The Student Senate met Wednesday evening to discuss the new program, "29 for 29," that will begin this holiday season. The new initiative will bring together the 29 residence halls to participate in one service project that will entail each dorm “adopting” a family in need for the holiday season.
“Residence halls could be such a unique place to form this relationship,” student body president senior Lauren Vidal said.
According to Vidal, this will be the first time in Notre Dame history that all of the University's residence halls will be connected by Student Government for one large service project. In the past, residence halls have held their own programs and signature events for different causes, but "29 for 29" aims to be a unique way to bring together Notre Dame students and families in need for the holiday season.
The committee for "29 for 29" has developed a packet for each residence hall outlining possible activities to do with their family, Vidal said. Each hall will also be allocated a $100 budget to use toward the activities.
However, the program is designed to be flexible so each hall can make their individual projects completely tailored to their vision of the challenge, Vidal said.
“We don’t want to burden the residence halls with it being such a busy time of year,” Vidal said.
Rather, Vidal said the goal of the program is to spend time with families in the spirit of Christmas.
Sophomore Helen Hathaway, representative for Badin Hall, agreed with the planned flexible structure of "29 for 29."
“Too much regulation and standardization would make the relationship falsified," Hathaway said. "The independent structure makes it much more genuine.”
The Senate also passed resolutions to amend its Constitution, changing the words “Office of Residential Life” to “Office of Community Standards,” and opened discussion about new study spaces around campus.
