I write today because many Saint Mary's students, myself included, have noticed a growing bite to The Observer's occasional jokes about the Saint Mary's and Holy Cross student bodies. We at Saint Mary's do not take ourselves so seriously that we fail to recognize the longstanding tradition of gentle back-and-forth teasing that has gone on throughout our joint history, and this letter is not meant to express some great outrage at any particular joke. It is meant, rather, to clarify that all joking aside, the women of Saint Mary's are proud of our history, tradition, mission, and accomplishments, different though they are than those of our more well-known neighbor.
Many of us chose after careful deliberation to attend Saint Mary's, and to be a part of an institution dedicated exclusively to the Catholic education of young women. We celebrate the courage and the faith of the Sisters of the Holy Cross who, while accompanying Father Sorin to assist him in the tasks necessary to found University of Notre Dame, took up as their own mission the founding of an institution for women, and who today continue their ministries for justice on four continents. Many of us, like many Notre Dame students, chose to continue a family tradition by attending the College, and many of us continue to have family ties across the road. In my own family, I followed in the tradition of my mother and my aunts as a Saint Mary's student, and my father, my uncles, and my sister, all of whom hold Notre Dame degrees, eagerly welcomed me to the Notre Dame/Saint Mary's family. That Notre Dame/Saint Mary's family is a real one, though like all families, it is composed of different and independent characters with independent goals and achievements, tied together in community.
The Saint Mary's student body is one of good humor, but it is also one filled with pride in our own heritage, separate from, but inseparably bound to, that of Notre Dame. We will gladly accept teasing, as long as it remains gentle back-and-forth teasing among friends. We hope that The Observer, "The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary's," truly serves both campuses and our neighbors at Holy Cross College by holding firm to the conviction that any teasing worth printing must be born out of our tradition of mutual respect and affection.
Kellye MitrosseniorSaint Mary's student body presidentOct. 12
