The Council of Representatives (COR) discussed proposed changes to the Notre Dame football student seating and ticket procedures while also reviewing a proposed Student Senate resolution requesting student involvement in the Commencement speaker selection process at its meeting Tuesday.
Junior Kevin Doyle, the student government representative to the athletic department, said he has worked with the department on an issue concerning graduate student seating at home football games.
Under the current policy, University graduate students are seated between the sophomore and junior classes at games. Both Doyle and student body president Grant Schmidt said concerns have been expressed about this seating arrangement.
"We believe that the undergraduate students are the most passionate ones at the games," Doyle said. "However, there is no standard to go off of. It varies from school to school."
Schmidt said the focus should be on maintaining the unity of the undergraduates.
"The first priority should be that all the undergraduate students are together," he said.
Schmidt said student government would continue to work with the athletic department about potentially changing the seating arrangements at home football games.
Schmidt brought up other ongoing discussions with the athletic department concerning the away football game ticket lottery. He said the current process is one student government is looking at improving.
"I would like to see a lottery that is simple," Doyle said. "We want to explore options that make the whole thing as fair and as effective as possible."
Schmidt said under NCAA regulations, the Notre Dame student body is allocated a maximum of 300 tickets to each away football game. Student Union Board (SUB) is responsible for judging how many of those tickets they should purchase in order to sell to the students.
"SUB takes a risk every time they do this," Schmidt said. "If they buy all 300 tickets and only sell 200, they are obviously taking a huge hit financially."
Schmidt asked COR members for suggestions to see what could be done to make the lottery an easier process so Notre Dame students feel more inclined to buy tickets to away football games.
"We've suggested allowing the lotteries to occur earlier," Doyle said. "That makes it easier for students to get their travel plans together."
The majority of COR members agreed allowing students to participate in the ticket lottery earlier would not only increase ticket sales, but also make the entire process easier.
Schmidt brought to COR's attention a proposed resolution currently under review in Student Senate. The resolution asks the University to include a student body representative in the selection process of the commencement speaker. The current process asks for no student input.
Schmidt said the resolution would ask the selection committee to include a student body representative for input on the potential speakers. He said the representative would most likely be either the student body president or the senior class president.
"There are some concerns involving confidentiality issues, but we think that a student representative should have a part in this process," he said.
