The Notre Dame student senate met Wednesday with next term’s incoming staff present for their first senate meeting, beginning a transition period for student government.
The new staff, including the student body president, vice president, chief of staff and senators, will officially start their terms on April 2.
The meeting began with a prayer led by student body president Dawson Kiser, and then proceeded to executive announcements.
The first announcement was about a new Notre Dame AI pilot program, which will provide students access to an advanced artificial intelligence assistant that could include advising features such as registering for classes and exploring major and minor options.
Students Evan Arsenault and Renee Aziz, directors of the student government department of campus technology and innovation, have been working for the past year to bring the tool to life.
Members of student government were invited to sign up to test run the AI tool for the week. Next Thursday, a meeting will take place for participants to provide feedback to help fine-tune the tool. So far, the tool is only available to members of student government.
Kiser emphasized the current staff is working very hard to achieve their initiatives before their term ends.
He announced one initiative to extend campus dining facility hours. On Wednesday, student government received news that Street Fare in LaFortune Student Center (LaFun) will extend its hours to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, starting April 4. Previously, Taco Bell in LaFun was the only location on campus for late-night eats on the weekend, with a closing time of 2 a.m. from Thursday through Saturday.
Kiser urged attendees to take advantage of the new expanded hours to incentivize continued extension of dining hours from other campus dining locations.
Following a few more announcements, senate moved on to general orders which included SO2425-32, an order to amend the senate bylaws to include procedures for impeachment proceedings. The order was primarily authored by Thomas Musgrave, current student union parliamentarian, but it was also worked on in committee.
After a failed impeachment in the fall and a bill of impeachment this spring that resulted in a resignation, the stated goal was to balance privacy and transparency.
Next, there was an announcement about the new process of getting tickets for the student union board’s spring concert, which has Del Water Gap headlining at the end of this month. The use of a Google Form, sent out Thursday, is to prevent possible site crashes, like those that occurred last year with the Student Shop ND website.
The first 1,800 people who fill out the form will be sent a link to buy tickets. Two other potential ways to get tickets this year are through a waitlist or a will-call line the day of the concert, starting at 4 p.m. outside of the Stepan Center.
Other announcements from senators included reminders about Acousticafé’s PrideFest collaboration on Thursday, the Class of 2028’s March Madness bracket, Fisher Hall’s annual regatta, a service opportunity for juniors at Our Lady of the Road next Friday, senior week save-the-dates and Badin Hall’s annual polar plunge at St. Joseph’s Lake next Saturday at 11 a.m.
The meeting adjourned after approximately 30 minutes with a reminder that next week’s meeting is the last of student government term.
