During the first Student Senate meeting of the semester, the group reviewed work done over break, including a resolution to get printers in every dorm, and discussed committee agendas for the spring semester.
The resolution that requested printers in every dorm on campus was passed before break by the Campus Life Council and was approved by Fr. Mark Poorman, vice president for Student Affairs, over break, student body president Bob Reish said.
"By the time you get back to school next fall, there will be printers in every dorm," Reish said.
Reish also updated the Senate on the progress of the Midwest Collegiate Council, an idea that originated in Reish and student body vice president Grant Schmidt's campaign.
"As you know, the purpose of the Midwest Collegiate Council is to bring other college's to Notre Dame's campus to discuss relevant issues," he said.
Reish told the Senate several prominent universities have agreed to make the trip to Notre Dame. Student Government has received responses from University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Purdue University and Washington University in St. Louis, he said.
Another project the Senate will be working on this semester is creating a forum to educate students about their legal rights off campus, Reish said.
Schmidt said Student Government is still working out the details of distributing booklets with discount coupons for off campus locations. They are looking into selling the booklets at the LaFortune box office, he said.
In the next few weeks, the Senate will look into complaints from students about ND-secure, the new campus-wide wireless connection, Campus Technology chair Devin Fee said. There have been reports of problems printing from ND-secure and some students say it is slower than Nomad, the previous wireless connection.
"People have been complaining that printing from ND-secure still doesn't work," he said. "That's something we are going to confront the Office of Information Technology about."
The Campus Technology Committee will also look into reported problems with Verizon's cell phone service, Fee said.
Kristin Lewis, the Student Affairs chair of the Faculty Senate, said the group took a survey regarding a request by Student Government to support a resolution that would allow graduate school or job interviews to be a University approved excuse for absence from class. Lewis talked to faculty from different departments on campus to gauge if there is any sort of policy, and how professors would feel about this resolution.
"For the most part, most of the professors reported that their departments don't have an official policy," she said.
However, Lewis said most faculty members she spoke with said they personally would not have a problem with a student missing class because of a job interview.
In other Senate news:
u Social Concerns chair Michelle Byrne said the committee is discussing organizing a skate night in the Joyce Center. The event would be free, but students would be asked to donate money for a charity.
u Ryan Brellenthin, chair of the Senate Academic Affairs Committee, said his group is working hard to put together Majors Night, which will take place on Thursday, January 29.
