PDF for Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Citizens to vote

By CATHERINE OWERS news writer

scotland considers independence Gift to fund mental health center

on Thursday, the citizens of scotland will decide by referendum if they want to be independent from the united Kingdom. according to the bbc, 4.2 million people have registered to vote, which is 97 percent of eligible scottish voters.

professor Tanisha Fazal, associate professor of political science and peace studies, said scotland has several reasons to desire independence from the united Kingdom [uK].

“For the scots, there are i think a few reasons to consider independence,” she said. “There’s national pride and self-determination. There’s also a political reason — my understanding is

students write letters to pope

By TABITHA RICKETTS news writer

saint mary’s college center for spirituality introduced a program monday called “voices of young catholic women” that gives young women a chance to express their perspectives on catholicism in writing — and for those letters to be hand delivered to pope Francis later this year.

The program, which began accepting submissions monday, will continue to do so until november, when saint mary’s college president carol ann mooney and bishop Kevin c rhoades of the diocese of Fort wayne-south bend take the letters to rome, director of campus ministry Judith Fean said. There,

a $10 million gift to notre dame from alumnus mark gallogly and his wife lise strickler will endow the rev. James e mcdonald, c s c., center for student wellbeing and increase support for mental health concerns among students, according to a university press release sept. 15.

Forum hosts Nobel Prize winner

By MADISON JAROS news writer

“ we need all students, whatever their future careers are going to be, to be able to think about science more like scientists do,” nobel p rize winner c arl w ieman said as he urged notre dame to take a second look at education during monday’s notre dame Forum event.

w ieman’s presentation, “Taking a s cientific a pproach to s cience e ducation,” is the first in a series of discussions that asks, “ w hat do notre dame graduates need to Know?” i n his lecture, w ieman offered an answer that stressed the learning experience as opposed to the learned material itself.

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b y the time a person becomes an authority in their field, they have developed a certain way of thinking about their discipline that gives them expertise, w ieman said. students can begin to gain this expertise in a subject if they are exposed to a

classroom environment that promotes discussion and interaction, rather than the standard lecture format most classes currently use, he said.

“it’s not that the knowledge [of a subject] is absolutely important, but what really matters is to have knowledge integrated with these broader underlying aspects of expert thinking,” w ieman said.

“b ecause that’s really when the knowledge is useful, rather than a bunch of memorized facts that you can’t do anything with.”

w hile field experts are preferred to teach undergraduate courses, they may not initially understand the importance of this approach because of their own expertise, w ieman said.

“o ne of the challenges of actually being a good teacher if you’re an expert, particularly of introductory students, is that the way you think your brain worked when it was at their level is fundamentally

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“The health of our students is an utmost priority, and the mcdonald center will enable us to more effectively and comprehensively support their mental and other health needs,” university president Fr. John Jenkins said in the press release.

The mcdonald center for student well-being will focus on “prevention, intervention and education programs” and offer “assessment activities” for students on campus, the press release stated.

“This extraordinary gift will significantly enhance our ability to cultivate a healthy campus community and serve students with mental health needs in a compassionate and integrated manner,” erin hoffmann harding, vice president for student affairs, said in the press release.

The center’s name comes from Fr. James e mcdonald, the assistant provincial and steward for the u s. province of the congregation of holy cross, according to the press release. he formerly served as an associate vice president and counselor to Jenkins and rector of saint george’s college in santiago, chile.

“mark and lise’s generosity in naming this center after their friend, Fr. mcdonald, models the lifelong connections that we hope our students will form at notre dame by caring for and supporting one another,” hoffmann harding said. “we are honored to have the center’s name reinforce how the charism of holy cross informs all of our student services.”

(574) 631-8839

Jack Calbert freshman duncan

“even

Cayla Andrews freshman mcglinn hall “powerpuff

Will Coffey senior Fisher hall “pokemon.”

Nicholas Yusko sophomore Keough hall “sponge bob.”

Mariana Stanson junior pasquerilla west hall “Full house.”

Julia Kim sophomore welsh Family hall “l izzy mcguire.”

A sign blocks the road bordering the football stadium and the Mendoza College of Business. Notre Dame’s campus is experiencing a period of construction that has picked up in the last week due to the football bye week.

Today’s Staff

Corrections

in the sept. 12 issue of The observer, the article “earth institute director compares university curricula” incorrectly named sara sievers’ organization. she is the executive director of harvard’s center for international development. in the sept. 15 issue, a nhvinh doanvo, author of “hamas: a legitimate government,” was incorrectly listed as a resident of Keough hall. he attends the university of south Florida. The observer regrets these errors.

Four:7

International

Film: “Boyhood”

New club aims to spread ‘kiNDness’ on campus

By BIANCA ALMADA news writer

The new semester welcomes to campus the new student organization, ki nd c lub, which focuses on performing random acts of kindness and spreading positive affirmations.

“The overarching goal for the club is to create an infectious display of kindness on campus and in the community. ... we want to use the concept of kindness to help, heal and educate,” stephanie g aal, assistant professional specialist in the physical e ducation and wellness d epartment, said.

g aal was instrumental in starting the club, which is a division of the r andom acts of Kindness Foundation. she proposed the idea to students in one of her c ontemporary Topics classes last semester. s ophomore e laine s chmidt, who now serves as the club’s president, was one of the first students to show interest and participate in ki nd’s official founding.

“ we’re really just people that want to get together to do nice things for others,” s chmidt said. “Taking a few minutes each day to do something nice for someone else

keeps you centered and helps you remember what’s really important in life.”

b efore attaining full club status last spring, ki nd organizers wrote positive affirmations on post it notes and placed them on dining hall trays for their first random act of kindness, or ra K, s chmidt said. The club also posted flyers in the hesburgh l ibrary with tear-away strips of encouraging words during finals week.

“At Notre Dame, we are so busy. It’s nice to take a breath and remember what’s most important.”

Sarah Very senior

a fter receiving 319 signups from a ctivities night, s chmidt said ki nd is ready to take it to the next level this school year. The club will host meetings every other Thursday at 8 p.m., during which they will plan regular, communal ra Ks. s chmidt said they could be as simple as giving compliments in classes or as elaborate as a campuswide flash mob dance to

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brighten people’s day. she said one of ki nd’s first ra Ks of the semester is planned for wednesday.

“This is really a grassroots club,” s chmidt said. “The members will have a big say in the kinds of events and ra Ks we do, which is something that is really cool about our club. e veryone can contribute.”

g aal said the club is also planning a fundraiser with notes to s elf, a company that designs socks with positive affirmations written on them. The company was founded by s chmidt’s mother.

“a t notre dame, we are so busy. it’s nice to take a breath and remember what’s most important,” senior s arah very, who recently joined the club, said. “ we can make a difference through acts of kindness, and it’s good to have something to remind us.”

The next ki nd c lub meeting will be held s ept. 25 in a to-be-determined room in d ebartolo hall. students interested can e-mail kind@ nd.edu to join the listserv and “like” the club Facebook page to stay up-to-date on organized ra Ks.

Contact Bianca Almada at balmada@nd.edu

Sophia Program helps Saint Mary’s students transition

By MARTHA REILLY and AUBREY CLARK news writers

Though 9 a.m. classes, milkshake masses and anticipated football games keep planners brimming and schedules tight, saint mary’s belles learn to adjust by participating in weekly advising meetings with their freshman mentors as part of the sophia p rogram.

according to associate professor of music l aurel Thomas, these advising sessions are part of the sophia p rogram and are mandated to encourage social development, stimulate academic understanding and embrace distinct viewpoints.

First-year student morgan m icetich said her advising group encourages her to succeed and serves as a support system during what would otherwise be a difficult transition.

“The [advisory meetings] teach me to focus on myself and not to live by the expectations of others,” m icetich said.

“it introduces me to my new sisters and helps me work through stress.”

This new initiative benefits not only the students, but also the advisers and peer mentors who partake in the experience as guides for the freshmen class, Thomas said. Thomas said it becomes clear how exceptional each student is during the meetings and she hopes the emphasis on individuality will help them uncover their passions.

“The class itself involves community building because students get to know people from other majors on a more personal level,” Thomas said. “we want everybody to be on the same page, to have heard this background information.”

Thomas said the sophia p rogram’s focus on self-discovery and a concept called integration of learning lies beyond the information covered in lectures and examinations in a standard classroom.

students are urged to synthesize what they grasp in one area of life with other concepts to best comprehend everything they learn and to gain a better understanding of collegiate life, said Thomas.

“The courses that you take teach you different ways of thinking,” Thomas said. “Talking intentionally about integration of learning helps because at the end, you’ll be able to say much better what it means for you. i don’t think i realized until after i graduated from college and began graduate school that i actually could incorporate the learning that i had before. it sort of dawns on

you that you’ve done it.”

Throughout the advisory meetings and first-year required lectures, all first-year students read “w hat the best college students do” by Ken bain. The book details the atypical journeys of successful individuals like J.K. rowling and stephen colbert, Thomas said. students learn, through close readings, to focus more on their knowledge than on letter grades, as true understanding remains permanently beneficial while assessments cannot always accurately measure one’s ability, Thomas said.

“The book is full of stories about people who did not take the standard path and who developed themselves based upon their interests and their passions,” Thomas said.

First-year student Katie l ong

“The [advisory meetings] teach me to focus on myself and not live by the expectations of others.”

Morgan Micetich Saint Mary’s first year

said she relates to the universal themes illustrated throughout the book and is confident that what she learns throughout the common course will assist her for her entire life.

“meeting with my adviser and mentor every week keeps me on track and reminds me to pursue my goals,” l ong said. “i always look forward to the class because the environment is so friendly and productive. it’s a great learning opportunity.” because the sophia p rogram enforces leadership skills within its members, students engaged in this class are well prepared to take on every opportunity that presents itself, Thomas said.

This common experience, though personalized, unites its participants in the values of persistence, ambition and dedication that will lead them to a lifetime of success, Thomas said.

“The social responsibility aspect of the sophia p rogram is especially unique about saint mary’s,” Thomas said. “we want our students, when they graduate, to be citizens of the world, responsible people who know what’s going on and are able to create change.”

Contact Martha Reilly at mreilly01@saintmarys.edu and Aubrey Clark at aclark02@saintmarys.edu

smc aquila Theatre to host brontë adaptation

By KATIE KULWICKI news writer

s aint m ary’s a quila Theatre will host a live production of the novel “ w uthering heights” on o ct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the o’ l aughlin a uditorium.

This performance is part of the s haheen/d uggan performing a rts s eries, which also includes the production of “r aisin’ c ane: a h arlem r enaissance o dyssey” which will be performed s ept. 18.

r ichard b axter, d irector of s pecial e vents at s aint m ary’s c ollege, said both performances are a good opportunity for students to get involved with the arts on campus.

“ you have the h arlem r enaissance [ o dyssey] this month and the classic e nglish novel the next month,” he said. “ w ho wouldn’t want to experience that?”

b axter said the goal of the performing a rts s eries is to provide the students with a well-rounded experience during their four years in

school.

“s o they should, within this four year period, experience theatre, dance, comedy,” b axter said. “They should be provided with a healthy mix of what performing arts would be so that when they leave here, if they have attended, they can say ‘wow, i’ve experienced this, this, and this,’ rather than only one nutrient. it’s a healthy diet.”

s ince many are familiar with e mily bronte’s classic novel, b axter said he hopes the students can experience this novel in a whole new way.

“o ften times when you read a great novel, you enjoy it on a very personal level,” he said.

“i f you were to go see a theatrical version of that novel you get to experience it as a group, and i am hoping that is what they are going to get.

“i want them to experience some excitement and experience a different facet of the story because they’ll see the characters, they’ll experience the action and it’s a great theatre company.”

b axter said he wants to open up students’ minds to a new way of thinking about the novel.

“students will have a chance to see things in the story that they never anticipated, or they will be reaffirmed of what they read,” he said. “it’s just a different way to experience a great story.”

Tickets for s aint m ary’s, notre d ame and holy c ross students are $13.

“This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often,” he said. “p rices are relatively low and the experience is rich, and it’s here.

“ you can roll out of your room and come see an exciting performance, and you don’t have to deal with parking or any of those things that you would associate with good theatre. you don’t even need to check your coat. you can just come in and enjoy the performance and write about it or think about it or plan your next attendance.”

Contact Katie Kulwicki at kkulwi01@saintmarys.edu

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Letters

the letters will be hand-delivered to the pope in a general audience, Fean said.

women of the millennial generation, ages 18-30, are invited to write letters to pope Francis expressing their perspectives on the catholic church, in relation to their demographic and why its participation has fallen, Fean said.

Fean said the program was created in response to concerns raised by an article published in “america” in February 2012 titled “a lost generation?” by patricia wittberg.

“it was a study ... talking about the women who have been leaving the church, especially in the range of the millennial generation,” Fean said. “men are not leaving as quickly as women are and it’s not 100 percent certain why, but ... there might be something that [women] hope for that isn’t there.”

Fean said wittberg’s article sparked reflection and conversation among students active in campus ministry in the college’s center for spirituality. Fean said 11 students met continuously for a year to bring their idea to fruition. There, they discussed how to reach out to other women within their generation.

“we asked [the campus ministry students] whether they

would like to participate in exploring what we could do with the college,” Fean said. “and so this idea of writing letters to the pope [was born].”

The effort to reach women in the church extends far beyond saint mary’s campus, Fean said. all catholic colleges and universities within the united states have been contacted about the opportunity, she said.

“The word has gotten out,” she said. “The invitation to participate went out to all ... campus ministries with the association of catholic colleges and universities. it’s also been sent out to parishes ... and there’s an ad appearing in ‘america’ magazine.”

Fean said the goal is to allow catholic women across the united states to let their voices be heard within the church. although the letters and content will remain confidential, messages will be screened to make sure they follow the appropriate guidelines for expression, Fean said. submissions of prayers, poetry, works of art and other creative expressions are welcome in addition to traditionally-formatted letters. all submissions must be received by nov. 1 and follow the guidelines for submission. more information can be found at saintmarys.edu/ letters.

Contact Tabitha Ricketts at tricke01@saintmarys.edu

that the scots in general tend to skew more left than the british. a nd also, there’s a potential economic reason because the scots view an independent scotland as economically viable, in part because they believe they would be able to exploit the oil fields in the north sea.”

Those who oppose scottish independence are also influenced by economics, Fazal said.

“There are strong economic reasons against independence, as well,” Fazal said. “we see this particularly in the way the british response has played out, where the british are saying the scots won’t be able to use the pound. The most recent reports i’ve seen suggest that the british are saying, ‘if you secede, if you vote for independence, there’s no coming back.’”

Fazal said scottish

independence could have some deleterious effects on the british economy.

“The british are very much opposed to scottish independence,” she said. “They really don’t want this to happen. a nd so they are doing everything they can, within the bounds of law, to prevent this from happening.” if the referendum passes, the next steps for a formal process of separation are unclear, Fazal said.

“The british constitution is sort of an odd beast, and it’s not clear to me that there are provisions in there for secession, even though some constitutions have that,” she said.

if scotland does become an independent nation, Fazal said, there is no guarantee of membership in the european union [eu] or united nations [un].

“The eu has sent mixed signals about whether it would admit scotland, and if scotland

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were not part of the eu then that would certainly diminish the economic benefits of independence,” she said. “if scotland really wanted to become a member of the club of states, then they would have to apply to the united nations for membership. a nd it is actually the united nations security council that has to approve membership. but of course the uK has a veto on the security council, so unless the scots were able to persuade the british that they should become an independent state, it’s hard for me to see how scotland could actually become a full member of the united nations.”

membership in the united nations carries symbolic and diplomatic value, Fazal said.

“it can also offer some economic benefits, in that it gives them access to some affiliated agencies,” Fazal said. “a nd it’s the stamp of approval, that you’re a member of the club of states. a nd it gives access to all kinds of benefits i would imagine the scots would want.”

if the referendum passes, Fazal said, groups in wales and northern ireland could also be looking to become independent from the united Kingdom.

“w hat some of the literature on secessionism tells us is that when you have a country that has multiple possible secessionist groups within it, or even multiple active secessionist groups within it, those are the countries that are going to push back the hardest against secessionism, precisely because they fear the risk of a precedent being set, and

the whole country falling apart at the seams,” she said.

Fazal said the issue of scottish independence has significance for many other international groups.

“one interesting feature of this particular case is that there are all these secessionist groups around the world, including in europe, that are waiting with bated breath to see what the scots are going to do,” she said.

“For example, the catalonians in spain and the Flemish in belgium are watching this very closely because they have their own independence movements. They’re actually very much hoping that the scots are going to set a precedent in becoming independent.”

scottish independence could have both positive and negative consequences for europe, Fazal said.

“There are arguments, particularly in the european context, that one could make either way,” she said. “The eu has eroded national sovereignty for a lot of european states, such that having these smaller, sub-national groups split off and become their own independent states, if they could plug into institutions like the european union, then that helps them a great deal economically.”

Fazal said an independent scotland would be unlikely to create a foreign policy different from the united Kingdom’s.

“one change might be that the scots might support other secessionist regions, so maybe they would be more sympathetic to the Kurds than the current british administration is,” she said. “but in general, i don’t see them developing foreign policy interests that are diametrically opposed to the british.”

adam haydel, a junior studying abroad in london, said the vote on scottish independence

is receiving widespread media coverage.

“i think people don’t really believe that scotland could thrive being independent since they would not be allowed to keep the pound and only have oil reserves for 10 years or so,” haydel said. “a lso they would have to figure out a way to raise money, taxes, since their budget is given to them by parliament in london.”

Jack leclair, a junior also studying abroad in london, said public opinion on the referendum varies.

“in scotland in particular, there is zero apathy about the referendum, and voter turnout is expected to be extraordinarily high and people generally have extremely strong convictions towards one side or the other,” he said.

leclair said many english citizens do not seem to have as strong opinions on the issue.

“one potential reason for people caring about the vote is that the political landscape will be swung towards the conservative party since most of the constituencies in scotland are labour,” he said. “despite this, conservative prime minister david cameron has come out in support on maintaining scotland as a member of the united Kingdom and the leaders of the labour and liberal democrat parties, ed miliband and nick clegg have also supported ‘no.’”

“in fact, this week, in the wake of the polls favorable to the ‘yes’ vote, all three of these men left london for prime minister Questions, which is a big deal, to go campaign in scotland in favor of ‘no.’ a lso, a previous labour prime minister, gordon brown has come out to support the ‘no’ vote.”

Contact Catherine Owers at cowers@nd.edu

wrong, because there’s no way for the brain to know it’s changing ... your brain is just plain different than [it] was when you were a beginning student,” he said.

w ieman said the focus on research in many universities could also impact education.

“ we developed a system at research universities where really the only thing that’s measured — and it’s measured very carefully — is research productivity,” w ieman said.

“a nd that’s what gets measured and rewarded. a nd so, as a person who’s done lots of science research i appreciate that. ... it’s created the wonderfully productive research university system we have.”

w ieman said universities’ obsession with efficiency may decrease the quality of research.

“The problem is that because it’s the only thing that’s measured – it’s so effective at what it does – the collateral

damage is that diverting even a small amount of time to pay attention to teaching and doing it more effectively penalizes a person and penalizes a department,” w ieman said. “s o we have to fix that basic system.”

notre dame physics professor m ichael h ildreth said w ieman’s contribution to the notre dame Forum addressed an important topic that the university itself hopes to address.

“The forum is supposed to address what notre dame students should know when they graduate, or i would rather phrase it, what notre dame students should learn while they’re here,” he said. “Too often we get bogged down in what students should know, which is really focused on topics. ... i would rather turn that around to look at process. i would like to think that we would teach the students how to think.”

Contact Madison Jaros at mjaros@nd.edu

InsIde CoLumn

equality is masculine

Wei Lin photo e ditor

i’ve never really identified as a feminist until i began taking two classes: “marriage and the Family” and “e conomics of the Family.” a fter reading a couple of research papers, i come to the conclusion: women have it rough. The list of woes that women face is lengthy: the objectification of women, the expectations of women being the primary parent, discrimination in the workforce and many more. since beginning this term, i’ve become more cognizant of what people write and say. it bothers me. men casually talk about their previous nights’ hook-ups in the dining halls. They ask each other about whom they’ve been with and whether or not the girl was good-looking. There was a men’s dorm that distributed shirts that read, “a gentleman is simply a patient wolf.” parties are frequently described and promoted by saying there will be a lot of women available, “single and ready to mingle.” This is a culture we need to change.

There are people who tell us to look at how well we are doing compared to the society that existed decades before us. That’s like getting a 65 on an exam and telling your parents that the lowest grade was in the single digits. we should be striving for that a we should be comparing ourselves to a society where men and women are equals and make that our end goal.

a s men, we can help achieve this balance by being more wary of what we say, more conscious of our actions and more willing to speak up for our female peers. There’s an on-campus group called notre dames, and they discuss issues that affect women whether here at notre dame or around the world. i implore you to sit in on their meetings and hear what they have to say.

a lot of guys aren’t identifying with feminism because they fear it encroaches on their masculinity or manliness. i’m sure women aren’t asking men to give up their rights or to bow down at their feet. They are asking for more fair treatment and equality that they deserve. b y not being a feminist, you are not helping anyone. i n fact, the silence perpetuates the problem since you are inadvertently condoning sexist, misogynistic behaviors. The world needs more male feminists to speak up. i n c himamanda ngozi adichie’s T ed x message, she says feminism is striving for “the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.” believing in equality is the masculine thing to do. Fighting for equality is the epitome of being a gentleman.

Contact Wei Lin at wlin4@nd.edu

The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

We are not afraid

i n the past month, we have seen the kind of violence and control that can be exerted by even a minor town’s police department. heavily armed city, county and state police forces joined the state national guard to put down protests, riots and civil unrest in Ferguson, m issouri. The shooting of a young black man by a police officer and the unrest it prompted have once more pushed the issue of race onto the national stage. however, it has raised another issue — that of police militarization.

l egacies of the “ war on Terror,” federal programs now assist local police departments in obtaining — at little or no cost — weapons of war. Firearms and ammunition aren’t the only things being distributed, with military bayonets and mine-resistant armored vehicles turning police departments into paramilitary forces.

m ilitary and police forces that feel invulnerable to any attack from the common people can run rampant. massacres at Kent state and Jackson state universities met those who protested the u s. invasion of c ambodia in 1970. The Federal bureau of i nvestigation and the c hicago police department assassinated Fred hampton and mark c lark in 1969 as a part of the F bi’s campaign to suppress the left in general and the black panthers in particular. g oing further back, the largest uprising in u s. history since the c ivil war took place in 1921 at the battle of blair mountain, where exploited west v irginia coal miners fighting for their right to a labor union clashed with the county sheriff, the state police, the united states a rmy and hired thugs from private union-busting firms.

There is another side to this coin. The gap between state power and community power can be widened in two ways: the power of the state can be increased and the power of the common people can be decreased. it is not enough for us to simply fight police militarization — we must also fight for the right of regular people to arm themselves.

The issue of gun control has heated up again in recent years with several prominent mass shootings. i n truth, these shootings account for a tiny fraction of gun homicides. The large majority of gun homicides are committed with handguns. i ncreasing restrictions on gun rights is framed as a public safety issue, to stop both day-to-day gun crime and tragic mass shootings. yet if one were to take this claim at face value, it would still be insufficient.

even if the state could seize hundreds of millions of guns, it would not treat the root of the problem. The rare mass shootings that captivate the media are symptomatic of a society in which mental health care is not universally available to the public and carries a heavy stigma. The same can be said for the suicides that make up the roughly 61 percent of gun deaths in the country. gun homicides are often tied to other crimes, generally those that derive from economic desperation such as theft or drug trafficking. w ithout tackling poverty and economic inequality, the roots of this problem will remain.

however, even if guns themselves were the cause of violent crime, they would still be worth keeping in the hands of the common people. how many democracies have turned to dictatorship when the people were unable to stop the military from taking over? we should know the answer — the united states had a hand in quite a few in l atin a merica.

brutal crack-downs may seem like a ridiculous prediction for the united states, but in an era of mounting inequality and the subservience of the political elite to the economic elite, it is not so hard to imagine a day coming in which the state has an interest in violently putting down a social movement. it has happened before, after all.

The state of c alifornia can look back proudly to when g overnor ronald reagan joined with the republicans, the democrats and the national r ifle a ssociation in forging tougher gun regulations in response to the socialist black panther party for s elf-defense arming its members. The F bi then used its c ounterintelligence p rogram ( coin T elpro ) to run false flag operations, infiltrate the panthers with agents provocateurs and commit political assassinations to suppress the movement. modern times have seen dramatic increases in government spying on the citizenry and tension mounting over increasing inequality. w ith the political and economic elite having so much to lose and such a clear pattern of abuses by heavily armed police forces, is it so unreasonable to think you may one day end up on the wrong end of a bayonet? a nd if that happens, who should be afraid — you or the state?

Billy McMahon is a senior studying Latin American history and is active in the labor movement. He welcomes all comments at wmcmahon@nd.edu

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Erin Thomassen

give me strawberries

i am craving strawberries. i see strawberries when i walk into the dining hall. i should eat these strawberries.

This is how my mind works, especially after philosophy class. o ne logical thought follows another logical thought. i consider my desires and form a will. i act on this will and am fulfilled; i pop berries in my mouth, and my stomach is filled.

i n this case, though, i am not free to turn my will into action, for i am not allowed to eat said strawberries. They are saved for people who can jump higher than i can, row faster than i can and wear spandex shorts better than i can. w hat is this meritocracy that awards the sweetest fruit to those who have protruding deltoids and shiny backpack tags? i t’s called training tables.

i can’t blame the athletes, for if the training tables were turned, i would probably hoard all the strawberries, too. w hat i would not do is pile them in a bowl and dump yogurt and granola on them and then only eat half of them. That is a crime. d isclaimer: ndsp does not agree with this definition of crime.

i watch the half-empty bowls being wheeled out of the athlete section and contemplate stealing a handful of half-eaten berries. i t’s not a sanitary solution, but hey — i got a flu shot. The berries themselves aren’t half eaten — they’re just in a bowl that used to contain other berries that have now been consumed by someone else.

i n fact, the only problem with these berries is that someone with a low- bmi was planning on eating them, but then they realized their bmi

wasn’t low enough and decided not to. That’s not the berries’ fault. we should not treat them as if they are contaminated just because someone thought they wanted them and then changed their mind. That’s like deciding you won’t date anyone who has been broken up with before.

i weigh the risks and benefits of eating these rejected berries using the p olitical- e conomics ocial categories i learned in u s . history class.

p olitically, eating the berries would make a statement. i represent the second-class students by eating secondhand berries. i will not assent to deprivation without representation.

e conomically, it makes sense. i save money if i don’t buy berries elsewhere. i maximize the investment n otre d ame made in these berries by making sure they are not wasted. They will fuel me to study so i pass my tests, get hired and donate a strawberry fund for non-varsity student athletes. ( a nyone who climbs the d e b art stairs is an athlete in my mind.)

s ocially, i will suffer repercussions for consuming these berries. m y fellow students will think i am disgusting and cheap.

The right political and economic action is prohibited because of social disapproval. This is not the only time in history this has happened.

i , a second-class student, am left with some options. i could hit the gym and hit up tryouts. i f you can’t beat them, join them.

b ut what if i can’t join them? There is no varsity hula-hooping squad.

i could wage war on training tables. Food fights are fun, but then i ’d have to pick strawberries off the floor and eat them. i don’t have that much faith in my multivitamins.

i could protest. i could start a Fruit for e veryone campaign. i could be normal and buy my own berries.

i could go to section food and hope my r a . is handing out strawberries. i dismiss the hope as hopeless. i check my email and see she emailed 7a two hours ago to say: “ guys i have organic s T rawberries and apples in my room F or you. s o many noms. p lease come eat them now.” i cry.

i could ask my friend on the track team to bring some strawberries back in a take-out box for me. e thical? r evolutionary? n ot exactly. Time, cost and energy-effective? m ost definitely.

i am craving strawberries. m y friend can bring me strawberries. n othing completely prevents this course of action, so this course of action will be followed.

The logical side wins again, and the desired strawberries are devoured. The political and economic problem about depriving the majority of the student population of strawberries has not been resolved, but my stomach is full for now.

s hort-term, small-scale solutions are the easiest. i got what i wanted without much effort and without social repercussions. p oints for me. i did not do anything to benefit society as a whole. n o points for anyone else.

This is not the first time in history there has been a problem and someone has wanted to fix it, but then realized it was easier to get around the rules and leave others to fend for themselves. a nd people wonder why no one has fixed climate change yet.

Erin Thomassen is a sophomore studying mechanical engineering because everything is interesting. She lives in the better Pasquerilla (East of course). Send her comments, column ideas or strawberries at ethomass@nd.edu

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Looking for dates

dearest single and/or Taken l adies of notre dame, The season is upon us once more. we refer neither to m ichigan’s failures nor astronomical expectations for this football season, but rather that most sacred bye week tradition: syr s. This coming Friday, the studly ramblers of siegfried hall will don our horns and invade the monogram room to celebrate a merica: l and of the ‘Fried, home of the brave. i n other words, ‘merica y’all.

There is, however, one problem — well, two actually, but in this case we’re not talking about communism. despite an aggressive Tinder campaign and extensive survey of c hristian m ingle, our search for dates has thus far been fruitless. d ue to Feve not occurring until Thursday, we’ve taken our search to that

Quote oF tHe day

most romantic of locations: The observer. w hen people discuss the crowning moments of their lives, they often recall their weddings or the birth of their children. These people have clearly never attended a siegfried syr . There will be music ( h int: starts with “shake it,” ends with “off”). There will be so much dancing you’ll think you walked into h igh school musical. There will be food. most importantly, there will be the four of us, donning our golden badges of resident a ssistant authority (or lack thereof), marked by our boyish charm, rugged good looks and award-winning smiles.

so ladies, the ball is in your court. c ome one, come all, if for no other reason than we don’t want to have to take each other. only the first 50 applications will

“dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.”

be accepted, so apply quickly. Tweet and/or dm all application materials to @ siegfried ra s. group applications welcome.

Turn down For parietals,

Quinn “Guys, I Have A Girlfriend” O’Heeney

Tom “Thomas” Ridella

Matt “I Hope We Don’t Get Fired for This” Miklavic Taylor “Gatsby” Roberts siegfried hall ra s sept. 15

By THOM BEHRENS

s cene writer

w here were you when Fall out boy came off hiatus? i was in my ever-boring and seldom-attended freshman intro to engineering lecture, staring at my news feed. a nd within five minutes of refreshing the home page and seeing the update that pete wentz, patrick stump, a ndy hurley and Joe Trohman had not only reunited and were releasing an album titled “save rock and roll,” island records was already processing my preorder information.

w hile discussing music with my 14-year-old cousin over the summer, the topic turned to Fall out boy (this is what discussing music with me will inevitably end in), and he mentioned his favorite Fall out boy songs — all off their most recent album. i told him that Fall out boy has always been one of my favorite bands and that he should check out some of their other stuff, too, and he responded “oh, so they’re a pretty old band, then?”

“... no!” was my defensive gut instinct, but upon looking into my heart i knew it to be true. Fall out boy released their first studio album, “Take This To your grave,” in 2003 — when my cousin was 3 years old. if you were born in 1993, my cousin is to Fall out boy as you are to slightly stoopid.

as we all know, Fall out boy has changed a lot over their 11-year career (please see their 2002 demo “Fall out boy’s evening out with your girlfriend”). They’ve gone from an angry, sardonic, chicago pop-punk band to an anthemic, peppy pop group that records with a drum

machine. Fall out boy has been accused of selling-out for every album since their first; they wrote and recorded “save rock and roll” behind closed doors, before even publicly announcing their reunion for this very reason. Fall out boy’s constantly adapting and changing style both loses them old fans and gains them many new ones, and on sept. 8, they challenged their listeners once again.

The single “centuries” was released at 3 p.m. after several cryptic announcements from the band (the initial announcement was simply an eight-second morse code sound clip that spelled the word “centuries,” and the official release time was stated to be only “9.8.14, afternoon est”). The release of the song was shortly followed by an announcement that the band is working on their sixth studio album.

The song starts with a sample of “Tom’s diner” by susanne vega (which you might recognize from drake’s/ Kevin cossom’s “i get paper,” if you don’t know the song itself). The song falls into stump’s high range, throaty wailings: singing about how “heavy metal broke my heart/… i never meant for you to fix yourself” (a reflection on their changing songwriting style?).

The bridge, too, points to the song’s purpose as a selfreflection on the band’s history and future: “we’ve been here forever/ a nd here’s the frozen proof/ i could scream forever/ we are the poisoned youth” — the song is almost an album announcement in and of itself. The chorus consists of multiple voices singing the sample, followed by stump promising that we will indeed remember them for centuries backed by descending piano power scales, creating the epic and anthemic sound Fall out boy has

become master crafters of.

w hether it’s the sardonic rhythm guitar on the verses or wentz’s fuzzy, rolling bass in the chorus, every aspect of the song yells at you to start bobbing your head. you don’t get sick of this song after the first listen, or the second or the third.

so what does this new single say about the next album? i think we can expect to see more of the expertly produced tracks we saw on “save rock a nd roll,” with much of the same pop sound. but “centuries,” especially on the vocals, has given us back the promise of a punky, angsty attitude in upcoming songs.

Fall out boy has been putting songs out and onto the radio for 11 years now, and i’m sure they’ll be able to do it again. no matter what it sounds like, it’s sure to sound good.

Contact Thom Behrens at tbehren1@nd.edu

“Centuries”

Fall Out Boy

Label: Island Records

Tracks: “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” “Take Over, The Break’s Over,” “Where Did the Party Go?”

If you like: Panic! At the Disco, Cobra Starship, My Chemical Romance

By MADDIE DALY

w hen we hear the word “immigrant,” we perhaps think of our ancestors coming to ellis island from ireland, people crossing the u s.-mexican border daily or even just foreigners in general. in the u s., we have a fairly narrow view of what immigration is like, especially in terms of the entire world. in my French class titled “making it,” taught by professor a lison r ice, we have been studying immigration in France by reading a capturing yet dark novel by shumona sinha titled “assommons les pauvres!” (roughly translated, “knock out the poor”). The semi-autobiographical story is titled after a poem by baudelaire, and the plotline follows the life of a fictional version of sinha herself — an immigrant from india now living in France and working as a translator for fellow immigrants seeking asylum from the terrors of their country. as an indian woman living in France, she is extremely marginalized and encounters several instances of harassment based on race and sex. working as a translator, the narrator listens to testimonies from a largely male population of immigrants, piecing together their broken French and judging their stories accordingly. The refugees often twist the truth, as most of them have purchased false documents to appear more legitimate and be accepted into the country. Through these stories, we learn about the life of a refugee, coming from a place full of terrorism, violence and political corruption, hoping to start fresh in the “city of lights” that is europe.

during class monday, we were lucky enough to have shumona sinha come speak about her life, the writing process and the storyline of this novel. a lthough the entire question and answer session was in French, i will attempt to channel sinha herself and translate to the best of my abilities.

The first question addressed the broad topic of translation itself. sinha recognized that when she first began translating, she was overconfident, never doubting that she captured the meaning of each word; however, now she feels much more humbled and realizes she cannot always do justice to the original work, especially when translating literature. she said that translation is very delicate because “like a turtle carrying a shell, each word carries different meanings on its back.”

From the conversation, i picked up at least four languages that sinha speaks —French, english, russian and her maternal language, bengali. she decided to move to France and write in French because of the freedom it allowed her. sinha said that there were some things she just could not say in her maternal language due to the conservative status of india. in French, she could speak openly about topics such as sexuality because of the space between the countries and languages. she went on to explain that her novel is a romance, but not in the traditional sense; it is a love story between sinha and the French language.

a nother overarching topic in “assommons les pauvres!” that was pulled from sinha’s life is the racism and judgment she feels being an immigrant in France.

her speak and asked where her accent was from.

he made her feel unwelcome in her own city, based solely on the fact that she has a different color skin and a slight accent that the driver ironically thought was a merican (this is sinha’s first time ever coming to the united states). even on the “metro” (the parisian subway), she and fellow immigrants receive sideways glances and even derogatory comments because of their background.

here in a merica, we are guaranteed to have a variety of backgrounds when getting on a new york subway, for example; sinha sees that indians in a merica, whether immigrants or citizens, are very privileged and can belong to the upper class, with jobs in law, medicine and business, where in France this would be nearly unheard of. sinha has been through many unique experiences in her life that we in a merica are, in general, unfamiliar with; i was very intrigued to hear these first-hand accounts and to meet a prize-winning author in such a personal setting.

if you are interested in learning more about immigration, poverty and sinha, she will be hosting a talk titled literature and activism: The challenges of representing the impoverished immigrant other on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in debartolo hall 131, thanks to the department of romance languages and literature.

Contact Maddie Daly at mdaly6@nd.edu

By JOHN DARR, KELLY BISHOP and ADAM RAMOS s cene writers

“we’re all like a family.”

lead singer davis leduke’s description of his band, bad Things, is strikingly resonant. with the ideas of “family” and “home” at the core of the notre dame community, we pride ourselves on our relationship to our colleagues and professors. a lthough bad Things may be known as “shaun w hite’s band,” anyone who has had the opportunity to see the band perform saturday night at legends will dismiss such a label entirely. each of the band’s members is essential, bringing his own personality and energy to the group’s sound. The chemistry on stage and on record is palpable; several of the band members have known each other since childhood. it’s apparent from our interviews with three of the band’s members that those bonds have only grown stronger since.

Though the group may share some similar roots, it’s the members’ disparate lives and experiences that shape their sound. as leduke explained, “we all listen to different music and we all come from different places, i think it’s really important to have that.” obviously w hite’s iconic history as the world renowned “Flying Tomato” is one such “different place,” but he is not the only member with an impressive background.

bassist Jared palomar is a former member of the san diego rock group “augustana” and certainly adds a healthy dose of experience to the young synth-rock group. Fittingly, it is bad Things’ strong and effective use of harmonies that showcased the group’s strong musical presence. a rtistry was sharp all around the entire night and each member played as a unity, no individual members sticking out. well, maybe shaun w hite if you count that red hair of his. somewhere between the hours of studying, completing

the literal stacks of assignments and the late night walkbacks from the library, we at notre dame tend to overlook how truly lucky we are to go to such a school. Fortunately for those of us in attendance Friday night, we were all reminded. with a triumphant encore, bad Things belted out the college classic, “shout!” and there was not a soul in the audience standing still. channeling their inner “a nimal house,” the nd crowd feverishly danced and sang along, but thankfully, no one busted out their toga. The energy was tangible as leduke remarked “it’s really important for the crowd to be excited, and we definitely felt that tonight”.

one would have never suspected that some of the band members never had a college experience of their own from the natural collision of their energy with that of students, as they led the crowd triumphantly. each was tuned-in to one another and simultaneously, to every member of the audience.

The impact of live performance on the power and nature of a band’s music can’t be understated. however, for those unable to attend the performance, bad Things’ eponymous debut is definitely worth checking out. hosting more than its fair share of indie-pop gems, the studio record is well suited for any sort of youthful adventure. cycling guitar lines and propulsive drums provide a driving force that carries beachy vocal melodies and harmonies with ease.

w hile bad Things could easily be criticized for being a par-for-the-course indie-rock record somewhere between The republic Tigers, The strokes and modern Tokyo police club, there are definitely some differentiating factors here. First of all, bad Things have crafted some class-a melodies here. on their lead single “caught inside,” the higher vocal line on the bridge (singing “w hy did you wait so long?”) is absolutely gorgeous and in itself warrants repeat listens.

Then there’s the space-rocky “lonely eyes,” which benefits greatly from its unique guitar production and unpredictable vocal line. closer “end of the road” boasts a perfect shout-along chorus. it’s clear that bad Things has the pop sensibility necessary to drive them towards greater commercial success in the near future, and the second half of the record displays a range of sound that could soon compete with today’s most revered indie-rock acts.

in addition, bad Things is gifted with a truly remarkable bassist. palomar manages to punctuate, drive and riff in all the right places on the record; it’s worth listening to the record just to follow around his bass lines, which never interfere with the band’s collective sound but never seem to slip into a predictable pattern. his prior experience with augustana shines through on “bad Things” and manages to make push the record to an unexpected height. if the individual band members can match his uncanny ability to craft and perform his parts to perfection, there is no doubt we’ll be hearing truly brilliant music from bad Things down the road.

i’d really like to see bad Things take some more risks in the future. with more complex song structures and more ambitious production, the band could rise through the ranks and compete with groups like the drums and the surfer blood. regardless, they have the tools to go in several directions from this point.

given the power and energy of their live set, they’ll be accruing fans left and right. how well they ride the waves they’re making is a mystery, but given the chemistry of the band members and the assumed surfing skill of shaun w hite, the future is bright indeed. .

Contact John Darr at jdarr@nd.edu, Adam Ramos at aramos6@nd.edu and Kelly Bishop at kbishop2@nd.edu

By CAELIN MILTKO

s cene writer

The technology world was watching closely when apple held its big apple live event sept. 9. They launched the new apple iphone 6, revealed the designs for the new apple watch and helped u2 promote their new album. Though, as all users of the icloud now know, they did more than just showcase a performance by the irish band.

bono said the new album, “songs of innocence,” was available for free on iTunes. This implies that the interested user can go to the iTunes store and request the free download.

not so. in actuality, apple used the power of icloud to download u2’s new album to every device of the icloudusing population. it was inescapable. everyone received bono’s latest record, regardless of their personal opinion of u2.

on the surface, it seems like a bit of a strange business decision. u2 cannot possibly stand to make any money off an album they basically forced upon the 500 million apple users of the world. but, perhaps, it really is just a last ditch effort to stay center stage as the world quickly leaves the band behind.

This wasn’t the first free download u2 has offered for “songs of innocence.” in fact, in February, u2 released the first single “invisible” for free on iTunes. discussing

the release, bono said, “we’re on the verge of irrelevance.”

The fear of becoming irrelevant explains u2’s desperate attempt to seize at a larger audience. if a free download won’t work, then why not just have the album appear on everyone’s phone, tablet and computer.

someone new — perhaps part of the younger generation that recently tweeted their confusion over who u2 is — will listen to it and this will in turn, hopefully, lead to larger concert sales. maybe this bold business move will pay off. but based on the largely negative reaction, this seems doubtful.

The album itself is a lot less interesting than the hype surrounding it. it doesn’t make any bold changes to what worked for u2 in the past.

of course, a change seemed to be needed after their 2009 album “no line on the horizon” marked a decline in sales for the band ranked no. 22 on rolling stones’ “100 greatest a rtists of a ll Time” list.

bono has called this u2’s most personal album ever. “it’s a dublin album, all about being teenagers on the northside and how our city shaped us both as men and musicians,” bono said in an interview with The irish Times.

of course, the album should probably be of less concern than what its release really means for apple’s half a billion customers. The movie “sex Tape” released earlier this year played with what sort of issues icloud could

cause for careless users, but apple just proved that there are bigger dangers.

apple has the power to download whatever it wants to its users’ phones, tablets and computers. This means a hacker (like the one who released the photos of Jennifer lawrence earlier this month via icloud) could use the same power to load viruses onto 500 million computers. maybe this isn’t surprising. icloud is incredibly useful but also kind of intimidating in what it allows its users to do. of course, this would have major disadvantages. being forced to download u2’s album is probably the least of one’s worries in this regard.

if the Facebook messenger controversy this summer was alarming to consumers, then apple’s choice to reveal the amount of power it has over every single device is absolutely disturbing. in a world where a smart phone is almost necessary for any professional career, the privacy issues this could and should raise are real and concerning.

now a quick google search will tell those outraged by u2’s presence on their ipods how to remove “songs of innocence.” simply go into iTunes and uncheck the album/songs. apple even responded by releasing a removal tool monday. easily remedied. but as for what apple could do next with this technology, there’s no (practical) way to prevent that.

Contact Caelin Miltko at cmoriari@nd.edu

A tale of two World Cups

Josh Dulany sports writer

if you paid very, very close attention over the weekend and looked past the football games and through the nFl’s latest repugnant news stories, you might have heard that the u s. won gold at the world cup.

That is basketball, just to clarify for anyone who was focused on other stories for the last couple of weeks. The u.s. crushed its opponents in each of its nine games, winning by an average of 33 points, on its way to a second straight Fiba gold medal. This was a merica’s youngest team since nba players were allowed to play internationally in 1992, and they silenced all the critics and pundits who doubted their ability to go to spain and get the gold. it was a great a merican triumph ... but no one in a merica seems to care. news of the victory was lucky to stay on sportscenter for a 24-hour news cycle. a merica’s closest game, which was against Turkey, attracted the attention of less than half a percent the country, according to nielsen. i think this is especially crazy in light of this summer’s FiFa world cup. soccer had a mericans filling stadiums to watch games on T v and basketball couldn’t get people to watch from their couch? w hat?

Throughout the year, basketball is way more popular than soccer amongst a merican fans. so what gives? w hat do we learn from looking at these two very different world cup tales? here’s what i took away.

Winning isn’t everything i used to tell people that the reason a mericans don’t care about soccer is because we aren’t the best at it. we’re the same people that didn’t care about cycling until lance a rmstrong was winning seven Tour de France titles in a row. we don’t care about swimming until national pride is on the line at the olympics. really, most olympic sports we don’t care about at all except when a mericans win them.

That narrative doesn’t work here. a ll the evidence shows that a mericans would rather watch usa soccer desperately fend off belgium, germany and ghana than dominate Finland, Turkey and serbia in basketball. so, it’s not about winning. it’s about the journey, the fight and the drama. a mericans — myself included — do not just want to see nba players coldly stomp on overmatched international teams. we want to see an underdog u s. team take on the odds and try to do the impossible. we are the nation that loves rocky, rudy and the 1980

miracle on ice. it’s not about winning, but the drama of the fight towards that victory. The Fiba world cup depressingly lacked fight of any kind.

t he nba is better than the mL s

The FiFa world cup is the highest quality of soccer that a merican fans will see on a regular basis, but the Fiba world cup does not stack up with the nba. The FiFa world cup is a welcome respite from the mls, while the Fiba world cup is seen as a liability for players that have ‘real’ basketball in just a couple months. The nba provides a mericans all the basketball they need, and they see no reason to tune in to a tournament with inferior officiating, shorter three point lines, weirdly colored courts and lower stakes.

Lack of superstars

The best part of international basketball for a merica is supposed to be the idea of a “dream Team.” yet, the main drama surrounding this world cup was the question: is it worth risking paul george’s leg, derrick rose’s knees and other stars’ health just to win the world cup? ronaldo, messi and neymar wouldn’t think twice before suiting up for their world cup, but lebron never considered being on this team, and Kevin durant and blake griffin backed out. if even the players are not buying into the incentives of the Fiba world cup, it is hard to fault a merican fans for tuning it out.

s cheduling in fairness to Fiba, sometimes viewership is just an issue of timing. The FiFa world cup was not trying to win viewers away from an nFl sunday. a mericans were happy to watch soccer in the sports wasteland of summer, but would the same masses tune in if two nFl games were on and their Fantasy Football alerts were going off? if Fiba wants to imitate FiFa’s recent success in a merica, their scheduling needs an overhaul. at the end of the day, Fiba is likely not that worried. basketball is the world’s second most global game and the Fiba world cup is popular in other countries. still, as the results show, the u s. is still the epicenter of all things basketball and if Fiba wants to grow and develop, they need to figure out how to grab a merica’s attention. if soccer can figure it out, anything is possible.

Contact Josh Dulany at jdulany@nd.edu

The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

SMC finishes 10th against top competition at O’Brien

By MANUEL DE JESUS sports writer

at the end of the sixth annual o’brien national i nvitational, the belles placed 10th in the event that featured r hodes, last year’s ncaa div. iii champion, and washington-st. l ouis, who is ranked first this season.

The top-notch competition this weekend made it difficult for the belles to finish high in the standings, but there were some highlights for saint mary’s. s enior Janice heffernan, who was named the miaa g olfer of the week last week, led the belles both days, shooting an 87 and 85 to tie for 37th as an individual.

sophomore a li mahoney followed heffernan, scoring 174 over both days to place 43rd individually.

Junior Kate Zielinski improved significantly from day one to day two, lowering her score by eight strokes and finishing with a total of 184, which put her in 56th place. sophomore c ourtney c arlson struggled on the first day of the tourney, shooting a 109, but bounced back to improve by 20 strokes in on the second day. she jumped two spots to finish in 63rd place. Freshman lydia l orenc, the last eligible scorer for the belles, wrapped up play with a score of 203, one place behind c arlson.

belles coach Kimberly moore said she understands her team did not play as well as they could have, but she praised her players for sticking through the tough environment.

“we definitely did not play our best golf,” moore said. “we have a very young team, and i feel the tough course with the tough competition got to some of our players. i was pleased with some of our individuals who played. even though their scores do not count for our team total, they had some really good individual holes. They had a few big numbers, which made their scores a little elevated, but the majority of their holes were right where they needed to be. i really see more playing time in their future.”

Freshmen Kaitlyn c artone and Kelsey c onkright

competed as individuals, scoring 192 (61st place) and 194 (62nd place) respectively. sophomore r achel Kim also competed as an individual for the belles, scoring 190 total and finishing in 60th place.

moore said the o’brien tournament is a humbling experience because it’s one of the few tournaments where the top programs in the nation come together to compete.

“The o’brien i nvite is rated one of the best tournaments for div. iii golf in the country,” moore said. “ we are so fortunate to have the support of the o’ brien family; without their support, we wouldn’t be able to host this event. it is so great for us to see how we compare to some of the best schools in the nation and for the other schools to do the same. a lot of these schools never see each other, and with the help of the o’brien family we are able to bring all these teams together

for a special weekend.”

moore said having the opportunity to interact with other coaches in the tournament helped her learn more about the game of golf through the perspective of a coach.

“d uring most tournaments there is a lot of interaction between coaches,” moore said. “we really get to know one another, especially the coaches and teams we see a lot. a ll of the coaches are extremely supportive of each other and the experience of the more veteran coaches are very valuable to first-year coaches like me.”

The belles will continue to prepare for miaa play, which starts sept. 24, as they compete next weekend in the depauw small c ollege c lassic at the deer c reek g olf c ourse in c layton, i ndiana.

Contact Manuel De Jesus at mdejesus@nd.edu

upset-minded belles set to take on no. 1 calvin

By JOSH DULANY sports writer

still looking to get rolling in this young season, saint mary’s faces a tough test Tuesday night. calvin, the no. 1 team in the country and the reigning ncaa div. iii champions, comes to town looking to remain atop the miaa

The belles (3-5, 2-2 miaa) have split their first four conference games and find themselves tied for fifth place, while calvin (11-2, 3-0) is the conference’s co-leader.

however, the Knights dropped two games over the weekend to no. 9 wittenberg and no. 10 washington-st. louis. Those two losses are more than they had all of last year on their way to a national title. belles head coach Toni elyea said he was impressed with calvin but also was quick to point out that they are not invincible.

“calvin is a great volleyball team,” elyea said. “still, we saw over the weekend that they can be beat. They’ve been on a great

run, but they are going through some personnel changes and it will be interesting to see how we can play with them.”

elyea said the belles’ efforts will largely be focused on shutting down the Knights’ prolific hitting attack.

“They have an extremely efficient team, especially on offense,” elyea said. “They don’t miss much. at the same time, we are really excited to see how our blocking holds up. it has been a real strength for us so far, and we hope we can carry that over into this game. i think if we stay solid defensively and serve aggressively, we will give ourselves a chance.”

elyea said several players’ efforts have been noteworthy over the course of this season. defensively, she said the team is looking to the experience of senior Kati schneider and junior Katie hecklinski, while the efforts of freshmen leah buck and rachel bonek have also been crucial to the team’s success, as they have integrated well into the team’s style of play. elyea

also said senior melanie Kuczek has been especially important.

“melanie has been extremely strong for us,” elyea said. “The team is growing as a unit, but melanie has been a real force for us on the court and hopefully can be a real threat for us against calvin. her skill and experience are both huge for the team.”

Kuczek’s presence in the middle has manifested itself on the stat sheet as well. she is third on the team with 60 kills and leads the team with 22 blocks through just eight games.

saint mary’s is also at a significant historical disadvantage to calvin. since the end of the 2009, the Knights have won 27 straight sets against the belles. saint mary’s has not triumphed over the Knights since 2005.

The belles and Knights face off Tuesday night at 7 p.m. The Knights are looking to bounce back from a rough weekend as saint mary’s goes for a seasondefining victory.

Contact Josh Dulany at jdulany@nd.edu

paid a dverT isemen T

Nationals close in on NL East title

Associated Press

aTlanTa — stephen strasburg threw seven scoreless innings to end a long run of frustration against atlanta, and the nationals beat the struggling braves 4-2 on monday night to move to the verge of the nl east title.

The nationals can clinch the division by beating the defending champion braves on Tuesday night.

strasburg (12-11) ended a streak of eight winless starts against atlanta since 2012. he had been 0-3 with a 7.17 era against the braves this season, including a 6-2 loss at washington last wednesday.

wilson ramos hit his 11th homer in the fifth. The nationals led 4-0 before the braves scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth.

washington left fielder bryce harper left the game in the fourth inning after feeling light-headed.

The braves (75-75) have lost four straight to fall to .500 for the first time since they were

1-1. They trail pittsburgh by 4 1-2 games for the second nl wildcard spot.

washington’s craig stammen pitched a scoreless eighth before rafael soriano gave up Justin upton’s run-scoring double in the ninth. a fter soriano walked chris Johnson, drew storen gave up christian bethancourt’s single up the middle to drive in upton.

storen’s wild pitch left runners on second and third, but b.J. upton grounded out to end the game. storen earned his sixth save.

ervin santana (14-9) allowed two runs and only three hits, including ramos’ homer, in six innings.

The frustration for the sagging braves showed when Freddie Freeman was ejected for arguing following his strikeout to end the sixth. Freeman slammed his bat to the ground before leaving the field.

atlanta manager Fredi gonzalez took over the argument, kicked Freeman’s broken bat, and was tossed by homeplate umpire Tim Timmons.

a lma defeats smc

Observer Staff Report

a fter suffering a 2-1 loss in their conference home opener against Kalamazoo on Thursday, s aint m ary’s couldn’t keep up with a lma, falling 3-0 to the s cots at home s aturday.

a lma applied plenty of pressure on the b elles (2-4, 0-2 miaa ) early in the first half, putting a pair of shots on goal within the first 13 minutes of play. h owever, senior goalkeeper c handler r osenbaum saved each of these shots, accounting for two of her eight saves throughout the game.

o n their following possession, the s cots (4-2, 2-1) carried the ball deep into the b elles’ defensive end along the right side of the end line. a pass along the end line made its way to a lma junior forward Kelly w ilson, who finished off the play at the far post to put the s cots up, 1-0, in the 16th minute.

d espite making a big push near the end of the half, the b elles couldn’t contain the s cots, despite three shots in the final five minutes of the period. i n the 33rd minute, the s cots doubled their lead to 2-0 when r osenbaum attempted a diving save to her left, but redirected the ball to w ilson, who recorded her second goal of the game.

s aint m ary’s came out in the second half revitalized, but were not able to capitalize on any scoring chances. l ess than 10 minutes into the half, a lma junior midfielder a gatha weddle scored on a header to take the s cots up 3-0.

From there, the s cots played defensively, not allowing s aint m ary’s any scoring opportunities and were able to keep the b elles at bay for the rest of the game. i n the final frame, s aint m ary’s had eight total shots and three on goal, while a lma tallied seven total shots with four going on net.

a lma controlled a 17-15 edge in shots and also took a 11-5 advantage in shots on goal against the b elles. d espite this, sophomore forward l iza Felix led s aint m ary’s with four shots on the day.

The b elles seek to avenge these home losses as they travel to c alvin for a conference matchup on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The Knights, who are 1-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play, are tied with s aint m ary’s and o livet for last place in the miaa

Irish scrimmage Michigan, Michigan State

By ZACH KLONSINSKI sports writer

The notre dame rowing team traveled north across the state line to michigan on sunday to participate in an annual scrimmage with michigan and michigan state. w hile not an official in-season meet, the irish were happy to get on the water and race someone other than themselves and a clock.

“we practice so much and have so few races that any opportunity we get to race against someone else is a good thing,” irish senior vicky ryan said. “[sunday] was pretty good, our coach was pretty happy with it, we were pretty happy with how everyone rode.

“we looked pretty strong. everyone is dropping time on their indoor pieces.”

The scrimmage tested how far the teams could row in a certain amount of time at the same rate of oar strokes per minute, and although there were not official winners and losers, ryan said notre dame was faster than both its opponents at the same amount of strokes per minute.

as the team continues to prepare for its regular season in practice, stroke speed will start to be emphasized as well as

power, sophomore rower bridget adam said.

“The scrimmage and our recent training focused on our power per stroke,” adam said. “For our upcoming races we are going to work on pushing together at higher rates.”

w hile the irish were out on the water sunday, one of their biggest events of the fall is their fourth-annual erg-a-thon, a fundraising effort the team puts on to help support pancreatic cancer research at notre dame.

“we give the money to harper cancer research institute,” ryan, who is the co-chair of the event said. “we donate the money to undergraduate research over there, so it’s going directly back to the school, which is kind of cool and unlike anything else that other teams are doing on campus.”

a n “erg” is the rowing team’s name for the stationary rowing machines that they train on when not in the water. The event will have a half dozen or so ‘ergs’ out between laFun and stonehenge where the rowing team will race any challengers.

“we aren’t 100 percent sure how we are going to do the style this year,” ryan said. “it’s usually been 250 meter races, which take a minute, but we are thinking

about changing the format of the actual race to five minutes where you split up the time between yourself and some friends.”

The erg-a-thon will take place on oct. 3. participants will be given a wristband to support pancreatic cancer research and shirts will be available for purchase. The team is putting the finishing touches on a website devoted to helping raise donations, which last year totaled more than $9,500. The website will be up and running for the week or so before the event, ryan said.

The entire rowing team helps put on the event, whether it be helping to advertise, run or setup the stations.

“[This year] we are all looking forward to get to help out with it,” sophomore Kate Trankina said. “it’s been something the team has done for a couple years now, so it helps the team, helps the charity. contribute to something other than school work.”

The erg-a-thon will take place on oct. 3, followed by notre dame’s first official race of the season at the head of charles meet in cambridge, massachusetts, on oct. 19.

Contact Zach Klonsinski at zklonsin@nd.edu

| washingTon 41, JacKsonville 10

Jaguars suffer double-digit loss

Associated Press

it would be easier for the Jacksonville Jaguars to handle their latest double-digit loss had just a few things gone wrong at washington.

i nstead, it was nearly everything in a 41-10 drubbing sunday.

The Jaguars (0-2) allowed a franchise-record 10 sacks, some of them self-induced by quarterback c had henne, and managed just 148 total yards.

center Jacques mc c lendon and right tackle cam bradfield were benched, rookie a llen hurns dropped a sure touchdown pass on the opening drive and tight end marcedes l ewis was lost for six to eight weeks with a high-ankle sprain.

The defense had major issues, too.

Jacksonville gave up 449 yards, including eight plays of 15 or more yards, and missed a stunning 21 tackles. a nd most of those came after washington lost quarterback robert griffin iii and receiver desean Jackson in the first quarter. The Jaguars

allowed points on four of five drives in the second half, struggled again to cover opposing tight ends and benched linebacker l a roy reynolds and cornerback d wayne gratz.

“i f people want to say, ‘i’m disgusted with the way you played,’ well, i am too,” defensive tackle sen’derrick marks said monday. “This was the worst loss i’ve been through as a Jaguars player.” a lthough it wasn’t the most lopsided loss in coach gus bradley’s two seasons, it may have been the most disappointing.

The Jaguars thought they would be able to compete with washington, which was coming off a 4-12 season and lost its opener 17-6 at houston a week ago. it turned out to be wishful thinking.

“There are going to be some changes taking place,” bradley said.

bradley won’t, however, be making a switch at quarterback when the Jaguars host the i ndianapolis colts on sunday.

Football

con T inued F rom page 16

“ we need to grow up and carry that mentality in every possession; if we do that, we’ll be a pretty good offense.”

Injury update

The already-banged-up i rish took some more hits sunday against p urdue.

Kelly said junior safety nicky b aratti will miss the rest of the season. baratti missed all of his sophomore season due to injury as well.

baratti injured his shoulder after one snap against p urdue, forcing junior e lijah shumate to move from strong safety to free safety, a position he had never played at notre dame.

Freshman d rue Tranquill came on to play strong safety.

“unfortunately, his shoulder needs to be taken care of again, so he’s going to have to have surgery, and he’s gone for the year,” Kelly said.

baratti was playing in place of injured graduate student safety austin c ollinsworth ( mcl).

s enior receiver a mir c arlisle went down early in the p urdue game with an mcl injury that Kelly said probably was not as severe as c ollinsworth’s.

“a mir c arlisle is having an

mri on his knee,” Kelly said. “ we don’t believe it’s the severity of austin c ollinsworth, which was i think about four weeks.”

s ophomore cornerback c ole l uke left s aturday’s game with a head injury and will be evaluated.

“c ole l uke had a head injury, and he’ll go through our concussion protocol,” Kelly said. “he was feeling pretty good today, [and he’ll] take the steps that he’ll need to go through to be cleared

for practice this week. we’re confident that he’ll be able to work through that.”

academic investigation

There is, however, no update on the five suspended players or the state of the investigation into academic violations.

“i talked to a couple of the guys,” Kelly said. “a s of Friday, they had not had their hearings.”

Contact Samantha Zuba at szuba@nd.edu

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Volleyball

con T inued F rom page 16

s enior middle blocker Jeni h ouser was a big reason the i rish were able to ramp up their offensive attack, generating 47 kills on 88 attempts

“We’re definitely playing at a higher level all across the board, but obviously we need to figure out a way to win.”

Debbie Brown head coach

for a .420 attack percentage in the s hamrock i nvitational. a longside freshman outside hitter s ydney Kuhn, h ouser received all-tournament honors for her performance.

“[Jeni] had a great weekend.” b rown said. “ s he hit over .400 which is phenomenal. s he showed a lot of determination. w e did a good job of getting her the ball ... and she was obviously executing at a high level.”

Kuhn and three other freshmen – libero n atalie Johnson, middle blocker s am Fry and recently setter

m addie d ilfer – have been getting significant playing time and making a major impact. b efore this weekend, Fry was seventh in the nation with 27 blocks, and she is third on the team with 55 kills. b rown had high praises for the performance of the freshman so far.

“[ n atalie] is a very strong defensive player, she’s our steadiest passer and she’s a good server,” she said. “ s ydney is an incredibly steady passer, she’s a very low-error attacker and was really good this weekend. s he’s developing into a very strong member of the rotation.”

s he also said d ilfer made significant strides in her setting choices and location as major part of the lineup this past weekend.

l ooking forward, b rown said she hopes to improve and find success by focusing on the basics and getting the i rish squad working smoothly together. The i rish travel to w est l afayette, i ndiana, this weekend for the p urdue a ctive a nkle c hallenge, in which they will face m orehead s tate, s aint l ouis and p urdue.

Contact Andrew Robinson at arobins6@nd.edu

Happy Birthday: be practical, keep everything in perspective and get organized. much can be accomplished if you are disciplined and prepare for future ventures with a moderate and simple approach. There is no room for escapism or exaggeration if you want to get ahead. strive for completion and perfection in all that you do and you will find the road to victory. your numbers are 3, 12, 15, 22, 33, 35, 44.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): discussions will count, but be careful not to divulge personal information, especially when dealing with peers and colleagues. Focus on downtime and planning trips and activities with someone you love. use your energy wisely and your mind intelligently.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): stop dwelling on imperfections and dissatisfaction. a positive mindset is required to be successful. Too much of anything will be frowned upon, so keep your life simple, moderate and balanced. personal improvements will bring you the highest returns.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): emotions will surface, making it difficult for you to contain the way you feel or what you want. Tread carefully or someone will take advantage of your vulnerability. don’t believe everything you hear. ask for proof or get what’s being offered in writing.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): putter around home or visit friends. The less time you have to think about your troubles, the better. you are better off following a path that leads to unusual activities or encounters. don’t aggravate a situation that’s festering. Time heals all wounds.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Take charge and be a hero. a quick response and helpful attitude will be impressive. put your skills to good use and keep your eyes open for a chance to advance. your selfless gestures will be your ticket into an extraordinary opportunity.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): money matters will take an unpredictable turn. check your bank balance before you make a questionable purchase. unexpected personal changes are heading your way. Keep your emotions in check and stay levelheaded in order to avoid arguments.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): stop procrastinating and start moving. Take action and show your ability to wheel, deal and handle whatever comes your way with finesse and an entrepreneurial attitude. a change in the way people treat you is about to take place.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): you can make smart financial gains if you invest in upgrading your assets. don’t let anyone confuse you. once you’ve made up your mind, stick to it until you finish what you started. resourcefulness is your ticket to freedom.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): ignore emotional changes that someone close to you is experiencing. consider any alteration an adventure. The more receptive you are, the better off you will be. don’t let love turn into a burden when it should complement you and your lifestyle.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): avoid altering anything in your life for the time being. you will have difficulty making the right decision and confusion will set in. consider long-term effects instead of what’s unfolding in the moment. look at the big picture.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): an open heart and mind will help you retrieve the information you require to make an important decision. your financial prospects look good, and increasing your income through an unexpected source is likely. move forward with optimism and enthusiasm.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): you’ll have trouble getting along with others. arguments will erupt and false information will lead you astray. pull in the reins and refrain from getting into a deep discussion about something you know little about.

Birthday Baby: you are sensitive and unpredictable. you are creative, detailed and sophisticated.

Kelly discusses Irish potential

Coach speaks about youth of team, gives injury updates at teleconference

By SAMANTHA ZUBA

a ssistant managing e ditor

The sample size keeps growing for n otre d ame after three games, but it’s still tough to tell how good the i rish are in relation to other top teams.

e ven head coach b rian Kelly couldn’t place n otre d ame definitively at his s unday telconference. w hen asked if he thought n otre d ame is shaping up as a top10 team, Kelly responded:

“ i t’s so hard to tell who is top-10 to top-15. s o we are really starting from where the season began, and you’re slotting based upon winning and teams losing. That’s hard to tell really from my perspective. w e’re just kind of playing the numbers game right now.”

The polls will shift many times before the season is over, so nothing is fixed in terms of a team’s relative ranking. b ut Kelly said this year’s team has a lot of potential in comparison to other teams he has coached at n otre d ame because of its

nd VoLLeybaLL

youth.

“ i really like the potential of this football team,” Kelly said. “ i t’s a young team that is learning and getting better. w e are … playing, i think, just two seniors, one on offense and one on defense last night, … [senior tight end b en] Koyack and [graduate student cornerback] c ody r iggs. s o i think the potential is as high as any team that i ’ve had here at n otre d ame.”

n ow, it’s a matter of maturing as the season progresses and stretching out the moments of brilliance into consistent play, Kelly said. “ w e had some silly penalties and some concentration issues, and when we are locked in and focused, we’ve shown that we can score quickly,” Kelly said of the offense’s performance against the b oilermakers. “ s eems like the first drive of the game and the drive right before the half, when there’s a sense of urgency, we operate a little bit better.

Notre Dame still learning after season’s first win

By ANDREW ROBINSON s ports w riter

The start of the 2014-15 season has been a slow and frustrating one for the i rish, but despite the discouraging results, i rish coach d ebbie b rown said the team is making major strides individually and as a unit in working out the kinks and is close to turning the corner.

n otre d ame (1-7) opened its season with six consecutive losses, including a sweep at the hands of w ashington s tate, iupui and w estern m ichigan when the i rish hosted the g olden d ome i nvitational in the p urcell p avilion two weekends ago. The i rish gained a small measure of redemption when they hosted the s hamrock i nvitational this weekend, losing to T cu and i owa but playing well and picking up their first win of the season, a 3-1 (25-18, 25-19, 20-25, 25-17) victory against n ortheastern.

“ w e made huge strides, playing some different

people and getting the lineup working together went pretty smoothly,” b rown said. “ c ertainly we played much better this weekend than we did two weekends ago.”

d espite losing twice, n otre d ame improved significantly this weekend statistically – after an attack percentage of .090 over its first five games, they more than tripled that figure over the weekend with an attack percentage of .278.

The 172 total kills recorded by the i rish in the three games was more than the 163 they collected in their first five matches. b oth the attack percentage and the kills total were greater than the combined efforts of its opponents this weekend.

“The one stat we’re falling short on is the wins,” b rown said. “ w e’re definitely playing at a higher level all across the board, but obviously we need to figure out a way to win.”