The University of Notre Dame's student government has created a new department of student-athlete relations partially in response to an ongoing $2.8 billion lawsuit, House v. NCAA.
According to The Observer student newspaper, as the settlement was being negotiated, Notre Dame’s student government formed the new student-athlete relations department, created by an omnibus senate bill that reshaped the executive cabinet. That bill, the first of the 2025-26 senate’s term, was passed April 2 with 32 affirmative votes, two negative votes and four abstentions.
Student body president Jerry Vielhauer ran with the creation of this department as a part of his platform, Henry Jagodzinski and Sophie Hanawalt of The Observer reported.
The director of the student-athlete relations department, Robbie Wollan, a walk-on member of Notre Dame’s football team, told The Observer prior to a federal judge pausing the settlement over roster limits last week that there were a number of needs that prompted the creation of the department.
“There’s been a lot of press about athletes’ mental health over the past decade or so, but still a lot of people don’t know a lot about that … We have the sports psychologists, we have campus wellness centers, but there are a lot of challenges that student athletes face that are being brought up now, it’s not something that’s going to be in the future, we can change it right now,” he said.
Vielhauer said initial idea came while reviewing old student government administrations and centered more upon increasing representation for student-athletes, noting that athletes make up roughly 10% of the student body, Jagodzinski and Hanawalt reported.
“That is a very sizable portion of our student body, and for that group to not have any representation in student government was definitely, absolutely concerning to me … We have a lot of these diversity and inclusion departments to make sure that we are making every student feel like they’re part of the campus community, and I thought that we should not have student athletes not be included in that group,” Vielhauer said.
“It’s very important to us to make sure athletes feel a part of campus, of that community, and that beyond just that, we also help to create a bridge and a strong bond between student athletes and the student body in general,” Vielhauer added.
He attributed the need for this bridge to “a kind of divide starting to happen on campus with NIL, because there’s a sense of jealousy I think a lot of students naturally will feel toward athletes being paid to come here and play a sport.
“There are obviously special resources that student athletes have for a number of reasons. When everyday students don’t have the same resources, it can be difficult to at the same time see those athletes as having their own separate, real challenges.”
According to Jagodzinski and Hanawalt, Wollan hopes to address misconceptions about the department, noting that they’ve received feedback in which “people are saying you’re giving athletes more physical resources, more exclusive opportunities,” despite this not being the case.
“We are not giving athletes more things. We’re helping maximize what they already have,” he told The Observer, adding that initiatives will include assisting students in getting more involved with dorm life, especially coaching intramural sports, as well as helping them to navigate opportunities to receive NIL funding and managing their responsibility to “represent Notre Dame at the highest level.”
“Notre Dame is always focused on leading. How do we get our student athletes, who have such an incredible platform, to lead Notre Dame to be one of the best universities in the world? Through college athletics, that’s a big opportunity to use that. I think a lot of schools aren’t making the most of that,” Wollan said.
Vielhauer told The Observer their team has been meeting with a lot of administrators regarding their platform, but they have not yet had time to discuss this with Notre Dame’s athletics department.
Vielhauer and Wollan are “leaning towards” having the department consist mostly of student-athletes, providing them the biggest say in the matters the department addresses, Jagodzinski and Hanawalt reported. Members of the department will be selected by the last day of classes and the department will begin to meet in the fall, consistent with other departments.
