Observer the
The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s Volume 44 : Issue 106
thursday, march 24, 2011
ndsmcobserver.com
Students journey to Holy Land Aerospace Students aid youth in 20 Notre Dame students travel to Israel to explore their faith origins chair dies at age 50 Honduras By ANNA BOARINI
Observer Staff Report
News Writer
Two groups of Saint Mary’s students traveled to Honduras over spring break to serve impoverished locals at a group home and orphanage surgery center. Education Professor Karen Van Meter and social work Professor Leonard Sanchez took a group of eight students to El Hogar Diamante, a home for boys offering safe housing, education and training in a trade. While most of the boys are not homeless or orphaned, the home helps divert them from getting into dangerous situations they may otherwise be exposed to, Sanchez said. “The Hogar takes on boys from around 12, even as young as seven, that have parents and homes of their own, but it gets them off the streets,” Sanchez said. “Many of them [would otherwise] find themselves living in the streets, bored, restless, panhandling.” The students spent their mornings in Honduras doing service projects including painting rooms and cleaning in the Hogar, before spending the afternoon doing recreational activities with the boys. Evenings offered students time to come together
group also saw the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea along with the cities of Capernaum and Nazareth. For sophomore theology and Arabic studies major Jackie Bacon, visiting the Sea of Galilee was a highlight of the trip. “I’ve never been to a more beautiful place,” Bacon said. Sophomore economics and Program of Liberal Studies major Pablo Muldoon said he enjoyed seeing the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. “It was incredibly green and there were flowers
John E. Renaud, professor and chair of aerospace and mechanical engineering at Notre Dame, died March 18 from cancer at his Michigan home. He was 50 years old. A Mass of remembrance will be celebrated at Renaud 9:30 a.m. Friday in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. A reception will be held at the Morris Inn following the service. Renaud was a native of R o c h e s t e r, N . Y. A f t e r h e graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1982, Renaud worked for five years as a manufacturing systems design engineer i n R o c h e s t e r. H e e a r n e d m a s t e r ’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1989 a n d 1 9 9 2 , r e s p e c t i v e l y, before he joined the aerospace and mechanical engineering faculty at Notre Dame in 1992. He began serving as the chair of the department in 2008. A s a p r o f e s s o r, R e n a u d
see ISRAEL/page 7
see PROFESSOR/page 6
Photo courtesy of Jiyeon Ahn
A group of Notre Dame students making a pilgrimage to Israel stop and take an ice cream break while making a beach trip. By TORI ROECK News Writer
A group of 23 Notre Dame community members made a pilgrimage to Israel to explore biblical locations and examine their own faiths over spring break. The group of students, coming from diverse faith and academic backgrounds, were led by Lewis Hall rector Layla Karst, Campus Ministry program manager Brett Perkins and theology graduate student Hannah Hemphill. Karst said the pilgrimage allowed students to explore the origins of their faith through the
see HONDURAS/page 7
connections the University has in Israel, especially P a n t u r, N o t r e D a m e ’s campus in the Holy Land. “It was an effort, given Notre Dame’s resources in the area, to take advantage of them and give our students the opportunity to travel to the places where Christ lived and died to reflect on the mysteries of our faith together in a community and to particularly have that journey be during Lent,” Karst said. Students visited Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus was crucified and entombed, the site of the nativity in Bethlehem and the Mount of the Tr a n s f i g u r a t i o n . The
Students celebrate postponed St. Patrick’s Day By KRISTEN DURBIN News Writer
St. Patrick’s Day may have fallen during Notre Dame’s spring break this year, but students still managed to show their Irish spirit in celebration of the holiday Wednesday. On the “unofficial” St. P a t r i c k ’s D a y, students embraced the opportunity to celebrate the University’s historic Irish identity by dressing in green, celebrating off campus and taking advantage of the giveaways provided by the Student Union Board (SUB) and Walsh Hall throughout the
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day. SUB and Walsh distributed shamrock-shaped sunglasses and other giveaways outside DeBartolo Hall and offered a free cookout on Fieldhouse Mall, SUB cultural arts programmer Jenna Donahue said. Students who found “golden nuggets” hidden around campus won prizes including a green iPod Shuffle and gift cards to Chipotle, Five Guys and Jamba Juice. Donahue said the main goal of planning events for this week was to unite students in a celebration of the holiday while they were on campus. “We came up with this idea
in the fall when we realized we wouldn’t be able to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day during school, so we wanted to do it right when we came back from break,” Donahue said. “ We d n e s d a y s e e m e d l i k e a good day for it because it breaks up the week, and more people are out and about because classes are generally shorter.” Sophomore Erinn Riley said she enjoyed the campus festivities. “The free giveaways were awesome, especially the sunglasses and the food,” she
ASHLEY DACY/The Observer
see ST. PAT’S/page 6
Freshmen Allie Hartnett, Melissa Stahl, Chelsea Beboer and Jane Beriont (left to right) celebrate in festive Irish-themed garb Wednesday.
Faculty challenge Indiana Chamber report page 3 ◆ Asian film festival preview page 12 ◆ Football page 24 ◆ Viewpoint page 8