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Minutes

Novemeber 3rd 2013 Mintues

SGA Meeting 11/03/13

Natalie calls the meeting to order at 7:10 PM.

Absent: Christine Newville, Sara Kim, Karunya Venugopal, Alex Beda, Jessica Ferriera, Sarah Lesser, Chrystyna Colon, Alexandra Krusinski, Jennifer Mendez Alba

Announcements:

Karina Siu ’14: The fall season for athletics has officially closed. We are heading into the winter season. This week we don’t have many meets/matches at home. Swimming is at home on Saturday at 1 PM. There are alumnae games all day on Saturday. Come down to the gym and see some old alums playing sports.

Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: I am revising the elections bylaws. Since all members of the representative council have to go through elections you might have some thoughts. If you do email me at elections@bmc or come find me.
Also the constitutional review committee is reviewing all of the positions in the representative council. You should have gotten an email. We would ;ove your input on what goes into the constitution. Please email us back about your thoughts and what your position should do.

Lindsey Crowe ‘14: If you have checked your mailbox senior cocktails is this Saturday in Rhoads dining hall from 10 PM to 2 AM. The time is Black and White Affair. Everyone is super excited. If you have not received an invite and would like to come email me at lcrowe@bmc. Get excited!

Jancy Munguia ‘14: People have been asking about the 2nd cocktail even though the first one hasn’t happened yet. It’s December 7th. Also seniors if you haven’t given your juice fund please do so. Thank you to those who have.

Kaeun Bae ’15: There will be a sister class tea for the junior and freshman classes on Saturday from 2-5 PM. More information to come soon.

Lindsey Crowe ‘14: People have been asking us about class t-shirts. We have not received any designs. We’d like more input! Any ideas, slogans, thoughts on colors – please email us. We are looking for complementary colors to dark blue.

Rebecca Cook ‘15: This is our first normal SGA meeting since before fall break. September appointments happened and I wanted to give an opportunity to people to introduce themselves who were appointed.

Charlie Bruce ‘16: I am a Seven Sisters council representative for Brym Mawr college. I go to the Seven Sisters conferences that happen annually and the summit which we plan to start having every spring to increase cultural, social, and academic atmospheres of campus.

Gabrielle Smith ‘17: I am on the elections board.

Modupe Olufemi ‘17: I am on the elections board.

Ola Madamidola ’16: I am on the financial aid advisory board.

Stacy Qu ’17: I am a member of the student finance committee.

Rebecca Cook ‘15: November appointments start tomorrow! Up for reappointment are access services, customs committee, customs committee co-heads, plenary committee, hell week committee, constitutional review committee, and orientation reorganization committee. If you know anyone interested in applying please encourage them to do so. There will be posters around campus. For more information please visit appointments.blogs.brynmawr.edu. The application is on the SGA Moodle page.

Amani Chowdhury ‘14: This is another announcement about the Honor Cod alum panel. It is on November 12th – a Tuesday – from 8-9:30. We have been working hard and it would be great to see you!

Natalie Kato ‘14:

  • Pets on the green is on Tuesday November 5th from 3-5PM. Get excited!
  • We are still accepting designs for the SGA decal. The theme is I am empowered. I am SGA. Submissions due are November 8th. The winner will get a cookie party for their hall. The special guests are the SGA EBoard.
  • LILAC – Katie Krimmel is hosting an event where Richard Shell is coming. If you are interested in registering please email sga@brynmawr.edu. Registration ends tomorrow.
  • Also the plenary committee has been circulating a survey. Please encourage your constituents to respond. The first week responses will dictate if we table or not.
  • Lisa Merrick, the undergraduate representative to the leadership working group is looking for as many responses as possible regarding the presidential search. She sent an email on October 29th. Submissions are due tomorrow.
  • SGA is having an event on the 22nd and more details will come soon. Mark your calendars.

Your 2 Cents:

Dining Services Discussion with Bernie Chung-Templeton:

Bernie Chung-Templeton: Does anybody have any questions?

Natalie Kato ‘14: If you could explain why we are seeing some changes from last year to this year, such as the froyo machine back in Haffner, the waffle maker machine… how those changes came about.

Bernie Chung-Templeton: Thank you for your patience last year. It was not one of our finest years. We’ve never been asked why things are back – we’re usually asked when things disappear. We have continued to reduce some programming. Some meal plans are not available this year. The college did give us some additional funds. We requested 260 thousand dollars and we received 200 thousand dollars to put towards what we wanted to and we put it towards the food. Thank you. I want to emphasize – had you not rallied and not gone to board and president we would not have gotten it. The total college budget in terms of additional funds was 300 thousand dollars. Dining services got 200 thousand dollars. That’s a pretty good chunk. I think that’s all due to you and your efforts. Between the money we got, the continued savings and cuts from last year, over the summer we took a look at our costs how we ended up last year and this year. One of the things I didn’t want to do was continue to cut and reduce because that wasn’t a lot of fun for anybody. We changed things that were cost-neutral or some changes cost less money. We made those changes to accommodate additions. Everyone noticed the ice cream machine. I’d like to highlight some of the other things that we did. We eliminated whole milk, and we offer more pasta with whole wheat. Little specialties – milkshake mania, the apple thing, the picnic. Those things don’t cost more. The picnic can save a little bit of money in labor because we offer fewer menu items. We reduced the size of the takeout container to reduce food waste which translates to money. We implemented a waste-free program. We are able to add things. We are doing okay. Don’t expect any of these things to go away. We have the gluten-free zone in Erdman. Guest passes increased from 3 to 6. They do roll over. I hope. There are four new bars in Haffner. We added snacks and new menus. The website offers more information than before. 1600 ingredients and 5300 recipes were added this summer. The soft serve machine here and going to stay. There are still some things I should explain. In terms of produce – the next four months are scary. All kinds of things can happen that would make the prices go up. One of the things we do all the time is when that happens we switch things around and substitute. I’m available for questions.

Pamudu Tennakoon ‘15: About the meal plans. Are there going to be changes to the meal plans available?

Bernie Chung-Templeton: We eliminated 200 and 14 one and don’t anticipate them coming back. There is nothing left to eliminate. Like Haverford, we now have one meal plan for everyone. If there are students with difficulty have them come forward and talk to us. i.e. people special diets who can’t use dining facilities. We can work with them individually. If you know anyone who isn’t going to get their meals in the dining halls come to me or Nicole Patience and we can help them.

Meg Sumner-Moore ‘15: With the elimination of the 200 and 14 meal plan – how do they cost more?

Bernie Chung-Templeton: 200 and 14 meal plans come with points. Those points are funded by dining services. We pay for them. You use them in the café… the number of points requested range between 66 and 70 thousand dollars. It comes out of the budget. Yes, they go to the café and subsidize business – but we are paying for labor in 2 different places. Even though we got points back we expend other food and labor to get it. It was M=more costly than just not offering them.

Meg Sumner-Moore: The unlimited meal plan allows unlimited access to dining halls where other 2 limit access to dining halls. I don’t understand how it costs more.

Bernie Chung-Templeton: I think I know the answer but I can’t put it into words right now. It costs the board plan direct dollars. Those 70 thousand – once we put it on your cards it’s not there for us to buy food. Students with the 200 meal plan are only eating 10 meals a week anyway. It’s not a lot but a number of the people who signed up for it – 100 dollars a student is 12 trips to UnCommon Grounds. It’s the number of students who signed up for these points

Mary Dabney ’17: When you eliminated whole milk – is that better or healthier?

Bernie Chung-Templeton: A lot of stuff. You can read about it. It depends on the individual diet. You at your age – enough reports suggest you don’t need fat in your milk. It doesn’t save money but it encourages people to take less fat. Few restaurants use whole milk.

Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16: I still don’t understand why if we’re eating fewer meals at Bryn Mawr why that would cost more or why being on the meal plans would cost you more.

Bernie Chung-Templeton: Points. 200 and 14 meal plan. Fewer meals but come with points that almost everybody spends all of. Am I not hearing the question right?

Rhett Richardson: You’re saying points but I think you mean dollar value. We get money on our cards. That ends up costing you more money. Is that what you’re saying?

Anna Kalinsky ‘15: You said that most students didn’t use up all their meals on the 200. That seems like it would carry over to unlimited. It’s expensive to be on room and board. We are spending money on meals we’re not getting. Maybe pay less to get fewer meals?

Bernie Chung-Templeton: The number of weeks per semester, number of meals, divide what you pay for meal plan, normal assumption is $10 a meal. Every time you don’t eat a meal $10 sitting around. It’s the reverse, actually. We base the assumption on previous years, cost, inflation. Missed meal factor. Nobody eats all meals. If all of you eat all your meals your plans would be 2-3x the cost. The cost is already based on not everybody eating all their meals. You’re gonna get sick of it, you’re gonna order pizza, it’s never based on 100%.

Emma Rosenblum ‘14: I was wondering if you could elaborate on the way UnCommon Grounds is doing with the change. I know the money would go back to you. The way the change in meal plan happened discourages people from using UnCommon Grounds.

Bernie Chung-Templeton: It’s turning a little low. The revenues are lower. I think it’s because of the missing points. They’re doing some other things to increase revenue. They’re going to do a gift basket program – exam baskets, stuff like that. Cookies, cakes… Different things to get your parents to send you things over exams as well as some points drives ad incentives. If you deposit 100 points you might get a 5% discount. Business is down.

Colin Baumann ‘14: I know you mentioned business is down. Last year they broke even for the first time in a while. Is that on trajectory to happen or will it be in deficit?

Bernie Chung-Templeton: They’re pretty much a break-even operation. It is budgeted to move around. They lost between 30-40 thousand dollars a year 19 years ago. We view operation as important and worth it. Over the years we drove the deficit down to within the couple thousands. UnCommon Grounds also has a little stepsister Lusty Cup which sometimes drags it down, sometimes it helps. It’s not a lot. Right now it’s trending to lose a little more money. We’re talking in the thousands – not concerned.

Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16: You mentioned that one of the reasons we changed is because of the way UnCommon Grounds works with Bryn Mawr. How much have you tried structuring the relationship UnCommon Grounds has with dining services so money not spent at UnCommon Grounds goes back to dining services? Have you tried restructuring the program? To make money not spent go back to dining services.

Bernie Chung-Templeton: The money came from the board plan budget. So if we gave you 100 dollars and spent it there it’s a separate budget.

Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16: If the money did go back to dining services then why did the relationship stop working?

Bernie Chung-Templeton: It’s left in the board plan budget.

Emma Rosenblum ‘14: I understand relationship between UnCommon Grounds and the old plans. If I go out to eat it would cost more if I bought food for home.

Bernie Chung-Templeton: You touched on something. People don’t realize. If I had a pie chart… 73% of that pie would be colored one shade that represents anything but food. The college is generous and the benefits generous. Other places will offer some benefits but not others.

Colin Baumann ‘14: Have you talked to Swat? I know they have a block system. They can spend money in their cafes versus dining halls. Seems to be a friendly relationship.

Bernie Chung-Templeton: It is interesting that you bring up Swat. Last year I was doing surveying and trying to see how we stack up. I asked a typical question – how much do you spend, cost per meal, labor dollar per meal, labor dollar per student. She said, we don’t do cost accounting. What they charge for meal plans and how they budget is more disconnected than we are.

Xavia Miles ‘16: This relates back to a previous question. The meal plans were eliminated. Could you bring back meal plans for students who live off campus or might not be in UnCommon. Is it possible to accommodate those students?

Bernie Chung-Templeton: There are partial meal plans for students who live in campus-leased apartments. The cheapest one is under $8 a meal.

Xavia Miles ‘16: Is it available for people who live on campus?

Bernie Chung-Templeton: no.

 

Seven Sisters Report:

Natalie Kato ‘14: The Seven Sisters representatives and chosen positions are here to talk about the conference.

Charlie Bruce ‘16: We are the Seven Sisters council representatives. We went to Vassar to have a conference. This conference comes out of the Seven Sisters Association, which has been traditionally an association of seven women’s colleges that were made in order to improve educational opportunities for women. The council is made to increase cross-cultural, social, and academic collaboration in between colleges. What the conference has done in the past – last year, a constitution was created that outlined duties for council members as well as visions and goals for future conferences. We see this as a living document that is going to be added to and changed.

Alizeh Amer ‘16: The council met this past weekend. We decided on a formal structure of the coordinating board. We also ratified the constitution. Every year a conference in the fall will be hosted at each institution in alphabetical order. Next year it will be at Wellesley. The hosting college elects a chair for the coordinating board, and a secretary. There are three committees: public relations, alumnae outreach, and activities/programming. Each committee will have chairs/co-chairs elected at the conference or first meeting of fall semester. Each school has a rep for each committee. For example, activities/programming is here in order to get organizations on each campus connected so they can work on programs together.
Sam and Bara also went with us this semester. They can talk about what they did.

Bara Almomani ‘16: the past weekend I had the pleasure of going to the conference. It was great to meet everyone and learning about differences and similarities between the Seven Sisters. Among activities looking over collaborations between seven sisters, we discussed program advertising, inclusion, and traditions.

Sam Terry ‘14: We started the day talking about collaboration in general and how different groups work together to create events or initiatives. We discussed the major strengths and weaknesses at our colleges in three major areas: academics, operations of SGA, and student life. We talked about those issues in a broader sense, in addition to traditions, advertising and outreach, inclusion and diversity, and sustainability. I talked about diversity and inclusion. The general consensus was that that reaching a larger audience to talk about audience talking about diversity and social inequalities is difficult. We ended with a conversation about sexual harassment. It was unfortunate to see that Bryn Mawr has a gap there. There is no support group for survivors that I’m aware of and no specific advocacy group dedicated to the subject.

Coco Wang ‘16: In the spring we will have a check-in session. We will see what we have done this semester and what will be done next semester. We want to bring in the Seven Sisters day and have different activities to increase visibility and collaboration between Seven Sisters schools. It is still a thought. If you have any ideas or thoughts email us! Also we will have monthly Google hangouts. If you have any questions or thoughts on what we should bring to the coalition, feel free to email us.

Natalie Kato ‘14: Questions? Email the people here or sga@brynmawr.edu.

 

Big Cheese Forum Topics:

Natalie Kato ‘14: Big Cheese is when we have people from the cabinet’s office, President Cassidy, the dean of undergraduate students, and the CFO, depending on the questions asked. The date is November 17th. We will separate into small groups that will think of 2-3 questions or topics. At the end we will vote on the top 5 that we want to present and get feedback on. By the next meeting on the 10th I should have a list of the administrators/faculty in attendance and a completed version of the questions asked.

Colin Baumann ‘14: We want to talk to Res Life and get an update about people living off-campus and whether or not they have had issues with the Overbrook situation, and if they plan to go back next year. We’d like a more distinct timeline on the Haffner situation. We also talked about talking to student employment about the policy changes enacted this past semester – what they were, how we can expect them to influence us in the semester and over the year. We thought about the visibility of financial aid recipients on campus and classist overtones. We also talked about wanting the health center advisory board talking to Kay Kerr about getting speaking points about the Bryn Mawr health insurance.

Phoebe Jordan ’15: We want to talk about the housing situation, the Haffner timeline, and thinking about next year and capacity. We’d like an update on the presidential search to see how that is going and if they have identified any more candidates. The other thing we wanted to talk about was divestment.

Nkechi Ampah ‘16: We wanted to talk about Title IX, work-study, and sustainability of the new Haffner from Jerry Berenson. We also want to talk about the collaboration between the Career and Professional Development office, LILAC, and Pensby, maybe with Vanessa Christman.
Carolyn Jacoby ‘14: We are interested in speaking with Res Life, more in the vein of wondering about what they are doing now in terms of dorm upkeep so that Haffner doesn’t happen again. Much more low down on the list is the printing situation and an update on what it looks like now that we don’t have the quota with regard to environmental issues and whatnot.

Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16: We want to hear about the retention rate at Bryn Mawr – heard it’s low. Also access services at Bryn Mawr and the new coordinator, talking about what they have been doing. The new dorm they’ve been building – if that will be accessible. Also an update on Perry house.

Celeste Gambino ‘16: Most of the stuff has been said. We have had conflicting information in our group. The sketches are a little bit sketchy. Accessibility, eco-friendliness.

Molly MacDougall ‘16: We were wondering about the influence of student input in reappointment of professors when they are going up for tenure. Also we were talking about the status of the search for new the president and sustainability coordinator.

Natalie Kato ‘14: The general topics that I gleaned from this discussion were:

  • Housing regarding Haffner and Perry house
  • Questions also about off campus and Overbrook, plans for next year
  • Question about housing and dorm upkeep
  • Student employment, policy changes, financial aid
  • Divestment
  • Title IX
  • CDO, Pensby, LILAC
  • Retention rate
  • Access services
  • Student input for professors and tenure
  • Printing which I might recommend that we can get feedback from separately from Big Cheese. I will email Eric Pumroy and get statistics and get feedback and report about that. I will also email the health advisory board and have them come to a meeting.
  • I will ask Lisa to come talk about the presidential search committee.

Choices are:

  • Housing (Haffner, Perry, plans for next year, dorm upkeep)
  • Student employment
  • Student input for professors and tenure
  • Divestment
  • Title IX
  • CDO, CPD, LILAC
  • Retention rate
  • Access services

We are going to choose the top 5.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: Do any of these fall under the same person? Can one person answer several things? Combine them?

Natalie Kato ‘14: Divestment and student employment and housing could be John Griffith. Don’t categorize them together though.

  • Title IX – Stephanie Nixon.
  • CDO/Pensby/LILAC – Katie, Vanessa, Michelle Rainey
  • Retention rate – Chuck Rickard
  • Access Services – Deb Alder
  • Housing could also be Jerry Berenson.

Rhett Richardson ‘15: Can we have these conversations just not necessarily during Big Cheese?

Natalie Kato ‘14: Yes.

Angela Blatz ’16: What is the current retention rate?

Amy Chen ‘14: Last year was 95%? Maybe?

Anna Kalinsky ‘15: That seems high.

Natalie Kato ‘14: Check the Big Cheese from last year.

Amy Chen ‘14: I think we discussed the fact that we’re on par with similar-tiered schools.

Natalie Kato ‘14: Options are:

  • Housing (Haffner, Perry, plans for next year, dorm upkeep): Dani Weismann, Hannah Hastings, Anna Kalinsky, Anna Sargeant, Carolyn Jacoby, Colin Baumann, Lindsey Crowe, Karina Siu, Marian Slocum, Nina Shmorhun, Danyelle Phillips, Emily Garcia, Jenna Myers, Alex Francendese, Odeymarys Garrido, Mariam Khoudari, Celeste Gambino
  • Student employment: Natalie Zamora, Elizabeth Vandenberg, Erin Saladin, Dani Weismann, Rhett Richardson, Anna Kalinsky, Anna Sargeant, Carolyn Jacoby, Colin Baumann, Alex Francendese, Odeymarys Garrido, Noor Masannat, Angela Blatz, Mariam Khoudari, Celeste Gambino
  • Student input for professors and tenure: Daniele Arad-Neeman, Lucy Gleysteen, Marian Slocum
  • Divestment: Hannah Hastings, Rhett Richardson, Lindsey Crowe, Sofia Oleas, Karina Siu, Marian Slocum, Danyelle Phillips, Jenna Myers, Sam Terry, Mariam Khoudari, Celeste Gambino
  • Title IX: Elizabeth Vandenberg, Anna Sargeant, Sofia Oleas, Odeymarys Garrido, Sam Terry
  • CDO, Pensby, LILAC: Natalie Zamora, Elizabeth Vandenberg, Hannah Hastings, Dani Weismann, Erin Saladin, Carolyn Jacoby, Karina Siu, Nina Shmorhun, Danyelle Phillips, Emily Garcia, Alex Francendese, Angela Blatz
  • Retention rate: Natalie Zamora, Anna Sargeant, Christina Tse, Nina Shmorhun, Emily Garcia, Angela Blatz
  • Access services: Anna Kalinsky, Rhett Richardson, Anna Sargeant, Christina Tse, Lindsey Crowe, Sofia Oleas, Jenna Myers, Mariam Khoudari

Abstain: Colin Baumann

Housing, Student employment, Divestment, CDO/CPD/LILAC, Access Services

Whatever was not chosen – we can still talk about them at SGA meetings. Any more questions?

Old Business: (N/A)

New Business:

Amy Chen ‘14: The library is injecting 3500 dollars into the New York Times fund because for each printed copy you can get an online subscription. Every day there can be 120 users for NYT Online. Just set up an account and 120 people can sign on. Do you guys want a presentation on how this works or just get the link sent?

Natalie Kato ‘14: We can do a straw poll.
Invite people for a presentation: Five or six people
No presentation: Nobody
Abstain: Many

We will probably do a brief presentation.