Dear Men Of Sorin,
As the not-so-great DMX raps in a hit song that you blared from your dorm on Friday afternoon, "Y'all gon' make me lose my mind, up in here."
This past weekend, I made my second return to campus since I graduated last May. I spent Friday afternoon doing some of the obligatory football weekend visitor activities with my mom and younger sister — walking around campus, going to the bookstore and visiting the Grotto.
During this time, I passed between Sorin and the Basilica as speakers in Sorin showered God Quad with obscenities from the aforementioned DMX tune. I found myself nearly yelling over my 13-year-old sister to distract her from words coming out of the speakers. The otherwise beautiful football weekend atmosphere, perhaps unrivaled elsewhere on campus, was temporarily blighted by DMX's crude lyricism, rough lyrics even by the standards of a genre whose artists seldom preoccupy with political correctness.
This is not a condemnation of rap music, nor am I attempting to single out Sorin. For the many dorms across campus that have prime real estate on the quads, playing music, especially very loudly, makes any hangout more enjoyable.
However, I encourage all who do this to exercise caution and censorship in song selection, especially when campus is at peak capacity with thousands of weekend visitors. As most students know without the need for this reminder, both rap songs and our Basilica are better off with at least 100 yards of separation between them.
To conclude, I remind you of the famous words uttered by Spiderman's Uncle Ben when he was a sales associate at Circuit City, "With great speaker power comes great responsibility."
I will be back for the USC game and I look forward to hearing a revamped, God-Quad friendly playlist.
Thoughtfully yours,
Gavin Labate
Class of 2011
alumnus
Oct. 9
