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Volume 52, Issue 111 | thursday, april 12, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com
Ryan Hall to host signature event Annual Wheelchair Basketball Tournament benefits Whirlwind Wheelchair By MARIAH RUSH News Writer
This Sunday at 1 p.m., students from all across campus will head to the Bookstore Basketball courts to play and watch a competitive, bracket-style 5-on-5 tournament. If basketball isn’t difficult enough, this event adds another twist — everyone plays in wheelchairs. Ryan Hall’s signature event, the Wheelchair Basketball Tournament, is rolling into its seventh year. “It’s like Bookstore Basketball on wheels,” sophomore Caitlyn Clinton, president of Ryan Hall, said. In 2012, Ryan resident Emily Voorde, who has what is commonly known as brittle bone disease, established the event to help an organization called Whirlwind
Wheelchair International. Voorde also played for South Bend’s own wheelchair basketball team, the River City Rollers. “One of our residents — Emily Voorde — worked really closely with an organization called Whirlwind Wheelchair International, which is an organization that supplies wheelchairs to people who can’t afford them,” Clinton said. “She graduated in 2014, but when she was here as an undergrad she started this event and it kind of spurred out of that, and it’s been going on ever since.” Ryan Hall has a history of supporting those with disabilities — especially those in wheelchairs — as it was built in 2009 to be the first completely accessible Notre Dame dorm on campus, see BASKETBALL PAGE 5
Farley’s ‘Be Fine Day’ promotes femininity
Observer Staff Report
Photo courtesy of Caitlyn Clinton
Students participate in Ryan Hall’s 2017 Wheelchair Basketball Tournament. The annual event honors the dorm’s origin.
Senior Lauren Saunee poses at last year’s Farley Be Fine Day hosted by Farley Hall. The annual event benefits the YWCA Women’s Shelter. By THOMAS MURPHY News Writer
The fourth-annual Farley Hall Be Fine Day, Farley Hall’s signature event promoting dialogue on femininity and raising money and awareness for the YWCA Women’s Shelter in North Central Indiana, will take place Friday. The festivities are scheduled to kick off Thursday at 9 p.m. in Farley Hall’s Middle Room with a “Coffee House” event. The Coffee
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House will center around a talk given by a representative from the YWCA on the organization’s work and mission. Sophomore Catherine Sullivan, the Farley Be Fine Day’s co-coordinator along with sophomore Clare Cahir, said that they hope the event will help bring awareness to the YWCA’s work in the community. “It would be a great thing if we see BE FINE PAGE 5
SCENE PAGE 7
Notre Dame is facing a lawsuit, claiming the school knew and ignored the risks of brain damage its football players faced, according to a report from WNDU on Wednesday. The widow of Steve Schmitz — a Notre Dame running back and end receiver from 1974 to 1978 — is bringing the suit against the University and the NCAA. According to the report, Schmitz was diagnosed with “a disease see LAWSUIT PAGE 4
Professor reflects on racial experiences, education By COLLEEN FISCHER News Writer
Professor, author and former teacher Julie Landsman spoke on her experiences with race and teaching in a lecture Tuesday at Saint Mary’s. Landsman said she has been involved in issues surrounding race since college.
Photo courtesy of Claire Cahir
Notre Dame to face lawsuit
“Being involved in the civil rights movement was one of the most difficult things, because of the [familial] estrangement,” Landsman said. “It was one of the biggest losses. I don’t want to minimize what the work does, and how our country is divided, but I’ve never regretted it ... ” Landsman said her time teaching led her to realize the need for
self-reflection on educators’ own views of race. “This [a moment when a teacher realizes there own prejudice] is a teachable moment for yourself,” she said. “That risk you take can change the lives of a young student.” The use of reflection plays an see RACE PAGE 3
Classics club to promote cultural antiquities By MAX LANDER News Writer
The Notre Dame Classics Club will present a blast from the distant past with the Sound of Classics event Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Hesburgh Library’s Carey Auditorium. Since its inception in 2007, the Sound of Classics event has been an opportunity to experience firsthand the poetry, stories and
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songs from the classical cultures of antiquity. “Think of it as a classics variety show,” senior Olivia May, the club’s vice president, said. “We have one student singing Italian songs with his accordion. We also have people reciting pieces of Latin, as well as skits.” May herself has a role in a skit from Homer’s “Odyssey.” The event includes performances not only from the
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students in the Classics club, but others as well, junior Caitlin Riley said. “Other student groups will also be performing — Humor Artists are doing some improv and the Not So Royal Shakespeare group is doing a scene from ‘Julius Caesar,’” Riley said. “I think we’ve got the Liturgical Choir coming too. So we’ve got a bunch of see CLASSICS PAGE 5
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