Emma Wisniewski-Barker called the meeting to order at 7:11PM
Roll Call:
Excused Absences: Sarah Capazzo ’11, Anne Bugnaski ’10, Trina Banerji ’09, Shannon Ryan ’10, Liz Hood ’10, Grace Kung ’10, Rachel Awkward ‘09
Unexcused Absences: Weezie Lauher ’10, Anagha Kumar ’11, Elise Nelson ’09
Community Members Present: Celia Turner ’10, Ashley Madden ’09, Erica Seaborne ’09, Katie Kellom ’09, Evan Schneider ’10, Aheli Purkayastha ’09, Katherine Bakke ’11, Sarah Theobald ’12, Anne Kauth ’11, Jill Walker ’09, Julia Fahl ’12, Lindsay Turr ’11, Steph Migliori ’09, Sharan Mehta ’12, Sarah Kelley ’11, Rebecca Sanders ’12, Elizabeth Held ’12, Laurel Lemon ’11, Kathryn Gould ’11, Julia Aranda ’11, Reggie Kukola ’10.
Exec Board Introductions:
Emma Wisniewski-Barker (President)- Class of 2011. Physics and Psychology double major from Delaware.
Sophie Papavizas (Vice-President)- Class of 2011. Math and Economics double major from Arlington, VA.
Katherine Redford (Honor Board Head)- Class of 2010. Chemistry major from Boston.
Announcements:
Katherine Redford ’10: Since SGA is currently without a secretary, I will be taking minutes until one is elected. Emails regarding attendance can be emailed to SGA@brynmawr.edu. Announcements should also be sent to this address by midnight on Sunday if you want them included in the minutes.
Katherine Redford ’10: The Honor Board heard one case during the month of February. A student was found to have lied to a professor on multiple occasions and was separated from the school for one semester.
Approval of Meeting Procedure:
Emma Wisniewski-Barker gave a presentation on the meeting procedures that will be used by the new executive board. (See Powerpoint sent to the class listserves.)
Motion to Approve Meeting Minutes:
In favor: 28
Against: 0
Abstentions: 0
Meeting Procedure Approved
Your Two Cents:
Katie Kellom ’09: I found out about a new website, www.betterhumanrace.com, it uses the Google search engine and donates money with every search, 100% of the proceeds go to 5 different charities.
Plenary Recap:
Megan Roberts, ‘10: Thanks for coming to plenary! We obtained quorum within two hours and held it for two hours and 40 minutes and we passed 7 resolutions.
Momentum in SGA:
Emma Wisniewski-Barker, 2011: We want to have a “Momentum In SGA” Discussion. So we’re going to talk about where SGA is going and where do you want it to go. First, Office hours were held by old exec board during week in the campus center or SGA House. Did you use them, do these work?
Straw poll: Who used office hours? 1 person.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker, 2011: We would be happy to keep doing these if you think it would work or be helpful.
Katie Kellom 2009: I only had one person come to my office hours but I think they are still helpful. I spoke with a McBride who had a suggestion for me and I answered a question for her. I think having them in the campus center is good because of foot traffic, giving people the opportunity to stop by when they might not email the exec board or walk to the SGA house.
Aheli Purkayastha, 2009: Ditto!
Cara Sogliuzzo 2009: People who use office hours tend not to be the people at SGA meetings. Maybe the executive board should hold biweekly office hours and also by appointment.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker ‘11: What do you think about the SGA website?
How many people look at it on a weekly basis? Staw poll: 15 people.
Amanda Cegielski, 2009: As the current SGA webmistress, I want to remind everyone that the URL is sga.blogs.brynmawr.edu.
Jill Walter, 2009: People who don’t come to meeting aren’t going to go to the blog website.We need to get some information on the main page.
Julia Fahl, 2012: I find the SGA website to be inaccessible, not aesthetically pleasing, and not easy to navigate.
Amanda Cegielski, 2009: We’ve tried with many different administrators to get SGA on the main page. Also, I would love to have more specific criticisms for improvement. You can email me.
Hannah Curry McDougald ‘10: I love the webpage, especially having the whole constitution online.
Liana Donahue, 2012: Minutes are very accessible when they’re put in the bathroom.
Aheli Purkayastha, 2009: I love the mawrk notes. But I would like to see them emailed to the community members for juniors abroad, McBrides and off-campus students.
Marisa Franz, 2010: Can we have a separate listserv for SGA meeting minutes?
Brittany Thornberry 11: Point of Information- Kendra Hayde ’09 SGA Secretary Emeritus put the members at large in charge of making the Mawrk Notes.
Zandra Martinez, ‘11: The new exec board should continue to pass it on to members at large, we enjoy doing it.
Jill Walker, ‘09: Who are the members at large?
Emma Wisniewski-Barker ‘11: There is a list who’s who on the SGA website.
Elisa Hernandez Landeverde: The McBride reps aren’t on that list.
Katie Kellom ‘09: Who’s who needs to be updated but the members at large are on there. There is also a list on SGA board.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker ’11: We also want to start brainstorm ways to make yourselves more representative of your constituency. Does anyone want to speak to their experience as a rep, what’s worked for you? What doesn’t?
Liana Donahue ‘12: At the end of my emails to the freshman class I say the date and time of the next SGA meeting. We should send an email about a new exec board.
Hannah Curry-McDougald ‘10: The new calendar on the website allows you to invite everyone too an event, facebook style.
Liz Ritchie ‘11: I’m dorm president in Rhoads and I just make myself known in the dorm, making myself more approachable.
Katherine Bakke ‘11: As someone who’s not directly involved in SGA, as an observer, I agree with Liz. My HA puts up signs for contact info of facilities, public safety, etc on the hall. Signs with dorm president information and that SGA meets every Sunday would work well.
Deep Singh ‘09: Plenary happens twice a year, and that’s when we need a lot of people. I think many people feel like that’s the only time we need more more people, which isn’t true. If I were a community member, I feel like nothing on this agenda applies to what I care about.More specific emails, explaining why should people care would be great. Make things more interesting.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker, 2011: We want to work on that. We want to have an Earth Day themed SGA meeting, bringing in more people that affect everyone.
Christina Wagner, 2011: This has been discussed before this semester, but I think themed SGA meetings are a good idea. We could start inviting clubs on campus, have an acapella themed meeting, and a day when we specifically invite the freshman.
Katie Kellom, 2009: I would like to see the SGA boards used more, maybe we could call on the Members at Large to post signs about SGA.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker 2011: What do we think about the set-up of the seating at meetings. We switched from rows to circles and now we’ve sort of evolved to the stadium style seating.
Liz Ritchie 2011: I like the new set up, people can be seen. I also liked the emails from the exec board, I felt like I was on the same level with them.
Deep Singh ‘09. I never get here early so I never get a front row seat, I don’t like these seats in the back.
Marisa Franz, 2010: I feel like I’m in the nosebleeds over here, I can’t see the Exec Board.
Sadie Marlow 2011: Maybe we can combine the two types of seating we have had. Return the table to the front.
Noelle Fair 2010: We could create a U-shaped with an aisle for the mic.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker ‘11: What else do you love about SGA, what should we continue?
Christina Wagner 2011: I appreciated the level of connection we’ve had with the faculty, staff, and administration. The ACB update Aheli gave after she spoke with Campus Council, and the ACB administration was great. Let’s keep this type of connection up!
Emma Wisniewski-Barker 2011: What would you like to see happen that is completely new?
Laurel Lemon 2011: I think we should be getting the community involved. Dorms are overly represented. The arts, frosh, OIA, they need more voices. We need to address diversity.
Brittany Thornberry 2011: Lets have another game night.
Marisa Franz 2010: Maybe we should have uncommon grounds open early, the foot traffic might get more people to join in on the meeting.
Erica Seaborne 2009: Katie and I worked hard on the SGA board at the beginning of the year, but it fell off the radar. Its in a great location, Let’s showcase what’s happening, lets vamp it up.
Sadie Marlow 2011: I think Uncommon would make the CC too loud. There are goods and bads to opening it early.
Aheli Purkayastha 2009: I’d love some more info on who my reps are. Maybe some bios, what class they’re in, maybe a photo board, and let’s put it online.
Kendalyn Brown 2009: We should have a take a friend to SGA day. It would double the number of people here.
Cara Sogliuzzo, ‘09: Athletics Association has two bring-a-buddy meetings a semester, we pick really important meetings, and it gives us a big of variety of people, it works well for us
Elizabeth Held 2012: Technology is great. But we are really underestimating the power of a personal connection. My customs person encouraged us to go to SGA, she said, “I go to SGA and that’s why I’m here.” And now she’s the president.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker 2011: What new things would you like to see discussed at SGA?
Katherine Bakke 2011: I like the environmental/Earth Day theme. I would love to see a better recycling effort, let’s make people more environmentally aware. I also like Big Cheese forums.
Laurel Lemon, ’11: I want to see arts discussed. I didn’t know about the new art studio, and that’s a big deal. Art is really underrepresented.
Erica Seaborne 2009: The Big Cheese is cool, but lets have some “little cheeses” come to SGA. All the people that work here love us, let’s celebrate them, they’re the hidden jems.
Nina Jankowitz, 2011: There isn’t enough arts love at BMC. We could bring in independent artists and musicians. Get some new people in here that don’t necessarily participate in a group but would love to get some publicity for their craft.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker, ‘11: These are great. Email us any more ideas at sga@bmc.
Old Business:
Judy Barr 2009: I’m the Curriculum Committee Head. The Curriculum Committee had an open campus forum meeting a week ago. We got lots of emails and many people dropped by. We heard a lot of the concerns the community had. We brought the concerns to the faculty curriculum committee. I also spoke with Kathy Tierney regarding PE credit issues. If you have any more ideas or concerns email me at jebarr@brynmawr.edu. We also want to have a coffee hour, and would love info on how to do that.
Also, the Faculty Curriculum Committee wrote a one page response to plenary resolution regarding the Credit/No Credit option at Bryn Mawr. They want to keep working on it and kept discussing it. So if any student wants to continue this discussion into next year, please let me know.
New Business:
No new business.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:01 PM.