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Notre Dame, Hike, Hike, Hike

By The Observer · Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I don't know if you read the paper the other day, but once again tuition rates at our fine school have gone up 3.8 percent, or more simply it is now $2,180 more expensive to get the same education you bought last year. This is a downward trend from a 5.9 percent increase in 2008-09, and 4.4 percent increase in 2009-10. In fact, the price of my senior year is going to be 13.1 percent more expensive than the price of my freshman year, a net increase totaling $6,125. If I were to pay the freshman year rate, my total tuition with on-campus living would be $186,720. With the increases over time, I actually pay $199,085, a total increase of $12,365 over four years. Taking into account an annual inflation rate of 1 to 2 percent in recent years, this is a vast overcharge for what is supposed to be a non-profit institution.

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Don't assume

By The Observer · Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Holden ("Non-athlete shirts," Mar. 1) and Alex ("Prejudice runs deeper," Mar. 2),

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America's need for unions

By The Observer · Tuesday, March 1, 2011

When discussing the events revolving around the protests occurring in many state capitols such as Wisconsin and Indiana, there is a need for clarification: Unions in their entirety only represent less than one-fourth of the entire United States workforce. What does this mean? It is false when union workers claim that the bills being discussed in State Capitols, which are restricting or even annihilating bargaining rights, are an assault on the rights of workers. It's in fact a hyperbole! Doing nothing with respect to the "rights" of the few whose salary increases every year without an end in sight despite what is going on in the rest of the economy is an actual assault on the true workforce of our great nation — small businesses, the backbone of America! If people begin to forget this simple fact and put forward instead the agendas of power hungry unions, then our land of opportunism has converted into the land of crybabies clamoring for what they think is rightfully theirs to keep, or as Friedrich von Hayek coins it, the road to serfdom.

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All aboard the bandwagon

By The Observer · Tuesday, March 1, 2011

It's that time of year. With the NHL and NBA trade deadlines passed, the playoff races are in full swing. That means one thing: bandwagon season.

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The future of books

By The Observer · Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Books have been a remarkably constant artistic creation for thousands of years. We flip through the pages of Homer's epic poetry of 2,700 years ago in much the same way as we might Stephen King's epic Dark Tower Series. So too with the musings of Marcus Aurelius and the autobiography of Bill Clinton. The characters of Euripides jump from written words to our mind just as Jonathan Franzen's. This durability is all the more impressive against the backdrop of changes in other art forms — compare the Athenian acropolis to the New York City skyline; Greek vase paintings to da Vinci's Mona Lisa to Norman Rockwell; the plays of Shakespeare to Avatar or Inception. Surely this timelessness is part of the book's appeal. Reading a great story is no small emotional investment. It is an intimate endeavor that asks from us just as much as it provides. But can books survive in the modern world? Some commentators have castigated modernity as too fragmented and fast-paced for the novel to remain relevant, what with Twitter, blogging and the 24-hour news cycle.

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The real kings of the Oscar

By The Observer · Tuesday, March 1, 2011

With "The King's Speech" winning three out of the four major awards at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards this past Sunday, the real winners were Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company and founders of now defunct Miramax. Although I wanted "The Social Network" to win Best Picture and David Fincher to win Best Director, I do recognize that ‘The King's Speech' was a very well made movie that was headed by its strong cast. However, the Weinstein brothers once again showed why they are the masters at maneuvering through the politics of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in order to deliver Oscar nominations and wins.

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A pandemic

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 28, 2011

As I sat in CoMo last week, trying in vain to think of something significant to say about Voltaire, my writer's block was the least of my concerns. Much more bothersome was the aural assault I was enduring.

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What are the odds?

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 28, 2011

I love numbers. How could anyone not? Numbers are so much more precise than their linguistic counterparts, words. Whereas a word could mean any number of things based on context and tone, numbers will always mean the exact same thing. You can take them at face value.

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Changing the game

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 28, 2011

On Feb. 8, 2011, my father, Peter Grant, met a tragic end by taking his own life, just a week and two days before Dave Duerson's suicide. Our family donated my father's brain and spinal cord to the Boston University study of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), the same study to which Duerson bequeathed his brain. My father, a 1983 graduate of Notre Dame, not only was a classmate of Duerson, but also lived in Grace Hall and personally knew him. These are not their only similarities. My father was not a Notre Dame football player, but he was an enthusiastic high school and interhall football and hockey player. During his high school sports career, my father sustained seven "major" concussions, with at least two extended hospital stays.

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Gingers have friends

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 28, 2011

In Monday's Ice Breaker, Tierney Roche declared that Harry Potter was unrealistic because she does not believe a ginger can have two friends. As a ginger I take great offense to this.  We gingers have battled with the sun for centuries.  We survived the Potato Famine. Throughout history, we've been subjected to discrimination and fearful prejudice. We have been declared soulless. But today, I will take no more. I along with the ginger community would like to dispel myths about the ginger being.

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The Anti-M.R.S.

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 28, 2011

When I saw a YouTube video featuring a 5-year-old girl insisting she must have a job before she gets married on a friend's Facebook wall, I commented, "She's so Saint Mary's." As a senior at Saint Mary's, I meant this very sincerely. I have watched my friends over the last semester be accepted into Ivy League graduate programs, accept incredible job offers, get published in journals, and, generally speaking, achieve great things. When an acquaintance of mine saw my comment, he said "No, that girl is not Saint Mary's." He claimed that stereotypically, Saint Mary's women are not on a mission to find a job, they "are trying to find Notre Dame husbands; in pursuit of their M.R.S. degree." In making this claim, a claim that would no doubt infuriate the 1,600-plus women of Saint Mary's College as it infuriated me, he diminished us to nothing but girls who twiddle their thumbs by day and man-hunt by night. Not only is it appalling that this idea pervades the Notre Dame campus, but the idea that any 21st century woman goes to college simply to meet a man is both archaic and demeaning. Newsflash: The M.R.S. degree does not exist, and if it did, attending an all-women's college to get it is an idea that's a little more progressive than I would expect anyone from Notre Dame to be.  Domer boys, we're working just as hard as you. We can be executives, lawyers and dentists, too.

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Non-athlete shirts a reminder

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 28, 2011

Most of you have seen the "Irish Non-Athlete" shirts around campus, and I'm glad that they have stirred up discussion. I'm fed up with everyone assuming I'm an athlete. Just because I'm a black student at Notre Dame doesn't mean I play sports. I hope the shirt will serve as a reminder to everyone to think before they assume.

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The other side

By The Observer · Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011

I am a member of the elite group known as Notre Dame Alumni, along with my grandfather, father and two brothers. I have an amazing, loving and supportive family and a group of close friends who I wouldn't trade for the world. I am a second year doctoral student in New Hampshire and have never been happier. But things were not always this way. While attending Notre Dame, I suffered from severe depression and anxiety and I engaged in self-mutilation, anorexia and bulimia. I also became an alcoholic, and I always will be. Although my last drink was on November 10, 2006, my next one could easily be tomorrow if I become complacent. My sobriety must always remain my top priority, and those closest to me understand that.

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Early pressures

By The Observer · Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011

What are you doing this summer? I have no idea where I'll be or what I'll be doing, and it's giving me midterm-level anxiety. Most adults I know — and even some of my professors — don't see this as a problem. One of my former professors recently suggested I sell Mexican blankets on the side of the road — he was kidding, but it sounded far more appealing than filling out yet another internship application.

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Healthy conversation

By The Observer · Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011

Monday evening at Saint Mary's College, I climbed the stairs of Carroll Auditorium's stage in teetering, leopard print wedges. With a pink golfball clutched in my hand to ease my nerves, I gritted my teeth, gave one last hair toss and praised God I did not trip. I then looked out into the audience of nearly 150 strangers and friends and took a deep breath. My hands shook and my voice crackled as I began speaking about my journey through an illness which almost claimed my life.

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Something for everyone

By The Observer · Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

Allow me to entertain a hypothetical notion here. You. Saturday. 6 p.m., Stepan Center. You've just indulged in a dinner of fine Filipino cuisine and are settling back satisfied, wondering what this Fiestang thing is all about. The lights go down, a clanging gong sounds and chanting men clad in loincloths and ceremonial blankets take to the stage and begin to dance. One thing is abundantly clear: this ain't America's Got Talent, son.

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Remembering Duerson

By The Observer · Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

In light of Dave Duerson's passing, former Notre Dame football superstar and member of the Board of Trustees, it's clear that Notre Dame should lead the way in finding ways to make football more safe for our players. There is no question that the sport has made a tremendous impact on Notre Dame and the greater community, but at what risk to the players? With Duerson's death, he was clearing making a plea for someone to investigate how repeated head trauma through football led to his mental decline. I think most of us realize there is a price these players are paying, but at what overall cost? A question many are asking is if Duerson had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease found posthumously in about 20 retired players and a disease linked to depression, cognitive impairment and occasionally suicide. Before committing suicide by shooting himself in the chest, Duerson left a handwritten note as well as a text message, asking that his brain be donated to the NFL's brain bank.

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