THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING NOTRE DAME, SAINT MARY’S AND HOLY CROSS ESTABLISHED 1966
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2025 | VOL. LX, NO. 2
NDSMCOBSERVER.COM
Dowd emphasizes ‘hope’ in opening Mass homily By Zack Pohlman Associate News Editor
University of Notre Dame President Fr. Robert Dowd welcomed students back to campus for the 2025-26 academic year at Tuesday’s opening Mass. Addressing the congregation in Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, Dowd, wearing red vestments, emphasized the importance of Christian hope as the new school year begins. The theme for this year’s Notre Dame Forum is “Cultivating Hope.” “Today, as we celebrate this Mass, I invite you to ref lect with me on two questions,” Dowd said. “What is hope? And more specifically, what is Christian hope? Second question, how can we be agents of hope on this campus and beyond?” Dowd told a story about meeting a mother with three young children during his time visiting Brother Andre Hospital, a Holy Cross mission hospital in Nairobi,
ZACK POHLMAN | The Observer
University President Fr. Robert Dowd’s homily at the academic year opening Mass called on students to be “agents of hope” in the coming school year, making note of this year’s forum theme of “Cultivating Hope.”
Kenya. The woman had recently lost her husband to complications from AIDS and was herself HIV positive, and she had just lost her job. Despite all that she had gone through, the woman was smiling from ear to ear. Dowd said that he was shocked at her ability to keep smiling. “It’s almost as if she could
Holy Cross Class of 2029 moves in By Berhan Hagezom Saint Mary’s News Editor
On Friday Holy Cross College conducted their annual matriculation ceremony for incoming freshman in the class of 2029. Freshmen, with the help of their families, moved into their dorms between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Parents were also invited to the ceremony, which began at 7 p.m. in front of the Pfeil Center. The move-in crew, a group of upperclassmen students throughout the halls, assisted freshmen with their move-in process. Freshman Madeline Cloud said that the crew were helping, “asking what room you were in, grabbed your stuff, moved it.” The matriculation ceremony was held near the Millenium Arch, signifying the students’ new journey. Parents and current Holy
Cross students welcoming looked on and celebrated the new students as they walked across. College President Marco Clark said that the ceremony, started in 2003, is significant to students joining the Holy Cross community hoping to make an impact. Students participate in the ceremony twice: once at the beginning of their college experience and again at the end of their four years. “We talk a lot here about something we call the Holy Cross way and it exists throughout the tri-campus community. A sense of welcome, a sense of joy, a sense of family and as we welcome them into this community they are also making a commitment to participate in that. To create a sense of community, to engage in see “Move-in” on page 2
tell that I was wondering this, and she suddenly said, ‘I am not afraid. I know God is with me. The people here are good to me, and they’re good to my children. I am not alone,’” Dowd said. Dowd used this brief anecdote to expand upon the virtue of Christian hope. He called on the students in the
congregation to be active, rather than passive observers. He asked them to be “agents of hope,” as the workers at Brother Andre were for the Kenyan woman. “Just because Christian hope is in God’s promise, this does not mean that Christian hope is about waiting around for God, but for someone else
to do something about the pain, suffering and injustice that there is in the world,” Dowd said. He connected his call to action with the Gospel reading, from Luke 4: 16-21, which itself recalled the first reading, from Isaiah 61. “Jesus reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and that same prophet essentially sums up his mission to announce good news to the poor, to free the captives, to bring sight to the blind, to announce a year of favor from the Lord,” Dowd said. Dowd, presiding over his second opening Mass, said that he was excited to begin his “sophomore year as president.” He said he hopes that this year’s Notre Dame Forum will result in productive discussions. “You know, cultivating hope, it can get reduced to a mere slogan, pious mumbo jumbo, a platitude devoid of any real meaning,” Dowd see “Mass” on page 2
Students react to South Dining Hall construction By Grace Tadajweski, Henry Jagodzinski and Sophia Tran Assistant Managing Editors and Associate News Editor
As students return to the familiar faces, routines and landmarks of campus, they are also stumbling into an unfamiliar South Dining Hall. South Dining Hall’s twoyear renovation, which began in earnest over the summer, has significantly altered the day-to-day meal-time experience which students, especially those on South Quad, West Quad and God Quad, have become accustomed to. The former serving area of the dining hall has been largely blocked off with stylized temporary walls featuring information on the history of the storied building. The entry way to the dining hall has likewise been narrowed with temporary walls.
As students enter the dining hall, they now form a line into the west dining room, which functions as the temporary, primary serving area, with homestyle, global, pasta, pizza and smokehouse options stationed on the outer walls of the sectioned space. “The main area where you get your food is just too wide,”
Dillon sophomore Richard Kamau said. “It’s like before it used to be a big circle where you see all the food. Now it’s just too wide to see all the options.” Badin resident assistant Camille Martinez noted that
MARIELLA TADDONIO | The Observer
South Dining Hall has undergone significant changes during its rennovation project, which is expected to be completed in the fall of 2027.
see “Dining” on page 4
NEWS | PAGE 3
OPINION | PAGE 6
SCENE | PAGE X
SPORTS | PAGE 10
SPORTS | PAGE 12
The College recieved funding from the Kessler Scholars Collaborative.
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