Bryn Mawr College SGA Meeting – November 8, 2015
Roll Call
Announcements
Your Two Cents
7 Sisters Recap
Old Business
New Business
Roll Call
Present: Samantha Heyrich, Delaney Williams, Chanel Williams, Coco Wang, Eve Cantler, Charlette Williams, Bridget Murray, Ana Llamas, Ann Tran, Khadijah Seay, Danielle Cadet, Connie Lam, Sarah Andrew, Oona Ryle, Delia Landers, Hannah Chinn, Nora Dell, Melanie Bahti, Sedi Agawu, Mara Dominguez, Sneha Soni, Rhea Manglani, Elaine Holehan, Alexis Wiltsire, Tosin Ajiboye, Kyra Sagal, Shakari Badgett, Dijia Chen, JoyAngelica Chan, Rina Patel, Maria Minaya, Natalie DiFrank, Miranda Smith, Elizabeth Lorenzana, Diamond Ray, Jasmine Rangel, Celeste Ledesma, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikitha Shakamuri, Lilly King, Lindsey Foster, Modupe Olufemi, Stephanie Montalvan, Casiana Omick, Tyler Brown-Cross.
Absent: Emily Gifford-Smith, Madison Wilson, Erin Saladin, Olivia Hollinger, Radhika Singh, Emma Basen-Engquist, Rachel Ofili, Emily Siegel.
Charlie Bruce ‘16 called the meeting to order at 7:10pm
Charlie Bruce ’16: Hey everyone let’s begin with roll call!
Roll Call
Angela Motte ’17: Hello everyone! As a reminder, I record these meetings, so keep that in mind when you speak.
Present: Samantha Heyrich, Delaney Williams, Chanel Williams, Coco Wang, Eve Cantler, Charlette Williams, Bridget Murray, Ana Llamas, Ann Tran, Khadijah Seay, Danielle Cadet, Connie Lam, Sarah Andrew, Oona Ryle, Delia Landers, Hannah Chinn, Nora Dell, Melanie Bahti, Sedi Agawu, Mara Dominguez, Sneha Soni, Rhea Manglani, Elaine Holehan, Alexis Wiltsire, Tosin Ajiboye, Kyra Sagal, Shakari Badgett, Dijia Chen, JoyAngelica Chan, Rina Patel, Maria Minaya, Natalie DiFrank, Miranda Smith, Elizabeth Lorenzana, Diamond Ray, Jasmine Rangel, Celeste Ledesma, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikitha Shakamuri, Lilly King, Lindsey Foster, Modupe Olufemi, Stephanie Montalvan, Casiana Omick, Tyler Brown-Cross.
Absent: Emily Gifford-Smith, Madison Wilson, Erin Saladin, Olivia Hollinger, Radhika Singh, Emma Basen-Engquist, Rachel Ofili, Emily Siegel.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Thanks! We’re going to move on to announcements. During this item, any new items for discussion, questions, or announcements can be made. We have allotted ten minutes for this agenda item.
Announcements
Delaney Williams ’17: Hi, I’m Delaney.
Joy Chan ’17: And I’m Joy. We are holding Emergency Elections for COPS Heads and Elections Heads. The dates are as follows: Nominations – 11/8 – 11/16, Info Sessions – 11/16 11-12, 11/17 3-4 Taylor C, Candidates Forum – 11/19 6-7 in the Campus Center Main Lounge, Elections Begin – 11/23-11/24. Thank you.
Gabrielle Smith ’17: The November appointments round is coming up! Please go to the appointments blog, appointments.blogs.brynmawr.edu for committee descriptions, and for general information about the appointments process. Email me at gbsmith if you have any questions!
Shakari Badgett ’17: Can you hold elected and appointed positions?
Gabrielle Smith ’17: In this case, yes.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Any more announcements? Ok Next item! Your Two Cents! Anyone in the BMC undergrad community can host a straw poll or bring up a topic for discussion.
Your Two Cents
Shakari Badgett ’17: Hi everyone. I wanted to gauge interest in hosting a panel with campus safety. It would be to ask questions about their jobs, recent events, and what they do. Yes, no, abstain. Thanks!
Charlie Bruce ’16: Any more cents? Ok, next topic!
7 Sisters Recap
Charlie Bruce ’16: This past weekend, well up to this afternoon, was the 7 Sisters Conference. All the people in the photo went. Elizabeth Vandenberg and Emily Spiegel are here to present to us. They are going to talk about things we learned, and how we hope to improve.
Emily Spiegel ’18: I’m Emily, and I’m one of the 7 Sisters reps.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: Hello, I’m Elizabeth and I’m the other 7 Sisters rep.
Emily Spiegel ’18: As Charlie said, we were at the conference. It’s an annual meeting of representatives from the 7 Sisters, well it’s not really 7 any more, but any way, this year it was at Barnard. They had leadership workshops, diversity workshops, inclusion workshops, and we got to hear from graduates. The point was to update people on what’s going on and to remain in touch with what’s going on at other schools because we have differences. Next year, we, Bryn Mawr, are going to host this amazing event. It’ll be a big event with lots to do. Elizabeth and I will be planning the conference, and we will be needing to create a committee. If you are interested in this, we are going to put it to a vote.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: The 7 Sisters has been around for a long time, the conference has been around since about 2009. It rotates locations every year. We have a document that created the conference, and we’re supposed to have a board, but we haven’t had either for a long time. We wanted to reform and reinstate the board, and the constitution. We elected a president pro tempore. We want two members from each school to represent the school to the greater 7 Sisters board. We wanted to also hold a vote next Sunday to see if Emily and I could be the reps on the coordinating board. So, we have three votes in all- if we’re ok to be the reps of Bryn Mawr, if we want to reaffirm the 7 Sisters constitution, and if we want to establish a planning committee. Again this will be next week, so y’all can talk to your constituents.
Casiana Omick ’18: What does reaffirming the constitution entail?
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: Reading through it and voting on it.
Emily Spiegel ’18: Also if we don’t keep it present in our memories, the whole point of the constitution fades away, and we really want to be connected to the other schools.
Modupe Olufemi ’17: Will this need a plenary resolution?
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: So in terms of establishing a committee, we are allowed to establish a committee, we are allowed to do this as a rep council. Also establishing a committee is primarily a rep council thing. In terms of reaffirming it, and as time is of the essence, we think it’s appropriate to appeal to the rep council.
Emily Spiegel ’18: We need to start planning this conference basically now, and this is something we need to establish to begin.
Charlie Bruce ’16: This is an ad hoc committee, it’ll only be around for this year, so the Rep Council does have the power to create it.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: If I may, article 42d gives us the power to do this.
Hannah Chinn ’19: Are you forming a committee solely for the purpose to host this conference?
Emily Spiegel ’18: We’re posing to you the reaffirmation of a constitution from the 7 Sisters Conference, were also asking you to establish a committee.
Nora Dell ’19: Who is allowed to be on the committee?
Emily Spiegel ’18: Any one.
Rachel Bruce ’18: Would the formation go through the appointments committee?
Gabrielle Smith ’17: We’ll discuss this later.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: Any more questions? Please contact us if you have any questions.
Charlie Bruce ’16: On behalf of the presidents of other colleges, one of the things I wanted to share with you. The Barnard president was talking about how currently Barnard will have no student housing for non-athletes or tour guides over winter break. That’s putting a lot of people out of housing. I wanted to ask the community, if you’re in the greater New York area, to open up your homes and your hearts. In the spirit of coalition building, reach out to them. On to old business.
Old Business
Charlie Bruce ’16: Any old business? I do! Last meeting we had the notecard thing where we thought we could increase ways to increase revenue and decrease spending. I typed them up and sent them to Kari. She has read them over and will get back to us. She says thank you, also if you have any other ideas email her. I also wanted to bring up a topic of conversation that was brought up last year. I also wanted to bring up a topic of conversation from last year. Vassar’s EBoard is a paid position for students that are on works study. I’m concerned about economic accessibility for all students, and I think that because of the time commitments, the EBoard acts as a barrier between students who want to hold the position, but can’t because they need the time to devote to work. T wanted you all to think about this, and if it’s a good idea to have our EBoard be a work-study position. The Haverford student council positions are paid, just so we can keep that in the back of our minds.
Casiana Omick ’18: Just to be clear- it’s only paid if you’re on work-study? If you’re not on work-study, it’s not paid?
Charlie Bruce ’16: Yes.
Tosin Ajiboye ’17: Do the people on the EBoard get class credit?
Charlie Bruce ’16: No, they get no reimbursements, although someone can turn it into a praxis.
Angela Motte ’17: I can speak to that. At the end of last year, I was looking into getting a praxis for my position. I had all the paper work filled out, and everything was good to go, but then I took a step back and realized it was really unrealistic. On top of my normal classes, I would have been spending about 40 to 50 hours on the SGA position, and because I also have other commitments on this campus, I realized it wasn’t sustainable. So, in my personal case, you can turn your EBoard position into a class credit, but for me to make it work, it would have been so much additional time and work that I didn’t have. Plus, I was recently declared and needed to work on my major, so it didn’t mesh with the things I had to do.
Shakari Badgett ’17: Would that have been your fourth or fifth class?
Angela Motte ’17: I could have done either, but I was looking at it as my fourth class and it was still too much time.
Chanel Williams ’16: Last year when we talked about it, we brought up the fact that people should want to do this from the heart and not for money.
Hannah Chinn ’19: I just wanted to say in response to that, that you can commit to only a certain number of things because of work study. We have a barrier because we need to work. I was talking to some of my first year friends, and we love SGA, but it’s hard to balance because we need to work. This would open up so many doors, and I think it would make it more accessible.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Feel free to email me if you have any more questions. New business!
New Business
Charlie Bruce ’16: SGA House and SGA kitchen are not being kept up in the best way. We were thinking about a checklist card that you’ll take and sign when you use the house. I wanted to give you all a heads up about this.
Nora Dell ’19: I wanted to welcome you all to ‘Bring a Friend to SGA Day!’ The purpose of this is to get people to come who haven’t been to a meeting. We wanted to show them that we are a resource that they can come and use. Personally, SGA is important to me because I’m curious and like to learn new things.
Oona Ryle ’19: It’s important to me because my vote counts, and it’s not something you can really find anywhere else.
Hannah Chinn ’19: For me, SGA matters because it’s a change that we can control. We have the power.
Lilly King ’19: We get to work with the community, and we all have a voice.
Delia Landers ’19: For me, SGA creates a framework of trust.
Nora Dell ’19: We’re going to take the next five minutes to split up into groups, with one of us each to a group. We’re going to talk about why SGA is important.
Small Groups Break Off And Discuss
Nora Dell ’19: We’re going to regroup. Thank you so much for sharing what you think. All right guys, thank you for making this conversation possible. I also want to direct you to the back. We have food courtesy of the 2019 class presidents, and hopefully you’ve learned more from when you came in, and will leave as more enlightened people.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Thank you. Electronic Devices. I love them, and so do you. But I would really rather love it if you decreased your usage of them unless its for the purpose of SGA. Also announcement number two, I learned that certain SGA language is inaccessible. One of our peer institutions, Mount Holyoke, goes over community guidelines. We’re trying to change the feel of this space, and we wanted to create community guidelines. In short, what would you like to see at SGA? What space do you want this to be? We’ll have agenda time devoted to this. I will announce our guidelines at the beginning of every meeting.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: I really like doing accessible community guidelines, but in terms of organizational aspects, I think Robert’s Rules is best. It’s useful.
Charlie Bruce ’16: I want to change the meeting space so the meeting will flow and people will know what’s going on. We’ve run out of time.
Shakari Badgett ’17: I motion to adjourn.
Melanie Bahti’16: I second.
Charlie Bruce ’16: This is a Rep Council vote only, yes, no, abstain. Meeting adjourned.
Meeting Adjourned at 7:55pm