Print Edition of the 2022 Student Body Presidential Election Insider

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IN FOCUS Tuesday, February 1, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

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IN focus

The observer | tuesday, february 1, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

Meet the candidates

Patrick Lee — Sofie Stitt

By MANNION McGINLEY Sports Editor

Junior Patrick Lee and sophomore Sofies Stitt are presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the 2022 Notre Dame student government election. The pair have served as hall presidents in Stanford and Pasquerilla West, respectively. As that experience comes to an end, they said they want to continue to serve the campus community in a larger role. Their experience in Hall Presidents Council is evident in their policy proposals, as they intend to work with hall leadership on most fronts.

In an interview with The Observer, the pair broke down of some of the key pieces of their platform.

Reinstating the Student Life Council The crux of the Lee-Stitt platform takes on the existing Campus Life Council (CLC).

The campaign argues the CLC is “cumbersome, bureaucratic and leaves ordinary students out” of the discussion. They say it is “an exclusive body of students” voicing the needs of the entire student body.

According to the Lee-Stitt campaign, this “further [pushes] out non-student government undergraduates from the decision-making that impacts their lives.”

As former Stanford Hall senator in the Notre Dame student senate, Lee said he noticed the limited access the rest of the student body has to student government. He says the Student Life Council (SLC) is the solution to bridge this gap.

“Right now, I think one of the only ways that students can be involved in student government meetings is the senate,” he said. “And as a former senator, I cannot confidently say that I would love to invite my friends to a senate meeting to hear what’s going on. Even when I had what I thought [was] productive legislation being proposed. The meetings are not exactly tailored to the public. And so, doing things like communicating better and opening meetings to students, holding listening sessions with students… The SLC obviously will hopefully play a big part in this.”

Lee and Stitt intend to revert to the SLC. It’s a decades-old structure within the Student Union that “allowed students to stand face-to-face with the University administration and voice their questions and concerns.”

The Lee-Stitt campaign argues the University should return to the SLC, which would include students, rectors and University officials, “with the goal of including and

representing any and every student” at regularly scheduled meetings.

The main difference between the two councils would be another power Lee and Stitt hope to reinstate. The platform referenced how the former SLC held “binding legislative authority over decisions” around student life. Reinstating this authority would force the administration to run policy by the students, they said.

It would require a decisionmaking explanation before “blindsiding” students with any substantive changes. In the breakdown of their goals, Lee and Stitt said they intend to reinstate this element as well, not just for their one year but for the future.

“We also recognize that this is a big goal,” Stitt said. “And our term would be one year.

So, the dream would be for us to bring the SLC back and kind of hand it to the people that would be in office behind us. Hopefully they share that same passion and drive for a diversity of voices and student empowerment and they can continue to build on year after year.”

Caring for “the Notre Dame family” and all students When asked how they would describe Notre Dame in one word, together and seemingly unrehearsed, the pair said “family.” Stitt added that she and Lee want everyone to feel like they are a part of that family.

“This place really is my home,” she said. “I’ve never been somewhere where there’s a group of people — whether I know them or I don’t — who would do just about anything for me. I’ve never felt compelled to serve other people, my friends and strangers in the way that I do here. There’s nothing like it. And I think we try to echo that a lot in our policy. We’ll do whatever it takes to make anybody at this campus feel at home and loved and celebrated. We commit to that.

Because that is the open arms that we walked into.”

To protect all members of this “family,” they outlined key pieces in their platform regarding gender, race and sexuality. Specifically, they broke down initiatives around gender relations, power-based and sexual violence, support for the LGBTQ+ community, as well as supporting people of color and the different cultures on campus.

Gender Relations and the LGBTQ+ Community The campaign intends to improve access to GreeNDot training, according to the LeeStitt platform. They said they want to talk to hall councils to change dorm GreenNDot

requirements, such as setting the participation quota to more than a 15% increase per dorm each year. They said they will also require hall presidents to complete the multicultural model of GreeNDot. The Lee-Stitt ticket intends to create student focus groups to learn about students’ personal experiences surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation. More actively, the pair plans to “add petitions” praying for the end of discrimination and homophobia. Working with Campus Ministry, they would do so “particularly during weeks of reflection and awareness for the LGBTQIA+ community,” according to the platform. They also hope to promote the Alumni Rainbow Community of Notre Dame (ARC ND), the alumni group for the LGBTQ+ community.

The ticket said they would continue the Njomo-Bisner policy of Safety After Parietals.

This allows students feeling at risk of sexual assault to leave residence halls even during parietal hours. Lee and Stitt also discussed how they intend to use Callisto to provide reporting and action options for sexual assault survivors.

Including “every student” and culture Additionally, the campaign outlined Lee and Stitt’s plan to protect the “inclusion and celebration of people of color and marginalized students” within the Notre Dame family.

Their platform argues that the University “addresses race and ethnicity after a problem has occurred.”

To combat this reactiveness, Lee and Stitt will seek to implement “celebrating significant cultural events on campus, as well as uplifting and promoting students of color.”

According to their platform, the changes they want to make are within the scope of student government. One of these changes is to provide representatives and coordinators for student cultural groups within Multicultural Student Programs and Services (MSPS) and the Gender Relations Center (GRC).

“These coordinators would serve by being the bridge between undergraduate clubs and these departments, allowing more cooperation between the university and more internal support for these student leaders,” Lee-Stitt wrote in their platform.

The pair enumerated other locations where representation lacked and how they aimed to rectify it. This included Black hairstylists, “bringing black artists to ND and hosting an art show to create more avenues for the expression of identity,” and having seats for cultural

club leaders on the SLC. In concluding this section of their policy, the Lee-Stitt campaign highlighted the importance of allyship.

“Our administration is committed to continuing the good work of previous administrations,” they wrote. “We commit to promoting diversity and inclusion in every part of our positions.”

Sustainability and accessibility The Lee-Stitt campaign also discussed avenues for enacting positive change in oncampus sustainability and accessibility.

On the sustainability front, successfully recycling within dorms constituted their priority. In their platform, they said they intend to make sure recycling is “streamlined and incentivized through the Hall President’s Council.”

While the campaign said that most sustainability concerns would be outside the scope of the student government, they maintained they would host a sustainability fair around Earth Day, which would include “speakers, free educational materials, and sustainability-focused service projects.”

In regards to accessibility, Lee and Stitt have considered small changes that could open the door to larger ones. Each dorm has a process for work order forms, or requests students can fill out to repair something that is broken. In the same way, the campaign said they want to create a similar, anonymous form to improve accommodations for disabilities. “[Students with disabilities] can submit requests anonymously to the facilities design and operations team,” Stitt said. “And we aim to form a connection with them and then ideally, those changes will get made immediately.

Something as little as moving a soap dispenser down lower on the wall or [fixing] inappropriate signage outside the bathroom — we want to get those changes done.”

Interactive directory to improve community involvement The Lee-Stitt campaign said they want to establish an interactive directory to better understand what the South Bend community needs from the students and the University.

“In our opinion, we have 8,600 very socially concerned students who can pitch in to help these partners accomplish their goals. And one of the ways that we want to do that is by building an interactive directory,” Lee said. “Let’s say I’m at Center for the Homeless, and I need students to run childcare

during adult education. I could go on this directory and say I’m looking for students on Tuesday and Thursday nights who are comfortable helping younger kids learn how to read and tutoring middle school students in math and languages.

They can put that on the directory and students can find them.”

But students would be able to access this directory too, he added.

“In that way, we can kind of lower the barriers to helping these community partners,” he explained.

The pair also envision this interactive directory helping to promote partnerships between student groups and South Bend’s sustainability-focused organizations such as Green Bridge Growers.

A “holistic” mental health approach Lee and Stitt acknowledged the extreme levels of mental distress Notre Dame students have reported in the last year.

The pair thus want to “remove the barriers” to existing resources like the University Counseling Center (UCC) and Rec Sports fitness classes.

“Mental health is obviously not something that you wake up one day and you have and you wake up the next day and you lose,” Stitt said. “So, we are not going to pretend like we are going to solve all mental health problems on campus. But the plan that we’ve developed is so attainable. We’ve looked at ways that we can pressure the administration on the UCC, particularly getting a more diverse group of counselors to represent all of our students — particularly those of marginalized groups.”

Additionally, the campaign wants to add dorm representatives so a counselor from the UCC is available to every dorm.

They intend to adjust drop-in hours as well. The pair wants to extend these to “times outside of class, outside of traditional student activities.”

Stitt also described the thought process behind lowering the cost of Rec Sports classes from $5 to a maximum of $1, or even making them free. “[The current cost] is an inappropriate socio-economic barrier to fitness and health,” Stitt said.

They said they also intend to make the dining hall easier to maneuver so it can be a space for students to enjoy, since “the gut serves as our ‘second brain’ in producing 95% of serotonin.” The platform promised better dining options both in general and for vegan and vegetarian students.

Contact Mannion McGinley at mmcginl3@nd.edu

IN FOCUS

ndsmcobserver.com | tuesday, february 1, 2022 | The Observer

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Meet the candidates

Sierra Stinson — Dane Sherman

By ISABELLA VOLMERT Assisstant Managing Editor

Student body presidential candidate junior Sierra Stinson and v ice presidential candidate sophomore Dane Sherman have created an expansive platform built on equitable improvements to the Notre Dame student body through policy change and creation in partnership w ith the Universit y and student groups.

Their 26-page platform is divided into three thematic sections, which also spell out the ticket’s slogan: accompany, implement, mobilize.

A resident of Lew is Hall from Spokane, Washington, Stinson is a political science and Program of Liberal Studies major and ser ves as director of academic affairs in the student government executive cabinet. She said she is running for student body president because when she was a first-year, she often felt like she did not belong at Notre Dame.

“I want to make sure that ever y student knows that they deser ve to be here,” she said.

Sherman had similar reasoning, saying he wants ever y student to feel the same way he does when he looks at the Golden Dome driving up Notre Dame Avenue after an academic break. He said he only feels excitement, “not feeling dread or [like] I don’t belong here.”

Sherman, an American studies and peace studies major from Seattle, Washington, is the current director of University policy in the student government executive cabinet Stinson said in addition to their connections w ithin student government and the administration and their shared experience in leadership and policymaking in student government, the pair’s experiences as students who have at times pushed back against what

Debate Continued from page 4

Counseling Center (UCC)’s dorm representatives to dining hall improvements, is their top priority.

“All of our policies are focused on you guys, but especially our unique and very, very broad mental health policy,” Stitt said. “We hope it’ll make a little bit of difference in your lives.”

Next, the candidates answered questions specific to the presidential candidates, vice presidential candidates and each ticket.

The presidential candidates each answered how they would utilize

Notre Dame could be, qualifies them as candidates for student body president and vice president.

“And I think that makes us special in the fact that we understand some of the difficulties that some people have had w ith Notre Dame, and we’re w illing to work on that,” she said.

Policymaking and change Stinson said one of the most feasible of their goals is to increase support and resources for sexual v iolence prevention and education and support for sexual violence sur v ivors, including the continual rollout of Callisto across the tri-campus.

The ticket’s most ambitious goal is their residential life policy changes, including paying a wage to resident assistants (R As).

Another goal of residential life improvements is the ticket’s plan to “Accompany Students to Express Their Gender Identit y,” part of which seeks to increase gender equit y in Office of Communit y Standards (OCS) processes.

“Right now, there is a disparity between men and women’s dorms,” Stinson explained. “Women seem to be OCS’ed more frequently than men dorms, and there’s not a lot of party culture w ithin women’s dorms.”

Stinson and Sherman said that, from conversations w ith many students and hall presidents, they came to the conclusion that even when men’s dorms on campus are the location of more unofficial parties, female students are w ritten up w ith OCS violations — often referred to w ith the verb “OSC’ed” — at higher rates. However, Stinson said that in meetings w ith University officials, the administration expressed a disbelief that this disparit y ex isted.

“W hat we need to do is make sure that the

their executive cabinet departments and Campus Life Council (CLC) to officially address campus life issues.

Stinson said throughout her time in student government as director of academic affairs, she has learned how to push policy and make sure administration responds to it.

Stinson said she believes using the CLC to force administrators to view the orders passed by the senate is an “effective way to engage student government.”

Lee said he would work to incorporate all parts of the student body into his executive cabinet as a way to target voter apathy.

of first-generation and lowincome students, which has been a goal of the current Njomo-Bisner administration as well.

“One of the first things that we’ve talked about working on is expanding the Transformational Leaders Program,” Stinson said.

In their v ision, low-income students could attend programming the summer before their first year to further prepare academically, such as how to w rite an essay that meets the standards of Notre Dame academics, among other things.

Sherman noted that — especially in light of the recent lawsuit alleged against Notre Dame for price-fix ing financial aid w ith other universities — it’s important to financially and academically support first-generation and low-income students.

W hen asked to describe what Notre Dame means to them in one word, Stinson said “self-discover y,” thanks in part to the disagreements she has had w ith classmates over the years.

“Without that challenge from other groups or other students, I don’t think I’d be the person I am today,” she said. “… Now, I’m ver y proud of the fact that I’m a brow n woman, and I know the power of being a brow n woman because I’m able to surround myself w ith other brow n women who are have the same ideals as me, and also be challenged by people who don’t have the same beliefs [as] me.”

Sherman responded to the question w ith the word “grace.”

“We’ve talked w ith a lot of students and, I think, hearing their stories of love and hurt and pain and joy has been a really eye-opening and transformative experience,” Sherman said.

“W hether … we w in or lose.”

and

accommodations W hen asked what the biggest problem facing Notre Dame students is, Stinson said there are not enough resources and attention prov ided for Notre Dame’s increasingly diverse student body.

“Ever y year they say this is the most diverse class we had, whether it’s low-income or economic, racial, religious or any of those things,” she said. “There’s not representation of these races w ithin teaching or w ithin our professors. There’s not enough resources in OSE [Office of Student Enrichment] for lowincome students. There’s not enough interfaith conversations for students of different religions.”

To address the issue of diversit y at Notre Dame, their platform “Accompany Affinit y Groups on Campus” offers a number of solutions. Some include encouraging departments to allow class excuses for students to attend events such as Race Relations Week and Gender Relations Center (GRC) events, working w ith administration to ensure the Potawatomi f lag f lies throughout the year and partnering w ith OSE to subsidize trips to Black hair st ylists in the South Bend area.

Additionally, the ticket plans to establish a “Cultural Awareness Week” to celebrate diversit y in Notre Dame and religion, establish a student-run Civ il Rights Commission to hear discriminator y reports, finalize the implementation of an LGBTQ+ Mass on campus and continue to work towards the inclusion of gender identit y and sexual orientation in Notre Dame’s non-discrimination clause.

From their list of policy changes and administration goals, the ticket told The Obser ver their first priorit y when taking office w ill be to focus on improv ing the Notre Dame experience

“The main issue that we’ve experienced in this campaign is voter apathy. People don’t know what goes on in student government, and if they don’t know, they don’t care,” Lee said. “What we can do is to invite all members of the student body to apply for these cabinet positions.”

Sherman and Stitt, the vice presidential candidates, were asked how they would lead the senate to be an “effective and productive forum,” and how they would engage with people who have differing opinions.

Stitt said she would bring her personality and enthusiasm to senate

and that she “does not care what she needs to do” to ensure that administration will read the senate’s resolutions and act on them.

Sherman said his focus, if elected as student body vice president, would be to make sure senators know how the process of writing a resolution works.

Each ticket was then given four minutes to deliver a closing statement. Both Lee-Stitt and StinsonSherman urged voters to place their trust in them.

“The number one barrier that we have confronted in this campaign is students who say, ‘I don’t care. Student government doesn’t

get anything done. And if they do, it doesn’t affect my life.’ What I say to those students is: Give us the chance to prove you wrong,” Lee said. “What’s on our platform is attainable, and it affects your everyday life.”

Sherman highlighted his ticket’s experience in student government.

“If you want to get policy done, you should go for Stinson and Sherman because we’ve actually done it, and we will continue to do it,” he said.

administration sees that there is a disparit y,” Stinson said.

The ticket plans to audit OCS and compile data on v iolations and disciplinar y processes between men and women’s dorms to formally lay out this alleged problem.

Stinson stressed the purpose of this plan is to ensure women’s dorms can also participate in t y pical dorm culture.

“We’re not tr ying to limit or OCS men’s dorms or limit the amount of parties,” she said. “W hat we’re actually tr ying to do is show the administration that women are not allowed to do the same fun events that men’s dorms are allowed to do.”

Sherman noted the plan to audit OCS requires cooperation w ith the Universit y, since OCS is beyond the power of student government and deals w ith indiv idual students’ privacy.

However, Sherman said, “this is actually some work that I’ve actually been working on already w ith, specifically, Erin Oliver and the Office of Institutional Equit y, and I had a meeting w ith Heather Ryan, who is the head of OCS.” Other issues Stinson and Sherman plan to take on and change are the 15-minute limitation on unapproved campus protests and the organizational recognition requirements and Student Activ ities Office (SAO) rules that prevent certain student groups organizing around or discussing certain issues such as LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights.

Additionally, Stinson and Sherman seek to take on national issues of legalit y by advocating for the availabilit y of Universit y health insurance for students registered under Medicaid and partner w ith student body leaders at Saint Mar y’s and Holy Cross to lobby for students’ issues.

Diversit y

Contact Isabella Volmert at ivolmert@nd.edu

Contact Bella Laufenberg at ilaufenb@nd.edu

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IN InSports FOCUS FOCUS

The observer | tuesday, february 1, 2022 | ndsmcobserver.com

The Observer endorses Stinson-Sherman Student government election season is upon Notre Dame. In a comparatively slow election process, only two tickets received enough petition signatures to campaign and run in the election. Students w ill have two options on the ballot Wednesday: junior Patrick Lee and sophomore Sofie Stitt; and junior Sierra Stinson and sophomore Dane Sherman.

Editor’s Note: Sherman is a former news writer for The Observer.

The Obser ver Editorial Board inter v iewed both tickets Saturday. After weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each ticket and their respective platforms, the Board unanimously endorses Stinson-Sherman.

Stinson is a junior liv ing in Lew is Hall w ith experience ser v ing as freshman class council president. She currently ser ves as director of academic affairs w ithin the student government’s executive cabinet. A sophomore in Siegfried Hall, Sherman currently ser ves as the director of Universit y policy.

With Stinson and Sherman’s current positions in the executive cabinet, we believe they have both the connections w ith leaders in the campus communit y and in the administration, as well as the experience to enact concrete change for the student body. Both Stinson and Sherman have substantive experience w ith the policy-making process, and their aim for transparency through a proposed policy tracker and newsletter communications stuck out to the Editorial Board.

Both tickets stressed the importance of focusing on improv ing mental health resources for students — an effort our Editorial Board appreciates. However, Lee and Stitt’s method to set up Universit y Counseling Center “dorm representatives” did not seem as effective as Stinson and Sherman’s tangible plans to transition UCC serv ices to a long-term model and expand the Lilly Endow ment grant to all residence halls. Stinson and Sherman recognized the difficult y of pushing for a long-term model, given high demand

and small staff numbers at the UCC, but offered the solution of using the Lilly grant to help w ith staffing issues.

Stinson and Sherman presented an extensive platform to reform residential life policies — including auditing Office of Communit y Standards outcomes and rates at which students are w ritten up for infractions, and thus exploring any potential disparities bet ween men’s and women’s experiences in residence halls. The ticket’s tangible plan to push for equal and fair disciplinar y processes in residence halls and to increase the administration’s awareness of any disparit y is an encouraging step in bettering residential life and gender relations on campus.

As a newsroom committed to uplifting marginalized voices in our communit y, we appreciate Stinson and Sherman’s focus on fostering a campus communit y that supports a diverse student body from the moment they are accepted through graduation. Specifically, their plans to support first-generation and low-income students as soon as they take office were reassuring to us. This priorit y aligns w ith the ticket’s passion for ever y student to feel a sense of belonging at Notre Dame.

W hile Lee’s background ser v ing as Stanford Hall president and former senator and Stitt’s background as Pasquerilla West Hall president have given them experience listening to students, we are concerned in regards to how well that practice would translate to the roles of student body president and v ice president. In the same vein, the ticket at times seemed unaware of the role of student input in policy creation at the Universit y.

The Editorial Board was impressed w ith Lee and Stitt’s plans to improve currently insufficient disabilit y-inclusive infrastructure and signage around campus. The pair clearly did their research on this issue and ensured they would be in contact w ith Access-ABLE on campus to help w ith these efforts.

Yet, a large majorit y of Lee and Stitt’s platform

centered around their objective to reintroduce the Student Life Council (SLC) — an effort that has been unsuccessfully undertaken by past student government administrations. W hen asked about it, Lee and Stitt failed to prov ide a contingency plan in the event that their effort was rejected. W hile the Editorial Board appreciates their student-oriented, outside-the-box thinking and w illingness to butt heads w ith administration, we found it concerning that the main policy goal of their platform involved reintroducing a policy making body that was dissolved almost 50 years ago and that has been rejected by the administration numerous times.

W hile it is clear Lee and Stitt love Notre Dame and run w ith that love in mind, their plans for enacting positive change on campus lack the effectiveness and forethought of the StinsonSherman platform. The Editorial Board appreciates the Stinson-Sherman ticket’s abilit y to balance a love for the Universit y w ith an awareness of its pitfalls.

Our endorsement of Stinson and Sherman does not come w ithout reser vations. The pair’s 26-page platform is ambitious and w ill be timeconsuming, leading us to concerns of burnout and the feasibilit y of accomplishing all of their goals in a one-year term. The ticket also plans to ensure that all transfer students have access to on-campus housing, but failed to prov ide a concrete answer as to what policy steps they would take toward that in their term. In addition, the ticket has plans to focus on national issues such as Medicaid insurance coverage on campus and increasing national lobby ing efforts of the student body. W hile admirable, we are concerned w ith time, money and energ y potentially being dedicated to national issues as opposed to those issues affecting our ow n student body.

Regardless, Stinson and Sherman ex hibit a passion for enacting change and tailoring the Notre Dame experience to be a welcoming one to students of all backgrounds, and we believe they have the experience and proactiv it y to succeed.

Tickets debate policy, deliver platform goals

By BELLA LAUFENBERG Staff Writer

Student body government presidential and vice presidential candidates went face to face in a live debate Monday night in Duncan Student Center.

The two tickets, Patrick LeeSofie Stitt and Sierra StinsonDane Sherman, sat on opposite sides of a make-shift stage and answered student-submitted questions under the watchful eyes of an in-person audience.

[Editor’s Note: Sherman is a former news writer for The Observer.]

The debate was moderated by judicial council president David Haungs and vice president Koryn Isa. Each ticket was given three minutes to present an opening statement.

Lee-Stitt spoke first, emphasizing their three main policy points: service, a holistic approach to mental health and bringing back power to students.

“Notre Dame is a university for the students, and we think

that we should have a little bit more of a say in how it’s run,” Lee said.

Stinson-Sherman delivered their opening statement afterwards and explained a little more about why they were running.

“Dane and I are running because of our love for Notre Dame,” Stinson said.

“Unfortunately, through conversations we’ve had with students since summer and between 50 different students and student leaders, we have found that a lot of students don’t feel a sense of belonging.

They don’t feel like they deserve to be here. So, that’s why we created our platform.”

The bulk of the debate was taken up by the general questions section. The 12 questions posed to the candidates covered a wide range of topics — including the University’s COVID-19 response, diversity and inclusion, Campus Dining, Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mental health.

One question posed to the tickets was, “If you could only

GRACIE LEE | The Observer

Junior Sierra Stinson (left) and sophomore Dane Sherman; amd junior Patrick Lee and sophomore Sofie Stitt participated in a debate Monday. Students can vote in the election Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

accomplish one item on your platform, which would it be, and why is that policy feasible?”

Stinson-Sherman responded by indicating they would focus on expanding the Transformational Leaders Program, which helps firstgeneration and low-income students adjust to the school’s

academic environment.

“I think it’s important that — as we are getting more diverse, we’re getting more students who aren’t prepared for the academic rigor of Notre Dame — we make sure that [we’re] accompanying them in their journey and making sure that we’re preparing them to

actually succeed,” Stinson explained. “We want to make sure that nobody feels like they don’t deserve to be here.”

According to Lee-Stitt, their broad mental health plan, spanning from establishing University

see DEBATE PAGE 3