When I announced that I would be attending Saint Mary's, I was surprisingly often met with the response, "Isn't that the imposter Notre Dame?" Simply put, Saint Mary's is not Notre Dame nor should it be. The schools are indeed similar in their use of brick and their goal to achieve education of the mind without sacrifice of the heart. However, they offer vastly different academic opportunities with one school's style and efforts not inherently being better than the other's.
In his attempt to be fair, Mr. Moser ("Let's be fair," Mar. 3), claimed that Saint Mary's and Notre Dame are in different leagues. However, in his statement he implied that the league in which Notre Dame is classified is superior to Saint Mary's league. Now I agree that Notre Dame and Saint Mary's should not be compared because one is a university and one is a college. Therefore, they are not even the same type of institution.
Notre Dame offers more research-based learning while Saint Mary's is grounded in the liberal arts tradition. Saint Mary's College is not just a school made up of 2,000 Notre Dame rejects. There are many women here who never even considered Notre Dame because they were drawn to the small liberal arts education and traditions which Saint Mary's offers. Moreover, believe it or not, there are women who turned down Notre Dame to attend Saint Mary's. I commend the efforts of Notre Dame students to succeed academically, socially and in their communities, but for Mr. Moser to assume that Notre Dame students have worked harder and have achieved greater success in their various endeavors than their Saint Mary's peers is nothing short of arrogant.
So yes, there is a stereotype of Saint Mary's women being ignorant and promiscuous creatures who rely on Domer males for a future. Now I respect that Mr. Moser as a Keenan Knight attempted to chivalrously defend our honor, but perhaps if he would dismount from his white horse, he and his fellow Domers would realize how capable we Saint Mary's women are and start to feverently fight against that figurative dragon — our stereotype.
Susan Head
freshman
McCandless Hall
Mar. 3
