Students engage in productive social activism
Members of the “Irish for Fairness and Freedom” student group have recently organized a demonstration against the University’s residential policy changes announced two weeks ago.
Through this new initiative, students will actively confront staff members at the University’s Office of Housing in hopes of having their grievances acknowledged. The event organizers argue that the University’s new policies are contrary to the Church’s social doctrine as they “discriminate against financially underprivileged students” and are “racist.”
Other groups such as “Irish for Equality and Prosperity,” “Irish for Reproductive Liberty,” “Students for Child-Preventive Policy,” and “Alliance against Bigotry” have all expressed their support for the effort. Katie O’Malley, President of Notre Dame’s “Catholics against Liturgical Dress Code” group, emphatically told reporters with tears rolling down her cheeks that “this is truly the Tiananmen Square of our time! Fly free sons and daughters of Our Lady, for the day of retribution beckons! Weep you opponents of peace, for mercy is only for the dead!” Another student added “They are trying to strip us of bread of life: our leggings, our pornography. It’s strange studying American slavery in class and then experiencing it for yourself.”
The University’s Student Government has yet to offer their support for this student-led demonstration. Some political analysts claim that the current administration’s continuous silence displays a paradigmatic shift away from the priorities of previous administrations. Jake O’Hara, a junior political science major who has actively tracked Student Government policy decisions since his freshman year, notes that “the Boyle-McGuire Administration seems more concerned with what it perceives to be more pressing issues, such as organizing age-sensitive LGBT pizza parties and relaxing the restriction on meat in dining halls during Lenten Fridays. This is part of a larger trend that highlights an effort to minimize federal student government overreach. For instance, in recent years, administrations have increasingly deferred issues relating to residential life to local dorm governments.”
One anonymous professor has given his stamp of approval. “The effort is a celebration of our ability to engage in civil disobedience in order to face issues that really matter.” Although the Office of Housing has given no official statement, a member of the Office of Residential Life told our reporters “Your appetites are insatiable. To give you rabble-rousers an inch is to march ourselves miles to the gallows. We gave you a female, African American leprechaun for [goodness] sakes. What more could you possibly want?”
Some have pointed out that the students’ new method of protest is rather revolutionary. The Facebook event description states that they “will first gather a large group of around 500 people to approach the office. We will then bang on the door, scream our heads off, and stomp our feet on the ground until they give us what we want.” “Stunning and brave” comments one Facebook user.
Critics point out the timing of this event, saying that classes are getting too close to finals week for this nonsense. One of the event organizers assures that there is a backup protest in case “people have an Orgo quiz the next day or something and they’re really too busy to be bothered by all this noise.” This alternative protest involves placing rainbow stickers that say, “Mind Your Business You Bigot,” onto unsuspecting laptops.
No comment was given on how this vandalism relates to the issue at hand.
Jorge Plaza is a sophomore studying philosophy and economics. On campus, Jorge plays cello in the Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the O’Neill interhall football team. You can contact him at jplaza@nd.edu.
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