7:10 – Sophie Papavizas ’11 calls the meeting to order
Roll Call
Assembly Members Present: Ashton Shaffer ’11, Liana Donahue ’12, Maddy Court ’13, Hope Wayman ’13, Caroline Heffernan ’10, Malina Toza ’13, Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12, Claire Smith ’12, Madeline Vellturo ’11, Taline Cox ’10, Jennifer Savage ’12, Blair Smith ’12, Sarah Kelley ’11, Zandra Martinez ’11, Sophia Abboud ’12, Antara Tulsyan ’12, Miranda Hansen-Hunt ’11, Mae Carlson ’12, Isabel Donlon ’12, Alice Fisher ’13, Mary Margaret Peebles ’13, Saba Qadir ’13, Emily Tafaro ’12, Hildi Greenberg ’10, Rachel Brody ’11, Sophie Balis-Harris ’12, Eileen Downs ’10, Alexandra Ashley ’11, Annalee Garrity ’11, Kali Graham ’10, Julie O’Neil ’10, Reggie Kukola ’10, Marisa Franz ’10, Sarah Sherman ‘11
Assembly Members Absent: Simran Singh ’10, Shannon Ryan ’10, Julia Fahl ’12, Jenny Nam ’12, Ellen Butler ’13, Elle Works ’10, Meghan Mahoney ’10, Augusta Irele ’10, Caitlin Evans ’10, Sara Jane Rodgers ’13, Colleen Haley ‘11
Community Members Present: Aki Synder ’11, Aya Martin Seaver ’12, Jess Martzall, Caroline Kenward ‘12, Sarah Moser ’12, Hannah Roos ’12, Liz Ritchie ’11, Sam Salazar ‘11
Announcements
Jennifer Savage ’12: There’s going to be a Bouncer Program open forum to see what people want this Thursday at 8. Yesterday we met with Haverford’s Quaker Bouncer to talk about their program and we also elected our co-heads, who are Blair Smith and myself.
Sarah Kelley ’11: I am pleased to announce the results from this past round of elections. Thank you to everyone who ran and all those who voted! We had 413 students vote in this round of elections!
ResCo Heads: Katie Dahl and Liz Ritchie
Curriculum Co Heads: Miranda Hansen-Hunt and Aki Snyder
Traditions Mistresses: Blair Smith and Jen Savage
Haverford Representative: Priya Gupta
Member at Large: Mary Margaret Peebles
2011 Class Presidents: Lindsey Turr and Sam Salazar
2011 Songsmistress: Julia Lebouvier
2012 Class President: Heather Taddonio
2012 Songsmistress: Roldine Richard
2013 Class President: Kyle Aguilar and Akshyeta Suryanarayan
2013 Songsmistress: Kersti Francis
HB 2011: Jen Bonczar, Sadie Marlow, and Madison Schaeffer
HB 2012: Mary Zaborskis
HB 2013 2yr: Susan Gao
HB 2013 1 yr: Beth Wiseman
Zandra Martinez ’11 and Mae Carlson ’12: We just changed the question on SGA board to:“What issue would you like to see SGA address?” We got some really good responses from the last topic we had up, so please tell your friends to contribute, contribute yourselves. We’re hoping to talk about what people have written soon. Email armartinez@bmc or mfcarlson@bmc if you have any suggestions about what to put up next.
Liana Donahue ’12: Class t-shirts should be here soon. There’s been some keychain drama recently, so I just want to let everyone know that there are no extra key chains. There’s no extra funding for keychains, which is something we should think about for the coming years. We won’t be ordering new key chains. We’re going to be having a cupcake decorating tea in 2 weeks.
Yong Jung Cho ’12: I have a couple of Appointments updates. Over 40 people applied for positions, which is really great. I’ve also updated the blog so there’s a new Appointments tab that’s really great. We’re going to have emergency appointments for some positions.
If you were unable to submit an application because the week of April 2nd was ABSOLUTELY CRAZY, but still want to develop leadership skills by being involved in SGA…
YOU STILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY!
The Appointments Committee will be accepting applications until 5pm, April 16!
The positions available are:
Financial Aid Advisory Board- 3positions
Plenary Committee- 3 positions
Elections Board- 3 positions
In non-Appointments news, there’s going to be an X Factor panel tomorrow in the Dorothy Vernon Room in Haffner.
Sophie: Next week is Big Cheese forum, which will hopefully bring lots of community members. President McAuliffe, Dean Tidmarsh, John Griffith, the school’s CFO, Jerry, and Jenny Rickard will all be here to talk and answer questions. Last Wednesday we held a Town Hall on alcohol and party concerns, there was some conflict with room draw, so we’re looking into a second date to continue talking about this. We’re having another Town Hall this week about the Campus Climate Assessment, Professor Raymond Albert and Chris Macdonald-Dennis will be there to present the data from the survey and to talk about issues on campus.
Your Two Cents
Student Curriculum Committee Presentation
Marisa Franz ‘10: So over the course of this year and last year, we’ve been working on changing curriculum with the faculty and administration, and now we’re presenting it to the students. This is just a draft and we’re open to hearing your suggestions. The new course requirements will be different intellectual approaches to learning.
Reggie Kukola ’10: Like Marisa was saying, here’s a refresher of what the current requirements are: division requirements, quantitative requirement, language requirement, and the freshmen seminar.
Marisa Franz ’10: The changes will take effect for students matriculating in 2011. There will be “Approaches to Inquiry” instead of distribution requirements students will have to take classes in these four categories: empirical investigation, critical interpretation, cross-cultural analysis, and inquiry into the past. This is a major shift from what we currently have and not every class is going to fulfill these new requirements, but there will be enough variety in classes so everyone can fulfill them. A big change to the language requirement is that it is going to be one full year only, and you can’t test out of a language. If you enter with fluency in a language, you can either begin a new language, or test into a higher level. For the Quantitative requirement, at this point there will be a test to demonstrate quantitative skills, if you pass, you’re required to take something like quantitative analysis, and if not then you can take classes to promote quantitative knowledge. Now we’re interested in answering any questions.
Katie Dahl ‘11: How are other classes in the consortium going to fulfill these new requirements?
Marisa Franz ’10: I don’t know, but it’s probably to encourage you to take Bryn Mawr classes, or you could petition to have a class accepted.
Annalee Garrity ’11: So now is it okay if you take a language and not get to the intermediate level.
Marisa Franz ’10: Yes. Now there would only be one year required for languages.
Hope Wayman ’13: So there’s no like cross listing between these new courses, you have to take one class in each?
Marisa Franz ’10: No, you have to take one from each new category.
Sarah Kelley ’11: For these 4 courses, you can’t use AP credit?
Marisa Franz ’10: No, you can’t use AP credit to fulfill these classes.
Maddy Court ’13: These categories seem really vague. Is there an actual rigid set of criteria?
Marisa Franz ’10: Not every class will be like this. Each department will list classes that might fulfill these requirements, and then they’ll be passed on to the students.
Julie O’Neil ’10: What is the new language requirement going to do to intermediate language classes?
Marisa Franz ’10: It will make them smaller, which might be more beneficial for language classes.
Sarah Kelley ’11: I was just wondering, most language departments require intermediate to go abroad, if there’s only a year requirement now, how will that be affected?
Marisa Franz ’10: That would be a departmental choice.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: I know you can’t test out of a language now, but do you get credit from like APs?
Marisa Franz ’10: I think you would still get credit, but it wouldn’t fulfill the language requirement.
Alex Ashley ’11: Not every single course is going to have one of these labels how is this going to get people to fulfill their requirements. Would you still have to be done by senior year?
Reggie Kukola ’10: I think it’s an interesting concern we can bring up.
Marisa Franz ’10: It’s not like one course a year will be labeled in a particular category each year. Everything would still have to be finished by senior year.
Eileen Downs ’10: How will class rank be affected? Who’s going to get preference getting into a class?
Marisa Franz ’10: I guess it will be on a class-by-class basis. There will be classes offered at different levels for each of the new categories.
Sarah Kelley ’11: None of these new categories seem to be writing intensive, I know that that’s what CSEM is for, even though it’s not popular.
Reggie Kukola ’10: There’s a pilot program that’s being tested now to address this issue, but we don’t’ really know what the results are going to be.
Marisa Franz ’10: The Emily Balch Seminar will still be a requirement.
Alex Ashley ’11: How will this change affect transfers?
Reggie Kukola ’10: We can ask, but they will sill have to fulfill the requirements somehow.
Marisa Franz ’10: If you have further questions, you can contact us.
Sophie: We have some visitors to talk about Bryn Mawr’s sexual assault policy:
Sexual Assault Policy
Nora Nelle: I am the Associate Director of Security at Haverford. I’ve been dealing with issues of rape and sexual assault since I was in college. Haverford has a program called The Circle, which is comprised of everyone on campus who can help support survivors. The survivors always dictate what they want to happen. At Haverford everything is kept confidential, there’s never any pressure to go to the police, but if that’s the route a survivor wants to take, we will help them in any way we can. Our big concern is that people weren’t coming forward to get help. We’ve developed a program through the Women’s Center and students are trained in every aspect of the options a survivor might want to consider. We hoped that people would be comfortable going to a peer. We know that things are happening, but they are not being reported.
Dean Tidmarsh: Bryn Mawr’s Sexual Assault policy is printed in the student handbook that everyone gets at the beginning of the year, but I think we need to give the policy a more prominent place during Customs Week, and there needs to be more discussion in general.I’ve talked with some freshmen about how similar the two school’s policies are. It’s always her choice to report an incident or not report it. The survivors have control, but many people don’t know that. We need to make the policy known to more students. Students who are trained like at Haverford would be good. We don’t have a group like that here, but it might be something to address. We’re committed to investigating reported incidents, and helping students press charges if they want. Everything is up to the student. We want to take every precaution to keep the accuser safe from the accused. We counsel students that if you want a rape kit done, you should go to the hospital, but the police will have to be notified. There are places to call if you need help and those phone numbers are printed in the handbook as well.Survivors are not required to report an assault, but we want to promote getting help and support. We also want to protect people’s privacy.
Reggie Jones: I am the Director of Counseling Services at Bryn Mawr. When someone comes to report an assault, everything is catered to the person and how they want to handle what’s happened to them. Once they come to the Health Center, we’re bound to respect confidentiality and privacy. What’s important is that students know what’s appropriate for them. There are many ways for people to get help. Things can get murky after an assault, and it takes a while to come to terms about their experience, and we support them in whatever way we can.
Mike Hill: I’m the Director of Public Safety at Bryn Mawr. Our goal is to support survivors who come to our office. If it’s a threat to the community, other things are considered, but there are lots of resources for support. My folks get trained routinely to learn about sexual assault. I really want to open it up for questions.
Tom King: I am the Director of bi-co Public Safety. Whenever we have these talks, people at Haverford walk away surprised that they can report incidents to anyone. The one thing we need to improve is that we need to make sure people know what the Sexual Assault Policy is, and that it’s survivor driven.
Mary Margaret Peebles ’13: Might it be possible to do a Wellness seminar on the policy?
Mike Hill: We do have a Wellness seminar, but it might be good to talk about reporting assaults, not just focus on safety and prevention.
Katie Dahl ’11: have you been working with HAs to give them resources and ways to support students who might need help?
Angie Sheets: We do give them resources, but there could be more. We do make sure they know what their obligations are and what their resources are. As an employee of the college, they are required to report any incidents, but they’ll keep personal information private. HAs are supposed to be an advocate and resource. They don’t go through the rigorous training they go through at Haverford though.
Sarah Kelley ’11: I have a question about the Health Center on the weekends. If the Health Center is closed, what are ways to report any incidents that might happen?
Reggie Jones: Is everyone aware of health center hours? There are services in place if a student needs help, either medical or counseling. Statistically we’ve found that the Heath Center isn’t utilized on the weekends. High usage hours of the health center are during the week. If you do need help on the weekends, you can call the Health Center and you will be directed to contact others. There is support still available.
Maddy Court ’13: What is the stance on Haverford’s mediation policy?
Dean Tidmarsh: Our mediation policy isn’t very specific, but we’ll do anything to keep people separate, which would suggest mediation isn’t really an option. Holding a Dean’s Panel is an option. In cases of sexual assault, student has option to have students on panel. We’ve committed ourselves to separating students as much as possible.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: I was wondering if making the policy more visible might help encourage students to report incidents. Maybe make something during Customs Week, like having it be a part of the talk about campus safety?
Mike Hill: I meet with freshmen during Customs Week and Wellness, but we need to make reporting options more known.
Katie Dahl ’11: Are the reported cases only on campus incidents, or incidents from anywhere?
Tom King: Statistically, the only assaults counted are the ones that happen on campus. We want to make sure there isn’t an ongoing threat to the community. If there are incidents away from campus that get reported to us, the resources are still available.
Dean Tidmarsh: We’ve had students come back from a break or something and report an assault, but we still offer them the same resources as if it had happened on campus.
Elizabeth Held ’12: Given the fact that we now have a bi-co Public Safety, is there talk about streamlining resources?
Tom King: Yes. We want to absorb the best practices from both campuses. We’re really excited about combining and coming up with better ways to address these issues.
ACS Fund
Sophie: We’re going to finish up the discussion on ACS that we started a few weeks ago.
Sam Salazar ’11: We have a little mini presentation with some ideas and plans for next semester.
Sarah Moser ’12: So just to let you know, we’re voting today on our budget for next semester.Our proposed budget is either $15,000 or $20,000. We don’t have a set list of performers yet, but these are some of the potentials we have in mind.
Sam Salazar ’11: We’re thinking about having two smaller events and one large event for fall semester. We’re also going to be sending out a survey to get ideas for what kind of artists students want to see.
Sarah Moser ’12: Also, please keep in mind that we have to rent backline to provide the right technology for bigger bands, so that money should be considered too.
Mary Margaret Peebles ’13: How much money more on top of the fees you have listed?
Sam Salazar ’11: Around $3000 to $4000 more.
Sarah Moser ’12: We might not be able to get all these groups; these are just some ideas right now.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: Is this amount of money just for fall semester?
Sam Salazar ’11: Yes. You approved $32,000 for last semester.
Rachel Brody ’11: How successful were the two concerts?
Sam Salazar ’11: The Hush Sound had around 350 people and Dar had about 250.
Sarah Moser ’12: The Dar concert sold out but there wasn’t a lot of attendance, probably because it was on Easter weekend.
Mary Margaret Peebles ’13: Can we suggest a higher number?
Laurel Lemon ’11: Not really. Only because I’m not sure how much we’re going to have for clubs and other Special Events.
Sam Salazar ’11: Is there going to be less money next year?
Laurel Lemon ’11: I don’t think so, but because this is a new method, we don’t know how much money will be able to go to other clubs. You could ask for other clubs to co-sponsor a concert if you need more money.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: I just want to say that if Laurel is worried about how budgeting is going to look, maybe we should stay conservative and see how things go. Then maybe change or increase the budget for the spring. If everyone gets what they want, then we could suggest more money for the next semester.
Sophie: Does anyone want to suggest another number to vote on? Okay so the vote will be to give ACS either $20,000, $25,000 or you can abstain.
We’ve approved a budget of $20,000 for fall semester.
We have another budget related agenda item. Laurel wants to start a discussion about changing the way we approve Special Events Funding.
Special Events Fund Discussion
Laurel Lemon ‘11: This is something that I’ve been thinking about. Whoever comes up with an event presents, and then the events happen in the same semester. I want to suggest that we have event proposals once in the fall, so there would be more time for people to plan. This past semester, we had a lot of money, and a lot of events, but attendance was affected with all these events, because of the scheduling conflicts. Dan Savage had like 350 people attend, but Boom Tic Boom only had about 40. If we just have proposals once a year, events could be more spread out.
Sam Salazar ’11: If you don’t get rid of all the money in the fall, will you let us know that the money is available, and we can have another application process?
Laurel Lemon ’11: Yes.
Sarah Sherman ’11: When would you have event applications due?
Laurel Lemon ’11: Ideally before Fall Break, maybe late September, or early October.
Sam Salazar ’11: I think if you do it in September it would be good for events that need to be contacted early.
Laurel Lemon ’11: It’s hard to get big names on short notice, and we should also consider staff people who have to work the events.
Sophie: If you think of anything else you can email Laurel. Moving on to Old Business.
Old Business
Sophie: We’re going to talk about the Posting Policy and Chalking for elections. Right now the policy doesn’t say you can’t chalk for yourself, but we’re going to have some discussion on whether or not we want to let candidates chalk for themselves.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: We have two documents that talk about posting, the Posting Policy and Elections Bylaws. We obviously allow chalking, and I think chalking for elections shouldn’t be limited by size. We should have campaign chalking remain within honor code. I think we would have to change elections bylaws, to allow chalking.
Sarah Kelley ’11: I think I’m generally in favor of chalking, because it’s visible. My only concern is that for campaigning paraphernalia, you have to include a lot of information, which is hard to include when you’re chalking. I think we would need to have some restrictions. Maybe if we just have my contact information on there that would be enough.
Marisa Franz ’10: Given a lot of the problems we’ve had relating to disqualifications and other stuff we want to avoid, wouldn’t it be easier to not do this? People tend not to follow chalking rules.
Ashton Shaffer ’11: I think you’re right in some ways. There are appropriate places to chalk I still think we should let people say “vote for me” in their campaign, it would be treated like other campaign methods, you could still be disqualified.
Sarah Sherman ’11: I don’t really have a huge opinion on this, but I haven’t really gotten anything in my mailbox for elections recently, I’m just questioning how much effort people are going to put into it even if we allow candidates to chalk.
Taline Cox ’10: So the changes to the posting policy would not affect anything else, they would only change the chalking statement?
Ashton Shaffer ’11: I think it would affect everything in the posting policy.
Sarah Moser ’12: I’m just wondering, since the time between candidates’ forum and elections isn’t very long, do you think it matters if there will be lots of leftover campaign things like chalk messages after elections are over?
Ashton Shaffer ’11: I’m not really worried about a chalking epidemic, and I don’t think saying “vote for me” will change that.
Sarah Kelley ’11: I would be okay with striking the statement about chalking in the Elections Bylaws, which would allow people to chalk for themselves, but they’ll have to include 6 points of info.
Sophie: So we’re voting now on whether we want to remove the line about chalking from the Elections Bylaws.
The motion passes.
Thank you. We’ve moved to the end of time. Is there any New Business?
New Business
8:29 – Meeting Adjourned.