Notre Dame’s student senate convened Wednesday on the second floor of the LaFortune Student Center. The meeting featured resolutions to bestow emeritus status on student body vice president Matthew Bisner and off campus president Thomas Davis and to commend the Division of Student Affairs for their work to provide housing for Gateway students in the fall.
Following opening prayer, roll call and approval of the last week’s meeting minutes, Bisner moved into executive announcements, in which they wished a happy spring break to the senators.
“Enjoy your spring break [and] really do take a break,” Bisner said. “It's been a long year and a long semester but we're getting there.”
Moving on from announcements to general orders, club coordination council president and senior Maddie Tupy gave a constitutionally required semesterly presentation, covering the council’s ongoing work in club funding allocation.
The council, Tupy said, sets out to distribute money to Notre Dame clubs fairly.
“Our main goal here on campus is to allocate the 40% of the Student Union budget that we get and give that to clubs as equitably as possible,” she said.
Tupy explained the council’s club funding process with its primary form of spring allocations along with the supplementary winter reallocations, which are much smaller but give clubs the ability to gather funding for unexpected costs, such as club sports travel.
Tupy described a “meticulous” process ensuring that club funding aids in each club’s mission.
“I would say we do a very good job of making sure that every single dollar that we are giving clubs is going to something that is going to benefit the club and is core to the club's mission and purpose,” she said.
Following the presentation, Keough Hall senator and junior Benjamin Erhardt read resolution SO2122-19, amending the constitution to shift Student Union funds towards club funding allocation. The amendment, originally discussed in February, was referred to an ad hoc committee Wednesday.
The next two resolutions sought to bestow emeritus status on Bisner and senior and off-campus president Thomas Davis. Bisner and Davis both left the room during discussions of their respective resolutions, during which student body president Allan Njomo spoke highly about both leaders.
Njomo spoke of personal discussions in which Bisner could easily refer to the constitution’s specifics.
“I thought that they had a constitution in front of them and they did not, so Matty knows the constitution in and out,” Njomo said of Bisner. “This is an honor I am 100% affirmative of bestowing upon him.”
During discussions of bestowing emeritus status upon Davis, Njomo also described Davis as knowledgeable and important to his development as a member of the Student Union.
“He was the person who took me in when I was a sophomore and knew nothing about the constitution,” Njomo said of Davis. “He took me under his wing.”
The two resolutions originally scheduled for new business were moved to general orders and approved upon voting.
The first, resolution SO2122-20, appointed first-year Caston Murphy to Stanford Hall’s vacant senator position. The second resolution SO2122-11, commended the Division of Student Affairs for its hard work to be able to provide housing for the Gateway 9.0 cohort.
“To be able to turn that around so quickly and ensure that our friends from Holy Cross who are coming here, the Gateways do have housing, I think it's incredibly important for us acknowledge all the hard work,” senator of Breen-Phillips Hall and sophomore Faith Woods said of the resolution.
Following new business and announcements from senators, the meeting was adjourned.
