Certain moments in journalism are difficult to revisit, incidents that carry the weight of loss long after the headlines have faded. Fifteen years ago, one such moment unfolded at the University of Notre Dame. On October 27, 2010, Declan Sullivan, a 20-year-old junior from Long Grove, Illinois, was recording a football practice when a scissor lift he was operating collapsed in winds approaching 50 miles per hour. The fall proved fatal. The sudden tragedy left the campus community stunned and prompted a full-scale effort to understand what had gone wrong.

In the months that followed, Notre Dame began an internal investigation overseen by Executive Vice President John Affleck-Graves. The inquiry, which stretched over six months and concluded in April 2011, included input from specialists in

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