THE INDEPENDENT TO UNCOVER NEWSPAPER SERVING THE TRUTH NOTRE DAME AND AND REPORT SAINT Mary’s IT ACCURATELY V OLUME 49, ISSUE 24 | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM S tudents compete to design virtual tour ND mobile app will feature five best tour designs of VisitND Challenge early in November By JENNA WILSON not find one online. N ews Writer “Unfortunately, the re- sources [for a tour] are sort E arlier this semester, of spread around at Notre Notre Dame students were Dame,” Ginocchio said. “You invited to participate in the know, you can go to the web- VisitND challenge, a compe- site, there are some tour tition in which individuals ND resources for the bigger or teams of students com- sights, the alumni office has pete head-to-head to see some resources, athletics who can create the best vir- has resources, admissions tual tour of campus. has resources, but it takes Don Ginocchio, the some effort to put them all University Alliances together.” Director at SAP, one of the The winning tours will ap- challenge’s sponsors, said pear on the ND mobile app, the challenge was created which will allow visitors to after the University realized campus to utilize the tour, visitors wanted a cohesive tour of campus, but could see APP PAGE 5 SUSAN ZHU | The Observer S aint Mary’s hosts Exhibition raises transgender activist suicide awareness By NICOLE CARATAS By SELENA PONIO of the lives claimed by suicide. N ews Writer N ews Writer Sophomore Courtney Koch, a member of NAMI-ND said she S aint Mary’s department E leven hundred backpacks hoped this display would act as a of gender and women’s stud- scattered across South Quad conversation-starter on campus ies and the psychology de- Wednesday held a heavier message and convince students to ask more partment hosted Meghan than the book weight they usually questions about mental health. Buell, a transgender woman, carry. “Mental illness is a legitimate who shared her experiences The backpacks were a suicide health issue and should be treated at Dalloway’s Clubhouse on awareness exhibition called “Send with the same amount of serious- Wednesday. Silence Packing,” and each one ness as we treat physical illnesses,” Buell, who is the founder of represented one of the 1,100 col- Koch said. “It’s not just something Trees, Inc., a non-profit orga- lege students who commit suicide that should be pushed off to the nization that brings educa- each year. The exhibition was a side.” tion and resources about trans collaborative effort between Active NAMI-ND president junior Katie issues to small towns in the Minds, a non-profit organization, Paige said the planning process for Midwest, said she grew up in a and the Notre Dame’s National the exhibition started at the end of small town in Indiana and she Alliance on Mental Illness Club last spring when the club received spent 35 years struggling with MONICA VILLAGOMEZ MENDEZ | The Observer (NAMI-ND). approval from Active Minds. Paige Megan Buell, a transgender woman and found of Trees, Inc., speaks Each backpack acted as a small see BUELL PAGE 7 at Dalloway’s Clubhouse at Saint Mary’s College on Wednesday. token of remembrance for one see BACKPACKS PAGE 7 Sandy Hook teacher stresses power of hope By ANDREA VALE a non-profit and publish a book in have the power … it will make the one moment. hid in silence as gunshots rang out. N ews Writer the wake of the shooting. impossible feel possible.” “Both are always present,”Roig- “For myself the only decision Despite the grim events that Roig-DeBellis described the DeBellis said. “It is a choice which that needed to be made was, ‘Do Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis, a teacher acted as a catalyst to Roig-DeBellis’ events and choices that molded her to focus on.” I want my students and I to sur- present during the December talk, her words were optimistic and life, from her adoption as an infant Roig-DeBellis said during the vive?’” Roig-DeBellis said, “The 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook encouraging. to her first teaching job at Sandy shootings, her choice became one only answer to that was yes. … Elementary School, spoke “Your perspective determines Hook — all of which involved “the between life and death for herself What I was asking them to do must Wednesday night in the Hesburgh how you react or not to every situa- balance found in life. There are and her 15 first-grade students. She have sounded impossible. Our Library about how hope helped her tion in your life,” Roig-DeBellis said, highs and lows, there is good and said she ushered her students into overcome her experience, found “You have the choice. You alone bad found on any one day, in any a tiny bathroom, and together they see SANDY HOOK PAGE 4 SENATE PAGE 3 VIEWPOINT PAGE 8 SCENE PAGE 10 WOMEN’S SOCCER PAGE 16 SMC SPORTS PAGE 16 2 THE OBSERVER | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 | NDSMCOBSERVER.COM TODAY Have a question you want answered? QUESTION OF THE DAY: Email [email protected] ndsmcobserver.com If you could witness any event — past, present or future — what would it be? P .O. Box 779, Notre Dame, IN 46556 024 South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 Editor-in-Chief Franny Wall Jasmine Salazar Greg Hadley Managing Editor Business Manager sophomore junior Jack Rooney Cristina Gutierrez Le Mans Hall Le Mans Hall Asst. Managing Editor: Mary Green Asst. 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