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Volume 52, Issue 105 | wednesday, april 4, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com
ND admits potential class of 2022 University breaks the 20,000-applicant threshold for the first time in history By KELLI SMITH Associate News Editor
Notre Dame has officially opened its doors to the class of 2022 after admitting a total of 3,586 students out of a record-breaking 20,370 applications. As this is the first year the University has received over 20,000 applications, associate vice president of undergraduate enrollment Don Bishop said Notre Dame has succeeded in increasing the level of interest in ‘highestability’ students. “About one-third of the students considered to be at the ver y top of the class or w ith a national test score of 33 to 36 ACT or 1500 to 1600 SAT gained admission to Notre Dame this year,”
Bishop said. “ … We’re up four percent in applications, but we’re up 18 percent in what we would call ‘highestability applicants.’” In addition to what he described as an “elaborate evaluation process” that considers how well students performed in their respective environments and how well they fit Notre Dame’s mission of being a “force for good,” Bishop said the admissions team read “ver y carefully” into what a student said and how he or she said it. “Kind of the science and art of admissions is to blend the productivity of the student w ith looking at their motivation and personal
By CIARA HOPKINSON News Writer
Fossil Free ND hosted a panel Tuesday in Geddes Hall titled “The State of Advocacy and Activism at Notre Dame” about challenges and resources for activism on Notre Dame’s campus. The panel, which aimed to encourage advocacy and open dialogue across campus, included members of Student Coalition for Immigrant Activism (SCIA), Irish 4 Reproductive Health (I4RH), Feminist ND, Fossil Free ND, Student Government, Native American Student Association of Notre Dame (NASAND) and Notre Dame Right to Life. W hile each of the groups has had different experiences with the campus community, all expressed similar struggles with generating momentum and widespread participation. Part of that struggle, junior Adam Wiechman of Fossil Free ND
NEWS PAGE 3
Observer Staff Report
Carolyn Woo, the former chief executive officer of Catholic Relief Services, will address the Saint Mary’s class of 2018 at its Commencement ceremony on May 19, according to a College press release. Woo will be awarded the College’s highest honor, an Honorary Doctor of Humanities, at the ceremony, according to the release. Woo immigrated to the United States for her studies
see FRESHMEN PAGE 3
Panel explores advocacy efforts said, are two forms of the “Notre Dame bubble.” “I think that a lot of our students sometimes have the sense of living life in a bubble at Notre Dame, not necessarily being forced to grapple with some very real issues that a lot of other people just outside our University deal with,” Wiechman said. “And I think that because of that, when things like social justice issues are brought into the arena of issues at Notre Dame they have to compete with more immediate issues like a paper due the next day.” This issue was seen, he said, in trying to get students to participate in rallies, which necessitates that students budget their time around academic commitments. “The second form that bubble takes is cross-issue bubble-ness,” Wiechman said. “The way that works is that we have a lot of really passionate see ADVOCACY PAGE 4
Scene PAGE 6
SMC reveals speaker
Claire Kopischke | The Observer
see SPEAKER PAGE 5
Community talks Legends By TEAGAN DILLON News Writer
In Notre Dame’s earliest years, a private, two-story residence just south of Notre Dame Stadium was transformed into a home for the Brothers of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, then into a faculty club and eventually into a hip hangout for of-age seniors, complete with multiple bars and a billiards table and affectionately dubbed the “Senior Bar.” Reconstructed in 1982 and
again in 2003, the plot of land that rests in the shadow of Notre Dame Stadium is now home to the boxy, flat restaurant known as Legends of Notre Dame. In an email sent to the student body from the Office of the Executive Vice President on Feb. 22, John AffleckGraves announced the Parking Committee’s plan to explore the feasibility of a parking garage to “be built on the site where Legends restaurant is currently located.” While there are no
official plans to close Legends, the email contained a survey to generate student and faculty feedback. While the space where Legends sits has changed over the last century, the memories of the original Senior Bar has carried on in the minds of the alumni who knew it best. “To an alumni over 50 or 55, I’m not sure [demolishing] Legends would get much more than a see LEGENDS PAGE 3
Journalist shares research on press safety in Mexico By MICAELA POWERS News Writer
Katherine Corcoran, a Kellogg Institute for International Studies Hewlett fellow for public policy, spoke at the Hesburgh Center for International Studies on Tuesday about why an increasing number
Viewpoint PAGE 9
of journalists are being murdered in Mexico, even as the country is becoming more democratic. Mexico is now one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, Corcoran said — she knows this firsthand. Corcoran worked in the Associated Press’ Mexico bureau as an
enterprise editor overseeing features and special investigations, and then as its bureau chief. She interacted with other journalists who were later killed, allegedly for doing their jobs, she said. “Mex ico is not a countr y at war,” Corcoran said. “The see MEXICO PAGE 5
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