Emma W-B called the meeting to order at 7:09 Pm.
Roll Call:
Present: Emma W-B ’11, Sophie Papavizas ’11, Tanya Kaur ’10, Laurel Lemon ’11, Katherine Redford ’10, Colleen Haley ’11, Sarah Sherman ’11, Hannah Curry-McDougald ’10, Jacqueline Levin ’10, Nga Nguyen ‘11, Julia Fahl ‘12, Elisa Hernandez Landeverde ‘10, MJ Crookes ‘10, Simran Singh ‘10, Shannon Ryan ‘10, Ashton Shaffer ‘11, Sadie Marlow ‘11, Sumedha Niranjan ‘11, Brittney Thornbury ‘11, Susie Kim ‘11, Clair Smith ‘12, Jennifer Savage ‘12, Blair Smith ‘12, Katherine Lewis ‘12, Samantha Newman-O-Gara ‘12, Jenny Nam ‘12, Sophia Abboud ‘12, Antara Tulsyan ‘12, Emily Tafaro ‘12, Elle Works ‘10, Caitlin Evans ‘11, Annalee Garrity ‘11, Kali Graham ‘10.
Excused: Caroline Heffernan ‘10, Taline Cox ‘10, Adelyn Kishbaugh ‘12, Hildi Greenberg ‘11, Rachel Brody ‘11, Sarah Capasso ‘11.
Unexcused: Reggie Kukola ‘10, Marisa Franz ‘10, Anagha Kumar ‘11, Ean Oesterle ‘10, Liana Donahue ‘12, Meghan Mahoney ‘10, Shanna Fricklas ‘11, Alexandra Ashley ‘12, Julie O’Neil ‘10, Augusta Irele ‘10.
Introductions:
Emma W-B: Hi, I’m Emma Wiesenski-Barker and I’m a Physics and Psych major, and I live in Merion.
Sophie Papavizas: Hi, I’m Sophie Papavizas and I’m an Economics major and I live in Pem East.
Katherine Redford: Hi, I’m Katherine Redford, and I’m a Chemistry major, and I’m an HA on Rock 2nd 2nd.
Tanya Kaur: Hi I’m Tanya Kaur and I’m a Political Science major and I live in Pem West.
Laurel Lemon: Hi, I’m Laurel Lemon and I’m an Anthropology major and I live in Pem East.
Announcements
Your Two Cents
SGA Family Tree:
(in reference to the SGA family tree on the Powerpoint)
Emma W-B ‘11: Top of the flow chart is the exec board—the five of us that are sitting in front of you. The next group you see are the 5 members in large who don’t represent a particular group, but represent all of you and you can go to them for any questions. The next group is the dorm presidents who you can approach in your dorm if you have any questions about SGA. We also have individuals that represent different aspects of campus—like athletic association, OIA representative, etc.
SGA Slang—There is a lot of specific language used at SGA meetings. Here’s an overview. In addition, we will be putting all this information up on the website so you can access it there.
SGA Goals in a Group Discussion:
Emma W-B ‘11: If everyone can break up in smaller groups we will be talking about the following questions in the groups:
1. What are your goals for your position within SGA? What are your expectations from SGA this semester?
2. What are your goals for SGA as a whole?
3. What do you see as the top three most important areas for SGA to address?
Emma W-B ‘11: If we could have someone report back from each of the groups.
Group 1:
Colleen Haley ’11: Goals for SGA Position were position specific, but there was a lot of wanting to create an inclusive and connected community. Goals for SGA as a whole: we want to make Quorum at Plenary, have more campus awareness and more accountability with budgets. In terms of three areas: we had a lot of opinions on the changes, we think SGA should liaise between students and administration, and also get feedback and input to administration about student experience, for example on health center hours, and budgeting.
Group 2:
Hannah Curry Mc-Dougald ’10: Goals for SGA Position were position specific as well. In terms of the three areas, goals for SGA: having one T-shirt for both plenaries, having quorum at plenary. The 125th anniversary of the college is coming up, so planning and getting involved with that. Also, accessibility to student meeting spaces, for example Taylor, is still an issue.
Group 3:
Celia Turner ’10: Goals for SGA Position were position specific. Goals for SGA: having Goals that are set and met, having more direction, and also the creation of umbrella organizations. For areas for SGA to address: Keeping the budget coherent and relevant and having SGA be a forum for current events such as the party policy, what’s happening at Haverford, etc.
Group 4:
Samantha Newman ’12: Goals for SGA Position were position specific. Our goals for SGA are getting frosh involved in SGA, as well as figuring out the general school budget—where is my tuition going, etc.
Group 5:
Sadie Marlow ’11: We had a lot of Frosh in our group which was really great and we talked about what SGA has done in the past. Goals for SGA positions were also position specific.
Kali Graham ’10: In terms of SGA goals as a whole: we want SGA to be more accessible for the community, it seems like it’s very exclusive, let’s make it more inclusive. Also talk to the Dorm Leadership Team about getting the word about what’s going on in SGA.
Sadie Marlow ’11: In terms of 3 specific areas: Maintaining administration and student communication; Budgeting is very important; Making new people feel welcome; Having dorms compete to see how many people can come to SGA as community members and can get some sort of prize.
Emma W-B ‘11: Just so you know we as SGA exec board members recognize that a lot of time we talk about just SGA and ourselves, so we want that to change and have more community members involved.
Old Business:
Sadie Marlow ’11: What did we decide about the newspapers?
Laurel Lemon ’11: Starting next week there will be more newspapers in Erdman because there seem to be not enough. Are there any other concerns or questions?
Sophie Papavizas ’11: So last Plenary we decided to make Student Committee Curriculum an appointed position. I realize that some people ran for it in their dorm—I’m sorry but that’s a mistake. I’ll let you all know when that round of appointments begins in case you’re still interested.
New Business:
Sophie Papavizas ’11: PLENARY SEPTEMBER 27. MARK YOUR CALENDARS SUNDAY SEPT 27 AT GOODHART. Are there any plenary related questions?
Simran Singh ’10: When is there going to be a plenary information session as to how to write a plenary resolution?
Sophia Papavizas ’11: We will let you know via email in the following week.
Elle Works ’10: What are we going to do to make Goodhart more comfortable for Plenary?
Shannon Ryan ’10: I think that Goodhart only has space for Quorum, and that could get very uncomfortable.
Sarah Sherman ’11: Does that include the balcony?
Emma W-B ’11: I’m going to get exact numbers from the Registrar, but there is enough space for students over Quorum.
Simran Singh ’10: What about the gym?
Emma W-B ’11: The gym has a variety of accessibility and logistical issues.
Sophie Papavizas ’11: Any other questions/comments?
Hannah Curry-McDougald ’10: I just want to reiterate my t-shirt idea.
Laurel Lemon ’11: A few of you may have noticed that Philly Car Share is not here anymore; they have removed all their locations from Suburban locations and now it’s only in center city. So we have a new company—Zip Car—that is also a car share company and it wants to gauge interest at Bryn Mawr. The numbers for this are as follows: $8/hr (weekday) $9/hr (weekend) or $66 (per weekday), $72/day (weekend), as well as $35 annual membership fee.
Blair Smith ‘12: Who used Philly Car Share?
Colleen Haley ‘11: I think $35 Annual Membership Fee is a lot and will detract students.
Sadie Marlow ‘11: I used to be a member of Philly Car Share, and that used to be $16 a month so the zipcar sounds really good.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: This is something that we should talk to other students about before we talk about it here—so if representatives can send out emails and find out what the student population feels, that might be a more productive conversation.
Laurel Lemon ’11: There is also a $1500 guarantor fee that Bryn Mawr needs to commit to per car for the first 6 months, meaning if students don’t use this service, we need to pay $1500/month per car.
Katherine Redford ’10: Can we get this and then cancel?
Colleen Hayley ’11: Get a tally at the front door?
Laurel Lemon ’11: No, it’s a two-year contract. Any other questions?
Simran Singh ’10: Can you send me an email with this information so I can send it to my constituents?
Laurel Lemon ’11: Sure.
Emma W-B adjourned the meeting at 8:24 PM.