SGA Minutes
7:10 – Sophie Papavizas ’11 calls the meeting to order
Roll Call
Assembly Members Present: Katie Dahl ’11, Liz Ritchie ’11, Miranda Hansen-Hunt ’11, Isidora Armentrout ’13, Jennifer Savage ’12, Blair Smith ’12, Sarah Kelley ’11, Gabby Marangell ’12, Mae Carlson ’12, Giang Tran ’11, Duong Nguyen ’13, Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12, Malina Toza ’13, Courtney Pinkerton ’12, Priya Gupta ’13, Ellen Halbach ’11, Irene Shin ’13, Sam Salazar ’11, Lindsey Turr ’11, Heather Taddonio ’12, Kyle Aguilar ’13, Akshyeta Suryanarayan ’13, Liz Kamel ’14, Hannah Smith ’14, Krista Imre ’13, Pragya Krishna ’13, Elizabeth Olecki ’12, Olivia Xia ’14, Keshia Koech ’13, Ali Raeber ’13, Hope Wayman ’13, Kate Gould ’11, Mary Margaret Peebles ’13, Jordan Cottrell ’13, Sarah Schnellbacher ’13, Tanvi Surti ’12, Sarah Abbasi ’12, Anna Perocchi ’12, Emily Zhao ’11, Vrinda Varia ’13, Naznen Rahmen ’13, Sarah Capasso ’11, Priya Saxena ’12, Katharine Woolls ’12, Sarah Henkind ’13, Tiffany Olszuk ’12, Callie Jensen ’11, Sumehda Niranjan ’11, Kerlyne Jean ‘11
Assembly Members Absent: Aki Snyder ’11, Sara Jane Rodgers ’13, Gabby Marangell ’12, Sarah Aubrey ’13, Julie Gorham ’12, Maya Sachdeva ’14, Daisy Sheng ’14, Joo Park ’11
Community Members Present: Amanda Kennedy ’13, Elizabeth Held ’12, Ariana Hall ’12, Sarah Ann Jordan ’13, Zandra Martinez ’11, Zoe Colman ’14, Emma Rosenblum ’14, Jenny Chen ’13, Amanda Beardall ’14, Madeline Vellturo ’11, Ashton Shaffer ‘11
Announcements
Katie Dahl ’11, Liz Ritchie ’11: Tonight is the first night the Campus Center is open 24/7 for a trial run. Lisa Zernicke asked that you check when you’re here so we have a better idea of when you’re using the space.
Blair Smith ‘12, Jen Savage ’12: We want to thank everyone who came to and helped with Lantern Night, it was beautiful. We sold out of t-shirts, and we’re wondering if we should order more.
Yong Jung Cho ‘12: The Appointment Committee is still accepting applications for Access Service Coordinator(s), Student Committee to Admisisons and Computer Access Co-coordinators. Just a side note for 24/7 access to the Campus Center, let’s keep it clean.
Your Two Cents
Seven Sisters Leadership Conference
Sophie: There’s a purple clipboard going around, everyone helping with the conference must put their phone numbers down. Assembly members must sign up for at least one shift. The conference is this weekend in case you’re oblivious.
Big Cheese Forum
Sophie: We’ll now move to the main item on the agenda, which is the Big Cheese Forum. I think we’ll have our guests introduce themselves, and then we’ll take questions.
Jenny Rickard: I’m the Chief Enrollment and Communications Officer.
President McAuliffe: I’m the President, and I probably not keeping this hat on for the whole meeting.
Bernie Chung-Templeton: I am the Director of Dining Services.
David Chase: I’m the Associate Director of Dining Services.
Dr. Kerr: I’m Kay Kerr, Director of Student Health Services.
Dean Rasmussen: I’m Michelle Rasmussen, new Dean of the Undergraduate College.
John Griffith: I’m the CFO of the College and I have a brief overview of budget. We’re still having some budgetary issues as a result of the economy. Our revenue might be up 1.5%, and 53% revenue comes from tuition and fees. Financial aid went up this year, and we want to make sure people can afford to attend Bryn Mawr. Specifically we’re looking at monitoring the budget closely, and improving efficiency of college. We want to make sure academics are as strong as possible. We had a balanced budget last year, and hope to have one again this year. Are there any questions?
Sarah Kelley ’11: This is sort of connected to the budget. I was wondering what our endowment returns were this year.
John Griffith: Our returns last year were 13%. That’s a great return, and so far this year we’re up 9%. Last year was up to 20% at some point. Our returns continue to be stronger than our peers. I expect another 2-3 more years to make back the money we lost. We’re working on that, but it will get there eventually.
Liz Ritchie ’11: I have a couple questions. Are we planning on increasing admissions? If we do increase, are we going to do anything to increase dorm space?
Jenny Rickard: The class of 2015 target is same as past couple of years, 365 students. We’ll most likely stay in that range, but might increase slightly in a few years. Every year people think the classes are getting bigger, but they aren’t really.
Liz Ritchie ’11: Are there any plans to consider the Plenary resolution of keeping the Health Center open for 24 hours on the weekends?
Dr. Kerr: The bigger issue is that the Health Center is not an appropriate place to take care of drunk students. They need monitoring or in severe cases, they need to go to the hospital. For many people, the question is what do you do with a drunk person? They just need people to stay with them, which is a problem on many campuses. When you have a friend who is drunk, you need to stay with them. They need someone to make sure they aren’t continuing to drink, and then to monitor them to make sure they don’t get worse. There’s been a lot of confusion about Health Center hours. We’re open weekdays 9-10, and weekends 9-3. We’re full service until 4, and then there’s a nurse until 10. We want you to come see us. When the Health Center is closed, there’s an on call counseling number to call. The emergency room is a wonderful place if you can’t wait.
Liz Ritchie ’11: We recently received an email about the commencement schedule being changed. Could you explain how that process went? It feels like it’s been reduced.
President McAuliffe: There was a fairly prolonged process, over at least 2 years. One of the primary drivers of this was that we had two ceremonies, which is unusual. It was difficult for faculty to participate in two days. Students wanted faculty to be there, especially for garden party. Some families who wanted to be back early enough to get back to work on Mondays felt that a two day celebration like the one we usually have was financially difficult. We shifted things to accommodate families and faculty and tried to consolidate the events into as vibrant a ceremony as we could have.
Tanvi Surti ’12: Another issue that came up with the Health Center resolution was the issue of underage drinking. Is there any way the college can safeguard underage drinkers who are afraid of legal repercussions?
Dr. Kerr: The police have no interest in dealing with more paperwork. The police are called automatically when an ambulance is called. If someone is in a state that they need an ambulance, citations should be a non-issue. If students who come in and are causing problems, they might get cited, but it’s unlikely the police will go out of their way to cite them.
Blair Smith ‘12: I know with the increase of international and west coast students, there’s been talk about storage issues on campus. Has there been any discussion on this?
President McAuliffe: I have no idea.
Dean Rasmussen: From what I understand, storage has been a source of contention.There’s no guarantee that you’ll get your stuff back or what condition your stuff will be like if you do get it back. Moving forward, what we want to look at is how to better use offsite storage, and how to provide transportation and good rates. It will require some cost, but to keeping the cost low, in a secure place is a good solution.
Yong Jung Cho ’12: Will on campus storage still be available?
Dean Rasmussen: I can’t say for sure, but I would say probably not. Students have been unhappy with the system now, and it doesn’t seem worth it to keep it.
Sophie: I know a number of us attended the Heritage and Hope Conference, I was wondering how President McAuliffe felt it went?
President McAuliffe: The conference was extremely successful, and we’ve gotten lots of positive feedback. We want to increase efforts to enhance women’s efforts around the globe. We want to bring the mind power of students into contact with people who are trying to solve issues around the world relating to women. I hope your conference this weekend will continue to discuss these issues.
Liz Ritchie ’11: Are we going to have the Thanksgiving dinner and holiday dinner this year?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: Yes.
Tanvi Surti ’12: What are some of the finding of the consultants that were here earlier?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: The final report isn’t complete, but thanks for participating in the surveys that have been conducted. It’s interesting. We asked about outdoor spaces, but there was more interest in indoor space. Students really want a performance ready space, with comfy seating, low level background noise, they want an intimate setting. It should be large enough to accommodate multiple student groups, with late night hours. There were some comments that since Rhoads closed all the dining halls are on one side of the campus.There has been interest in keeping Uncommon Grounds open later. If you want that kind of service, please come, otherwise we can’t afford to keep it open. Tell people to come here instead of Wawa. We might have a trial run of keeping Uncommon open late during finals. A draft report should be issued in late November or early December about the findings.
Tanvi Surti ’12: Is there any update about what Rhoads will be used as?
President McAuliffe: I don’t think we’re going to make it anything other than multipurpose space.
Keshia Koech ’13: I know there was talk about making the campus more vibrant. What has come out of those talks?
President McAuliffe: It’s an evolving effort, and some of it came from me walking on campus over the past two years. Even on beautiful days, there weren’t many places for people to sit outside on campus. That’s where the neon chairs came from. It’s also where the consultants about food on campus came from. Food carts outside near the library maybe. It’s kind of an experiment.
Keshia Koech ’13: I’m thinking about creating a committee to come up with ideas, that aren’t just surveys to increase vibrancy on campus.
President McAuliffe: I think that would be a great idea.
Hope Wayman ’13: I was wondering what the music/radio situation was in Erdman. I work there, and people want to know where the music is.
Bernie Chung-Templeton: At the moment, it’s gone. The acoustics aren’t very good in Erdman for some reason, and it makes it noisy for residents. We’ve tried moving the radio around, but it’s hard to find a place that doesn’t disturb residents.
Sarah Henkind ’13: I know there’s been issue with residents in Rhoads, with events being too loud. Is there any plan to make a student space not in dorm space?
President McAuliffe: I think it’s a valid concern, but I think student input would be good.
Aya Martin-Seaver ’13: There’s been talk about vibrancy and outdoor use on campus, but academics take up a huge part of our life. Has there any thought put into bringing in consultants to find out why we’re staying up so late?
President McAuliffe: I may have to stop using the word vibrancy. Students have said maybe it’s not very fun on campus. More student surveying could be done. What we’re doing about campus life is to address what has been brought up in the past. We do have constant innovation with the academic side of the school, like the 360 program.
Aya Martin-Seaver ’13: I guess I’m wondering about the stresses placed on this vibrancy.There should be an interchange, and we want to give input. Academics and campus life are connected.
Susie Kim ’11: This is about Bryn Mawr’s public image. Can you talk a little about why we seem to have gone down in the US News rankings?
President McAuliffe: We’ve looked at this closely, and there are several aspects of the survey that don’t do us any favors. For example student retention is a big factor. We’ve suffered a visibility deficit. Our international efforts are increasing though.
Laurel Lemon ’11: I suppose I’m still confused about graduation and the changes. I was wondering who you talked to about making these changes, and what students said. Why was this so sudden?
President McAuliffe: I think if these conversations could have moved faster, then we would have been able to give notice earlier. It takes a while for things to move through the process of like a faculty report. We moved as quickly possible to give everyone notice. I know it’s a bit inconvenient for this class, but it was based off response we’ve gotten. I know it’s can’t be a unanimously approved decision.
Laurel Lemon ’11: I was wondering what families you spoke to, since this is such a one time thing, I don’t think taking one day off shouldn’t be a big deal.
President McAuliffe: I don’t want to target any one, but there were some people who mentioned a financial burden of taking off an extra day.
Sarah Schnellbacher ’13: This is a follow up on utilizing outside space. I don’t think there’s a lot of trash receptacles outside, so if you have a picnic lunch, there’s no place to throw away your trash.
Sam Salazar ’11: I just want to comment on the graduation issue, I’m from Chicago, and lots of people are planning on coming, but I think the changes are good. It gives us a chance to enjoy graduation and then be done. Everyone can be there for one day. I know it’s kind of a sudden change, but I think it should be a good one.
Emma Wisniewski-Barker ’11: This is for Dining Services. I know we’re shifting between celebrity chefs in Haffner, but could we get more of Giada’s mac and cheese?
David Chase: We’ve gotten good feedback, but we’re trying new stuff out and certain foods will be making a comeback.
Lee McClenon ’14: I work in Erdman, and I know there was an increase in people needing jobs, are there other options for employment?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: We do over hire at the beginning of the year, but I think everyone who wanted to get a job got one. We do worry about this increase in students every year.
Jenny Rickard: There isn’t a huge increase!
Bernie Chung-Templeton: There won’t be any freshmen without jobs.
Sarah Kelley ’11: With the Deans Offices moving to Guild, I was wondering what the plan was for Taylor?
President McAuliffe: TBD. There isn’t a definite plan as to who’s going to occupy the space.There will be some readjustment.
Naznen Rahmen ’13: I really like to stir fry and I notice there aren’t any onions for dinner, is there a reason?
David Chase: There should be onions, if not, we’ll make sure they’re out there.
Courtney Pinkerton ’12: Where are the people going to move in Guild? Into the offices or where we had workspace?
President McAuliffe: We wanted to make the Deans accessible, in a more student friendly, student oriented space.
Tanvi Surti ’12: Why do freshmen only work in dining services? I was offered an office job my freshman year, but couldn’t take it because of this rule.
President McAuliffe: Tradition. I think it was initially to make sure dining halls were fully staffed.
Blair Smith ’12: Has there been any talk of soundproofing Rhoads?
President McAuliffe: I don’t know what the cost of tat would be, but we could look into it. I’ve heard the concerts have been well attended and vibrant, which is good.
Sophie: President McAuliffe, you talked about the US News rankings. How have you been working to increase our visibility?
President McAuliffe: I think we’ve been doing a lot in relation to the 125th. Jenny has been working on something with the Hepburn Center. It’s cumulative work. You are the college’s best ambassadors, the way you represent the quality of education and the way you reflect back on your education to the world. If you can articulate the benefits of your education to people you meet, that’s wonderful.
Sophie: I believe the rankings include alum donations right?
President McAuliffe: That is a factor, and we do need to do better. We do a lot of fundraising, and it really starts with the Senior Gift. If you send a check the year after you graduation even for 5 or 10 dollars, you will get into the habit of donating, and help keep the school affordable for others. Do give every year, because you count as one of our alum givers.
Jordan Cottrell ’13: Not to harp on rankings, but you talked about retention. Are you doing anything to improve retention?
President McAuliffe: Yes. We’re trying to get a sense of why people might leave. It’s not always discontent that causes people to leave, it might be financially related. If there’s anything we can do to help a student stay here, we’re very interested in finding ways to do so.
Sarah Kelley ‘11: I might have missed communication about the 360 program since I’m a senior, but I wondering if someone could give an explanation, what are the future plans for it?
President McAuliffe: The 360 program formerly known as the Kaleidoscope program. It’s an attempt to get serious about multiple discipline studies and bringing in a number of perspectives. All four courses would be devoted to a particular topic and the classes would converge. There would be an opportunity for off campus study, with same group of students.There is a meeting with faculty to talk about future of this program and we’ve gotten postive feedback from them.
Jen Savage ’12: I was wondering why the whole school was emailed about the rugby incident?
Dean Rasmussen: Rugby is a team the school supports financially even though it’s a club sport. If it had happened with any other team, there would have been an email sent. We don’t have a daily paper here, but we wanted to get the news out as quickly as possible in the most official way, so as to avoid any rumors.
Old Business
New Business
Sophie: Because we’ve put the additional time constraint of the conference on Assembly members, I’m proposing that we cancel the meeting next Sunday. It will not affect the agenda really. Also, a special note, if you have an absence that you want to make up, you can volunteer for 2 shifts.
8:17 – Meeting adjourned.