Emma W-B called the meeting to order at 7:09.
Roll Call:
Excused Absences: Amanda King ’10, Taline Cox ’10, Fabiola Decius ‘10
Unexcused Absences: Nina Jankowicz ’11, Antonia Kerle ’11, Jasmine Howell ’11, Katie Dahl ’11, Rachel Brody ’11, Arielle Paris-Hoshour ’11, Rachel Awkward ’10, Marisa Franz ’10, Reggie Kulkola ‘11
Community Members: Elizabeth Held ’12, Katherine Bakke ’11, Samantha Salazar ’11, Sarah Moser ’12, Julia Aranda ’11, Kate Gould ’11, Evan Schneider ’10, Katie Kellom ’09, Erica Seaborne ’09, Ashley Madden ’09, Madeleine Lowenthal ’12, Emily Reuman ’11, Ruilin Xu ’11, Kate Grant ’12, Rebecca Sanders ’12, Sue Yee Chen ’12, Amanda Loo ’12, Sharan K. Mehta ’12, Lydia Bello ’12, Moira Nadal ’10, Caroline Kelly ’12, Nadia Khalid ’12, Praise Agu ’12, Young Jung Cho ‘12
Announcements:
Your Two Cents:
Steph Hilton ’09: Our tea last week was great, off the heezy fo’ sheezy. We talked about alcohol awareness. Even if you didn’t go I hope you are aware of the alcohol use that will be occurring in the upcoming festivities. Thanks. Okay Bye.
Emily Reuman ’11: I wanted to know what everyone thought about the idea of having a Greens representative within SGA.
Katherin Battan ‘11: Since there are already Recycling Committee Co-heads could their position encompass responsibilities for Greens?
Emily Reuman ’11: Sure but the Recycling Co-head position aren’t voting positions they are appointed positions.
Amanda Cieglewski ’09: I think this sets an awkward precedent for other clubs to get representation in SGA and it’s a slippery slope.
Julia Fahl ’11: What would the Greens representative do that the Recycling Committee Co-head doesn’t do?
Emily Reuman ’11: They would act as a liason and could be representative of campus views about Green issues. Currently Greens Presidents can only represent the views of club members not the entire campus.
Jackie Levin ’10: Could we possibly talk to the Haverford Council Greens People-I think they have a representative, can we find out if it is feasible or possible?
Emily Reuman ’11: Absolutely
Moira Nadal ’10: Lydia Bello ’12, and I were just appointed to the Landscape committee and this past weekend we met with the Board of Trustees as part of our role. And we deal with issues of compost, and green buildings on campus so we could potentially help with this.
Katie Kellom ’09: I think it’s an interesting idea, and I don’t have a pro/con opinion on it but I think having a vote is possible either through this period (Your Two Cents) or through requesting time to talk to the entire student body through SGA by emailing sga@brynmawr.edu.
Emily Reuman ’11: Right, okay, thank you.
Sadie Marlow ’11, Sarah Moser ’12: This Saturday is the last rugby game of the semester. We will all be wearing prom dresses and playing rugby-it’s still a real game but it’ll be fun to watch. It’s going to be at the Graduate School of Social Work. So come see us play!
Sam Salazaar ’11: This week is a big arts week for us, and so it would be awesome if we could get support for the arts students. Key Card access will be given to all students from Thursday 6-8, and 7:30-10.
Rodline Louijeune ’11, Julia Fahl ’11: This past weekend we had a Board of Trustees meeting and they did a couple of things. The gym’s structure will be changing. Goodhart is on schedule and under-budget. So we have an extra $5,000. Goodhart will be done by August 15. In the next five years, they will be revamping Pem Arch in some way-we don’t really have details yet.
Rodline Louijeune ’11: What problems do you guys have on campus in relation to Information Services?
Someone in Audience: Wireless on campus green spots.
Appointments Announcements:
Sophie Papavizas ’11: This week I’m announcing all the new appointed positions from this round. On the Elections Board we have Laurel Lemon, Allyson Schmieder, and Sue Yee Chen. On the Student Curriculum Committee we have Sarah Theobald, Nadia Khalid, and Cea Weaver. On the Student Finance Committee we have Anagha Kumar, Madeleine Lowenthal, Ruilin Xu, Praise Agu, Laura Costanzo and Grace Kung. The Alternative Concert Series Co-Heads are Sarah Moser and Samantha Salazar. On the Alternative Concerts Series Committee we have Sharon Kaziunas, Farah Rishi, Sara Chang, Caroline Kelly, Kate Grant, and Sarah Cooper. The Film Series Head is Sarah Sheplock. On the Film Series Committee we have Amanda Loo, Lena Barnard, Sarah Elias, Rachel Wilson and Jaselle Yrizarry-Pabon. The Student Landscaping Reps are Moira Nadal and Lydia Bello. Also, the Plenary Committee is being run in an emergency round. Applications are due Monday at 5 pm.
Year Summary:
Emma W-B ’11: So we have a year summary of what we’ve done this year. This year, SGA managed to get a lot done. We found and elected two presidents, along with passing several plenary resolutions that affect the whole campus, like the resolution that released priority numbers for room draw a week early. SGA continued to encourage community involvement between the Representative Council and the student body. Another important achievement for SGA this year was increasing SGA dues by $50, which means that come next semester many clubs will have increased budgets and, hopefully, fewer complaints about the Student Finance Committee. The passing of Special Events like the Elections Party and Jessica Valenti allowed students who do not normally participate in SGA to get involved and inspire others about Bryn Mawr’s Self Governance. This year SGA has really taken a self-reflective look, making a conscious choice to include its constituency in all of its decision-making processes. We, the Exec Board, have created the agendas for weekly meetings through a combination of suggestions and comments from previous meetings and at the request of community members. Comments and questions raised at meetings have resulted in direct action, through the initial steps being taken to create an Arts Association and through the distribution of Representation in SGA survey. Transparency has been another issue for SGA in the past, and this year SGA has made its inner-workings as transparent as possible, hosting the SGA 101 meeting that covered the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of SGA. Additionally, access and awareness of SGA has been an issue that SGA has combated through weekly physical and electronic dissemination of minutes and Mawrk Notes. Finally, the website has been added to the current students’ page for easier accessibility and to facilitate understanding and awareness of SGA’s activities. In the 2008-2009 School Year, the Appointments Committee appointed over 50 people to 19 committees. After a resolution at Spring Plenary 2008, the Sustainable Food Committee was appointed for the first time to work with dining services to find ways to make dining on this campus more sustainable. In the fall of 2008, another position was added, the Film Series Committee to aid the Film Series Head in choosing and screening films as part of the film series. Also, an Alumnae Student Committee was appointed to help with alumnae events surrounding the inauguration of President McAuliffe. In conjunction with the Elections Co-Heads, two students were selected to serve the new Dean of Student Affairs Search Committee. The selection followed the same format as for the student rep on the Presidential Search Committee. Student were interviewed and then chosen to move on to an election. As of Spring Plenary 2009, the Appointments Committee added four positions to its April Round. Student Curriculum Committee, previously a dorm election, Plenary Committee, previously appointed in the late fall, Alternative Concert Series Committee, created to add woman power to the Alternative Concert Series, and Student Landscaping Rep, which had previously been appointed but not for a year or two. In consultation with the outgoing Student Curriculum Committee, three positions on SCC will be appointed in the April round and three in the September round in order to have a committee that can both start working over the summer but is representative of all four classes. Plenary Committee now has a more substantial role and will focus on keeping our Constitution up to date. In response to overwhelming interest and the desire for a better Alternative Concert Series, the Appointments Committee also appointed an Alternative Concert Series Committee of six people to aid the ACS Co-Heads. Two student representatives for Landscaping were appointed and attended a meeting yesterday with the Landscaping Advisory Group, a subcommittee of the Board of Trustees. The pair will continue to serve throughout the year and give a voice to students in the development of our campus landscape. Other positions appointed in the April Round included Recycling Committee Co-Heads, Financial Aid Advisory Board, Student Finance Committee, Elections Board, Film Series Head and Film Series Committee. SGA Webmistress was open but had no applicants. It will be run again in the fall. The Honor Board started thinking about abstracts, and whether or not the community found them satisfactory. They also looked at them in comparison to Haverford’s abstracts. Haverford releases their abstract about two weeks after a case is heard, and they are quite lengthy. This can become complicated when a Bryn Mawr student has violated the code at Haverford. Therefore, the Honor Board plans to work with Haverford more closely in the coming academic year to see what we can do together in regards to abstracts. They’re currently beginning plans for an Honor Code appreciation day sometime next semester. Also, we’ve had a full honor board almost the entire semester, which is really exciting, and was difficult to do last year, so people are definitely getting more involved with the honor code, and we’re really excited about that. Now that the Honor Board has the new blog website, they’re going to keep working with it and using it as a way to make the board more visible.
Recognition:
Emma W-B ’11: We just want to take this opportunity to thank all of you that make it out to these meetings, and to the assembly for contributing to SGA. In addition, we want to thank and recognize all the seniors who have contributed to SGA and the community over the past four years.
Old Business:
Laurel Lemon ’11: Newspapers! With the possibility of Rhoads closing would you like the newspaper in any other locations? Campus Center? Along with Erdman and Haffner?
Jackie Levine ’10: I think having them in the campus center would mean that a lot of community members and students wouldn’t get them and others might.
Laurel Lemon ‘11: What I’m pushing for is based upon the feedback I’ve gotten back from all of you which is, more NYTimes, fewer Philly Inquirer, even fewer USA Today.
Julia Fahl ‘11: What about the library?
Liz Ritchie 11: If we are keeping them in the dining halls we don’t need as many
Straw Vote
Gym : 1
Campus Center: 27
Canaday/Lusty: 2
Erdman/Haffner: 23
Run-Off
Campus Center: 23
Erdman/Haffner: 30
Emma W-B ‘11: And this can continue to evolve if we decide this isn’t what we want in the fall.
Anne Bugnaski ’10: Buzzing for Change-we had 29 people shave their head and 22 people cut their hair and give it to Locks of Love. We also raised $4,622 and we had over 50 volunteers and we had Bravo Pizza donate pizzas so it was a great event. Maybe we can make this an annual thing so thank you guys so much.
New Business:
Emma W-B ‘11: Monday Night there is going to be an additional budget meeting, 7 PM Campus Center Monday 4/27. We hope to see many of you there.
Meeting ended at 7:49 PM.