SGA Meeting/Big Cheese 04/01/12
Vrinda calls the meeting to order at 7:10pm
Absent: Blair Smith, Carmen Lai, Melanie Rowe, Nora Chong, Elizabeth Oleki, Izzie Armentrout, Natalie Zamora, Monique Alfonso, Sophie Balis-Harris, Angela Allard, Emma Geering.
Announcements:
Ali Raeber ‘13: elections are starting tomorrow at 9am and go until Tuesday at 7pm. Please vote on Moodle. Also if you have any interest in tabling on Tuesday for lunch or dinner email me.
Karina Siu ‘14: reminder that this Thursday soccer will have sneaker sale from 9am-6pm at the gym. There are lots of great deals!
Elizabeth Held ‘12: more elections goodness. Dorm elections stuff starts Wednesday night. I am going to table, and it is multiple occupancy and hall group night, and if you get excited about what dorm you draw into, you can sign up to run for Dorm President.
Lee Wacker ’12 and Molly Reinganum ’12: we are the senior gift committee co-chairs and we wanted to give you an update on what’s happening. We are currently at 66% class participation and our goal is 86%. We want to let you know that starting today, April 1, we are doing a 40 day challenge with President Jane McAuliffe. She offered to match every gift that is made in the next 40 days. So the challenge is called “40 Days: The Presidential Challenge,” or as we call it “JMatch.”
Christine Calderon ‘13: on Thursday, April 5, we are going to have a Q&A and open house at Perry House at 8pm in the common room. First we will give you a tour of how it is now, then after we will have the Q&A and information session.
Sarah Theobald ’12 and Sharan Mehta ‘12: we are the Student Curriculum Committee Co-heads. We have two announcements; 1) the international studies major has been officially approved. 2) The neuro-concentration that previously existed is being transitioned into a minor to be more accessible.
Vrinda Varia ’13: we are going to move on to Big Cheese meeting. Your two cents will be after the Big Cheese.
Big Cheese:
Administrators and faculty in attendance:
- Elliot Shore, Chief Information Officer
- Michele Rasmussen, Dean of the Undergraduate College
- Jenny Rickard, Chief Enrollment and Communications Officer
- Jane McAuliffe, President
- David Karen, Chair of the Faculty and Professor of Sociology
- Jerry Berenson, Chief Administrative Officer
- Wendy Greenfield, Executive Director of the Alumnae Association
Elliot Shore: So there were a couple of questions about printing. I just wanted to give you some information about last semester. It seems like things are going well. Out of entire student population only 112 people went over the quota and about half of them spent $10. There were very few people who spent about $50. It seems like we picked the right number. We have printed fewer pages than last year. It is not about collecting money from anyone, but an attempt to make people aware of their printing. We had some people from SGA come to a CLICK (Community on Libraries, Information, and Computing) meeting. Mae Carlson brought information from SGA to us. We also talked about the need to get more specific information. Remember we talked about the fact that for many of you, not all of you, you are buying fewer books and so it would be nice to keep those ideas in our head when we think about that. The average number of pages that people used was about a little less than half of the 1200. And one of the questions we had was about giving a quota by class year? It does look like the more senior you are, the more you print. What we are planning to do with the CLICK committee with the help of SGA is do some targeted surveying of people and talk to the people who printed too much and survey them probably sometime next week. The other question that I had was what about rolling over your amounts? With the risk of being unpopular, I think that is a really bad idea. It should not be about making a bank account, but trying to keep peoples sense of proportion within limits and reduce the number of pages we print. That is where I would like us to go. We have not made any decisions on this yet. If there are questions about that, please feel free to speak up.
Meegan Winslow ‘12: as a double major in the social sciences, would there be any consideration of increasing quotas for the seniors writing a thesis?
Elliot Shore: yeah that is something we want to find out and we are trying to decide if it is necessary. Last semester, it did not seem necessary.
Meegan Winslow ‘12: Right, just from personal experience, I did not go over because I ended up reading a lot online, but it is hard of people’s eyes.
Elliot Shore: we are also trying to work from the other side and talk to faculty. We want to help you but we also want the faculty to start to think about how often they are asking you to turn stuff in in paper form.
Caroline Kenward ’12: I had a question about double sided printing and the program we talked about last semester.
Elliot Shore: yes, we already changed that. The problem we had last semester was that the printing software was not sophisticated enough. So we speeded that up and got it going. We tried to work with Haverford College on this, but they were a little bit slower. The cost of paper, toner, and wear-and-tear of the machines goes into the cost structure. We are trying to charge you at our cost, and make you aware of what it costs.
Karina Siu ‘14: I was wondering if there was any way when mistakes happen, if there was any way of going about that? For example, if a student were to print to the wrong printer or print to a machine without toner.
Elliot Shore: when we set the quota, we set it artificially high for that reason. We did not want someone to have to go to somebody or have someone’s job it was to do this because that would cost money. Our number is higher than any of our peer institutions and I don’t know if that was the best way to do it, but that is what we decided to do. The problem is that someone has to worry about this and bother somebody else, you have to go somewhere. If it is hundreds of pages, that is a different story, but a few here and there is what we anticipated.
Karina Siu ’14: if we have a better way, come to you?
Elliot Shore: if you have another way that would be great. One that would not take a lot of people’s time, yours and ours.
Julia Stuart ‘13: I was wondering about the possibility about having an SGA printing budget? I know that from traditions, Devanshi and I have done a lot of printing on our own accounts.
Elliot Shore: that is a great question. That is one of the things we want to do surveying on. We want to see how many people are doing that type of work. In a number of departments; if you are a TA, you have a different account, if you are in student affairs has accounts as well. So yes, there should be a way for SGA to do that. That would not be a problem
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: I brought this up in the fall and I am bringing it up again. I think the quota is brilliant, but I guess I was still curious about financial aid students and printing things like thesis or if they are in social science and humanities courses and cannot read online because they were never taught to do that. Is there any consideration for people on financial aid where they are put in this situation?
Elliot Shore: one of the reasons we have put many things electronically online is to avoid lines for reserved books. There have been studies that more students on financial aid use books on reserve than students not on financial aid. I also do not know exactly how we would do that. I have asked other students about how to do this without being stigmatizing, and if you have an idea, that would be great.
Jane McAuliffe: I just wanted to remind us that the majority of students of Bryn Mawr are on financial aid therefore the whole system is calibrated in a way that takes that into consideration.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: I will send an email
Caroline Kenward ‘12: This is for everyone, could you speak a little to what your goals were to this year and how you have achieved them or what you are working on?
Jane McAuliffe: the cabinet actually does this over the summer and works together to figure out a set of goals, and you are catching me on the fly about this. For me the most important things for this year were to finalize the strategic campaign planning. We are bringing that to semi-closure by the April board meeting. So we are on track to do that. And then the real closure at the June retreat with the Board of Trustees.
Jenny Rickard there were a number of different goals, one being welcoming the class of 2016, which is a regular goal just adding a number of that. Also bringing in students at the schools of social work and the graduate school of arts and sciences. We are moving the one stop administrative student services to guide along to try and make it easier to get the more mundane administrative tasks accomplished. Another goal is to develop a more consistent infrastructure. i.e. the visual identity. We have been working on an institutional positioning where a number of students were surveyed and interviewed to see what the core essence of Bryn Mawr is, so we have a more consistent voice to speak with alumni, current, prospective students, and the outside world. One more goal is working on for next year is the student financial services zone. Rather than the paper bills, to have everything online.
Michele Rasmussen: some of the highlights, getting Rachel Heiser on board and trying to shift the culture here that it is moral and expected to get appropriate academic support. Also moving into Guild from Taylor was difficult and that was one of my questions for later, how are you finding guild? The other major goal this year was some of the restructuring and reorienting the Pensby Center (formally known as the Multicultural Center or Office of Intercultural Affairs). We are in the final stages of the candidates search to work in the Pensby Center. Another major goal is enhancing the student experience at Bryn Mawr, trying to make campus life less of a slug and more fun and I want to continue to engage with students
Elliot Shore: one of the things we are starting to ask people is what you see when you walk into Canaday. We are starting to think about how to bring Canaday into the 21st century. Two other things, we started a project this past week to work with Haverford in a deeper level to hopefully present to you and Haverford a seamless experience. We are starting with the one card, and we are hoping to make some progress. We want one set of lotteries, one catalogue, etc. There is a task force on the Board of Trustees that is looking at the future of a digital Bryn Mar and how we want to incorporate the digital technologies. Almost everyone on the panel here today is working on that today.
David Karen: my primary goal was to make sure there would be a chair elect that would take over for me at the end of May. I am very pleased that the chair elect came on in October. As a sociology professor, I had goals to make 100% of students at Bryn Mawr a sociology major, which was not met but that was really just a means to make sure that the SGA president was a sociology major, and that was met. If you have any questions please ask me at the end.
Jerry Berenson: getting facility projects completed on time and in budget with as little disruption as possible. Guild, Thomas, etc. renovations, and lots of small renovations on campus. Also to continue to move forward and consolidate our bi-co operations in dining services and public safety, and seeing in what ways we can work better with Haverford. We are trying to get one one card for the two colleges.
Wendy Greenfield: the goals of the Alumnae Association were to build alum engagement. Elliot mention one trustees task force, and we had another one where alumnae looked on how to build programming and how to engage a broader range of alumnae in a deeper way. Another was to integrate the alumnae association into the college. While the woman will still continue to be independent, we are in the process of becoming a compartment in the campus. 60% of the staff in the alumnae association are new this year. While we are doing this, we were compiling lots of programming, emphasis this year has been on careers. A lot of alumnae have been suffering because of this and students getting hard to get jobs. We hired a full time consultant this year. We hired Neilson and took her around to major cities. She is helping us build our practices. We have developed a new framework a cohort model, realizing that we have a new budget, and realize how you will be future alum until you die. Rather than spreading yourself so thin, what is the most relative thing to each person in their life stage. For example, young alum want help with careers, alum who are older 60+ are interested in cultural and intellectual enrichment, panning for retirement. We are also looking for alum to be volunteers to speak about certain things on panels.
Lee McClenon ‘14: I wanted to ask about Perry House and its plans for the future? What could be in the future for that building?
Michele Rasmussen: no final decision other than taking it offline has been made. We only knew that we did not want to staff and house Perry. The next step is to engage and see the timeline or fundraising plan for that, which will require a much large scale discussion. None of us have a clear answer for that; this is one of my goals for next year.
Kendra Kelly ‘13: I wondered about Bryn Mawrs retention rate? How are we doing? I was wondering if there were statistics. Do we have a larger number leaving now?
Michele Rasmussen: our retention rate in the past 10-12 years has steadily risen. Right now it is 85-87% so the long term trend is positive. The problem is that we are lagging behind our peers. Some of the attributes of students that do not finish is being far from home, students that are not on financial aid, students that report that they have lower emotional wellbeing. These are just some of the colorations we have seen. One reason we are paying more attention is because of the wellbeing factor. In terms of your question of who transfers, we try to keep tabs on why they do that. I will say the number of students who think about transferring compared to those who actually transfer is a pretty substantial difference. We do not want to lose students who are transferring because of student life or social experiences. It is something that we are attentive to, but we do not have actual statistics on the number of students who apply to transfer.
Sharan Mehta ’12: I am not sure that you know about the petition that evolved from the resolution about undocumented students. Following the discussions that were prefaced last semester, how do you as administrators really feel about this conversation that is happening? In a broad sense? How well do you think this represents the spirit of our institution as a whole?
Jane McAuliffe: obviously, we would, as an institution (and I have already signed on in any way that I can), love to see the Dream Act Pass. Our focus on this issue is around those aspects that touch education. It is important that young people, who want to go to college, can go to college, are able to do so, so they can graduate and take the education and put it to the use of building this society. I think for Bryn Mawr that is very much the focus about where our attention and efforts should be.
Meegan Winslow ‘12: regarding that topic, I believe that undocumented students are required to apply as international students because they do not have citizenship?
Jenny Rickard: they are required to apply just as anyone else applies, and answer questions on the application about citizen status. So it is not that they apply as an international student; they share their citizenship status and we actually do know that they are undocumented as a result.
Meegan Winslow ‘12: would the college want a space for them to identify as such? Because admissions already knows, would the college allow for there to be a place for this? Also to publicly say that we support their wellbeing and application?
Jenny Rickard: I guess the question I would ask would be indicating in the affirmative versus just answering the questions about being undocumented, I would love to know why?
Meegan Winslow ‘12: if you are undocumented and have a foreign passport, but have lived in the US for most of your life and have attended American high schools, you no longer at some point identify as an international student. So providing that space in which to say, Bryn Mawr is acknowledging myself and that other people like me exist, and that we are able to identify while we apply and not have to put it in a marginalized space. I think that is part of the reason.
Jenny Rickard: I think then that leads to a very complicated conversation and issue because my experience in working with some undocumented students is that they are very reluctant to indicate to anybody that they are undocumented
Meegan Winslow ‘12: right, but if it already has to be written on that form. I mean we find out one way or another because the student applying does not have a social security number.
Jenny Rickard: I understand. I am just speaking from the other conversations I have had from other students. So getting to that, this is a really complicated issue for individuals and institutions and I think there is a lot of information and positions that people have on the issue and different feelings.
Michele Rasmussen: I know that Vanessa Christman has been working with the CDAs and other colleagues to organize a teach-in about becoming better informed about complicated issues of documentation. We are trying to identify experts on campus and in the community. This will not solve everyone’s questions, but it is clear to me after plenary that there is a lot of student interest and engagement, but also a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding. I think we are going to have a really respectful conversation about this on campus. I have to say I am not even that well informed about this. So I think we all owe it to ourselves to do that; that is the first step.
Meegan Winslow ‘12: if Bryn Mawr students were to show enough support, would the administration be willing to state that they support undocumented students as a whole?
Jenny Rickard: I think one of the things in in terms of singling out undocumented students is we try and support all of our students and all of their needs in that regard. I know that institutions like Vassar College, states how they support them.
Vrinda Varia ’13: we are running short on time. Do any of you have any questions for us?
Jane McAuliffe: I think Elliot had a question about what students want to see about renovations to Canaday. Reading room area in particular.
- Big tables
- New carpet
- Lamps on tables
- More outlets
- More lights in general
- Permanente gallery space
- Computer towards the back of the first floor, so it isn’t the first thing you see when you walk in
- Macs on the first floor
- Sockets and lights outside of lusty cup so people could do work outside
- More computers with scanners
- Copying machine
- Trash cans
Vrinda Varia ‘13: calling meeting back to order
Your Two Cents:
Jessica Hyejin Lee ’13: I just wanted to make a point because we were going to ask questions but the speaking order was done, but I want to make some clarifications for us to consider because the college has announced through email that Bryn Mawr College does not believe in discriminating on the basis of national origin or citizenship. And also said that, quoting Dean Rasmussen on the email, “once a student is admitted to Bryn Mawr and makes the choice to attend, the college will fully support that student in all respects of her or his pursuit of a Bryn Mawr education.” We want to point out that even though Bryn Mawr admits undocumented students, it is not the same as giving fair consideration. It is clear that there are separate pools for international, documented, and undocumented students. By categorizing the undocumented students within the international students, it is limiting the number of undocumented students who can apply as international students. Also Jenny Rickards said that students are not applying as international students, but they are applying as international students. I think that what she was really attempting to say is that everyone is considered equally in the admissions pool, but if the undocumented students are being considered to be international students, then this is still not equal. The petition is about acknowledging the existence of undocumented students. Also in real policy, undocumented students are not able to get summer funding for internships. And from my personal experience, when I was asking for opportunities to apply for summer internship funding, I was told that I was a guinea pig for this whole undocumented shoot and that I was denied my applications for summer funding because I was an undocumented student. This was before Bryn Mawr College ever did an overview of their policies regarding summer funding. My junior year I asked again, and someone in the administration told me I could apply for a fellowship but not summer funding. This shows that there needs to be some policies that state what undocumented students’ rights and what they can do and what the college will let us apply for. We have to acknowledge things like, for example, everyone can study abroad expect undocumented students and that has to do with immigration policy, but what is Bryn Mawr doing to ensure that students also get experiences. For example, domestic study away, this is not part of the petition by the way, but I am just bringing up questions. Unless we say on the website that we do accept undocumented students, this is not fair consideration because they do not know that they can apply, and unless we get that statement up on the website, we cannot say that we consider everybody equally. And these are really institutional policies we are talking about.
Vrinda Varia ’13: what are you asking of the assembly right now? Can you clarify?
Jessica Hyejin Lee ’13: I thought Two Cents was Two Cents. If you have questions, you can ask.
Daniele Arad-Neeman: in the administers process, I think the central question is that while for some people, you may want to identify as undocumented, others think it is a danger. So I think addressing that is a very sensitive issue. So forcing a check box is also a way of outing people that might not want to say that. I think that needs to be carefully considered before that goes through. I also think that those sorts of issues need to be separate if you want to do a petition like that, and study abroad
Jessica Hyejin Lee ’13: I am sorry. That wasn’t part of the petition, I should not have said that. But to answer your question, it has been clarified that undocumented students do have to identify that they are undocumented when they apply. So there is no difference between writing or checking undocumented box. It is really important because financially, students can get better funding. I would recommend or suggest that it is important that undocumented students speak and that undocumented students opinions are heard.
Vrinda Varia ‘13 we have hit the time cap for this conversation. I am going to suggest that you circulate the petition and if people have further questions, they can approach you later.
Plenary Bylaws Vote:
Vrinda Varia ’13: We are going to look at the plenary bylaws. We are going to move directly to a vote.
YES: 16 people
NO: Sharan Mehat, Ali Raeber
ABSTAIN: 7
Vrinda Varia ‘13: So the Plenary Bylaws pass. Also I have an announcement/New Business: on April 15, we are having a student community forum from 3:00pm – 4:30pm. It will follow many of the same themes as the community forums held by the President’s office. We will take attendance and hold an abbreviated meeting for the SGA meeting on April 15 at 2:30pm. This will be in Thomas Great Hall. If you have questions, email sga@brynmawr.edu.
New business:
Julia Fahl ‘12: the Board of Trustees meeting is coming up. If anyone has anything that they want to address to the board, we are doing a short write-up right now. So if you are working on any projects or have something in mind that you want the Big Cheeses and the Board to read about. Email me at fhal@brynmawr.edu.
Old Business:
Saba Qadir ‘13: the health center event that we had last week was successful; we had a lot of people come by. We held this tea to raise awareness that the Heath Center is there and to know the staff and to increase communication about what the concerns are about the Health Center. So if there is something on your mind that bothers you about the Health Center, please let me know and we will talk it out with the staff. That is what the health center advisory committee is all about.
Karina Siu ‘14: I was wondering if we could get an update on what was happening with the stage in the campus center?
Vrinda Varia ’13: It is on the agenda for the future. It will be discussed soon.