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ndsmcobserver.com | monday, september 7, 2020 | The Observer
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Senate examines COVID-19 financial account By JOHN BRACH News Writer
A version of this story was published online Aug. 4. At its week ly meeting Thursday, Notre Dame’s student senate focused on questions related to an account created last year which set aside approx imately $200,000 of unused Student Union funds when the spring semester was cut short due to COV ID-19. Senate order 2021-02, which created the COV ID-19 Response Financial Account, stated that when student activ ities returned this semester, the senate would decide exactly how the money should be used. Senior Grace Stephenson, chair woman of the Financial Management Board (FMB), joined the senate to give a
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so that you can inexpensively do things very rapidly,” Bruening said. During the lockdown in May, Bruening’s lab remained open to continue research. “I think we’ve learned with appropriate precautions, the labs are some of the safest places around,” Bruening said. “We are waiting to see if we can make sure that undergraduate students can be incorporated safely. ” Hsueh-Chia Chang, professor of engineering, said COV ID-19 tests, like the antigen and the PCR test, all have different limits of detection.
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complete the COV ID-19 selfassessment form or reports a temperature of greater than 100.4 degrees or a yes answer to any question on the selfassessment form,” she said. The department of nursing sciences follows the same policies of the College in allowing nursing students to return to in-person classroom instruction and
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as an “incredible leader,” according to the South Bend Tribune. Holtz worked with the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, the Women’s Care Foundation and Catholic Charities among other organizations, vice
presentation on the account and deliver the FMB’s adv ice on how to handle the unusual fund. “The intent w ith passing this order was to say we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future … We’re going to set [the money] aside so we can be intentional,” she said. The FMB suggested the senate move to set aside $10,000 of the COV ID-19 Response Financial Account to be used for allocation to organizations for the remaining three months of the allocation period. In this plan, the remaining money would be w ithheld until the w inter reallocation process. This would allow the FMB to gather more information on the 2021-2022 fiscal year and better evaluate future needs. Stephenson said the FMB still has some hesitations
about the language of the order. Key among these concerns is that sales for The Shirt are dow n this year which w ill decrease future funding. The motion to go forward w ith the FMB’s plan w ill be voted on at next week’s senate meeting on Sept. 10. Outside of the COV ID-19 Response Financial Account, the senate brief ly discussed a few other pertinent topics. Senior and student body v ice president Sarah Galbenski commended the student advocacy by the Notre Dame Strike for Black Lives. “Born out of this movement we’re going to have a racial justice working group, this Saturday, Sept. 5 from 4-5 p.m.,” she said. Follow ing this announcement, senior and chief of
staff Aaron Benav ides gave an update on campus dining. “Campus Dining is really at the mercy of the state of Indiana right now in dealing w ith all the health and safet y guidelines that the state is putting out,” he said. Galbenski also detailed the actions of the facult y senate recently, specifically referring to t wo movements. The first presented was a motion to aid in student mental health through professor f lex ibilit y, and the second was to create a partnership bet ween the group of Black student leaders working w ith the Div ision of Student Affairs and a task force related to academic affairs and curriculum. Senior and student body president Rachel Ingal discussed the off-campus tow n hall Wednesday. She also
prov ided an update on her and Galbenski’s presidential initiative, the inaugural Women’s Leadership Forum. “The v ision is that this w ill be a monthly series, and the student body w ill be able to tune in and listen to different diverse sets of speakers,” Ingal said. After these announcements, Galbenski led the oath of office for four newly elected members, sophomores A lbertina Estrada Martinez and Theresa Sala zar, junior Bianca Burnett and senior Blake Johnson. By taking the oath, they became official senators. These new senators w ill join the current senators in next week’s vote on the COV ID-19 Response Financial Account and FMB proposal.
Through his research, Chang is looking to improve the sensitivity of COV ID-19 tests. His lab had previously developed technolog y for isolating cellular material that is the same size as the coronavirus. Ceming Wang, a postdoctoral fellow in Chang’s lab, joined the COV ID-19 research team in March. “I proposed to Dr. Chang that we should probably try this technolog y for COV ID-19,” Wang said. Chang said the technolog y is able to concentrate the virus in nasal swab samples more rapidly, extracting the virus at a higher yield. He said the test is more sensitive by a factor of 100. Students in his lab are currently testing the technolog y
with lentivirus, a genus of viruses that include HIV. The ultimate goal, however, is to test on real COV ID-19 samples in collaboration with the screening tests. “We hope to be able to improve the sensitivity of what Notre Dame is doing, and once this [testing] is validated in Notre Dame, we hope to do this nationally and even internationally,” Chang said. “We have now organized a team of five undergraduates, and they’ll be doing a lot of pool sample testing where they pull samples together and see if you can take up the virus in one of the samples.” In addition to improving the sensitivity, Chang’s team is working to make the detection process even faster.
“The PCR test now is pretty slow, it takes sometimes a few days before you get the result. We want to make the test much faster, and people can get their results within half an hour without losing sensitivity,” Chang said. Chang’s team is also currently exploring the possibility of screening facial masks to determine whether students are carrying COV ID-19 on their masks. “We will be testing masks, [that are] worn by students, and then we will try to detect viruses in the mask,” Chang said. Chang said he has been pleased to see that many Notre Dame professors are working together to do research to combat COV ID-19.
“Two of my colleagues figured out that the face shields don’t do much indoors, and we had to wear masks. So they were able to convince provost Miranda [that wearing face shields] is not sufficient,” Chang said. As a result of the pandemic, many scientists are seeing immediate effects of their research. “All of a sudden everything we do becomes relevant,” Chang said, “Before [research results were] always a long-range goal but now everything is immediate. We see what we can do and how we can contribute right away.”
clinicals. Students must provide written documentation of negative results, Lane said. “A student may return to in-person classes, clinical experiences or events if she has completed the required quarantine period and did not develop COV ID-19 symptoms or has negative COV ID-19 testing,” Lane said. “For students who have been isolated, she may return if she does not have an elevated temperature without fever-reducing medications
for 24 hours and has an improvement in symptoms.” The training required of students in the department of social work and gerontolog y at Saint Mary’s has also changed, especially for seniors who are wrapping up their final training, senior Kat Esguerra said. Double majoring in social work and psycholog y, Esguerra said many students are working remotely to practice social work. “The senior class goes out
to different agencies to practice social work and different ethics and values around it,” she said. “I’m in the AIDS ministry and am currently remotely working along with a case manager due to their office not being opened because of COV ID-19.” Some of Esguerra’s classmates are working for family social justice centers, schools and nursing homes. “They take the same protocols as Saint Mary’s, so they have to practice the same
procedures, such as adhering to mask rules, doing temperature checks and some might even go to the extent of sanitizing everything once they return to campus,” Esguerra said. “If the agencies do not have their own policy pertaining to masks and temperature checks, then they automatically have to comply with Saint Mary’s COV ID-19 policy.”
president for public affairs and communications Paul Browne said in an email to the press. During the briefing, Trump said he received many recommendations from people on Holtz’s behalf and rev iewed them thoroughly. “There’s a man that’s an incredible leader, Lou Holtz. I’ve know n him for a long time. He’s been a friend of
mine,” Trump said Friday, as per a CNN report. A date for the ceremony where Holtz w ill receive the award has not been set. The announcement follows Holtz’s v irtual speech at the Republican National Convention, which sparked various reactions from the Notre Dame communit y. The speech prompted Universit y
President Fr. John Jenkins to release a statement distancing Notre Dame from Holtz’s political v iews. Though the Universit y does not endorse his politics, the institution w ishes to congratulate Holtz on receiv ing this honor, Brow ne said. “At Notre Dame, he and his late w ife, Beth, ser ved as research ambassadors,
and the players he molded have added to his legacy through their ow n contributions through the Lou’s Lads Foundation,” Brow ne said. “We presented Lou w ith an honorar y degree in 2011 for his ser v ice on and off the field to Notre Dame and beyond, and we join now w ith his family and many friends in offering our sincere congratulations on this honor.”
Contact John Brach at jbrach@nd.edu
Contact Kayle Liao at xliao@nd.edu
Contact Emma Bacon at ebacon01@saintmarys.edu
