the audience will watch the show — even without actors dancing at us from the aisle!)

Contact Peter Mikulski at pmikulsk@nd.edu

Contact Claire McKenna at cmckenn4@nd.edu MARIA TOBIAS, TREY PAINE | The Observer

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THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

By CLAIRE LYONS Viewpoint Editor Emeritus

“We’ve grown a lot since you last saw us,” bassist Danny O’Brien told me while casually crossing his legs and leaning back in a thrifted wooden rocking chair.

And indeed, Whisk, Notre Dame’s premiere indie band, has been up to a lot over the past two years. Their growth is immediately apparent to me, at the very least, in a physical sense. There’s two new people in the lineup, and now they have their own rehearsal space in the basement of a Glee Club house they’ve creatively dubbed “The Kitchen.” I’m conducting our interview in their living room on a futon that’s actually somewhat comfortable, instead of in a six-man common room in Dunne. We’ve certainly come a long way.

Changes to the recipe Joe Zawacki was added to Whisk’s lineup over a year ago while lead singer and guitarist Nathan Esser spent his junior year studying abroad in Rome. Zawacki is a senior studying mechanical engineering but devotes time outside of class to pursuing the arts as co-vice president of the Notre Dame Glee Club, as musical director of the all-male Notre Dame acapella group The Undertones and as a Whisk band member.

Ryan Downey is filling in for Whisk’s drummer Will Peeler while he is abroad in South Korea. He is a junior studying political science and music performance at the University and plays drums and guitar for practically every music group on campus. Besides Whisk, Downey is involved with the marching band, symphony orchestra, the Pasquerilla East Musical Company and jazz band.

chapel,” lead singer Nathan Esser said. The other band members offered a sympathetic laugh.

“Our practices are so efficient now,” Lohman said. “We just run through stuff, and Nathan’s really good about immediately identifying any issues we had throughout the piece and isolating parts we need to work on.”

When I dropped in on their dress rehearsal for the Boogaloo, it was clear to me that the band operates like a well-oiled machine now. Their set is a tight 30 minutes of completely original music, with intentional breaks to interact with the (imaginary) audience. Their practice doesn’t look like a jam session; it’s like a concert.

Cookin’ in the studio Whisk recently self-produced and released a single called “drunk on the shower floor (live from the basement)” on April 4.

Two years ago, Whisk tried to use University resources to record their original music. However, they never came out with a finished product. “It wasn’t coming together there,” O’Brien said.

Then, they tried recording with the DAJ Pyramid Show in Elkhart, but they felt as though the final product was too overproduced. An overproduced album, they said, would not be authentic to the heart of the band.

“I mean, we play rock music in a sweaty basement filled with over 100 people,” Downey said. “We want to be raw and package the special energy of our live performances.”

Esser, who wrote “drunk on the shower floor,” said the band wanted to emulate the “tastefully underproduced” lo-fi sound of “Is This It?” by The Strokes.

‘The Kitchen’ “We’ve thought about renaming it,” lead guitarist Joe Lohman admitted. “People get confused and end up in our actual kitchen for whatever reason.”

“The Kitchen” is actually an unfinished basement, retrofitted with a combination of eclectic area rugs and soundproofing on the walls to deafen the sound of the band, which can be heard from the street. The unofficial venue feels very different when it isn’t filled with people, but the vibes are palpable regardless. Blue LED lights haphazardly fall from the corners of the ceiling. Posters of their earlier inspirations (specifically The Backseat Lovers’ “When We Were Friends” album art) decorate the white-washed walls. The drum set is in the corner opposite their washer/dryer combo. The band’s rehearsal is baptized under the blue wash of a neon sign shaped like a microphone. In short, it’s perfect for a house show.

It’s a huge difference from Whisk’s old rehearsal space in the Dunne chapel.

Whisk once attributed the Dunne chapel to their success, both as a convenient factor in scheduling band practice as most of them hailed from Dunne Hall and as a divine “extraterrestrial” force looking over them.

But when a majority of Whisk members were looking for housing senior year, they looked off-campus with an eye out for places with potential rehearsal spaces. When they saw the current Glee Club house’s basement, they fell in love. They could finally host their own shows.

“Now, we’ve got our own place, so we can control the climate of our shows,” O’Brien said. “More specifically, the mix can sound a lot better when we rehearse in the same place we play.”

Naturally, the member’s busy schedules and their off-campus rehearsal space make it harder to coordinate practices, but that just means the time spent rehearsing together matters more.

“As fun as it was, there were a lot of lost hours in that

SOFIA CRIMIVAROLI | The Observer

Guitarist and vocalist Nathan Esser belts in Whisk’s halfrehearsal space, half-venue — dubbed “The Kitchen.”

“That’s why we called this version ‘(live from the basement).’ Our production is by no means perfect, but it’s us,” Esser said.

It’s gratifying to give fans a product, after nearly two years without any releases, they said. It’s something further than redirecting fans to an iPhone recording of their last live set on Instagram Reels.

If anything’s for sure, Whisk has evolved beyond the traps of a typical college cover band. Their original music is wellwritten and catchy, although I’m not sure if the band yet knows what distinguishes their sound from a sea of other independent bands on Spotify. I know I’m personally interested to see if they release “No Reason To Cry” anytime soon.

Even though this is their first single, Whisk doesn’t seem to have any pre-release jitters. “All the upcoming shows have taken our mind off of the release,” O’Brien explained.

Boogaloo Three Last Thursday, Whisk headlined Notre Dame’s third annual Boogaloo. The Boogaloo, an entirely student-run music festival typically hosted in Legends, showcases the many

talents of Notre Dame’s student bands.

“We helped put together the first one,” Lohman said. “Now, it’s kind of running itself, which is a cool thing to see.”

In a lot of ways, the first Boogaloo spurred the revival of a rich live college music scene in South Bend after COVID-19 shut performances down. Accounts on Instagram popped up like @musiciansnetworknd and @nd_bands. The local bars slowly started featuring bands who performed at the Boogaloo. Nature was healing.

Ratboys, an indie rock band founded by Notre Dame alumni Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan (‘14), came back to campus last year to headline the second Boogaloo (a.k.a. the “Twogaloo”). Ratboys are a big deal as far as Notre Dame bands come. They’ve toured internationally with popular indie acts like PUP, Soccer Mommy and Pinegrove. They even recently had a song featured on national television in a Walmart commercial.

“The Ratboys were so down to earth and grateful and excited about the fact that the Boogaloo existed,” Lohman said.

“It’s remarkable how much more of a presence bands have in the community because of the Boogaloo, especially playing at bars. There’s such a positive culture between everybody, and it’s an honor to headline the Boogaloo again.”

Sound of SUB Whisk was set to open up for The Driver Era at this year’s Sound of SUB concert last Friday. But due to a production mishap, they unfortunately could not take the stage.

The band “couldn’t have been more excited” to perform for fellow students at SUB. They had sent in a video to audition and were thrilled to be selected as the student opener.

“The opportunity to play at SUB required the need for copyrighting original music, so in the development of this past year, gaining a bunch of new original music to the repertoire was really helpful,” Lohman said. “It was also helpful that the artist this year, The Driver Era, was tailored to that full live band sound.”

The band had been practicing extensively to get their set in shape for Sound of SUB. “We needed to get the hours in The Kitchen together to figure out the nitty-gritty of each of these songs, make them expressive, fun and exciting and dynamic,” Lohman said. “I don’t think the reality of this gig has hit me yet.”

The headliner for last year’s Sound of SUB concert was singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, and he came to campus just as he was blowing up. The Driver Era is of similar popularity, and I think Whisk was hoping to use this gig to gain some traction on Spotify.

All-American Rejects Despite the mishaps at Sound of SUB, Whisk recently announced they will be opening for The All-American Rejects at Four Winds Field on April 20 — which is a pretty big deal.

“We got an incredibly urgent email out of the blue from the Musicians’ Network,” Downey said. “IDEA Week was looking for a student band to open for All-American Rejects to draw more Notre Dame students to the concert. Immediately, I just started grinding, getting all the materials and bugging these guys to get everything we needed for an audition.”

Downey seemed grateful to Lucy Bullock, Kristopher Priemer and Mark Tingle for working with him to make the gig happen. Students get an exclusive discount on concert tickets (enter code: student) and free rides from the Hesburgh Library.

“It’s a big deal being from South Bend, playing at the same place I used to go watch baseball as a kid, especially opening for a band I’ve been listening to since 2008,” Downey said.

Contact Claire Lyons at clyons3@nd.edu TREY PAINE | The Observer

CLASSIFIEDS

NDSMCOBSERVER.COM | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | THE OBSERVER

CROSSWORD | WILL SHORTZ

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HOROSCOPE | EUGENIA LAST Happy Birthday: Put your energy where it counts. Stand up for your beliefs and be the one to make a difference. Speak for those who can’t articulate for themselves, and let your actions encourage others to follow suit. Emphasize progress, persistence, and empowering others to join your tribe. Be the leader, and rewards will follow. Physical improvements will lift your spirits, and love will melt your heart. Your numbers are 6, 14, 20, 28, 32, 34, 47.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Push forward, seize the moment, and don’t take no for an answer. Show your courage, and you’ll find a captive audience to help fulfill your dreams.

Love yourself, and the response you receive from others will exceed your expectations.

Your actions will summon rewards.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Piece everything together. Having a solid plan in place will make your day easier. Think big, but let reason prevail. Pay attention to detail, but add your unique touch to whatever you do, and positive results will lead to unexpected benefits and additional prospects.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Proceed quietly. The less you share, the easier it will be to get things done your way. Put more time and effort into learning, planning, and perfecting what you want to do. Outside interference will distract you if you believe everything you hear. Trust your instincts.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Keep your thoughts to yourself but your ears and eyes on alert. Use your imagination and skills to create something that makes you joyful and encourages you to exploit what you have to offer. Personal gains and recognition are apparent.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Don’t second-guess. Look, see, do whatever’s required to turn a negative into a positive. Waiting for situations or people to change won’t solve problems.

Take the initiative and do whatever it takes to gain your desired happiness. Personal improvement is up to you; get cracking.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Expand your mind, learn all you can, and follow your pursuits earnestly. Be adventuresome and use your imagination to differentiate yourself from the crowd. It’s time to own the stage instead of sitting in the audience. Trust and believe in yourself and reach for the stars.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Put more oomph behind your desires. While dreaming may be inviting, what you do and say will have an impact in the end. Excellerate the pace, make things happen, and don’t look back. Apply pressure where necessary and take ownership of what transpires.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Press pause, rethink your situation, and refrain from doing anything that might leave you in an awkward position. Address issues that influence your domestic scene first and tally up the negatives and positives you are dealing with, and you’ll get a clear picture of what to adjust.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Don’t get angry; get moving. Direct words and actions will stop others in their tracks and give you time to hit the reset button. Refuse to fold under pressure or let someone convince you of something untrue. Do your research and follow your heart.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Home is where your heart is and where you belong. Focus on changes that add to your comfort and protect you from outside influences. Don’t take risks with your reputation or your health. Put more thought into using what you can do to secure your financial future.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Examine what you have going for you before you let anyone talk you into something you don’t need. Seek your advice from experts, not the know-italls in your circle. Apply pressure where it’s necessary to ensure you maintain control and get things done to your specifications.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Send a vibe that states your preferences regarding who you are, what you want, and what you are willing to do in return. Anger won’t solve a problem, but negotiations will make your position clear. An opportunity will require immediate action; take advantage of it. Act now.

Birthday Baby: You are chatty, fun-loving, and energetic. You are imaginative and productive.

SUDOKU | THE MEPHAM GROUP

JUMBLE | DAVID HOYT AND JEFF KNUREK

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SPORTS

THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

ND WOMEN’S LACROSSE

On six-game win streak, Irish begin final road trip with out-of-conference visit to Liberty

By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor

It’s been a special month for Notre Dame women’s lacrosse. Since dropping a second consecutive home game to Virginia on March 9, the Irish have locked into form, winning six consecutive games since 2020. Perhaps more impressively, Notre Dame hasn’t had a six-game winning streak run this late into the season in 20 years.

The recent run has featured a little bit of everything. It started with a 4-0 road trip in which the Irish gutted out three straight one-goal wins.

It then took the Irish home, where they put on a recordsetting show against Pitt and walloped Duke in a top-25 matchup on Senior Day. Now, the Irish leave South Bend and gear up for a seasonending road trip that includes three games in seven days.

Before heading to Virginia Tech on Saturday and Louisville on April 18, Notre Dame (11-2, 5-2 ACC) will visit Liberty (4-9, 1-2 Atlantic Sun) for both teams’ final non-conference tilt. The Irish enter the game ranked fifth in the country by Inside Lacrosse and number one in the nation by USA Lacrosse Magazine.

Notre Dame hunting rare non-conference feat Playing difficult schedules year in and year out,

Notre Dame understandably takes some lumps here and there throughout the season.

Usually that happens in both conference play and non-conference play, but that hasn’t been the case in 2024.

For just the second time since joining the ACC, the Irish have a chance to finish the regular season with an unbeaten record in non-conference action. Liberty, Notre Dame’s seventh and final non-ACC opponent, closes out an intense part of the schedule.

Notre Dame opened up the non-conference slate with back-to-back 20-goal performances in wins over Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan in the first half of February. Then, the Irish squared off with a top-ranked and defending national champion Northwestern program that had defeated them in nine of the last 11 matchups. With that showdown came a signature win, as remarkable defensive play led Notre Dame to a 14-10 win at home on Feb. 16.

After finishing its 4-0 start with a 25-3 defeat of Butler, Notre Dame returned to nonconference action during its road trip of games. Visiting Brown, an East Coast opponent ranked inside the top 25, Notre Dame pulled out a 16-15 win on the first of three straight game-winning goals by senior midfielder Mary Kelly Doherty.

Non-conference win number six, a 20-6 takedown of Mercer,

ended that four-game trip.

With its three upcoming games, Notre Dame also has a shot at its best regular-season record of the 21st century. The Irish can accomplish that feat by going 3-0 down the home stretch.

Callahan, Halfpenny hit milestones A year of remarkable individual achievements took another turn for Notre Dame on Saturday. As the Irish defeated Duke by a 19-7 score on Senior Day, senior goalie Lilly Callahan and head coach Christine Halfpenny hit major milestones.

During the game, Callahan reached 250 career saves on her fourth and final stop against Duke. With Callahan joining the list, eight past and present members of Notre Dame women’s lacrosse reside in the 250-save club.

Only a full-time starter since last year, Callahan has risen in the ranks quickly with two similarly impressive seasons in the cage. Last year, she became the second goalkeeper in program history to appear in 21 games, earning 15 wins with a save percentage of .448. This season, in 13 starts, Callahan already has 11 victories while holding her save percentage steady at .426.

When Saturday’s game ended, Halfpenny had a moment of her own, becoming the head coach with the most wins in

program history. Her 148th career win moved her past Tracy Coyne, the coach who got Notre Dame women’s lacrosse off the ground in the 2000s.

Liberty living in the ACC By the regular season’s end, Liberty will have played just as many games against ACC opponents as opponents from its own conference, the Atlantic Sun. Located in Lynchburg, Virginia, Liberty sits right in the middle of ACC country, and Notre Dame will be the team’s sixth Atlantic Coast adversary this season.

This season, the Flames are 1-4 against the ACC. They opened their year with losses to Virginia and North Carolina, two teams ranked inside the nation’s top 20. Two weeks later, Liberty lost a close one to Duke by three goals at home.

To start March, Liberty picked up a win against Pittsburgh, snatching a 2017 victory in Lynchburg. The Flames then dropped another three-goal contest to Louisville toward the end of the month.

Last year, Notre Dame and Liberty met on March 19 at Loftus Sports Center, leading to a 19-8 Irish victory at home.

The Irish sizzled in a 15-goal first half behind six goals from graduate attacker Madison Ahern, a figure that still stands as her career high. In the Notre Dame cage, Callahan played just three of the game’s four quarters, making four saves

before resting in the final 15 minutes.

Though Liberty’s attack was mostly one-dimensional in that game with four goals from Lizzy Ferguson, it certainly hasn’t been throughout 2024.

The Flames have four players with at least 20 goals this year, and they rank closely atop the leaderboard. Cami Merkel and Kelly Scott pace the squad with 23 tallies each, while Jordan Sheive tops the team with 37 points on the year.

Liberty also uses a committee-based approach to protect its goal. Three different Liberty goalkeepers have logged at least 185 minutes, with each having recorded more than 10 saves. The best and most utilized goalie of the bunch is Mara Tellers, who owns a .368 save percentage in 12 games and eight starts this season.

Last time out, the Flames fell in a close game against Queens, coming up short by a score of 18-15. Liberty raced out to a 9-3 lead in that game but failed to adjust as the Royals outscored the Flames by the same margin in the second half. The Flames, who struggled mightily in the draw circle against the Irish last year, gave up 22 draw controls to Queens while winning only 15.

Thursday’s game begins at 1 p.m. at Liberty Lacrosse Field in Lynchburg.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

ND ROWING

Irish continue season with wins at Lubbers Cup Regatta, races at San Diego Crew Classic

By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor

Notre Dame rowing enjoyed a productive second weekend of its 2024 season, traveling to both the Lubbers Cup Regatta and the San Diego Crew Classic. The former event, held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, took place on Saturday, while the latter in San Diego, California, carried on to Sunday.

Up the road in Grand Rapids, the two Irish eight-seat boats took Grand Final victories. The first varsity eight posted a Grand Final time of 7 minutes and 46 seconds, besting second-place Northwestern by 10 seconds. That boat featured freshman Esther Prantil-Evans, junior Clodagh McEvoy-Johnston, sophomore Elizabeth Tessen, freshman Eleanor Teglia, freshman Anna Kahl, freshman Emma Hopsicker, senior Audrey Burri, freshman

stroke Grace Hartzell and freshman coxswain Joyce Kang.

Notre Dame also claimed first place in the second varsity eight, posting a time of 8:17.7 to edge out Dayton by less than four seconds.

This victorious Irish team included senior Emily Chudy, freshman Rory Klocke, sophomore Kyra White, freshman Lilly Keegan, freshman Lily Smith, freshman Reyna Lewis, senior Lauren TerMaat, sophomore stroke Annabelle Williams and freshman coxswain Lily Fratantonio.

The Irish also produced quality results with its four-seat boats. In the Grand Final, Notre Dame’s varsity four A team secured second place, finishing 25 seconds behind Brock with a time of 8:42.70. Next in line, the Notre Dame B team captured third place at 9:07.20 in the same competition.

Out in San Diego, Notre Dame

rowed among some of the nation’s best. Teams ranked inside the top 10, such as No. 1 Stanford, No. 3 Washington, No. 4 Texas and No. 7 California, littered the competitive field. Head coach Martin Stone mentioned the Irish needing more speed to compete with such high-profile teams but appreciated how his squad raced nonetheless.

Notre Dame claimed a trio of fifth-place finishes in the final races on Sunday. In the first varsity eight, the Irish posted a

time of 6:47.877, finishing between Washington State and San Diego and 24 seconds back of first-place Texas. The second varsity eight saw Notre Dame clock in at 7:19.059, placing between Washington State and SMU and 33 seconds behind first-place Texas.

Rounding out the results, Notre Dame’s rowers finished the first varsity four in 7:53.374, placing just three seconds behind topranked Stanford in that race.

Texas was once again the winner

in the four-seat competition, delivering a time of 7:28.046.

After having the next week off, Notre Dame will compete during each of April’s final two weekends. The Irish will travel to Sarasota, Florida, for the Big Ten Invitational on April 19-20 before heading up the coast to New Jersey to battle Princeton, Columbia and Northeastern on April 27.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

The Observer accepts classifieds every business day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Notre Dame office, 024 South Dining Hall. Deadline for next-day classifieds is 3 p.m. All classifieds must be prepaid. The charge is 5 cents per character per day, including all spaces. The Observer reserves the right to edit all classifieds for content without issuing refunds.

MARCH MADNESS RESULTS The Observer congratulates Assistant Managing Editor Thomas Dobbs and Sports Writer Noah Cahill, winners of The Observer’s men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament bracket pool, respectively! Thanks to all who participated.

SPORTS

NDSMCOBSERVER.COM | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | THE OBSERVER

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WWE SPORTS AUTHORITY

Lyons: An ode to The Undertaker Claire Lyons Viewpoint Editor Emeritus

At first, you don’t see his shadow. You hear him.

A church bell tolls. A choir starts singing. Lightning strikes and thunder claps.

Then, you hear a funeral march. The arena goes dark and the w ind picks up, and suddenly, a figure emerges from the purple fog. The whites of his eyes glint in the darkness. It feels supernatural, like the end of times, like you’re about to meet your maker.

Mark “The Undertaker” Calaway’s iconic World Wrestling Entertainment ( W W E) entrances are scar y enough to strike fear into the hearts of anyone, even the burliest w restlers in the league. The Undertaker was an intimidating opponent, coming in at 6’10” and 309 lbs w ith a nearly 75% w in rate. He was one of the longest-tenured w restlers in the W W E and was inducted into the W W E Hall of Fame shortly after his retirement. He is also a large part of why the W W E’s annual Wrestlemania event — the fortieth of which took place last weekend — is so popular today, ser v ing as a major draw for w restling fans both due to his (once-undefeated) streak of 21 straight v ictories and truly unbeatable

“Deadman” gimmick.

You can only imagine his effect on 9-year-old me and my 7-year-old brother. He’s a legend in households across the countr y — but especially mine. He dominated the f latscreen T V in our living room during w restling season, becoming a looming presence that haunted our childhood. Our dad would often evoke his image (like an ev il Santa Claus) to get my brother and I to behave, rolling his eyes to the back of his head, w iggling his fingers and mumbling something spook y about The Undertaker under his breath.

Often, in the half-light of the telev ision, my brother and I would w restle each other — but (get this) these matches were sanctioned by our parents. They figured if we were going to fight any way, why not make a production out of it? Free entertainment! Besides, we needed an outlet for all the pent-up aggression, a place to set straight all the pett y injustices of the week. That place just so happened to be an air mattress and couch we turned into a make-shift w restling ring.

As hilarious as our parents probably found it, the stakes of these matches were incredibly high. Under the shadow of The Undertaker, we would crouch and slowly

circle each other w ith our steps sinking into the slowly def lating mattress. We would squint at each other and tr y to size one another up. Exactly how angr y did I make you this week? W here are your bruises from the playground? Our tiny house in Texas became a saloon in the Old West. You could practically hear the guitar and the whistling, practically see the tumbleweeds roll by.

Then, the slightest movement would launch eight scraw ny and unw ieldy limbs into a frenzy. I did not (and still don’t) know any of the rules or grabs or holds that dictate a w restling match and I could never do a Tombstone Piledriver on my brother, though I might have been delusional enough to tr y to attempt it at one point.

We would simply attack each other. No strateg y. No hesitation. No fear.

Often, I would w in w ith my secret weapon. My brother’s undefended stomach, soft and tick lish, was his dow nfall ever y time. Underneath my fingers, he would melt into a puddle of laughter. Just like the athletes in a W W E match, we would never seriously hurt each other. It was all part of a performance.

Sometimes, I long for those days when my brother and I brawled freely, when my biggest fear was a man PAID ADVERTISEMENT

in his mid-forties, wearing a black spandex unitard, playing pretend on national telev ision. Because at the time, we did not yet know the ver y real shadow of death loomed over our family.

Our mother died nearly four months before The Undertaker won his last match of “The Streak.”

That’s when we all learned what real fear was. The Undertaker’s signature purple was nothing compared to f lashing red and blue police lights. The whites of his eyes were nothing compared to how stark our tile f loor looked the morning our father told us she had passed.

“The Deadman” looked less serious next to death.

The loss hardened my brother and father. As I watched my brother grow up, the softness in his belly got firmer, his smile faded and his wonderful bouts of laughter got fewer and farther in bet ween. My dad would watch W W E matches alone, kicked back in his dark bedroom w ith a Bud Light Lime, instead of in the liv ing room.

Despite ever y thing, we

clung onto each other. It would — and still does — take a lot of force to knock dow n the walls we built around us, but we work at it ever y day. As we’ve grow n older, my brother and I have learned to reconcile our differences w ithout getting physical. And still, we accidentally fall into old habits.

It may seem, on the surface, like aggression when I shadow-box my brother or when he puts me into a headlock.

But I guess fighting, too, can be a form of intimacy.

We didn’t know it then, but our father was teaching us a valuable lesson, one we were far too young to understand.

During those Saturday nights under the shadow of The Undertaker, under the man I once believed to be death itself, w restling my brother became an excuse to hold onto him tighter — and somehow, miraculously, we forgot we were afraid.

Contact Claire Lyons at clyons3@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

WRITE SPORTS.

Email Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

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THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

SMC ATHLETICS

Saint Mary’s hosts Belles Awards, celebrating the work and achievements of student-athletes

By CLAIRE WATSON Sports Writer

This past Sunday, the Belles athletics department alongside the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (also known as SAAC) representatives put together a yearly event known as Belles Awards. This event highlights different student-athletes on the different sports teams at Saint Mary’s.

The evening started with recognizing all of the SAAC representatives from each team. For softball they are senior shortstop McKenna Myers and sophomore pitcher and outfielder Sam Mikitka. The cross-country team includes senior Amanda Tracy and sophomore Isabelle Auch.

For volleyball they are senior setter Karla Rigan and junior middle hitter Shay Theile. The tennis representatives are senior Katie Hunter and sophomore Emma Kealy. For golf they are junior Joanna James and sophomore Breana Harrington. The representatives from lacrosse are junior midfielder Valentina Rubio and sophomore attacker Alyssa Grant. For soccer they are junior goalkeeper Riley Lindsey and junior midfielder Grace Barresi.

And last, but certainly not least, for basketball they are senior

forward Mary Kate Gareau and junior guard Lauren Gumma.

Awards The next part of the event included different awards made by the SAAC representatives. Each team nominated a player on the team for each award, and then the coaches of each team decided on the winner for the team.

The first award was the “SMC With Spirit Award.” This award was given to the athlete who not only attended their own events but also went and supported other teams’ events. This award was given to sophomore middle and outside hitter Grace Braselton from the volleyball team. This year, Braselton played a total of 33 sets over the 15 matches played during the fall. Braselton finished the season with 51 kills, 49 digs, 12 blocks and six service aces.

The second award given out was the “Smarty Pants Award.”

This award was specifically given to a senior who not only showed intelligence on the court or field but also in school.

This award was given out to senior guard Elle Deardorff from the basketball team. This past season, Deardorff started 24 games, leading the Belles with 12.9 points per game, 62 made

3-pointers and an 82.5 freethrow percentage.

The third award given out was the “Busy Bee Award.” This award was given to a studentathlete who competed in their sport but also stayed busy by being a part of a lot of campus clubs. This award was given to junior Georgie Kersman from the golf team. Kersman recently opened her spring season with an eighth-place finish at the Trine Spring Classic.

The fourth award given out was the “Hunger Games Award.”

This award was given to the student-athlete who would be most likely to win the Hunger Games.

This award was given out to softball’s graduate student second baseman and pitcher Caitlin Traxler. No player on the softball team has taken more at-bats this season than Traxler, who has driven in seven runs with four doubles and a triples. In the circle, she owns a 3.89 earned run average in 27 innings with three complete games.

The fifth award given out was the “Little Miss Positivity Award.” This award was given to the student-athlete who always stayed positive even when things seemed hard. This award was given to sophomore midfielder Brynn Stauffacher from

the soccer team.

The sixth award was the “Team Mom Award.” This award was given to the player that always had anything that another player needed such as medical supplies or snacks. This award was given to junior goalie Emma Zmudzinski from the lacrosse team. Zmudzinski has started all eight games for the Belles this season, making 71 saves.

The seventh award was the “Against All Odds Award.” This award was given to the player who was able to bounce back from something that may have happened to them in the past.

This award went to senior Sarah Harman from the cross-country team. This season, Harman posted a 22:02.4 at the Olivet 5k for her season-best time.

The eighth award that was voted on by the student-athletes was the “110% Award.” This award was given to an athlete who always comes to practice, giving 110% and always pushing other players to do their best.

This award was given out to junior Alayna Campbell from the tennis team. As the Belles’ No. 1 single player, Campbell went 2-0 in her matches this past Saturday at Calvin.

The final award, decided on by the coaches, was the “Up and PAID ADVERTISEMENT

ROMINA LLANOS | THE OBSERVER

Sophomore attacker Alyssa Grant passes during the Saint Mary’s lacrosse game against Wooster at Purcell Athletic Fields on March 20.

Coming Award.” This award was given to a freshman on each of the sports teams that the coaches decided were giving their all as someone that the other teams in their conference should look out for. Freshmen Mary Charniak (softball infielder and ptitcher), Anna Gardener (tennis), Annie Restovich (basketball guard), Cecilia Conrad (cross country), Colleen Hand (golf), Rachel Speckhard (lacrosse attacker), Margret Slove (soccer midfielder), and Caroline Carens (volleyball middle hitter) earned this award.

Belles athletics has a busy week ahead. On Wednesday, softball plays two games at home against Wheaton College at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., lacrosse plays at home against Alma at 6 p.m. and tennis travels to Hope College and plays at 4 p.m. On Thursday, golf travels to Trine for the MIAA Jamboree at 1 p.m.

Saturday is also a busy day for the Belles, as golf travels to Illinois for the Wesleyan Kathy Niepagen Spring Fling, softball hosts Kalamazoo at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., tennis hosts Kalamazoo at 1 p.m. and lacrosse hosts Adrian at 7 p.m.

Contact Claire Watson at cwatson01@saintmarys.edu

SPORTS

NDSMCOBSERVER.COM | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | THE OBSERVER

15

ND MEN’S GOLF

Irish end regular season at Hoosier Invitational

By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor

Notre Dame men’s golf ended its regular season w ith a fourth consecutive top-three placement over the weekend. The Irish took second at the Hoosier Inv itational at the Pfau Course in Bloomington, Indiana, shooting a 32-over par 884. Host school Indiana Universit y claimed first place for the event, finishing

17 strokes ahead of Notre Dame.

During a w indy weekend in the Hoosier State, graduate student Palmer Jackson played qualit y golf to lead Notre Dame’s scoring output. Despite shooting a 76 in the opening round, Jackson adjusted brilliantly, delivering a team-best score of 66 in the second round on the par71 course. Jackson’s efforts earned him a three-over par weekend score of 216 and a

tie for fourth place.

Another Notre Dame golfer, sophomore Nate Stevens, checked into the top 15 in Bloomington. Stevens went 72-73-76 across his three rounds, finishing w ith a score of 221 that qualified him for outright 12th place.

A lso in the top 25, freshmen Christopher Bagnall and Jacob Modleski equaled one another for 22nd place.

Both rookies shot 224 on the weekend and played

their best golf in the second round, delivering respective scores of 72 and 71.

Rounding out Notre Dame’s contributors, freshman Rocco Salv itti tied for 40th w ith an overall score of 230. Overall, no Irish golfers shot higher than 78 in any round, keeping Notre Dame in position to rank well on the overall team leaderboard.

With the regular season over, the Irish now turn

their attention to the ACC Championship, which w ill begin on Thursday, April 18 and run through Sunday, April 21. The conference championship w ill take place at Charlotte Countr y Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Last season, the Irish men finished the ACC Championship in a tie for ninth place.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

SMC GOLF

Belles tie for second at Polar Beaver Classic

By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor

Coming off a team victory at the Trine Spring Classic, Saint Mary’s golf kept its game in good shape to start April, the regular season’s final month.

The Belles competed at the Polar Beaver Classic in Ohio, tying for second place with College of Wooster and Mount St. Joseph College. Only Ohio Northern, one of the host

programs, bested Saint Mary’s on the weekend.

Overall, the Belles posted a team score of 653 (+77).

Sophomore Julia Lizak led the Saint Mary’s charge with a team-high score of 157 (+13), occupying fourth place. No golfer in the event’s field produced a better second-day score than Lizak’s 76.

Further down the line, sophomore Amanda Melling and senior Haley Angel also

secured top-15 finishes for the Belles. Melling competed as an individual, performing especially well on par threes to tie for 10th with a 20-over par score of 164. Angel, who competed for the team, finished in a tie for 13th by shooting 165 (+21).

Wrapping up the top 20, junior Katelyn Tokarz stood alone in 17th place with a 22-over par number of 166 on her scorecard. Tokarz ranked among the

best in the field with her opening round score of 76 on Friday.

A stroke behind her, freshman Colleen Hand tied for 18th after carding three birdies on the weekend.

Junior Joanna James rounded out the Belles’ scoring by tying for 34th with a 173 (+29).

Looking ahead, the Belles are scheduled to compete Thursday at the fourth and final MIAA Jamboree. The event was postponed from October

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and will be hosted by Trine.

In the first three jamborees in September, Saint Mary’s finished first on two occasions and third on the other.

Shortly after Thursday’s oneday competition, the Belles will head to Normal, Illinois, for the Illinois Wesleyan Kathy Niepagen Spring Fling on Saturday and Sunday.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

16

THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM

SOFIA CRIMIVAROLI | THE OBSERVER

The Notre Dame softball team celebrates a win by singing the Alma Mater after a win over Syracuse at Melissa Cook Stadium on March 24, 2023. The Irish are currently 23-14 overall and 7-8 in the ACC after walking off Western Michigan with a home run on Tuesday. Notre Dame heads to Florida State for a three-game series within the ACC this weekend.

ND SOFTBALL

Holloway’s heroic home run in the seventh extends Irish midweek winning streak to 18

By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor

To win 18 consecutive midweek games across three seasons, a softball team must have unlikely heroes step up here and there. For Notre Dame, who has accomplished that feat, those improbable moments have come in bunches recently.

Recall the heroics of junior catcher Rachel Allen during Notre Dame’s home-opening doubleheader on March 12.

In game two against Bowling Green, she went 3-for-5, tying the contest with a solo home run in the seventh before winning it on an eighthinning single. Allen had entered that game without a long ball on the season.

A week later, senior infielder Br yn Boznanski made a pinch-hit appearance in the

sixth inning of a tie game against Michigan State. With just five runs batted in across three seasons and change, Boznanski plated two runs with a single, helping Notre Dame to a comeback win.

On Tuesday against Western Michigan, junior shortstop Anna Holloway made midweek magic with another unanticipated swing. With one out in the seventh inning of a tie game, she stepped up to the plate with no home runs on the year and a batting average below .190. Holloway put her best swing of the season on the first pitch she saw, sending it over the wall in dead center field. The walkoff home run, Notre Dame’s first in more than two years, clinched a 3-2 Irish victor y and denied the Broncos’ upset bid.

But throughout the game,

that upset bid appeared likely. Western Michigan starting pitcher Rissa Bajusz held Notre Dame in check all afternoon until Holloway took her deep. Inning after inning, the Broncos pressured the Irish with a consistent stream of runners in scoring position.

Working against graduate right-hander Alexis Laudenslager, Notre Dame’s starting pitcher, Western Michigan put runners on second and third in two of the first three innings.

However, the middle of the visiting order failed to survive, as Laudenslager struck our four across 3 2/3 innings.

In between those missed opportunities, the Irish started the scoring in the second. A leadoff walk

by Bajusz turned into a run-scoring single from

sophomore center fielder Mickey Winchell.

Western Michigan took the lead two innings later and chased Laudenslager from the circle. Four consecutive hitters reached with two outs, including junior Payton Kelly, whose infield hit scored two runs.

Laudenslager departed with two runners on and two outs, giving way to sophomore right-hander Micaela Kastor. After loading the bases with a walk, Kastor found her stride in the circle. She ended the fourth with a strikeout, beginning a stretch in which she retired nine consecutive Broncos.

In the sixth, Kastor punched out the side, returning life to an Irish team that had made seven straight outs against Bajusz. After the Bronco starter recorded

an eighth, senior third baseman Cassidy Grimm and freshman second baseman Addison Amaral ripped backto-back singles, placing the tying run in scoring position.

Though senior first baseman Karina Gaskins went down swinging, Allen picked her up with two outs, singling on the infield to tie the game.

An inning later, after Kastor stranded two Broncos on base, Holloway’s straightaway shot ended the game.

With a trip to Tallahassee and No. 18 Florida State coming up, Notre Dame needed ever y bit of momentum generated from Tuesday’s win.

The Irish now sit 23-14 overall (7-8 ACC) and will return to conference play at 6 p.m. on Friday.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu