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Dear students,

Welcome back home under the dome! We hope you all had wonderful, restful summers and are ready for a great year ahead. Up in room 203 LaFun we have been busy welcoming the new members of our cabinet, starting the year off in Student Senate and working hard to create the best campus for all of you.

From Welcome Weekend to now, our team has worked hard to put on the third Flick on the Field, provide free digital access to the New York Times for all undergraduate students and host the annual 9/11 memorial prayer service at the Grotto. Aside from these programming initiatives we have also been working with the administration to create more equitable residential life policies and representing the student voice in myriad issues that range from campus dining to sexual violence prevention.

The rest of September will be busy with a wide variety of events and policy work. This Friday at 8 p.m. in Washington Hall we are excited to welcome, in collaboration with student union board and multicultural students programs and services, Yusef Salaam. Salaam is one of the men of the “Central Park Five,” who were wrongly convicted in the Central Park Jogger Case of 1989. This event is free for all students and will mark the kick-off of Race Relations week. We hope that you will join us in hearing his story and also at the other events during Race Relations Week which are listed on our website (studentgovernment.nd.edu).

Another big event during September includes the Notre Dame Forum: Rebuild my Church, taking place from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Leighton Concert Hall in DPAC. We encourage all members of the Notre Dame community to participate in the conversation regarding our role in responding to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Additionally, we are proud to host the third ND: Unfiltered event on Sept. 24 from 7-9 p.m. in the LaFun Ballroom in collaboration with Show

Some Skin, First Year of Studies, PRISM ND and many others. We are also partnering with Civic Duty South Bend, NDVotes, BridgeND and College Republicans and Democrats for the Converge at ND kickoff event on Monday, Sept. 30 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Dahnke Ballroom.

The Student Senate has been up to a lot as well, working on Student Union and club financing, violence prevention training requirements for student leaders, residential life policies and constitutional changes. All senate meetings are open to the public in the Notre Dame Room of LaFortune on Wednesdays at 5:30. These meetings are livestreamed on our Facebook page. Feel free to tune in, stop by or talk with your hall senator to learn more or get involved!

Speaking of learning more and getting involved, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at studentgov@nd.edu or come visit us in room 203 LaFun. In addition to our wonderful team and their personalities, the office will also have some exciting events coming up, including a series of tiny desk concerts with student performers, so please let us know if you are interested in performing!

Welcome back! We look forward to getting to know you over the year.

In Notre Dame,

Elizabeth & Pat