Self Government Association

Bryn Mawr College

• Home
• About
• Who
• Constitution

SGA Meeting November 15, 2009 November 17, 2009

Emma W-B ‘11 calls the meeting to order at 7:10 PM.

Roll Call

Excused Absences: Nga Nguyen ’12, Malina Toza ’12, Caitlin Evans ’12, Shannon Ryan ’10, Jennifer Savage ’12, Jill Settlemyer ’10, Elle Works ’10, Caroline Heffernan ’10, Marisa Franz ’10

Unexcused Absences: Blair Smith ’12, Claire Smith ‘12

Community Members: Brittney Thornbury ’11, Allyson Schmieder ’11, Renee Beyer ’12, Heather Taddonio ’12, Lydia Bello ’12, Sharan K. Mehta ’12, Celia Turner ’10

Announcements

Tanya Kaur ’10, On behalf of Caroline Heffernan ’10: This Tuesday from 11-2 and 4-7, there will be a Smart Women, Strong Women Open House in the Fitness Center. The Open House will have information about the upcoming gym closings, Rhoads Fitness Center Openings, and potential new equipment for the new facility. The Athletic Department will also be having a Moving Sale on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! Come get some great deals on Bryn Mawr Athletic Gear!

Other Dates to know:
All personal belongings in the locker rooms must be out by Thursday, November 19.
The fitness center will be closing on Sunday, November 22 at 8:00 PM.
Rhoads Fitness Center will be opening on Monday, November 30.
Recreational Pool times will end on December 4 at 2:00 PM.

Your Two Cents

None

Middle States Reaccreditation

Dean Tidmarsh: I know you were given a link about the Middle States Reaccreditation process but I realize you might be busy and may not have had time to read it, or perhaps you read it and don’t remember everything, so I brought 40 copies with the information.

Mary Osirim-Hi everybody, I’m Mary Osirim and I thought I would take about 30 seconds to explain the Middle States Reaccreditations process. The Middle States includes states like New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The reaccreditation process is in place because any school that takes any federal funding needs to be accredited. So every 10 years an institution is reaccredited. There are 14 areas that the school needs to be accredited in. We have a committee that deals with this specifically and takes a very detailed look at our college and each of these 14 areas.

Dean Tidmarsh: So the entire reaccreditation documentation can be found in the library, it’s about 150 pages long. What you have in front of you is 40 pages that we thought would be the most pertinent and interesting to you, which is student life. The entire document can only be 150 pages, so the section on student life, which is quite condensed, I’m afraid is in front of you.

Tanya Kaur ’10: So this question isn’t about the actual document but about the accreditation process. Exactly who gets to see this 150-page document?

Dean Tidmarsh: So the document is first seen by the campus community and then we give that self-study to the Middle States committee who reads it and then talks to faculty, administrators, and students about the content.

Dean Tidmarsh: We don’t think we’ll lose reaccreditation as Bryn Mawr College, but at the same time we don’t want to get accredited with a provision to improve in any area because that would be a slap in the face.

Maddy Court ’13: Where does the Middle States Reaccreditation get their authority from?

Mary Osirim: They get their authority from the federal government. The past administration was quite worried about the educational achievement in college, and was going to set up standardized college tests. Not to worry, the Middle States were absolutely against that provision.

Dean Tidmarsh: The idea is that we’re going to be accredidated by peers as opposed to Bureaucrats from Washington D.C.

Emma W-B ’11: So it says that Plenary requires 40% of the student body, but really it requires 1/3 of the student body.

Hannah Curry McDougald ’10: Where are some of the people who are reviewing our college from?

Dean Tidmarsh: I think the chair of the committee is the President from Hamilton College, but I’m not sure about the rest of the committee.

Annalee Garrity ’11: Is there anything the student body should be doing?

Dean Tidmarsh: It’s nice of you to say, but I don’t think so. Be engaged, and answer their questions—you should answer honestly, you don’t need to say everything is wonderful, but be pleasant.

Elizabeth Howell ’12: Could you just talk about these goals that you’ve listed on the back page?

Dean Tidmarsh: We want to address some goals that we as an institution want to meet. We want to make the Deans more accessible to the entire student body. We realize they have a lot of responsibilities and sometimes not all students get their needs met. In addition we’d like to increase the faculty involvement with students when it pertains to academics, while remaining conscious of the other commitments that faculty members have. We also want to introduce a program that would include graduate students on campus in the health center helping with issues pertaining to residential life. We also want to see if we can have a staff member available from residential life to address any concerns Has may have on weekends. We are also planning on enhancing academic programs, particularly quantitative reasoning. And this is important so that the Middle States realize that we are setting goals for the future and looking towards the future.

Hannah Curry McDougald ’10: On page 5, it says “Customs people, sophomores” but actually not all customs people are sophomores.

Sophie Papavizas ’11: I’m confused what it means that the SGA has restructured it’s board in Section 2(v)

Dean Tidmarsh: Yeah I was confused by that as well, so now that I know that’s not accurate we’ll take that out.

Yung Jung Cho ’12: I was wondering about experimenting with Graduate Students on campus.

Dean Tidmarsh: It’s something we are experimenting with this year, since we can’t have a nurse on campus Friday-Sunday, so instead we are trying to get graduate students involved and we are interviewing potential staff members, who probably are graduate students to be on campus at that time. So in case there is an emergency or someone needs to get to the hospital, there is someone to help.

Taline Cox ’10: So is that one person? Or a few?

Dean Tidmarsh: It would be one per weekend, but we would probably hire 2 people so that they can work every other week.

Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: Does it have to be someone on campus? Or can they live close to campus? I feel that someone won’t stay awake on campus all time.

Dean Tidmarsh: We are willing to be flexible depending upon where they live.

Colleen Hayley ’11: I was wondering if the pay is different for nurses and graduate students?

Dean Tidmarsh: Sure, great question. The hourly pay for nurses is higher. However, there isn’t a significant difference that would be hard to accommodate financially. However, there is a very high demand for nurses, especially on weekends. Hospitals also want nurses to work on weekends, and they can afford to pay them more. As a result, even if the nurse model was one we thought was better, it was getting hard to staff at this point.

Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: Would you consider a student EMS service? I know other colleges have student services that create student positions on campus.

Dean Tidmarsh: I think it’s something we would be perfectly happy to talk about. Our small size would mean that students know each other so it sometimes becomes uncomfortable. But we can certainly talk about it.

Emma W-B ’11: We have run out of time for this, but if you have any questions please email them to mosirim@brynmawr.edu.

Big Cheese Forum

President McAulife: I’m Jane McAuliffe and I’m the President of the College. I thought in explaining my role it could be helpful if I just told you what I did for the last 2 weeks. November 1 was Lantern Night, which I greatly enjoyed. Monday morning I had lunch with other college administrators from the Tri-Co. Back in the office I hosted an administrative meeting with fellowship awardees who are shadowing the leadership of other institutions. I then went to Philadelphia to be on the panel for an inner city school, the Jesus School. Every year they host a symposium that brings in educators and philanthropists, which then place these students in different high schools. About 95% of these students graduate from High School. Then I came back to campus to introduce the Flexner speaker, Sanjay Subrahmanyum at the Flexner lecture. Tuesday I met with new staff members and the cabinet, and then later met with the diversity council. The next day I was in Boston fundraising with alumni and donors. I do this quite a bit—in fact I’m generally away from campus at least once a week fundraising. Friday, I was back for meetings and to host a lunch with the Flexner lecturer, and a reception for Parent’s Weekend. The next morning, there were various panels I was on and moderating during Parent’s Weekend. That gives you one week in November, which encompasses my role: meeting with senior staff on campus, to meet with students, to meet with parents, to heighten the exposure of Bryn Mawr and to fundraise.

Dean Tidmarsh: The dean of the undergraduate college is responsible for the welfare of the students and the college. I straddle the responsibilities for academic and non-academic advising. So I oversee the deans academic responsibilities, as well as non-academic advising—res life, student activities, and the like. I also have an advising load of my own students. I meet with Emma as a link to SGA. Ex-officio I am co-chair with Katherine Redford of Honor Board and of the Curriculum Committee.

Angie Sheets: I’m the director of Residential Life, and Bryn Mawr is a residential campus, so my main responsibilities are with housing, residential council, and the hall advisor program. I also network with and collaborate with a number of campus groups and departments—for example, I may have to deal issues around a raccoon, or with students in their room with the flu.

Jenny Rickard: I’m Jenny Rickard and I’m the Chief Communications and Enrollment Officer. It’s a new office, and it was the result of a yearlong process that looked at how we were creating and delivering services to all of you. We look at financial aid, and have combined that with student accounts. This also includes College Communications, and the Registrar among some other departments. One goal is to align the communications effort for recruitment and visibility purposes. Right now we are in the process of looking at Student Services and seeing how we deliver services and how we can fix it, so we’ll be looking to you for feedback and then we’ll be trying to transition that by the end of the this year.

Elizabeth Howell ’12: How did we respond to Haverford’s Sexual Assault last week?

President McAuliffe: I was immediately in touch with Steve Emerson to offer support and to briefed if necessary. Of course Mike Hill and Tom King have also been in touch and were working well together in order to resolve the situation.

Dean Tidmarsh: I also was briefed and kept informed, and we have a weekly Monday meeting to discuss what had happened, and I felt that we had a lot of access to the information—both myself and the community. I felt that they were telling us what they knew.

Taline Cox ’10: So last year in the spring, when we were discussing budget cuts, we were talking about expanding the post-bac program, so has that been discussed further?

President McAuliffe: Well something occurred that was not expected but fortuitous. We had proposed to increase the post-bac students by 10 spots, and then we did have an increased yield of post-bac students who were very qualified-and it was in fact, 10 additional students. In terms of your questions, we always have admission goals, but none that we have expanded officially.

Liana Donahue ’12: I had a question for Angie for single mothers—will they get housing on campus? I was giving a tour yesterday and I was asked this question.

Angie Sheets: We just had this conversation last week because we do think this is very important. We still have a leasing arrangement with the Marks Apt, and so we have apartments close to campus, which is our best option, because we would like to offer family housing options. In terms of logistics, we haven’t determined costs, but as a women’s college we would like to address that need.

Hannah Curry McDougald ’10: I was wondering why current students don’t get their financial information till July and prospective students get it with their offers earlier.

Jenny Rickard: Sure well part of it is logistically; we time our financial aid packages around tax season, which is filed by April 15. We send it to prospective students first and then send it to current students. We would love to send it to everyone around the same time, but we don’t have the staff to make that happen.

Julia Fahl ’12: President McAuliffe, last year you spent a lot of time talking students in dorms. Are you planning on expanding that program? What have you reaped from that? What are you other ideas?

President McAuliffe: Sure, I’m trying to have dinner with student groups in Haffner but I’m not too sure if that is working well. I will also be inviting the senior class to dinner at Pen y Groes. I was thinking about office hours, but I’ve also heard that can be intimidating. So I’m not sure what would be the best informal venue for us to have a productive conversation, so I would love any ideas you can have.

Julia Fahl ’12: As a quick follow up—what is your role in student life?

President McAuliffe: I want to be in a listening role frankly. Additional ways where I can be part of the thought life are of great interest to me.

Pragya Krishna ’13: Dean Tidmarsh, I heard that there will be changes in the foreign language requirement…

Dean Tidmarsh: Sure so we are talking about, requiring all students to take 2 semesters of a language regardless of proficiency. So if you are proficient you can take 2 semesters of a new language, or a higher level of the language you are proficient in. This of course wouldn’t apply to any of you, as your requirements are the ones that you come in with as freshman.

Sophie Papavizas ’11: Jenny, in terms of the restructuring you were talking about, how are you getting student feedback?

Jenny Rickard: Sure, so we have had student focus groups, and we have sent out student surveys. So we will be coming back to you to figure out how we want to garner feedback. It seems communication and technology seems to be the biggest thing: there seems to be a lot of feelings about Virtual Bryn Mawr and that it could be better, or that it is better but students don’t know how it’s better and that’s on us as well, to communicate to you how to effectively use these resources.

Renee Beyer ’12: I’m the president of the outdoor club, and I know at fall frolic President McAuliffe you had come by and said that you would be interested in getting increasing bi-co outdoor activities.

President McAuliffe: Sure, you are good to remind me—I still would be interested in increasing bi-co participation in outdoor activities, and I certainly need to look into this more.

Rachel Brody ’11: This was more of last year, but how is the sister campus in Abu Dhabi going?

President McAuliffe: It’s not. Due to the economic downturn, it didn’t make sense to invest our time there. However, I am still looking towards similar ventures. I just met with the Indian Minister of Education for setting up a partner institution in India.

Daisy Shetterly ’12: I had 2 questions: the first was about Guild: we were told that we were downsizing Guild due to reasons around reducing our carbon footprint, however given that everyone on campus needs a computer—if we don’t provide computers, they are still being brought on in the form of laptops and so we aren’t reducing our carbon footprint at all. As a student who doesn’t have a laptop, I’ve found the current state of Guild really problematic because it makes it a lot harder to get work done. Is there any way of bringing Guild back? The second question was about your policy on alcohol use on campus: how does it conflict and go along with our principles of self-governance?

President McAuliffe: Sure, I have spoken to Elliott Shore about this primarily. And the idea was to consolidate the resources in Canaday so that everyone can have access to it. But if you have feedback please feel free to let us know. Now your question about alcohol use, I don’t really understand.

Daisy Shutterly ’12: I wanted to give feedback about Guild: the current system isn’t working very well at all. Guild is a completely unused space, and the computers that have been removed from there are missed. In terms of my other question, I’ve heard a lot of things around campus about your policy on alcohol usage, but I wanted to know from you what your policy on drinking on campus is?

Presidnet McAuliffe: My policy is the laws of Pennsylvania. It does deeply concern me that people on campus end up in the hospital from alcohol consumption and I think that as a community we need to be more conscientious about alcohol consumption and be more careful. People die from alcohol consumption and students who are taken to the ER neeed the help that they are given there.

Simran Singh ’10: This is a question for Dean Tidmarsh: has there been any talk about getting course credit for internships?

Dean Tidmarsh: Yes, and we’ve been talking to Ellie Esmond, and I do think it’s been an increasing trend for summer employment to only offer academic credit rather than some compensation, and it leaves us to write incredibly convoluted letters explaining that we don’t give credit, but we want this student to have this opportunity, so we are trying to roll something out by spring so that students can take advantage of it for this summer.

Simran Singh ’10: As a follow up question-a lot of internships turn into jobs, so would this be made available for graduating seniors?

Dean Tidmarsh: Well we certainly want the seniors to get jobs, but it puts us in a strange place to offer academic credit towards a degree that a student has already earned, nevertheless that’s a category of people we should be talking about.

Emma W-B ’11: We are running out of time on this conversation, so all in favor of extending time to the end of the speaking order: Yes-30; No-0; Abstain-0; time has been extended.

Miranda Hansen Hunt ’11: What is being done to integrate our virtual registrar with Haverford’s virtual registrar? I major at Haverford, and it’s problem sometimes.

President McAuliffe: We realize it’s a total mess to get access to information. Part of the problem is technology and it’s fixable but it’ll take time. Part of the problem is faculty policies. Faculty policies differ about the add/drop period, and about how many people can be in a class, so coordinating those policies can be a bit of a challenge.

Yung Jung Cho ’12: Where are Bryn Mawr College’s priorities in terms of sustainability? What do we hope to achieve in the next 5-10 years?

President McAuliffe: Well Bryn Mawr certainly believes in green energy policies and in sustainability. I talk regularly with Don Abramowitz who coordinates sustainability issues and is a great resource. There is an effort into integration and coordination of ideas rather than of implementation at this point. The report about this is going to be completed by the end of this year. In terms of our carbon footprint, it is really due to our electrical use—for example, Park Science is a huge chunk of our electrical use. Sustainability is very much on people’s minds at this point. However, we struggle between what we want to do and what we can afford to do at this point.

Angie Sheets: I would just echo some of those sentiments, and I think that this is really echoed throughout residential life. For example, with buildings and grounds committee, we really discuss our sustainability goals. The trustees also expect that the college takes this seriously. Glenn Smith is always trying to get grant funding for this, and it’s been successful. Facilities are also working really hard to figure out ways for students to get involved and research ways to find newer solutions that could work for our sustainability goals.

Liana Donahue ’12: What is Bryn Mawr and Tri-Co’s relationship with neighboring colleges? I know that we can always go into neighboring college’s parties, but they can’t necessarily get into which seems to be very exclusive. So how has this helped our community?

Dean Tidmarsh: Regarding the Halloween party, we did say that Bryn Mawr students can bring a guest from anywhere. We didn’t allow other students to come in primarily for safety reasons because we didn’t want other students coming in droves and making it an unsafe environment.

Old Business

None

New Business

None

Meeting adjourned at 8:34 PM.

SGA Meeting November 8, 2009 November 10, 2009

Sophie Papavizas calls the meeting to order at 7:10 PM

Roll Call

Excused Absences: Sophia Abboud ’12, Miranda Hansen-Hunt ’12, Hope Wayman ’13, Sara Jane Rodgers ‘13

Unexcused Absences: Pragya Krishna ’13, Saba Qadir ’12, Nga Nguyen ’12, Augusta Irele ’10, Marisa Franz ’10

Community Members Present: Brittney Thornbury ’11, Sarah Theobold ’12, Kathryn Gould ‘11

Announcements:

Lydia Bello ‘12: I’m Lydia Bello, 2012. Moira Nadal, 2010, and I are your Co-Landscaping Representatives. We are responsible for the new lawn furniture that has appeared on the Carpenter Beach, in front of the Library, and we just wanted to let you know that you can feel free to use it and move it around. If you have any questions or comments, you can contact me at lbello@brynmawr.edu.

Your Two Cents:

None

Smart Women, Strong Women Campaign: Gym Renovations

Kathy Tierney: Hi everyone. I’m here to talk to you about the $7.5 Million Gym Renovations. It’s called Smart Women, Strong Women. It has three goals. The first is to improve the appearance of Schwartz. To improve the external improvement we want to increase the natural lighting and fix the roof. Internally, we will be improving the pool, and completing re-doing; it’ll be a dramatic transformation. The locker rooms will be remaining in the current configuration, but they will be renovated and changed as well. The second goal is to create a state of the art fitness center—this has been the driving force behind this renovation. Currently the fitness center is on the second floor, and that entire floor will become the renovated fitness center. We will have televisions, private yoga and Pilates and group exercise spaces, machines for cardio and lifting and a new atrium.

Rachel Brody ’12: Where are the coach’s offices going to be?

Kathy Tierney: There are going to be across from the locker rooms, where the training room currently is.

Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: If there’s more space for group exercise/yoga classes, will they have more classes available for people?

Kathy Tierney: Yes, absolutely. What I hope to be able to do is to have drop-in exercise classes. What I would like to have is a non-punitive system for physical education yet keeping students involved and active.

Someone: When will renovations start?

Kathy Tierney: We will start November 23, 2009 when we move out of the fitness center and into Rhoads.

Someone: How will this affect student workers?

Kathy Tierney: Student workers will have comparable hours to work at Rhoads—because we’ll be operating and having some one available at the fitness center whenever it’s open. However, the pool will be closed, so no student workers will be needed to staff that area. So yes there will be less hours available overall.

Colleen Hayley ‘11: Will they have TV’s available around the treadmill area?

Caroline Heffernan ’10: Yes, all the treadmill machines will have personal TVs built in. There will also be different TV’s hanging around the elliptical and bicycle area.

Kathy Tierney: We also wanted to create an opportunity for students to hang out and sit, so there will be bleachers, which will look into the pool. We also want to have a student worker at the new fitness center. The new building will be wireless. Dates for you to keep in mind: Schwartz will be closed Sunday November 22^nd at 8 PM. The fitness center in Rhoads will open November 30.

Colleen Hayley ’11: Has there been any drive to address the accessibility issues?

Kathy Tierney: Sure, so prior to the budget cuts, we had a plan to create a bridge from the top of the stairs to Schwartz gymnasium so we could address the mobility issues. However, after the budget cuts, we had to let that aspect of the renovation go. Now while mobility issues still exist to get to the gym, once students arrive at the gym, the new gym will be fully accessible.

Rachel Brody ’11: Will the gym have AC?

Kathy Tierney: The Pool and the large Gym area—for basketball and such will not have AC. The other areas will. We are also trying to get a High Ultra Violet light filtration system for the Pool, so that the pool can stay clean and sanitary and won’t require as much chlorine as it currently does.

Taline Cox ’10: How can the alumni use this?

Kathy Tierney: We do have membership for Alumni, which Haverford does not, and we will continue to do that. I believe it’s a nominal rate like $150-$200 a year. Also, for those people living in Rhoads Hall we do plan on meeting with you before we come to your dorm.

Hannah Curry McDougald ‘10: If we don’t live in Rhoads, we can’t get into Rhoads before 8 AM, so will that being changing?

Kathy Tierney: The OneCard hours will be changing and you’ll be able to get in.

Someone: How much equipment from Schwartz will be coming to Rhoads?

Kathy Tierney: Good question. We are bringing all the weighted equipment, we’re buying new mats, we’ll bring most of the cardio stuff, and 4-5 elliptical and none of the strength equipment.

Rhoads Resident: I’m a Rhoads resident, how is the fitness center going to affect the quiet hours?

Caroline Heffernan ‘10/Kathy Tierney: Well depending upon how it works, we’ll change it as it goes if it’s a problem to anyone. However, keep in mind that Rhoads Dining Hall used to start very early and it wasn’t a problem.

Caroline Heffernan ‘10: Teams won’t be relocated till the end of the semester—so up until December 12 you can come see games, but you can’t work out in the gym.

Alcohol Concerns Review Board

Sophie Papavizas ’11: So as we talked about last week, we will have to vote on the members of the Alcohol Concerns Review Board this week. So we have two students who applied here: Sarah Glazer ’12, and Beth Wiseman ’13. One student has a family emergency and can’t be here. Another student hasn’t come. I’ll let them introduce themselves and open it up for questions now.

Sarah Glazer ‘12: Hi I’m Sarah Glazer ’12

Beth Wiseman ’13: Hi I’m Beth Wiseman ‘13

Sarah Sherman ’11: Why do you want to this and what experience do you have?

Sarah Glazer ‘12: I’m just really interested in this because I think we need to take more responsibility for our alcohol usage and be more aware of alcohol usage on both the Bryn Mawr and Haverford campuses.

Beth Wiseman ’13: I’m a freshman and I’m just interested in seeing how people, frosh specifically deal with alcohol and how they deal with it based upon their different experiences with alcohol. Customs group go out but then inevitably someone will get sick, and people end up taking care of people, and getting sick that frequently shouldn’t be happening.

Julie Fahl ’12: How do you guys plan on representing students at larger parties like Halloween and West/East party?

Beth Wiseman ’13: I know at smaller parties there was an incident with the cross-country team and one of the freshmen got in trouble. I think that large Halloween parties and East/West parties are a good place for upperclassmen to model good behavior. Granted that some upperclassmen aren’t great models but I think it’s a lot easier to model your behavior off of upperclassman and other people who have experience, than other frosh who don’t have experience.

Sarah Glazer ‘12: I think that there needs to be more of a conversation and accountability taken by all students that attend these parties.

Elle Works ‘10: Is there anyone who is over 21 on the Alcohol Concerns Review Board and would actually be able to drink legally?

Sarah Glazer ‘12: It’s almost more important if you aren’t 21 because a lot of the underclassmen that don’t drink responsibly aren’t 21 and so there should be awareness among them.

Beth Wiseman ’13: Yeah, also I don’t want to wait till I’m 21 to get involved with this board because I think it’s important now.

Jennifer Savage ’12: What are your time commitments?

Beth Wiseman ’13: I’m in 4 classes, and one’s an intensive language. Next semester I’ll be playing Tennis and that will take up some of my time, but I think I can manage it well.

Sarah Glazer ’12: I’m in 4 ½ credits because I take voice lessons. I’m also in Night Owls and Chamber Singers and I think that I can add this to my schedule and manage it well.

Simran Singh ’10: So if you guys were appointed, what do you plan on changing? I know Haverford has this thing called Quaker Bouncers—do you want to do something like that?

Beth Wiseman ’13: I don’t think Bouncers are as applicable, because we don’t have as many parties. I think what’s important is to bring awareness and have an open dialogue.

Sarah Glazer ’12: One of my friends is on the Quakers Bouncers Board so I am familiar with it, but I think our party policy covers it and more because we take responsibility for our actions. I think that it would be important to hold more meetings, more teas, and raise awareness about our policy because I don’t think there is enough.

Taline Cox ’10: The COPS program holds Alcohol Awareness Tea at least once a semester, and there might be 5 people at a tea. How do you plan on getting people there?

Sarah Glazer ’12: I think in Wellness–that’s another place where students can have this discussion on Alcohol. I also think that Customs week is a place where students can discuss alcohol.

Beth Wiseman ’13: I agree that it’s difficult to get people to talk about it. But I think the biggest thing is that people are sick of the workshops, and the same people having the same discussion, but the important thing is to get people to talk about it in an informal setting. I think the Customs group idea is a good idea. Getting people to talk about it in an informal setting.

Hannah Curry McDougald ‘10: Which applicant isn’t here and why?

Sophie Papavizas: So Beth and Sarah Glazer are right there. Samantha Hanco can’t be here for a family emergency and Stephanie Tse isn’t here. Now we are going to vote.

Shannon Ryan ’10: Can you go over the Constitutional reasons as to why we are doing this again?

Sophie Papavizas: ‘11 So the appointments committee always makes unanimous decisions, and this time we couldn’t so then the decision is brought to a simple majority vote of the assembly members. We sent out the applications to all the assembly members and you should have read it over and looked at it earlier this week, and we had a candidate’s forum so that everyone could make an informed decision.

SGA and Religion

Katherine Redford ’10: So SGA’s theory on religion is because Bryn Mawr is so diverse and we celebrate so many religions we can’t cancel meetings for each holiday. As for Plenary this year we didn’t realize it fell on an important Jewish Holiday and once we found out it would, it was too late. In the future we plan on making future exec boards know as well as being cognizant ourselves of the holidays that fall on weekends.

Colleen Hayley ’11: Have you guys put anything into effect?

Katherine Redford ’10: In terms of passing it along to future exec boards, yes, we keep notes of everything we do and we pass along in form of binders and whatnot. Is anything in the Constitution? No, not right now, but that’s certainly something people can bring up for Plenary.

Hannah Curry McDougald ’10: I know I had a similar issue last year when I scheduled Candidates Forum on Passover. So how should I find out about these days?

Shanna Fricklas ’10: I think that alternate dates can be scheduled for such meetings so that people can make up what they missed. I missed SGA and Plenary for the Jewish holidays, I don’t feel that I should be penalized for being Jewish. I know there are 2 excused, and 2 unexcused absences, but things come up and I’m just asking for extra accommodation.

Katherine Redford ’10: I totally understand about SGA and Plenary which is why you’re allowed 2 excused and 2 unexcused absences.

Sarah Sherman ’11: To answer Hannah’s question, you can also Google the date and see what comes up.

Maddy Court ’13: I’m really concerned that the only religious holidays you would be making exceptions for would be Judaism and Islam.

Katherine Redford ’10: Actually no, SGA doesn’t make exceptions for any holidays, but it grants religious excused absences for its members.

Madeline Velturo ’11: What would happen if someone had 3 excused absences. Is there a way to make excused absences, unexcused absences, and then religious absences?

Tanya Kaur ’10: Sure, so the only time someone would be asked to step down would be is if they had more than 2 unexcused absences or if they had 4 absences. If someone had 3 excused absences that would be okay. Just to clarify what the differences are—an excused absence is for religious reasons, family emergencies, illness, make up classes and the like. Unexcused absences are for pretty much anything else. Everyone is allowed 2 unexcused absences, but in addition to that they are allowed 2 excused absences. The reason why we only allow 4 absences a semester, is because there are about 10 meetings a semester, and so 4 absences already means that you’re missing 40% of the meetings, at the point at which you’re missing 50% of the meetings you can’t possibly be fulfilling your role as expected. However, in the case that someone has 4 absences, we do look at whether or not it’s excused absences or unexcused absences, and that plays a huge factor in whether we decide to ask someone to step down or not. Does that answer your question?

Madeline Velturo ’11: Yeah, thanks.

Alexandra Ashley ’11: I think that having an alternate schedule is a great idea and it would be nice if there were alternate schedules that existed.

Sarah Sherman ’11: Yeah but for example making up candidate’s forum is problematic because when people don’t see you there they hold it against you. It’s important being at these forums because it helps you get out there and be seen.

Shanna Fricklas ’10: I think that things happen and arise throughout the semester and that you should be able to make up meetings with an exec board member so that you can stay on top of your responsibilities.

Colleen Hayley ’11: If we are going to do alternate meetings then we would need to figure out how to do so because I know the exec board members have a lot of meetings outside of this one that they need to attend.

Simran Singh ’10: How are you supposed to be voting at an alternate meeting?

Tanya Kaur ’10: Point of Information: in situations like today’s meeting where we announced a week ago that voting was going to take place, individuals who knew they wouldn’t be able to make it at today’s meeting due to an excused absence—like they were sick, or they had a class—would be able to give me their vote in writing in advance. In all other situations, an absence would mean that you weren’t allowed to vote.

Julie O’Neil ‘10: I just think that you know when the meetings are and you are making that commitment when you run for this position. It’s always Sunday at 7 PM and if you can’t set aside that hour and half every week and say that you have a time commitment then you can’t be doing your job.

Shanna Fricklas ’10: I just wanted to address what you said because you have those 4 absences because things happen, and when you have Jewish holidays that compromises the numbers of absences you are allowed and so accommodations should be made.

Sophie Papavizas ’11: Okay thank you. Just wanted to let everyone know that we have appointed Beth Wiseman ’13, Sarah Glazer ’12 and Samantha Hanco to the ACRB.

Old Business

Sophie Papavizas ’11: Last week we talked about Yearbook, and how we want to create an external committee of people who want to explore the issue and come back to us.

Simran Singh ’10: I sent out a survey to our class, and the majority of our class wants one within a year of graduation.

Colleen Hayley ’11: I think if a yearbook isn’t available then an online yearbook is financially feasible and could also be used for admissions.

Shannon Ryan ’10: I followed up with the class of 1960 and they want to do a large thing in TGH in the spring.

New Business

Meeting ended at 8:22 PM.

SGA Meeting November 1 November 2, 2009

Emma W-B ‘11 calls meeting to order at 1:10 PM

• Blogroll

  • Elections
  • Honor Board

• Tags

  125th Anniversary of Bryn Mawr absence policy Add new tag agenda alcohol concerns review board appointments art forum big cheese forum budget approval collegeacb committee constitutional review discussion elections executive board goodhart greens gym halloween party hidden gems interviews leadership meeting minutes meeting procedure middle states minutes newpaper november 2008 October 2008 office hours plenary positions reaccreditation recruitment religion retreat september 2008 sga sga house special events twitter vice president yearbook year summary zipcar

• Comments? Problems?

  To report a bug or technical issue with this website, contact the SGA webmistresses, Diana and Amanda at dekman@bmc or acegielski@bmc. To report a problem with meeting minutes or factual errors on content, contact the SGA secretary, Kendra, at khayde@bmc.

• Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

• Feeds

• Full
• Comments