Print Edition of The Observer for Friday, April 7, 2017

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Volume 51, Issue 116 | friday, april 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

SMC retracts invitation College reassesses graduation speaker

By NICOLE CARATAS Senior News Writer

Activist and author Jean Kilbourne spoke out last week after Saint Mary’s rescinded her invitation to speak during the College’s 2017 Commencement ceremony. The College withdrew its offer once it became aware that Kilbourne had received the Hilda Crosby Standish Leadership Award from Planned Parenthood of Connecticut in 2005, Kara Kelly, special assistant to the president of Saint Mary’s, said in an email.

According to Kelly, no contract had been signed before the decision to rescind the offer was made. The College has since continued with Commencement planning and will announce the speaker later this month.

Kelly said the President’s Office accepts nominees for Commencement speakers. Those candidates are then reviewed by the Student Affairs Council and are approved by the Board of Trustees, which has the final say in the decision. see SPEAKER PAGE 4

Ryan Hall hosts annual basketball tournament

By SELENA PONIO Associate News Editor

Members of the Notre Dame community will head to the Bookstore Courts this Sunday at noon to play basketball with a twist — they will all be playing in wheelchairs.

Ryan Hall is hosting the sixth annual Wheelchair Basketball Tournament, its signature event benefitting Whirlwind Wheelchair International, an organization that provides wheelchairs to those who need them but cannot afford them. Senior Christina Fernandez, last year’s

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Moore

see BASKETBALL PAGE 4

Students compete in a five-on-five basketball tournament in wheelchairs to benefit the charity Whirlwind Wheelchair International.

University announces Fashion show Campus Crossroads dining recognizes culture Observer Staff Report

Based on feedback from students and other members of the campus community, the University’s new Duncan Student Center will offer three dining options, according to a University press release.

Star Ginger Asian Grill and Noodle Bar, Modern Market

and a coffee house featuring Intelligentsia brand coffee will all be featured in the Duncan Student Center, according to the release.

Star Ginger Asian Grill and Noodle Bar will offer dishes inspired by cuisine from Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. Modern Market, created by two Notre Dame

graduates, will feature dishes made from scratch and will offer gluten-free and vegan options. The coffee house will serve Intelligentsia coffees, teas, smoothies, crepes, pastries and gelato.

Duncan Student Center is set to open in January 2018 and will be on the west side of campus, the release said.

Saint Mary’s to celebrate Junior Moms’ Weekend

By GABY JANSEN News Writer

Saint Mary’s is hosting its annual Junior Mom’s Weekend in the coming days, providing an opportunity for junior Belles to bond with their mothers on campus.

Junior class co-representative Sarah Connaughton said the spring tradition is one students have looked forward to since freshman year.

“It was one of those

NEWS PAGE 3

weekends coming in to freshman year that I was already looking forward to,” she said.

Junior class co-representative Anna McCambridge said in an email that the weekend is not just for mothers, though.

“Junior Mom’s Weekend isn’t exclusive to mothers only, but open to all the special and inf luential women we may have in our lives,” she said.

McCambridge said the weekend events start Friday,

SCENE PAGE 5

with a reception for the moms and a karaoke event.

“The weekend will begin with a wine and cheese reception on Friday night, where then moms and daughters are invited to O’Rourke’s for a night of Karaoke and drinks,” she said.

Karaoke night is new to the weekend’s schedule, Connaughton said.

“We collaborated with O’Rourke’s, and they’re see WEEKEND PAGE 3

VIEWPOINT PAGE 7

By NATALIE WEBER News Writer

The Black Cultural Arts Council (BCAC) will hold their annual fashion show, “Just Us: The Enlightenment,” in Washington Hall at 7 p.m. Saturday, in collaboration with Latin Expressions’ show, “Just: a Social Justice Showcase,” which will be held Friday. In addition to the monologues and outfits showcased during the fashion show, recipients of the Frazier Thompson scholarship — for members of the black community with at least a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) who have developed leadership skills — will also be recognized during the show, sophomore Sierra Mayhew, the show’s stylist, said.

Sophomore Reinaldo Angola-Hernandez, fashion show co-coordinator, first became involved in the show during his freshman year, after upperclassmen encouraged him to audition to be a model. After participating as a model, he decided to become one of the show’s

Hockey PAGE 12

coordinators.

“It was really fun, because I think at first I didn’t have much confidence, but then throughout all the practices that we had … it was very encouraging,” he said. “We just had a very good atmosphere to be in with all the models there, and we were creating art, in a way, so I was excited.”

The show’s theme, “Just Us,” was originally proposed

by Iris Outlaw, the BCAC advisor, sophomore Erin Williams, fashion show cocoordinator, said.

“She said ‘Just Us’ and then [senior] Marissa [Taylor], who’s our president, said ‘Oh, it’s like quote from Richard Prior,’ who’s one of the most inf luential comedians ever,” Williams said. “It says, ‘If you’re looking for justice, that’s just what you’ll find — just us.’ W hich is leading into the fact that justice means imprisoning black men, or black women.

“It’s talking about the fact that there is a problem with mass incarceration within see FASHION PAGE 4

ND W Lacrosse PAGE 12

2

TODAY

The observer | Friday, april 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

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P.O. Box 779, Notre Dame, IN 46556 024 South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 Editor-in-Chief Ben Padanilam Managing Editor Katie Galioto

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junior Lyons Hall

junior Pasquerilla East Hall

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KATHRYNE ROBINSON | The Observer

Sophomore Meg Spesia has her head shaved as part of the Notre Dame’s charity event, “The Bald and the Beautiful.” The event seeks to raise awareness and funds for pediatric cancer research. Supporters can have their heads shaved in solidarity.

The next Five days:

Want your event included here?

Email news@ndsmcobserver.com

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Voci Italiane: Singing the History of Italy DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 7 p.m.

Live Italian concert.

“Going for Gold” Stepan Center 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Olympics-themed fundraiser for cancer research.

Baseball Frank Eck Stadium 12:05 p.m.

The Irish take on the Yellow Jackets. Tickets available online.

“Brunelleschi’s Dome” 106 Bond Hall 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Author to speak about bestselling novel.

“Voices of Change in Cuba” Hesburgh Center 12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Carmelo Mesa-Lago will present.

Christ’s Passion DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Plays depicting Creation to Doomsday.

BCAC Fashion Show Washington Hall 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Celebrating the diversity of black culture.

Vespers Basilica of the Sacred Heart 7:15 p.m. - 8:15 p.m.

All are welcome to join for evening prayer.

Marguerite Barankitse Lecture 102 DeBartolo Hall 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Leadership and love for social change.

Christ’s Passion: Medieval Mystery Plays DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

News

ndsmcobserver.com | friday, april 7, 2017 | The Observer

3

Inaugural ‘Electric Mile’ to benefit Center for the Homeless initiative

By ALEXANDRA MUCK News Writer

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Circle K, one of t he largest ser v ice clubs on campus, has partnered w it h Fla hert y Ha ll to start a new event t his year ca lled Electric Mile. For $ 5, participants can participate in a milelong wa lk or run from Main Building to Fla hert y Ha ll from 8 to 9 p.m. on Friday, and a ll proceeds w ill help t he Sout h Bend Center for t he Homeless prov ide bus passes to t he homeless.

Senior Christina Kappil, t he president of Circle K who has been coordinating t he event, said t he event is intended to demonstrate what a difference not hav ing to wa lk ever y where would ma ke in t he lives of homeless people.

“In t he w intertime, t hey have to wa lk to t heir jobs,” she said. “They have to wa lk miles and miles each day.

This would a llev iate t hat — especia lly in t he w inter — [so] t hat t hey can get to t heir jobs and help t hem get to a better place in t heir life.”

Since the event is

neon-themed, Circle K and Flahert y w ill be prov iding free glow sticks — as well as free hot chocolate and donuts — and they recommend that students wear their hall apparel. The event w ill end w ith a reception that w ill include music and food in the Flahert y court yard, and a representative from the Center for the Homeless w ill speak about how the money w ill be used and what the center does.

Kappil said Circle K leaders had t he idea to start t he event af ter a club member discovered t he Center for t he Homeless needed bus passes, but did not have t he budget to cover t hem.

“That was coincidenta lly when Fla hert y Ha ll was opening,” she said. “We had partnered w it h K nott Ha ll to do various events, so we t hought we could do t his w it h a woman’s dorm.”

Kappil said she has liked work ing w it h t he women of Fla hert y Ha ll, since t he groups — t he dorm residents and Circle K — have dif ferent resources and ideas.

“Meeting new people and hav ing a v ision toget her and

seeing it implemented is a rea lly cool aspect of planning it,” she said.

Her favorite part of t he event, t hough, w ill be k nowing t he money is directed toward a good cause, Kappil said, and she hopes t he t wo groups can repeat t he event next year.

“If Fla hert y wants to continue and actua lly ma ke t his t heir signature event, we would love to work w it h t hem,” Kappil said. “Idea lly we could continue work ing w it h t hem in t he f uture.”

Circle K and Fla hert y are expecting about 150 participants and hope to raise $ 900 from Electric Mile, which w ill ta ke place outside — regardless of t he weat her — in solidarit y w it h t he homeless, Kappil said.

“It’s a f un event, but it’s supposed to be in solidarit y for t he residents,” she said.

“There is no rain date — it’s rain or shine. That’s part of wa lk ing in solidarit y w it h t hese people who have to wa lk in tough conditions to get to work.”

Weekend

baskets were brought in by moms and local companies to raise funds for senior week.

“This is a huge fundraiser for the junior class,” she said. “A ll the money that we raise w ill be put towards senior week for senior year.”

McCa mbridge sa id t his event is impor ta nt to t he communit y because students get to int roduce t heir fa mi lies to t he ex perience of being a Sa int Ma r y’s student.

“Belles love this weekend because it is our chance to show off Saint Mar y’s,” McCambridge said. “For many parents, they don’t always get to see what life is like as a Belle, and this is their chance.”

Connaughton said she is looking for ward to experiencing the weekend w ith her mom, a College alumna.

“My mom went to Saint Mar y’s, actually — she graduated in ‘87,” Connaughton said. “And I know this is one thing for her that she has been looking for ward to also sharing w ith me, because she kind of pushed me to come to Saint Mar y’s, but now she also gets to share in the weekend w ith me.”

Contact Alexandra Muck at amuck@nd.edu

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Continued from page 1

putting on a karaoke night, which should be exciting,” she said. “They’re letting the girls in until midnight, even if [they’re] under 21, too.”

In addition to a nature trail walk Saturday morning, McCambridge said, events planned for Saturday afternoon include a trunk show featuring products from local companies, and a Palm Sunday Mass offered at the Church of Loretto in the evening.

“We have included local vendors from the South Bend area to come and showcase their products,” she said. “We have a mix of boutiques, skin care, cosmetics, soap works and even [juices for sampling]. ... It’s Palm Sunday, too, so we had to make sure that the time counted for the moms bet ween Saturday and Sunday.”

The weekend w i l l conclude w it h a ba nquet a nd auct ion for t he students a nd t heir moms, McCa mbridge sa id.

“The Hilton is hosting us on Saturday night, where we w ill share a meal w ith our moms, and even President Cer velli,” she said.

Connaughton said the

Contact Gaby Jansen at gjanse01@saintmarys.edu

4

NEWS

The observer | friday, april 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

Speaker Continued from page 1

“There is a difference in a department or student group inviting someone to speak on campus, versus inviting a Commencement speaker,” Kelly said. “Commencement speakers at Saint Mary’s also receive an honorary degree, the College’s highest honor, subject to approval from the Board of Trustees.”

Kilbourne said she has spoken at over 50 Catholic colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada without her award ever presenting an issue.

“I’ve spoken to Saint Mary’s in the past,” she said. “I’ve always had a wonderful time.

I’ve spoken at Notre Dame.”

Although the College extends an invitation to multiple speakers — as scheduling conflicts sometimes occur and a new speaker needs to be selected quickly — Kilbourne said she was not aware of this and thought she would be

Basketball Continued from page 1

president of Ryan Hall, said she has been involved in planning wheelchair basketball since her freshman year. “ … Mr. and Mrs. Ryan have a son named Corbett, who went to Notre Dame but had a disability,” Fernandez said.

“The reason they built Ryan Hall was because they wanted to make a handicap-accessible dorm.”

The fact that Ryan Hall is a handicap-accessible dorm is something their community is proud of, Fernandez said, and there was a lot of intentionality with how Ryan was built — from the type of carpet chosen to the wheelchair

me disappointed,” she said.

“I really had some important things to say. I’m a graduate of Wellesley College — an all women’s college. I’m very supportive of women’s colleges, so I really had looked forward to speaking to the young women of Saint Mary’s. I was honored by the invitation, and I was looking forward to it.”

Kilbourne said this situation is indicative of the times, as many campuses across the country have barred people from speaking because of political issues.

“It’s very disturbing, the increasing divisiveness,” she said. “I’m a uniter, I’m not a divider. I really have always tried to bring people together on difficult issues. … This is happening from the left and the right, people being disinvited to campuses because they don’t meet certain tests.

I think this is dangerous for education.”

Kilbourne said she was not planning on speaking about Planned Parenthood,

abortion or even reproductive rights in her speech.

“I was going to speak about what I speak about, which is the influence of advertising on all of [us] and trying to help the young women, in particular, to resist the negative images of women in advertising.”

Kelly said College departments and student groups go through a different process of bringing speakers to campus than the process used in selecting the Commencement speaker, due to the speaker’s additional honor of receiving an honorary degree at Commencement.

“As an educational principle, Saint Mary’s encourages the free and vibrant exchange of ideas, and grants campus groups considerable freedom in determining the speakers who best contribute to a challenging and stimulating academic atmosphere,” Kelly said.

ramp going up to the altar in the dorm’s chapel.

Caitlyn Clinton, freshman and incoming Ryan Hall president for the 2017-2018 academic year, said this event has been a huge success in the past.

“It’s a great way to be competitive, but still give back to the community and give back to those who cannot afford something they need,” Clinton said.

This year will be Clinton’s first year playing in the tournament, and she said she encourages everyone to participate, regardless of athletic ability.

“I am awful at basketball,” she said. “I can’t even play basketball standing on my two legs, let alone in a

wheelchair.”

The event provides an opportunity for participants to view the sport from a different perspective, Fernandez said.

“Wheelchair basketball kind of puts everybody on an equal playing field,” she said.

“And at the end of the day it’s the same game, same rules just on wheels. You’re angled differently to shoot … but you have a team, and it’s a great opportunity to look silly but have fun and join together to support a really good cause.”

Each game is five-on-five with two rolls of the wheelchair for one dribble. It is a bracket style tournament with free Chik-Fil-A available during the event, and students can register teams of five for $25 on the online Student

Shop. The first year it started, Fernandez said, 16 teams participated. Last year, 70 teams registered.

The event was started by Emily Voorde, a member of the Notre Dame class of 2015 who was in a wheelchair, Fernandez said, and last year was the first time Ryan Hall put on the event without her.

“Last year was a unique opportunity because we had the opportunity to push forward the event and carry on her legacy,” Fernandez said. “The games are short, but they are so much fun and it is so much harder than expected. It’s a great opportunity to bring campus together.”

the black community and justice never means justice for black people. It means justice against black people, or what others would call justice.”

The show will feature a number of black models and black artists, who are often underrepresented in fashion, Mayhew said.

“Typically you wouldn’t be able to go to a fashion [show] and see all black women modeling the clothing, and you wouldn’t be able to see mainly black artists,” she said. “I think we have all black artists featured, so it deals a lot with representation since the media kind of underrepresents our group.”

Mayhew, who has interned at “Elle” magazine and runs her own fashion blog, said the show will feature three dresses from Monse, a fashion line started by Notre Dame graduate Fernando Garcia with fashion designer Laura Kim, among other outfits.

“Their first season was really well taken, and everyone loves it now,” she said. “So it’s becoming one of the big names for the upcoming fashion brands, and he’s also the creative designer of Oscar de la Renta.”

Williams said she hopes the show will leave people thinking about what they may have missed while they watched it.

“I hope it’s like a good movie,” she said. “Like, when people were seeing ‘Get Out,’ I heard a lot of people say everyone needs to see it twice because they miss something.

So I hope it’s something people talk about with each other and have to talk about to see what they missed.”

Contact Selena Ponio at sponio@nd.edu

Contact Natalie Weber at nweber@nd.edu

Contact Nicole Caratas at ncaratas01@saintmarys.edu

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Fashion

speaking, as she had accepted the initial offer.

“That certainly wasn’t my understanding,” she said. “I received an offer, a contract was drawn up. It had not been signed, but it was in the works.

In fact, I turned down another engagement for that day. …

As far as I knew and understood, this was an offer for me to be the Commencement speaker, and it was then withdrawn for this reason.”

Kilbourne said after her invitation was rescinded, she was told that an alumna or alumnae had found out about her award and put pressure on the College.

“I’m sympathetic to the position that Saint Mary’s was put in,” she said. “I just feel like this was really too bad.

It’s too bad it’s happening here, and it’s happening other places as well.”

Kilbourne said she has no resentment toward the College, but rather is disappointed with the decision that was made.

“It makes me sad, it makes

Continued from page 1

5

The observer | friday, april 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

ERIN McAULIFFE Senior Scene Writer

This morning I snoozed for 49 minutes.

Pop-punk duo Diet Cig’s Alex Luciano (vocals and guitar) gets that feeling — and pretty much everything else millennials “meme” about — on the band’s debut album “Swear I’m Good At This,” released April 7th.

“I wanna be the best one at this but I don’t wanna get out of bed,” she croons over simple guitar riffs and thrashing drums on track “Blob Zombie.”

Luciano met bandmate and drummer Noah Bowman after she interrupted his band’s set for a lighter. She offered to film a music video for his band but quickly realized she wanted to be on stage, so Bowman and Luciano paired up. They released their EP “Over Easy” in 2015, and since then the band has been getting out of bed in the mornings for eggs and band practice. Don’t sleep on them — “Swear I’m Good At This” is a telling title for this feminist, saccharine Pop Rocks debut punk release.

The album starts out on a personal note — Luciano playfully discusses the treacherous terrain surrounding “getting it on” with someone of the same name.

Around the one-minute mark we hear her ask “Ready?” as Bowman comes in on drums in sympathetic catharsis. This supportive, enthusiastic dynamic is echoed throughout the album, but also in the duo’s live shows — at a set I saw them perform in July, Bowman gleamed as Luciano hopped, kicked and jumped around stage.

However, not all friendships can be this great: Opener “Sixteen” ends with Luciano’s sad teenage realization

JACK RIEDY Scene Writer

At an age when most Americans are working on college applications, Steve Lacy already has a Grammy nomination. The 18-year-old joined up with Californian R&B outfit The Internet as a guitarist and producer, earning widespread accolades for 2015’s “Ego Death.” Like a neo-soul Wu-Tang Clan, each member of the group is now releasing solo material to be played on a collective tour. Following projects

by Syd and Matt Martians, “Steve Lacy’s Demo” is out now. It is a brief collection of taut pop-funk tunes, far more sophisticated than its title would suggest.

The songs on this EP are all focused on young love.

It’s a well-trodden subject, but Lacy’s lyrical point of view is youthful without being juvenile. Opener “Looks” is only long enough for one verse and two choruses. “I want you and you want me,” Lacy sings in nursery-rhyme cadence, but he ultimately concludes that “looks ain’t enough.” Elsewhere, he repeats “I hate you just as much as I love you” in a deadpan tone.

Rather than sounding petulant, Lacy suggests the same psychosexual angst that powered Prince jams like “Lady Cab Driver.” There are no revelatory insights

that her friends were fake and probably wouldn’t come to her post-breakup barbecue as she questions how many hot dogs to buy. (From the egg references on “Over Easy” to eating tacos everyday for breakfast on this album’s track “Road Trip,” Diet Cig has a knack for relatable, humorous food references. On this record Luciano mentions grocery shopping twice.)

“Bite Back” opens with the lyrics “I feel like garbage,” but quickly strums and drums itself into an anthem that makes me want to jump on my bed in furry slippers. But the song proves Luciano’s versatility and complexity as the track turns vulnerable and she strums along to the lyrics “I am so lonely in this big city / Everybody’s so damn busy.” (Thoughts echoing many seniors’ nerves as they prepare for Chicago, New York City, etc.)

The album’s shortest track, “Apricots,” is acoustic, while Luciano channels an innocent Kanye West on “Freestyle 4,” singing “I wanna kiss you in the middle of a party, I wanna make a scene.”

Diet Cig is an internet band, from Instagraminspired track “Link in Bio” to taking the words right out of Refinery29’s mouths on “Bath Bombs,” the band has turned itself into GIFs — moving image files — multiple times.

“Swear I’m Good At This” gifts us everything from feminist anthem “Tummy Ache” (“And I’m starting to get real sick of / Trying to find my voice / Surrounded by all these boys”) to relatable digital dread on “Barf Day” (“I use my phone until it dies, just like my plants I can’t keep anything alive”) to homesick coping methods on “Apricots” (“When I’m homesick I go to the

supermarket / I buy all the things I think my mom would get”).

Accordingly, this record is one I wish I had sooner.

The New York Times touted the album as “feminist pop-punk for all ages.” While I don’t think all tracks are relatable or suitable for a grade schooler, I genuinely wish I had Luciano to guide me through the teenage years. She leads a group of teens in crafting activist signs out of glitter glue in the band’s “Tummy Ache” video and frequently interacts with teenage fans on Twitter, always attempting to find all-ages venues to play at.

Luciano is 21 years old, frequently wears pom-pom accessories and acts like the stage is a trampoline.

“Swear I’m Good At This” invites us all onto that same trampoline as we wait for her jumping to gleefully propel us skyward.

to be found here, but it’s a compelling portrait of young romance, or the lack thereof.

The music here is perfectly in line with his work on The Internet. Lacy chops up live drums into loops that echo early hip-hop. While he does not show off in a traditional shredding sense, the guitar parts are immaculate. Bass and lead dart around each other in fits and starts, filling in the vast space between drums and vocals. The groovy arrangements are all the more impressive considering Lacy used bare-bones software Garageband to produce them. Despite its February release date, this is a collection that begs to be heard in sunnier weather. Even within this template, Lacy makes room for a variety of styles. The Neanderthal beat and garage-rock chords of “Dark Red” recall Oasis. Immediately following, “Thangs” is a sluggish bass-heavy groove, hazy like barbecue smoke or sunlit blacktop.

The clear highlight is “Ryd,” another entry in the quintessentially American songbook of car-as-sex metaphors. “Speeding down the backstreet,” Lacy croons under falsetto harmonies, “I’m tryna get you in my backseat.” The stuttering drumbeat is equally suited for slow dancing or appreciative head-nodding. Lacy’s guitar playing is impeccable here. He illuminates the

jazzy chords with gorgeous fills that match the drum rhythms while playing off the vocal hooks. “Ride with me,” he asks on the chorus, and the offer is tempting.

Don’t be surprised to hear this echoing from rolleddown windows all summer.

“Steve Lacy’s Demo” is ultimately all too brief. With six songs in 13 minutes, none pass the 3-minute mark.

It’s a canny move for an unproven artist: the hooks are sticky enough to stand out, while the occasional clunky melody does not stick around to bother. It certainly leaves the listener wanting more. Whether working with The Internet or solo, Steve Lacy is one to watch.

Contact Erin McAuliffe at emcaulif@nd.edu

“Swear I’m Good At This” Diet Cig Label: Father Daughter Records If you like: Frankie Cosmos, Sad13, Cherry Glazerr Tracks: “Bite Back,” “Maid of the Mist,” “Tummy Ache”

Contact Jack Riedy at jriedy@nd.edu

“Steve Lacy’s Demo” Steve Lacy Label: Three Quarter If you like: Janelle Monae, Prince, Tyler, the Creator Tracks: “Ryd,” “Some”

DOMINIQUE DeMOE | The Observer

6 Inside Column

Looking up

The observer | friday, April 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

Can Catholics speak to the dead?

Gary Caruso Capitol Comments

Nora McGreevy Scene Editor

I like to surround myself w ith stars. My room at home has a print of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starr y Night Over the Rhone” hanging on the wall, for instance. My desktop background is a picture of stars that I lifted from Pinterest. For Christmas, my mom gifted me a blue water bottle w ith all of the constellations of the Northern Hemisphere etched in white, and I carr y it around obsessively.

I can attribute my love for stars solely to my mother. Mom grew up in Chicago – not a suburb of Chicago, mind you, but a house w ithin the proper cit y limits.

As a young astronomy enthusiast, liv ing in prox imit y to millions of other people posed a challenge: the night sk y was barely discernable from her back yard, obfuscated by the light pollution of a thousand different streetlamps and sk ylines.

So in high school, my mom bussed herself dow n to the Adler Planetarium and took classes: she looked through telescopes, stared at projectors and learned to identif y nearly all of the constellations in the Northern Hemisphere.

Now, ever y summer when my family goes up to a lake in Minnesota in the summer, my mom w ill row us out into the middle of the lake on exceptionally clear nights. Our lake is nestled in between t wo small tow ns, and you can catch a minor haze of light clouding the v iew at the fringes of the horizon. In the middle of the sk y, however, the Milk y Way cuts through your field of v ision w ith dazzling clarit y. If the water is still, the shimmering lights of the stars w ill ref lect in the deep blue of the lake beneath us. Mom w ill deliver an impromptu lecture, noting the various red, yellow and blue hues of distant celestial bodies, pointing out planets and tracing the arcs of different constellations from spark ling point to point in the vast sk y overhead.

Often when I’m walking back to Badin on my way home from wherever I was study ing that night, the sun w ill have set and the stars w ill be out. I look up, and can make out some hints of the few constellations that I’ve remembered over the years – there’s Orion, and there’s the Big Dipper – well, that’s it, really, but it’s nice to locate even a few of them.

It’s always a revelation of space: as I walk back to my dorm on a Tuesday night, I remember that I am taking small steps on an unfathomably large planet, which is itself mov ing rapidly through the cosmos.

The pinpricks in the night sk y I see are quite literally light years away from me, yet v isible nonetheless.

Looking up at the night sk y, for me, grounds me in time and place in a way that few other things can effectively do.

At our nights at the lake, my mom has said things to this effect — but words always fail both of us. The simplest way to communicate our awe is to remain silent and sit together, eyes open, necks craned to the sk y — looking up.

Contact Nora McGreevy at nmcgreev@nd.edu The views expressed in this Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Too often will conservative Catholics — or fundamental Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Orthodox Jews or those dogmatically believing faithful of fill-in-the-blank-here organized religion — stubbornly cling to centuries-old traditions formulated during ancient times without a refresh as characteristic of the Pope John XXIII era or now under Pope Francis. Just as Christians believe that Jesus lived and grew throughout his existence on earth, the faithful should not remain static, but evolve to address our modern life and times. In fact, the successful megachurches nationwide today weave a blend of conventional with nontraditional outreach that creates a new religious social phenomenon. Their pastors include less than spiritual solutions over practical best practices on how to become debt-free, how to better raise children and how to be come financially successful.

Catholics are fortunate Francis has begun his own refresh movement, albeit more spiritually based and slower paced.

As our Lenten season wanes, we Catholics owe ourselves the type of personal self-introspective reexamination that pushes our traditional organizational boundaries to better our spiritual existence. We fail when we blindly restrict ourselves from greater-thanlife possibilities like reincarnation or communicating with our dearly departed. Did the “wise elder men” who selectively sorted, collected and rejected various gospels, teachings or writings for the original Bible actually write God’s only words and reject nonsensical notions? Imagine how different Catholicism would be if those compiling the Bible included the recently found Gospel of Judas that professed Judas was the most loved disciple, and therefore the only one who could have completed the task of betrayal.

Can our Catholic black-and-white vision of heaven and hell ever melt open to considering a Karma existence where our journey is a series of learning life lessons and spiritual improvements through reincarnation? Many, including this writer, reject such an elementary explanation that after death we either eventually end up in a paradise or a firepot. Michael Prescott, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, has devoted blog entries wherein he reverses his former skepticism about communicating with the dead. Prescott examines author and television personality, psychic medium John Edward McGee, Jr. Best know as John Edward of the television series “Crossing Over.” Edward is famous for linking messages from beyond with people present in his audience.

Ironically, psychic medium Edward has written about his own path of religious and spiritual enlightenment in a book,“Practical Praying: Using the Rosary to Enhance your Life.” His book examines the history of the rosary as authorized by the Catholic Church and Edward’s prayer process. He explains how he has

utilized the power of prayer through the rosary, which he prays before his public events to better prepare himself. Edward explores the rosary as a powerful tool that brings focused energy and creative thought into our everyday life. Although quick to suggest that we may not find a quick material happiness fix, we can embrace the promise of living a more abundant life in general by using God’s gift of free will to chart our own courses.

Critics attempt to catch Edward with inconsistencies by claiming that he baits audience members who yearn to connect with loved ones from beyond by using vague questions. From personal experience, having attended four of Edward’s public events during the past five years, I have been amazed at the specificity he speaks to validate personal messages coming through him. While also yearning to be “read” throughout the years, I was passed over until last week. I attended a Pittsburgh event with several cousins, including 79-year-old Patty whose last name is distinctly Polish, not Italian. She was a skeptic until Edward relayed messages to our family.

From 600 people, the staff chose five cards to begin the event by asking Edward a question. My cousin was first chosen, and nearly last called upon 90 minutes into the two-hour program. After her question, Edward paused and asked if she had a murder in her family. It was on her mother’s side, not the Caruso side. He noted that all who went through Ellis Island were together.

All four grandparents had been processed there. He spoke of a famous celebrity — Enrico Caruso. Edward said he sees a 9/11-type fire. Patty replied with the theatre, but he said it was a multilevel building. Patty answered that the theatre was on the second floor. Our research later of the 1911 fire that killed 26 people included a cousin and her grandmother’s neighbors from three surrounding houses on their street. We Catholics had communicated through Edward with our dead ancestors.

While my personal Lenten journey this year follows Francis’ call to recognize those with whom I have become indifferent to in my daily routine, I cannot ignore my life experiences that have formed inconsistent beliefs with the Church. I not only hold open the possibility that I shall return eventually to learn and grow, but look forward to another round of life after my John Edward session. I believe as Prescott wrote in his blog when he sided with Hamlet against the debunkers: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Gary J. Caruso, Notre Dame ’73 American Studies major, serves in the Department of Homeland Security and was a legislative and public affairs director at the U.S. House of Representatives and in President Clinton’s administration. His column appears every other Friday.

Contact him on Twitter: @GaryJCaruso or e-mail: GaryJCaruso@alumni.nd.edu.

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

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The observer | friday, April 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

It’s your turn In an interview with The Observer on March 30, vice president for Student Affairs Erin Hoffmann Harding said that until the number of sexual assaults on campus was zero, there were still too many.

While this Editorial Board supports the administration’s commendable sentiment, the fact is it is still not doing enough.

According to the University’s 2016 Campus Climate Survey, 5 percent of all female respondents indicated they had experienced non-consensual sexual intercourse while enrolled at Notre Dame; 1 percent of all male respondents indicated the same. That means more than 160 students said they had experienced non-consensual sexual intercourse while enrolled at the University.

In 2016, 9.5 percent of respondents to the Saint Mary’s Campus Climate Survey indicated they had been sexually assaulted while enrolled at the College — about another 50 students, nearly 93 percent of whom said the person who assaulted them was a student from another institution.

And yet, only 10 percent of the students who indicated they had been sexually assaulted at Notre Dame said they reported it to the University.

Even for those who are cynical about what constitutes “legitimate rape” and have concerns about false reporting, the fact remains that the vast majority of students who believe they have experienced non-consensual sexual intercourse are choosing to not report it to the University.

According to the 2016 Campus Climate, 54 percent of all students who responded said they doubted reporting would solve anything, and 30 percent explicitly “did not trust the University’s process.”

Clearly, students do not fully trust Notre Dame’s current process.

That is not to say the University has not done anything in terms of sexual assault prevention. Notre Dame has focused much of its efforts towards education and awareness, and headway has certainly been made in the last year: The survey results indicate a 10 percent increase in familiarity with University policies regarding sexual assault and misconduct, and 90 percent of respondents indicate “the intoxication of someone initiating sexual activity” is not an excuse for his or her failure to obtain consent from the other person. More students are being trained in bystander intervention through GreeNDot. Furthermore, University President Fr. John Jenkins, Saint Mary’s President Jan Cervelli and Holy Cross President Br. John Paige signed a memorandum of understanding in March to ensure more collaboration between the three campuses in addressing sexual assault.

Even with those improvements, however, there are other aspects in need of significant progress: Of those 10 percent of students who did report to the University, 50 percent or less of both complainants and respondents indicated they were “satisfied” with various aspects of the University process, including the impartiality and timeliness of the investigation and the impartiality, timeliness and outcome of the administrative hearing process. Exactly 50 percent of respondents to Saint Mary’s Campus Climate Survey were at least satisfied with the College’s process for making a formal report, and 66.7 percent of those students indicated they were satisfied with the College’s response to their reports.

These sorts of investigations are highly sensitive, and naturally, not everyone is going to be happy with every outcome. However, both the Saint Mary’s and Notre Dame survey results demonstrate a significant lack of trust and lack of satisfaction with administration processes for handling sexual assault cases.

Additionally, the University is under investigation by the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for possible Title IX violations pertaining to two cases. One is for discrimination based on sex; documents for the other have not been made available, so the nature of the case is unknown.

No definitive stance on whether or not the University mishandled these two cases can be taken until the OCR officially closes them. Yet, no matter the results, the truth still holds that two individuals felt so dissatisfied with Notre Dame’s process that they filed complaints with the OCR, both of which were deemed worthy of further investigation. Even if the OCR ultimately determines that nothing is wrong with the University’s process, some sort of barrier clearly prevents sexual assault survivors from placing trust in their own academic institution.

Then again, there might just be something wrong. After all, the OCR found that to be case once already in 2011 after it opened an investigation following the death of Saint Mary’s first-year Lizzy Seeberg, who killed herself after reporting she had been sexually assaulted by Prince Shembo, a Notre Dame football player. Seeberg’s father expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the University handled his daughter’s case, remarking in a 2010 interview with the Chicago Tribune that, “If not at Our Lady’s University, then where? Where in the world would you fight for women?

Where in the world would you fight for a cause like this?”

The OCR also expressed its concerns, citing among them a lack of clear instruction by the University of students and staff as to what processes would be followed after a report was made to the University.

And although Notre Dame agreed to make changes in how it handles sexual assault cases after the investigation was resolved, similar concerns to those reflected in 2011

continue to arise from amongst the student body. In 2015, a previous Editorial Board asked the student body to “make sexual assault a deeply personal issue.” And indeed, in the past few years, student leaders on campus have worked to change the culture of sexual assault on campus, answering Seeberg’s father’s call.

Student government in particular has made sexual assault awareness and prevention a priority for the last three or four years. This year, the University’s first sexual assault survivor support group was created on campus. The new student government administration — which started its term Saturday — emphasized that expanding sexual assault resources and prevention methods on campus would be a top priority. At the moment, it is working toward the implementation of Callisto, an online platform that timestamps sexual assault reports. Even if the victim decides not to file an official report, the platform will send the information to the Title IX coordinator if a perpetrator’s name is reported by more than one person — for, according to Callisto’s website, up to 90 percent of assaults are committed by repeat offenders. The implementation of such a program would, hopefully, help empower more survivors, streamline the reporting process and provide University officials with another tool to keep its students safe.

The student body has stepped up. Now, we ask the University’s administration to match that effort.

Approaching the epidemic of sexual assault through education and awareness is a worthwhile endeavor on behalf of the administration — the statistics presented in the Campus Climate survey are highly indicative of some success.

But now, it seems clear that another endeavor must be taken, one that aims to restore trust in the University and its handling of sexual assault complaints. The increasing percentage of respondents who cite a doubt that the University process will solve anything is alarming, and it is a trend that needs to be immediately addressed. This Editorial Board recognizes that some members of the administration — such as Hoffmann Harding — believe their work does not stop until the number of assaults on campus reaches zero.

And progress in that direction starts with restoring the students’ trust in the University’s ability to reach a solution.

Maybe it starts with pushing for further student input and response regarding University processes. Maybe it starts with just a conversation that creates transparency of Notre Dame’s responses to complaints and what problems students have with those responses.

It might not be clear at this point what has led to that lack of trust, but one thing is clear: Something needs to be done.

Because the number of sexual assaults on this campus will never reach zero if the number of students who don’t trust the University process does not get to zero first.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Walsh should get facts straight On Tuesday, Matt Walsh, writer for The Blaze, hosted by the Notre Dame Young Americans for Freedom, gave a lecture entitled “How the Left Corrupts Capitalism.” On the Wednesday morning following his talk he made a post on Facebook detailing his narrative about the campus climate regarding his visit.

Central to his points were that the administration may have had a hand in the location and technical difficulties of the event. He states that he was “sent down into the basement of the science hall, in a room that wasn’t nearly big enough for the crowd.” Mr. Walsh claims that the administration invited Wendy Davis, who was given “a nice, comfortable room with microphones and everything” in her visit which he believes betrayed the University’s Catholic values.

Mr. Walsh’s claims present a mixture of fantasy, and with a knowledge of the proceedings of the student activities office (SAO), severe implausibility.

The lecture given by Mr. Walsh was held in Nieuwland Hall, room 118, generally not considered a prime event location, and he was not provided a microphone for this event. Having worked with SAO myself in the past, I know that a room request with SAO is a simple process, but must be submitted with time to spare. If a group does not submit a request until a few days or weeks before the event, or do not promptly follow up on SAO comments on their request, they end up with sub-prime real estate.

Furthermore, SAO groups must submit audio-visual requests themselves, or end up with a disgruntled speaker.

Thus, on the counts of room choice and technical failures,

the organizers are more likely to be at fault.

Mr. Walsh’s comparison to the Wendy Davis event is then based in pure fantasy. First of all, Notre Dame administrators did not invite Ms. Davis to campus, rather she was hosted by the Notre Dame College Democrats.

Her event seemed to be properly planned, as it was indeed held in a spacious room with microphones available.

Next time Mr. Walsh comes to campus, he should get his facts straight. It would make his in-speech associations between liberalism and Satanism a tad more believable.

Daniel Barabasi senior April 5

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The observer | friday, april 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

Crossword | Will Shortz

Horoscope | Eugenia Last Happy Birthday: Get in the game. Sitting on the sideline waiting for someone to ask you to play will not further your interests. Look for any opportunity to get involved. Use your strengths and skills to make a difference. Assess your partnerships and reset your strategy. Spend more time with those who have the same values and plans for the future as you. Your numbers are 4, 15, 21, 24, 33, 39, 42.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You have to put your energy to work for you. Avoid fruitless conversations and get down to business. It’s what you do that will count, not what you profess to want to do. Channel emotional energy into success, not a scuffle.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Look over your options and make choices based on what’s realistic. Don’t let your pride lead to a disagreement or changes that aren’t necessary. Work alongside others in order to come up with the best solutions. Don’t play favorites.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Stay away from discord and from people who are trying to coax you into something you don’t want to do. Take responsibility for your personal happiness as well as reaching your goals. Express your thoughts and you’ll attract like-minded people.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Uncertainty when dealing with unpredictable partners or groups that want too much from you will be a sign to back away.

Concentrate on using your knowledge and skills to help yourself as well as others.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Embrace change and do what needs to be done in silence. Don’t waste time criticizing or complaining when it’s up to you to do what’s best for you. Be a leader and offer solutions instead of adding to the problem.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A couple of changes to your residence will add to your assets. Stay within budget, do the legwork and you will pick up skills as well as learn something new. Don’t let someone else’s uncertainty hold you back.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Change can be good if it’s reasonable and fits your current budget. A partnership will stabilize your personal, financial and emotional life. A willingness to share in order to raise your standard of living will lead to a better future.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’ll be tempted by what others do and say. Look at the big picture and make choices based on what you know, not what you hear. Make a point to do your own research and legwork and you will eliminate mistakes.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Make alterations at home or to the way you live that will lower your overhead, ensure your sanity and ease your stress. You can wheel and deal, but don’t let anyone use emotional tactics to pressure you into making poor choices.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Don’t let anger be what leads to change when taking action physically and making things happen should be your means to accomplish your goals. Change can be good when it’s handled the right way.

Consider your motives.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You have a voice. Don’t let anger take over when you should be focusing on what you can do to make things better. Use your knowledge and experience to bring about logical alternatives that will create a greater revenue stream.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You’ll be offered lots of ideas. Don’t be too quick to jump into someone else’s plans. Consider what’s in it for you as well as how you can negotiate and manipulate the situation to benefit you. Stay calm.

Birthday Baby: You are energetic, passionate and intense. You are exciting and bold.

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sports

ndsmcobserver.com | friday, april 7, 2017 | The Observer

track and field

Sports Authority

Could it be Seattle’s season?

Ryan Klaus Sports Writer

Coming off perhaps its most memorable conclusion ever, baseball finally returned Sunday with a slate of Opening Day games and series that continued throughout the week.

Of course, as is the case with any league’s opening week, there are almost an unlimited number of stories to follow with all 30 teams — at least for the time being — technically being contenders.

Could the Cubs win the World Series again? Their championship resume may be spotty, but they do have a history of going back-to-back when they do win titles.

Could Bryce Harper be MVP-good again? An egregious extrapolation of his .429 batting average through his first two games suggests yes.

Could Edwin Jackson somehow be picked up by another MLB team — what would be the 33-year-old’s twelfth team in his career — that somehow finds itself sufficiently desperate for starting pitcher depth? Well, that already happened, after the Orioles agreed to a minor league contract with Jackson on Thursday. Yet, with all of the fascinating teams and individual players to follow, my pick for the most interesting storyline in early 2017 is the Seattle Mariners for several reasons.

Since setting Major League Baseball’s record for most regular season wins in 2001, the Mariners have failed to make the playoffs once in the last 15 years, a drought that is the longest of any of the four major North American team sports. In recent years, the Mariners have been frustratingly stuck in the middle — not bad enough to reap the rewards of a full rebuild, yet not good enough to actually clinch a postseason berth.

After a good start last season, Seattle faded down the stretch and finished in second place in the AL West with 86 wins, three games out of a wild card spot.

Outside of their recent

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inability to overcome the playoff hurdle, 2017’s edition of the Mariners is inherently interesting because of the massive overhaul that their roster underwent this winter.

After the Mariners narrowly missed the playoffs in 2016, second-year general manager Jerry Dipoto made more of a footprint in the MLB trade market this offseason than any other front office executive; when Seattle opened the regular season against the Astros on Monday, their roster was comprised of ten new acquisitions. W hile it remains to be seen whether improvement will materialize (general consensus around baseball is that Dipoto’s moves have not made the team decidedly better), it will undoubtedly be interesting to watch how the transactions manifest themselves.

In addition to the compelling quantity of roster turnover, the implicit sense of urgency surrounding Seattle is equally captivating. The Mariners are not only playing under the pressure of having to rectif y an extended playoff drought, they are doing so with a top tier of players that are almost exclusively on the wrong side of 30 years old.

Felix Hernandez, the undisputed face of the franchise for the last decade, had a noticeable decline in performance last season and now sits above the 30-year-old threshold. Offensive leaders Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano are 36 and 34, respectively. Even Kyle Seager, long considered the organization’s potential up-andcoming star, will turn 30 in November.

Simply put, the competitive window for the Seattle Mariners is undeniably closing. The resulting urgency, combined with Seattle’s extended playoff drought and unprecedented roster overhaul, should make the Mariners a captivating team to follow for any baseball fan in 2017.

Contact Ryan Klaus at rklaus1@nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Irish head to Arizona looking to build on success Observer Sports Staff

This weekend, the Irish will continue their outdoor spring season as they travel to the southwestern corner of the country.

Notre Dame will compete in the Sun Angel Track Classic hosted by Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

The competition will take place through April 7 and 8.

This weekend marks the 38th annual Sun Angel Classic.

Some of the programs competing this weekend include Iowa State University, Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, University of Arizona and as well as other prime contestants. The Texas A&M men are currently No. 2 in the NCAA while Texas Tech slots at No. 11 and Kansas sits at No. 16. On the women’s side, Texas A&M holds another top ten ranking, sitting at No. 9 in the NCAA. In addition to the Division 1 competition, Tempe, Arizona, will be crowded with professional athletes throughout the weekend. In total, over 4,500 athletes will be competing

this weekend at Arizona State.

The Irish are coming off a hectic weekend in which portions of the squad competed in three different meets across the country. Sophomore Anna Rohrer provided a standout performance in the 10,000-meter race last weekend at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, California. Rohrer completed her 10,000-meter debut with a time of 31:58, setting the fastest recorded time for any female in the world so far in 2017. Rohrer set a new Notre Dame record last weekend, but she will not compete in the race this weekend and expects to abstain from the 10,000-meter race until ACC competition in mid-May. In addition to Rohrer, graduate student Molly Seidel competed in the 10,000-meter race, finishing with a time of 33:19.60 in her outdoor debut for the season. Sophomore Annie Heffernan ran the 5,000-meter race, finishing second in her heat with a time of 16:27.78 A number of top Irish field athletes will also be competing

in the Sun Angel Classic.

Last week, senior pole vaulter Nathan Richartz logged an eighth-place finish in the Texas Relays with a height of 5.20 meters. He will be joined in the event this weekend by freshmen Landon Shank and Kassadee Ifft, who will be competing on the women’s side of the event. Meanwhile, in other field events, sophomore Daniel Hardiman will compete in the men’s shot put and senior Indi Jackson will compete for the women’s side.

Several sprinters will lace up their spikes this weekend in Arizona, including two relay teams. A young team consisting freshmen Naya Sharp, Summer Thorpe and Michaela Butler and sophomore Kyla Lewis will look for success in the 4x100-meter relay. Meanwhile, in the 4x400meter relay, Thorpe will be joined by fellow freshman Grace Cronin. as well as juniors Jordan Shead and Payton Miller.

The competition begins Friday at 11 a.m. in Tempe, Arizona.

CHRIS COLLINS | The Observer

Irish senior pole vaulter Nathan Richartz approaches a jump during the Blue and Gold Invitational on Dec. 2 at Loftus Sports Center. Richartz finished in eighth at the Texas Relays on Saturday.

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wanted SUMMER NANNY JOB IN BEAUTIFUL JACKSON HOLE, WY:

Domer family looking for ND/SMC student. Mid June - early August. Email info@greymattersintl.com Dancing through life/Skimming

the surface/Gliding where turf is smooth/Life’s more painless/For the brainless/Why think too hard?/ When it’s so soothing/Dancing through life

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Sports

The observer | friday, april 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

W Lax Continued from page 12

really well off ball to open up our feeding game as well. So it was just a really great collective effort to attack the defense that we saw today.”

In the end, nine different Irish players picked up goals in the victory. Fortunato ended the day with eight goals and three assists, tying the Notre Dame record with most goals in a half with six and increasing her lead as the team’s top scorer. Three other Irish players — sophomore midfielder Samantha Lynch, senior midfielder Casey Pearsall and Muller — each finished with hat tricks, and freshman midfielder Cassie Ford scored her first career goal.

“All year we’ve had our scoring quite spread out, so it was good to see it continue on,” Halfpenny said on the scoring distribution. “... especially on a day where the one-vs-one game we open up for each other, but to see helpers we were able to have out of that one-vs- one driving game was really great.

So, it’s nice to see that continue on and that scoring spread from our middies to our attack.”

The Owls entered the game as one of the top offensive squads in the country, averaged 37.78 shots per game, the most in the nation. However, Notre Dame was able to hold Kennesaw State to just 14 shots Thursday. Sophomore goalkeeper Samantha Giacolone allowed three goals and made two saves — which was uncharacteristically low for the Manorville, New York, native who was coming off a careerhigh 18 saves in Notre Dame’s loss to No. 2 North Carolina on Sunday — and left the game after 47 minutes once the Irish had collected a comfortable lead, giving way to freshman goalie Grace Steffens.

Steffens picked up four saves.

Halfpenny said her defense played a solid game, but noted the draw control — a battle Notre Dame won 17-12 — was what pushed the Irish over the edge defensively.

“We just really were disciplined in our defense’s approach, as we have been in the last few outings,” Halfpenny said. “I think that we obviously helped ourselves by winning the draw battle so we could limit the possessions right out of the gate, but then, as a unit, we did a really nice job of handling on one-vs-one and having help defense when it was necessary and allowing our one-vs-ones to take care of themselves instead of pushing too much.”

The Irish will return home to ACC play when they take on No. 15 Virginia Tech in their final regular season home game of 2017. They will host the Hokies (11-4, 2-2 ACC) at Arlotta Stadium on April 15 at noon.

Contact Elizabeth Greason at egreason@nd.edu

MICHAEL YU | The Observer

Irish freshman Zoe Spence returns the ball during Notre Dame’s 5-2 win over Purdue on Feb. 22 at Eck Tennis Pavilion.

W Tennis Continued from page 12

a shot at Friday, which we’re really looking forward to.”

Seniors Jane Fennelly, Monica

Robinson and Mary Closs each only have five regular season matches left in their college careers. Closs and Robinson make up the Irish’s number one doubles pairing, and Jane Fennelly’s contribution to the third pairing has

been an undeniable presence all year. Louderback had nothing but praise for his seniors.

“Our seniors have been really good all year, and I feel like they’ll finish out the rest of this season the way they have all year,” Louderback said. “All three of them play very well in matches but also work extremely hard in practice. That really helps our younger players see how hard they work when they’re out there. All three are competing the best they have in their four years.”

Louderback said this match will have major implications for the ACC standings. A few wins down this last stretch of the season will put them in strong position for a high seed in the upcoming ACC tournament.

These wins could also raise the Irish’s national standing, but Louderback insisted the team is focused purely on the ACC. “We’re not worried a whole lot about anything but ACC,” Louderback said. “Right now

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all the teams are playing to see where we’re going to be seeded at the ACC tournament. Everyone from one to eight or nine is close right now. Every match we have coming up will help determine where we are in the tournament.

Duke was picked to be one of the top two teams coming into this year. This would be a big win for us.”

The Irish will battle the Blue Devils at 4 p.m. Friday at Courtney Tennis Center.

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Sports

Forecheck Continued from page 12

shy of Notre Dame’s blue line.

A Denver shot from there was blocked, but the puck bounced into the corner.

And the forecheck was back on.

A few more shifts later, Notre Dame cleared the zone, but a forward got too much of an attempted tip-in dump. Instead of making the Denver defense turn and chase, the puck slowly wobbled out to the middle of the ice.

A Pioneer defenseman stepped up and fired the puck to a forward, who successfully tipped it deep into the Irish zone, past the defensemen, demonstrating perfectly what Notre Dame had failed to do just a second earlier.

And the Denver forecheck was on once again.

Another Irish turnover just over eight minutes into the first period allowed Denver to keep the puck in the zone. Fourthline Pioneer senior forward Emil Romig beat the Irish around the net, avoided a sweeping pokecheck by Irish junior netminder Cal Petersen and looped around to shoot from the sharp angle.

The puck hit Petersen’s shoulder, then the back of the net. The rout was officially on.

“We probably could have had crisper passes out of the zone,” Irish junior defenseman Jordan Gross said. “We struggled with

Defeat Continued from page 12

consistently getting shots on goal. Irish junior captain and netminder Cal Petersen was forced to make 11 saves, but there was little he could do when Denver senior forward Emil Romig skated behind the net, turned and fired a rip over Petersen’s left shoulder into the top netting for the opener with a little over five minutes gone by.

ndsmcobserver.com | friday, april 7, 2017 | The Observer

some turnovers in and around the neutral zone. We needed to get pucks deep and wear down their defensemen.

“If we did a better job of that, it would have been a better outcome.”

The hidden side of a strong forecheck is how much responsibility it takes off its own defense, though, and how difficult it is for the opposing forwards to get any sort of momentum rolling.

Whenever the Irish managed to beat the pressure, they immediately headed to the bench and change after a full shift. This often left just the Irish just a single forechecker to maintain an ineffective presence the Pioneers had no trouble passing around, gaining speed on the rush into the Notre Dame zone for yet another wave of offensive pressure.

“Puck management, when we’re playing well that’s our game,” Irish head coach Jeff Jackson said. “When we manage the puck out of our zone you’re not playing defense. We improved so much in the second half of the year, but it showed up again tonight where we weren’t making good plays coming out of our zone or good plays through the neutral zone.”

“When our forecheck is going, it makes the game really easy for the [defensemen],” Denver senior defenseman Will Butcher said. “We can gap up, and we can stay right on their forwards in our

The Irish (23-12-5, 12-6-4 Hockey East) tried to respond, but struggled to maintain possession in Denver’s zone, as the Pioneers used their speed to force turnovers, get out in transition and create chances. They did not have to wait long for a second, as captain and senior defenseman Will Butcher raced past Irish freshman forward Mike O’Leary around the net and dished a puck to freshman forward Henrik Borgstrom, who slotted the puck past Petersen’s

KATHLEEN DONAHUE | The Observer

Irish junior forward Jake Evans fights for the puck during Notre Dame’s 6-1 loss to Denver on Thursday at Chicago’s United Center.

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KATHLEEN DONAHUE | The Observer

Irish junior goaltender Cal Petersen stands in the net during Notre Dame’s 6-1 loss to Denver on Thursday at the United Center in Chicago. Petersen had 36 saves in the game, which ended Notre Dame’s season.

offensive zone.

“When our forwards are playing well it makes our job as defensemen even easier.”

It showed: Notre Dame took over five minutes to even register its first shot attempt, then another minute to record a shot on goal. The Irish totaled just 17 shots on the evening compared to 42 for the Pioneers.

Despite being completely dominated for the first 20 minutes, the Irish entered the dressing room down just 2-0, a deficit they overcame against Minnesota in their

first NCAA tournament contest two weekends ago.

And for most of the second period, Notre Dame had at least managed to nail enough boards in front of the door to keep Denver at bay. A big hit by sophomore defenseman Dennis Gilbert and a couple one-man-act shifts by junior forward Anders Bjork even managed to enliven a slightly pro-Notre Dame crowd.

The boards gave way 14:07 into the second period. Irish junior defenseman Luke Ripley blew a tire skating retreating toward the

Irish zone, and the Pioneers capitalized on the resulting two-onone to make it 3-0.

“That third goal was the back killer,” Jackson said. “It was very similar to the Minnesota game last week where we got that next goal, but that didn’t happen tonight.”

Denver added two more goals before the buzzer, and soon Notre Dame was simply watching its season slip away.

leg to put Denver up two.

The Pioneers even had several chances to put more on the board, as Romig sailed a shot over the crossbar after a two-onone with just over two minutes left, and an errant pass from Irish freshman defender Andrew Peeke gifted Denver another opportunity, but the shot sailed past the post, ending the first period at 2-0.

Notre Dame came out in the second trying to spark a comeback, and sophomore defenseman Dennis Gilbert laid a big open-ice hit early in the period to the approval of the mostly proIrish crowd.

Star forward Anders Bjork had a good chance to get Notre Dame back in the game when the junior cut inside and drove straight to the net, but was unable to force it in. As time went on, however, the Irish once again struggled to find passing lanes to get out of their zone, and Denver was happy to press Notre Dame and force turnovers.

The turning point came at 14:07. Forcing a faceoff in Denver’s zone after some positive possession, the Irish pushed to keep the puck in the offensive zone. But after the scrum, the Pioneers were able to get out in transition.

As Irish junior defenseman Luke Ripley moved backward to stay in front of the oncoming rush, he slipped, suddenly gifting the Pioneers a two-on-one matchup. Denver subsequently made no mistake, as Pioneers senior forward Evan Janssen slipped the puck to junior

defenseman Tariq Hammond for the tap in. The goal sucked any momentum Notre Dame had out of the building, and once again the Irish were on their heels.

“I felt we were turning a corner and then we had a defenseman fall down,” Jackson said on the third goal. “I thought we started getting a little more comfortable playing the game at that pace, but that third goal is the back killer.”

Two and a half minutes later, Denver struck again, as sophomore forward Dylan Gambrell skated around the net and fired a shot on goal. Petersen went for the save, but the puck helplessly rolled over his arm and into the net to put the Pioneers up four.

With the blood in the water, Denver was hungry for more, and were gifted a golden opportunity when another Irish defenseman slipped — this time sophomore Bobby Nardella — forcing Petersen to make two saves to preserve some dignity for the Irish. But moments later, Bjork uncharacteristically gave the puck away in his own zone, and this time Petersen was helpless as senior forward Evan Ritt fired past his left shoulder to make it 5-0 in a forgettable period for the Irish.

“He’s been our rock all season long,” Jackson said on Petersen, who made 36 saves on the night.

“I thought he had a couple that he probably would’ve liked back, bad angle situations, things that he usually stops off the post. They exposed him when he was a little too aggressive in a few situations, but he also made some saves for

us too, so it makes up for giving up a bad goal here and there.”

The third period saw both teams finally get on the power play, as Denver had a chance at 5:20 when Notre Dame was called for too many players on the ice. But the Irish killed it off, and six minutes later finally got off the board after Denver freshman defenseman Michael Davies was penalized for interference. Immediately off the faceoff, freshman forward Cam Morrison deflected in a longrange effort from junior defenseman Jordan Gross to give Notre Dame a lone bright spot. But the game was still too far out of reach, and at 16:42 Denver cemented its spot in the national championship as Gambrell added a second goal off a shot that glanced in off Petersen’s skate.

“They’re the number one ranked team in the country for a reason,” Jackson said on Denver’s play. “You give them their due; they’re a great team. I just didn’t think we played as well as we’re capable of playing.”

But for the Irish, who only graduate two seniors this year, this loss only serves as motivation for next year.

“For me, it just makes us more hungry to get back out there and come in with a better mindset, similar to what this Denver team here did [last year],” sophomore forward Andrew Oglevie said.

“We’re going to build off of it, have a good offseason and come back ready.”

Contact Zach Klonsinski at zklonsin@nd.edu

Contact Tobias Hoonhout at thoonhou@nd.edu

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The observer | friday, april 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

HOCKEY | denver 6, nd 1

Notre Dame falls to Denver in Frozen Four Denver forecheck overwhelms Notre Dame

Irish magical run comes to end in loss to Pioneers

By TOBIAS HOONHOUT

By ZACH KLONSINSKI

Associate Sports Editor

Senior Sports Writer

CHICAGO — Notre Dame’s quest for a national championship hit a roadblock Thursday night, as top-seeded Denver overpowered the Irish from start to finish.

While Irish head coach Jeff Jackson was proud of his team’s journey to the Frozen Four, he admitted the Irish were simply beaten.

“Congratulations to Denver, they’re certainly a great team, seemed like a team on a mission to me, so hats off to them,” he said. “We looked a little more like we did a few weeks back in the Boston Garden [in a 5-1 loss to UMass Lowell], we certainly had a very tough opponent and that had a lot to do with it.”

The first period was all Denver (32-7-4, 20-4-3 NCHC), as the Pioneers flexed their offensive muscle in Notre Dame’s zone, controlling the puck and

CHICAGO — Denver’s forecheck was as good as advertised Thursday night, turning the Frozen Four’s second semifinal into a 6-1 loss and a long night for the Irish at the United Center.

The Pioneers never let Notre Dame breathe in its defensive zone, starting from the game’s first shift when Irish freshman forward Cam Morrison bobbled the puck as he was coming across the Irish blue line. Denver pounced on the loose puck and sent it deep.

Then the Pioneer forecheck was on.

A shift later, Irish sophomore defenseman Bobby Nardella hesitated after receiving a pass, eventually trying to send the puck across the middle of the ice.

By then, a Pioneer forechecker had closed the gap on Nardella though. The puck ricocheted off him and slowly trickled out, just

see DEFEAT PAGE 11

KATHLEEN DONAHUE | The Observer

Irish junior forward Jake Evans drives toward the net with the puck during Notre Dame’s 6-1 loss to Denver in the semifinal round of the NCAA tournament Thursday at the United Center in Chicago.

Nd Women’s LACROSSE | NOTRE DAME 24, KENNESAW STATE 4

see FORECHECK PAGE 11

football

ND offense puts on clinic in Georgia Spencer Perry to transfer

By ELIZABETH GREASON Sports Editor

No. 12 Notre Dame found its groove once again as it took down one of the country’s top offenses in Kennesaw State, 24-4, in a midday road matchup Thursday.

Freshman midfielder Savannah Buchanan started the offensive charge for the Irish, scoring the first goal of the game just over three

minutes after first draw. At first, the Irish (10-5, 3-2 ACC) and the Owls (5-5, 1-2 ASUN) kept the game tight, trading goals to put the game at 2-2 just under eight minutes into the game.

However, a goal from Notre Dame senior attack Grace Muller spurred a 5-0 run — which was ended by Owls freshman midfielder Izzy Palermo, who was able to put one in the back of the net. The

Irish did not allow this slip to slow them, as senior attack Cortney Fortunato scored to start the next Irish run — as they scored 16 unanswered goals, shutting down any of Kennesaw State’s hopes for a victory.

Irish head coach Christine Halfpenny cited her team’s organization on the field and its focus on working together as reasons for Notre Dame’s offensive success against the

Owls.

“I think we were really efficient in what we did in pushing the fast break, we had some really, really nice fast goals, but also being really organized in our attacking efforts as a unit,” Halfpenny said. “We did a really good job running our motion and setting up clear lanes for each other to attack in one-vs-ones, and moving see W LAX PAGE 10

ND Women’s tennis

Irish to host ACC-rival Blue Devils

By JACK CONCANNON Sports Writer

The Irish will play host to No. 15 Duke on Friday.

As of late, the Irish (16-3, 7-2 ACC) have returned to their winning ways, improving to 7-2 in ACC play after defeating Virginia Tech on March 31.

The Blue Devils (13-3, 7-0) have been a powerful team all season and are currently undefeated in ACC play. The opportunity to

go against a ranked team with momentum is a critical one for the Irish, Irish head coach Jay Louderback said.

“For us to go in [to Virginia Tech] and play as well as we did on their fast courts was very good for our confidence,” Louderback said. “Confidencewise for the Duke matchup, that really helped. It looks like we’re going to be playing Duke indoors as well, so that win should be something that will really

help us against Duke.”

The Irish are not lacking in confidence despite the fact that Duke is one of the strongest teams in the ACC. Its only three losses on the season have come against SEC opponents, all of whom are now ranked. The Blue Devils have have been cutting their way through ACC competition, winning a large portion of their matches with lopsided scores. Louderback said the Blue Devils pose a number of

challenges for the Irish.

“They’re solid in their entire lineup one through six, and have three really solid doubles teams,” Louderback said.

“They’re just tough; they have a good variety of older leaders and younger players. They’re a good team; we’re looking forward to it because we think it’s going to be a close one. It’s a higher-ranked team we’re getting see W TENNIS PAGE 10

Observer Sports Staff

Irish sophomore safety Spencer Perry announced his intention to transfer Thursday on social media. The Newhan, Georgia, native saw action in six games this season, but did not record any tackles. Most of his time on the field came at special teams.

“Thanks to [the] University of Notre Dame for the opportunity to pursue my education and play football,” Perry said in a tweet.

“All the best to my advisors, professors, rector, teammates, coaches and the Fighting Irish fans. At this time, I am electing to transfer and continue my educational goals and football career elsewhere.”

The three-star prospect out of IMG Academy had been playing the new rover position throughout spring practice, but has struggled to rise above fourth on the depth chart at the position.