Students gathered on Library Lawn from 9-11 p.m. Friday night for Notre Dame’s third celebration of National greeNDot Day.
A DJ played music as attendees enjoyed two large inflatables, food trucks and lawn games. Mandy Miller, the program director of student health and wellness initiatives for the division of student affairs, said the event provided students a space to talk about campus safety.
“This event allowed students to come together as a community and stand up against all forms of harm that happen and learn how to take action,” Miller wrote in an email.
Miller, who chairs the greeNDot steering committee, drew attention to the various student-safety organizations.
“Multiple informational tables were present, consisting of signs up for bystander trainings and recruiting students to the greeNDot student advisory committee, a group of students who are passionate about making our campus safer. Callisto and Speak Up were also present to support the event as reporting option,” Miller wrote.
In addition to larger events such as the annual the greeNDot day celebration or the flick on the field, Miller said greeNDot spreads its mission in smaller ways daily on Notre Dame’s campus.
“GreeNDot’s mission is being carried out daily through tabling events around campus, table tent messaging within the dining halls and weekly bystander intervention trainings on Sunday afternoons in Dahnke Ballroom,” Miller wrote.
New this academic year, the greeNDot program is being housed under the student health and wellness unit, directed by assistant vice president for student health and wellness Christine Caron Gebhardt, Miller said.
“Since the inception of the program, greeNDot was implemented under the gender relations center,” Miller wrote.
This initiative to strengthen greeNDot oversight began back in May of 2022, Miller said. In the past, the greeNDot program had been managed by a volunteer steering committee.
“The University has invested in establishing a staff position to oversee the greeNDot program. Starting in May 2022, the position of program director of student health and wellness initiatives manages the day-to-day operations of greeNDot and since has implemented a newly paid student program assistant position and hired six senior fellows to help with bystander intervention trainings, campus outreach, relationship building and marketing and communications,” Miller wrote.
These recent administrative change mirrors the expansion of greeNDot’s focus this year from violence prevention to all forms of harm, Miller said.
“With the program now transitioning its focus on all forms of harm, to include mental health, discrimination and harassment and alcohol, instead of just power-based personal violence, the new mission of greeNDot is to inspire a culture of care by creating awareness, teaching intervention skills and promoting a campus environment that does not tolerate harm,” Miller wrote.
So far this year, greeNDot has targeted their mission to first-year students through efforts during welcome weekend and the Moreau first-year seminar. The senior fellows have also helped with the initiative to offer larger campus-wide bystander trainings for students of all grade levels, Miller said.
“The scheduled trainings, which are already at max registrations, started on September 11 and go through October 9, also overlap with Moreau first year course, where first year students were re-introduced to greeNDot during week four’s curriculum,” Miller wrote.
Micah Finley, a greeNDot senior fellow, said he has been happy to see greeNDot become more receptive to student input this year following the program’s administrative revamp.
“We are trying to transition [greeNDot] to being more student-run so that students’ request in how they want to see greeNDot can actually be formed around how they feel and what they want to see,” Finley said.
Finley said he is taking initiative this year, under the expansion of greeNDot’s mission, to publicize campus safety efforts equally between genders.
“One thing I definitely want to do for greeNDot more in the future is to put more emphasis on the male aspect. Males tend to really not express their feelings a lot and they tend to ignore situations even though stuff happens to them as well just as equally as it does to women,” Finley said.
Finley said he is hopeful about good that will be brought out of greeNDot’s new overarching health and wellness perspective, provided that the message continues to spread.
“I want [everyone] to know that greeNDot is a place where they have a voice, that they can be heard and to let them know that they’re not alone,” Finley said.
Though greeNDot has begun to pivote outward in new directions this academic year, Miller said the fundamental goal of the program has not changed.
“Our message is that any forms of violence or harm are not okay, and everyone has a role to play.”
Contact Peter at pbreen2@nd.edu