At the Campus Life Council (CLC) meeting Monday, student government members, rectors, professors and staff members from the Office of Student Affairs shared progress updates from CLC's three task force committees. According to the Task Force Agenda for 2013-2014, the first committee works on safety and mental health, the second on community building and the third on holistic development.
Student Body President Alex Coccia said the first task force continues to aid student government's campaign for sexual assault prevention.
Student government hosted a Student-Led Discussion about sexual assault on Nov. 20 in Coleman-Morse Center, Coccia said further plans to address sexual assault are in progress
"We're really going to make [sexual assault prevention] an issue campaign with door-to-door pledges." he said.
The task force hopes to work closely with freshmen and sophomores because "they will be influencing the freshmen and sophomores in future years," Coccia said.
Student Body Vice President Nancy Joyce said the second taskforce, is refinine interview questions for focus groups in residence halls where rector turnover has been most common.
Joyce said the group wants to see "what is successful in transition and maintaining dorm community."
The group is also working with Campus Ministry to see how liturgical life correlates with a dorm's sense of community, Joyce said.
Sociology professor Rich Williams said the third task force is researching office hour trends among universities across the country.
"Universities across the country complain that students don't come to office hours," Williams said.
The task force will explore ways to encourage students to come to office hours more frequently in order to encourage student and teacher relationships, Williams said.
Keenan Hall Rector Noel Terranova said faculty should conduct research and mentor students.
"The emphasis is being given to faculty for advancing research," he said. "Advancing research isn't mutually exclusive to relationships with students."
Anthropology professor Carolyn Nordstrom said Notre Dame is founded on an egalitarian process of research and undergraduate relationships."
Contact Kyle Witzigman at kwitzigm@nd.edu
