SGA Meeting 11/18/2012
Vrinda calls the meeting to order at 7:10pm.
Absent: Karina Siu, Christine Newville, Taj Meyer, Lija Geller, Lindsey Crowe, Marian Slocum, Makala Forster, Alicia Makepeace, Tina Chang, Kellie Meyer.
Announcements
Irene Shin ‘13: I want to talk about how great the confrontation workshop was. It seems like a lot of people really enjoyed their time and we got a lot of good feedback saying that people thought this was really great. We are hoping to continue forward with this and hopefully do more workshops in the future. If you have any suggestions or have any specific issues you want to have addressed at these confrontation workshops or how to facilitate conversation, please email me at ishin@brynmawr.edu. The second piece of information I have is about having Thomas Great Hall s as a quiet study space for which you are allowed to eat in is going to move forward. It will be available Monday-Friday of finals week and it will open at 7am and close at 12 midnight.
Kersti Francis ‘13: I have a question. Where do they do exam pick up?
Irene Shin ‘13: upper level of Guild.
Emily Tong ‘13: Open Mic Club is having their last event of the semester on November 30. So keep an eye out for the Facebook event and come to our event!
Vrinda Varia ’13: this Tuesday the Graduate Student Association is hosting Super Happy Hour with the senior class. So interested seniors can email to Ana Cordova, acordova@brynmawr.edu, to RSVP. When you RSVP, please make sure you include birthday. The bar will be tended professionally, so make sure you bring your ID if you want alcohol. It will be 5pm-7pm in the DVR. Also, on the 27th, the graduate students are hosting a panel about applying to graduate school. So if you are interested, information about that will be circulating soon.
Your Two Cents
Kelly Wilkinson ‘14: I have been helping with organizing everything around Perry House. We have a letter that is going to be given to President McAuliffe just asking for her support, I guess, and where she is standing on the whole issue. We have a petition and signatures that go with that. So if you want to sign or have any questions, come find me. If you want to take a signature sheet and take it around tomorrow to get people to sign in your classes that would be really awesome and very helpful. If you can get it to me by 4pm tomorrow because we have to give it to her by 5pm. So please come sign and if you have any questions don’t feel uncomfortable to come talk to me and ask me about it.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: as a quick thing, if anyone has any questions, since this is during Your Two Cents, you can pose them now or you can also ask them privately later. We have a copy of the letter here, if you want to come read it. I am just going to make a suggestion, why don’t you hang out in 105 afterwards so maybe people can go and sign it in there instead of trying to deal with all of the chaos out here.
Maruyi Lu ‘13: I am the Student Coordinator of Dining Services.
Jancy Munguia ‘14: I am the Assistant Student Coordinator of Dining Services.
Chaney Harter ’14: I am the Administrative Assistant at Cartref.
Maruyi Lu ’13: Many of you know or may not know that there will not be a holiday dinner this year. That is because Bryn Mawr Dining Services has been asked to cut down on their budget a lot, especially on the food costs. Another part that is being cut is the worker labor, and this cut is going to affect a lot of students, obviously everyone because we all eat food. Unfortunately, this is going to be a long term issue and right now it has just been brought to light. Some of the stuff that is going to be cut is specialty dinners. I know we are going to have some chip and dip thing that is going to happen, but the next semester they will try and cover them, but if they do not have the budget for them then they will not happen. Another issue that is happening is takeout food will probably be gone and the food quality will go down and for May Day strawberries and cream and garden parties, there is a very big possibility that they will not exist anymore depending on the food budget.
Jancy Munguia ’14: we don’t have many numerical details on this issue, but we plan on acquiring information in the next week and then the next SGA meeting we are going to present something more detailed. So we really do not have many good answers for you guys. I know you probably have a lot of questions right now, but we are not prepared. We plan to be prepared very soon. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jmunguia@brynmawr.edu.
Maruyi Lu ‘13: we are bringing this up now because we want everyone to kind of give us questions on what you want to ask about what is going on with this budget issue as well as what we can ask the CFO and the administration about what is going on.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: Sowmya and I are planning a meeting with John Griffith to look at greater budgeting issues. So how we talked about SGA funds and what we encapsulated, but also looking at budgeting priorities for the year. So questioning things like this. So we are also looking at a budgeting meeting. Also something that I think might help you is hearing student priorities about what is most important for the students. So we can always negotiate with that.
Diana Tive ‘15: my question is, is it the whole May Day brunch or just the strawberries aspect?
Maruyi Lu ‘13: right now, just strawberries aspect because we all need food, but strawberries are a little upgraded.
Kelly Wilkinson ‘14: my question is for our meal plan and how much we pay for our meal plan and how it seems like there is no real flexibility. You pay the same amount of money for the same food you are getting. Some people have unlimited, some have 200-meal plan and then $100. Are those things going to change? I realize that there is a budget deficit, so they are probably going to charge more because they do not have any money. But if you could ask about that and how they will reconcile the two.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: questions come up every year about our meal plans. From the past, it seems like to maintain the standard of Bryn Mawr food that that is the reason behind our meal plan being the way it is now. I don’t really get it. So just so you know, answers from admin and dining services are in the works.
Kelly Wilkinson ‘14: I wouldn’t have that much of a problem with that, but I knew that my quality was declining.
Chaney Harter ’14: the problem is that basically the last ten years, the food budget for dining services has not been increased. I forget what the percentage was.
Maruyi Lu ’13: a total of 20 something percent.
Chaney Harter ’14: so 20 something percent. So basically, the administration has not been giving dining services any significant raises in budgets in the past decade.
Maruyi Lu ‘13: as well as having an increasing student acceptance. That means we have to hire more students for dining services and that takes a lot of our budget as well.
Chaney Harter ’14: we are also feeding more students.
Lee McClenon ‘14: did you say that the budget for student workers is going to be cut?
Maruyi Lu ‘13: right now the whole issue is that that is where it started from. I was looking at the student budget and was like ok it went over, but we are still trying to figure out how all other money has been allocated. Right now student workers are ok, but we have to figure out what the food cost is or our food cost cut is, and that is the biggest issue.
Lee McClenon ‘14: so it could be that there might be too many student workers?
Maruyi Lu ‘13: I don’t want to say anything, but in 2 weeks we will get the exact amount of what is going on.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: just so you guys know, this is not intended to generate any panic, but to know about some of the things going on around campus and to subsidize some rumors that you may have been hearing. So as you see, there are a lot of student workers trying to get us answers.
Kayla Bondi ’14: So they talked about strawberries.
Sarah Bristow ‘14: We wanted to address that.
Kayla Bondi ’14: so we will not let there be no strawberries and cream on May Day. That is not a thing that is happening. We will pay for it.
Sarah Bristow ’14: We are already trying to talking to people to try to work ways into our budget that we can compensate for that, which is going to require more fund raising and different budgeting on our part. But we just wanted to let you guys know that Traditions is going to do their best to not let there be a May Day without strawberries and cream.
Kayla Bondi ’14: yeah. It is important. On that note, we will be fundraising more. In the next two to three days we will be selling t-shirts in the Campus Center and in Erdman. So you should totally buy one if you want there to be strawberries and cream and other fun things.
Big Cheese Feedback
Vrinda Varia ’14: this semester, as you all know, we changed the format of Big Cheese. We wanted to hear back about whether or not you thought the changes were productive. Whether or not you guys like the other format better. Just some constructive criticism so that we can look to formatting the Big Cheese for next semester a little better.
Kersti Francis ‘13: can you perhaps remind us what the changes were?
Vrinda Varia ‘13: in the past, we usually introduce the Big Cheeses and we do roll call and announcements before the Big Cheese and then we open up the mics for questions. So this time it was more segmented, that made it a little more formal. So we did not know if people were satisfied with that or if it felt like too much of a hierarchy.
Kersti Francis ‘13: I thought it was good. I liked it segmented and how we left the SGA stuff till the end. I just wondered if it would be possible, because the Big Cheese is kind of a big deal. So, would it be possible for there to be an extra 15-20 minutes to discuss with the Big Cheeses so we could cover all of the topics? I know that there were a lot of questions left over and, while they were addressed afterwards, I think some things might have been lost in translation since there was no chance to explain them.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: okay. It is something that we can talk to admin about, but it is hard getting them all out here on a Sunday night. So I mean, it is something we can work towards.
Lee McClenon ‘14: I wasn’t here, but from reading the minutes, it sounded like it was a good strategy or it was really helpful to have the mintues organized in that way. On the other hand, I know at past Big Cheeses, I have gone up to the mic to ask a random question and that might be discouraged by this new format as well. So there is an administrator and then the questions.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: yeah and that is kind of where we are at. Is that something that is ok or is that something that we…yeah that is kind of where I am at with it too.
Diana Tive ‘15: this is a thought if possibly we could have it on a Sunday afternoon because that or an SGA meeting during the day because I am sure it’s easier for them to get here and it’s just as an idea. So moving the time up in the day
Emily Tong ‘13: I asked a question through email after the assembly had ended, and Natalie sent out all of the answers to those, but it wasn’t ideal because I wasn’t asking them, but my question did get answered.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: the other thing that I wanted to pose is creating a space during Big Cheese for anonymous questions. So if we wanted to pose questions via email, if they didn’t want their name associated with it then we could pose them anonymously. Do you guys think that would be something that students would be interested in?
Kersti Francis ‘13: yes, we would be interested.
Lee McClenon ‘14: I think that Bryn Mawr has in our Honor Code and in our culture that we are supposed to be upfront about things and able to confront people about things. So I think students should feel empowered to ask questions even if they are weird questions or if you do have a problem asking a question, then you should be able to ask someone who represents you to ask it so then SGA Assembly members should be able to funnel questions through them alternatively.
Ali Raeber ‘13: yeah what Lee said.
Diana Tive ‘13: I think there are certain students who do not necessarily have someone who they know who advocates for the same things as them and would feel more comfortable writing or giving ideas this way. I think if there are people who do not have a voice right now, then we should give them one and I think that that is a way to do that.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: okay. It is still something I have not addressed with admin like whether or not policy wise it is okay, but it is something we can revisit in looking at the next Big Cheese. If anyone has any questions or concerns they want to bring up, with admin or any specific admin please send us an email and we can get an answer for you.
Monthly Expenditure Report
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: I wanted everybody’s feedback on whether you think that posting a spreadsheet like this would be useful? It would go up every month on the SGA blog and it lists every expenditure made by SGA for clubs and New York Times, every single expense that we have in that month. As you see, it shows what it goes towards and the amount and the date. So I wanted to get a feel if people think that it would be useful?
Vrinda Varia ‘13: essentially, this is every single item that somebody can ask for a reimbursement for. So this is literally what SGA dues are going to or how much SGA dues are going out to various students who are getting reimbursed. Sowmya hid the names, but club names are posted so you do not know what students are affiliated with it. It is more of an effort to keep SFC and SGA treasury accountable for how much money they are giving out to clubs and organizations.
Maddy Court ‘13: I feel like it’s enough that we can see everyone’s budget. I can’t imagine anyone going through this
Sowmya Srinivasan ’13: the thing with that is that all of the budgets are posted on Moodle, but everyone doesn’t have access to that. So this is something that everybody can see.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: is it possible to put the budgets on the Moodle?
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: it would be a lot of work.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: this is in light of the fact that SGA is coming out of a deficit right now. You guys asked us a lot of questions about how we are recovering from the deficit and why we got into a deficit in the first place. So this is something we are trying out and do not know if it will work. Why don’t we do a straw poll?
Emily Tong ‘13: I think it’s hard to read that. I am not sure how else we could read it, but it is a list of numbers for me and I don’t feel that it would be used.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: does anyone have any suggestions?
Emily Tong ‘13: maybe a total amount that has been spent. A pie chart would be crazy, but I am not sure.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: monthly what clubs spend or monthly what SGA spends?
Emily Tong ‘13: what SGA spends. But I don’t know, is there a way to present that information that is more legible?
Vrinda Varia ‘13: essentially, totaling this so this is what we spent this month, this is what we spent this month?
Sowmya Srinivasan ’13: I could always announce it.
Lee McClenon ‘14: for me, it just seems not very useful because budgets are already set. So even if I saw that the open mic club spent $300 on pencils and I think that that’s stupid, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. So maybe it would be more useful to have more transparency in the budgeting process. So say why different clubs deserve this much money and then once you give the clubs the money, they can spend it according to how they budgeted for it.
Sowmya Srinivasan ‘13: I guess the question then is what way do you see the transparency during budgeting? Do you have any suggestions for that?
Lee McClenon ‘14: I guess in like applying for a club budget, I don’t know if there are set guidelines about what gets funded and why. So what sort of things should you apply for funding for? I think people were confused about transportation for things, and they applied for funding and didn’t get funded for it and were confused. How does the Student Finance Committee make decisions and what sort of clubs are valued more than other clubs? Are there clubs that give public performances more valued versus clubs that are private? That sort of idea.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: so I guess revising the bylaws to be more visible would benefit that.
Kersti Francis ‘13: I think it’s a great idea, but I feel bad that Sowmya put a lot of effort in doing this, but I am not sure how people would access it when it’s done. I feel bad making someone do all of this work for no one to appreciates it.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: yeah, and that is understandable. Something that we have come to understand is that SGA finances are not supposed to be this complicated, and the fact that we are trying to recover, we don’t think they mean to be something that is hidden or something where everybody is like “Oh my god, the treasurer is so scary”…like its Sowmya! We want this to be as friendly and an easy conversation and talking about finances can sometimes get confusing and nitty-gritty. So we are just trying to make it as easy and fair a process as possible.
Amani Chowdhury ‘14: I feel like the deficit came up because someone didn’t do something like this and it kind of crept up on us. This is awesome because it does show everything. I don’t know how we can use it if it’s given to us, but I do like that there is good record keeping of this so we do not make this mistake again.
Constitution Review Discussion
Vrinda Varia ‘13: all Assembly members should have received an email from Natalie about reviewing the constitution for this week’s SGA meeting. Did you all read the constitution? Is that a yes? Some of you did and some of you didn’t. There have been a lot of questions about whether or not the constitution is representative of SGA of what we are actually doing and hope to do and what we can do. So we were toying around with the idea of forming a constitution review committee. Chloe and Lee posed the idea to us and that is something that the Appointments Committee is going to start looking into in looking at the next appointments round, but before we are up to the point of bringing up to Appointments to actually develop a committee, we wanted to talk about the actual document and look at certain parts of it that you think are representing Bryn Mawr and the SGA appropriately and whether if we go into this with the committee they are not sort of blindsided. How do we develop this committee and what will it do. So that is why we had you guys overlook the constitution to give us some feedback. In all honesty, how many of you guys did review the constitution? This conversation probably will not be the most productive if you guys did not review it. How many people have laptops and can access the constitution?
Lee McClenon ‘14: is this clear what we are talking about. Do people understand why we would want to review the constitution?
Assembly: no
Lee McClenon ’14: I have read the constitution, and I think people who have, there are a lot of things that do not necessarily represent what we do. There are things that do obviously represent things that we do, but there are things that don’t represent what we do. So I think looking at that to see if there are things we want to bring back, that were good ideas, or have fallen away because they were a bad idea, or it is just very confusing, the structure of SGA. Why are some elected? Why are some not elected? So I think thinking specifically about what is SGA right now and what you think it should look like? How could SGA do more for the student body? I think we are always talking about how to get more people involved in SGA or how to tell people about what we do, but what is important about SGA to you? What would you like to see it do that it is not currently doing? And is that reflected in this paper that is supposed to represent us?
Devanshi Vaid ‘13: would it be more helpful to get everyone to read it or maybe go over it today and then go over it next time?
Vrinda Varia ‘13: well that is why you were supposed to come to SGA with it read. Our next meeting is not until after December. Should we push it off till everyone reads it?
Lee McClenon ‘14: this is a curiosity of mine. But if you all don’t think it’s important, then that is okay too.
Diana Tive ‘15: are there subsections that you think we should pay attention to?
Lee McClenon ‘14: I think that as an SGA member, you should pay attention to what you roll is because some of them are really weird. Being Res-Co Head last year, things are all over the place. Dorm presidents don’t know what they are supposed to do because it’s not written in the constitution. One thing that sparked this curiosity in me personally, is that last year we had a Plenary resolution to say that the Board of Trustees Representative should no longer be elected, and so from that conversation, why did we make that choice? Why are some things, just to consider, like maybe COPS head, an elected position? Does it represent students, who is it representing, and is that written in? It is hard to think about when we are here because we know what we do. But 10 years down the line, is that being preserved when you are creating and getting rid of positions
Vrinda Varia ‘13: that happens not only when looking at positions, but also in looking at interactions with people. Irene has been working on updating the Honor Code. The thing about updating the constitution, is that it can only happen, as it says in the constitution, in a Plenary resolution. So there are only real 2 opportunities to make resolutions to make changes every year. By the time people have read enough to the constitution and feel like they have the authority to make changes, time passes really quickly. That is why we are trying start the conversation early and to plant seeds and then form a committee that can actually look at that. So we can make the changes that we feel reflect us and represent us a little better and represent us as we are and can be as well.
Lee McClenon ’14: also, why it should be a committee as opposed to one Plenary resolution that I could write by myself or any one of us could write by themselves. This is because the constitution as it stands is like 100 years of Plenary resolutions pasted together in no order, and that is why no one ever reads it because it is really hard to read. So going back through it and putting some structure in it could help make SGA more accessible or make more sense.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: that is also a reason why we are coming to you about this because as individuals that have worked within the confines of the constitution a lot this year, we also feel like because a lot of our position is limited almost by what the constitution dictates, we really do need to hear student feedback about it because we cannot do this without you all. Instead of talking about the constitution itself, which you will all promise to read by the December 2nd meeting. This is me holding you guys accountable. And we will talk about the actual document then, what we should do now is talk about what SGA is now. So what is it currently and what can it be? So we can have a way to preface that conversation on the 2nd.
Kelly Wilkinson ‘14: I was going to ask if maybe the dorm presidents all meet together and review their section or the class presidents, that seems accurate to me and I don’t think it should change.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: right, that is one section of the constitution though. I think that we can absolutely do that.
Kelly Wilkinson ’14: I was asking if it would all be covered?
Vrinda Varia ’13: we can definitely do that on the meeting on the 2nd. We can break into groups and people can talk to other people about their particular goal, but looking outside the role, there is a lot of other sections about the constitution that we want to hear back about. We can definitely have people facilitate conversations about peoples roles.
Kendra Kelly ‘13: I was going to pose that also that each individual group look into that because I know sometimes that the constitution talks about things that do not exist anymore or just are not as accurate. I feel like, for example when I read the Student Curriculum Committee, I don’t know the ins and outs so I can’t say what is missing. So I would like to second that each group do a line by line overhaul of their section and a description of what their role is.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: yeah, and that is something we can do on the 2nd like I said. I would really appreciate that everyone review the constitution in its entirety because I think that there is a lot more there than just each position. There is a lot more about the fact that we are a self-governing association. That does not happen at a lot of other colleges. So what makes that special? Why do we want to continue that? A lot of those questions can be asked of the constitution. So why don’t we break into small groups and let’s talk about SGA and how it stands today, and what we see SGA being so we can have a basis for our conversation on the 2nd. Can we have a representative from every group and share with us what you talked about.
Chloe Baumann ‘14: we talked a lot about what exactly we do. Forming a committee and having campus wide discussions. We also talked a lot about better defining the definition of SGA. Kind of getting back to the discussions we have had about whether SGA is political or not and how we interact with that was something that was important to our group. Also, potentially dealing with the fact that we have a ridiculous quantity of positions to be filled and the apathy that goes with that.
Vicki Sear ‘13: we talked about the accessibility of SGA and how people can gain and access information about SGA. Also, streamlining positions in the sense that there are a lot that aren’t filled, that need to be filled, that may not be needed anymore. And whether some positions should be appointed versus elected and how you decide that.
Sophia Dauria ‘15: I was reading the constitution while we were talking and there are sections of it about committees and boards and things that do not exist, so that is one thing on updating it. We had the question of what happened and why don’t those boards exist. So when did that start happening and why aren’t we operating under this constitution. Why have we gotten to the point where we do need to overhaul it. We were talking about who was going to be making up this committee and we thought many be each section or each position should appoint a person to edit their section and present that to the committee to be included.
Kendra Kelly ‘13: we talked about how unique the SGA is and how it’s not something that all campuses have. Even though there is sometimes minimal enthusiasm it is something that is so special that we need to find ways to sustain it. We talked about freshman coming in and being told about SGA, and yes it is a component to customs week, and trying to find ways to make it more part of the Bryn Mawr culture and something that has as much enthusiasm as traditions. That does not mean that people have to come to every meeting and hold a position, but just speaking about it and so maybe partnering with the customs people or the customs committee and just getting people knowing a solid definition of what SGA is and what it means to self-governed. The first word being key because if we are having trouble as an Assembly to define it, how can we have that conveyed to incoming students to keep that culture alive.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16: my group talked about the requirements for the different positions and how they are outdated. The other people in my group were dorm presidents, and especially there, there are a lot of things that we just don’t do anymore and requirements for things that don’t exist. We talked about how it’s important to get more people involved in SGA because its disappointing how people just don’t come.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: I have a blunt question. So nobody has read the constitution, how do you know what your jobs are? Who told you? I am genuinely interested because being someone that has to pass down information and create constitutional memory, that is supposed to be the document that does it. So how do you guys get your info?
Stephanie Clarke ‘13: form Dorm Presidents, we are given a binder at the beginning of the year and the Res-Co Heads have pasted what the constitution says our roles are. So that is how I knew. They also went over it with us.
Devanshi Vaid ‘13: the first time I read the constitution, I read only my section of it. What it seems to me is that we, at least for us, we learned what we do from how other people who have had this position tell us what our job is and how we go about doing it. It changes a little bit every year, which is what seems to be happening now. People get an outline saying this is what we do, this is how we did it and you tell next year’s people what your way was. Maybe that is how the changes have become so drastic. It is a little bit of change, a little bit of change, and if you look back five or six years, it has just been passed down.
Maddy Court ‘13: both times I served as Class President, I met with the person who had served the previous year or emailed them.
Kersti Francis ‘13: same, oral tradition.
Morgan Turner ‘13: I just wanted to mention that as Dorm Presidents, Dorm Presidents do go through training at the beginning of the year.
Ali Raeber ‘13: I am Elections Head and there isn’t a lot in the constitution to do how to do what it is that I do. It was Elizabeth held wrote bylaws for it, but it’s still not particularly specific. So when I have concerns, I consult with Irene or Priya about what’s in the Honor Code and from there we just set a precedent and we pass that down without writing it down, which is probably not the right way to do it.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: I am in agreement with a lot of that in my role. There is a sentence about what I do in the constitution and so a lot of it is learned in other ways. I think that this is a really good opportunity for us to make sure what we do do is adequately represented not only for ourselves, but for our successors. So that people coming into this are not like “what does a Member at Large do?” They are able to look that up in the document and see this is what a Member at Large dos and this is how to get involved. One more thing. I think it would be awesome and powerful if Assembly members volunteered to be a part of this committee. You already know each other and have access to each other, but like also you guys are the ones that have to read it. Nobody else in the community has to read it. They should but they don’t have to. So I would appreciate students from the Assembly spearheading this. Think about it and we will bring it up on the 2nd when the constitution is read.
New Business
Jenna Meyers ‘14: I am the Faculty Rep. There was a faculty meeting November 14th. They discussed the curriculum and implementing writing courses in all departments because they don’t feel that students do leave Bryn Mawr with enough writing skills. So they are thinking about implementing a class for each department and different ways to fulfill that requirement to help their writing style by the time they have their senior thesis.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: this is Jenna’s first faculty meeting. So if is anything students want to bring up or make faculty aware of, this would be a good time to tell her.
Kersti Francis ‘13: how often do they meet?
Jenna Meyers ‘14: once a month roughly. The next one is December 5th.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: So does anyone have any questions for the topics that were presented so that she can get anything new for next month.
Diana Tive ‘15: would this be a new requirement for majors or for if I happen to take a class in bio, would I have to take a bio writing class?
Jenna Meyers ‘14: no. What they were saying is that it is mainly for your major. So it will be a class intended for your major. But sometimes you can fulfill the writing requirement through a different major depending on how the majors work together.
Vrinda Varia ‘13: also these are faculty ideas. They are not final.