Members of the Campus Life Council presented three task force reports about campus environment, student development and community relations in a short meeting Monday.
Chief executive assistant Sheena Plamoottil reported on the first task force report, which focused on campus environment. In group sessions, the task force discussed the waste of food in the dining halls and environmental commissioners.
The second report on student development concentrated primarily on gambling, cheating and the Freshman Orientation program, student body vice president Maris Braun said.
Braun said an awareness campaign to highlight the dangers of compulsive online gaming, with the possibility of a speaker series emphasizing education, is in the works.
These efforts will not be focused on occasional poker games played in dormitories but rather on "serious gaming - money with a lot of zeroes behind it," Braun said.
On the topic of academic cheating, she said council members are proposing to examine what constitutes cheating and the way Notre Dame's peer institutions handle it.
Braun mentioned not only the issues of cheating and violating the University's honor code but also the idea that "cheating can become a lifestyle."
The task force also discussed ways to improve Freshman Orientation, including pairing the Gender Relations Center with past Frosh-O student leaders and commissioners to focus more on in-dorm programs and step away from male/female dorm activities.
Keenan senator Gus Gari presented ideas for the improvement of community relations. He said the task force focused on the safety of students living off campus and security issues at off campus parties.
He emphasized the students' individual role in these situations, and he discussed the concept of students as model citizens when it comes to handling drugs and alcohol.
Gari said he met with Scott Kachmarik, associate director of the Office of Residential Life and Housing, to discuss current alcohol and drug policies and how they affect student behavior.
Both Gari and student body president Liz Brown mentioned the importance and the contributions of the Community Relations Coalition to off-campus living situations and the party permit ordinance proposed by the South Bend Common Council. Brown said Monday night's vote on the ordinance should be "a major development and a good thing for [the coalition's] efforts."
In other CLC news:
u Brother Jerome Meyer, rector of Knott Hall, expressed concern over the abundance of posters in dorms advertising events and clubs.
"Everybody is trying to outdo everybody else on a poster," he said.
Braun said she hopes to recycle the masses of posters when groups finish with them.
"That's a lot of paper to recycle," she said. "It can help reduce our carbon footprint."
