SGA Meeting 09/23/12
Tyler calls the meeting to order at 7:10PM
Absent: Molly Kaufman, Lija Geller, Neha Kamran.
Announcements
Ali Raeber ’13: I am the Elections Head and I wanted to let you know about nominations. There are a number of positions that have not yet had any people accept their nominations, so the nominations cycle will be extended until tomorrow at 5:00pm. If you know anyone, please nominate them! The things open are:
- Off Campus Representative
- Faculty Representative
- Committee on Public Safety (COPS) Representative
- Members-at-Large (6 positions)
- Honor Board 2013 1-year
- Honor Board 2014 1-year (1 semester only)
- Office of Intercultural Affairs/Pensby Center Representative
- Curriculum Committee Head(s)
- 2016 Class Presidents
Karina Siu ’14: this week we are having two fan appreciation games. Thursday for Volleyball at 7pm against Ursinus and soccer on Saturday at 3pm on the tuff field. Just some news, soccer beat McDaniel this past week 1-0 and it is the first time we have ever beat McDaniel in BMC history.
Tyler Garber ‘14: The Board of Trustees is hosting a dessert on October 4 from 7:30pm-8:30pm in the Dorothy Vernon Room. It is open to Juniors and Seniors. The topic is “From the Mawrter World to the Real World: Experiential and Developmental Opportunities for Bryn Mawr Students.” If you are interested, you should RSVP to the Dean’s Office at deansoffice@brynmawr.edu. Plenary resolutions are due today to the EBoard via email and signatures are due next Sunday, September 30th. Plenary presentations will also be next week.
Irene Shin ‘13: I have open hours Monday’s 3pm-5pm. This is a time if people have questions or concerns come up. They will be in the lower level of Guild. Mean girls will be played on Thursday at 9:30pm in this room (campus center main lounge). Please come! It will be fun.
Your Two Cents
Emily Tong ‘13: Vicki and I are dorm presidents of Pem East. Recently, we have gotten complaints about smoking around the building. We realize that it is an ongoing problem over the past several years we have been here. The policies are confusing for where it is appropriate to smoke. Facilities are not sure where to put the cigarette receptacles. We were wondering if you guys had any ideas or initiatives about finding common ground with this.
Karina Siu ‘14: For the Pem arch we thought about making an sign that says “Do not smoke”. It is supposed to be 30 feet from the entrance. I know the cigarette things are moveable, so making sure they are just not by the doorways. I know people move them back especially when it rains, but making sure the signs so people are aware and do know.
Vicki Sear ‘13: we have been in communication with Angie Sheets and they are making official signs for East because we have been having a lot of trouble in the back entrance. The big issues are that people do not know the rules and there are not really any rules, so it is really ambiguous. We want to find a way to make it more clear so everyone is on the same plane.
Kendra Kelly ‘13: it might be a good thing to bring up at the dorm teas, when you have them. Maybe having Dorm Presidents, CDAs, HAs, or other DLT members bring up this issue at different dorm events/teas that might be helpful.
Vicki Sear ‘13: if you have any more suggestions, you can email us.
Budget Presentation
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: if you are club leaders or have heard from friends, but it has been a pretty tuff budgeting round. We have been working with a much smaller budget than we normally do. We have been working with administration to figure out where this discrepancy is coming from. At this moment we do not have information regarding this, but for now here is the budget for fall 2012:
- Bryn Mawr Concert Series – $25,000; this was decided at the end of Spring last year. So that has been set.
- Class of 2013 – $10,000; this is about $300 more than the Class of 2012 got last year.
- Film Series – $8,863
- Large BiCo Clubs – $13,800; this includes any club that asks for more than $400. This includes the BiCo News, Greasepaint, and a few others.
- New York Times – $3,750
- Other Clubs – $59,861.73; This is a much lower number than in past years because it is the most moveable part of our budget. That is what has taken the biggest cut this year.
- Res. Life – $10,592.50; this is about one thousand dollars more than last year because of the dorm president training costs have gone up.
- Traditions – $30,000; it is about $3,000 more than they got last fall.
We have time for questions if anyone has any.
Karina Siu ‘14: are we going to continue with BMCS presenting what they are going to do?
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: yes, we will be doing that.
Emily Tong ‘13: why don’t we have as much money this year?
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: we have been trying to look into that, as I said. It might be because we overspent last spring. We are working with John Griffith and Mary Beth to figure this out.
Muna Aghaalnemer ‘13: how much is the budget for grievances? Is that separate?
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: grievances have not been set yet. As long as this budget passes, I will work on a number for that. That should be in the week before or after Fall Break.
Tyler Garber ‘14: now we are going to move to a vote.
Vote on Fall 2012 Budgets:
- Yes (18): Devanshi Vaid, Hannah Lehman, Taj Meyer, Kersti Francis, Hannah Smith, Kayla Bondi, Vanessa Sanchez, Alexandra Kirsch, Kelly Wilkinson, Rebecca Payne-Passmore, Ali Raeber, Alicia Makepeace, Sarah Henkind, Marian Slocum, Nikki Ditto, Tina Chang. Stephanie Clarke, Cesiah Ordonez
- No (0): none
- Abstain (3): Vicki Sear, Nitya Hajela, Karina Siu
Tyler Garber ’14: so the budget passes.
Special Events Funding
Casino Night Winter Formal
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: we have three special events that are presenting their proposals. First we will hear from the Casino Night Winter Formal.
Hannah Lehman ‘13: I am the Social Committee Head this year. The social committee is going to plan a winter formal, casino night themed. In here we will have a dance floor, DJ up stairs and then the game room will be blackjack tables, roulette tables, etc. There is a company called the Party People and they have a game show and they include a photo booth so you can take pictures with friends. Dining services, in conversation with them, having mock tails and snacks. We would have student bouncers; I am also in charge of the bouncers club, and we would use train them as blackjack dealers in order to save some money. I think that’s it. It would be in December. I want it to be a Trico event and I have already talked to the woman who is in charge of students events at Haverford. It would be before snowball and finals and people would have time to study. It would not be in conflict with exams.
Kendra Kelly ‘13: is this space big enough to accommodate the Trico?
Hannah Lehman ‘13: that’s I something I am working on. It was between this and TGH, and I feel TGH would be hard to have a dance floor and games. I am working on that and taking suggestions, but I definitely don’t want it to be in a dorm.
Karina Siu ’14: I was going to say Rhoads Dining Hall, but you said not in a dorm.
Hannah Lehman ’13: yeah. I am just worried about that.
Alexandra Kirsch ‘14: what is the capacity of the campus center?
Hannah Lehman ‘13: I am not positive yet. I have gotten a few different numbers, but I think about 200 people.
Josette Graves ‘16: this is a Trico event but this is not exactly big enough. Do you think it’s a small space for a Trico event?
Hannah Lehman ‘13: it would be a big enough space if enough people would come. Hopefully we could have a line. We have talked about having overflow space somewhere else. The hard part is that it is December and it is cold. But I don’t know what else we would do about that
Josette Graves ‘16: What if we had it in the cloisters?
Hannah Lehman ‘13: it would be cold out.
Kersti Francis ‘13: I think the campus center is big enough to hold a level 3 party. A level 3 party is typically what a Trico party is at Bryn Mawr. The campus center is cleared to also hold a level 3 party, so it could hold a Trico event. Also swat is far, so maybe not everyone can come.
Trans (Un)heard
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: the next event we have presenting is called Trans (Un)heard.
Maria Aghazarian ‘13: the event that I want to bring to campus is called Trans (Un)heard, trans masculine people of color speak. It is actually an exhibition that will be from November 1 – November 21. It is a visual and audio exhibit. So the photos are going to be up around the room. Space is debatable because there are already some other exhibits going on around the campus at the moment. So we need to figure out an appropriate space. Possible ideas are the campus center, other spaces in Canaday, Carpenter. What you would do is walk around the exhibition and there is this thing called guide-by-cell in which either you would call in or text and you would get information about the photos as you walk around. Here are some photos from the exhibition. This one is Qui Alexander who graduated from Bryn Mawr in 2009 and he is supper cool and works in Philly now. I think this is a really relevant event to the Bryn Mawr community and Trico community. One of the good things about the audio part of the project, you get to see their bodies and faces but also hear their stories. So it is not just a focus on how they look and how they are different from us, but also how we can try and relate to them. It is also meant to convey some positive images and to combat trans phobia racism. It was started in May 2011 as either a kick starter or indiegogo project. They had 30 days to raise money and went around interviewing people and taking photos and recording their stories. What they would want to do if we have the event on campus is have an opening event or some other lecturer or talk that would address the issues in the exhibition about how to be a trans ally. This would be coinciding with trans awareness week, hosted by Rainbow Alliance in November 12 – 16. And then I think just one last thing about why this is important, as a women’s college and liberal arts college, diversity is really important. But something’s that go unaddressed here and in the bigger world are trans phobia and racism and this would provide an opportunity to get some dialogue around these situations. This is also important because if we do not know how to support our allies, it is hard if we do not know where they are coming from and their stories for how to sport them. We would also be interviewing people when they come and contribute to the exhibit. So it is a growing thing that Bryn Mawr could be a part of, as we already are.
BiCo Bike Collective
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: if there are no other questions, we will move onto the BiCo bike collective.
Su Oner ‘14: we want to start with the background of this project and why we wanted to do this event.
Johannah CordonHill ‘14: we want to have a bike maintenance workshop and this kind of started from our desire to have a bike collective on campus and potentially a bi-college bike collective that I helped develop from my sustainability 360 final project last semester. It came out of a need that we are seeing for other transportation than the blue bus, and a need for bikes on campus because there are people who do not have the ability to bring their bikes on campus or do not have a bike they can bring, but want that. So we wanted to get this collective started and a really great way to do that would be to have a large event that would get people into that. So with that event, we want to focus on bike maintenance because a lot of people, especially women who ride bikes, do not know how to fix them. I have very little bike maintenance skills, which I think are a problem because if you cannot fix your vehicle then you are not able to use it as fully as you would like to. So we want to have a large scale bike maintenance workshop on campus that would have a few different mechanics.
Su Oner ‘14: Temple on September 13 had this project called Bike Clinic on their campus. It was organized with the collaboration with Neighborhood Bike works, which is a really cute nonprofit organization that teaches kids how to ride bikes and gives them free bikes when they learn how to ride. They also host a lot of workshops. Temple sustainability organization had this clinic that was in a free space where 2 or 3 volunteers from the Neighborhood Bike Works and everyone can come in and get free tune-ups. And if you have a bigger problem with your bike, then they can help you fix it and we will be providing the materials. We have people on campus who want to ride bikes, but do not have a bike. We have their email addresses from fall frolic, and we will have the bikes that have been left on campus by old owners so they can work on those bikes. So we plan to have time slots for people to work as a group on the bikes that we have. They can learn how to fix bikes and do tune-ups on bikes, and meanwhile we will be getting these bikes fixed. We also plan to have a sense of ownership because people are fixing these bikes, and they would want to use them. And that is what we want, we want people to feel free to use these bikes and check them out whenever they want. We are also spending on nightlights and helmets to be safe biking experience. It is a healthy alternative to transport yourself or to go have fun with your friends or go grocery shopping. We want to make this available to Bryn Mawr’s campus.
Kersti Francis ‘13: so you mentioned that you had an info thing at fall frolic. What was the interest?
Su Oner ‘14: we had emails that filled one side of a sheet and half of the behind. We also did not have much of a stand. We just had a bike because we were not really registered at fall frolic. So we just wanted to see how many people would be interested.
Johannah CordonHill ‘14: pretty much everyone we talked to seemed really interested and wanted access to bikes who did not have them. Also as part of this project, we did a survey that we sent out and got really positive responses that people really want something like this on campus as a way for building community.
Su Oner ‘14: I also feel like there were a lot of people said they would be interested in going biking with a lot of people, but they said they did not have a bike and said they could not join the bike collective. And our response was that you do not have to have your own bike that is the purpose, we want to give you the ability to check out a bike whenever you want. Also we are planning to have this bike clinic in October, because we want it to be as soon as possible. After fall break but before parents weekend.
Emily Tong ‘13: is this with Haverford?
Johannah CordonHill ‘14: just Bryn Mawr right now. The idea was to get it to be a bi-college group, and that is still in the works and something we want to do, but right now because all of the people we know are bryn mawr students, that is what we are doing now. We also do not have that many Haverford ties at the moment. Last semester we did have a fun ride that was back and forth from Bryn Mar to Haverford as a part of Food Week.
Su Oner ‘14: also because Neighborhood Bike Works worked with Temple, they were saying that they are able to manage a bigger amount of people. So we were thinking of opening it to Haverford if they are interested in coming. So that could be a step in taking it towards bi-co. That is the future goal.
Emily Tong ‘14: where are you guys going to store the bikes?
Johannah CordonHill ‘14: Su mentioned they are in Merion basement, and that is where they will go when we are not in school because Public Safety is nice enough to let us put them there. I think we would like to have a section of the bike rack in the arch because it is centrally located. We would also want to address how there are not that many bike racks on campus in the future.
Stephanie Clarke ‘14: would there be any way to reserve them advance? Or is it first come first serve?
Johannah CordonHill ‘14: one thing that we want to get started is a reservation process so you are putting down which bike you are reserving. I do not know if we have a section on there, but I don’t think we do. But that is something to look into once we have the share up and running
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: so those are all of the special events proposals that we have. Keep in mind that we do have funding to fund all three of them potentially. So we will now move to a vote.
Tyler Garber ‘14: the first vote will be for casino night winter formal.
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: Casino Night is asking for $5000, Trans (Un)heard: $1600, and the Bike Collective: $1378s
Devanshi Vaid ‘13: are we voting on these to be presented at plenary?
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: no. These do not get presented at plenary.
Lindsey Crowe ’14: say one does not get voted? What happens to the money?
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: it gets carried over into the special events fund.
Kersti Francis ‘13: since there is a special events fund, then that money could not be used for anything other than special events?
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: it could if we really need it to.
Kersti Francis ’13: But it cannot go to grievances or something?
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: If special events are not used right now for one of these events, it will go back into the SGA fund. If we need it for grievances, it could potentially be used for that.
Vote for Casino Night Winter Formal:
- Yes (15): Kendra Kelly, Kayla Bondi, Hannah Lehman, Maddy Court, Makala Forster, Alicia Makepeace, Alexandra Kirsch, Raminta Holden, Tina Chang, Vanessa Sanchez, Vicki Sear, Devanshi Vaid, Hannah Smith, Stephanie Clarke, Cesiah Ordonez.
- No (1): Morgan Turner
- Abstain (5): Rebecca Payne-Passmore, Kelly Wilkinson, Taj Meyer, Ali Raeber, Karina Siu.
Vote for Trans (Un)heard:
- Yes (20): Kendra Kelly, Kayla Bondi, Hannah Lehman, Maddy Court, Makala Forster, Alicia Makepeace, Alexandra Kirsch, Raminta Holden, Tina Chang, Vanessa Sanchez, Vicki Sear, Devanshi Vaid, Hannah Smith, Cesiah Ordonez, Rebecca Payne-Passmore, Kelly Wilkinson, Taj Meyer, Ali Raeber, Karina Siu, Morgan Turner.
- No (0): none
- Abstain (1): Stephanie Clarke
Vote for Bike Collective project:
- Yes (13): Kendra Kelly, Maddy Court, Alicia Makepeace, Alexandra Kirsch, Vanessa Sanchez, Vicki Sear, Devanshi Vaid, Hannah Smith, Cesiah Ordonez, Rebecca Payne-Passmore, Kelly Wilkinson, Taj Meyer, Ali Raeber.
- No (0): none
- Abstain (8): Lindsey Crowe, Karina Siu, Tina Chang, Hannah Lehman, Nikki Ditto, Kayla Bondi, Nitya Hajela, Marian Slocum
All three pass.