the Observer The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s Volume 44 : Issue 41 Wednesday, OCTOBER 28, 2009 ndsmcobserver.com Students travel to Appalachia in record numbers One-credit course receives most applicants in history, 269 spend fall break in poor areas of Appalachian region black lung pensions, miners’ This fall, the seminar By LAURA McCRYSTAL pensions, social security and received a record number of News Writer disability, said Jenny Lee, a applicants and accommodat- missionary with Community ed the highest number of par- Editor’s note: The reporter Crossing, a McDowell County ticipants in its history, attended a weeklong service missionary and home repair Professor Connie Mick, assis- trip in the Appalachia region organization. tant director of the Center for of the United States to exam- Similar situations exist in Social Concerns said. ine the culture of the region counties across the Students began traveling to as well as the issues that it Appalachian region of the Appalachia in the 1980s in faces. United States, where the rise small volunteer groups, Mick and fall of coal mining have said, but the program has McDowell County, W. Va, contributed to many environ- grown more popular over the was home to one of the high- mental and economic issues. years. est concentrations of million- Last week, 269 Notre Dame “It’s for students to serve aires in the United States students spent a week at 21 and live in solidarity with during the peak of the coal different sites in McDowell people who are surrounded mining industry at the turn of County and other areas in by chronic poverty and chal- the 20th century. Appalachia as participants in lenges,” she said. “By doing Today, it is the most impov- the Appalachia Seminar that together as a group we erished county in the state offered as a one-credit course get a fuller understanding, Photo courtesy of Larua McCrystal and the four main sources of through the Center for Social Sophomores Analise Althoff and Margaret Millea saw a stud for income for its residents are Concerns. see SEMINAR/page 6 a wall as a part of a renovation project in Kimba Visiting professor recounts horrors of Holocaust Professors By LAUREN BALDWIN phasized, Gross said. The scale of the Holocaust News Writer events baffled people and the organize reports of mass murder were A visiting professor discussed viewed with caution by journal- horrifying accounts of the killing ists and government officials of Finnish and plundering of Polish Jews neighboring countries, as the pre- during World War II. dominant mood of countries dur- Jan Tomasz Gross, Norman B. ing the occupation was anti- Tomlinson ’16 and ’48 professor Semitic, Gross said. conference of War and Society and History at While these are victim accounts Princeton University, spoke and only account for half of the Tuesday in a lecture titled “On story, Gross said personal By MEGAN HEMLER Holocaust’s Periphery: Poles and accounts should not be discarded. News Writer their Jewish Neighbors.” “A sense of obligation grew While the Jews in Poland only among the Jewish record keep- Notre Dame students might represent a fraction of the total ers,” Gross said. “Clearly their be unfamiliar with Finland’s killed by the Nazis, the firsthand aim was just to produce an geography and its ties to SUZANNA PRATT/The Observer accounts about the fates they suf- account of what happened, not to their school, but its capital, Jan Tomasz Gross, a professor at Princeton, spoke about the fered are extremely important to Helsinki, served as the site Holocaust at a lecture Tuesday night. historians but have been deem- see HOLOCAUST/page 9 for a major conference on nuclear disarmament last week, an event in which the University of Notre Dame played a significant role. Organized by the Joan B. Band films music video with OK Go Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies as well as the Finnish their song at last year’s football Institute of International By LIZ O’DONNELL game against Southern News Writer Affairs, public policy and California in Los Angeles. security experts gathered Assistant Band Director from Oct. 22 to 24 in order to Fall Break proved relaxing Emmett O’Leary said the band discuss ideas to make the and uneventful for many stu- contacted him six or seven Nuclear Nonproliferation dents who stayed in South months ago and approached Treaty (NPT) more effective. Bend for the week. For others, him with the idea. According to the Kroc the vacation was not exactly “The idea of the video was to Center Web site, this treaty boring. take place in a Midwestern, is one of the most basic and Approximately 115 members bucolic setting,” he said. “The crucial agreements within of The Band of the Fighting band also wanted to add a international efforts to moni- Irish were featured in the film- theme of college marching tor, control and destroy ing of OK Go’s video for their bands.” nuclear weapons. The treaty single “This Too Shall Pass” OK Go’s new album is slated is expected to receive its over fall break. to be released in mid-January next five-year review by the The band, which is best rec- and will feature the track United Nations in May of ognized for its song “Here it recorded with the Notre Dame 2010. Goes Again,” also known as Marching Band. “All the nuclear states sent “the treadmill song,” selected O’Leary said OK Go was on representatives [to the con- campus for the week working the University for their video Photo courtesy of Aaron Hernandez ference],” David Cortright, after members of OK Go saw Members of the band OK Go filmed a music video with the their halftime performance of see OK GO/page 6 Notre Dame band over fall break. see HELSINKI/page 8 INSIDE TODAY’S PAPER Purcell Pavilion to open page 3 N “Batman” movies creator comes to ND page 13 N Women’s tennis doubles place second page 24 N Viewpoint page page 2 The Observer N PAGE 2 Wednesday, October 28, 2009 INSIDE COLUMN QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE FOR HALLOWEEN? Halloween blues Halloween never lives up to its expec- tations. Not to put a damper on the excitement, holiday spirit or costume Sarah Spieler Chris Jennis Colin Sullivan Huong Ngo Kallie Drexler planning, but in my experience, and that of a few of my friends, Halloween is sophomore freshman sophomore senior sophomore never as good as we Stanford Alumni O’Neill Ryan Walsh hope it to be. Sure it doesn’t help that we hate being scared, “A Siamese “An illegal “The worst “A leopard.” “I’m going to be but nothing, from twin prison immigrant.” costume ever, a a clarinet in the trick-or-treating to the costume you escapee.” woman.” San Antonio.” have on, ever lives up to how we imag- ine. For one of my Meaghan Veselik friends, Halloween is her least favorite Sports holiday. Her family Production members even send Editor Have an idea for Question of the Day? E-mail [email protected] her Halloween pres- ents at school in hopes of easing the trauma of the holi- day. As she puts it, “Life is scary enough. IN BRIEF I don’t need a holiday to remind me how scary it is.” Her roommate, however, Paul Muldoon, Pulitzer loves the holiday, and has their door dec- prize-winning Irish poet, will orated from top to bottom with a life-size read his poetry at the animated witch and pumpkins. McKenna Hall Auditorium My roommate hates Halloween for tonight at 7 p.m. The event is other reasons, one being that her expec- free. tations are built up every year only to come crashing down on her. She’s had Pianist Dalton Baldwin and some pretty tragic incidents occur to her music professor and vocalist over the years on the night of Halloween. Dr. Mark Beudert will per- Not only were there the middle school form at the Leighton Concert and high school years’ drama of having Hall at the DeBartolo the coolest costume and being invited to Performing Arts Center the “right” post-trick-or-treating party, tonight at 7:30. Tickets are but also the drama occurring on the $8 for faculty and staff and $3 streets of town as you trick-or-treated for students. and in what group you travel. In college, the drama only continues although we The Society for Women are supposedly more mature, Engineers will sponsor the respectable individuals than we were in Trick-or-SWEet 5K Run/Walk our high school years. Now, it’s not the tomorrow at 7 p.m. The race trick-or-treating group that matters — fee is $10 and benefits the it’s the house party you end up at. The Miss Wizard Day Charity. problem here is that once again, expec- Prizes will be awarded to the tations are built up and the excitement TOM LA/The Observer winner and person wearing enhanced by alcohol only to come crash- A student in a Green Man costume is spotted in the stands of the Notre Dame the best costume. ing down on you when the party is so against Boston College football game. crowded that you can hardly move, and Friday is the last day to the cops end up shutting down the fun. drop a course. More informa- In my personal experiences, tion is available online at Halloween sucks. Besides the trick-or- http://www.registrar.nd.edu/. treating drama, the scary movies and haunted houses only freak me out to the OFFBEAT The Notre Dame Men’s point that I swear to never go to one Hockey team will play Ohio again, but almost every year I get sucked One-legged man steals charges and was handed Basking Ridge, N.J.-based State Friday at 7:35 p.m.