The Notre Dame student senate underwent Microaggression Intervention at Notre Dame (MiND) training during their Wednesday meeting in the Mendoza College of Business. The training was hosted by Multicultural Student Programs and Services (MSPS).
The training claims to educate members of the Notre Dame community about microaggressions and microassaults, specifically with regards to race.
Three senior fellows from MSPS facilitated the discussion and led the training.
“People will ask questions that could be a microaggression, microassault,” fellow Stephanie Estrada said.
The MSPS training discussed the role of bystanders and outlined the office's views on appropriate responses.
“Our responsibility as student leaders is to make sure that when things like that are said, because it’s said all the time here, we need to stop that behavior,” class of 2027 president Aleah Applin said.
The training targeted what was described as the use of humor to cover up racist comments.
“Something that I’ve found really effective is simply not laughing and then saying ‘Why did you make that joke?’ or ‘I don’t get it, can you explain why that’s funny?’” student body vice president Maeve Miller said
According to the MSPS website, MiND training is available for all residence halls, clubs and student organizations.
In contrast with the two previous senate meetings, which each lasted roughly 15 minutes, this meeting ran even longer than expected. MiND training was scheduled to last around 30 minutes, but it took just over an hour, leading the senate to move quickly through the second half of the agenda.
Nominees for the committee on the constitution, vice president of elections and vice president of operations posts were quickly confirmed. Madison Denchfield, the nominee for vice president of elections, moved into that role after some upheaval on the judicial council in recent weeks.
“At the beginning of this year, following the resignation of the former vice president of elections, Madison assumed the responsibility of acting vice president of elections as well as vice president of operations,” judicial council president Hunter Brooke said.
In the Sept. 4 meeting of the senate, a measure to suspend one clause of the constitution had passed, allowing Denchfield to become acting vice president of elections in addition to her full-time role.
Brooke had assured the Senate that the measure was strictly temporary, lasting only until he could find a replacement. For Denchfield’s former position he nominated Madeline Hutson, a freshman political science major. She acknowledged her relative lack of experience, but promised to embrace the learning potential of her new role.
“I did student government in high school, and I’m very passionate about law and order,” Hutson said. “I know I have a lot to learn, but I’m really passionate about it, and I’m going to give all my time to make sure everything is as fair as possible.”
