SGA 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.