Bryn Mawr College SGA Meeting – September 13, 2015
Roll Call
Announcements
Your Two Cents
Reading of Plenary Resolution
Old Business
New Business
Roll Call
Present: Olivia Hollinger, Elaine Holehan, Rhea Manglani, Madison Wilson, Samantha Heyrich, Jasmine Rangel, Delaney Williams, Natalie DiFrank, Miranda Smith, Chanel Williams, Coco Wang, Emma Basen-Engquist, Kyra Sagal, Shakari Badgett, Lindsey Foster, Modupe Olufemi, Dijia Chen, Rachel Ofili, Eve Cantler, Charlette Williams, Casiana Omick, Bridget Murray, Ana Llamas, JoyAngelica Chan, Ann Tran, Stephanie Montalvan, Emily Siegel, Khadijah Seay, Danielle Cadet, Tosin Ajiboye
Absent: Celeste Ledesma, Emily Gifford-Smith, Mara Dominguez, Connie Lam, Lyntana Brougham, Sarah Andrew
Charlie Bruce ‘16 called the meeting to order at 7:10pm
Charlie Bruce ’16: Hi! Hey everyone, I hope you had a good day. Let’s begin our roll call.
Angela Motte ’17: I’m actually going to be doing an accelerated roll call today.
Roll Call
Present: Olivia Hollinger, Elaine Holehan, Rhea Manglani, Madison Wilson, Samantha Heyrich, Jasmine Rangel, Delaney Williams, Natalie DiFrank, Miranda Smith, Chanel Williams, Coco Wang, Emma Basen-Engquist, Kyra Sagal, Shakari Badgett, Lindsey Foster, Modupe Olufemi, Dijia Chen, Rachel Ofili, Eve Cantler, Charlette Williams, Casiana Omick, Bridget Murray, Ana Llamas, JoyAngelica Chan, Ann Tran, Stephanie Montalvan, Emily Siegel, Khadijah Seay, Danielle Cadet, Tosin Ajiboye
Absent: Celeste Ledesma, Emily Gifford-Smith, Mara Dominguez, Connie Lam, Lyntana Brougham, Sarah Andrew.
Angela Motte ’17: Thank you guys so much. As a reminder, I document whatever any one says during these meetings in my minutes, so please keep that in mind.
Charlie Bruce ’16: On to announcements. During this item, any new items for discussion, questions, or announcements can be made. We have allotted ten minutes for this agenda item.
Announcements
Leah Kahler ’16:Hey guys, I’m Leah. I am serving as the Campus Greening Rep, so I’m the liaison between landscaping crew and students. The projects have yet to be determined, but if you have any ideas of how you want to use the green space, let me know! I’m also here to introduce to you all Dawn, Dawn DiGiovanni. I’m calling her the land lady.
Dawn DiGiovanni: Hello everyone! I just started the job a month ago, I’m really into making sure you have input on the space outside, so email me or tell Leah. My first week here was working at the library to put in a new Ping-Pong table. Starting Tuesday, you can have snacks and play Ping-Pong. Anyway, email us! I would love your input. I worked in forestry, and then I worked in athletics, so the environment is really important to me, so let me know.
Leah Kahler ’16: Thank you so much!
Delaney Williams ’17: Hello I’m Delaney.
Joy Chan ’17: And I’m Joy! Nominations are open now! They end tomorrow, September 14th at 9am. Information sessions are Monday September 14th and Tuesday September 15th. Candidates Forum is Wednesday September 16th at 8 PM in Campus Center Main Lounge. Voting opens Monday September 21st at 9am. It ends Tuesday September 22nd at 7pm.
Delaney Williams ’17: Positions up for election are no more than six Members-At-Large, Haverford College Representative, Off-Campus Representative, Representative to the Faculty, Head(s) of Campus Safety Committee, Office of Intercultural Affairs Representative (Pensby Representative), Class of 2017 Class President, Class of 2019 Class President.
Jasmine Rangel ’17: Hey everyone, I’m Jasmine, and with Celeste, we’re your traditions for the year. Traditions will be hosting dorm meetings from Tuesday, September 15th to Thursday, September 17th. These meeting are an opportunity to ask any clarification questions non-first-year students may have regarding the Hell Week changes and will be treated as a Q&A forum. The meetings will be 30 minutes long. Out of respect for everyone’s time, we will begin promptly at the scheduled time and end at the scheduled time. If you cannot make your dorm meeting, please feel free to join another dorm meeting at a time that best suits your schedule. Tuesday is 7:00 pm Brecon /Batten (main floor Brecon common room), 7:45 pm Erdman /Off Campus (Erdman main common room), 8:30 pm New Dorm /ECC (New Dorm courtyard). Wednesday is 7:00 pm Denbigh (Large Common Room), 7:45 pm Rock (Main floor common room), 8:30 pm Rhodes N and S (Main floor common room). Thursday is 7:00 pm Merion (Main common room), 7:45 pm Radnor /McBrides (Radnor common room), 8:30 pm PW and PE (TBD). If you have any questions, email us. Thank you!
Gabrielle Smith ’17: The application for the September appointments round is live! It will be open until Sunday Sept 20th. The link for the application and position descriptions is on the appointments blog, appointments.blogs.brynmawr.edu. Remember, you must sign up for an interview after you submit your application. If you have any questions, please contact gbsmith@brynmawr.edu.
Charlie Bruce ’16: We have plenary posters- more than we thought! If you are really good at putting up posters, please take some posters, and put them around campus! I think Park is in need. If you can do that, please pick them up, they are in front of Molly. So, I’m going to try something new and I’m going to ask you all a few questions, and see what happens! Shout it out! When is plenary?
(Crowd yells Sunday)
Charlie Bruce ’16: What time?
(Inaudible screams of various times)
Charlie Bruce ’16: I heard a lot of different times, but it is noon! Plenary is this Sunday at noon. If you want to volunteer at Plenary, please do so! If you’re a part of the representative council, you have to volunteer! We have one resolution- I am so excited! Please tell everyone to come, and by everyone I mean at least 448 people.
Molly MacDougall ’16: Speaking of Plenary! We still have 2 tables left. Please email me if you would like to table.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Also, please can someone sell cupcakes.
Molly MacDougall ‘16: ‘She’s the First’ will be selling cupcakes!
Charlie Bruce ’16: Ok, we’re going to move on to Your Two Cents! We have allotted ten minutes for this agenda item.
Your Two Cents
Charlie Bruce ’16: No cents? Ok, on to the reading of the Plenary resolution.
Reading of Plenary Resolution
Delaney Williams ’17: Ok, so I’m going to read it out again. “Whereas, there’s no dedicated budget or staff for sustainability at the college. Whereas, sustainable initiatives such as conservation hours, tray-less dining halls, LED lighting, composting, and waste reduction have saved funds for the college. Whereas, initiatives take place through partnerships of students, staff, and faculty. Whereas, in the future such a fund could save the college money. Whereas, a mission including sustainability would be attractive to prospective students Whereas, the college has previously set and met goals for sustainability and in or Be it Resolved, the college initiates a fund to support sustainable initiatives and/or staffing in which cost savings from new sustainable initiatives are deposited. Be it Resolved, the college includes sustainability in its mission.” Any questions?
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: Can you give us an example of future sustainability initiatives?
Delaney Williams ’17: As a committee we would decide what these are, and a lot has to do with education. We haven’t done the efforts to educate people, so if we made it that our knowledge was easily accessible, it would help to reduce the amount of actual work that we do. So for example, educating people on landfills versus incinerators.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: Thanks!
Delaney Williams ’17: Ok, thank you.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Plenary packets will be mailed out this week, and a physical copy will be given out at plenary. Any other further comments or questions? Nope, so on to old business!
Old Business
Shakari Badgett ’17: Hey y’all, just letting you know we have a party name change. Heaven versus Hell is a bit religious, so we’re going to change it to vice versus virtue.
Kyra Sagal ’17: Also, the party is tentatively going to be November 14th. We were thinking the pit would be a wet party, and the upstairs would be dry.
Shakari Badgett ’17: Also if you are 21 years or older, and you would like to help host, please let us know! Thank you! My email is sbadgett@brynmawr.edu, feel free to email me.
Delaney Williams ’17: Isn’t that conflicting with East vs. West?
Modupe Olufemi’17: We’re moving East West to the spring.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Any other questions? Any other items? Ok, new business!
New Business
Bridget Murray ’17: We are the bulk of what will be the newly revived alcohol concerns review board. It’s made up of the dorm presidents from Radnor, Rhoads, the SoCo head, Haverford Rep, two members of the Honor Board, COPS representative, and a member of the community. This is in the constitution, and it hasn’t really been used, but basically Dean B wanted to resurrect it and put it to use. We don’t really know what to do, so we are hoping to reach out to you guys to see what you all would want to see out of the alcohol concerns review board. If you want to look it up, its in something like subsection 11, section 11, the constitution has a bunch of sections, anyway, we meet and go over party policy and go over forms. We publish a report regarding hearings that happen, I think, that generally involves party policy. It’s fairly outdated, so I don’t know how much of it will be relevant, so we want to know what you guys want to see.
Miranda Smith ’16: I guess my only concern is that you’ll want to revamp this, and I would want to see this as a transparent process where the community can see it.
Samantha Heyrich ’17: Some of our meetings are confidential.
Bridget Murray ’17: But that’s what our statistical reports are for.
Miranda Smith ’16: Toats understood, but I meant like any changes that you make to the board, make sure that the changes are widely understood by the community.
Shakari Badgett ’17: Would this be underage drinking, servers getting caught giving someone less than 21 alcohol?
Molly MacDougall ’16: Can I speak to this? They can handle issues only pertaining to the breach of the party policy. Anything against the law goes to the dean’s panel, and anything against the social honor code goes to us, the Honor Board.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: Why wouldn’t we just use social hearings and deans panels?
Samantha Heyrich “17: We’re just staring, so we just have started it all.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: But-
Samantha Heyrich ’17: We don’t really know anything.
Molly MacDougall ’16: Ok, so the review board is more for like the party policy, because the party policy isn’t in the honor code. So like, if someone breaks party policy by not filling out something right, they would go to this board versus going to a social hearing.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: Cool, so why now?
Bridget Murray ’17: We don’t know why this was resurrected. Does Charlie know?
Charlie Bruce ’16: The last few years we’ve seen a rise of offenses. It comes in waves. We have a increase of underage consumption of alcohol, so we try to combat it by increasing our education, which leads to reform, and then we see the crest of another wave crashing! This will make the wave crash a little less hard. I don’t know if that is the proper metaphor. This is more for education, this was brought to me through Dean B who was like, “This is in our constitution”, and I was like, “oh, really?”, and she was like “Yes”, and here we are.
Rhea Manglani ’17: This isn’t the most related, but I was COPS head, is it updated that COPS head have to go?
Angela Motte ’17: I have the constitution right in front of me, and it reflects this- yes. If you want to look at it later, I’ll leave my copy on the table.
Erin Saladin ’16: Are you to be doing proactive work versus reactive?
Samantha Heyrich ’17: Let me back up, as SOCO head I will be expanding my role to include party safety and alcohol. We will be more proactive, but my role in this is more reactive.
Charlie Bruce ’16: We’re reached the end of the time allotment, would we like to take a vote to extend time?
Elaine Holehan ’16: Motion to extend time to the end of speaking order.
Shakari Badgett ’17: Second.
Charlie Bruce ’16: This is a representative council vote only, please.
(Vote to extend time passed)
Casiana Omick ’18: Any more questions?
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: This board is referred to by several names, so what name do you want to call it?
Bridget Murray ’17: We’ll talk about it when we meet.
Delaney Williams ’17: I think that the people on the board are outdated, and I think that none of you realized this was a part of what you signed up for.
Bridget Murray ’17: That was something that we talked about. We wanted to do a plenary resolution for the spring.
Modupe Olufemi’17: I think the name, as you do deal with alcohol, but you also deal with so much more, so maybe something reflecting your role with party policy?
Samantha Heyrich ’17: Thanks. Any more questions? Ok, thank you.
Khadijah Seay ’16: We have had lots of instances where members of the community have given themselves self tours of our dorm. We really would like this to stop. Like in the ECC, people will watch our TV. In both dorms we’re put up signs with scheduled tours, and KCass sent an email, so we’re just coming to you all to problem solve. A lot of our residents don’t have faith in our system, such as the social honor code.
Danielle Cadet ’17: We’re also coming from a place where we have done a lot of campus education on what the ECC is, and why that space is important.
Khadijah Seay ’16: It’s also not just first years who come exploring, it’s also upperclass students, and not just people from new dorm, but just people who don’t even live in either space coming int.
Danielle Cadet ’17: It’s a dormitory, not a zoo.
Shakari Badgett ’17: I don’t know what broad things to do, but Dorm President’s can email their residents and explain why it’s important to respect the space. At dorm kickbacks and HA kickbacks, we can talk about it and get it out to the broader community.
Isabelle Chainy ’19: Forgive me for being a first year, but since so many people come to plenary, and a lot of people don’t read emails, could you talk then?
Charlie Bruce ’16: We have moments before plenary starts, right before it begins where we play music and read poetry- you could make an announcement then.
Joy Chan ’17: Do you guys have individual keys to get into the space? Wasn’t it in the old plan that you’d have to have special access?
Danielle Cadet ’17: Yes, and it’s really interesting to see people try to tap their keys to the door, and then try to yank it open. But you can cross over via the cat walk.
Ana Llamas ’16: We talked to ResCo about it, we talked about a key pad in the cross walk, but the system isn’t set up for it.
Joy Chan ’17: What about bells? So it would be like a walk of shame? Like the sounds of shame.
Erin Saladin ’16: What about a poster campaign around campus about appropriate uses of dorm space?
Khadijah Seay ’16: Also as a side note, if anyone wants more information on the ECC, we have projectperry.blogs.brynmawr.edu which is a full history from 1972 to now. We also have black at Bryn Mawr blog, or if reading all that, you wanna hear from students, you can talk to me- I am more than willing to sit down and go through everything.
Delaney Williams ’17: Just another thing, maybe on social network, we as council members can start sharing that information so it can reach a lot of people?
Danielle Cadet ’17: I like that. We can also supply information that you can pass out.
Charlie Bruce ’16: I’m going to add myself to speaking order. In SGA, we use a lot of language that people don’t know. We use Robert’s Rule of Order, but that’s not very accessible to a lot of people. I know that with time RepCo will learn what everything means, but we have this handy little information guide called “SGA Slang.” I don’t want to create a space of exclusivity, so I want to know when you think we as an SGA group should go over terms.
Delaney Williams ’17: I think after Plenary because all newly elected positions will be here.
Charlie Bruce ’16: I mean at what point in the SGA meeting.
Madison Wilson ’17: How about we put it up on the screen instead of the cute pictures?
Shakari Badgett ’17: Or after roll call, because everyone is listening.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: SGA Slang is on the SGA website, but it’s a little hard to find, so maybe it would be better to post it in a more visible way?
Ann Tran ’18: Also the first time you mention something define it.
Erin Saladin ’16: Are you going to go over it at plenary?
Charlie Bruce ’16: Yes, we go over the space, Robert’s Rule of Order, all that- yes. I’ll send this out to Dorm Presidents so they can post it on the SGA boards in the dorms. We have reached the end of our meeting.
Shakari Badgett ’17: I motion to end the meeting.
Elaine Holehan ’16: I second.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Meeting adjourned! Class dismissed!
Meeting adjourned at 8:01pm