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Volume 52, Issue 98 | tuesday, march 20, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com
Campus weighs in on new policy Sister to Office of Housing considers feedback from rectors, students on housing changes receive medal
By NATALIE WEBER News Editor
Following the announcement of a new housing policy in the fall that students are to live on campus for six semesters, many students began to examine their residential life experience and express concerns. In order to address some of the issues raised, the Office of Residential Life has been working with student and rectors to consider a potential waiver process and improve other aspects of dorm life. Margaret Morgan, director of residential life, said the Office of Housing’s most recent initiatives have focused on student input. “I think we’ve really taken a posture of listening and trying to hear the student experience to figure out what’s important to students and then think through
ways that we can continue to make the student experience in the residence halls better,” she said. Throughout this process, the Office of Housing has met with several student groups to examine ways to improve the dorm experience, most recently to explore the possibility of a waiver system exempting students from the six semester housing policy. While some students said they would prefer to meet with an administrator to discuss their reasons for wanting to move off campus, others are concerned that this process would force students to relive traumatic experiences. Morgan said administrators hope to take all of these responses into account and develop the most “student-friendly” waiver system possible. “I think what I have heard
Students travel to learn, serve over spring break
MADISON RIEHLE | The Observer
JED students tour the offices of the Houston Chronicle. The students also helped rebuild a home destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. By KARA MIECZNIKOWSKI News Writer
Many college students travel for spring break, but not all do so for the sake of vacationing. This past week, numerous Notre Dame students partook in Universitysponsored travel to towns and cities across the nation, experiencing firsthand the ideas and issues students are usually limited to learning about in a classroom
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setting. Among these service and academic trips are the Center for Social Concerns’ Appalachia Seminars. These seminars, which couple classroom learning with a service trip to a location in the Appalachia region, allow students to address social issues in context while serving a community in need. Sophomore Colleen see SERVICE PAGE 4
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mostly from [students] is this desire to protect students’ stories, to help continue to hold them sacred — to really feel like it’s not a cumbersome process so that a student doesn’t have to go through a lot of paperwork or jump through a lot of hoops to make this request, but also really respects where a student is coming from,” Morgan said. “ … And I think what we have said too is our commitment is to really honor each person.” The Office of Housing has been gathering feedback to examine other aspects of residential life, in particular the consistency of protocols amongst the various dorms. To this end, Morgan and Fr. Matt Kuczora — rector of Dunne Hall — chaired a committee of rectors and members of the Office of Housing. In addition to his work on the committee, Kuczora also conducted a survey
amongst rectors. These initiatives revealed differences between certain dorm policies, results Kuczora said he sometimes found surprising. “Something I didn’t expect too from some of that response was that there are differences [in policies], like the way that dances run across the board,” Kuczora said. “That was a really interesting thing and I didn’t really know because I don’t go to a lot of other halls’ dances.” Though there is a common conception that men and women’s dorms operate differently, these varying policies do not always manifest themselves along gendered lines, Kuczora said. “A lot of the results we’ve gotten initially haven’t been defined along ‘women’s halls do x and
Notre Dame will award Sister Norma Pimentel — head of the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley — the 2018 Laetare Medal, the University announced in a press release Sunday. Each year, Notre Dame awards the Laetare Medal to an American Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity.” According to the release, both of Pimentel’s parents immigrated from Mexico to the United
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Observer Staff Report
Senior-led panel explores gender, race and activism By IMAN OMAR News Writer
On March 8, three Saint Mary’s seniors spoke on a panel entitled “Black Women’s Activist: Living and Learning from Audre Lorde” panel at the Niles Public Library in Michigan. The panel, which featured seniors Taylor Thomas, Nina Steele and Alexandria Shambery, was organized in honor of Women’s History Month. Thomas said in an email that the trio previously discussed Audre Lorde on a panel in the fall semester of 2017. “All of us are very passionate about gender and women’s studies,” she said. “To be completely honest, Nina and I, on pulling up to the Niles Library, were extremely nervous and skeptical about the talk. Niles appears to be a predominantly white area. Plus, the library was very open, and patrons could walk by and hear what we were saying and that made us nervous. Not many people in our current political climate are open to
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listening to people discuss black activism and critiques of white academia.” Despite her initial reservations, Thomas said the audience was welcoming and encouraging. She said their insights were welcomed and some audience members shared stories of their own. “I was very surprised by the willingness of these women to listen to what I had to say,” she said. “It was a very inspiring experience listening to these older women and their experiences in the 1960’s and watching the generations now go through similar situations that they had to endure. They asked us questions that made us feel like they truly believed that our ideas could change the world.” In her speech, Thomas encouraged people and institutions to study the work of Audre Lorde. “She stuck up for what she believed in and that was a powerful thing,” Thomas said. “Her words and poetry help implement change not just in hearts,
but in classrooms as well. Simply discussing an Audre Lorde poem [on] predominantly white campuses can help expose students to subjects they may have never had to confront: police brutality, sexuality, classism. This is crucial because anti-blackness has always been seen in higher education.” Thomas believes it is important to discuss women’s history, especially that of black women because they are underrepresented in the American political and social sphere. She said that as a black student she feels that Saint Mary’s should do more to include and represent black voices on campus. “I want to see more black presence on this campus,” she said. “I want more black women. More black music. More black history and not just in February. I want more black food — properly cooked and seasoned. I need Saint Mary’s to start reflecting that if they want to claim ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusivity.’”
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