Student Senate discussed pep rally improvement and student employment reform at Wednesday's meeting, planning to make strides in these areas before the current student government's term ends April 1.
Student body vice president Andrew Bell said the current student government officers will have their closing meeting soon with Game Day Operations in order to finalize next year's pep rallies.
"We're giving them our final thoughts on pep rallies so they can make improvements for next year," he said.
Pasquerilla East senator Julie Doherty said there was an excessive amount of waiting at the 2010 rallies.
"They lasted too long and took up too much time," Doherty said. "It's not as fun when you're just waiting there for a while."
Off-Campus Concerns Chair Emily LeStrange said the changes at Irish Green this year were definitely a positive step.
"It's a lot more student-friendly in terms of players getting involved," she said. "It's more open to communicating with students."
LeStrange said the unlimited capacity and the stage are both important features of the location.
But some senators said the lack of thunderous noise at Irish Green posed a problem.
"At Irish Green the stage isn't facing [DeBartolo Performing Arts Center], it faces the street so the sound doesn't reverberate," Siegfried senator Kevin McDermott said.
Yiting Zheng, McGlinn senator, said the indoor pep rallies solved this problem by packing many people inside and creating a higher noise level.
Ideas to bring older students to next year's rallies included guest speakers, more variety and free food and T-shirts.
Student body president Catherine Soler also discussed her plan to restructure student employment, especially the Notre Dame Job Board.
The job board, which can be found through a link under the Student Academic tab on insideND, lists categories of both on-campus jobs, such as in athletics and food services, and jobs in the broader Notre Dame community, such as child care and clerical positions.
Soler said the current board is rarely updated and hard to navigate.
The Student Employment Office, a division of the Office of Financial Aid, manages the board but does not actively seek out student employment opportunities to post, she said.
"The current process is each department is sent a newsletter and if they have a job, they can contact the Student Employment Office which then puts it on job board," Soler said.
Once a position is filled, it is again the job of the department to inform the Student Employment Office to remove the position from the board. Soler said the departments do not regularly follow-up with this task, which makes the board rarely up-to-date.
Some senators suggested moving the link to a more visible place. Zheng said allowing students to upload their resumes directly to the site would improve contact between applicants and potential employers.
With more than 40 percent of students employed on campus, Soler said, the job board should become a more effective tool.
