WELCOME from Ed Mack, Rector

Dear Newest Members of O’Neill Family Hall,

Welcome to O’Neill Hall! Congratulations on your acceptance to the University of Notre Dame and your recent graduation from high school. Both are milestones in your life. Now you are joining our family at O’Neill Hall. At Notre Dame, members of all four classes live on every floor of every hall, learning from one another by living together. You are lucky to have been assigned to O’Neill Family Hall, one of three men’s halls on the West Quad. O’Neill has been Men’s Hall of the Year twice in the past couple of years!

O’Neill is filled with great men who genuinely like and respect each other, and besides excelling in their academics, find all kinds of ways to have fun. Every year in the fall, we sponsor the Ms. ND Contest, where we pay homage to the talents of the women of the fourteen female halls. That always occurs during O’Neill Week, seven nights of celebrating the brotherhood of O’Neill! In the spring we beat our neighboring hall Keough for the annual Grace Cup football championship. In February, we enjoyed the Super Bowl with over one hundred pizzas. In April, we sponsored a campus-wide Recess on a beautiful Friday afternoon, to help people ease a little of the end-of-the semester tension. We had a Christmas formal dance and, since we had been named the best hall for Freshman Orientation in 2010, we were one of the lucky halls to be allowed to have a formal dance in the Main Building under the Golden Dome. Also in the spring, we had three of our guys win their weight class in the annual Bengal Bouts, a charity boxing event here on campus. The list could go on and on. I also want to mention that Sunday Mass at 10PM in O’Neill is typically standing room only, where well more than half of the hall joins together for worship. We do many things well.

O’Neill will begin its sixteenth year this August. We are a relatively young hall on campus, but we are building our traditions. You will become a part of that. This will be my tenth year as rector, coming to Notre Dame and O’Neill in 2002 from a thirty-three year career in secondary education. I remember well how warmly I was welcomed into this family, and you will be, too.

Sometimes people leave high school thinking that college is the answer to all of life’s problems. But college life brings its own set of frustrations and concerns, as well as joys and a lifetime of memories. That is why Notre Dame values its residential tradition. Nothing can replace your own family, but you are now entering a new family where you will spend four great years, where you will make some incredible friends, where you will be cared for and guided by your peers, your RAs, the Assistant Rectors, and the Rector. And, in the years to come, you will be one of the men passing on that caring welcome to the future men of O’Neill. Academic life can provide pressure in college, but you will always have a place on campus to come home to, and family here who will value your presence among us. We hope to become your home base as you grow academically, socially and spiritually. Speaking of nourishing the spirit, we are blessed to have a Holy Cross priest living with us to help attend to our spiritual needs.

The best to you and your family. Have a good summer. Rest up and enjoy a little down time. Time will fly quickly, and then you have a busy couple of months getting acclimated to life at the University of Notre Dame. See you when you arrive in August. And once again, welcome to O’Neill Family Hall!

Sincerely,

Ed Mack
Rector, O’Neill Family Hall
100 O’Neill Hall
Notre Dame IN 46556-5657
1.574.631.3761
emack1@nd.edu