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Minutes

September 18, 2011 Minutes

SGA Meeting 9/18

Absent: Sara Jane Rodgers, Malina Toza, Monique Alfonso

Announcements: 

Elizabeth Held ‘12: 

  • Nominations end 9/19
  • Need to accept by 5pm on Tuesday.
  • Candidates Forum! on Wednesday Night at 7 in Thomas 110.
  • Please sign up to table. Please?

Rebecca Sanders ’12: The September round of appointments is starting.  The positions you can run for are:

  • Sustainable Food Committee- 4 committee positions, 1 head position
  • Go Board Moderators- 3-4 positions available
  • Student Curriculum Committee- 3 positions available
  • Independent Major Rep- 1 position available
  • Recycling committee co-head- 1 position available

YJ ’12: Plenary is next Sunday. Volunteers must come to Plenary. All assembly members are volunteers. I emailed JMac and the Deans. JMac says she will try to make it, but she has a prior engagement in the morning.  Tell everyone to come to Plenary at 10:30am. The lights in the Campus Center are brighter. Thanks to Lisa Zernicke, Jerry Berenson, and Harold Maria. Thanks for coming to Get Your Paint On last night. It was a lot of fun!

Eating in the Library with Julia Fahl:

Julia Fahl ’12: Eating in the library has become a problem since the libraries have been open later and is also always a problem during finals week. We have had mouse problems because of it.  There is a no eating in the library rule, but I understand that we work hard here and sometimes end up needing to eat when we’re studying. I wanted to talk about ways to reduce waste that attracts pests. We have no housekeepers on the weekends, so food that is left in the libraries over the weekends doesn’t get taken out until Monday morning. I wanted to raise consciousness in the community about the lack of housekeeping on weekends. Eating in the library affects the space that we work in and the people that work there and our ability to keep the libraries clean. The librarians are open to changing the no food in the library policy if we can come up with a reasonable response to the problem of waste accumulating over the weekend and attracting mice.

Annafi Wahed ’12: We could designate one table where people could eat near the help desk so that someone working at the library could watch over it.

Blair Smith ’12: At the alumnae association, we’re allowed to eat at our desks but we have to throw it away in a specific location.

Saba Quadir ’13: Throw out your food trash outside of the library.

Julia Fahl ’12: That was the rule in Collier but it hasn’t been working.

Emma Rosenblum ‘14: Since we’re not allowed to have take out on the weekends, would it be possible just for the weekends to have a policy not about bringing in food on Saturday at Sunday?

Julia Fahl ’12: Generally the no food in the library policy hasn’t been followed by anyone. I eat in the library.

Lee Mc Clenon ’13: I worry that making an exception is going to make the policy more lax and make people less respectful of the library.  If people can eat in one place they will eat elsewhere.

Pam Lavin ’13: What if there were a sign put on the trash cans in the library saying do not throw trash in this basket, but in the one outdoors?

Julia Fahl ’12: One of the suggestions by Collier was to hire students to take out trash.

YJ ’12: Could we do a straw poll to see who would be in favor of this?

(Straw poll: People like this idea.)

Lee McClenon ’14: Is this a student who is already working in the library?

Julia Fahl ’12: Yes.

Mae Carlson ’12: So they wouldn’t be hiring more students.

Julia Fahl ’12: No.

Julia Fahl ’12: Please make sure you bring this discussion of eating in the library back to community to get more feedback.

Carolyn Jacoby ‘14: Even if we had trashcans and designated tables, people are still going to be messy if they’re allowed to eat.  Their will still be a lack of respect for public spaces.

Julia Fahl ’12: I think one of the problems is it’s something we’re already dealing with. At least with a trashcan or a student worker to take out trash, we would be doing something to mitigate the problem.

Blair Smith ’12: In Carpenter if you bring in food, you have to put it on a certain table in the front.

Julia Fahl ’12: Carpenter wants to stick with their zero eating in the library rule.

YJ ’12: Please bring this information back to your constituents so we can get back to the majority of students who eat in the library.

Printing:

Elliott Shore: I’m Elliott Shore, Chief Information Officer, and professor of history.

Jerry Berenson: I’m Jerry Berenson, Chief Administrative Officer, and Head of Sustainability Committee.

Janet Scannell: I’m Janet Scannell. I’m the Director of Computing Services.

Elliott Shore: We started a couple of years ago to try to track printing. We thought by making people aware of how much they were printing, they would print less. That didn’t work. We then investigated with a group of people – students, faculty, administration, staff – what we could do. After long process, we came up with what is now our policy.  We hoped to put this policy into place with Haverford. We were waiting for a long time to do this with Haverford.  We couldn’t wait any longer, but hopefully they’ll be able to catch up with us in January.  I’ve spoken to one professor who teaches a course where students are required to buy one book costs that costs 6 dollars, and everything else is available online.  We know this isn’t a perfect policy right now. We’ve come tonight to figure out how to make it better. We want to evaluate at the printing quota at the end of the semester and the end of next semester. We’re not interested in making a profit. This is an environmental and financial initiative.

Janet Scannell: It’s 10% of students who do one-third of most of the printing

Elliott Shore: We wanted to set a policy that would not affect 90% of the students and change the behavior of 10%.

Jerry Berenson: It is an issue of sustainability.  The amount of paper that we use has sky rocketed. It’s gone up thirty or forty percent a year and is still going up.  It will be an issue that the sustainability committee will discuss this year. Please let me or the sustainability committee know ideas that you have.

Janet Scannell: The data that we have from past two years is we printed 2.8 million pages, which is about 68,000 pounds of paper and equivalent to 888 trees. We had a group that has been talking about setting a quota for the past three semesters – we had students reps and bi-co staff as part of this group. There were a lot of things we could do differently, in terms of student and faculty behavior.  When it became clear that even with the print release, printing did not decrease we talked with other institutions and learned that the thing which made behavior change was having a quota.  We surveyed other liberal arts schools – 15  responded to the survey saying that quota was 550 pages per year.  By putting the quota at 1200, by setting a higher quota than most schools, and figuring out where that fit with our 90% goal, we felt that we came up with sensitive quota that would still change the behavior of students who are printing a lot. It’s less expensive to use a copier than it is to print. This will be an incentive to change a variety of behavior.

Blair Smith ’12: I have about 200 pages of reading of class per week. I know that freshman and sophomore year I got readers and now professors are less inclined to make readers.

Elliott Shore: There are problems with readers that you probably don’t see and that faculty ignore. The publishing of readers comes under copyright law. The correct way to do it is through the bookstore and to pay royalties. The cost of a properly put together reader is much higher than the cost of printing out the pages. We’re an institution that can be sued. I just want to say to everyone that there’s no simply way around this one. It’s a good idea, but it has it’s own problems. Do you have to print your readings out and bring them to class?

Blair Smith ’12: I need readings in front of me to be able to do them.

Elliott Smith: There is a more effective software program that can make distinctions amongst different students if there is a disability issue or if you’re a senior printing out things for your thesis. We’re working on getting that with Haverford in January.

Jerry Berenson: Stephanie Bell will be talking with a group that will be looking at considering students with disabilities issues.

Lily Scott ’12: Since we are considered the footprint that we are leaving, why are we paying for a side instead of an individual sheet? I have a suggestion about letting students know how much their printing is costing the school (instead of themselves), because I’m already being more conscious about how much I’m printing. That would be a way to raise the quota but keep students conscious.

Janet Scannell: We hope being more conscious will reduce abandoned jobs.  It’s our intention to not have it be charged as single sides. There will be a much clearer pricing model in the new software.

Annafi Wahed ’12: As a Psych major, there have been psychological studies that show that people retain things better when they read from paper rather than a computer. It’s not the same to write it on a computer as it is to write as paper. You’re also not supposed to be on a computer 20 minutes to an hour before bed.

Elliott Shore: We’re testing this with the 360 class on Meditative Comparative Studies, where all the students are using iPads in the class. There’s a psychologist teaching one of the courses. It’s a moving target.  There are newer and newer apps that allow you to write on the computer and allow you to enlarge the size of the print. Yes those studies may be true, but they may have been true three or four years ago. We’re not trying to stop anyone from printing. 2400 pages is still a lot of pages. This should only affect 10% of students.

Janet: We will be monitoring how many students are affect and if it turns out that that’s not the case, we’ll change it.

Melanie Rowe ’13: There is a financial component involved for students buying new technologies. What is the quota per student?

Elliott Shore: 1200 per semester.

Janet Scannell:  One page equals one impression.

Melanie Rowe ‘13: Sustainability piece could be attacked through contest or campaign that would incentivize students to print less.

Jerry Berenson: That’s a good suggestion.  We’re looking for any ways we could raise awareness with out making it a money issue.

Melaine Rowe ‘13: Do we know how many pages the faculty are assigning per classs?

Janet Scannell: We have averages from last year by major.

Melanie Rowe ‘13: Are you taking that from information from students or from faculty? Because that would tell us if students are printing things that are extra-academic.

Janet: We were looking at it from the point of few from what actual happened. We know many pages people printed and their major.  There are many people who could be printing for clubs or other activities. There was a Haverford student who was the third highest person. So we don’t know what people are printing.

Melanie Rowe ’13: TAs could do the printing.

Elliott Shore: We’re trying to get TAs to use the copier rather than printing.

Melanie Rowe ‘13: It would be great if we could get better scans so people would be incentivized to read on the computer.

Elliott Shore: We are really not interested in collecting money from everyone. There was a financial crisis three years ago and we made decisions. People decided that they would rather have free laundry than free printing. These are conversations that were already had before.

YJ ’12: We have a lot of voting to do tonight.  It’s a packed agenda. We are lucky to have them here tonight and I would like the tone of the questions to be more respectful. They’re interested in creating a committee that would discuss ways to make the printing situation better.

Nora Chong ’12: If you have the breakdown by major, you see if there was any correlations according to major and if you could work with those departments so that the quotas would only affect those departments and those students.

Janet Scanell: Higher printers were printing because of other reasons. It’s true that some majors were higher, but it was about 50 pages higher. Some graduate programs were several hundred pages higher, and we’re talking to those grad programs. We’re hoping to set quotas that vary when we get the new software.

Elliott Shore: You’re not always taking courses in your major. Not everybody prints out all of the things that everyone asks you to read.

Mary Zaborskis 12: I’m an English and Psych double major. I spent $400 this semester on books, and I’m more than half way through my quota. I started counting last semester how many pages I print per class and it’s about 300 pages, which I feel is not atypical. It was all printing for academic classes that was necessary. The policy on not having lap tops in class makes it difficult to print less. I’m confused by the validity of the statistic that 10% of the students are 90%.

Janet: There is a very high upturn.

Mary Zaborskis ‘12: Is it at 10%?

Janet Scannel and Elliott Shore: Yes.

Janet Scanell: We’re trying to share more info with students. At some point you have to pick a number. Talking photocopying – students can use office depot which is online and delivers to campus instead of using the copy center.

Blair Smith ‘12: Getting copies from be up to two weeks if there’s folding and stapling involved.

Jerry Berenson:  It shouldn’t take that long.  If it’s taking more than 4 days let me know.

Motion to cap conversation at ten minutes. 

Emma Rosenblum ’14: I took a course at a large state school this summer. First of all, kudos to anyone who said a printing quota should be in place, because I think it’s brilliant. Will there be a sliding scale process for students on financial aid?  At the university I was at over the summer you got free printing if you were on financial aid.

Elliott Shore: I’ve had email conversations with students about this. It would be great if you can help. We’re trying to figure out how to do this with out stigmatizing certain students in the community. If there are any ideas about this we’d love to hear them.  In January we will have the opportunity to have thoughts in quiet way and conversations that will be more effective.

Emma ’14: We could adjust the amount in the balance and trust people not to creep on other people’s computers.

Jerry Berenson: We will think about it.

Krista Imre ’13: There could be a cardbox box in the library where students can turn in articles that they’ve printed so that students can use readings that other students already printed for that class again. They would have notes, which might be an issue

All: Sounds good.

Ali Raeber ‘13: How you would you take the expenses for printing through Office Depot out of a club budget?

Janet Scannell: We’ve talked to Mary Beth Horvath about this.  For fairly small jobs you do it by yourself though office depot, but for larger jobs, she can pay with her credit card. Check with Mary Beth to verify her policy.

Lindsey Crowe ’14: All professors want us to bring a hard copy into class.  Is it possible to talk to professors about being more lenient about bring in readings?

Elliott: There’s a faculty committee that talks about these kind of issues.  We’ve been talking to professors about their various policies on printing out readings and have had conversations about the use of technology in class.

Emily Tong ’13: Would it be possible to have quota be based on the exact number of pages that an individual student needs to print out for class?

Elliott Shore: We’re not assuming you will print out everything that you have to read.  We’re trying to base the quotas on actual behavior not on the theoretical number of readings that students have for class.

Emily Tong ‘13: I don’t know if professors realize how many pages they’re asking us to print out.

Elliott Shore: It’s difficult because some readings are suggested as well. Would you prefer to have books instead? We’re looking for some spot in the middle.

Saba Quadir ’13: Along with putting the monetary value left, could we put the number of pages left?

Elliott Shore: That will be a function of the new software.

Janet: The dollar amount is there since color copies cost more, so if you print in color you get fewer pages. We tried to factor in extra pages by having the 1200 page quota as opposed to 500 pages so we wouldn’t have to give money back. There is an allowance in there for things you accidentally printed.  Students need to take responsibility and ownership of the things that they are printing.

Lily Scott ’12: There appears to be some discontent because numbers are based on the theoretical.

Elliott Shore: All the numbers are based on actual behavior over the past two years.

Lily Scott ‘12:  A survey should be sent out to get a pulse on how students are feeling.

Janet Scannell: We will be monitoring student’s reactions.

Lily Scott ‘12:  Not everyone comes to SGA or will volunteer to be a committee, so I think it would be good to reach out to students.  I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for printing for Chanukah.  It would be great to have more sharing of data and surveys about ways to not cost students money but not waste paper and to look for ways to harmonize interests.

Budget Presentations:

Tina Hu ’12: We completed a very successful budgeting process. One of my goals this year is to make the SGA dues more transparent to the community.  This is how to SGA dues were budgeted this semester:

  • Film Series: $7, 900
  • Res-life: $9,400 (that’s $50 dollars per student)
  • Traditions: $27,162
  • Senior Class: $9,741
  • Large Bi-College Clubs (any bi-co club requesting over $4,000): $50,303
  • New York Times and the newspapers we get on campus: $3,750
  • Bryn Mawr Concert Series: $28,000
  • The rest of the clubs: $73,587

YES:  Isidora Armentrout and Jessie Abreu, Lindsey Crowe and Kelly Wilkinson, Kyle Aguilar and Akshyeta Suryanarayan, Nora Chong, Kate Ciarlante, Melanie Rowe, Sharan Mehta and Sarah Theoblad, Courtney Pinkerton, Amanda Beardall and Carolyn Jacoby, Julia Fahl and Malina Toza, Deb Matus and Dede Buckan and Nkiruka Anizoba, Daniele Arad-Neeman and Mo Alfonso, Daisy Sheng, Elizabeth Olecki, Julia Stuart and Devanshi Vaid, Lee McClenon and Blair Smith, Sophie Balis-Harris, Kimberly DeRosa, Sarah Jordan, Emma Condy and Debbie Deegan, Irene Shin, Gabby Marangell, Emma Geering and Danyelle Phillips.

No: Kendra Kelly and Lili Elsesser.

Abstain: Karina Siu and Lynne Ammar.

YJ ’12: Tina worked really hard. This is the first time a graph like this has been made.

Plenary Resolution Presentations:

Priya Saxena ’12:

Establishing and Defining the Role of the Bi-Co Liaison

Presented by Priya Saxena ’12 (Head of the Honor Board).

Whereas, there exists a Bi-College Consortium (Bi-co) between Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College, that is utilized by many students on both campuses.

Whereas, in this exchange, in both academic and social life, there have been cases when students have broken the community standards of the institution other than, of which she/he attends.

Whereas, it has been necessary for the judicial body for Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College to get involved in some of these instances,

Whereas, no such form of communication has been created,

Whereas, differences exist between the Honor Codes, policies, and resources of each institution that is important in circumstances involving a trial or procedure at either institution.

Whereas, the creation of a Bi-Co Liaison would establish communication between the two schools in such circumstances and serve as a resource,

Be it resolved, that if the resolutions are passed at both Bryn Mawr and Haverford’s Plenary, the following addition be included in the Bryn Mawr Self Government Association Constitution: Section C “The Bi-Co Liaison” under Section V “Other Institutions”

e) The purpose of the Bi-Co Liaison is to keep the home institution informed, as well as serve as a source of knowledge about the home institution. The liaison will be responsible to attend any necessary meetings, transporting any necessary documents back to the home institution, and bringing up relevant points that the jury may have thus far neglected to consider.

The liaison at both institutions will be governed by the same set of procedures that were consented by both Bryn Mawr Honor Board and Haverford Honor Council and will be made readily available to the community. Changes to these guidelines that do not conflict with what has already been stated can only be changed with the consent of both the Bryn Mawr Honor Board and Haverford Honor Council.

Julie Maziotta ’13: If Bryn Mawr approves it but Haverford doesn’t, does that mean it doesn’t pass at all?

Priya Saxena ’12: Yes.  Bryn Mawr will have one bi-co liaison and Haverford will have one bi-co liaison. The HC head will email honor board head with times that the bi-co liaison is needed because Haverford’s honor board hearings take place over a longer period of time and the bi-co liaison will come during times that are needed.

Daniele Arad-Neeman ’14 and Karen Leitner ’14:

Composting Research and Development at Bryn Mawr

Presented by Daniele Arad-Neeman ’14 and Karen Leitner ’14 (SGA Sustainable Food Committee)

Whereas, Bryn Mawr has made a commitment to make practices on campus more sustainable and “green” by signing the President’s Campus Climate Commitment;

Whereas, all of our compostable food waste is currently incinerated with the rest of the college’s waste;

Whereas, this waste releases 9,108 lbs of carbon a year;

Whereas, there is significant student support for a composting program as demonstrated by surveys and research done in Erdman dining hall by the 2010-11 Environmental Studies Senior Seminar;

Whereas, Dining Services has expressed interest in working with the Sustainable Food Committee on composting in the dining halls but both lack administrative oversight and financial support;

Be it resolved, Bryn Mawr students support the efforts of the Sustainable Food Committee in their efforts to conduct research for the creation of a comprehensive composting program on campus.

Daniele Arad-Neeman ’14: This is an inititive by the Sustainable Food Committee to create a composting program on campus.  We want to do more research and talk to swat about their composting program.  Our resolution is essentially saying that students support it so that we can go to the administration.

Lauren Bochicchio ’12 and Grace Barlow ’14:

Reorganization of the Bryn Mawr Concert Series

Presented by Lauren Bochicchio ’12 and Kate Grant ’12 (BMCS Co-Heads)

Whereas, Article VI, Section XII of the Constitution regarding the Concert Series currently reads:

Section XII: The Alternative Concert Series

Subsection A: The position of Alternative Concert Series Head may be held by up to two people, to be appointed by the Appointments Committee from the Association in the spring semester prior to their year of service.

Subsection B: The Appointments Committee shall, at their discretion appoint up to six people to serve on the Alternative Concert Series Committee. The duties of the Alternative Concert Series Committee shall be determined at the discretion of the Alternative Concert Series Head(s).

Subsection C: An Alternative Concert Series Event shall be defined as an event featuring a performing artist brought to campus at the desire of the Association to fill a gap in campus programming and funded by the Alternative Concert Series Fund as outlined in Article VI, Section XII, Subsection D.

Subsection D: The Alternative Concert Series Fund

  1. Every semester, in consultation with the current Alternative Concert Series Head(s), the Treasurer shall submit a recommended monetary cap for the Alternative Concert Series Fund in the next semester to the Representative Council for approval.
  2. The source of funding for the Alternative Concert Series Fund can be derived from any SGA account at the discretion of the Treasurer, also at the approval of the Representative Council.
  3. The Alternative Concerts Series Head(s) shall be responsible for allocating the Alternative Concert Series Fund in accordance with their By-Laws to events on campus that fall under the definition of an Alternative Concert Series Event as defined in Article VI, Section XII, Subsection C.
  4. The Alternative Concerts Series Head(s) may co-sponsor Alternative Concert Series Events with other campus organizations but they will be held solely responsible for the allocation of the Alternative Concert Series Fund.
  5. All Alternative Concert Series Events that receiving funding from the Alternative Concert Series Fund shall be approved by the Representative Council before contracts with performing artists are signed. Contracts can be approved anytime after the Alternative Concert Series Fund cap is approved.

Whereas, the series is now known as the Bryn Mawr Concert Series;

Whereas, in the creation of the Bryn Mawr Concert Series it was decided that three officers would be appointed and three would be elected by the members of the Series;

Whereas, booking a performer is often a time-sensitive process;

Whereas, the Bryn Mawr Concert Series must first get approval from Conferences and Events and Student Activities, which itself can be a lengthy process;

Whereas, scheduling a vote of approval by the Representative Council for each artist is often difficult on short notice especially later in the semester;

Whereas, the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Heads and Officers were appointed or elected to their positions on the basis of their previous experience and accountability in booking performers;

Whereas, after deliberation with the Treasurer it was decided that presenting a general list of events at once to the Assembly would make most sense;

Whereas, it was decided at the December 5, 2010 SGA meeting, the Bryn Mawr Concert Series wouldn’t present each artist individually in the future;

Be it resolved, that the Constitution be updated to reflect the changes that were made in the past year regarding the concert series;

Be it resolved, that Article VI, Section XII of the Constitution read:

Section XII: The Bryn Mawr Concert Series

Subsection A: The position of Bryn Mawr Concert Series Head may be held by up to two people, to be appointed by the Appointments Committee from the Association in the spring semester prior to their year of service.

Subsection B: The Appointments Committee shall, at their discretion, appoint up to three people to serve on the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Committee. Members of the Bryn Mawr Concert Series who are eligible to vote shall elect three other officers to serve on the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Committee. Eligibility to vote shall be determined by active membership for at least one semester. The duties of the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Committee shall be determined at the discretion of the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Head(s).

Subsection C: A Bryn Mawr Concert Series Event shall be defined as an event featuring a performing artist brought to campus at the desire of the Association to fill a gap in campus programming and funded by the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Fund as outlined in Article VI, Section XII, Subsection D.

Subsection D: The Bryn Mawr Concert Series Fund

  1. At the end of every semester, the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Head(s) shall create a budget in consultation with the Treasurer, including a list of events with an estimated date, genre, and cost, to then be approved by the Representative Council. At the beginning of the next semester, the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Head(s) shall present a more finalized schedule to the Representative Council.
  2. The source of funding for the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Fund can be derived from any SGA account at the discretion of the Treasurer, also at the approval of the Representative Council.
  3. The Bryn Mawr Concert Series Head(s) shall be responsible for allocating the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Fund in accordance with their By-Laws to events on campus that fall under the definition of a Bryn Mawr Concert Series Event as defined in Article VI, Section XII, Subsection C.
  4. The Bryn Mawr Concert Series Head(s) may co-sponsor Bryn Mawr Concert Series Events with other campus organizations but they will be held solely responsible for the allocation of the Bryn Mawr Concert Series Fund.

Lee McClenon ’14 and Blair Smith ’12:

Creation of a Fund for the Residential Council

Presented by Lee McClenon ’14 and Blair Smith ’12 (Res-Co Co-Heads)

Whereas, the Residence Council strives to improve the in-residence experience of students while maintaining goals of equality, innovation, and community,

Whereas, the Residence Council hopes to improve collaboration between dorms to achieve the goals stated above,

Whereas, the Dorm Presidents, who serve on the Residence Council, oversee their individual Dorm Discretionary Funds for yearly events,

Whereas, these funds do not carry over year-to-year, cannot be used for long term planning or improvements and are insufficient for urgent projects in dorms,

Whereas, damage of dorm property, regardless of cause, currently falls to dorm residents, putting even greater financial strain on dorms that host open campus events,

Whereas, a fund to serve all dorms and would benefit the residential experience of students,

Whereas, the current head of Residential Life, Angie Sheets is in favor of this plan,

Be it resolved, that Article VI, Section IV of the Bryn Mawr Self Government Association Constitution be amended to include:

Subsection M: The Residence Council shall preside over the Residential Council Fund.

  1. The Purpose of the fund shall be to cover lasting improvements, replacements or repairs to dorm common spaces beyond what Facilities is able to provide.
  2. The Residence Council Head(s) shall communicate and work with Facilities on all appropriate projects.
  3. Proposals for spending from the fund shall be brought forward to the residence council by students, Dorm Presidents or the Residential Council Head(s).
  4. Approval for spending from the fund must be voted on by the Dorm Presidents, one vote per residence, and shall require a two-thirds majority of quorum.
  5. The Residence Council Fund shall be allotted $1,000 each semester by the Student Finance Committee and be collective.
  6. This Fund shall be capped at $8,000.
  7. When money is expended from this fund, the Residence Council Head(s) must make an announcement about the decision at the next assembly meeting.

Blair Smith ’12: At the east/west part a couple of years ago glass table fallen upon and the dorm presidents had to pay for the table. This fund would be to support dorms through these endeavors. If no incidents happen, the money can be used to beautify dorm spaces.

Julia Fahl ’12:

Changing the Board of Trustees Representative Position to an Appointed Position

Presented by Julia Fahl ’12 (Board of Trustees Representative)

Whereas, the Self Government Association (SGA) is a representative body of and for the Bryn Mawr community,

Whereas, student representation is of great concern to the Bryn Mawr Community and a vital aspect of Self-Governance,

Whereas, recent internal changes in SGA have occurred to increase effective representation across campus,

Whereas, the Board of Trustees Representative receives a vote in the Assembly, but represents no body of students,

Whereas, this position is an important part of student – administrative relations, but requires little input from community members,

Whereas, the primary job of the Board of Trustees Representative is to disseminate information to the student body rather than represent its needs,

Whereas, it is constitutionally mandated that the removing of a position from the general assembly be approved by the community at large,

Be it resolved, that the Board of Trustees position be changed to an appointed position; and the description of the position in Subsection L of the Self Government Association Constitution be removed, thereby changing all of the letters of the subsequent Subsections in Article IV Section I.

Julia Fahl ’12: I’ve been a Board of Trustees rep for all of my time at Bryn Mawr.  There’s basically no community involvement in the position.  I don’t represent the community in my vote. It’s not a representative position and shouldn’t have a vote.

Elizabeth Held ’12: There are 8 people currently running for this position.

Julia Fahl ’12: It will be decided on Sunday before they are elected.

YJ ’12: Next week is Sunday is Plenary.  Please tell your constituents. Beyoncé, come on. Thought this meeting was rushed, I felt it was important to talk about printing before October.  The first monthly report is due end of September or beginning of Ocotber. Please let me know if you don’t have access to the Google site.