students welcome south bend’s first cat cafe Senate explains new procedures

By LIAM PRICE news writer

The n otre d ame student senate met w ednesday afternoon in the m endoza c ollege of b usiness building for their second meeting this term. Though no orders or resolutions were voted on, vice president a idan r ezner and senate parliamentarian g riffin m c a ndrew used the meeting to explain proper parliamentary procedures and resolution-writing practices to the new senators.

vote and moved on to executive announcements. h e first explained to the senators the difference between senate resolutions and orders.

“a resolution is, for lack of a better term, like a wish. i t’s a call upon the university to do something. n ow the u niversity is, we’d like to think, is [sic] very welcoming to these things and they will read them, and then they can make a decision as to whether they want to do that or not,” r ezner said.

by

aidan o’malley

news writer

senior i t might be called The c at l ady c afe, but Kim s ult — owner, founder and “purrresident” of s outh b end’s first cat cafe — is anything but crazy. s he wasn’t sure of that, though, until she announced her intention to open the cafe on f acebook in January 2022. i s anybody going to want to come?’” she said. b ut to her delight, people’s interest was piqued. l ocated on e ast c olfax a ve., The c at l ady c afe opened its doors to the f ollowing the senate’s standard meeting format, r ezner, who as vice president is also chairman of the senate, began the meeting with an opening prayer, and m c a ndrew took roll call afterward.

“ i wanted to kind of gauge the interest because, ‘a m i crazy for doing this?

“ i t was one of those moments where it’s like, ‘ o K, i guess this really is going to happen,’” s ult said with a laugh.

“ w hereas an order… would be something that you would write up and send through, and if it passes, that order is changed. n ow, the only thing that we have full order rights over is really our student constitution and our senate bylaws.” m c a ndrew followed see cafe PAGE 5 see senaTe PAGE 4 r ezner next approved the senate’s a pril 5 meeting minutes with a unanimous

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Periodical postage paid at Notre Dame and additional mailing offices POSTMASTER Send address corrections to: The Observer P.O. Box 779 024 South Dining hall Notre Dame, IN 46556-077 regards itself as a professional publication and strives for the highest standards of journalism at all times. We do, however, recognize that we will make mistakes. If we have made a mistake, please contact us at editor@ndsmcobserver.com so we can correct our error. with two presentations for the senators: one on parliamentary procedures in the senate, and the other on writing resolutions to be discussed and voted on the senate floor.

“Parliamentary procedure is the way in which, basically, the s enate is going to run. i t’s a method of running meetings and conducting business for the sake of efficiency while preserving the rights of its members,” m c a ndrew said.

The first, sixteen-slide presentation outlined how senators should expect meetings to run, including all parts of a typical senate meeting from opening prayer to meeting adjournment practices.

“ i know this is really dry stuff, so i ’m not going to go through all the nuts and bolts,” he said after concluding the presentation. “This was just like a summary of what you would expect to happen in a normal senate meeting.” m c a ndrew’s next presentation discussed the three steps of resolution writing for senators, from choosing an issue to drafting the resolution and then submitting it to himself, r ezner and the s tudent a ctivities o ffice advisor. r ezner told the senators that they can look to him and m c a ndrew for help in drafting the resolutions.

“We’re here to help you. i ’m more than willing to be with you about a resolution that you’re working on, anything of that sort. m e and [ m c a ndrew] are resources to you,” r ezner said.

“ i f you have an issue, we want you to go after it and solve it, so don’t be afraid about writing the resolution perfectly. We can help you with that.”

The last part of the executive announcements segment of the meeting included a reminder from r ezner of senate meeting attendance policy and expectations, explaining that senators are allowed six absences in a term before facing a review by the student government’s ethics committee. Though attendance policies are rarely enforced strictly, m c a ndrew advised the senators to do what they could to avoid dealing with attendance issues. i n announcements, d illon h all senator s am g odinez stood up to inform his fellow senators that he is working on a resolution for the senate to call upon the u niversity to fix “Lake d illon,” which is the colloquial term for the area between the entrance of d illon h all and the exit of s outh d ining h all that floods during heavy rains.

“The ethics committee has been known to be very lenient on attendance policies, which isn’t a good reason for you guys not to show up because an ethics committee hearing is a total nightmare for everyone involved, including both of us and you,” m c a ndrew said.

The general orders part of the meeting included only a reminder from r ezner for senators to sign up for student government executive departments.

“ i f you don’t mind, i have to give a passionate speech,” he said. “a t this point, d illon h all is an ocean and all our members, including myself, are just a bunch of whales trying to navigate the waters. s o i will be introducing a resolution, emailing all of you probably within the next week or so.”

Editor’s Note: Sam Godinez is a former news writer and photographer for The Observer.

Contact Liam Price at lprice3@nd.edu