SGA Meeting 03/31/13
Natalie calls the meeting to order at 7:10 PM.
Absent: Kayla Bondi, Anika Ali, Sophia Dauria, Taj Meyer, Jenn Burns, Lija Geller, Kersti Francis, Makala Forster, Karunya Venugopal, Xavia Miles, Alicia Makepeace, Alexandra Kirsch, Tina Chang, Emily Tong
Announcements:
Karina Siu ’14: Next Wednesday April 10th, soccer is going to be having their annual soccer sale, when an outside company will bring sneakers to the gym for 50-75% off! If you want new sneakers, come to the gym for good, cheap shoes! All the major brands.
Amanda Beardall ’14: On Saturday, April 13th, the CEO will be sponsoring a trip for Walk Against Hunger. We would be helping out with the run from around 8 AM to 12:30 PM. If you are interested in volunteering, you can email me atabeardall@brynmawr.edu.
The CEO is also looking for a new service and outreach coordinator from the freshman and sophomore class. The application is due Friday, April 5th at 12 PM.
Rebecca Cook ’15: I’d like to make an announcement about the April appointments round. New appointments have been added which can be seen at appointments.blogs.brynmawr.edu. Tell your friends. I’ll be putting up signs around campus and the information will be in the activities emails.
Michelle Lee ‘15: Elections are coming up! The positions that are up for re-elections can be seen on elections.blogs.brynmawr.edu. Nominations start after this meeting! It’s important to nominate people. There are a lot of positions and we need to get them all filled for next year.
Natalie Kato ‘14: Big Cheese Forum is on Sunday, April 7th. We have invited John Griffith, Jerry Berenson, Dean Rasmussen, Laurie Koehler, and President McAuliffe. The topics of discussion will be housing, the interim president, campus finances, financial aid and scholarships, and academics. The specific questions will be posted on sga.blogs.brynmawr.edu. The question about dining services was taken off the list because it was involving rumors that I addressed with Bernie Chung-Templeton who said that the rumors are not true. However, we will try to get Bernie to a meeting at the end of April to talk about dining services next year.
Your Two Cents:
Michelle Lee ’15: I wanted to hold a straw poll for two questions.
I’m thinking about making some changes to how elections are run. I would like to get your opinions on the date of the candidate’s forum, as there has been very low turnout recently. It’s important that people come and you can get more of a feel for the candidates and how they will act in their position.
The date for this round would be either Wednesday April 10th or Thursday April 11th. Another option is Sunday, April 14th, after the SGA meeting. There are pros and cons to each day. Wednesday is the day that we have always done it. Thursday might be nice because lots of people’s weekend start on Thursday nights and they might have more free time. On Sunday, right after the SGA meeting, that might be easier, but people do have lots of work on Sunday nights. Does anyone have a different date or suggestions?
Natalie Kato ’14: Does anyone have any comments or questions regarding the dates?
Lindsey Crowe ’14: Are these optional or after SGA does everyone have to stay?
Michelle Lee ’15: Candidate’s forum isn’t mandatory. I would encourage you to come after SGA, even though I know that it’s a lot of time, but it would be nice to have more people to come.
Natalie Kato ’14: Anyone can vote on a given topic. The options for candidate’s forum are: Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday.
Irene Shin ’13: I don’t think the day really matters, because people are always going to be busy. I think publicity is important, which in the past has been done by the listserv. Maybe have it in the campus center at night would make a difference.
Michelle Lee ’15: Location was my next question. Because we don’t have the listserv, any little change could make a difference.
Natalie Kato ’14: Let’s move on to a straw poll. The options are having candidate’s forum on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Everyone can vote once.
Straw Poll
Wednesday: fewer votes
Thursday: most votes
Sunday: fewest votes
The candidate’s forum will be held on Thursday April 11th.
Michelle Lee ’15: My next question is location. We could have it back in Thomas 110. We were also thinking Dalton 300 or the Campus Center. Again, there are pros and cons for all of them. Thomas 110 is a lot harder to leave. In the Campus Center, more people would come but it would be easier to leave in the middle of the forum. Dalton 300 is comfier, but it is not as central
Kendra Kelly ’13: I would check and make sure what rooms are available.
Michelle Lee ‘15: I’ll check on Virtual EMS. I just want to get a feel for what people would think would be a better location to hold the candidate’s forum. Does anyone have an opinion?
Natalie Zamora ’14: I don’t understand what would be a con for having it in the Campus Center with people coming in and out.
Michelle Lee ’15: It is disruptive if people are leaving in the middle of the forum. Towards the end, more people leave, but it is important to hear every candidate. However, if we give them the freedom to come and go, they might be more willing to come.
Sarah Bristow ’14: When would the forum be held during the day on Thursday?
Michelle Lee ’15: Later at night.
Natalie Kato ’14: We will move on to a straw poll. The options are Thomas 110, the Campus Center, or Dalton 300.
Straw Poll
Thomas 110: Some votes
Dalton 300: Fewest votes
Campus Center: Most votes
We will be having candidate’s forum in the Campus Center.
Michelle Lee ’15: It will be held in the Campus Center on Thursday, April 11th. It will probably start around 8 PM. I’m going to be putting a lot of information on social media. If you guys could please share the information that would be great, because more people will hear about it from many different people.
Budget Meeting Review:
Natalie Kato ’14: The Budget Review Meeting happened last week. Some of those who were in attendance were the CFO, economists, the representative from the graduate school of social work, the president, somebody who maintains the endowment – so there are a lot of people involved in Bryn Mawr’s finances.
The endowment is doing very well. It is at 19.8 million this year, up from 11 million.
A new scholarship program next year will begin to get more regular donations. This will involve donors giving money to specific students for all four years of their college careers.
Enrollments for first-years – 369 students are expected. There are already students who have accepted. Acceptance letters went out last week. There is an expected average discount rate of 44%.
They briefly discussed dining services. Part of the reason of overspending was that they overestimated how much savings they would get from closing Rhoads Dining Hall. They have requested a $200,000 increase for next year’s budget but will not be touching the fact that two-thirds of the budget goes towards dining services employees.
With regards to Haffner and its construction – there was no money put aside for this endeavor. Additional money will have to be taken out through loans, which means that we will be in debt for a little bit.
Our tuition will be increasing by 3%. This is along the lines with our constituent schools that we compare tuitions with.
The SEADS program is expected to come out over the summer. SEADS is essentially combining the virtual accounts.
Does anybody have any questions?
Kauen Bae ’15: With the tuition increase, what is happening with financial aid?
Natalie Kato ’14: The grants for scholarships go up by similar percentages with respect to tuition. They are expected to up with the tuition.
Natalie Zamora ’14: Is this information going to be posted anywhere?
Natalie Kato ’14: This information will be in the minutes and posted to sga.blogs.brynmawr.edu
Elizabeth Vandenburg ’16: As for the new scholarship option, what happens if the student receives the scholarship but then the donor stops paying?
Natalie Kato ‘14: They won’t stop paying year after year; they pay for the whole for the entire duration that the students are here. What usually happens is that donors will donate and then stop after a certain amount of time. This is attempting to prevent the stopping of donations. By donating a lump sum to a student, they are providing money for the college career.
If anybody has any questions, feel free to approach us or email at sga@brynmawr.edu.
Outreach and Communications Presentation:
Natalie Kato ’14: If the members of the Outreach and Communications Committee could come up and introduce themselves. This committee is an appointed committee. This round is coming up.
Lindsey Crowe ’14: The Outreach and Communications Committee was created under the term of Yong Jung. It waswas created to help advertise minor events such as plenary. We have revamped what the committee will do. We now want to be a bridge between incoming faculty, staff, administration, and students to help everyone realize things that more well-rounded mawrters understand. It’s to help avoid situations like the friendship poles when the grounds crew didn’t really understand what the poles were. It is to help define and help people understand what the Bryn Mawr community is.
Marisa Rafsky ’16: I’m Marisa, a member of the Outreach and Communications Commmittee.
Natalie Kato ’14: This is their introduction video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbWzXAn3h3Q&feature=youtu.be
I hope you guys could all hear that. If not, follow them on the YouTube channel. A link to their page will be on the SGA blog. Some videos in the future you should look out for will be regarding the question of what is self-governance, videos about the SGA, how to get involved, plenary… those are just some of the topics we decided on in the early stages. It will start to reach out to other aspects of BMC community.
Lindsey Crowe ’14: As of now, since we are still in the establishing stages of this committee, we have basic series to create a binder of definitions that everyone now knows. In the future we will be taking questions about anything: internships, travel, where to find any information. Does anybody have any questions?
Irene Shin ’13: So you’re saying that any questions can be asked by the student body?
Natalie Kato ’14: Generally any question in line with the honor code.
Lindsey Crowe ‘14: We aren’t the only ones answering. It’s sort of a search engine, and we will find the people to answer your questions.
Natalie Kato ‘14: Expect to see more videos towards the end of this year and next year.
Any comments can be emailed to theoccbmc@gmail.com.
To request new videos, email theoccbmc@gmail.com or post them in the comments section.
Posting Policy Revision Presentation:
Natalie Kato ’14: At the Fall 2012 plenary, Natalie Zamora had a resolution about the posting policy and the awareness that there needs to be a revision. She has brought forth a draft that you should have received in an email.
Natalie Zamora ’14: I drafted a somewhat revised posting policy. I kept some things from the old one, such as size restrictions.
Posting Policy [DRAFT]
By Natalie Zamora 2014
WITHIN THE RESIDENCE HALLS
- Bulletin boards are mounted in the entrance to each residence hall and all notices will be restricted to these bulletin boards. SGA boards will be labeled as such; only SGA related posts can be posted on these boards.
- Students may post in bathroom stalls in dorms if only the tape used will not affect the door’s surface. Posting in bathrooms should be done sparingly.
- All information must be dated (either the date it will be posted or the date of the event advertised) by the individual prior to posting and include a contact email address.
- Dorm Presidents are in charge of removing outdated posts posted on the free space boards and the SGA boards.
- Hall Advisors are in charge of removing outdated posts posted on the Hall Advisor Boards and in the hall bathrooms.
- Size of posted literature will be restricted as follows:
- Items announcing specific events, parties, lectures may not exceed 24″ X 36″.
- Items announcing regular scheduled meetings or events may not exceed 11″ X 17″.
- Items of general information (for example, books for sale, apartments to rent, etc) may not exceed 8 1/2″ X 11″.
- Posters or banners exceeding 24″ X 36″ may be hung in one place on campus: over the McBride Gateway.
- Consistent infractions of Posting Policy within dorm spaces will be addresses by the Dorm Presidents.
Natalie Kato ’14: Does anyone have any additions, edits, or comments about the posting policy within residence halls?
Anna Kalinsky ’14: Point number two: the use of the word ‘sparingly’ is ambiguous. Maybe say, limit it to one poster per stall, or one stall per bathroom.
Natalie Zamora ’14: I was thinking about what exactly would be too much. My view of what is excessive and what is excessive to somebody else is different. I would want some help regarding that. What do you think is excessive and too much to post on a bathroom stall?
Chloe Baumann ’14: It is a radical shift from the posting policy, which said that nothing could be posted in bathrooms. I don’t see the point of posting in bathrooms if there are bulletin boards in the dorms. It is repetitive within the dorm. I interpret sparingly as twice per semester. Every bathroom in the building is a lot of posting. We could cut down on numbers.
Natalie Zamora ‘14: Stalls Illustrated is targeted to be posted in the bathrooms specifically.
Chloe Baumann ‘14: Could the name of Stalls Illustrated be changed and posted on a bulletin board?
Natalie Zamora ’14: That decision is up to who runs it. I was talking about bathroom spaces because currently they are being used as spots to advertise so it should be addressed in the posting policy.
Kendra Kelly ’13: The two things that are posted in bathroom stalls that are successful are Stalls Illustrated and the Mawrk Notes. I think that there has been a lot of conversation surrounding that and it is a successful system. It is a good way of getting people’s focus. There should be specific suggestions of maybe having just those two forms of literature in the stalls.
Natalie Zamora ’14: I don’t want to limit anyone’s voice in case in the future other longer reports should be posted in the bathroom. Maybe there could be an established word count.
Maddy Court ’13: A good way to determine is what could be read in one bathroom session. I think that is around four posters around the same length as Stalls Illustrated.
Chloe Baumann ‘14: One page full of text, like a newsletter, rather than just a poster advertising an event.
Marian Slocum ’15: You could just say that ‘sparingly’ can be determined by the HA. That is more specific so it won’t get overcrowded and it is not limiting to anyone.
Irene Shin ’13: The problem with having the HAs is asking all the HAs. I was just thinking having a limit to how many posters can be in each stall. Each poster can have a date posted and then when there are too many posters, the oldest poster can go first. Then everybody can have a chance – it’s first-come, first-serve.
Nikki Ditto ’14: Number two should read, “in dorms only if the tapes used”, not “if only the tape used”.
Natalie Zamora ’14: That can be fixed.
Karina Siu ’14: I am the SAAC Rep. Stalls Illustrated has been posted for the past 4 years. We have posted in bathrooms and nobody has complained. In places where they have asked us not to, we make sure that they are not posted there. They are supposed to be taken down every two weeks and put up a new one. We have specific people to take them down and put them up. That’s what we do to make sure that they are not cluttering the bathroom, if that helps with having another posting policy. I know the HAs are supposed to do the boards, but SAAC does it for Stalls Illustrated.
Raminda Holden ’14: Number one’s wording sounds restrictive.
Natalie Zamora ’14: The boards in the entrance are for residence halls as well as other notices. Things that regard either the residence hall itself (dorm specific) are to be posted there as well as general notices.
Raminta Holden ‘14: Can other things can be posted in other places?
Natalie Zamora ‘14: The entrances are a free space which is different from posting about an event on an HA board. There is a place to post school-wide events, which is the bulletin board, not the HA board.
Kendra Kelly 13: Some dorms have more boards than are listed.
Chloe Baumann ‘14: If we could establish where each board is and have them labeled and standardized, then boards on the 3rd floor of Erdman could be free space board, not HA boards. Instead of saying “in the entrance”, say “all free space boards”. Make sure that every hall has one board or have a designated section of space on a wall, with labels such as “free space”, “SGA board”, etc.
Natalie Zamora ‘14: The first guideline would be to have dorm presidents and HAs work together to label the boards in the dorm as either free space, HA, or SGA. We could have an established timeline – before a certain time during the year, all boards should be labeled.
Elizabeth Vandenburg ’16: Number seven is different form the original posting policy. This says that consistent infractions will be addressed by the dorm president. What is a consistent infraction?
Natalie Zamora ‘14: It is easy to determine who is consistently posting incorrectly, like if they are wrongly posting on HA boards, if they post on the walls… if something goes wrong, it will not go unnoticed. It should not be punished by the honor board, but the dorm presidents should take care of it themselves.
Chloe Baumann ‘14: You don’t mention about adding contact information. You might want to add it in.
Natalie Zamora ‘14: It’s in point three.
Natalie Kato ‘14: We’re going to move on to outside grounds. Just keep in mind that this is a draft.
THE OUTSIDE GROUNDS
The outside grounds include lamp posts, street signs, sidewalks, exterior walls and doors, utility poles, trees and other immobile objects considered part of the property.
- Items may not be posted (tacked, tied, taped, stapled) on any outside areas except on bulletin boards provided expressly for this purpose. All outdoor bulletin boards will be labeled for general notices. Persons and groups in violation of this may be assessed all or part of the costs of removal and repair of damage.
- The size of any notice posted outside may not exceed 11″ X 17″.
- Items announcing specific events will be removed after the event. Items of general information will be removed after 14 days.
- Chalking is permitted on sidewalks only. No chalking on vertical spaces (eg. Erdman walls)
- As much as possible, all expired or improperly posted items will be recycled. Persons wishing to reclaim a posted notice must do so immediately after the expiration date of the notice. The College assumes no responsibility for retaining posted information.
- Items should be placed in a clear area of the bulletin board. Items found posted over other items will be moved to a clear area of the board.
This is all the same as the old policy, except for number four, about chalking. Vertical spaces are specified, for example, Erdman walls. That was the only major violation.
Chloe Baumann ’14: Number four: sidewalks is limited. People do chalk out near Taylor or by the arch, which is not sidewalk. You could specify horizontal surfaces not including arches.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: What would be the repercussions for not following it? For both residential halls and outside grounds.
Natalie Zamora ‘14: For residence halls, it is up to the dorm presidents if they feel that there is something wrong. For outside grounds, it is the same as they have been before. There is no consequence. It is an outdoor space so the school and the groundskeepers have control of it. If they have a problem they can bring it up to somebody in SGA to announce to the students to not chalk in a certain place.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: It should be stated that it should be students’ responsibility to take things down, so at least it’s out there, if there are no clear repercussions.
Natalie Kato ’14: Any other comments?
Chloe Baumann ’14: I understand that there is no clear repercussion in inside spaces. When we start talking about impacting grounds and facilities – the violations outdoors are often glaring. We could lay out potential repercussions so nobody commits any violations. Chalking on vertical surfaces stay around for weeks. If this violation happens certain times a semester, we could insert a committee to think about the repercussions so that no clubs or individuals do this.
Elizbath Vandenburg ’16: You talk about how information will be removed after a couple days in item number three.
Natalie Zamora ‘14: That was something that was kept from the old posting policy. What they mean is that items will be removed after fourteen days by grounds, if not the students themselves. After fourteen days, anybody can take them down.
Natalie Kato ‘14: We need to motion to continue this discussion. Vote to extend time for 5 minutes? We are going to table this discussion. Natalie will make revisions. She will be having some sort of period where you can ask her questions, collaborate on more revisions. This will go out to the entire student body. The entire student body is invited to attend this informal forum. She will bring it back to a future SGA meeting for more collaboration.