SOUTH BEND, Ind. — At the end of a weekend during which Notre Dame students stormed the football field to revel in a win over No. 1 Clemson, Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins on Sunday expressed disappointment in student behavior relative to coronavirus protocols, weeks after Notre Dame students had expressed disappointment in Jenkins’s behavior relative to coronavirus protocols.
“As exciting as last night’s victory against Clemson was,” Jenkins wrote in a letter to students, “it was very disappointing to see evidence of widespread disregard of our health protocols at many gatherings over the weekend.”
His letter introduced stricter guidelines, which barred any student shirking a virus test from registering for next semester. On Oct. 8, the Student Senate had issued a formal disapproval of Jenkins, who had eschewed masking and distancing Sept. 26 while hobnobbing at the White House ceremony for the Supreme Court nomination of Notre Dame alumna and professor Amy Coney Barrett.
The Notre Dame Faculty Senate last Thursday night had issued its own “vote of disappointment” in Jenkins, accepting his apology.
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Jenkins announced his own positive test to students Oct. 2, the same day the country learned of President Trump’s positive test.
“I failed to lead by example,” he wrote to students then, “at a time when I’ve asked everyone else in the Notre Dame community to do so. I especially regret my mistake in light of the sacrifices made on a daily basis by many, particularly our students, in adjusting their lives to observe our health protocols.”
Amid an embattled college football season with stadiums either empty or partially filled, the sight of Notre Dame students cramming onto the field came as a stark outlier, even as many did seem to be wearing masks, unlike Jenkins in the Rose Garden. Like many schools, Notre Dame allows fans but limits the number, with the attendance for the game against Clemson at 11,011 in a stadium that seats 80,795. It also limits the crowd to students, faculty, staff and the players’ family members, with health screening involved.
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For much of a game that wound toward midnight and went to double overtime, the students sat in their scattered clumps. That differed from other settings this season, such as Oct. 3 when Georgia hosted Auburn and maskless students danced and sang together in a student section looking less distanced than the stands at Notre Dame. But as Clemson’s offense took two sacks on its second overtime possession and a Notre Dame win neared, the students behind the end zone began to hurry down the stadium steps, a spectacle that resembled a wave until they became a large blob near the bottom of the stands, awaiting the final play.
After Notre Dame’s second win against a top-five opponent in two decades, and its first over a No. 1 team in 27 years, they could not contain themselves. Their mass engulfed some of the Notre Dame players even as Clemson players appeared to exit easily with the help of beefed-up security.
“The fans storming the field was crazy,” said Notre Dame wide receiver Avery Davis, who made the game’s biggest play with a 53-yard reception late in regulation. “It’s different, when you see it, from the movies, but like, when you’re actually in there, it was kind of weird. I was getting bumped around and stuff. But I loved the energy, so it was pretty awesome at the same time.”
The students remained on the field a good while as longtime public-address announcer Mike Collins repeatedly and gently tried to coax them off. He noted they might be missing a bar’s last call, and he said: “If you leave the stadium, you can take a picture with the orange half-moon. You can see ‘Touchdown Jesus’ in green.”
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In the run-up to the game, Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly warned his players about fans potentially storming the field, partly as a health concern and partly as a bid to upgrade their confidence that a victory would be coming. In an interview with the South Bend Tribune, Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick noted the university’s attempt to keep the football team as protected as possible outside the classrooms.
“We all acknowledge that the postgame last night represented an exception to that,” he said. “We encouraged them to get off the field quickly. Not all of them did it. We’ll see whether that represents increases and a difference in our testing experience this coming week.”
He also said that in “the emotion of the moment,” some players “went right up the tunnel immediately. Others wound up getting engulfed by the crowd, celebrating with them.”
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The school had voided “more than 500” tickets, Swarbrick said, for students in quarantine or isolation or who failed to appear for testing. He said of the stadium arrangements: “We know exactly where you’re sitting. If you test positive, we’ll provide the ticket manifest to the university. They know who you were supposed to be sitting near.”
With the semester set to end with final exams Nov. 16-20, Jenkins wrote: “Because we are now even more concerned about the potential for contagion to your home communities as you prepare to travel home at the end of the semester, the University will place a registration hold on the record of any student who fails to appear for testing when asked to do so. A registration hold would mean you are unable to matriculate or register for classes next semester or receive a transcript.”
He also wrote: “Furthermore, you may not leave the South Bend area until you receive the results of your exit test. Again, should we discover that you have left the area, we will place a registration hold on your record.”
Notre Dame, standing 7-0 and ranked No. 2 by the Associated Press, has one home football game remaining — Dec. 5 against Syracuse — after the covid-altered semester has concluded.
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