Saint Mary's Board of Governance (BOG) members approved funds for two co-sponsorships during a brief meeting Monday.
Saint Mary's senior Molly Ritter, the College and Notre Dame representative for the not-for-profit organization Invisible Children, presented her efforts to organize a screening of the documentary 'Invisible Children' and asked for $80 from BOG to help defray costs.
"The organization was actually started by three college kids, three guys from San Diego who went to Uganda to document the war," Ritter said.
One of the most tragic results of the war in northern Uganda, Ritter said, involves rebel forces kidnapping children from their homes late at night. As a result, thousands of children travel hours to nearby cities each evening and sleep wherever they can to avoid being forced to fight.
The ultimate goal of the organization, Ritter said, is to raise enough money to build schools and educate 100,000 Ugandan children.
She reserved DeBartolo 101 for a screening of the film at Notre Dame and has spent much of her own money in the planning, Ritter said.
"I just wanted to see if I could get a little money for food and snacks ... and a few extra bucks to make fliers to hang around campus, and obviously BOG support of this would be huge."
Officers overwhelmingly approved granting Ritter $80 to help fund the event.
Shortly thereafter, the Board also voted to give $150 dollars to help sponsor the two-part Saint Mary's security event "Wasted and Wounded." The first segment of the program took place Monday night and brought local experts to campus to speak about alcohol and sexual violence against women. The event surpassed its attendance goal of 250 people, according to health and wellness commisioner Meghan Lambourne.
"They talked about the realities of alcohol on your body...and they talked about sexual assault and the resources on campus," Lambourne said.
The second half of the program will take place Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in O'Laughlin Auditorium and will include a live demonstration of a law enforcement officer's posing as a young girl on the Internet to attract sexual predators.
President Kellye Mitros congratulated board members on the success of the first-ever Saint Mary's College Heritage Week, which ended Friday.
"I wanted to say thank you to everyone who participated in Heritage Week," Mitros said. "It went really, really well ... For the dinner on Friday night, we had 156 [people]. It was a pretty steady turnout for everything throughout the week."
Mission commissioner Jennifer Robbins suggested establishing some sort of tradition in having certain members of BOG serve as waiters at the dinner in future years.
"We actually saved over $800 by having student workers set up and by having the four [student government members] serve. So thank you for doing it," vice president Susan McIlduff said.
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