Group says actions of police `inexcusable'
By LAURA ROMPF
Assistant News Editor
Citing the same sentiments as the administration, the student senate passed an open letter last night concerning the Roseland Denny's incident where two students were arrested, possibly for racist reasons.
"We stand by our students just as the administration has stood by our students. It is unbelievable that this has happened in this day and age," said Keough senator and President-elect Brian O'Donoghue. "This can not be tolerated, accepted or ignored. This shows the group that the student body stands behind them for justice."
The letter, which can be sent to numerous involved parties, states: "The officers' actions were without justification. We, the Student Senate, as representatives of the entire student body, find the actions of these officers both reprehensible and inexcusable."
Also discussed at Wednesday's meeting was the cancellation of the Sophomore Sibs weekend. Zahm hall senator Ryan Becker discussed several issues which were raised by the Sophomore Class Council including no clear official reasons for the cancellation and lack of communication between Student Activities, the Class Council, and the students themselves. Student Activities said reasons for cancellation included low attendance and high expenses due to Notre Dame's geographically diverse population. The main concern, however, was hall staff's dissatisfaction and worries with the weekend. After sophomores submitted a new proposal hoping to remedy these problems, student activities still said no to the weekend.
"Joe Cassidy chose seven rectors to look at the new proposal and the rectors did not respond with enthusiasm to have the weekend," Becker said.
After all the research, Becker concluded that the situation was unfortunate due to poor communication and similar actions are trying to be prevented in the future.
"I feel student activities did nothing wrong intentionally. There was simply poor timing and that they did the best they could. I believe they gave the proposal fair consideration. It is a shame it didn't work out because the proposal was great," Becker said.
A new committee is being formed to determine a new signature event for the sophomore class with the hopes of starting it next year.
In other senate news:
u Senate unanimously passed a statement issuing "The Michael J. Palumbo Award" which will honor a member of the Student Union each year.
"He is the epitome of a leader for me," said Matt Kloser, Keenan Hall senator. "He puts everything he can into his job, and there is no one who deserves this more."
Palumbo was left nearly speechless. "To all the senators a profound thanks for the award that I hope I am worthy of. I feel I don't deserve this but I appreciate the thought and sentiment of this award that was named on my behalf. This is beyond comprehension," he said.
u Senate passed a Charitable Donations Bylaw so that the student activities fee is used correctly with in student organizations.
"Our main purpose is to make sure that the money from fees at the beginning of the year allocated to student activities is spent on the students rather than on someone else," said Katy Fallon, a representative from Executive Cabinet.
u Senate unanimously approved the nominations for judicial council president, vice president of elections, and co-vice presidents of advocacy.
Tony Wagner will be President, John Bauters VP of elections, and Angela Galui, Amanda Dovidio, and Nicholeen DePersis will be co-vice presidents of advocacy.
All News Stories for Thursday, March 23, 2000
