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Volume 52, Issue 23 | thursday, september 21, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com
Dorm event to benefit Veterans Fund Carroll, Lyons Hall to host Volley for Vets volleyball tournament raising money for veterans charities By MORGAN JOHNSON News Writer
Carroll Hall and Lyons Hall will host the second annual Volley for the Vets volleyball tournament Sunday. Games commence at 10 a.m. and participation is open to all students. For a donation of $5, teams can enter the tournament and will play at least two games, which will take place on the volleyball courts near Carroll and Lyons Hall, respectively. Sophomore Matt Bridgman, one of the event’s student organizers,
stressed the importance of supporting veterans. “Veterans are definitely a group that need a lot of financial support. Healthcare for veterans is constantly in the news,” Bridgman said. “We wanted people to get excited about helping.” In keeping with Notre Dame’s historically close relationship with veterans causes, all proceeds will directly benefit the Notre Dame Veterans Fund. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless’ website, there are 144,000 homeless veterans. Additionally, one in every
Club celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month
eight soldiers suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Veterans charities focus on providing food, shelter and counseling for returning military members. Student organizers currently have tables set up in both dining halls where students can sign up to play. Students can continue to sign up through the end of the day Friday or on the event’s Facebook page. Bridgman said that the list of participants grows daily. Sophomore Katie McGuckin, also a student organizer, views the tournament as a way to honor veterans and bring awareness to the
Notre Dame Veterans Fund. “There’s a veteran who is a graduate student at Notre Dame, so we’re hoping that he will be there so we can honor him,” McGuckin said. “We’re also hoping to get ROTC involved. We have the reigning champions from last year playing again so we hope it will be a continual event that people look forward to.” In addition to volleyball games, students will have the opportunity to buy T-shirts and food, as well as win prizes. These proceeds will also benefit veterans’ charities. Since the beginning of the week,
the organizers have been working to promote the event around campus through posters, dining hall table tents and word of mouth. Students will also be wearing the event’s T-shirt today to advertise. T-shirts will be available to purchase at the tournament for $10. Bridgman hopes that the turnout this year’s turnout surpasses last year’s. “We just want to get the time slots as full as possible,” Bridgman said. “Ideally the event grows so much that the two courts aren’t see VETS PAGE 3
SAGA continues efforts for LGBTQ advocacy By SARA SCHLECT News Writer
The Saint Mary’s Straight and Gay Alliance (SAGA) is planning for another year of events and activities on campus aimed at improving the experience for the LGBTQ community at the College. After one meeting, SAGA’s goals for the year are coming into focus, the club’s officers said. “We’re approaching [SAGA]
from a different angle this year,” president Abigail Lynn said. “We were focusing a lot on the gay and lesbian side of things [last year],” Julia Hannigan, vice president, said. Lynn expressed a desire to expand the reach of SAGA’s support to a wider group of people. “One of our biggest goals on campus is to create an environment that is really inclusive and offer support,” Lynn said. This year, the group plans to actively make meetings a more
inclusive experience for those who identify with other groups while continuing to support the lesbian and gay communities, Hannigan said. Specifically, she said that SAGA wants to foster a more comfortable and inclusive environment for transgender community members. In an effort to promote such inclusion, attendees at SAGA’s first meeting of the year were asked to share their preferred see SAGA PAGE 4
student SENATE Courtesy of Genesis Vasquez
Tyler Davis, right, prepares her guacamole, which won the guacamolemaking contest at La Fuerza’s Hispanic Heritage month kick-off event. By JORDAN COCKRUM News Writer
La Fuerza, the Latina cultural club at Saint Mary’s, began its celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month with a kick-off event Thursday. It will continue to observe the month over the next several weeks with a series of events, closing Hispanic Heritage month with a celebration of Hispanic culture, the organization’s president Roxana Martinez said. “This month we are hoping to have our first celebration dinner, just kind of celebrating Hispanic Heritage month,” Martinez said.
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Although they are still in the process of finalizing plans, Martinez hopes to have Sam Centellas, executive director of La Casa De Amistad, speak at the dinner. “We think that would be a great connection and bridge towards the community and vice versa,” Martinez said. Centellas advocates on behalf of the Hispanic community in South Bend, Martinez said. “Especially right now in such difficult times, he is doing a lot of promotion for the Latina community and advocating for the DACA see LA FUERZA PAGE 4
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Senate receives update on library renovations By RACHEL O’GRADY Assistant Managing Editor
University librarian Diane Walker presented to student senate Wednesday night on the updates to Hesburgh Library, which is undergoing an extensive, multi-year renovation. “We’ve been thinking about [these renovations] since 2012,” Walker said. “We’ve developed a master
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plan, because we knew it was going to be a multi-year, multi-phase project, and the master plan was meant to guide us through all of the phases of the project.” Walker said she wanted coherence in the execution of that plan. “In the end, it should all look like one, big connected project, not a bunch of individual ones,” she said. One of the first renovations
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was taking out the marble wall in the second f loor of the library and opening it up so those on the second f loor could see the stadium and quad outside. “For those of you who don’t know what it looked like before … it’s hard to appreciate just how difficult it was to navigate and understand what kind of activity we see SENATE PAGE 4
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