The Notre Dame student senate met Wednesday night, once again located in the Mendoza College of Business building rather than on the second floor of LaFortune Student Center, which is currently undergoing renovations.
The highlights of the meeting included the senate passing a resolution calling on Campus Dining to provide free cooking classes to students as well as approving the nomination of sophomore Hannah Blaskiewicz to serve as Student Union Treasurer for the 2023-2024 term. But before that, student body vice president Sofie Stitt had sophomore Lauren Taylor read the opening prayer, approved the prior meeting’s minutes with a vote from the senate and announced the return of the Student Life Council (SLC) to Notre Dame.
“It’s a huge deal,” Stitt said of the upcoming SLC forum, which will be held Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Carey Auditorium. “But the continuation is contingent upon attendance because I gave them my scouts honor that we really wanted this, the student body really wants this… Please come and bring your friends.”
Cooking Classes
After the announcement, the senate moved on to general orders. Sophomore and Keenan Hall senator Connor McCloskey read SS 2223-14, the resolution calling upon Campus Dining to “make cooking classes available to students.” McCloskey, who co-sponsored the resolution with four other senators, argued that Campus Dining stands to mutually benefit from the proposed classes.“Campus Dining struggles to maintain an adequate workforce to fully staff the dining halls and efficiently operate the kitchen facilities,” McCloskey said while reading the resolution. “Student workers already employed at both North and South Dining Hall have expressed an interest and desire to learn more about the kitchen facilities and cooking procedures at the university to meet the need for more workers and to complete additional professional training and development.”
Although senators asked questions on the bill, there was no debate and no dissenters when the senate voted.
Treasurer Confirmation
The nomination of Blaskiewicz for the treasurer position was originally part of new business on the senate agenda Wednesday night, but the senate, considering the fact that the treasurer term begins on March 1, motioned to move the nomination into general orders for the meeting.Outgoing treasurer Claire Evelyn Sison read her submission nominating Blaskiewicz for the position to the senate.
“I recommend this student without reservation because of her passion to become more involved in the Notre Dame community and to assist the Office of the Student Union Treasurer in becoming more efficient,” Sison said. “I am requesting that the senate approve her nomination as a result of her extensive qualifications.”
Once again, though some senators posed questions to Blaskiewicz during questioning, there was no debate against the nomination and no dissenters when the senate was asked to vote on it.
Anti-Robot Federation
Moving on to new business for a second time in the meeting, the senate listened to Alumni Hall senator James Baird give an impassioned speech against the recent development of Grubhub delivery robots that have been implemented onto Notre Dame’s campus. Though the senators laughed when Baird referred to “the Anti Robot Federation, otherwise known as ‘ARF,’” which he said was formed by disgruntled members of Alumni Hall, Baird insisted that the issue was serious.
“This is a very important issue to Alumni [Hall] students and the students at Notre Dame and, perhaps, the students of the entire world,” Baird said. “The [artificial intelligence] revolution can start right here under our nose, we have no idea. So please, please take this seriously.”
Before the meeting adjourned, Stitt briefly thanked the senators for behaving well during the recent student government elections.
“We had a pretty brutal election last year, and I didn’t want that to happen again,” Stitt said. “And I cannot tell you how appreciative I am of all of you for your character — so much better all around this year.”
