Vol.164No. 8
At about 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Rachel Palermo...
Graham Peaslee is a professor of physics and concurrent professor of chemistry and biochemistry, whose research focuses mainly on applications of nuclear physics. Peaslee’s commitment to the principles of education is a common thread within all of his responsibilities.
"No fall break. Can’t go home. Can’t visit new places. Can’t catch up on sleep. But you still need a break!” This was the slogan that Notre Dame’s McDonald Center for Student Well-Being used on their website to advertise Restoration Week.
Recently it seems that every year has been crowned historic in nature for one reason or another. But 2020 actually fits the bill, if only due to the sheer number of pivotal moments it has yielded.
Over a ten week winter break, the University of Notre Dame will be piloting its first Winter Session, during which many forms of virtual experiences will be offered for students who want to use the time for networking, service, academics or research.
Beneath Notre Dame’s iconic mural of “Touchdown Jesus,” a group of students gathered on Library Lawn. Their bright colors popped beneath gray skies — most sporting pink, some draped with the colors of the rainbow.
The evolution of Catholics’ role in American politics has been “one of the most dramatic changes in American political life over the last, say, 50 years,” said David Campbell, Notre Dame professor of political science. Campbell is the author of several books examining the role of religion in American politics.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett has brought more press to Notre Dame recently with her nomination and recent confirmation to the Supreme Court on Monday October 26.
About a decade ago, the University of Notre Dame investigated the idea of expanding technology use in the classroom. In an article written for the November 2010 issue of Scholastic, Caitlin Wilson summarized a project management class where students were lent an iPad for their convenience.
The Notre Dame Center for Career Development hosted its first virtual career fair last month, bringing together over 2,600 students and 242 employers in an event they had been anticipating since Notre Dame went online last spring.
In response to the nation’s growing racial justice movement, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. announced several efforts the university is making to enhance diversity and inclusion, including modifications to the Moreau First Year Experience course and the creation of a diversity center.
Rev. Joseph Pedersen, C.S.C. of Waterloo, Iowa, serves Notre Dame as the rector of Siegfried Hall. He has an extensive history with the university, receiving undergraduate degrees in philosophy and theology, a Master of Arts in theology from the university’s Echo Graduate Service Program, and a Master of Divinity.
In 1918, Notre Dame had to cancel three out of its nine football games due to an outbreak of the Spanish flu. But this hitch did not entirely derail Notre Dame’s season that year.
As we hit the midterm mark of the semester, we are taking this opportunity to reflect on what moments have been worth celebrating and to be intentional about what initiatives to take on in the future.
Spread amongst the northwest bleachers, the Band of the Fighting Irish was still an indelible part of the game day experience. But the pandemic has challenged some of the group’s longest-running traditions, many of which were thought to be integral to the ensemble’s identity.
Amidst the rage of World War II in the Aug. 14, 1942 issue of Scholastic, the students of this university faced a similarly complicated, unstable and daunting environment. At the onset of the fall semester, President of the University Rev. Hugh O’Donnell, C.S.C. issued a letter to the student body in order “to keep the students accurately informed of developments vital to their welfare in the current emergency.”
When sophomore James Gilman went to North Dining Hall for the first time this semester, it wasn’t at all how he remembered it. “My first meal back on campus was a box of lettuce topped with one cherry tomato,” he said.
His name is arguably as majestic as his creations: Maclovio Cantu III. However, to the 140 or so residents of Sorin College who see him every day, Cantu, the dorm’s maintenance man, is simply known as Mike. For the past two years, Cantu has worked as the head custodian of Sorin while assisting with cleaning services in other dorms. But his presence at Notre Dame and in the South Bend community goes back much further.
While many people probably envisioned that a return to Notre Dame would entail difficulties surrounding health and safety, the campus community has also had to grapple with another hurdle: division. Though the Fighting Irish pride ourselves on the unity of our community, COVID-19 has positioned students, faculty and administration at odds with one another.
There’s no denying that the Notre Dame community is constantly adjusting to new norms and rules brought about by COVID-19, but there’s one group of students who have an additional adjustment to make: the first years. Being a freshman in college is always an experience, so what does it look like to be a freshman during a pandemic?
The beginning of the semester has been an absolute whirlwind. As leaders, we are learning that one of the most important things we can do in this time is listen. Every day, the situation ahead of us takes shape in a new way, and there is no way to predict the course of the semester. However, we will do our best to actively seek out student voices, critically monitor our systems and respond with empathy.
Laurel Daen is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University. She works with the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values and specializes in disability, sickness, medicine, and health in early America. She is currently writing a book about disability and civil rights, and has been published in the Journal of Social History, Journal of the Early Republic, Early American Literature, History Compass, and Rethinking Modern Prostheses in Anglo-American Commodity Cultures, 1820-1939. This semester she is teaching “Epidemics in America,” a course which looks at the history of health and disease in American history and its influence on the longlasting culture of the country.
Scholastic wanted to hear firsthand from Notre Dame students about their experiences away from campus and transitioning to asynchronous learning.
What a time we are living in.
In an Oct. 19, 1918 issue of Scholastic, writers reported on an announcement made by then-president Father Cavanaugh. “For the protection of the University, he announced that permission to go to the city can not be had,” it read.
Notre Dame students and faculty had to quickly adjust to a new educational reality, completing the semester’s coursework while scattered across the globe.
Since joining Scholastic my freshman year, I’ve dreamt of writing my first letter from the editor. I always imagined I’d be doing it with twin senses of excitement — to be starting a new chapter of life at the helm of a publication I love — and nervousness — as I searched for exactly the right words to begin my tenure. I never once imagined anything like the scenario I now find myself in: writing from the desk of my childhood bedroom, separated from…
The UCC’s goals include providing services to Notre Dame students facing issues ranging from depression or anxiety to general stress. Despite the closed campus, their mission remains.
Hadas Elber-Aviram is an adjunct assistant professor at the university’s London Global Gateway. She has been working there for three years, over which she has taught the course London in the Literature of the Fantastic, which examines the intersection of the fantasy genre and the city of London. The subject matter of the course encapsulates but a segment of her professional interests. Elber-Aviram specializes in nineteenth and twentieth-century urban fiction, a literary genre that focuses on social change and the metropolis. Her monograph, “Fairy Tales of London: British Urban Fantasy, 1840 to the Present” charts the development of fantastical London literature and is scheduled for publication around Christmas 2020. …
In order to catalog the living history of Notre Dame at this point in time, Scholastic asked a number of students, both on and off staff, to write about their experiences over the past few weeks.
For years, Americans have been told to follow the three R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle...