#notredame — Public Fediverse posts

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Shields Family Hall: Building Notre Dame’s Future, Together

A new football building naturally invites talk about weight rooms, technology, and recruiting. But the part of Pete Bevacqua’s interview that stayed with me was his description of student-athletes sitting down to eat together.

In this conversation from ND Loyal, Notre Dame’s director of athletics explains what Shields Family Hall brings to football and to the broader athletics community. For Irish fans, it offers a thoughtful look at how a place built for competition can also strengthen a sense of belonging.

A place to prepare—and to connect

Bevacqua describes a football facility designed around purposeful preparation: training, recovery, meetings, and an experience room where video and a short stretch of turf help players work through situations. His account makes the investment tangible. These are the spaces where the work between Saturdays happens.

Yet his enthusiasm is especially clear when he turns to the Pat Kramer dining hall. He describes athletes from different sports sharing tables, talking, studying, and getting to know one another. The dining space serves student-athletes across Notre Dame’s 26 varsity programs.

That is an easy detail to overlook in a facilities story. A shared table can do something a schedule or a team meeting cannot: create room for friendships that cross the boundaries of a roster. For students whose days are filled with classes, practice, and travel, those ordinary encounters matter.

Making room for everyone who wore the jersey

Another memorable part of the conversation concerns the Hall of Champions. The interview describes a place where former players can find their team’s roster and photograph—a way to recognize everyone who helped carry the program forward.

Notre Dame’s history is rich with famous names. It is also made of teammates whose contributions never became household stories. There is something deeply fitting about giving those players a place in the building, too. Tradition becomes more meaningful when people can see themselves in it.

A future larger than football

Bevacqua also points to former players whose lives and careers flourished after their time at Notre Dame. His larger message is that an NFL ambition can sit alongside other possibilities for a meaningful, successful life.

I would carry that thought beyond the financial measures discussed in the interview. The lasting promise of a Notre Dame education includes the relationships students build, the work they go on to do, and the people and communities they serve.

For me, that is the most hopeful way to understand Shields Family Hall: as an investment in daily habits and relationships that can outlast a playing career. We want the Irish prepared to win on Saturday. We also want the students wearing those jerseys prepared for everything that comes afterward.

Watch the interview

Watch ND Loyal’s full 7-minute, 45-second conversation, Inside Notre Dame Football’s New Shields Family Hall. The discussion of the dining hall begins around 2:23; the conversation about honoring former players begins around 4:01.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQYxN53ykto

More

For background on the former players and families who supported the project, read Notre Dame’s announcement of the Shields family gift. The University’s project page explains the facility’s broader purpose.

Featured image: Architectural rendering of Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, from the University of Notre Dame’s Facilities Design and Operations project page.

Shields Family Hall: Building Notre Dame’s Future, Together

A new football building naturally invites talk about weight rooms, technology, and recruiting. But the part of Pete Bevacqua’s interview that stayed with me was his description of student-athletes sitting down to eat together.

In this conversation from ND Loyal, Notre Dame’s director of athletics explains what Shields Family Hall brings to football and to the broader athletics community. For Irish fans, it offers a thoughtful look at how a place built for competition can also strengthen a sense of belonging.

A place to prepare—and to connect

Bevacqua describes a football facility designed around purposeful preparation: training, recovery, meetings, and an experience room where video and a short stretch of turf help players work through situations. His account makes the investment tangible. These are the spaces where the work between Saturdays happens.

Yet his enthusiasm is especially clear when he turns to the Pat Kramer dining hall. He describes athletes from different sports sharing tables, talking, studying, and getting to know one another. The dining space serves student-athletes across Notre Dame’s 26 varsity programs.

That is an easy detail to overlook in a facilities story. A shared table can do something a schedule or a team meeting cannot: create room for friendships that cross the boundaries of a roster. For students whose days are filled with classes, practice, and travel, those ordinary encounters matter.

Making room for everyone who wore the jersey

Another memorable part of the conversation concerns the Hall of Champions. The interview describes a place where former players can find their team’s roster and photograph—a way to recognize everyone who helped carry the program forward.

Notre Dame’s history is rich with famous names. It is also made of teammates whose contributions never became household stories. There is something deeply fitting about giving those players a place in the building, too. Tradition becomes more meaningful when people can see themselves in it.

A future larger than football

Bevacqua also points to former players whose lives and careers flourished after their time at Notre Dame. His larger message is that an NFL ambition can sit alongside other possibilities for a meaningful, successful life.

I would carry that thought beyond the financial measures discussed in the interview. The lasting promise of a Notre Dame education includes the relationships students build, the work they go on to do, and the people and communities they serve.

For me, that is the most hopeful way to understand Shields Family Hall: as an investment in daily habits and relationships that can outlast a playing career. We want the Irish prepared to win on Saturday. We also want the students wearing those jerseys prepared for everything that comes afterward.

Watch the interview

Watch ND Loyal’s full 7-minute, 45-second conversation, Inside Notre Dame Football’s New Shields Family Hall. The discussion of the dining hall begins around 2:23; the conversation about honoring former players begins around 4:01.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQYxN53ykto

More

For background on the former players and families who supported the project, read Notre Dame’s announcement of the Shields family gift. The University’s project page explains the facility’s broader purpose.

Featured image: Architectural rendering of Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, from the University of Notre Dame’s Facilities Design and Operations project page.

Shields Family Hall: Building Notre Dame’s Future, Together

A new football building naturally invites talk about weight rooms, technology, and recruiting. But the part of Pete Bevacqua’s interview that stayed with me was his description of student-athletes sitting down to eat together.

In this conversation from ND Loyal, Notre Dame’s director of athletics explains what Shields Family Hall brings to football and to the broader athletics community. For Irish fans, it offers a thoughtful look at how a place built for competition can also strengthen a sense of belonging.

A place to prepare—and to connect

Bevacqua describes a football facility designed around purposeful preparation: training, recovery, meetings, and an experience room where video and a short stretch of turf help players work through situations. His account makes the investment tangible. These are the spaces where the work between Saturdays happens.

Yet his enthusiasm is especially clear when he turns to the Pat Kramer dining hall. He describes athletes from different sports sharing tables, talking, studying, and getting to know one another. The dining space serves student-athletes across Notre Dame’s 26 varsity programs.

That is an easy detail to overlook in a facilities story. A shared table can do something a schedule or a team meeting cannot: create room for friendships that cross the boundaries of a roster. For students whose days are filled with classes, practice, and travel, those ordinary encounters matter.

Making room for everyone who wore the jersey

Another memorable part of the conversation concerns the Hall of Champions. The interview describes a place where former players can find their team’s roster and photograph—a way to recognize everyone who helped carry the program forward.

Notre Dame’s history is rich with famous names. It is also made of teammates whose contributions never became household stories. There is something deeply fitting about giving those players a place in the building, too. Tradition becomes more meaningful when people can see themselves in it.

A future larger than football

Bevacqua also points to former players whose lives and careers flourished after their time at Notre Dame. His larger message is that an NFL ambition can sit alongside other possibilities for a meaningful, successful life.

I would carry that thought beyond the financial measures discussed in the interview. The lasting promise of a Notre Dame education includes the relationships students build, the work they go on to do, and the people and communities they serve.

For me, that is the most hopeful way to understand Shields Family Hall: as an investment in daily habits and relationships that can outlast a playing career. We want the Irish prepared to win on Saturday. We also want the students wearing those jerseys prepared for everything that comes afterward.

Watch the interview

Watch ND Loyal’s full 7-minute, 45-second conversation, Inside Notre Dame Football’s New Shields Family Hall. The discussion of the dining hall begins around 2:23; the conversation about honoring former players begins around 4:01.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQYxN53ykto

More

For background on the former players and families who supported the project, read Notre Dame’s announcement of the Shields family gift. The University’s project page explains the facility’s broader purpose.

Featured image: Architectural rendering of Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, from the University of Notre Dame’s Facilities Design and Operations project page.

Shields Family Hall: Building Notre Dame’s Future, Together

A new football building naturally invites talk about weight rooms, technology, and recruiting. But the part of Pete Bevacqua’s interview that stayed with me was his description of student-athletes sitting down to eat together.

In this conversation from ND Loyal, Notre Dame’s director of athletics explains what Shields Family Hall brings to football and to the broader athletics community. For Irish fans, it offers a thoughtful look at how a place built for competition can also strengthen a sense of belonging.

A place to prepare—and to connect

Bevacqua describes a football facility designed around purposeful preparation: training, recovery, meetings, and an experience room where video and a short stretch of turf help players work through situations. His account makes the investment tangible. These are the spaces where the work between Saturdays happens.

Yet his enthusiasm is especially clear when he turns to the Pat Kramer dining hall. He describes athletes from different sports sharing tables, talking, studying, and getting to know one another. The dining space serves student-athletes across Notre Dame’s 26 varsity programs.

That is an easy detail to overlook in a facilities story. A shared table can do something a schedule or a team meeting cannot: create room for friendships that cross the boundaries of a roster. For students whose days are filled with classes, practice, and travel, those ordinary encounters matter.

Making room for everyone who wore the jersey

Another memorable part of the conversation concerns the Hall of Champions. The interview describes a place where former players can find their team’s roster and photograph—a way to recognize everyone who helped carry the program forward.

Notre Dame’s history is rich with famous names. It is also made of teammates whose contributions never became household stories. There is something deeply fitting about giving those players a place in the building, too. Tradition becomes more meaningful when people can see themselves in it.

A future larger than football

Bevacqua also points to former players whose lives and careers flourished after their time at Notre Dame. His larger message is that an NFL ambition can sit alongside other possibilities for a meaningful, successful life.

I would carry that thought beyond the financial measures discussed in the interview. The lasting promise of a Notre Dame education includes the relationships students build, the work they go on to do, and the people and communities they serve.

For me, that is the most hopeful way to understand Shields Family Hall: as an investment in daily habits and relationships that can outlast a playing career. We want the Irish prepared to win on Saturday. We also want the students wearing those jerseys prepared for everything that comes afterward.

Watch the interview

Watch ND Loyal’s full 7-minute, 45-second conversation, Inside Notre Dame Football’s New Shields Family Hall. The discussion of the dining hall begins around 2:23; the conversation about honoring former players begins around 4:01.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQYxN53ykto

More

For background on the former players and families who supported the project, read Notre Dame’s announcement of the Shields family gift. The University’s project page explains the facility’s broader purpose.

Featured image: Architectural rendering of Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, from the University of Notre Dame’s Facilities Design and Operations project page.

Shields Family Hall: Building Notre Dame’s Future, Together

A new football building naturally invites talk about weight rooms, technology, and recruiting. But the part of Pete Bevacqua’s interview that stayed with me was his description of student-athletes sitting down to eat together.

In this conversation from ND Loyal, Notre Dame’s director of athletics explains what Shields Family Hall brings to football and to the broader athletics community. For Irish fans, it offers a thoughtful look at how a place built for competition can also strengthen a sense of belonging.

A place to prepare—and to connect

Bevacqua describes a football facility designed around purposeful preparation: training, recovery, meetings, and an experience room where video and a short stretch of turf help players work through situations. His account makes the investment tangible. These are the spaces where the work between Saturdays happens.

Yet his enthusiasm is especially clear when he turns to the Pat Kramer dining hall. He describes athletes from different sports sharing tables, talking, studying, and getting to know one another. The dining space serves student-athletes across Notre Dame’s 26 varsity programs.

That is an easy detail to overlook in a facilities story. A shared table can do something a schedule or a team meeting cannot: create room for friendships that cross the boundaries of a roster. For students whose days are filled with classes, practice, and travel, those ordinary encounters matter.

Making room for everyone who wore the jersey

Another memorable part of the conversation concerns the Hall of Champions. The interview describes a place where former players can find their team’s roster and photograph—a way to recognize everyone who helped carry the program forward.

Notre Dame’s history is rich with famous names. It is also made of teammates whose contributions never became household stories. There is something deeply fitting about giving those players a place in the building, too. Tradition becomes more meaningful when people can see themselves in it.

A future larger than football

Bevacqua also points to former players whose lives and careers flourished after their time at Notre Dame. His larger message is that an NFL ambition can sit alongside other possibilities for a meaningful, successful life.

I would carry that thought beyond the financial measures discussed in the interview. The lasting promise of a Notre Dame education includes the relationships students build, the work they go on to do, and the people and communities they serve.

For me, that is the most hopeful way to understand Shields Family Hall: as an investment in daily habits and relationships that can outlast a playing career. We want the Irish prepared to win on Saturday. We also want the students wearing those jerseys prepared for everything that comes afterward.

Watch the interview

Watch ND Loyal’s full 7-minute, 45-second conversation, Inside Notre Dame Football’s New Shields Family Hall. The discussion of the dining hall begins around 2:23; the conversation about honoring former players begins around 4:01.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQYxN53ykto

More

For background on the former players and families who supported the project, read Notre Dame’s announcement of the Shields family gift. The University’s project page explains the facility’s broader purpose.

Featured image: Architectural rendering of Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, from the University of Notre Dame’s Facilities Design and Operations project page.

Le futur n’est plus seulement occidental

Retour de Chine, où je n’étais pas allé depuis 40 ans. Le pays n’est plus ce qu’il était, « en voie de développement », mais bel et bien développé. Plus que les États-Unis parfois, dans les batteries électriques, l’automobile, les robots connectés, les énergies renouvelables, la mécanique quantique. Pire : alors même que les États-Unis sous Trump et sa bande de techno-fascistes font régresser l’Amérique en misant sur le tout pétrole, le charbon, la négation du réchauffement climatique, la primauté de la force militaire, la Chine avance à bas bruit, pays stable et raisonnable, qui poursuit ses visées géostratégiques sans se presser. Le phare n’est plus à Washington pour la démocratie après l’assaut trumpien du Capitole, ni à New York pour la culture avec sa démagogie woke, ni en Californie avec ses libertés dégénérées en libertarianisme. Elle est désormais à Pékin, Shanghai et Shenzen.

Non pas qu’il faille se « convertir » à l’autoritarisme du seul parti, ni à l’autocratie de son chef Xi, mais observer comment « ça marche » – mieux que chez les Yankees arrogants. La République populaire de Chine établit désormais la trajectoire du développement et dicte le rythme économique mondial, technologique et institutionnel. Le pays a, en une génération, sorti près de 800 millions de personnes de l’extrême pauvreté, a accru l’espérance de vie à la naissance en Chine de 33 ans en 1960 à 78 ans en 2023 – la même que celle des États-Unis. Les causes ? Évidemment l’abandon de l’utopie maoïste du communisme direct à la Robespierre ou Mélenchon, qui n’aboutit qu’au chaos (la révolution « culturelle » l’a amplement montré). Mais surtout l’adoption du système capitaliste, sans la politique libérale censée aller avec.

La Chine reste confucianiste, c’est-à-dire morale, obéissante à la hiérarchie, soumise aux règles ; léniniste, c’est-à-dire démocratique selon le fameux « centralisme », on discute entre élites cooptées puis, une fois la décision majoritaire prise, tout le monde l’applique sans plus discuter ; autoritaire technocratique, c’est-à-dire avec une administration puissante, « à la française », mais surveillée et punie par le parti ; une politique industrielle de capitalisme d’État avec les mécanismes de marché.

On peut dès lors s’interroger. Qu’est-ce que le développement lorsque le modèle le plus performant ne se conforme pas aux postulats de la démocratie libérale ? En cause : l’efficacité.

Il ne suffit pas d’élire des représentants, ni de les faire discuter au Parlement en leur donnant les moyens d’enquêter et de réfléchir sans trop tenir compte des lobbies, ni de leur faire accoucher de lois. Encore faut-il que tout ce processus ne prenne pas trop de temps et qu’il soit efficace et contrôlé dans ses résultats. Or c’est loin d’être le cas ! Les « oppositions » se fragmentent, les égoïsmes sacrés des fractions de la société se manifestent bruyamment, les « syndicats » défendent leur bifteck particulier au détriment de l’intérêt général (on pense en France à la FNSEA, aux cheminots). Les lois sont mal pensées, mal rédigées, mal appliquées, jamais contrôlées. Les dysfonctionnements sont la norme (l’affaire Lyhanna, après bien d’autres, montre combien la police et la justice sont gangrenées par le je-m’en-foutisme et l’exception de pouvoir).

La doxa libérale selon laquelle il faut le moins d’État possible et le plus de laisser-faire possible, atteint ses limites. L’essor brutal de la Chine le montre. Aux États-Unis, on rétablit la politique industrielle dès Biden, des partenariats coordonnés entre le gouvernement et l’industrie. En France, on a bien rétabli « le Plan », en forme de pâle copie de celui qui œuvrait sous de Gaulle, mais sous l’égide d’un indécideur pathologique en la personne de Bayrou, qui n’a accouché de rien, des « rapports » dont personne n’a jamais entendu parler. Or la menace russe le montre dans la Défense : il faut faire vite et mieux. La reconstruction de la cathédrale Notre-Dame a prouvé qu’un militaire aux commandes réussissait mieux que les multiples bureaucrates des multiples administrations « chargées » de l’édifice, qui n’ont rien foutu, rien vu, rien empêché – tout comme le casse par des racailles de banlieue au musée du Louvre.

Nous assistons à la douloureuse mais salutaire prise de conscience qu’un autre système, même imparfait, réussit mieux que le nôtre. Plus vite, plus haut, plus fort. Il se disait qu’aucune véritable innovation ne pourrait naître sans liberté politique, or les entreprises et les laboratoires chinois ont des résultats de classe mondiale tout en opérant au sein d’un écosystème de l’information très différent. L’efficacité est la règle, pas la procédure.

La légitimité politique, dès lors, ne pourra-t-elle découler de la capacité à tenir ses engagements plus que de la « pureté idéologique » ? Il ne s’agit pas de se dire « progressiste » pour faire advenir le progrès ; ni « nationaliste » ou souverainiste pour exercer pleinement la souveraineté. Encore faut-il réussir à assurer la prospérité et la stabilité, à construire à grande échelle, à innover sous pression, à absorber la contrainte économique sans y céder, à mobiliser des ressources pour la transition énergétique ou le réarmement.

Évidemment, se pose la question des vertus de la gouvernance technocratique. Son efficacité, sa capacité à planifier, construire et produire à grande échelle peuvent-elle être assurées sans céder à la tentation autoritaire ? Il ne s’agit pas de nous convertir au communisme d’État à la chinoise, mais de trouver notre propre voie occidentale, différente selon les pays. En France, les Saint-Simoniens avaient ouvert la voie, la planification gaulliste pris le relai (jusqu’à ce que Villepin l’abolisse en 2006), Emmanuel Macron a prouvé qu’une volonté ouvrait un chemin pour Notre-Dame ou le budget de la Défense.

La bordélisation parlementaire due à un « mouvement » qui dénie toute représentation indirecte et veut faire advenir les nouveaux Français au pouvoir vise à renverser « le système » tel qu’il est. Pour mettre quoi à la place ? Un caudillo à la Castro ou Chavez qui décidera tout seul, comme un Trump latino musulman ? La démagogie populiste due à un parti qui a la nostalgie de Vichy (sa Morale, sa religion, ses ordres professionnels) vise elle aussi à renverser le système tel qu’il est. Pour mettre quoi à la place ? Un Pétain, un Franco, un Salazar qui décidera tout seul, en « morale » et en « souveraineté » (à préférence ethnique) ? Il est intéressant d’observer que l’intérêt du mouvement MAGA pour la Chine s’explique en partie par l’admiration pour son homogénéité ethnique, ses capacités de surveillance, sa panoplie d’outils autoritaires. Avis à la tentation !

Nous devons réformer notre système, trop lent, trop procédurier, trop bureaucratique – et jamais contrôlé, sauf après une crise. Le défi n’est pas de s’accrocher à l’ordre établi mais de cultiver la souplesse intellectuelle nécessaire pour s’adapter lorsque le monde évolue plus vite que nos théories ne peuvent suivre. Pour cela, réformer l’école, les programmes, l’enseignement, la sélection des élites, les carrières. Et rétablir un Plan national qui donnera chaque année des objectifs définis avec les partenaires sociaux pour orienter les investissements dans les secteurs prioritaires pour la croissance. Tout en mobilisant l’épargne abondante des Français, qui va aujourd’hui largement dans les projets d’investissement aux États-Unis, devenus notre adversaire, sinon notre ennemi ! Vaste programme qui prendre au moins une génération, comme en Chine. Mais notre survie politique et culturelle d’Européens est à ce prix.