I have the pleasure of serving as President of Farley Hall, so I participate in a lot of walkovers, dorm events, pep rallies, performances, discussions, etc. About 60 Farley Hall members walked to the first Pep Rally and in April, 125 of the Finest walked to support two residents as they shaved their heads for The Bald and The Beautiful.
Sunday night, I was part of a Farley walkover to the prayer service hosted by student government to pray for healing in light of the recent sexual assaults reported on campus. Nine Farley residents attended.
While this is just the example from Farley, I believe it is a phenomenon present throughout all of the undergraduate halls. We are all ready to dive in headfirst to the fun things going on around campus. Most of us spent all Saturday tailgating and cheering for the Irish. Yet, at a 30-minute prayer service addressing deep wounds in our student body, there were approximately 100 people in attendance.
One hundred out of 8,000. Less than two percent of our student body took time to pray together for our brothers and sisters in Notre Dame affected by sexual assault. As both tudent body vice president Nancy Joyce and Fr. Pete McCormick said at this service, as Notre Dame students we hold ourselves to a higher standard. As Notre Dame students, we sign on to do more than average, agreeing to be present and supportive of our fellow students.
If there is another sexual assault reported on campus, there will be another prayer service. Student body president Alex Coccia and Nancy have promised us this.
I hope to see more of you there. I hope you will hold yourself to the Notre Dame standard. I hope you will realize that you do have time and that the 30 minutes you might spend on a Huddle Run or a round of Super Smash could be spent in prayer with and for your Notre Dame family.
You do have time. You take time to cheer for the Irish. Please, step up and take the time to pray for the Irish.
