senate suspends unopposed council elections

By LIAM PRICE n ews Writer

Wednesday afternoon’s n otre d ame student senate meeting featured a debate on the best state and a promotion for b aumer h all’s “Fr. Pete [ m c c ormick]” shirt sale, but it began with an adlibbed prayer.

n otre d ame student senators typically volunteer ahead of time to lead opening prayer for a given meeting, but at the start of Wednesday’s, student body vice president a idan r ezner offered the opening prayer to any senator who wished to lead it right then. Fisher senator Joseph Tunney raised his hand.

“ h eavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to gather here,” Tunney said. “Please bless everyone in this room. h elp us to do our work quickly, efficiently and with the hearts and minds of a group that keeps in mind the interest of the student body at n otre d ame. h elp us to get through this week … i n your name, we pray.” e ditor’s note: Tunney is a former sports writer for The o bserver. s tudent union secretary i sabella Tardio took roll call for Wednesday’s meeting and asked the senators their bucket list vacation spots for the meeting’s question of the day. r ezner added another feature to the roll call section of the meeting’s agenda: “Pick o ne,” for which he put d uncan h all senator Jacob Zybura on the spot, asking Zybura why he thinks n ew Jersey is the best state.

“What more could you want in a state? i t’s got the beach. i t’s got the city. i t’s got some beautiful mountains, believe it or not,” Zybura said. Zybura’s hometown, according to the senate directory, is c lifton, n ew Jersey. a fter the opening prayer, r ezner moved the senate into executive announcements, promoting events hosted by student government’s various executive cabinets in the upcoming week. r ezner noted that d enim d ay, held on Thursday, a pril 20, is the student union’s most important event for the rest of the academic year.

“a ll right,” r ezner said to Zybura. “ i ’d argue that c alifornia has that too, but that’s fine.” r ezner, for his part, is originally from c orona, c alifornia.

“ m ake sure to wear your denim tomorrow,” he told the senators. “ m ake sure your dorms know to wear denim tomorrow. [ i t is] very important to show awareness and support. s o jeans, denim jackets, all those are good things. a nd that will happen tomorrow to show our support for survivors of sexual violence.” r ezner, who was presiding over the senate for the third meeting of his term, had finished the rest of the executive announcements and was moving onto new business when c arroll h all senator h unter b rooke, the runner-up vice presidential candidate in this year’s student government elections, raised his hand. i t was true. r ezner had not approved the prior meeting’s minutes after Tardio took roll call and before executive orders. b rooke then gave another motion to move up the meeting’s two agenda items from new business to general orders, and there was no objections from the senate.

“ c an i ask a point of order? i may have been completely asleep, but did we forget to approve the minutes?” b rooke asked.

“That’s on me,” r ezner said, and then he quickly fixed his error by approving the prior meeting’s minutes with an unanimous vote from the senate to do so.

Two items passed during general orders i sabella m archetti and a ubrey d i s tefano are the only juniors running for offcampus council president and vice president, respectively, in the upcoming offcampus council elections. s uspending the election simply facilitated a quicker electoral process for the unopposed candidates. The senate agreed with r ezner, providing no debate on the order and no dissent in the senate during voting.

The first item on the agenda was a senate order to suspend off-campus council elections. Knott senator c lay c hauncey made a motion to dispense the reading portion of the order, which was approved with a senate vote. d uring questioning, r ezner told the senate that the order’s reasoning was obvious: “There’s only one party running,” he said.

The next agenda item was a senate resolution “to fix the b aumer h all sign,” which b rooke, as a co-sponsor for the resolution, read out loud to the senate.

The “whereas” statements of the resolution explained that a “sign on the southeast section of campus near the m orris i nn contains names and directions to many nearby dorms, but conspicuously lacks any direction or identification of b aumer h all.”

Furthermore, the resolution also stated that b rooke and Keough h all president d erick Williams “have discussed this issue” with individuals from the o ffice of Facilities d esign and o perations, who have “placed an order for necessary materials.” b rooke read that the resolution calls upon the o ffice of Facilities d esign and o perations “to efficiently and effectively add a sign designating b aumer h all to the outdoor signage in question.” The resolution also states that, on behalf of the entire “student union and student body,” the senate “extends its full gratitude and thanks” to the office and the other individuals from the u niversity who have helped with the issue. b aumer h all senator Thomas Kluck said that b rooke came to b aumer h all in January and asked members of the hall what the student union could be doing better. “We said, you know, ‘we want this sign,’” Kluck told the senate. “ i t’s not that hard of a fix and we want it done. s omebody’s got to get it done.” b rooke raised his hand again, announcing that c arroll h all’s Lakeside m usic Festival is this s aturday from 4 to 7 p.m. a t this point, however, it was r ezner who corrected b rooke.

The resolution passed with no opposing votes, and r ezner moved the senate into announcements.

“We’ll have to get it approved first, but hopefully it will happen,” r ezner said. “ b ut we can’t announce it officially.”

Kluck announced that b aumer h all will be selling shirts depicting n otre d ame director of c ampus m inistry Fr. Pete m c c ormick in b aumer h all from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the meeting came to a close shortly after with the unanimous vote by the senate to adjourn the meeting.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story was published online 4/20/23

Contact Liam Price at lprice3@nd.edu