t i X H OBSERVER Friday, March 1, 1996* Vol. XXVII No. 101 THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING NOTRE DAME AND SAINT MARY'S Committee calls for gay student group Ad Hoc report group. final report, the culmination of Dame and Saint Mary’s College sponsor programs to better That’s among the recom­ nearly a year of work. The (GLND/SMC). equip hall staff to deal with gay mendations included in the committee was created last After rejecting the Campus and lesbian student needs, and faces scrutiny by “Final Report of the Ad Hoc March by O’Hara to study gay Life Council’s (CLC) resolution adopt m easures to promote a Committee on Gay and Lesbian calling for official recognition harassment free environment. Student Affairs Student N eeds” subm itted to ■ see REACTION page 3 for GLND/SMC, O’Hara charged In issuing the report the com­ By DAVE TYLER Vice President for Student Af­ the committee with finding mittee said it believed its News Editor _______________________________ fairs Patricia O’Hara and made ways, apart from the recogni­ assignment was helpful. public in a two page advertise­ and lesbian student needs at tion of GLND/SMC, in which the “While there is still a great The University of Notre Dame ment in The Observer yester­ the University in the wake of University could allow Gays and deal of work to be done, the should have an officially recog­ day. the uproar surrounding the lesbians to come together as a dialogue about these issues has nized gay and lesbian student The committee published administration’s dealings with group to explore common is­ eight recom m endations in its Gays and Lesbians at Notre sues and find mutual support, see GROUP / page 4 The Observer/ Mike Ruma Audrey and Calvin, Hammill: Writing All in a below, are just two of the children of families living in the Catholic Worker shows decline of House. The house was established to Day’s Work offer support for open sexuality fam ilies in tim es of need through com­ By DEREK BETCHER Students, homeless live passion and other News Writer Church teachings. together in Worker House If all the world is a stage, then all the world is a book, so all the world is a closet,’ was one of By BILL CONNOLLY the intriguing ideas that developed out of forum News Writer interaction between speaker Graham Hammill and his audience Thursday afternoon in the ying only a half a mile away from Hesburgh Library lounge. Notre Dame is a home which embod­ Titled ‘Sex and the Graphic Revolution: As ies the Catholic beliefs of charity, You Like It?’ HammiH’s lecture examining the Lcompassion, responsibility, and roots and effects of psycho analytic theory was understanding. This home is the Catholic part of the Department of Gender Studies’ ongo­ Worker House, a place where homeless ing weekly forum discussion. families are given the opportunity to “What psychoanalysis calls sex is a logical improve their lives. extension of what the Renaissance calls However, many at Notre Dame have sodomy,” Hammill, a professor in Notre Dame’s not heard of the house despite its associa­ English Department, forwarded. tion with Catholic beliefs. Those who do The humanistic ethics of reading that devel­ might associate it with radical social oped during the Renaissance helped create goals often offered by political Catholic Shakespeare’s Elizabethan/Jacobean writing Worker Houses originally established by environment according to Hammill. In turn, Dorothy Day. Freud’s sexual psychoanalysis can find subtle Yet, this house does not have any politi­ beginnings in Shakespeare, Hammill continued. cal aims. The house simply attem pts to Hammill analyzed Shakespeare’s comedy ‘As develop families in hard times through You Like It’ to illustrate his points. In addition to compassion and other Church teachings. including cross dressing, role playing, and soap Claire McGrath, the director of the opera-like love connections, Hammill noted that house, knows that supporting families is the female characters of ‘As You Like It’ also anything but simple. McGrath helps clean, ask for kisses from the bearded audience mem­ cook, and most importantly, counsel fami­ bers in the play’s prologue. lies at the house. “It's very interesting because all the actors Further, people who would like to live are men. The general indecisiveness of sexuality in the house are directed to McGrath increases the excitement, ” Hammill said. through the Center for the Homeless and Such indecisiveness led to cultural secrecy in other organizations, but she has the final the transmission of sexual knowledge, and this say as to who lives in the house. is where society finds itself today, according to Once in the house, families are taught Hammill. responsibility through “tough love.” For Hammill also cited graphical manuscript writ­ the most part, they must cook and clean ing to show the decline of open sexuality. He for themselves in order to learn responsi­ explained that pre-Renaissance scribes’ elabo­ bility. All the food and clothes in the rate sensual writing contrasts strongly with today’s colorless dotted-line notation. see HOUSE / page 6 “The graphic mark is now structured,” Hammill concluded. Awareness serves as protection and the United Kingdom was Students use London, shattered by an explosion in the heart of the London business common sense to Notre Dame district. & the IRA With the chaos and fear, the avoid danger blast brought uncertainty for part 2 of 2 Editor's Note: This is the sec­ all those affected by the peace ond in a two-part series of arti­ tion carries accounts of the lat­ process that had been under­ cles examining the recent end est bombing or altercation. way between the sides of the of the IHA cease-fire and how The Notre Dame London Pro­ Northern Ireland conflict. the return of hostilities affects gram students set off for their Included in this group of peo­ Notre Dame students lining in E uropean adventure in J a n ­ ple who must deal with the I.on don. uary, thinking they would have ramifications of the end of the the times of their lives. Irish Republican Army cease­ By MARY KATE MORTON What they never realized was fire are the Notre Dame stu­ Associate News Editor that their lives could be endan­ dents studying in London for gered by the end of an 18 the semester. They try not to think about it, month-long cease-fire regard­ Junior Amy Schmidt tries not but it is always in the back of ing the conflict in Northern to worry about it constantly. their minds. The situation is Ireland. “It’s so scary that we try not to hard to ignore when every On Feb. 9, the fragile peace think of it all the tim e,” she Photo courtesy of the London Program newspaper and television sta- encompassing Northern Ireland Notre Dame students live in these flats in London where there are con­ see LONDON / page 4 cerns over safety after th recent London bombings by the IRA. page 2 The Observer • INSIDE Friday, March 1, 1996 0 (NSIDE COLUMN » WORLD AT A GlANCE There’s Flu deaths make statistical blip in U.S. life expectancy ATLANTA No figure has been calculated yet for U.S. life expectancy fell slightly in Mortality rates 1994, but provisional figures indicate a no place 1993, the first dip in 13 years, but that rebound in life expectancy, the CDC doesn’t mean shorter life spans — just Life expectancy in the U.S. fell for the said. One good sign: infant mortality fell that the projections were skewed by a first time in 13 years due to two 1993 to the lowest level ever in 1993. large number of flu deaths. epidemics, but researchers say it will The CDC said the overall death rate, like home Life expectancy for people born in rebound. adjusted for age, increased to 513.3 per 1993 was pegged at 75.5 years, down 100,000 population in 1993, from 504.5 from the 75.8 years someone born in Top 10 causes Rate % change deaths per 100,000 in 1992. 1992 might expect, the federal Centers That reflects 2.3 million deaths in of death in 1993 per Since Since for Disease Control said Thursday. 100,000 1992 1979 1993, the highest annual figure on The CDC blamed the decline on two record and an increase of 92,940 or 1.7 It’s coming. It’s pres- _ nationwide epidemics in which 82,820 1 Heart disease 145.3 0.7 -27.2 percent from 1992. ence hangs above our Lori Allen people died from flu or pneumonia. The 2 Cancer 132.6 -0.4 1.4 The leading causes of death remain heads. The key to sal- Saint Mary’s outbreaks increased the overall death 3 Stroke 26.5 1.1 -36.3 unchanged. In order, they are: heart vation and sanity dan- News Editor rate for the first time since 1988. disease, cancer, stroke, pulmonary dis­ gling before our tired ----------------------------- 4 Pulmonary 21.4 7.5 46.6 “It really appears to be just a blip, not disease ease, accidents, pneumonia and flu, dia­ eyes. Spring break. the start of a trend; 1993 was just a very betes, AIDS and HIV-related illnesses, 5 Accidents* 30.3 3.1 -29.4 In one week (that’s seven days from now bad year,” said Paula Gardner, a survey suicide and homicide. Heart disease and folks) spring break will be upon us. Just one statistician with the National Center for 6 Pneumonia 13.5 6.3 20.5 cancer accounted for almost 60 percent more week of relentless and perpetual study­ Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md.