The Council of Representatives (COR) discussed the possibility of making all lectures not affiliated with courses available online as podcasts on iTunes U at their meeting Tuesday.
Making them available as podcasts will allow all students and staff to listen to lectures and forums that they cannot fit into their schedules.
"There are a lot of things that students want to attend, but they can't," student body president Bob Reish said.
Uploading the lectures as podcasts is simple and relatively cheap, Morrissey senator Austin Holler said,
"I believe it's just a matter of recording it and then uploading," he said. "The fees are minimal."
Class of 2011 president Cynthia Weber said Notre Dame should not only offer non-class lectures but also course and lecture content as podcasts.
"I think absolutely we should pursue podcasts as a beginning and then go to iTunes U," she said. "We bring something really unique to the table as a Catholic university."
Reish said one example of an event that could be uploaded as a podcast would be "The (Un)Holy Trinity: Entourage, Media, and Men," which took place last week and examined the portrayal of gender relations in the media.
Some COR members voiced concerns of the difficulty getting professors and speakers to agree to allow the University to upload their lecture online. Weber, however, said this should not be a major stumbling block.
"If I was giving a lecture I would jump at the opportunity to put it online," she said.
In other COR news:
uCOR members briefly followed up last week's discussion on the Notre Dame Clothing Haiti Project. Hall President's Council co-chair Erin Walsh said she was able to meet with some alumni over the weekend and discuss specific plans.
"We came up with some really good ideas on how to make is a joint alumni-student project," she said.
Wash said she would attempt to organize a clothing drive, possibly before the end of the semester, and then arrange to have the clothes flown to Haiti next year using an empty cargo plane.
