Club Coordination Council grants SCOP status as university-sponsored group

 

Last spring, a group of Notre Dame students gathered to address the needs of children, an underrepresented sector of our society today.  Massive movements for human rights, women’s rights, and marriage rights exist; however, children’s rights are rarely given the individual attention they are due.

Students for Child-Oriented Policy (SCOP) advocates for public policies that promote the well-being of children, yet the group was the object of much derision last spring.  A member of SCOP drafted a letter, published in the Observer, inviting the Notre Dame student body to attend a conference entitled “For Richer, For Poorer, For Children: The Definition and Importance of Civil Marriage.”  This student’s diplomatic outreach sparked protests and a petition from other groups around campus, and SCOP found itself marginalized due to its support of traditional marriage.

SCOP’s mission statement, however, shows that the club is not solely concerned with marriage policy’s effect on children.  The statement reads: “Nonpartisan and nonsectarian, SCOP is about boldly reorienting the vision of policymakers, present and future, toward serving first that most vulnerable set in society, children.  We’re about answering the demands of truth, love, and justice, about subjecting our principles to rational scrutiny.  Specifically, SCOP focuses on the following policy issues: drugs, pornography, education, and marriage.  The greatest of these is marriage because it is most foundational—and most misunderstood.  We firmly believe that defining marriage by the lights of natural reason, unassisted by any divine revelation, insults and demeans no one.  On the contrary, we think that only in understanding what marriage is can we avoid arbitrary, unjust marriage policy.”

Notre Dame’s Club Coordination Council rejected SCOP’s application to become a university-sponsored club last May, but has since reviewed and changed its decision.  Class of 2014 graduate Elizabeth Argue told the Rover that she “chose to attend Notre Dame because it offers an education that would allow me to seek the Truth.  I am grateful that, for the sake of seeking Truth through authentic dialogue, my beloved University has decided to allow SCOP the same rights it allows countless other groups.  The students who participate in SCOP are very courageous, but more importantly, they are intellectually honest.  If the University of Notre Dame wants to be an institution of higher learning, they are right to encourage these students in their endeavor.”

The Club Coordination Council (CCC), in charge of reviewing all requests for official university recognition, advised last year that SCOP’s goals overlapped with two other clubs: the Orestes Brownson Council, a group that informs students about the Catholic Church’s teachings, and the Children’s Defense Fund, a group focused on child poverty issues.

University spokesman Dennis Brown discussed last spring’s decision with Fox News, stating, “SCOP is one of six proposed clubs whose applications were denied this spring; 31 percent of club applications have been denied over the past five years, mostly for the same reason—duplication of purpose.”

Tiernan Kane, a graduate student and president of SCOP, stated in an interview with the Rover that SCOP is “by no means in conflict with the Catholic mission of Notre Dame, though our organization does not take its tenets from any particular religious doctrine.”  Though its purpose aligns with that of Notre Dame’s as a Catholic university, the club is broadly concerned with the promotion of policies that will positively affect children.

Students for Child-Oriented Policy brought former ‘drug czar’ John Walters to campus two weeks ago to discuss federal drug policies’ effect on children.  This year, the club plans to hold events focused on each of its core areas of interest: drugs, pornography, education, and marriage.  SCOP is currently organizing an education policy panel in response to the state of Indiana’s refusal to implement the Common Core.

Above all, the club’s members and leaders hope to foster reasoned and meaningful dialogue between the various student groups on campus that are invested in the fundamental rights of children.  Understanding and pursuit of the truth as it pertains to policy implementation is of the utmost importance in a society buffeted by competing special interest groups championing their rights.  With the university’s official permission, members of SCOP are eager to do just this.

Kate Hardiman is a sophomore PLS major and PPE minor living in Breen-Phillips Hall. Contact her at khardima@nd.edu.