THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING NOTRE DAME, SAINT MARY’S AND HOLY CROSS ESTABLISHED 1966
FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2026 | VOL. LX, NO. 62
NDSMCOBSERVER.COM
SMC faces limited base-cost housing for 2026-27 By Aynslee Dellacca and Berhan Hagezom Managing Editor and
Saint Mary’s News Editor
While the average cost of college tuition continues to rise, room and board rates have risen faster, becoming not only the fastest in growth rate, but also one of the costliest factors in college expenses. Saint Mary’s College is no exception to this challenge. Not only is the College expecting to enroll one of its biggest classes in history, the administration also faces the challenge of providing enough affordable housing for its students. The cost of room and board places an additional burden on students when it comes to choosing their housing, on top of choosing specific sections, and even needing to navigate
an entire building being closed off for incoming freshmen. Juls White, director of Residence Life, told The Observer that beginning this year, freshmen have certain sections provided to them for every dorm on campus. Base cost housing is the minimum total cost for room and board on campus. At least 40.4% of base cost housing has been pre-allocated for incoming freshmen, a review of College housing data concluded. The percentage includes base-cost housing in three halls that do not provide exact statistics on pre-allocation for freshmen: Regina North Hall, Regina South Hall and Holy Cross Hall. During her housing selection process, freshman Adamaris Cortes planned to choose a double in the Regina Halls. Cortes said she wanted to live
in a double because the surcharges for a single are too expensive and she was told there wouldn’t be singles left for rising sophomores. However, when the time came to choose her room, there were no doubles left in either Regina Hall and very few remaining in Holy Cross Hall — causing her to take a single. “Luckily I have a room, but I felt stressed because this made it a financial thing. Also, I was very disappointed, because why were there no rooms at all?” Cortes said. She said many of her friends and classmates felt similarly and believed there was a lack of base-cost room availability by the time rising sophomores chose their rooms. In Le Mans Hall, there are 109 base cost dorms out of 260 — 41.9% of rooms in the hall. Forty-eight of these are
Three rectors to depart from Notre Dame at year’s end By Mara Hall
Data courtesy of Charlie Simpson, graph by Aynslee Dellacca
SMC has preallocated the second, third and fourth annexes of Le Mans Hall and the entirety of McCandless Hall for fall incoming students.
reserved for incoming freshmen, meaning 44% of base cost dorms are no longer available for sophomores, juniors or seniors. Junior Emma Paris, who plans to live in a quad next year in Le Mans, chose base cost housing, as opposed to other senior-living options
see “Housing” on page 4
Alumna discusses Artemis mission By Matthew Morin Associate News Editor
Associate News Editor
Three Notre Dame residence hall rectors, Fr. Eric Schimmel of Dunne Hall, Cory Hodson of Keenan Hall and Ally Liedtke of Ryan Hall, are set to leave their roles at the end of the academic year.
such as Opus Hall, due to the high surcharge rates in Opus and wanting to live with her friends. However, she said they felt frustrated at the lack of options available for her and her friends when choosing a room. There are 27 quads
The geological sciences major’s legacy remains visible since it has been absorbed into the Earth sciences concentration in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. One example is Kelsey Evans Young, a 2009 Notre Dame graduate who serves as Artemis science flight operations lead as well as the Artemis II lunar observations and imaging campaign lead at NASA. Young returned to her alma mater April 28 for the first time since 2016 to give a lecture titled “Artemis Lunar Science” in DeBartolo Hall. The lecture began with a video introduction to the Artemis II mission, followed by remarks from Clive Neal, professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, who taught Young when she was a student. Young received her master’s and doctoral degrees from Arizona State University and worked at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center before becoming a civil servant involved in the Artemis II mission. Young said her interest in
geology began in Neal’s physical geology class during her freshman year, where she realized geology could be used to study not only Earth, but other planets. Young has helped develop a handheld X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and became the first science officer to sit on console in Mission Control during an Artemis mission. Young said the Apollo missions were “generational in what they provided to lunar and planetary science.” She said Artemis builds on those missions and other lunar orbiters from the early years of spaceflight. The mission launched April 1 from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Young showed the audience the mission’s flight path and said it was the first flight of the Orion spacecraft. The crew used three Nikon cameras with three different lenses to take photographs from space. They were also tasked with making verbal descriptions of what they saw and annotating their images. Young displayed several images of the moon taken by the Artemis II astronauts, who flew roughly
Eric Schimmel Schimmel has served as rector of Dunne Hall for six academic years. Before taking on the role, he spent much of his time in parish ministry. When Holy Cross asked him to consider becoming a rector, he said “my initial response was that was not on my radar.” In conversations with the Holy Cross community, Schimmel said he was reminded that he had consistently mentored young adults throughout his career. That realization, he said, helped him embrace the role and see “the beauty in the vow of obedience.” Schimmel explained that the Congregation of Holy Cross in the United States practices the vow of obedience through annual discernment about roles and assignments for their members. Reflecting on his time in Dunne,
Schimmel described the experience as “a tremendous blessing.” “The men of Dunne have brought a lot of joy into my life even when they are doing things, which they think might not be as fun for a rector to have to deal with,” Schimmel said. He emphasized the joy of living alongside students and watching them grow over time as a benefit of the role. Among his favorite traditions, Schimmel highlighted “the feast,” a dinner held near the feast day of Blessed Basil Moreau, the patron of the Dunne chapel, which brings
together current residents and alumni. “It has been fun doing more strange things,” Schimmel said, noting he has been taped to a wall in North Dining Hall several times to raise awareness for Andre House of Arizona, a Holy Cross ministry in Phoenix where he worked for six years. Schimmel acknowledged the challenges of the role, particularly moments of accountability and navigating university bureaucracy.
NEWS | PAGE 3
OPINION | PAGE 6
SCENE | PAGE 8
SPORTS | PAGE 10
Marathon record
Price to Seattle
Political science professor elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The University of Notre Dame sidelined its most beloved professor of philosophy.
Is Polymarket’s decline from prominence something permanent or temporary?
Irish alumnus Vinny Mauri became the fourth fastest marathon runner in U.S. history.
Columnist Ethan Laslo shares the story of the Seahawks drafting Jadarian Price.
David Campbell
Courtesy of the University of Notre Dame
Left to right, Eric Schimmel, Cory Hodson and Ally Liedtke to leave rector roles in Dunne Hall, Keenan Hall and Ryan Hall respectively.
Paul Blaschko
see “Rectors” on page 3
Betting crossroad
see “Artemis” on page 3
SPORTS | PAGE 11