SGA Meeting Minutes October 25 October 25, 2009
Posted by Tanya in : minutes , add a commentEmma W-B ’11 called the meeting to order at 7:10 PM
Roll Call
Present: Elle Works ’10, Meghan Mahoney ’10, Kali Graham ’10, Julie O’ Neil ’10, Taline Cox ’10, Shannon Ryan ’10, Simran Singh ’10, Madeline Velturo ’11, Ashton Shaffer ’11, Adelyn Kishbough ’12, Elise Hernandez Landaverde ’10, Sarah Theobold ’12, Claire Smith ’12, Maddy Court ’13, Hope Wayman ’13, Sara Jane Rodgers ’13, Caroline Heffernan ’10, Augusta Irele ’10, Jennifer Savage ’12, Blair Smith ’12, Jenny Nam ’12, Sophia Abboud ’12, Antara Tulsyan ’12, Adrienne Webb ’11, Hildi Greenberg ’10, Jill Settlemyer ’10, Mae Carlson ’12, Nga Nguyen ’12, Shanna Fricklas ’10, Caitlin Evans ’10, Eileen Downs ’10, Saba Qadir ’13, Hannah Curry Mc-Dougald ’10, Brittney Thornbury ’11, Liana Donaue ’12, Reggie Kukola ’10, Marisa Franz ’10, Alice Fischer ‘13
Excused Absences: Julia Fahl ‘12, Isabel Donolon ‘13
Unexcused Absences: Emily Tafyaro ’12, Pragaya Krishna ’13, Samanatha Newman O’Gara ’12, Katherin Lewis ’12, Malina Toza ‘12
Announcements
Taline Cox ’10: Cops is having an alcohol awareness tea this Tuesday at 8 in campus center 200. There will be pizza and root beer! See you there!!
Jill Setllemyer ’10: Annual Dorm Trick or Treat will be happening this Wednesday 10/28 from 4 to 6pm with a party following in TGH from 6 to 7 pm. Dorm presidents can be contacted for orange pumpkin signs and if you are interested in volunteering at the party. Also, don’t feed the raccoon in Pem Arch, or anywhere/thing else.
Katherine Redford ’10: The Honor Board heard one case in the month of September. A student was found to have submitted work that was written by someone else and she failed the course. No social cases were heard.
Your Two Cents
Taline Cox ’10: We have talked a lot in HA area groups that we be responsible at Halloween so that we can preserve our parties, and this Halloween party in general.
Emma W-B ’11: Over Fall Break, we lost a member of our community, Ray and we’d like to observe a moment of silence for him.
Lantern Night
Emma W-B ’11: We have to move our meeting next week because of Lantern Night, and we are going to vote to move the meeting to 1 PM.
For: 25
Against: 0
Abstain: 1
Special Events
Emma W-B ’11: So when Special Events Funding Forms were turned in, one of the forms was lost on Mary Beth’s desk and so we didn’t want to penalize the student for turning in the forms on time and not having an opportunity to present her event to the assembly.
Anagha Roy ’12, Jenny Nam ’12, Adrienne Web ’11: We are from the Art Club and our proposed event is a gallery opening, that would display student and faculty artwork. It will have artwork, live music, and a display of deserts. The purpose of this event is to show what kind of artwork can be created at Art Club, and to showcase that. Our total amount requested is $1961.07.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: How much money did we have left over in Special Events?
Emma W-B ’11: We had $80K budgeted, and gave about $13K, and so we have $60K-$67K left to give.
Jacqueline Levin ’11: Didn’t the previous Arnecliff event budget for twinkle lights?
Anagha Roy ’12: Yes, but we ended up borrowing those lights, and so now we want to buy the lights.
Colleen Hayley ’11: My event is Liana Carrera, comedian extraordinaire. She asked to come the night before because flights are often delayed out of South Africa, and she didn’t want to miss the gig. So I need an extra $100 to cover her hotel the night before.
Emma W-B ’11: For the Gallery opening…
For: 26
Against: 0
Abstain: 2
Emma W-B ’11: For the $100 extra to Colleen’s budget…
For: 28
Against: 0
Abstain: 0
Zip Car
Laurel Lemon ’11:So we are going to go over the information for Zipcar one last time so we can have a vote on the issues. You can get zip car if:
· You are 18: have a valid driver’s license, have had no incidents, and no major violations, and no alcohol related incidents.
· You are 21: have a valid driver’s license, allowed two incidents, no major violations, and no alcohol related incidents.
For the first 30 days they will give you a credit of $35 (the membership fee) in driving expenses. The minimum agreement is for 2 years—if after a year, we are not doing so well (not meeting the revenue guarantee) they can let us go, we cannot choose to cancel. We could have 2 cars—this is dependent on the fact that this is not going to be Bi-Co. The costs are as follows:
· Type of car: $1500-$1600 per car per month, depending upon the type of car. So $3000-$3200 total per month for both cars, not including summer months. If we meant the monthly guarantee for 6 months, the guarantee would go away.
· If no one ever uses the cars, it would be $19200 for the 6 months.
· Weekdays $8/hr, $66/day
· Weekends $9/hr, $72/day
· $35 annual member ship fee
· $25 application fee waived
Taline Cox ’10: Where is this money coming from?
Laurel Lemon ’11: Well it would initially come out of club budgets for next semester
Rachel Brody ’11: How many people are using Zip Car?
Emma W-B ’11: We don’t have those exact numbers
Liana Donahue ’12: Lets do a survey monkey to see how many people use Zipcar or would be interested in using Zipcar.
Shanna Fricklas ’10: I used Philly CarShare a lot—I don’t think that we would have to shell out the money because a lot of people would use it.
Colleen Hayley ’11: If we could pay for a car, why don’t we do that?
Emma W-B ’11: Dean Tidmarsh and I had this conversation, she said that it would be incredibly difficult and hard to do because of the costs of maintenance of a car and the logistics of insurance.
Tanya Kaur ’10: Point of information: if we were to get a car, Bryn Mawr College would have to cover the insurance information and be liable for that car, and students would have to go through the same process as van-certification.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: I want to second what Liana said—why we don’t do a survey?
Emma W-B ’11: We can definitely do that, but keep in mind that people don’t necessarily take or will understand all the information that we’ve laid out above in a survey
Augusta Irele ’10: Can we use special events funding for Zip Car rather than use club budgets?
Laurel Lemon ’11: Yes
Mae Carlson ’12: If we decide not to go into ZipCar, then what?
Emma W-B ’11: This is the only option we know of right now; it’s either Zip Car or nothing?
Rachel Brody ’11: If we go for this, then can we advertise it, and send out emails about it?
Emma W-B ’11: Sure, we could definitely advertise it and let people know about
Sarah Sherman ’11: Has there been any discussion if we could get just one car, and not just two?
Colleen Hayley ’11: Is Zipcar cheaper or more expensive than other similar programs?
Tanya Kaur ’10: Point of Information: Zipcar is cheaper than Philly Carshare; Philly Car Share is $16/month, and Zipcar is $35/year, and the per hour rates are cheaper as well.
Alex Ashley ’11: If we vote against this now, can we vote for it in the future? Like next year?
Emma W-B ’11: Yes
Emma W-B ’11: Okay now we’re going to vote on whether we want to decide this tonight, or whether we want to send out a survey?
Tonight: 15
Survey: 11
Abstain: 2
Emma W-B ’11: Okay we are deciding this tonight. Who wants Zip Car?
For: 7
Against: 11
Abstain: 9
Emma W-B ’11: We voted not to have Zipcar, but does anyone want to still send out a survey?
Elle Works ’10: Let’s send out a survey to find out if people want ZipCar.
Yearbook
Emma W-B ’11: We have to produce a 2008 and 2009 yearbook. We need to produce these yearbooks. So here’s the decision that needs to be made:
· Should we keep the yearbook as a student club? Or should we create a paid student position that would be paid through Mary Beth’s office?
Brittney Thornbury ’11: What does Haverford do?
Emma W-B ’11: It created a paid position fairly recently because they were having similar problems
Hannah Curry-McDougald ‘10: What department will pay for this position? And is it one or multiple positions?
Laurel Lemon ’11: The position will be coming out of Mary Beth’s department. And we can have multiple positions.
Elle Works ’10: Has anything been done that someone who is being paid could work off of?
Laurel Lemon ’11: The 2008 yearbook is almost done and would require very little additional work, but the 2009 yearbook needs to be done from scratch.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: Why are we making these again?
Emma W-B ’11: When we talked to Mary Beth she told us that people had pre-ordered these yearbooks…So let’s vote on whether we want a paid position.
For: 24
Against: 2
Abstain: 4
Emma W-B ’11: We also need to decide tonight if we want to order the 2010 yearbook as well. It is a $24k contract for the 2010 yearbook.
Annalee Garrity ’12: How many people order yearbooks?
Laurel Lemon ’11: Point of information: There are several hundred yearbooks in storage so not that many people buy yearbooks.
Jill Settlemyer ’10: It would be $24k to make a yearbook, but that cost would be offset by the number of people who buy the yearbook right?
Emma W-B ’11: Yes.
Shanna Fricklas ’10: Is it possible to get yearbooks done by graduation so that people could get them and sign them?
Emma W-B ’11: No.
Elle Works ’10: So we voted to have a student in a paid position for 2009-2010, would it be possible to look for a 2010 yearbook committee?
Emma W-B ’11: Sure
Simran Singh ’10: I don’t necessarily want a yearbook, but I think it’s important to have yearbooks in a college in order to maintain institutional memory and such.
Jacqueline Levin ’10: Would it be possible for a scrapbook to be made that would sit in admissions and that would be nice.
Emma W-B ’11: We are going to vote whether we want a 2010 Yearbook.
For: 7
Against: 17
Abstain: 4
Old Business
Caroline Heffernan ’10: We are going to have a meeting about the Gym on November 8 rather than tonight.
Emma W-B ’11: I’m going to not be at the November 8th meeting because I am going to a competition in Tennessee that weekend.
New Business
Shannon Ryan ’10: I met with some members of the class of 1960 to talk about collaboration between their class and our class in some sort of cocktail-esque hour. So keep an eye out for any sort of announcements/emails to that end.
Meeting adjourned at 8:25 PM.
SGA Meeting Minutes September 13 September 28, 2009
Posted by Tanya in : minutes , add a commentSGA brought to order at 7:10 PM by Emma W-B
Roll Call
Present: Emma Wisniewski-Barker ’11, Sophie Papavizas ’11, Tanya Kaur ’10, Laurel Lemon ’11, Katherine Redford ’10, Reggie Kukola ’10, Marisa Franz ’10, Sarah Sherman ’11, Hannah Curry-McDougald ’10, Caroline Heffernan ’10, Jacqueline Levin ’10, Nga Nguyen ’11, Julia Fahl ’12, Elisa Hernandez Landeverde ’10, Taline Cox ’10, MJ Crookes ’10, Simran Singh ’10, Shannon Ryan ’10, Ashton Shaffer ’11, Liana Donahue ’12, Sumedha Niranjan ’11, Brittney Thornbury ’11, Susie Kim ’11, Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12, Clair Smith ’12, Jenniver Savage ’12, Blair Smith ’12, Katherine Lewis ’12, Jenny Nam ’12, Sophia Abboud ’12, Emily Tafaro ’12, Elle Works ’10, Meghan Mahoney ’10, Hildi Greenberg ’10, Caitlin Evans ’11, Eileen Downs ’11, Annalee Garrity ’11, Kali Graham ’10, Julie O’Neil ’10, Augusta Irele ‘10
Excused: Colleen Hayley ’11, Samantha Newman O’Gara ’12, Rachel Brody ’11, Sarah Capasso ’11,
Unexcused: Anagha Kumar ’11, Ean Oesterle ’11, Sadie Marlow ’11, Antara Tulsyan ’12, Shanna Fricklas ’11, Alexandra Ashley ’11,
Announcements:
Simran Singh ’10 and Shannon Ryan ’10: First Senior Cocktail of the year is on Thursday September 24, 2009 in Rhoads Dining Hall. It’s from 8:30 PM to 12:30 AM and the theme is A Black and White Affair!
YTC
Julia Fahl ’12: I’d like to bring a discussion to keep Plenary in the gym rather than in Goodhart…
Someone: Why?
Emma W-B ’11: Let’s have a 5 minute limit on this discussion.
Julia Fahl ‘12: Because I think it fosters more of a community feel as you can see everyone and walk around.
Caitlin Evans: ‘10 I know that there has been accessibility issues with the Gym in the past and they have not been able to attend
Taline Cox ’10: Will there be enough seats in Goodhart?
Emma W-B ’11: As a point of information, Goodhart can hold 574 seats
Sarah Theobold ’12: The acoustics in the gym are relatively painful, and I know that was something that was an issue last year.
Sophie Papavizas ’11: I know last year in terms of Dining Services logistics it was problematic having them in the Gym.
Emma W-B ‘11: Let’s get a straw vote on this issue.
In favor of Goodhart: 41
In favor of the gym: 1
Emma W-B ’11: Okay. Moving on to the next part of today’s agenda—Dean Tidmarsh is here to talk about the changes in her role as well as address any academic changes.
Dean Tidmarsh
Dean Tidmarsh: I’m not sure all that you mean about changes in academics, but I’ll talk about changes in my own role and then you can throw out questions. In terms of my own role, I decided that it would be my last year as Dean of Undergraduate College, and that I would take my semester of sabbatical that I’ve been due for 15 years. So I will return to teaching one course a semester as well as create a better support system for students who come in not really knowing certain things ie: Quantitative Skills. I also think that Peer Mentors do exceptional work but I think that a drop-in study forum would be helpful. The current system requires you to plan ahead and it doesn’t let you go get help at the last minute which is when a lot of students realize they need help. So I want to talk to students, alumni and faculty and figure out what we need but don’t have. So those are my plans. But you might have other questions, and I’m happy to try to answer them.
Julia Fahl ’12: How do you plan on implementing some of these changes?
Dean Tidmarsh: I’m not really sure but I do think that talking to groups of students would be helpful, and talking to PMS would be a natural place to start. On my semester of sabbatical I will also continue to trying to figure that out, as well visit colleges that have instituted some of these changes and see how well they work.
Sarah Theobold ’12: Are you thinking of a Quantative Skills Center that would be comparative of the Writing Center? As the office manager, we have about 22% of our hourly slots filled a year, which is a really small number.
Dean Tidmarsh: I think if we institute a system which is more accessible and that can be used on a last minute basis rather than a scheduled basis, those numbers might rise. And yes, I think that the writing center is under utilized and does a wonderful job when we do connect people.
Someone: What course will you be teaching Spring 2011?
Dean Tidmarsh: Good question; I need to have a conversation with Peter Briggs about this who is the head of the English Department and then I’ll get to decide what I want based upon what they need. I’m very open and flexible because I haven’t taught in 10 years so I’m really excited.
Mike Hill, Tom King and Nora Nelly
Mike Hill: Thank you for letting us impinge on your night. Tom, Nora and I thought it was a good idea to come to see you especially with all the collaboration going on. I say collaboration because it’s not a merger but a collaboration of ideas. I wanted you to all have the opportunity to put names and faces together and let you ask questions.
Tom King: Thank you again for letting us speak. Like Mike said, it’s not necessarily a merger but more of a taking the best of both communities and implementing it across the board. Nora is a regional expert with an emphasis on sexual crimes against women, and she’s with the Women’s Center.
Nora Nelly: We are very excited about the collaboration and we do a number of things at the Women’s center.
Emma W-B ‘11: I feel like I’ve heard the idea of collaboration before but what does that mean, especially for the students?
Mike Hill: I feel like it means that the services for students will get better. We want to make sure whatever experience you have with Public Safety is effective, efficient and supportive.
Tom King: I think Mike hit on all the important points and I think consistency is what’s going to be most apparent, sooner rather than later. I think it’s important that being are getting a professional and prompt response EVERY TIME. Especially with our campuses which are very unique, and I think it’s vital that students feel comfortable with a 24/7 presence and that when they pick up the phone they are getting a professional response. It’s a job requirement to embrace professional response
Tanya Kaur ‘10: How many jobs were lost in this collaboration effort?
Mike Hill: We lost some part time jobs, but we didn’t lose any people and in fact we have a couple of openings, which we want to fill with the right kind of people.
Tom King: Yeah absolutely and I’m really impressed with the Senior Staff (both Presidents and Boards who were very eager to get the right people in Public Safety) and we had no cuts and are in fact hiring people and are very excited to do so. We are available anytime, anywhere.
Jessica Coulter ‘10: So does this mean that there are going to be Bi-Co Public Safety vans or are they going to be Bryn Mawr or Haverford.
Tom King: Like I said we aren’t doing mergers, but in fact remaining special and unique and sharing the best practices. If anything like this does happen it’ll be way after we leave.
Jessica Coulter ‘10: Do we have enough night staff? I hear that we don’t.
Mike Hill: We will certainly look into that. We certainly have adequate staff, but it’s always nice to have more, and I’m sure Tom and Nora will agree that we’ll want more.
Tom King: One tangible difference that will happen is increasing night staff, rather than just having so many on-call night staff. And that’s sort of what we’re talking about when we say we’re looking to hire the right people.
Blair Smith ‘12: What are some of the Haverford practices that you’re implementing here?
Tom King: A lot of it is something that I’ve mentioned already which is having every interaction be prompt and professional.
Mike Hill: We are using the word collaboration as if it’s new, but it’s not. We’ve been in collaboration for years, for example our sirens, and our language has been very similar sometimes tangentially but now it will be directly similar.
Tom King: Nora is a great example. Nora is a regional expert on sexual assault issues. One immediate example is having her present on both campuses.
Nora: I think Mike’s right, we’ve always helped each other out and we would love to hear from Students.
Marisa Franz ‘10: I was just curious about the recent events at Haverford, about the prompt notifications for Bryn Mawr students. So is the emergency response system going to be combined as well?
Tom King: I think that’s a great question, and yes, that’s something that you’re going to see implemented relatively right away. That’s definitely an area that needs to be improved. And we were obviously taken surprise with the State Police coming on campus.
Mike Hill: Is there anything in particular that you wanted to be notified about?
Marisa Franz ‘10: Well I live at Haverford and it took a while for Bryn Mawr students to learn about the car fire.
Mike Hill: Well with that in particular I didn’t use the e2campus security because it wasn’t an immediate threat to students, which is why we sent out emails, and in fact you should have gotten multiple emails.
Tom King: Yeah, and one of the things we believe in at Haverford is that ‘When in doubt, let it out’ I like to err on the side of over notification so that everyone knows what’s going on and we’ll defiantly be collaborating on that side. If you have any other questions, please email us:
Mike Hill: mhill01@brynmawr.edu
Tom King: tking@haverford.edu
Nora Nelly: nnelly@haverford.edu
Elliott Shore
Elliott: Like Dean TIdmarsh, I’m not sure what would be the most helpful to talk about but I would assume that printing, Guild, and the Tech bar would be the best place to start. So the Tech Bar is the biggest innovation, from my point of view. So working with 6 students, three of which are here, we wanted to create a one-stop shop for everyone where they can go to one place and get all their questions answered. I sent out a lot of emails this summer that also addressed this. Another aspect of this is the economic situation. We had $600K to reduce in Information Services . So we eliminated three positions that weren’t filled, and then seven people left for retirement, or better job offers, or the like. We are now down 50% of our staff. A little under 20% of printing jobs weren’t printed because people didn’t want to print or they forgot to. A lot of people have asked if we are going to charge this year, and we are not going to be charging anything but rather monitoring.
Annalee Garrity ‘11: What’s going on with duplex printing in Canaday? You can’t duplex print anymore.
Hannah Curry McDougald ‘10: I’m the lead help desk specialist which is now in Canaday, and so we have two full time staff who are working on bringing back duplex printing.
Shannon Ryan ‘10: How many computers are available after Midnight?
Elliott Shore: In Guild I believe there were 29-30 computers, and now there are about 20-21 available post midnight. Guild also is a laptop lab—so you can bring your laptop.
Shannon Ryan 2010: And so what students were consulted about reducing the number of computers and creating more laptop space?
Elliott Shore: 97% of students on campus have laptops and we also wanted to reduce our carbon footprint. I realize it may not be as convenient as before, but I value Staff jobs over convenience.
Shannon Ryan ‘10: I also have a question on behalf of Colleen Hayley who wants to know if printers can be made available in dorms.
Hannah Curry McDougald ‘10: That would be hard because who would take responsibility of the printer, make sure there’s enough paper and toner, etc. Right now, the Help desk is 2 feet away from the printers and we can take care of everything.
Elliott Shore: Hopefully this year the Faculty committee is going to look into the issue of course reading, and books, and course packs. Do we want everyone to have a kindle for example—this is an intellectual community and people should be able to say things as hypothetical situations—do we want to reduce the number of readings on blackboard, what do we want to do?
Julia Fahl ‘12: What is the next step in making Guild a more study free zone?
Elliott Shore: We are always looking for student input and ideas—if you could email us with ideas that would be great. My email is eshore@brynmawr.edu.
Laurel Lemon ‘11: I know the idea of Guild was to have people there but no one is ever there.
Elliott Shore: What Guild may have lost, Canaday has gained. Any kinds of suggestions would be great.
Augusta Irele ‘10: What are the plans for getting printing and computers in Perry House?
Elliott Shore: We can look into that.
Julie O’ Neil ‘10: Just in terms of furniture in Guild, I think it would be nice to make it a most comfortable place. We have a lot of lounge-y space.
Elliott Shore: We actually moved around a lot of furniture this summer in trying to create spaces but we didn’t buy anything. A number of universities have closed all their computer labs for example University of Virginia closed all of them down.
Mary ‘12: Just in terms of printing, if it could say please print to One Note.
Hannah Curry McDougald: Please email us.
Tanya Kaur ‘10: Can the kiosks ever print after putting in the login information?
Reggie Kukola ‘10: No.
Elliott: Please get in touch with me.
Plenary
Emma W-B ‘11: Who do we want to invite to Plenary?
Jacqueline Levin ‘10: What was our decision last Spring?
Emma W-B ‘11: Last spring, the Deans came, and they didn’t speak
Ellen ‘12: What would they speak about?
Emma W-B ‘11: They would speak in a professional capacity. Let’s take a straw vote. Should they come? Yes: 42. No: 0. Abstain: 0.
Should they speak? Yes: 36. No: 16. Abstain: 0.
Old Business:
Laurel Lemon ‘11: Is Sadie here? We have an update with newspapers. So there was a miscommunication with ordering the newspapers and now we only get NY Times, I’m going to wait a couple of weeks to see how many papers get used and then we can establish how many newspapers to order.
Ashton Shaffer ‘11: What’s the update on the carshare thing?
Laurel Lemon ‘11: I’m curious to hear what you guys heard about this. Again it would cost about $1500 a car which we would share with Haverford. We can’t get out of the agreement but they can let us out. The minimum agreement is two years.
Taline Cox ’10: What does Haverford think about this?
Laurel Lemon ‘11: Currently Haverford doesn’t have a Treasurer, so I haven’t been able to communicate with them about this. I believe they have elections going on right now to elect their treasurer.
Marisa Franz ‘10: Point of information: results should be in tomorrow for the Haverford Treasurer.
Alex Ashley ‘11: What are the rules for student usage?
Caroline Heffernan ‘10: You need a license and you don’t need insurance.
Caitilin Evans ‘11: About 6 people out of 30 in Rhoads North said they would be interested.
Emma W-B ’11: According to the website, you need to be 21 and have a liscense. Let’s take a Straw Vote.
For Zipcar: 0
Against: All
New Business:
Laurel Lemon ‘11: We were talking to Mary Beth about the Yearbook. So we have already been paid for a Yearbook but we don’t have a product to show off for it, and so we’re two years behind. The contract cost $13,000-$15,000 a semester so about $30,000 a year which is a lot. So do you guys want to create a paid student position to make this yearbook because we have already paid to get it made?
Adelyn Kishbaugh ‘12: How many students would be involved?
Laurel Lemon ’11: It depends on what we decide.
Marisa Franz ‘10: Isn’t it like throwing money at a sinking ship?
Julia Fahl ‘12: Do we even have pictures to fill this yearbook?
Hannah Curry McDougald ‘10: I think if we are paying someone then it’ll get done.
Simran Singh ‘10: Who’s going to buy this? Can we use it instead to print other stuff? The class of 2008 and 2009 have graduated.
Jill Settlemeyer ‘10: Are we talking about getting it done for the next two years?
Sarah Theobold ‘12: Is it specifically 2008 and 2009, or can we publish it for 2010 and 2011?
Emma W-B: We can look into it and let you know. We’ll get back to you.
Meeting adjourned at 8:29 PM.
Meeting minutes submitted by Tanya Kaur.