SGA Meeting 10/23
Absent: Blair Smith, Kelly Wilkinson, Jessie Abreu, Lynne Ammar
What are you being for Halloween? (I am transcribing these directly from the attendance sheet):
don’t know yet!, dominatrix! ;), nerd, ?, Mae Carlson, undecided L, Geico Gecko, don’t know!, whatever I am, blues brother #1, blues brother #2, not sure!, um…, a nap, Zelda Fitzgerald, Lumberjack, I don’t even know…, Katy Perry <3, a watermelon?, Daria, Stitch, don’t know yet L, Sailor!, idk L, don’t know, not sure, Sailor, Lion, Vibrancy Chair! J, Beer girl J, Lara Croft.
Sarah Theobald ’12 and Sharan Mehta: We’re going the Curriculum Committee Co-heads. We’re having a forum in the campus center main longue to discuss the new modes of inquiry and what they mean in the classroom. We’re targeting first year students, but it would also be great to have upperclassman come. Please encourage your residents to come. It will be great. It is on Wednesday, November 2nd at 7pm.
Lee McClenon ’14: Thursday is dorm trick-or-treating at 6. There will be games from 6 to 7 in TGH. We need help with games and setting up so let me know if you are available. My email is lmcclenon@brynmawr.edu. Send me your dorm and what you’d like to do.
Courtney Pinkerton ‘12: I’m the COPS head. On October 26th at 7pm we’re having our first Safetea of the year. There will be a speaker from Montgomery County Women’s Center who will discuss sexual assault and related topics. We’re going to have pizza and hopes and we will be raffling off get out of jail free cards for parking. In the past there, hasn’t been good turn out from other assembly members.
Elizabeth Held ’12: Priya and I met with people who filled out multiple ballots. It seems like people just didn’t read the instructions. In the future I will bold things.
Lindsey Crowe ’14: The turn out at has been pretty great so thanks for that. It would be great to have people come to this Sunday’s soccer senior game.
Akshyeta Suryanarayan ‘13 and Kyle Aguilar ‘13: We’re having a class tea on Friday from 7-9. There will be karaoke and snacks. It will be fun. People should go.
Kyle Aguilar ‘13: SPT is selling hand engraved flashes. On Monday from 1-4 you can preorder one in the campus center.
Lee Wacker ’12 and Molly Reinganum ‘12: We’re the senior gift committee co-chairs. Senior gift was started in 1990 and it’s a donation that’s given by the seniors every year to the school. We’re looking for 86% participation. We’re having an event in the campus center next Thursday from 11-4. It’s geared towards seniors, but everyone is welcome to come learn about where the money goes on campus and the annual fund. There will hot cocoa and balloons.
Aya Martin’Seaver ’13 and Alice Fischer ’13: We’re the faculty reps. We wanted to go over the last faculty meeting. They are changing the course evaluation form to make it more user friendly and applicable. More students should come to community meetings. There are some in the beginning of November.
Karen Leitner ’14: We would love to hear what you think about composting on campus. There will be a meeting on Wednesday on October 26th.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: I’m the so-co head. Halloween is coming up in order for that to happen I need help. I will send around sign up sheet for bouncers for the party in the campus center on Saturday night.
Raella Rothman ’13 and Sophie Balis-Harris ‘12: Radnor Halloween is this Friday. It’s open to whole campus but we have limited capacity.
Nora Chong ’12: The next senior cocktails is Saturday November 12th. Pay your dues. Encourage friends to pay their dues. Voting is over for class shirt. The design that resembles the Jack Daniels bottle won. Keep an eye out for email with more information.
Rebecca Sanders ’12: The October round of appointments has begun. The open positions are:
- Go-Board Moderators – 4 positions
- Conflict Management Committee-5 positions
- Social Committee- 5 positions
- Hell Week Committee-5 positions
- Independent Major Representative-1 position
- Recycling Committee Co-Head-1 position
- Board of Trustees Representative-1 position
Fill out an application and sign up for interview this coming week. There will be an nfo session on Tuesday in campus center 200.
Priya Saxena ’12: Conflict managing services is something that is out of the honor board. Those appointed to these positions will act as conflict mediators on campus. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me.
YJ ’12: SGA and deans office is sponsoring pets on the green Tuesday from 3-5. Get your picture taken by the members-at-large for the SGA board. Monthly reports are due. The Sevens Sisters Conference is November 11th to the 15th. There will be an online application process. We will be accepting applications starting today until Wednesday at 11pm. Community forums are coming up. All assembly members should attend these discussions.
Your Two Cents:
Nora Chong ‘12: When is the heat going to be turned on?
Priya Saxena ‘12: After it’s been below 50 for three days.
Introduction of new assembly members:
YJ ’12: We’d like to have the new assembly members come up and share their goals and what they’re being for Halloween.
Sarah Lovegren: I’m the CEO rep. My goals are to facilitate strong communication between the CEO and SGA, to accurately represent the CEO, and to raise awareness about on campus issues of civic engagement.
Courtney Pinkerton ’12: I’m the COPS head. My goals are to increase participation from the student body, to have more Safeteas, and to have field trips to Montgomery County Court houses to see live cases going on. I’m going to be a sailor.
Syona Arora ‘15 and Nkechi Ampah ‘15: We’re the class of 2015 co-presidents. Our goals are to unite the class, rep the class, keep the class up to date.
Emma Rosenblum ’14: I’m a member-at-large. My goal is to increase communication between the larger student body and SGA and work with other members at large to accomplish this goal. I’m planning on being a watermelon, but I don’t know well see
Amani Chowdhury ’14: I’m a member-at-large. What Emma said. I don’t know what I’m being for Halloween.
Eva Sharma ’15: I’m a member-at-large. We are SGA’s friends. I don’t know what I’m being for Halloween.
Elizabeth Olecki ’12: I’m a member-at-large. My goal is to do a good job with the Mawrk Notes. I’m going to be Daria.
Carmen Lai ’15: I’m the OIA rep. My goal is to promote culture awareness and to have more dance and music and food. I’m going to be a beer girl.
Saba Quadir ’12: I’m a member-at-large. I want to increase the visibility of SGA on campus and increase the accountability of members-at-large. I’m going to be Stitch.
Lily Scott 12: I’m a member-at-large. Since the other members-at-large have already listed their goals, I’ll share a personal goal. Graduation. For Halloween I’m either going to be Tom Cruise in Risky Businesss or Zombie Marie Antoinette.
Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12: I’m the so-co head. My goals are to have a fun, successful, and safe Halloween, streamline the party process in order to make it easier to have more parties, advertise the calendar. We already have a calendar but we could make better use of it. I’m going to be a lumberjack.
Irene Shin: I’m the off campus rep. My goal is to increase communication between off campus students and SGA.
Alice Fischer ’13: Aya and I are the faculty reps. Our goals are to provide information in clear and concise way and to be accessible. I’m going to be Indiana Jones.
Aya Martin Seaver ’13: I’m going to be Zelda Fitzgerald.
Small group discussions about Big Cheese Forum:
YJ ’12: J Mac is signing a Princess Leia bobblehead doll and we’re going to raffle it off at the Big Cheese Forum. We’re going to break into six small groups to discuss what kinds of things we want to bring up at the next Big Cheese Forum.
Group 1:
Lee McClenon ‘14: We talked about the need to clarify/address the heating policy, create a new event space on campus specifically for students, and have more meal plan options for on campus students.
Group 2:
Emma Rosenblum ’14: We wanted to discuss the printing policy.
Devanshi Vaid ’13: We wanted to talk about creating a safe space for students who have anxiety issues who misses class and think of a way to destigmatize it.
Group 3:
Sharan Mehta ‘12: We wanted to talk about budget cuts and conversation about how we’ve transitioned from drastic cuts to having the food cart and the juicer in Erdman. Where is the money coming? We wanted to talk about what’s going on with 3.5 plenary resolution and how the administration feels about it.
Group 4:
Irene Shin ’13: We wanted to talk about having more transparency between the administration and students. We wanted to talk about the college ranking process. What is the deal with fun events? What does the administration want students to be involved with in terms of initiatives they are planning? We also wanted to talk about J Mac mentioned that she was going to have office hours and be more here, but I haven’t heard anything about office hours.
YJ ’12: President MacAuliffe has been trying to reach out to students. She is having pumpkin carving. She was at the soccer game and the volleyball game. She’s coming to lantern night. This weekend she was in the U.K at a conference. She does a lot traveling and after she came back on Saturday she went to all those games. She is trying to make an effort.
Group 5:
Nora Chong ‘12: We wanted to know about the success of the fun initiatives, we had questions about financial aid, we want to know about the use of the dean’s discretionary form for septa use, more about the food cart. Can we see the college budget? We would be interested in an update on community college bridge program. We also wanted to know more about living off campus. Is it encouraged? Is it discouraged? How does that relate to financial aid? We wanted to know more about the Plenary pay scale resolution and the creation of a committee to oversee the pay scale.
Group something:
Aya Martin Seaver ’13: We talked about having a mess space on campus. We talked about the possibility of turning the campus center into a place to have concerst and parties. We wanted to have more trash cans on campus. If Elliott Shore is coming, we could continue the discussion food in the libraries. We wanted to talk about the possibility of putting stepping stones along the cow path. We wanted to know more about printing.
YJ ’12: We’ve already invited President MacAuliffe, Dean Rasmussen, Jenny Rickard, Jerry Berenson – who can discuss printing as well as pay. We can invite someone from res life, Bernie Chung, Ed Harman
Danyelle Philips: It would be good to have someone from grounds come because we could discuss the possibility of painting the new wall by turf.
Aya Martin Seaver ‘13: I agree because then we can talk about options for outdoor furniture.
YJ ’12: The E. Board met with Dean Rasmussen on Friday. We talked about creating a mess space and we talked about students transferring from community colleges. It would be possible to find funds if we wanted to make the campus center a concert/party space, but we wanted student feedback. The problem with trying to locate a space a dirty space is a lot of buildings are really nice and the ones we could use don’t match up to code. Dean Rasmussen would do a better job of explaining the community college bridge program than I would. We’ll bring these topics to the admin so they can be prepared.
Vote to change next week’s meeting time:
Meeting is moved to 2 pm.
Old Business:
Plenary results:
Lee McClenon: I created a survey about Plenary and I received 299 responses. Only 6 people said they didn’t know what it was. Overall people said plenary was more important to them than they thought it was to the student body. Half the people who took the survey came to plenary. This speaks to atmosphere on campus; people believe that Plenary is to individual students, but not to the campus. Some people were off campus. Some people just didn’t want to come. Some people were annoyed about being texted and called when they could not come. 20 people said they were doing homework. People thought time was a big barrier and wanted emails about Plenary. People feel like there’s already a lot of advertising about plenary, but that there needs to be more advertisement about the reasons that plenary is happening. People want to be encouraged to come in different ways. I broke the next part of the survey response up into two categories: procedural changes and incentives. Procedural changes that people wanted to see were setting a time limit and having more education about the purpose of Plenary. 60% of people are in favor of a time limit. People wanted to move Plenary to after noon didn’t want to wake up at 10am. People were interested in having a dorm prize highest percentage of residents to attend Plenary. People were in favor of turning off internet or closing the library but those who were against it had very vicious comments, so I would not recommend instituting these changes. Over all it seems that more positive encouragement would be beneficial. Any questions?
YJ’12: We had an idea to close Haffner, only open Erdman, and start plenary at 12:30. That way we could all move together from Erdman to Plenary.
Daniele Arad-Neeman ‘14: What would the retention rate from Erdman to Goodheart?
Devanshi Vaid ‘13: I think this is a good idea because the next Plenary is during hellweek. People think that they have other things to do and are tired. If we feed them in the morning we could usher more people straight into plenary.
Sharan Mehta ’12: At 4 Haffner opened. People were leaving to go to Haffner because they were so hungry. We could not open the dining halls until plenary is over, like we do with Uncommon for SGA meetings.
Emma Condy ’12: Didn’t that happen?
Priya Saxena ’12: Yes. Haffner opened at 4:30.
Lee McClenon ‘14: It would be cool to create a video that discusses Plenary resolutions from the past and the impact they’ve had.
Emma Condy ’12: An idea Sarah Jordan up in res-co was to create “brought to you by Plenary signs.” For example, there would be signs that said “brought to you by Plenary” in The Lusty Cup.
Sarah Lovegren ’14: My mentor suggested that we have people pledge to be at plenary at a certain time and pledge to get quorum.
New Business:
YJ ’12: I’m starting a new committee that would be involved in a targeted effort to increase awareness of SGA, increase education about how relevant SGA is and reach out to the community.