Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Observer
Friday, May 15, 2026
Grad Ads
Observer Store Subscribe
The Observer

Opinion

The Observer

America divided

By The Observer · Tuesday, April 20, 2010

"Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there's the United States of America … We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

The Observer

Those ND bathroom bothers

By The Observer · Tuesday, April 20, 2010

During my time here, I have had a bit of a gripe with Notre Dame's bathrooms. I had tolerated the issue, but it came to a head recently. The other day, I was working on a project at the brand new Stinson Remick building. I was there for a while, so inevitably I had to use the bathroom. I went out to find it, and found the women's bathroom. Now, it would make sense that if you find the women's bathroom, the men's bathroom should be close by, right? Well, whoever built Stinson-Remick didn't think so! After looking around for a few minutes, I found a map, and it turns out the men's bathroom is on the complete opposite side of the building — nowhere near the women's bathroom. Not only that, but I had to go through a maze of hallways to find it. In the end, what should have been a routine trip to the bathroom turned into a 15 minute game of hide-and-seek. That's valuable time when you need to use the bathroom! Also, Stinson-Remick isn't the only building with confusing bathrooms. Many other buildings do too, including Hayes-Healy/Hurley, Fitzpatrick and several others. In most buildings, bathroom locations make almost no sense. Now I know it would be near impossible to move bathrooms around in current buildings, but the next time a new building is built, could you please put the men's and women's bathrooms next to each other and at least sort of easy to find?

The Observer

Desk hours

By The Observer · Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The circulation desk at the Library should be open at all times when the Library is open. If this cannot be then the circulation desk should be open at least from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. so then people arriving and leaving work can be helped by someone. As it is now the circulation desk does not open until 9 a.m. while classes start at 8:30 a.m. This is inconvenient for faculty and students who might need their help before an 8:30 a.m. class. Having someone at the Library who can answer questions, sort out complaints and check out books when the machines cannot, would be great. This might cut down on books being "borrowed" without being checked out. Jessica Monokroussos Administrative Assistant O'Shaughnessy Hall April 16

The Observer

Far from perfect

By The Observer · Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Thanks to my Father, I learned the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling from a young age. It seemed the poem could always provide comfort whether I had done poorly on an exam or was being bullied.

The Observer

Ordinations to the priesthood

By The Observer · Tuesday, April 20, 2010

On April 11, Divine Mercy Sunday, there were two men ordained to the priesthood on campus. These men have given up their lives for Christ. Without the priests on campus Notre Dame would not be such a special place. So when you see a priest today, thank him for all he does to make your life have meaning and to keep you close to God through the Sacraments. Also, pray for Father Gerry and Father Kevin and all our wonderful priests in this year of the priests. Donna Stachowski parent of Notre Dame student April 9

The Observer

Draft Day Blues

By The Observer · Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Growing up, spring meant many things to me: Little League baseball, another summer quickly approaching, March Madness and all its excitement, and the NFL Draft.

The Observer

Classes in residence halls

By The Observer · Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Classrooms in the residence halls do not work well. Faculty and students, who do not live in the residence hall, have to wait until someone who lives in the residence hall opens the door. This makes the students and faculty late. Also in some residence halls the "classroom" is in a public space, making it difficult to teach when students walk through the class to get to somewhere else in the residence hall (Ryan Hall for example).

The Observer

From partial renovation to 'Extreme Makeover'

By The Observer · Monday, April 19, 2010

As one of the organizers of the Hesburgh Library petition, I wish to clarify our platform concerning the Library's facilities. It seems most logical to shift the discourse away from simply remodeling part of the main Library toward an expansion of the entire Library system.  I suggest this should be accomplished in four phases, in order of priority:

The Observer

Respect Polish tragedy as such

By The Observer · Monday, April 19, 2010

I am writing to respond to the show of disrespect I have witnessed on campus concerning the recent tragedy in Poland, in which a plane carrying the Polish president, the First Lady and many senior officials crashed in Smolensk, Russia. Those on board were traveling to a ceremony that would commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when Stalin's secret police murdered 22,000 Polish military leaders and intellectuals. Until 1990, the Soviet Union denied responsibility for the massacre, suppressing those who attempted to speak out. The speech President Kaczynski was to deliver last Saturday was meant to help heal a national wound, honoring the dead and offering hope of reconciliation between Russia and Poland. In a tragic coincidence, however, Poland lost its political and military leadership yet again, including the commanders of the army, air force and navy, the president of the national bank and many others.

The Observer

The ripening fruit

By The Observer · Monday, April 19, 2010

With the debate on God terminating as smoothly and inconclusively as anyone could have hoped, I found myself completely at a loss for suitable subjects for snark. My own religious beliefs being exactly as absurd and unjustifiable as everybody else's, I had hoped to poke some mildly mean-spirited fun at the militant in the (a)/theist camps while carefully obscuring my own weak points with clever rhetoric.

The Observer

Lackluster Lolla lineup

By The Observer · Monday, April 19, 2010

Summer means music festivals, and festivals mean fun. Opening Wednesday's Observer, I noticed an article regarding my favorite sonic celebration, Lollapalooza ("Lollapalooza lineup revealed," Courtney Cox). Being a real Chicago native and having seen two of my all-time top-five shows on the lawns adjacent to beautiful Lake Michigan (Daft Punk's laser-pyramid and Pearl Jam in front of 100,000 in 2008), I was looking forward to solidifying the reasons why I needed to pick up a three-day pass for this year. This should not have been a difficult task (see selling a bucket of water to a man on fire), but it was surprisingly unsuccessful.

The Observer

Help us improve

By The Observer · Friday, April 16, 2010

With the end of the academic year fast approaching and our publication schedule winding down, it's almost time for us at The Observer to shift our focus toward next year, when we hope to continue to make The Observer a more informative, comprehensive, user-friendly news source, both in print and online.

The Observer

Notre Dame rightfully optimistic about Brian Kelly era

By The Observer · Friday, April 16, 2010

While spring football practice reports often include little more than the daily minutiae of who happens to be lining up in what order, or who beat who in what one-on-one drill, it is precisely those details that interest Irish football fans who are anxious to see what exactly the Brian Kelly era will entail.

The Observer

Keep your baseball

By The Observer · Friday, April 16, 2010

First and foremost, I would like to disagree with the very first sentence of the April 14 article "In defense of baseball" (Andy Ziccarelli). The article opens with: "Spring in the Midwest is exciting." Halt! This statement is akin to saying that Jim Carey is funny — objectively and undeniably wrong. The only thing exciting about spring in the Midwest is that sometimes houses tend to go up for sale in the East, South or North, and you can promptly pack your bags and never look back. The article then takes a turn for the worse as the author begins to prattle on about various aspects that could make baseball exciting. (At one point Ziccarelli informs us that he'll wait for us to stop laughing, upon which I had to wait to stop laughing.)

The Observer

St. Baldrick's Day

By The Observer · Friday, April 16, 2010

It was pretty awesome taking two-minute showers, and even cooler that I was able to get ready in less than 10 minutes every day (depending on how long my clothes selection would take), but the best part about it all was knowing that I shaved my head for an amazing cause, and I am hoping to tempt you to do the same.

The Observer

Piercing Neil Armstrong's privacy

By The Observer · Friday, April 16, 2010

Yesterday President Obama visited NASA's Kennedy Space Center and addressed an independent panel's recommendation to cancel the Ares I rocket. Noting that it would not be ready to serve its planned role for space station transport or to reach the moon by 2020 since underfunding crippled NASA's plan, the panel concluded it unrealistic that Constellation's first moon landing could occur until 2028 or later. The president prefers to develop a "flexible path" with a heavy lifting rocket. This option would develop technologies for trips beyond Earth's orbit, and delay moon landings or on Mars until such technologies further evolve.

The Observer

Stand with HEI

By The Observer · Thursday, April 15, 2010

Mr. Rivera claimed that HEI's stand against unionization is against Catholic Social Teaching ("Getting to the real issues behind HEI," April 13). I would argue, however, that it would be a violation of Catholic social teaching for HEI to extend union power into its own workplace.

Trending