Notre Dame avail­able to Bethel stu­dents

 Sit­u­ated just miles from one of the most pres­ti­gious and scenic uni­ver­si­ties in the world, Bethel Col­lege stu­dents have op­por­tu­ni­ties to en­joy a taste of Notre Dame. Whether it’s in the ath­letic stands, fine arts arena, his­toric build­ings or so­cial scenes, there’s al­ways an op­por­tu­nity to par­tic­i­pate - it’s just a mat­ter of know­ing how.

Even Bethel’s non-Irish fans en­joy ND ath­let­ics, since the Irish and their Di­vi­sion I op­po­nents pre­sent a level of com­pe­ti­tion sel­dom seen on NAIA fields. In re­turn, the Notre Dame Ath­letic De­part­ment has taken a mu­tual lik­ing to Bethel stu­dents; they of­fer dis­counted tick­ets and pro­mo­tional deals to make at­tend­ing more af­ford­able. Men’s and wom­en’s soc­cer, men’s and wom­en’s lacrosse, base­ball, soft­ball and vol­ley­ball tick­ets can all be pur­chased for just $3, while hockey and men’s and wom­en’s bas­ket­ball tick­ets go on sale around De­cem­ber. While Notre Dame Foot­ball does­n’t make this list, there are still af­ford­able ways for Bethel stu­dents to par­tic­i­pate in the hype. For ex­am­ple, every Fri­day be­fore a Sat­ur­day home game, stu­dents can at­tend a 6 p.m. pep rally in the Joyce Cen­ter. A few hours later, Notre Dame’s drum-line en­ter­tains fans on the steps of the Golden Dome at mid­night, bring­ing in Game Day Sat­ur­day with true Fight­ing Irish vi­tal­ity.

“I have gone to one of the drum-lines…and that was re­ally fun,” said ju­nior Whit­ney Neuen­schwan­der. “Once it started, every­one par­tic­i­pated in the tra­di­tional Notre Dame songs and dances. It felt like I was ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a part of Notre Dame his­tory!”

Aca­d­e­mic and artis­tic op­por­tu­ni­ties are also abun­dant on the other side of Twick­en­ham Blvd. The li­brary, one of the largest in the coun­try, wel­comes Bethel stu­dents with 14 floors of books, quiet study space and un­fa­mil­iar faces – per­fect for crack­ing down on home­work. Bethel stu­dents are also able to check out books with their stu­dent IDs, thanks to a joint li­brary pro­gram be­tween the two schools.

“I al­ways feel ac­com­plished when I leave Notre Dame’s li­brary,” said sopho­more Aubrey Cowser. “It’s so much qui­eter over there, and I’m never tempted to talk to friends since every­one’s a stranger. It’s the per­fect Fi­nals Week at­mos­phere.”

Sat­ur­day Scholar Se­ries are also open to the pub­lic in the fall, fea­tur­ing di­verse top­ics with an aca­d­e­mic spin. Past ex­am­ples in­clude "Missal Alert: Prepa­ra­tion and Im­ple­men­ta­tion of the New Trans­la­tion of the Ro­man Missal," "Bridg­ing the At­lantic: The Strug­gles of an Aban­doned 19th Cen­tury Irish Vil­lage," "Build­ing Peace in a Vi­o­lent World: What I've Learned in Five Decades as a Peace Scholar," "The Po­etic Curve of Na­ture: Con­nect­ing Lit­er­a­ture and Sci­ence," and "The Apart­ment Plot: Fan­tasies of Ur­ban Liv­ing in Amer­i­can Movies." These sem­i­nars are free of charge and take place home game Sat­ur­days. A com­plete sched­ule can be found at cal­en­dar.nd.edu.

Notre Dame’s Snite Mu­seum of Art and De­Bar­tolo Fine Arts Cen­ter also pre­sent a va­ri­ety of artis­tic op­por­tu­ni­ties for the com­mu­nity. Many FYE blocks and Per­spec­tive in Fine Arts classes have taken group trips, while the­atre stu­dents oc­ca­sion­ally find work there. All Bethel stu­dents can in­crease their ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the arts for a dis­counted price from their Irish neigh­bors.

For self-guided en­ter­tain­ment, stu­dents can uti­lize the wind­ing side­walks in Notre Dame’s his­toric cam­pus. Whether go­ing for a run or leisurely walk, the scenery will in­spire, de­light and en­ter­tain. And with Notre Dame’s new Eddy Street Com­mons lo­cated on the south edge of cam­pus, a re­lax­ing stroll can be­come an evening out, com­plete with din­ner and shop­ping (and who would­n’t love that?).

“I just re­ally like to walk around and take in the at­mos­phere of the cam­pus,” said Neuen­schwan­der. “The cam­pus is ab­solutely beau­ti­ful, es­pe­cially this time of year, and I love to take pic­tures and soak it all in.”

 “My fa­vorite part of vis­it­ing cam­pus is the at­mos­phere,” said sopho­more stu­dent Chris­ten We­gener. “It's so beau­ti­ful; it's clearly got the col­lege at­mos­phere go­ing on, but at the same time it is a sa­cred place. I just get this sense of won­der when wan­der­ing around there, es­pe­cially in­side the ad­min­is­tra­tion build­ing and Basil­ica.”

            For stu­dents drawn to Notre Dame’s sa­cred am­biance, the Basil­ica is open to the pub­lic for mass and per­sonal prayer. The Grotto also wel­comes vis­i­tors with the hal­lowed glow of nu­mer­ous can­dles in a cave-like set­ting.

“All in all, I love hav­ing Notre Dame close to Bethel be­cause of its pres­tige and at­mos­phere, said Neuen­schwan­der. “There's just some­thing spe­cial about know­ing that you can drive four miles away and ex­pe­ri­ence all the Uni­ver­sity of Notre Dame has to of­fer.”