Student Senate approves nominees, amends language in constitution

On Wednesday evening, in its final meeting of its term, the Notre Dame Student Senate confirmed nominees for Student Union positions and passed a resolution to clarify language in the University Constitution. 

Mark Metryoos and Kelsey Casella were confirmed unanimously by the Senate for the position of Assistant Student Union Treasurer. Metryoos is a sophomore majoring in finance and philosophy and currently holds leadership positions in the Financial Club of Notre Dame and the Black Business Association of Notre Dame. Casella is a first year accounting major and is involved in the Student International Business Council.

Senator Derrick Williams offered his praise for Metryoos. “I think he will be very well poised with his business, professionalism and all his background to come in and do well in this position,” Williams said.

Next, the Senate confirmed seven new members for the Student Union Executive Board of Directors for the next year. 

Emily McDougall, Daniel Ward, and Juliana Ramirez were nominated as Co-Directors of Programming, Abigail Keaney was nominated as Director of Operations, Joseph Golden was nominated as Director of Publicity, Adrienne Yabut was nominated as Director of Art and Makenna Broyles was nominated as Director of Finance. 

All seven nominees were quickly confirmed unanimously.

In addition to confirming the Student Union nominees, the Senate also passed a resolution introduced by Student Union Parliamentarian Jared Schlachet to broadly clean up language in the University Constitution.

“A number of the changes are just removing clauses that are redundant,” Schlachet said.

One of the changes approved was to officially allow the Chief of Staff, instead of the Student Body President, to lead meetings of the Executive Cabinet.

“Currently the Chief of Staff chairs the executive cabinet, but the Constitution says it should be the Student Body President,” Schlachet explained.

The amendment also fixed misspellings and removed references in the Constitution to groups that no longer exist.

Not brought to debate was another amendment to the constitution which would have changed impeachment proceedings to prevent the impeached official from speaking during the impeachment hearing. Currently, the impeached student government official can mount a defense to any accusations.

The resolution was introduced by Senator Griffin McAndrew of Knott Hall.

Senators pointed out that the resolution had not made it through the Committee on the Constitution — a group made up of the Judicial Council President, the Student Body Vice-President, three senators and 13 at large members — which usually approves resolutions that contain major changes to the Constitution before they are brought to debate in the Senate.

McAndrew’s resolution had been brought to the Committee but was withdrawn after the Committee expressed opposition to the amendment, Senator Hunter Brooke, a member of the Committee on the Constitution, explained.

“When this went to [the Committee on the Constitution]. The sentiment towards this thing was generally negative, strongly enough that an amendment was made to actually do the opposite of what this is doing,” Brooks said.

The motion to move the resolution into debate did not reach the required two thirds majority and was shelved.

Concluding the meeting, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution to congratulate the Notre Dame Fencing team for their third consecutive national championship. 

The Student Senate will reconvene next week, with Senators beginning their new term.