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Volume 51, Issue 26 | Tuesday, September 27, 2016 | ndsmcobserver.com
Presidential debate watch draws crowds Office of the President, NDVotes hosts screening of first of three debates between Clinton, Trump By COURTNEY BECKER News Writer
Approximately 1,500 students of multiple political affiliations came together Monday on South Quad for a campus-wide presidential debate watch sponsored by NDVotes. NDVotes co-chair junior Sarah Tomas Morgan said the idea for the event first came about when the Office of the President asked NDVotes to brainstorm activities highlighting the presidential debates. “Late last spring, the president’s office contacted NDVotes and said … they wanted to do a presidential forum this year that was focused on the debates themselves,” Tomas Morgan said. “I thought it was a fantastic idea because it’s pretty unique that a university president like Fr. [John]
Jenkins is on this [debate] commission, so it made a lot of sense to highlight it, in my opinion.” Once NDVotes was charged with highlighting the debates, they came up with the debate watch as a way to start a wider discussion surrounding the debates on campus. Christina Wolbrecht, associate professor of political science, said this was a natural continuation of the mission NDVotes embarked on more than a year ago. “The NDVotes piece really came from the students,” Wolbrecht said. “They really, a year and a half ago, were like, ‘We want to mobilize this campus and get our students involved and educated and mobilized about this really important election that’s going to shape, frankly, the see DEBATE PAGE 4
Author discusses feminism, race at Saint Mary’s By KATHRYN MARSHALL News Writer
Award-winning author and documentary filmmaker Karsonya Wise W hitehead spoke about intersectional feminism in the modern era at the Saint Mary’s Plamondon Lecture on Monday, “Sisterhood, Social Justice and Scholarship: A 21st Century Conversation.” She began the evening with a poem, and a challenge to think honestly. “I always believed every mountain wants to be climbed, every ocean wants to be crossed, every dream once spoken out loud wants to be realized,” she said. W hitehead said the idea of sisterhood has made appearances across history — such as the 1966 founding of the National Organization for Women (NOW ). Through the
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past, one can see history become her-story, she said. W hitehead said feminism is a commitment to the struggle for equality and justice for women — and for everyone. “Black feminism is powerful,” she said. “And it is growing. If you look at the pictures today from the Black Lives Matter movement, you see it’s dominated by black women. It was three black women who launched Black Lives Matter.” She said women must push forward together towards change even though feminism in many ways has become the other “f-word.” “My sons once asked me ‘W hat does a feminist look like? ’” W hitehead said. “And I looked at them, and I truly believed when I told them see AUTHOR PAGE 3
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CHRIS COLLINS | The Observer
Students gather on South Quad on Monday night to watch the first of three debates between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Food trucks provided free concessions for attendees.
Couple endows ND Institute for Church Life Observer Staff Report
Notre Dame alumnus Robert McGrath and his wife, Joan, made a $15 million gift to endow the University’s Institute for Church Life, according to a University press release Friday. The Institute organizes and supports a number of the resources, projects and programs offered by the University to advance its mission to provide direct service to the Catholic Church, according to the release. “For more than 25 years, our Institute for Church Life has served as the cornerstone for Notre Dame’s service to the Church and society through outreach in theological education, research, faith formation and leadership development, and the McGraths have been integrally involved in its development and direction,” University president Fr. John Jenkins said in the release. “Their transformative gift gives the institute the resources to teach, train and serve in even more powerful ways.” According to the release, the
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Institute reaches out to all types of Church leaders — from bishops to lay members — to provide opportunities for training, service and personal growth. “The Institute is poised to become the pre-eminent source of creative Catholic content and programming for the new evangelization,” John Cavadini, McGrath-Cavadini director of the Institute, said in the release. “Building on our legacy of connecting the Catholic intellectual life at Notre Dame to the life of the Church, the McGrath Institute for Church Life will continue to be a collaborative partner with Church leaders at all levels by providing the theological tools they need to address pressing pastoral problems.” Programs affiliated with the institute include STEP and Camino, which provide online theology courses to adults throughout the country in English and Spanish; Notre Dame Vision, a summer program for high school students and young adults; Echo, a two-year graduate program that allows participants to serve as
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theology teachers in schools and parishes across the country; Notre Dame Center for Liturgy; the Office of Human Dignity and Life Initiatives, which incorporates Catholic teachings into different areas and departments within the University, and the Science and Religion Initiative, which addresses the “often-perceived myth of conflict between science and religion” in high schools. The Institute works with the different academic department and colleges to integrate discussion about the Church into the University’s curriculum and promote the development of the Church’s “intellectual and pastoral life,” according to the release. Robert McGrath graduated from Notre Dame in 1955 and founded McGrath RentCorp, a company which manages a portfolio of business-to-business rental companies, in 1979. Joan McGrath graduated from Marymount College with a degree in English literature and earned a master’s degree in theology at see ENDOW PAGE 4
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