February 28, 2010
SGA Minutes
7:10 – Sophie Papavizas ’11 calls the meeting to order.
Roll Call
Assembly Members Present: Simran Singh ’10, Shannon Ryan ’10, Ashton Shaffer ’11, Maddy Court ’13, Hope Wayman ’13, Caroline Heffernan ’10, Julia Fahl ’12, Malina Toza ’13, Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12, Claire Smith ’12, Madeline Velturo ’11, Taline Cox ’10, Jennifer Savage ’12, Blair Smith ’12, Sarah Kelley ’11, Zandra Martinez ’11, Miranda Hansen-Hunt ’11, Mae Carlson ’12, Isabel Donlon ’12, Emily Tafaro ’12, Elle Works ’10, Meghan Mahoney ’10, Hildi Greenberg ’10, Rachel Brody ’11, Caitlin Evans ’10, Eileen Downs ’10, Alexandra Ashley ’11, Kali Graham ’10, Julie O’Neil ’10, Reggie Kukola ’10, Marisa Franz ’10, Sara Jane Rodgers ’13, Colleen Haley ’11, Sarah Sherman ’11.
Excused Assembly Members: Liana Donahue ’12, Sophia Abboud ’12, Sophie Balis-Harris ’12, Jill Settlemyer ‘10
Unexcused Assembly Members: Jenny Nam, Antara Tulsyan, Alice Fisher, Annalee Garrity, Eileen Downs
Community Members Present: Hannah Curry-McDougald ’10, Kate Gould ’11, Emily Reuman ’11, Brittney Thornbury ’11, Emma Wisniewski-Barker ’11, Elizabeth Held ’12, Sarah Theobald ’12, Kendra Kelly ’13, Linet Suarez ‘13.
Announcements
Your Two Cents – None
Exec Board Intros
I’m Sung Eun (Susie) Kim, the newly elected Head of Honor Board. I am a junior chemistry major and theater minor. Fun facts about Susie: when I was little, I wanted to be Miss Korea– I dressed up & practiced my walk every day after kindergarten school. Also, my favorite piece of clothing is my Bryn Mawr Dad sweatshirt I got for myself. My position in SGA involves co-chairing Honor Board hearings with Dean Tidmarsh, our dean of UG college. These hearings are held when there has been an infraction in the academic or social Honor Code. I also acquaint newly accepted students, ie. frosh, transfers, post-bacs, to the Honor Code & how it sculpts the culture of our college. My goals during my term include working for a smooth transition with regards to the Honor Board as a new dean replaces Dean Tidmarsh and upholding the Honor Code with all it’s goodness that is trust, respect and communication.
My name is Yong Jung Cho and I am your new SGA Vice President. I am a Political Science major on a pre-med track and my expected year of graduation is 2012. I look forward to listening and addressing the concerns of the Association, making SGA more personal so that more students realize the importance of our right of self governance. I am also determined to increasing accountability, accessibility and efficiency. Fun Fact: I have recently embraced the vegetarian diet.
Hi everyone! I’m Laurel Lemon and I am your newly re-elected Treasurer. I am a junior Anthropology major from Thomas, West Virginia. I love being outdoors, cooking, and randomly doing the splits. As SGA Treasurer, I hope to work closely with the Haverford Treasurers in order to facilitate a better budgeting process that is fairer and simpler on both campuses. I also plan on taking many of the records that exist in SGA House and putting them in Excel to create more information on the trends of club requests and how much is spent.
I’m Julia, a junior East Asian Studies major. I’m from San Francisco. One of the goals I would like to achieve this year as Secretary is to make the Constitution and minutes more readable online. A fun fact about me: I watch online TV like it’s my job.
Hello. My name is Sophie Papavizas and I am an economics major from Arlington, Virginia. My fun fact is that I love riding the train and reading about rail networks. As president, I’m planning on working to encourage real community issues to be brought up at SGA meetings. I hope to introduce a committee structure to the Assembly and reaching out to student organizations to get real community issues presented. I would like to continue to work on ways SGA can serve and support the arts community at Bryn Mawr. In light of events of the past year coupled with long held frustrations about Bryn Mawr’s social scence, I would like to look at ways SGA supports students wishing to plan parties to help make their lives easier during the planning process and also to make parties safer at the same time.
Information Services –Janet Scannell, David Schlich
Printing Update
Janet Scannell: Hi, we’re here with some data to share about printing, and some things we are going to do about Information Services. We printed about 5 million pages in the last academic year, which is about 720 trees. That is a lot of trees, and a lot of money for things like paper and toner. Last year during the Community Budgeting Process, one thing we selected to reduce spending on was on printing and we are also trying to be more green. The introduction of Go Print, which is where you see what you are printing, and have to hit release to print anything was supposed to encourage less printing, but that did not turn out to be the case. This Fall’s printing was 10% higer than the amount printed last Fall. The change in making color printing also had a negative effect. Go Print did not work out the way Information Services thought it would.
We’ve done an analysis of how many pages we’re printing, and the top 25% of users are printing about 60% of paper, so there is a curve. The top 10% print 35% of the paper. There are some things we should talk about as a community: How do we encourage users to print less? Where does the conversation need to go from here? We want to share these ideas throughout the semester.
Sophie: Move to questions
Colleen Haley ’11: I have a lot to say about this issue. My personal experience is that Sociology equals 10 times more printing for that single class than all my other ones. Printing is very major specific. Also, a big issue is how much is being double printed. More printers might lead to less printing, because users are waiting less time to print. Printers by dorm like at Swat might be a good idea. If we can decrease the waiting time, there will be less double printing. I’ve gone to the library and seen the same document printed 5 times just sitting on the table in library. People aren’t going in at 3am to print when no one else is there. Charging to print period, would be a rough, unfair economic advantage, students struggling to pay for things, can’t budget for something that used to be free.
Hildi Greenberg ’10: I’m an English major, and because of economy professors have been assigning less books, and more reading on blackboard. Professors should do readers we have to pay for, which would give the copy center business. All the required readings would be in once place, and then everything is there. Plus, we would have the readings at beginning of the semester.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: Can you track what’s being printed most? Are they readings from blackboard? As an English major I also think readers would be helpful. Readings tend to add up over the semester to hundreds of pages.
David Schlich: Sometimes we can tell what is being printed and sometimes we can’t.
Hannah CurryMcDougald ’10: Do these printing statistics only include undergraduates or graduate students as well?
Janet: We are going to try and look at who’s printing
Ashton Shaffer ’11: How is free color printing cutting back?
Janet: This was an experiment for the software. We didn’t expect usage to double. It’s more of problem than we thought.
Maddy Court ’13: It seems like these are drastic measures for something that hasn’t been fully assessed. OneNote doesn’t work for everyone. I don’t think we should be so drastic.
Janet-we’ve reached out to greens, it’s a lot of paper
Colleen Haley ’11: This might just be a rumor, but I heard that the basement computers in canaday were being used by the graduate students, who were mass printing to avoid being charged.
Janet: They are not being charged through us. We weren’t charging, if there is a fee, we haven’t gotten any money from them.
Alexandra Ashley ’11: There is a thing that pops up so that sometimes printing double happens accidentally. The system now is not so good. I think having more printers would be amazing. It sucks when they are broken or jammed.
Janet: Question, would anyone object to moving printers from Guild to the library?
Blair Smith ’12: People have abandoned Guild, because they can’t connect to the wireless printing.
Julie O’Neil ’10: You asked what demographics are printing the most, seniors are printing more, non-science majors are printing more. I’m probably printing more. The root of the problem might not be how much, but what we’re actually printing. I have to show up to class with my readings, not articles from peoplemag.com.
Janet: At work I really encourage people to read resumes online, instead of printing them out, it’s a ridiculous amount of paper. We have to encourage behavior changes.
Sophie: You said you were interested in volunteers to help monitor the printing right?
Janet: Yes, we are very interested in volunteers. We have data from other schools, and we don’t want to charge unnecessarily we would like other options, but it needs to be a group strategy.
Blair Smith ’12: Putting readings on reserve might be a good idea, for classes with like 600 pages of reading a week.
Julia Fahl ’12: I would discourage people to read online, 90 percent of students might have computers, but I don’t feel comfortable reading online, I need to look at what I’ve highlighted. I like to look at my work.
Madeline Velturo ’11: Why has printing gone up since last year?
Blair Smith ’11: Increase in students
Janet: Go print gave us data we didn’t have before, we used to only have general knowledge like reams purchased. We also are looking at how much readings have increased on blackboard. We can only see the changes through gigabytes, not by number of pages.
Colleen Haley ’11: I really think crutch of problem is double printing. If we could eliminate that it would be great. Straw vote-does anyone think double printing has increased? We need a solution.
Julia Fahl: The frantic nature of Canaday has cramped my studying style. All those people there makes it so I can’t study there anymore.
Colleen Haley ’11: One working computer in Guild might be helpful since the wireless doesn’t always work.
Taline Cox ’10: Another problem with reading online is the scanning format is often inconvenient. Having to read sideways, or rotating each page is annoying.
Susie Kim ’11: Going off what Alexandra Ashley said, we need to standardize double sided printing, because sometimes, at least in Carpenter the paper doesn’t print double sided.
Janet: That shouldn’t be happening, the default is set to print double sided. You should send an email to have them help switch to double sided.
David: You should email help desk to fix any problems
Janet: Please be specific about which computer you’re using when you email to ask for help
Ashton Shaffer ’11: You gave us lots of figures, how does Bryn Mawr stand in comparison to other schools? Are we printing way more or way less?
Janet: I don’t have those numbers, but I have colleagues I could ask. They have statistics from other schools to know what they’ve been doing. We can ask. Based on what they’ve said, we’re either the same or a little more.
David: We’re not less, but not hugely more.
Janet: Printing for groups or offices can also be a problem, maybe we can have them submit a printing budget. Professors have added more reading since it’s ‘free’ but it’s not. Just something to ponder.
Sophie: How many people do you want on a volunteer committee?
Janet: 4 to 5 people would be great
Sophie: We were thinking members of assembly could volunteer, but maybe community members want to as well. Is there anyone here who wants to serve on printing committee?
Janet: We can start with more, and then work out schedules.
Sophie: Thanks for coming, if anyone has questions, can they contact you?
Janet: Sure. Or they can contact Elliot Shore, who is the head of Information Services. Thanks so much
Plenary
Sophie: The meeting after break is going to be a plenary resolution wrap up, with presenters here to talk about their resolutions and give us some updates on what’s happening with them so far. I’m hoping to get reactions on Plenary the event now. Mostly about our inability to reach quorum.
Colleen Haley ’11: I think one reason was that nobody felt the need to have voice heard, there weren’t any really controversial resolutions.
Blair Smith ’12: Serving warm food and lunch might increase people coming.
Hildi Greenberg ’10: To go off that, I know they used to have hot sandwiches, give us something that’s not a cold bagel.
Maddy Court ’13: There wasn’t lunch, how are we surprised people left? Charging $2.50 for a slice of pizza, of course people left.
Sophie: Aside from food, are there other comments?
Taline Cox ’10: I know setting up is important, but the Sunday after hell week is exhausting, people feel the need to sleep in. Starting later might get more people to come.
Linet Suarez ’13: If we inform people of quorum that might help. As a freshman, I didn’t know, so when I was texting my friends, I didn’t have a number to give them.
Julia Fahl ’12: I know we’re not talking about food, but it’s an important issue. In my dorm, people felt burned by the lack of food. Can we get dining services here, to tell them this is something we need? Lets talk to them.
Sophie: Straw vote – if there was more food, would we have quorum? (Majority: Yes) I’m calling the meeting back to order. Is that the top problem?
Colleen Haley ’11: If we started later and did not serve lunch that would be top problem, if we start later, and hold everyone by the balls for lunch, then everyone will show up. People who don’t go to Plenary think they can just wait a few hours for lunch and just skip breakfast.
Shannon Ryan ’10: People who come at 10 don’t have anything to do for an hour. If we start at 11 or 12 we might have more people.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: Do we have to have plenary after hell week? Freshmen on my hall felt overwhelmed and didn’t want to go, I was there because I had to count and still felt overwhelmed as a sophomore. A backlog of work makes it hard to attend also.
Sophie: Traditionally Plenary is held that weekend.
Taline Cox ’10: If we push it back, everyone has midterms later.
Elle Works ’10: Historically, I remember attendance after plenary was good, and quorum was easy to get. Having the HAs and customs people push people to attend, as it’s ‘our last one’. Also because of the renovations and the no food rule, it makes it hard for people to stay. If we give people reasons to be there they’ll show up.
Emily R ’11: I think a major push on the HAs and customs people part, to tell people is important.
Sophie: Final speaking order
Hannah Curry-McDougald ‘10: I agree with Elle, Plenary on same week as Hell Week, makes everyone remember why they love Bryn Mawr. Not being allowed to eat is a problem. As a freshman and sophomore I would stockpile food to snack on. I was snapping at people because I couldn’t eat this time.
Sophie: Did you not have a 2nd counter?
Hannah Curry-McDougald ‘10: The balcony mike no back up.
Madeline Velturo ’11: I was thinking if we make rules more clear for mikes, so there aren’t repeats on things like the pro mikes. What happened to professors no giving homework?
Sophie: Professors should be aware of Plenary, through letters we’ve sent them. The only way we know they’re assigning homework is if you tell us, and we email them with anger.
Blair Smith ’12: If we remind people that Plenary is one of our oldest traditions, maybe more of them would attend.
Julia Fahl ’12: 2 points. What about moving plenary back to the gym? The gym had the feel of everyone together on floor, time for performances, and addressed the issue of eating. If not the in the gym where else? My second point is that making HAs and customs people push attending Plenary is wrong. As reps it’s our job to remind people to come to Plenary.
Sophie: Point of Information – the only places to fit quorum are the gym and Goodhart.
Caroline Heffernan ’10: Point of Information – the gym is under construction.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: Is there something we can solve unless people take initiative. People say they won’t show up until later because they know we won’t get quorum for an hour. If we can start when to say start that would solve this problem. How long are we keeping up the no food in Goodhart situation? Is that a long-term plan?
Sophie: No idea, there is no point person for rules about Goodhart.
Elizbeth Held ’12: Point of Information – Katherine Shapiro is drafting a set of Goodhart guidelines to give students.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: What about a visual ballot system? The health center referendum was obviously passing, and we still had to count all those votes. Doesn’t Haverford have something like that?
Elizabeth Held ’12: Point of Information – Haverford does use a visual ballot system.
Taline Cox ’10: I don’t know what happened, maybe when Tanya was pres, we alternated, and for things like voting to extend time, we could do a visual count. Was that only for that plenary? Why didn’t we do it this time?
Sophie: I can check on what the procedure is.
Marisa Franz ’10: This is sort of specific, but if you can’t bring in food, can people who aren’t on meal plan get meals somehow?
Sophie: We can look into that. If assembly members email us, we’re supposed to pay for their meals.
Meghan Mahoney ’10: This might be a radical idea, but bear with me. I was talking to my friends about this, and maybe implementing a jury duty type thing, so for your 8 plenaries at Bryn Mawr, maybe you only have attend 4. I don’t know how it would work, but that might be something to think about.
Julia Fahl ’12: I think that goes against ideal of Plenary. It’s supposed to be direct democracy. It should be our goal to create desire for students to attend.
Meghan Mahoney ’10: I fully agree, but waiting 4 hours for 400 girls to vote, at that point democracy doesn’t matter. If you want to go, and aren’t required, then go.
Julie O’Neil ’10: I was just going to add a problem but not solution. I feel like in the past, we’ve spent so much time doing technical things, waiting for quorum, but I didn’t see anyone have a long substantive conversation about any resolution.
SGA Transparency
Sophie: Email more questions/ideas, to sga@brynmawr.edu. Yong Jung is going to be running appointments to form a committee to get involved. Moving on to our next item on the agenda. We’re thinking about Mawrk notes, and how they don’t work. Instead using the current note format, we’re thinking about switching to more of a newsletter format. The minutes don’t reflect all that SGA does, and it’s important for the community to know about what Assembly members are doing.
Marisa Franz ’10: Point of Information – Our meetings are confidential. How would that work?
Sophie: I’ve written a Plenary-like resolution to further explain. This new format isn’t supposed to be a burden or requirement. I’ll take questions.
Blair Smith ’12: How long would this take to get to us? As dorm president it takes awhile to get these, and then they’re late. What would the time frame be?
Sophie: The idea is that dorm presidents wouldn’t have to post this new version.
Caitlin Evans ’10: The only real problem with the current format is distribution, not really content. I’ve never gotten them as president. They aren’t sent to everyone who needs them.
Blair Smith ’12: Residents want Mawrk notes in bathrooms, and really like them there.
Sophie: We could try to see if that works. To a lot of people the mintues apply to their job.
Mae Carlson ’12: In this new situation would the people who want to submit something, be submitting it themselves? As member at large, I feel weird paraphrasing what other people have said.
Sophie: People would be submitting what they want.
Blair Smith ’12: Isn’t this a lot of what’s in announcements?
Sophie: Only if they submit to the announcements.
Simran Singh ’10: Why can’t she just write down announcements?
Sophie: If it’s not in the announcements, then it wouldn’t get in. For example, we go to budget meetings, and the newsletter would be a good way to print statistics.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: Other than that, any annoucnments automatically go into the minutes, I’m just wondering is there a reason we can’t just tweak the current format instead of starting from scratch?
Marisa Franz ’10: Can we use the SGA blog to post these subsection updates in light of the printing discussion we just had? Maybe assembly members could have access to blog.
Sophie: We didn’t consider that. We’ll think about it.
Mae Carlson ’12: I don’t understand why you don’t just bring this stuff up at meetings when you want to share.
Hannah Curry-McDougald ’10: I think it’s a great idea. I made an announcement about election results, but only parts of it were printed in Bi-co. It’s not point of these meetings to share who won the elections with just these 40 people.
Sophie: All in favor of trying out new newsletter for 3 weeks (Passed)
Old Business
Simran Singh ’10: Was voting on bBlackboard better than using surveymonkey?
Hannah Curry-McDougald ’10: The way I set up Blackboard, was so students could only vote once, which was the point, but because of the way a link was posted when people clicked away they couldn’t get back to finish voting. People who couldn’t vote then didn’t email me their votes. There were about 250 valid votes. More than 400 people tried, but weren’t entirely successful. I will be working with Sarah to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Sophie: Moving on to new business.
New Business
Sophie: If you walked in through the front, which you probably did, then you probably noticed that the SGA board isn’t being used. Can we have some volunteers to figure out what to do with it?
Taline Cox ’10: Last spring we took pictures, what happened to those?
Sarah Kelley ’11: We started too late, and ran out of time. We decided to do it in April and then just never finished.
Meeting ended 8:28