Print Edition of The Observer for Thursday, December 7, 2017

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IN FOCUS thursday, DECEMBER 7, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

LAUREN WELDON and Chris collins | The Observer

Blais, Shewit reflect on term, discuss future plans

By NATALIE WEBER Associate News Editor

As the first half of their term draws to a close, student body president Becca Blais and vice president Sibonay Shewit said they have been working hard to integrate student feedback into their initiatives.

“We’re still in the process with the [student government] website and a few other things, but just [focusing on] changing the image of student government and going to Moreau classes,” Blais said. “We’ve been working with a lot of business classes now lately and just getting the name brand out there, redoing the social media.”

In order to increase their visibility and collect student input, the administration has conducted a “Town Hall On-The-Go” initiative and visited every hall council, Shewit said.

“Like we said when we were campaigning, people don’t think student government does anything, and part of us addressing that was focusing more on working on what students are saying that they want,” Shewit said. “ … I think we’ve found if we don’t put so much absolute effort on our communications and getting out to students, we can’t expect them to know what’s going on in our office.”

Throughout this semester, student government has also worked to foster connections with the South Bend community, junior and chief of staff Prathm Juneja said.

“The area I think we’ve had our strongest focus in is the community engagement and outreach portions,” he said. “Student governments often neglect the South Bend relationship and I think our director, [senior] Adam Moeller, has done just the most incredible job there.”

While the administration has not yet reached a partnership with the Awake campaign — a campaign that would donate five cents to a local community partner every time a student brings a reusable cup to a coffee vendor on campus, which was one of the administration’s main platform points — Juneja said student government has accomplished some of its other sustainability initiatives. These achievements, he said, include a Styrofoam ban, and working with campus dining to implement anaerobic digestion, an alternative to composting.

“We’re still working on the Awake campaign, but in the meantime, our director of sustainability was able to change the way the Huddle treats plastic bags,” Juneja said.

“They were able to get people to stop offering bags. You used to always get a bag with your stuff at the Huddle — we were sending out thousands of bags a week and that’s not happening anymore.”

The cabinet has also implemented several of its diversity and inclusion initiatives, such as auditing resident assistant training see BLAIS PAGE 2

Oppman, Lorenc evaluate goals, progress so far

By MARTHA REILLY Saint Mary’s Editor

When seniors Bailey Oppman and Lydia Lorenc officially took the wheel in their roles as president and vice president of Student Government Association (SGA) in August, they refused to let any roadblocks make them stop short of pursuing their goals.

“It was a bit of an adjustment at first because we unknowingly found out during Welcome Week that our advisor was resigning,” Oppman said. “We had no idea.

So we kind of got thrown into a situation where we’re planning Welcome Week, and we’re doing all these things for the [first years], and then we had no one really there backing us up or to ask questions to.”

Relying on one another throughout this instance of adversity, Lorenc said, strengthened the pair’s bond.

“I think we have a good separation between friendship and SGA,” she said. “We get a lot of work done, but we also know how to have fun and relax. We’re in the same major and a lot of the same classes, so we are together a lot, but I think we also share a lot of the same morals and values and goals, so when it comes to getting things done, it’s really not hard to do.”

The duo’s first achievement, Oppman said, was updating SGA’s policies — such as allocating more money to class council and providing board executives with larger

stipends — to best serve the community.

“We’ve been working really hard to make this year our own, so we started off the year by taking a look at some of the bylaws — just because they’ve been in place for so long, and they haven’t really been changed recently,” she said. “We messed with the numbers of our budget and re-allocated some of that money, so now that it’s more of a fair distribution, I think that’s going to allow groups on campus to plan more events for the student body.”

Though the financial adjustments are new, the team also relies on already-established frameworks and initiatives to accomplish its goals. Lorenc said deciding whether or not to continue Monthly Mingle events — which last year’s McCarthyDingler administration initiated in an effort to openly address pertinent issues — was an easy choice.

“I think they were probably more wellplanned [this year] than they were last year because … last year they came up with the idea but didn’t really quite know how to carry it out,” she said. “This year, I think our [community justice] co-chairs are doing a really good job.”

These gatherings, Oppman said, encourage students to speak up on relevant topics or occurrences — such as dating violence or stalking awareness — so that peers can foster constructive dialogue and learn see OPPMAN PAGE 3

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Directors of student life to coordinate TEDx event

By TOM NAATZ News Writer

Notre Dame will host a TEDx event April 28 as part of Idea Week in the greater South Bend area. The event will feature 16 community members, including students, faculty, staff and alumni, delivering a TED talk based on scientific data. The event will be the third TEDx event Notre Dame has hosted in recent years, with previous events held in 2014 and 2015.

Juniors Caitlin Murphy and Tim O’Connell, student government’s co-directors of student life, are in charge of organizing the event. The event is not an official TED event, with the “x” signifying its independence, but they did have to receive licensing from the TED Organization to hold the event.

O’Connell emphasized the importance of student voices when selecting speakers.

“We’re going to be coming from more of a student perspective, trying to make it interesting towards students,” O’Connell said. “Not so, ‘We’re Notre Dame, we’re awesome’ but like, ‘Here are things people at Notre Dame do that are amazing’ and why it’s useful to the community.”

The main goal, O’Connell said, is to select a wide range of speakers.

“We’re going to have students, we’re going to have faculty, and they’re going to have these innovative ideas, things that they’re working on,” O’Connell said. “You’re not going to have someone up there saying, ‘This is my research. This is cool.’ It’s going to be someone saying, ‘This is my research, this is why it matters to you and this is why you’re going to be talking about it tomorrow.’ We’re looking for speakers … who are trying to start a conversation.”

Although all talks need to be based on scientific research, that does not mean the talks all have

to relate to science. Murphy and O’Connell explained the scientific research requirement only means any potential talk must be backed up with data, while the research itself can cover any topic area.

The format of TEDx 2018 will closely resemble that of the 2015 event, which “got a lot positive feedback,” Murphy said.

“The format is going to be essentially identical,” she said.

“It will be in [the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center], in one of the concert halls there.

It will pretty much run exactly the same as that, but with a new set of speakers and new management.”

Murphy said one key difference this year is the number of people who will be in attendance. If organizers want more than 100 people to be in attendance for a TEDx event, the TED Organization requires special certification for this to occur.

Whereas the 2014 and 2015 iterations of TEDx at Notre Dame did not have this certification, with the help of Innovation Park, the event has obtained this certification for 2018. Notre Dame’s TEDx event will consist of two sessions: one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with eight speakers in each.

There will be separate groups of around 300 attendees for each session, Murphy said.

Despite the independence of the event, Murphy said, the TED Organization still gives strict guidelines the event needs to follow.

“One of their requirements is that all of the live presentations are filmed and then posted on their website,” she said. “Everyone who speaks will ultimately be broadcasted to millions of people, the whole following base of the TED Organization, because it goes straight on their YouTube page.”

Murphy said the University administration has also been

involved in the planning.

“We’re working very closely with the office of the provost,” she said. “[Executive director of academic communications] Pat Gibbons has been our advisor throughout the whole process and will continue to be until the end. He’s very heavily involved, and as we get closer to the deadline we’ll be pulling in other administrators, even running it by [University President] Fr. [John] Jenkins … [to] get the go-ahead and make sure it represents the University well.”

Encouraging conversations is the overarching goal of the event, O’Connell said, which he hopes will “become a yearly thing.”

“I think we’re trying to encourage the conversation to start, because … it’s just getting someone to start that conversation is the hardest point,” O’Connell said. “Now, giving the students the opportunity to start that conversation through TEDx and through the conversations that follow, I think that’s what we’re hoping for this.”

Murphy added that TEDx has already drawn a lot of interest.

“I think the more people from our campus community who are aware that it’s occurring, I think that’s definitely for the best,” she said. “ … I think one of the nice elements that we’re hoping is successful in the end is drawing together other parts of the Notre Dame family, or community, whatever you want to call it.”

In many ways, the conversation has already begun, O’Connell said.

“People are already talking about it and asking us to get involved,” he said. “We get emails every day about it. So clearly it’s something that’s already starting a conversation people want to be a part of.”

Blais Continued from page 1

and hiring a third diversity and inclusion officer, Blais said. In addition, the University’s statement of diversity and inclusion will also be incorporated into prospective students’ acceptance packages.

“They do the initial acceptance letter and then they follow immediately with your package and [the statement] is going to be in the package,” Blais said. “We’re still pushing for it to be in the initial acceptance letter, but we have the second one confirmed.”

Though the University Counseling Center (UCC) had already begun to discuss internal reviews, Blais said student government also played a key role in ensuring that the UCC underwent evaluation by the Jed Foundation, which is currently wrapping up its review.

While they have implemented certain items from their platform, however, many of the administration’s initiatives regarding sexual assault remain in the works.

According to their platform, one of Blais and Shewit’s top priorities was to implement Callisto — an online tool which allows students to submit time-stamped reports of sexual assault — by fall of 2017. However, Callisto is still being evaluated by the committee for sexual assault prevention (CSAP) and Blais said they hope to implement it in 2018 at the earliest.

“We had to go over the technology logistics and go over data security, over is it is right for Notre Dame?” Blais said. “Are there competing apps or services or anything, which we found there aren’t — things like that. So it is actually moving forward with a decision soon, which is extremely

promising and exciting, especially for such a large new service to the University.”

Blais and Shewit also planned to create a way for students to call Notre Dame Security Police by typing a key code into buildings. However, they are now instead looking into implementing a safety app which will allow students to contact Notre Dame Security Police (NDSP) on the go, Blais said.

“If they don’t pilot a new app — because there are challenges with looking at a new app — then they would either embed it directly into ND Mobile or they want to have a direct call button in ND Mobile for NDSP,” Blais said.

After further conversations with University Health Services, Blais said, the cabinet also reevaluated its goal of implementing a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) rape kit administration program on campus, a platform point passed down from the Robinson-Blais administration.

“In terms of safety, it’s actually better to have [rape kits] at the hospital because those nurses are trained to use them,” Blais said.

“And we could train our nurses but they administer them more often, so they have experience with them. You can’t mess up a rape kit, and they’re very easy to mess up.”

Although the cabinet may not accomplish every item on its platform, Juneja said, it will work to advance each initiative as much as possible.

“I don’t think we will achieve every single bullet point on that platform, but I do think that we will leave on April 2 and feel like at least we started pushing on everything,” he said. “So I don’t think we’ll have any regrets.”

Contact Natalie Weber at nweber@nd.edu

Contact Tom Naatz at tnaatz@nd.edu

SGA implements sustainable practices

By NICOLE CARATAS Senior News Writer

When Saint Mary’s student body president and vice president Bailey Oppman and Lydia Lorenc took office, they wanted to promote sustainability on campus. To achieve this goal, they named junior Emily Harrast and sophomore Kassidy Jungles as the chairs for sustainability under Student Government Association (SGA).

While Oppman and Lorenc stressed sustainability, the majority of initiatives fall under the sustainability chairs, Harrast said in an email.

“Kassidy and I worked on our

own goals for the year, but when it came to things we did not have experience with, [Oppman and Lorenc] were very helpful,” she said. “They helped us figure out our budget for the year, as well as helping us communicate our goals with [College President Jan Cervelli] and other staff.”

The chairs’ main goal for this semester was fundraising, Harrast said. “[We] wanted to raise money to buy hand dryers for the student center bathrooms,” Harrast said. “We spent this past semester designing a good product that we felt everyone would enjoy — but also subtly supports sustainability — and

selling it to raise the money we needed to support our efforts.

We achieved our goal of selling 100 shirts, and we hope to implement the new hand dryers as soon as possible.”

Cervelli has stressed sustainability since her inauguration last school year. Harrast said SGA met with Cervelli to discuss goals and hear any ideas she may have for SGA. “Together, we discussed the sustainable practices already in place, which there are a fair number of, and then talked about our goal of getting hand dryers in the student center,” Harrast said.

The College has also had an

active composting program during this semester, although Harrast said she cannot take credit for that initiative.

“While [the composting program] was included in our goals early on, it was started by [senior] Katie Frego and the composting club,” she said. “We work some with the club, but this program is completely run by the club members.”

Harrast said she and Jungles hope to continue promoting knowledge next semester.

“Our goals … are to spread more information about sustainable things the average Saint Mary’s student can do,” Harrast said. “We hope to do this not only

using posters and social media, but also with some fun event we are planning, specifically Earth Day.” Harrast said she believes it is important not only to strive for a more sustainable life, but also to incorporate that principle into SGA specifically.

“Having chairs for sustainability stresses how important this topic really is,” she said. “[It] reminds students that we need to constantly think about whether or not actions are sustainable and what we need to do to make them more sustainable.”

Contact Nicole Caratas at ncaratas01@saintmarys.edu

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Committee builds upon discussion initiative

By GINA TWARDOSZ Associate Saint Mary’s Editor

The topics of Saint Mary’s Monthly Mingles — which take place on the first Monday of every month — vary from political issues to self-care.

Sophomore Terra Nelson and junior Francesca Cervone, members of the Community Justice Committee, are Monthly Mingle co-chairs and responsible for planning each event.

The goal of the Monthly Mingle, Nelson said, is to gather everyone together in a comfortable environment to talk about the topic at hand.

“We try to get as many girls together as possible, of all different class years, and just talk about something on campus that we feel is a hot conversation or something that people need to discuss in a safe space,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s just about spreading awareness about the topic.”

Cervone said Monthly Mingles are centered around reaching out to everyone in the community and making sure they feel welcome and free to share their opinions.

“The Monthly Mingles focus on inclusion, and everyone is welcome to attend,” she said.

“They’re important because, given the climate of today’s world, I feel all students at Saint Mary’s should know that they are welcomed and have a space where they can talk and share their opinions without being judged.”

Nelson said Monthly Mingle discussions focus on giving everyone a voice and making sure

everyone is engaged.

“We like to engage everyone in the discussion so that when you come to a Monthly Mingle you’re not just sitting there listening to two people, but you’re actively listening to everyone’s opinions,” she said. “Most students come and share their stories. The first half of the Monthly Mingle is always giving everyone a basis of information on the topic. It’s definitely a space where Belles can come in, share their stories and experiences or ask questions.”

The topics are decided based on “need in the community,” Nelson said.

“When we sit and brainstorm about the topics, it’s from our perspective, which is the point of view of students,” she said. “We decide the topics based on what we hear people talking about.”

The most successful Monthly Mingle so far, Cervone said, has been the November discussion on healthy relationships and dating violence.

“November’s Monthly Mingle was very successful because we got to work with [director] Connie Adams and [the Belles Against Violence Office] and talk about healthy relationships,” she said.

Nelson said she felt November’s Monthly Mingle was successful because not a lot of students are able to recognize the signs of dating violence alone.

“Connie Adams from the Belles Against Violence Office came, and she did a lot of role playing and provided handouts,” she said. “We just kind of talked through what dating violence

looks like, and through this we were able to open up a space for girls to be vulnerable and honest and ask questions.”

December’s Monthly Mingle topic, Nelson said, came about as the result of a participant’s suggestion.

“We’re doing December’s Monthly Mingle on self-care because one of the girls from the last Monthly Mingle asked us if we could,” she said. “If anyone has an idea, we’re more than happy to listen to them. We really want students to stay in tune with what happens on campus.”

The best part of the Monthly Mingles is seeing people go beyond their own biases and listen to the group’s differing opinions, Nelson said.

“Our own biases can drop by the wayside after the Monthly Mingles, and any pre-connotations can hopefully be proven wrong,” she said. “Then, we can all realize that some issues might be more complex than initially thought. Hearing other girls’ stories, becoming more aware, makes us better and more empathetic community members.”

Nelson said she wants future Monthly Mingles to be more inclusive and reflect what the community needs.

“The goal is to make the Monthly Mingles, not larger or more flashy, but make them more about what our community members need and craft them into a space where all Belles can come and feel heard and listen to other Belles,” she said.

Oppman Continued from page 1

from one another. Instances of injustice and intolerance that students have encountered on campus — such as racist graffiti — may warrant more serious responses, she said.

“I had lunch with [College] President [Jan] Cervelli a few weeks ago, and we talked about doing an open forum with her,” Oppman said. “We’re going to invite the student body, and … it’ll be an open discussion. I think, in light of things like [racist graffiti], that will be really helpful because even though we’re planning on doing it next semester, I think it will still be relevant at that point in time.”

Instances of bullying and exclusion, Oppman said, demand a swift response that clarifies the College’s mission of promoting sisterhood while reinforcing the fact that hatred will not be accepted on campus.

“As leaders, we need to take a clear stance that that isn’t okay,” she said. “ … If we make sure that our actions speak volumes to what we promote and what we believe, and if we think about that and the events that we’ve planned, if we’re very conscious about the message we’re sending to the student body, then I think we’ve accomplished that task.”

Oppman said she and Lorenc also hope to inform students about how to appropriately react to injustices they may

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experience, as the duo aims to foster a safe and knowledgeable campus environment.

“We hosted an event with [the Belles Against Violence Office], and it was all around catcalling, and if you’re harassed, what can you do, who can you reach out to if you need help, but also how to respond in those situations,” she said. “ … It’s a small way that we tried to promote how the girls on our campus can respond to harassment and things like that.”

Lorenc said she and Oppman aim to make the College a more sustainable environment, even by less noticeable efforts such as eventually implementing handdryers in the student center.

Oppman said significant progress has been made in looking to expand Munch Money to more local dining locations, though this goal has not yet been brought to fruition.

“We’re hoping to make some more headway with that next semester,” she said. “The owner of Dunkin’ Donuts is the same owner of Jimmy John’s that we get our Munch Money from, so they’re familiar with the process.”

She said improving the College and implementing practices or opportunities that benefit students has been rewarding beyond measure.

“You want to represent your school well, and you feel so proud because you worked so hard to get to where you are,” she said.

Contact Martha Reilly at mreilly01@saintmarys.edu

Contact Gina Twardosz at gtwardosz02@saintmarys.edu

ND administration addresses drinking culture

By KELLI SMITH News Writer

This year’s student government spent the fall semester conducting research and advancing policies on a topic specific to the social atmosphere at Notre Dame: the alcohol culture on campus.

Student government zeroed in on the subject after the University Board of Trustees requested information on it for student government’s annual fall board report.

After an initial presentation detailing research progress to the Board in October, student body president and senior Becca Blais said student government has only continued to work on confronting such a large issue.

“We wanted to address [the topic] in a really holistic way,” Blais said. “Our biggest insistence to the Board of Trustees was that we’re not looking for a blanket policy solution to alcohol culture, we’re actually looking for healthy examples of drinking on campus

and things like that.”

In addition to collaborating with the McDonald Center for Student Well-Being — which Blais said contributed over 400 pages of research on the subject — and the Committee on Sexual Assault Prevention (CSAP), chief of staff and junior Prathm Juneja said the report has also started conversations about gender equity, housing, residential life and the drug policy on campus.

“The advantageous thing about the board report — even if it’s not something that we would have particularly chosen as our own topic — is that we get to do some in-depth research on topics that we like, things that we are also passionate about,” Juneja said.

Though Blais said addressing alcohol culture wasn’t one of her platform’s main priorities, she believes having conversations related to it is important to implementing change.

“Prior to this year, I never really heard people talk about alcohol

as being abusive drinking or anything like that, it was just part of the culture,” she said. “And now we have people actually recognize, ‘Wow, we do drink more on average in terms of quantity and number of times in a month, I wonder why.’”

One of the outcomes Blais said she hoped to see come out of the board report is happening in terms of gender equity amongst the dorms, which she said she finds important because “rectors didn’t used to always talk to each other about this stuff.”

“There’s actually a committee of rectors now that is dedicated to specifically looking at gender inequity and how they can best address it,” Blais said. “They’re not trying to make some dorms more strict and some more lenient, but they’re trying to find what is the best practice here.”

Senior and student body vice president Sibonay Shewit said the report has also benefited student senate by allowing them to

approach new changes such as the housing policy with the “scope of the impact of the drinking culture.”

“Until an outsider, someone who isn’t a Notre Dame student, brought up how aggressive [our drinking culture] is I don’t think I’d ever been like, whoa,” Shewit said. “Because you come in and you’re told that’s what’s normal.

Partnering that with the drinking is just recognizing the severity of some alcohol issues on campus.”

To increase the occurrence of safe drinking as opposed to binging or unhealthy drinking, Blais said they asked a lot of students if they’d ever seen healthy drinking on campus, such as casual wine nights or drinking a few beers while watching a sports game, to which most said no.

If anything, Shewit said, the best thing that can come out of the report is students feeling they had a chance to provide input.

“It shouldn’t just be a board report that the three of us and our

team put together,” she said. “It should be that you can pick up a group of students and someone can say, ‘Oh yeah I was approached about this, they asked me a question about this and I knew who to talk to about this.’”

The conversations being had on safe drinking, gender inequity and drug policy will continue until the end of their term, Juneja said, when he hopes to see changes in all three of those aspects.

“One of the things that we promised the trustees at the end of the report was we’re going to be in touch,” Juneja said. “So we’ve been in touch with student affairs and we’re going to be in touch with them with updates on where we’re moving on our own version of these things with McWell, housing, etc., so we can have some sort of ongoing conversation about making Notre Dame a healthier and safer campus.”

Contact Kelli Smith at ksmith67@nd.edu

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5

student SENATE

Senators support student groups, pass resolutions

By MARY BERNARD News Writer

Student government vice president Sibonay Shewit revised the committee structure in student senate this year, a slight departure from issue-specific committees formed last year.

“We have one that does student outreach, one that does faculty and administrative issues and one that works on the constitution,” Shewit said. “I thought that by doing this they’d be more in touch with what’s going on around campus and carry more of a responsibility to cover everything that students are talking about.”

The constitution committee has proposed several amendments that have passed, which aim to create consistency throughout the constitution and be more explicit about quorum and the role of proxy members, Shewit said.

“I want to see next semester be more of the senators bringing topics of their own and resolutions of their own, and it started really well with our constitution changes,” she said. “I feel that they’re starting to feel a little bit more comfortable bringing things to senate.”

Unexpected events have required the senators to change focus quickly, Shewit said, but having simultaneous projects have not affected the underlying goals of senate.

“I definitely didn’t expect a lot of the sudden things that we’ve responded to, like the housing policy and our work with [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] students,” Shewit said. “Both things took up a significant amount of their time, and [we] didn’t see it coming, but they really did respond to those quickly and really did a good job of engaging with their groups.”

Next semester, Shewit said, she hopes for the senators to finish their work with the housing policy and support for DACA students, then turn

their attention towards other issues, such as a campaign to encourage reusable coffee tumbler use and an effort to create business classes for students outside of the Mendoza College of Business.

“I think it’s been a really good start to the year,” Shewit said. “They’ve made a pretty big impact on a lot of issues that our executive time has really put our back behind.”

Shewit conducted a midseason review of senate to discern the current sentiment among senators and how to improve next semester. She said the survey asked senators to rate their experience on the committees and offer recommendations they have going forward.

“The responses were really positive. I just wanted to make sure that they felt engaged in senate,” Shewit said.

“One pretty unique thing is how close they’ve all gotten, and they have wanted more opportunities outside of these meetings to hang out as a group. They really have become a unified body.”

This semester, senators have heard from a variety of speakers including representatives from Campus Dining, The Shirt Project committee and Title IX. “A lot of times when we invite these speakers, they’re super excited to talk to the senators,” Shewit said. “They know how many voices [the senators] represent and how much of what they say is going to be spread onward.”

Shewit said she believes in the importance of empowering the senators and in showing them how much influence they have on campus.

“Senate — from when I started in student government — has changed so much, and I think it’s moving in such a good direction,” Shewit said. “I think that they do a lot of really great work, and they’re a really representative body and have brought a lot of voices into one room.”

Contact Mary Bernard at mbernar5@nd.edu

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sTUDENT UNION BOARD

Hall president council

SUB reinstates concerts, adds to programming

By MARIE FAZIO News Writer

Though the Student Union Board (SUB) is mostly know n for its concerts, the group also wants to prov ide students w ith more consistent smaller events this semester, executive director Jackson Herrfeldt said.

“We at SUB are more than just a concert,” Herrfeldt, a senior, said. “I do think the concerts are successful … but we are here for the student body. Ever y thing we do is directed towards the student body. So one of the things we wanted to focus on is finding the smaller low budget events where we just bring free food.”

So far, these smaller events have included recent hot cocoa giveaways, cookie decorating and berr y giveaways. A particularly well received event was Cuddles and Cocoa, Herrfeldt said.

“We got some of the rectors’ dogs to come out for Cuddles and Cocoa,” he said.

“To see people walk by and realize this was going on and get some free hot chocolate and pet a golden retriever puppy — it makes someone’s day, and that’s what we’re tr y ing to focus on a little bit more.”

One of the most successful SUB events so far this semester was the Quinn XCII concert, which Herrfeldt said received over whelmingly positive feedback.

“I think our biggest [event this] semester has been the concert that we held Friday night,” he said. “We had over 600 people show up and the ma x imum capacit y was 629.”

Senior Samantha Meehan, a director of programming, said the group is focused on bringing entertaining performances to campus in whatever form that may take.

“The first few weeks of school we had [“Saturday Night Live” cast member] Melissa Villasenor come perform at [Washington] Hall, which was a really

great event,” Meehan said.

“We got a lot of people out there, and I think that show was a really great opportunit y especially to show us go back to our roots, which is comedy. Next year, though, we’re looking at branching a little bit away from that and tr y ing to do different things — whether that be mind-readers or magicians or hy pnotists — and tr y ing to bring different shows to campus that are [not] necessarily just comedy.”

Senior Audrey Thellman, program director, said the group is thinking of new ways to expand events.

“Ser v ices started out strong when we had Fall Mall — which was the event where you bring Bed Bath and Beyond and a Carpet Depot to campus for incoming first year students, and there is a huge crowd ever y time,” Thellman said. “… We adhered to students’ needs more, and we planned a poster event for the first week of school rather than just at Fall Mall.”

SUB also hosted a fundraising turkey trot for Fighting Irish Fighting Hunger earlier this semester, and students still have the annual finals stress relievers event — where SUB brings food to campus from different vendors — to look for ward to next week, Thellman said. She also said the new SUB Talks are a way to bring speakers on a variet y of topics to campus.

SUB designs the w ide variet y of events they host in the hopes that they w ill appeal to students of all interests in the student body. “[We tr y] to prov ide for other people who have different interests or targeted interests,” Thellman said.

“The person who wants to go to Acousticafe may not be the same person who wants to see improv comedy, so you want to incorporate all parts.”

Contact Marie Fazio at mfazio@nd.edu

Group works to update Hall of the Year, Rocknes

By ALEXANDRA MUCK News Writer

As Hall President Council (HPC) co-chairs, seniors Alyssa Lyon and Brandon Ryan have brought changes to HPC focused on efficiency and collaboration.

“We wanted to create an environment that was a lot more collaborative as opposed to competitive,” Lyon said. “We felt that presidents didn’t want to share what was going on in their dorm so that one could get a leg up, be a better hall, get hall of the year, whatnot. We did a couple changes this year so people are encouraged to share and tell what’s great about your dorm.”

As part of the weekly HPC meetings, Lyon and Ryan said they have shortened the time focused on administrative tasks and instead used more time to focus on hall signature events and troubleshooting problems in the dorms.

“If you compared a 45-minute [meeting] last year and a 45-minute meeting this year, the ones this year feel so much more productive because what we’ve tried to do is cut out or make really efficient all the administrative and formality stuff,” Ryan said.

This year, HPC uses HPChats as a way to get feedback on problems hall presidents are facing. Lyon and Ryan also have started Standouts in the meetings in place of Hey Halls, which allow dorm leadership to present on what’s unique about their dorm instead of giving a dorm histor y.

“It’s shifted from information for information’s sake and no one really caring to actually having a

productive source for people to hear new ideas that other dorms are doing,” Ryan said.

Lyon and Ryan have also been focusing on aspects of dorm life such as the dorm relationship with the rector, Ryan said.

“Some rectors seem to be the heart and soul of the dorm and others seem to be ‘us-against-them,’” he said.

“One thing we’ve really been tr ying to do is see how we can bridge that gap and see how each dorm has an opportunity to make dorm culture better.”

The HPC co-chairs have also given their input to a committee working to standardize certain elements of the residential experience, such as dances.

“You might go to one dorm and the dance rules are ver y rela xed, and you might go to another one and the list of rules is two pages long,” Lyon said. “Residents are having a discrepancy of experiences with something that should be pretty standard in the way that they’re run.”

An important aspect of the HPC co-chairs’ job is their role in determining Hall of the Year. Lyon and Ryan made changes to the formats of Rocknes at the start of this year. Lyon said the ref lections are more concise and hall presidents must list three items that could be improved.

They made these changes, Ryan said, to focus less on the presentation and more on the content of the Rocknes.

“The thing my rector would say last year is any time you would spend filling out a Rockne, spend that time actually on the dorm — and that’s so true,” he said.

“We shouldn’t be awarding people who are basically putting the best ornaments on their Rocknes, it should be about the content.”

Lyon said the HPC cochairs both recognize the problems that exist with the Hall of the Year process and they are working now to make changes that will be implemented for the 2018-2019 school year. They want the process to be more about recognition and less about a competition.

“We feel that it should really be more of an afterthought in that at the end of the year whoever really stood out as building a really strong community or transitioning their dorm,” Lyon said. “ … It should be an honor that they receive as opposed to something they’re competing for all year long.”

Lyon said she and Ryan will be presenting their recommended changes to student senate by the end of their term.

Contact Alexandra Muck at amuck@nd.edu

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