Big Cheese Forum 11/13
Absent: Sharan Mehta, Carmen Lai, Courtney Pinkerton, Alice Fischer, Kelly Wilkinson, Raella Rothman, Danyelle Phillips
What’s your favorite kind of cheese: mozzerella, brie, smoked gouda duh, Dubliner or Jarlsberg, all, cheese provided by SGA, valdeon or etorki, Wensleydale, chevre, camembert, cheddar, goat cheese, Cotswold, monteray jack, string cheese, goat cheese/barrel-aged feta, AMERICAN!, orange, nard question, feta cheese and brie, provolone, extra sharp cheddar, gouda, swiss, sharp cheddar, lactose intolerant, um…, Colby jack/brie, munster, parmesan, n/a, cheese whiz, ¡Queso Fresco!, gouda is so gooooda!, poop, nacho cheese, all??!
Announcements
Molly Reinganum ’12: I’m the senior gift co-chair. So far we’ve had 36% participation. We should be proud. We’re having another event in the campus center to encourage giving in honor of thanksgiving. There will be hand turkeys.
Noreen Neal ’14: In the next week Students for Education Reform is having several events in honor of International Education Week. There will be a talk with President McAuliffe and we will be fundraising in the campus center. If you have any questions email nnneal@brynmawr.
Elizabeth Held ’12: Looking ahead to the February round of elections – it has been hard to get people to run in this round. Start thinking about how you want to nominate for positions and talking to people now. This round of elections will start February 23rd.
Emma Geering ’14: Saturday is fall student dance concert. Many Bryn Mawr and Haverford students have been working hard. The concert will be at 2:30pm and 7:00pm.
Lee McClenon ’14: We are going to occupy the campus center. If anyone is interested, let me know.
Lindsey Crowe ’14: The soccer team is selling candles. If you like candles, they’re a great gift. There are no flame options so you can put them in your rooms.
Karen Leitner ’14: The Sustainable Food Committee is going to be doing a trial run of composting Tuesday through Friday. We’re looking for volunteers. If you have hours free, see the Bryn Mawr Composting Initiative on facebook for information about how to sign up.
Sarah Lovegren ’14: There’s a food drive for ACLAMO and a coat drive. Please drop off coats and food!
Caroline Kenward ’12: SJPP coffee hour is this Friday at 9:30 in the MCC.
Priya Saxena ’12: There is going to be a de-stress Honor Board community meeting and academic honesty tea on Thursday. We’re making stress balls and there will be candy. The Miss Representation screening is this Thursday at 7:00pm in TGH!
Rebecca Sanders ’12: Shout out to appointments committee for the work that they do! The positions that were recently appointed were:
- Conflict management committee: Elsie Chung, Nkechi Ampah, Isabella Bartenstein, Charlotte McConaghy.
- Social Committee: Jenny Kwan, Marian Slocum, Kristie Oh, Kim Wiley, Charlotte McConaghy
- Independent major rep: Kersti Francis
- Hell week committee: Ariel Furman, Archana Kaku, Sarah Lovegren, Sarah Fischer, Hannah Lehman
- Go Board moderators
Thanks to everyone who applied. The November round of appointments begins today. The positions that are up for appointment are:
- Customs committee
- Access services representatives
- Computer access co coordinators
- Graduate school representatives
Applications are due this Friday at 5:00pm.
YJ ’12: The monthly report for assembly members for October is due next Sunday. The Miss Representation screening is Thursday at 7pm. Be there. It’s going to be awesome. It’s open to the Tri-Co community. This is the only place in the Philadelphia area that is screening Miss Representation. The chat with grads is on Thursday at 4pm. We just got back from the Seven Sisters Conference. The update for the conference will be next Sunday.
Big Cheese Forum
Jane McAuliffe: We were told we could ask questions of you as well. How many of you have been to community forums so far? We’re looking for feedback about the process. Is that a good way to gather a community?
Irene Shin ’13: It was informative and good. Everyone should go. There was a small amount of students who went. It might be because it was the first time around. If you did it again, students should be encouraged to attend.
Saba Quadir ’13: I went to the first discussion and I really enjoyed it. It was a good way of talking to different people. There should be more in the future. The conversation would have been better if there were more students there.
Blair Smith ’12: It would be great have them in the evenings. Students couldn’t make the Tuesday meeting because of class.
Jane McAuliffe: We’re probably going to hold a fourth one because faculty haven’t been able to come either. I will suggest that as a possibility. We will try.
Julie Gorham ’12: I haven’t been to a community forum yet. But as a point of reference, I just got back from the Seven Sister’s Conference at Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr is the only self-governance association, as opposed to student government association. We have a really unique opportunity to respond to and give back to administration. Everyone who can should come.
John Griffith: I was asked to speak about the financial health of the college. Things that we can control are going well. We’re the only private college in the country to get our bond rate upgraded. This is the worst financial recession in out lifetime. It’s difficult to find donors to give money and students to pay tuition. If it weren’t for the recession, everything would be going great. Endowment is money that donors have given to us. Our endowment is our second largest revenue source after tuition. This is just to say continue to give for the rest of your careers. A bank outside the college holds money from trust and annuities. 8 million is what we have for operations. We spend what we take in every year and keep 1 percent as a rainy day fund. Students pay only 51% of cost of their Bryn Mawr education. A large part of the cost is supported by alums giving gifts. The message is that Bryn Mawr is successful because of alumnae giving. We lost 170 million dollars as a result of the market crash in 2008. We’re 19 million short of our height for funds, but recovery has been pretty strong in terms of jobs and the over all economy. Since the financial crisis, there has been a 26% increase of in students who receive financial aid over the years. The college spends about 22,000 dollars per student. There are some colleges that we can compete with financially, then there are some colleges that can do things we can’t. Pomona pays out 45,000 dollars per student, which is more than twice what Bryn Mawr pays. If you like California, there’s a place to go. Faculty and staff and students ask why we don’t do things that Amherst and Swat are doing. BMC is fortunate to have the endowment it has, but there are a few schools that are more fortunate.
Lee McClenon ’14: What does Bryn Mawr do to invest in sustainable businesses?
John Griffith: We invest in things to support students. We invest in solar plants and windmills. Trustees do the screening. Any decent investor is screening things that are environmentally sustainable. Our goal is not to make a social statement, but to grow assets.
Jenny Rickard: I was asked to speak about the visual identity project. We now have one Bryn Mawr College typeface. We were looking to find a typeface that is both reflective of the college’s tradition and also forward looking. We’re proud of Bryn Mawr’s boldness and innovation. We looked into different serif and sans serif types – we couldn’t get agree on whether it should be serif or sans serif. The company we were working with, Pentagram, found a typeface developed by a guy who won the MacArthur genius award for typefaces. He created Verdana and Georgia. The one we are using is called Carter Sans. We are the first institution to use it for an identity purpose. There was a debate about what Bryn Mawr icon we should use. We’ve used owls, turrets, lanterns, and arches. We landed on a lantern and monogram modeled in Carter Sans. Our colors are yellow and white. Since these are not the most lively colors we have some second primary accents that can be mixed and matched in any way you might want. We have a style guide on the website. There are now logos for certain organizations on campus, like the Self Government Assocation. Different applications of the new visual identity will roll out over the course of the year and we will have some new in the bookstore over the holidays.
Irene Shin ’13: Are these going to be on the tee-shirts?
Jenny Rickard: Yes. Tee-shirts, sweatshirts, hats…
Julia Fahl ‘12: I was wondering about the Proud to be Bryn Mawr slogan. I like it. Is it going to be kept?
Jenny Rickard: That’s a great question. The community workshops are part of a planning process looking at what you call the positioning of institutions where we consider how to talk about Bryn Mawr today. Every two years or so we go though this process and we’re about to go through it again. What happens with that slogan will depend on the results of that, but you can always be proud to be Bryn Mawr.
Lee McClenon ‘14: Thank you so much for the visual identity blog. A concern that was raised on the blog was phasing out the use of the seal in more conventional things. Will the seal be phased out?
Jenny Rickard: Last time we did a visual identity project was 1904 when we created the seal. None of us were alive except Jerry. Seal is reserved for official documents. It will be used on your diploma and on other documents. For other things, we’re moving to lantern icon and the BMC monogram.
Lee McClenon ‘14: How much education are you doing to give to heads of departments and to professors regarding the new visual identity?
Jenny Rickard: It will take the rest of the year to phase this in. We’re working with different departments to show them how to incorporate the new visual identity into their documentation. We have an agreement with Office Depot. This is what they will be using to produce the documents. In order for the new visual identity project to be success need people to use it.
YJ ’12: We can open the discussion up for questions.
Elizabeth Held ’12: Will the food cart be back in the spring?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: It’s hibernating for the winter, but we will bring it back. Are there any suggestions, questions, or comments regarding the food cart? I have heard that people would like more less expensive items.
Sophie Balis-Harris ’12: I have experienced frustrations with the financial aid office. People aren’t getting the sense that problems are a result of the college not being able to pay, but complications with the administration process in the financial aid office. Are there any plans for review to making the financial aid more accessible and easy to navigate?
Jenny Rickard: Could you give some examples of the type of problems you’ve experienced?
Sophie Balis-Harris ‘12: Totals will change as a result of a mathematical error. It will take eight months to deal with something that should take three months.
Jenny Rickard: The financial aid office was restructured last year, so the process was particularly was complicated and it took some work in order to realign everything. The financial aid office is about to move to guild. Once guild opens up, we’re going to talk about the general paper process.
Sophie Balis-Harris ’12: It seems like it’s a pervasive problem a lot of people are having that has to do with the way financial aid works.
Jenny Rickard: It would be helpful if you could come share some of the specific issues.
Sophie Balis-Harris ’12: I can send you an email.
Jenny Rickard: That would be great. It’s hard to know what the problem is because sometimes there are technical errors and filing errors. Information from outside vendors sometimes comes in incorrectly. I would love to hear that, if you wouldn’t mind.
Julia Fahl ‘12: Thank you for the SEPTA passes. Feel so close to Philly at this very moment. I was wondering if you could speak about process for coming up with ideas to improve the social climate on campus.
Michele Rasmussen: Thank John. It takes a college. A social committee has been newly appointed. I was thinking about working with this committee to get ideas about what o do if we had a blue sky and could do whatever to have more fun and figuring out what that would look like. I’m very leery of too much top down dictating of what would be fun because in my experience collaborating with students gets fruitful results. Right now, we’re looking to address immediate concerns, like trying to create more social space on campus and trying to build a system were there’s more consultation about events. I wish Mary Beth Horvath were here to speak about this, since it was her idea to do roller rink thing which was very successful. We would like to work with students to come up with ideas.
Julia Fahl ’12: Will the SEPTA passes to continue to be financially feasible?
Michele Rasmussen: We probably won’t be able to be as generous. We spent all of what is Haverford’s annual budget within the first six weeks. Clearly, the program has been really successful. Bryn Mawr is a Philadelphia college and you should spend as much time as possible in Philly. We’re not going to yank program because we’re committed to it, but it won’t be twenty passes anymore because that’s not financially sustainable.
Blair Smith ’12: Students really miss the midnight breakfast. Will it come back?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: We don’t have a midnight breakfast scheduled. We used to have one per semester, but we had to cut it out due to economics. We know it was very popular and it will be on list of things to consider.
Blair Smith ’12: Will there be a second Harry Potter dinner?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: Some people in the dining halls want to do it again and some don’t. It would be up to the dining halls.
Julie Gorham ’12: My question is for Ed. First, of all thank you. I was just on Mount Holyoke’s campus this weekend for the Seven Sister’s Conference. The grounds are extensive and beautiful and but we had to walk through a lot of leaves. We don’t have to do that at BMC. I was wondering about the path from the library to the Campus Center. Is it going to get paved? Or are we going to be forever battling between grass and students?
Ed Harman: Thank you. Facilities has been working on a plan for the front of the Campus Center for the last year about how to resolve that path. On November 29th we’ll be hosting a charrette. The charrette will explain how we attempt to move this plan forward and resolve what’s been issue for the past thirty years. A charrette is a collaboration between people from multiple disciples to look at different things and pick and choose what we want our design plan to be like.
Sarah Lovegren ’14: I was wondering if there were plans to have a conversation about the meal plan options. As a residential student, I don’t use mine all the time. Sometimes I just eat soup. It would be nice to have options that cost less.
Bernie Chung-Templeton: When you say more options, do you mean less expensive ones? One of the things I’ve been told is that the residential dining program is Bryn Mawr. When you come here you eat here. In order to support that, you need a certain amount of participation. Less expensive options are not going to happen. We forever had one but we’ve expanded it to three. One of the things I wanted to know is how many students would be interested in more choices even if they might cost more? Because we are one of the few institution that has few options. Would you like to see options that are less expensive or different?
Sarah Lovegren ’14: Both.
Bernie Chung-Templeton: Different how?
Sarah Lovegren ’14: It would be nice to have a meal plan that gave you credit at Uncommon Grounds.
Nora Chong ’12: I have several questions. What are the college’s priorities in terms of recruiting students from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds what are the support systems that are put in place to bring students to a place where they can have conversation in the classroom that are constructive. What are the college’s policies regarding specifically racial diversity when hiring faculty and staff?
Jenny Rickard: Diversity is critical value of the college and is always a priority in terms of recruitment efforts. According to the U.S News College Report, Bryn Mawr ranks 5th in terms of racial and ethnic diversity, 3rd in terms of socioeconomic diversity, and 1st in terms of international student diversity. There has been increasing support for students as we have become more diverse.
Michele Rasmussen: The Office of Intercultural Affairs provides support. The definition of diversity has become more diverse and can be thought of in terms of socioeconomic background, gender and sexuality, religion, and class. We are active across all fronts. There’s the Community Diversity Assistant program that assists in facilitating those conversations in the dorms and has been very active in starting discussions. The diversity council meets every two weeks and discusses issues that cut across students, staff, and faculty. We don’t relegate these responsibilities to a single person or office.
Nora Chong ‘12: How do you evaluate the success of projects like Class Dismissed? and the CDAs?
Michele Rasmussen: There was the campus climate assessment, which made us think we needed to address the issue of class on campus. There have been institutional surveys regarding diversity and students varying comfort levels on campus.
Jane McAuliffe: I’m sensing that there is a question behind your question, since you spoke wonderfully at a student panel on student diversity and are familiar with all the programs.
Nora Chong ’12: I’m wondering about how success is evaluated because the reality is that we’re all still struggling. I don’t see results of efforts to increase diversity reflected in the faculty and professional staff.
Jane McAuliffe: You’re correct. We have been more successful in student recruitment. And once you’re here on campus, we’re intentional about fostering dialogues that create a community. The acts creation and recreation are always unfinished and there is a potential for discord. We value the lived experience of talking to people about what their lives on campus are like. It’s an on going project. In terms of the faculty recruitment issue, there is a faculty search committee and it’s critically important to get the job description. The job description can narrow range of search before you get out of starting gate so that there are only three or four people who can meet it. The departments look carefully at how they define a job. There’s always faculty member who’s not a member of the department on a search committee as part of the effort to get the most robust pool of candidates possible. It’s not enough. It’s never enough. It has to be a constant effort. Made offers to candidates who would enhance the diversity of our campus and have lost those candidates. It’s not always matter of failures in recruitment, but has a lot to do with the competitive landscape of finding a job at a college.
Jerry Berenson: We agree that the professional staff is not as diverse as it should be. We have a small group of people who have started to draft of policy that tries to mimic the faculty policy in order to be more conscious of diversity when hiring. It’s being discussed this semester.
Lynne Ammar ’14: I’m the only international student from Tunisia. I discovered BMC through the website. I was wondering how students find out about Bryn Mawr in other areas of the world? What are they ways that you try to reach international students that is not through the website? Do you send people to different countries?
Jenny Rickard: It’s a very large world. We work with a variety of different agencies and connect with regional representatives. We travel extensively and buy names from different testing agencies. We consider how best our resources can be best deployed and will reach out with emails and by traveling. Our students our greatest ambassadors, so please let us know of anyone you think we should contact.
Lynne Ammar ‘14: I would be great if we could arrange some sort of way that international students could connect with prospective students in the country that they’re from.
Jenny Rickard: We have student ambassador program in the Admissions Office. Contact Deb Doherty. We’d love for you to do that.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: The Res-life Office and the Student Activities Office are moving. How was that decision made and is it at all negotiable? With those offices in the campus center, students could drop by while they’re here for other things. I’m worried that if they move to guild you’re only going to get people with really bad roommate conflicts stopping by.
Michele Rasmussen: Part of the problem is that those offices are so small that there’s no place to hang out. A student longue does not exist outside the Dean’s Office and you have to sit in hallway as if you’re waiting for the principal. Our hope is that if there are other things going on in Guild students may stop by see their dean. There are things about the move to that will compensate for the loss of the convenience of having those offices in the Campus Center. From administrative point of view, it’s problematic because the Dean’s Office units are so dispersed we don’t see each other. Having us all in the same building will allow for be a lot more organic kind of talking in the hallways and brainstorming. This will hopefully lead to more unified Dean’s Office. I’d ask you to reserve judgments until you see what it’s like and Guild is up and running.
Jerry Berenson: We’ll also be able to improve the Campus Center for you as a result of the moves.
Jomaira Salas ’13: I read that the colleges was considering coming up with a program where faculty would have a lighter teaching load if they agreed to mentor students. Will that move forward?
Jane McAuliffe: It’s an active conversation in the faculty right now and a consequence of a year long process. The way that faculty work is distributed depends on class hours and thesis advising and trips and lab work. We need get a larger sense of whether or not it would be possible to reallocate faculty work time.
Julia Fahl ’12: I was wondering how the effort to get Bryn Mawr’s ranking to go from number four to number one in terms of best food. Want to hear more. I was also reading about family and work life balance for faculty. Could you speak about how the college is planning on working to help faculty balance family and work?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: We are very interested in being number one. There’s a survey out now. I hope you answered it. We will continue to survey to see what it will take to get us to number one.
Jane McAuliffe: One’s that’s under consideration by the faculty benefits committee is around childcare for faculty. It’s frequently the case that faculty have working spouses. The question is what do you do for emergency childcare? Jerry has found a nationwide childcare provider.
Jerry Berenson: We have surveyed and the number one problem is not permanent childcare, but periodic issues like if a child is sick, on school vacation, or has a snow day. This program provides just that kind of childcare and eldercare. My kids take care of me, but I have parents in their 80s in 90s. A lot of people are in that stage and this company does both. It’s out of mass and works with a lot of schools in that area now and has been moved in this year. It’s affordable to most of our faculty and staff.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: What percent of students come from pubic schools and private schools? What is the college doing to maintain a balance? What types of schools to students come from?
Jenny Rickard: It has been fairly consistent over the past couple years. 64% of students come from public schools. 35% come from private or parochial or international schools. We don’t have it broken down in all of the ways you mentioned, but within a student body of 365 it’s extraordinarily diverse. We have about 320 high schools represent in 365 students. There are about 3,000 high schools in the United States. To get that diversity represented is hard but we do a lot to get there. We now have a student from North Dakota. So North Dakota is not missing any more.
Julia Stuart ’13: It seems like the efforts to form committee to talk about the 3.5 plenary resolution died on the vine. How do other equivalent college do this?
Michele Rasmussen: The goal of the committee was examine the grading system in general. That’s what was brought to the curriculum committee and it was going to go back to student curriculum committee to develop it into a clear proposal of what exactly was wanted. We haven’t received any feedback.
Sarah Theobald ’12: The student curriculum committee looked at it, but we’re not sure what else to do.
Julia Stuart ’13: What does attending a women’s college mean for someone who identifies as female but may not have been born female?
Jenny Rickard: As a women’s college we admit female students only. If a student is represented consistently throughout their application as female, we consider them female. Once a student is here and deciding to transition we support them however they might need support.
Lily Scott ’12: Bryn Mawr students are stressed. We have the fun initiative for that and Rachel Heiser is a great asset. I was wondering if there could be some kind of program from stress management for support, since the counseling center is often too busy.
Michele Rasmussen: Thanks so much for saying that. That’s exactly kind of feedback we need to hear. The counseling center sees a lot of students who come to them, but there’s not as much outreach or efforts to meet students where they’re at. We need to look at ways to start supporting that thing. There was the Pets on the Green event. We could have a whole week dedicated to stress relief with masseuses and work management workshops. We want to make that a priority for the months ahead.
Julie Mazziotta ’13: I row for Bryn Mawr and we have a lot of trouble with recruitment. What have been the efforts in terms of recruiting athletes? Would it be possible to have separate website just for athletes with a separate URL.
Jenny Rickard: There has been an increased effort to improve coaches’ capacity to recruit students who would make sense for Bryn Mawr. The athletics department has been looking at company to outsource their website and is looking into new more dynamic options for their website.