I was also troubled by some aspects of the St. Mary's student situation.  I have a daughter who goes to St. Mary's, and as I've acknowledged here before, I work at ND.  I know a fair amount about this situation beyond what was reported in the Chicago Tribune.  And far from just trying to defend ND here, I have some significant disagreements with some decisions that were made.  But I don't think they just tried to sweep things under the rug. But they could.. and should... have done more.  But not all facts have been made public; I suppose it sounds melodramatic for me to say that and not back it up with additional info, but I just can not do that.   

But I strongly disagree with the Declan Sullivan (the young man involved in the tower collapse accient) comment you made.  I was very involved with the reaction to that tragredy, and it simply is not correct to say the the University was anything less than horrified and terribly saddened by what happened.  It was a tragic accident.  Yes, somebody should have made the call to tell the student video crew not to go up on the towers that day; ND admits that and regrets it.  Some tried, actually, but the students insisted that their job was to tape the practice.  Including Declan. Not defending the outcome, but it was an accident.  Not an evil conspriacy.   

I think I need to stop reading and responding to the anti-ND threads here.  It's bound to get worse over the next month.  I will try my best to just ignore the nastiness.  But it is hard given the tremendous respect I have for Notre Dame based on  the last 22 years of my life and the people I know here, and the experiences I have had.  Notre Dame is far from perfect--no institution is-- but it is not even close to evil.  I think one of the better things about ND is that the administration truly cares about the students, although mistakes certainly are made.   

What you might find somewhat humorous is that while I stick up for ND here on the Swamp, I play the opposite role in my daily life at ND.  When people take stabs at the SEC and UF, I'm the one that tells them why they are wrong.  So I find myself in no-man's land, irritated at ND people who don't respect UF and the SEC, and irritated at fellow Gators who take what I consider to be superfluous and mean-spirited pot-shots at ND.