Students for Child-Oriented Policy is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian Notre Dame student organization that advocates the development and implementation of child-oriented policies that respect what we understand to be the soundest understanding of the principles of universal human reason, especially on the issues of marriage, education, adoption, drug abuse, and pornography.
As a nonpartisan organization, SCOP is not an affiliate of any particular political party.
As a nonsectarian organization, SCOP refrains from affirming the claims to divine revelation of any particular faith tradition, though we recognize the rational possibility of divine revelation. SCOP recognizes the store of wisdom present in the great world religions and warmly welcomes the religious perspectives of all faith traditions.
As a Notre Dame student organization, SCOP recognizes a special responsibility to serve the common good of the University and its home state of Indiana. Accordingly, SCOP gives special attention to strengthening the understanding of the first principles of practical reason and advancing child-friendly policies on campus and across our state.
As a policy-advocacy organization, SCOP strives to influence public policy, preserving policies that we believe benefit children and promoting changes that we believe would promote the flourishing of children. SCOP’s advocacy efforts include sponsoring an annual conference and other events throughout the year, as well as making arguments in the public square.
As an organization committed to adherence to principles of human reason, SCOP recognizes as a necessary though not sufficient criterion of child-oriented policy that it not violate any practical principle of universal human reason.
SCOP focuses on certain human values, but we do not deny the value of countless other forms of human activity. SCOP holds the union of a man and woman together that is inherently oriented toward family life (i.e., marriage); the holistic formation of mind, heart, and body (i.e., education); and the true friendship sought in the loving choice to adopt for the sake of a child’s good, all things considered, to be of intrinsic value to human beings. Furthermore, SCOP holds drug abuse and pornography use to be intrinsically harmful to human beings. We maintain, however, that there other forms of human activity, including other forms of human community, that are intrinsically valuable to human beings.
