Maggie Duncan, Staff Writer

Think of Notre Dame: What comes to mind?  Football.  The Dome.  Catholics.  Beyond these, though, the word connected most distinctly to our university is a simple one: home.  You do not need to investigate very deeply to discover this.  Look at the jubilant reunions of students coming back to campus after summer, or ask any alumna if she wishes she could be here again.  Yes, the most important aspect of Notre Dame is that we are ND—we are a family.

However, when you are standing in the middle of the pulsing, sweaty apocalypse that is Domerfest, home-y vibes will not come easily.  When you are awkwardly dealing with serenades and forgetting which Megan, Katie or Patrick is from St. Knott-Fried or Far Pasquerilla Family, Notre Dame does not seem quite like the nirvana promised in the acceptance packet.  I wanted to find that part of Notre Dame, so I found someone who certainly is at home here.  Enter Ms. Cheryl Reed.

Cheryl Reed has worked at Notre Dame for almost 35 years.  She has a raspy voice, a lively but gentle demeanor and a kindly heart (as demonstrated by the fact that she agreed to let me, a lowly freshman, interview her).  I found Reed through my theology professor, Robert Krieg, in whose words Reed is “what Notre Dame is all about.”  After learning more about her, it was impossible to deny the validity of that statement.

Reed is originally from Alexandria, Louisiana.  Arriving in South Bend at the young age of 17, she attended Ivy Tech and soon after began working at Notre Dame in the Hesburgh Library.

When asked to recall when she began working at Notre Dame, Reed automatically recites, “January 23, 1979.”  Back then, she would spend her time in the library’s basement, clicking out manuscripts and letters for professors on typewriters using carbon paper.  Through copying information about topics ranging from philosophy to economics, Reed learned about ideas that she might never have known otherwise.  Additionally, her job was a stable one, and on its salary she raised two children as a single mother.

Did Notre Dame feel like a family for her then?  “Oh yes,” was Reed’s consistent and confident reply.  “They stuck by me, they treated me great.”

Fast forward to today, and while everything looks different, nothing truly has changed.  Reed now works in Decio Hall, and she talks to me from behind a blinking and bright Mac computer screen.  The surroundings are hugely different, but her job duties have remained constant.  “I’m old-fashioned,” she comments.  “If there’s something I like to do, I stick with it. That’s why I’ve stayed in this department.”  Another possible reason for staying may be the people with whom she gets to work: “They’re such good people.  I’ve never run into a bad professor.  Never.  They never change.”

Obviously, though, some things have changed.  Although Reed works mostly with professors, I asked her—based on her observations—how students and the university in general have changed over the last three decades.  Reed said the technology and construction has transformed everything. And the students?  “It’s different.  They’re livelier.”

Overall, it seems that Notre Dame, for Reed, has been like any other family.  It grows.  It transforms.  Yet throughout this process it remains, inexplicably, the same safe place.  Back in her office, I ask what her favorite part of her time here at Notre Dame has been, and Reed simply states, “Being here—it’s always a favorite.”

Based on my professor’s recommendation of her, the fact that one of her former co-workers sent me a glowing email when she got wind that I was interviewing her, and my own perceptions, it is plain that Reed, too, is a favorite at Notre Dame.

Learning Reed’s story quickly answered the question that had been pressing on my mind: What does home mean here?  What does family mean in this new place?  It means Cheryl Reed’s story.  It means how our Irish family stood by her, and how she has grown and stood by our Irish community.  It means a place in which the pillar of support is just as important as the standbys of grades or football.

When I asked Reed if she considered Notre Dame a family, she gave me a confident “yes.”  When asked if she considered it a home, Ms. Cheryl Reed gave the answer that tradition indicates we all will give 35 years from now:

“Always.”

Maggie Duncan is a freshman whose actual home is Bloomington, Illinois—spot of the exhilarating corn festival and the original Steak’n’Shake.  If you would like to learn more this wondrous place, contact her at mduncan5@nd.edu.