Bryn Mawr College SGA Meeting – February 7, 2016
Roll Call
Announcements
Your Two Cents
Plenary Resolution Discussions
Vote on Plenary
Board of Trustees Presentation
Old Business
New Business
Roll Call
Present: Emily Gifford-Smith, Mara Dominguez, Rhea Manglani, Erin Saladin, Maria Minaya, Miranda Smith, Tyler Brown-Cross, Sarah Andrew, Olivia Hollinger, Samantha Heyrich, Jasmine Rangel, Celeste Ledesma, Chanel Williams, Alexis Wiltshire, Connie Lam, Ann Tran, Delia Landers, Hannah Chinn, Nora Dell, Kyra Sagal, Khadijah Seay, Lindsey Foster, Modupe Olufemi, Rachel Ofili, Charlette Williams, Casiana Omick, Stephanie Montalvan, Bridget Murray, Eve Cantler, Emily Siegel, Genesis Perez-Melara, Jess Shill, Alice Bell, Rina Patel, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikitha Shakamuri, Oona Ryle, Veda Nambi
Absent: Nolan Julien, Melanie Bahti, Natalie DiFrank, Sneha Soni, Elizabeth Lorenzana, Diamond Rey, Coco Wang, Radhika Singh, Tosin Ajiboye, Shakari Badgett, Daniele Cadet, Ana Llamas, Dijia Chen
Charlie Bruce ‘16 called the meeting to order at 4:10pm
Charlie Bruce ’16: Hey everyone let’s begin with roll call!
Roll Call
Angela Motte ’17: Hello everyone! As a reminder, I record these meetings, so keep that in mind when you speak.
Present: Emily Gifford-Smith, Mara Dominguez, Rhea Manglani, Erin Saladin, Maria Minaya, Miranda Smith, Tyler Brown-Cross, Sarah Andrew, Olivia Hollinger, Samantha Heyrich, Jasmine Rangel, Celeste Ledesma, Chanel Williams, Alexis Wiltshire, Connie Lam, Ann Tran, Delia Landers, Hannah Chinn, Nora Dell, Kyra Sagal, Khadijah Seay, Lindsey Foster, Modupe Olufemi, Rachel Ofili, Charlette Williams, Casiana Omick, Stephanie Montalvan, Bridget Murray, Eve Cantler, Emily Siegel, Genesis Perez-Melara, Jess Shill, Alice Bell, Rina Patel, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikitha Shakamuri, Oona Ryle, Veda Nambi
Absent: Nolan Julien, Melanie Bahti, Natalie DiFrank, Sneha Soni, Elizabeth Lorenzana, Diamond Rey, Coco Wang, Radhika Singh, Tosin Ajiboye, Shakari Badgett, Daniele Cadet, Ana Llamas, Dijia Chen
Charlie Bruce ’16: Thanks! We’re going to move 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
Molly Mac Dougall ’16: I have a Google form open for tabling at Plenary. The link is as follows: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jyI-45995MmT0SsmCDQVzqJbRuswZrsdEjYah_28zEo/viewform?usp=send_form . Thanks!
Gabrielle Smith ’17: The application is now open to apply to be on the Seven Sisters Conference Planning Committee! For more information please visit http://appointments.blogs.brynmawr.edu. This will to be to plan the Seven Sister’s Conference that Bryn Mawr is hosting this fall.
Angela Motte ’17: I have two announcements! The first is the Dean of the College Candidates Announcement on behalf of Pamela Gassman ’16 – Open session in the Ely room on Tuesday the 9th at 2:30pm to 3:15pm. The second is that it has recently come to my attention that the hours of my extra curricular activities have been misinterpreted. I spend about 40 hours per week with my extra curricular, but that doesn’t come only from SGA. I calculated an average SGA involvement time on an average week to be 14 ½ hours. I have a breakdown if anyone wants to see it. I hope that false information doesn’t dissuade people from joining SGA.
Charlie Bruce ’16: The explanation behind that at candidate’s forum, someone said that Angela spends about 40 hours a week only on SGA things. My announcement is that Plenary is in two weeks! It’s where people come together and create change! We need volunteers.
Casiana Omick ’18: If we’re required to do it, do we still sign up?
Charlie Bruce ’16: Yes.
Emily Gifford-Smith ’16: Thank you for changing the times! The super bowl viewing party is at 6:30 in the Campus Center. Hope to see you there!
Genesis Perez-Melara: Reminder- voting begins tomorrow at 9am. I’m reminding you to remind your peers! A question- how many of you know someone who has a position at SGA, and you don’t want to see them there? Do you know people that should have a position, but they don’t? Yeah? How many of you have told people to run? Point is- tell your friends! Tell them that they can run! You can write in candidates on the ballots. Right now we don’t have candidates for a few positions.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ’19: We are having a bud-rose mixer 5-7 in Quita tonight! Meet some buds, have some roses.
Hannah Chinn ’19: Bud training and Rose training is over…?
Jasmine Rangel ’17 :If it’s like super last minute, and they haven’t been trained, email us.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ’19: It’s also to get to know more people!
Charlie Bruce ’16: Anything else? Ok, next topic!
Your Two Cents
Charlie Bruce ’16: Anything for this? Ok, next topic! Plenary Resolution Discussions.
Plenary Resolution Discussions
Charlie Bruce ’16: Last week we had plenary resolution writers read them out, and that wasn’t the best method to engage. We’re going to have the writers come forward to talk about their resolutions. I’ll be speaking on behalf of the EBoard for next term. The one for the EBoard next year is about reaffirming the values that we uphold.
Molly Mac Dougall ’16: I’m reading three on behalf of the Honor Board. Currently the Deans office reports all hearings that we have to institutions of higher education. At Haverford, they can choose to not report. So basically, we’re asking for the students to give us the discretion to choose in certain cases. Our second resolution is that we take minutes during hearings, and we feel that that’s really awkward and uncomfortable and something you don’t want on your permanent record. We want to take notes instead of minutes.
Mara Dominguez ’16: It wouldn’t be to remove the record, but to keep things personal?
Molly Mac Dougall ’16: Yeah, it would still have a record, but not a verbatim record.
Nikki Barker ’16: Can you clarify what you would record instead of minutes?
Molly Mac Dougall ’16: You can see that on the honor board blog.
Gabrielle Smith ’17: In situations where something was said during the hearings that would be considered inappropriate, how would this keep people accountable?
Molly Mac Dougall ’16: It would be noted, and that would be addressed in another space. But it would be addressed. Third is to reaffirm commitment to positive confrontation. The way the honor code is constructed, unless something is reported to us, we can’t do anything about it. We just want everyone to remember that in order for this to work, we have to be able to respectfully confront a problem with another person. Any questions? Honorboard@brynmawr.edu you can email us!
Nikki Barker ’16: Our resolution has been revised.
Rachel Bruce ’18: Originally, we wanted to add a second blue bus stop, but that’s too complicated .Up until 2008 we had a shuttle that ran. We want to reinstate that!
Nikki Barker ’16: We want to allow greater access to all parts of campus. Also, to increase access to the train stations, the graduate school, to Penn Classes, the R-100, and what not. We have low attendance of events at Pensby and Cambrian Row, and we think by reincarnating this shuttle, we can help with that.
Rachel Bruce ’18: Supposedly, it would run 7am to 7pm, in order to give way to the Lantern van.
Lydia Sanchez ’18: Why was the van cut? Because of money, or?
Nikki Barker ’16: Budget cuts, and people weren’t using it.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ’19: What kind of support have you seen?
Nikki Barker ’16: I conducted an accessibility survey. So, in that survey 60% of people supported a second blue bus stop, so the majority of everyone surveyed wanted increased access to out there.
Casiana Omick ’18: Just to be clear- would it be a student run van?
Nikki Barker ’16: No! According to transportation, it would have to be a professional driver because of liability concerns.
Rachel Bruce ’18: If you want to contact us, email rbruce or nbarker.
Samantha Heyrich ’17: Hi!
Bridget Murray ’17: Hi, I’m also on the board
Samantha Heyrich ’17: So, last week, we presented our resolution. We’ve revised it since then. So, basically, right now its structure is unsustainable. It’s too large at twelve members, so we want it to be restructured to be a smaller number. Our resolution also shifts and changes the function of the board to be a more educational based focus.
Bridget Murray ’17: Also, we wanted to change the name to ‘B-SLOW’, which is “Board of Social Life Orientation and Wellness”
Samantha Heyrich ’17: We are more than willing to change the name of the board, if you have any more creative suggestions. Any questions?
Emma Applbaum ’19: Why are too many people on the board a bad thing?
Samantha Heyrich ’17: We cannot logistically find a time where everyone can meet. It’s almost impossible. Just to clarify- this is to modernize the board. The point of this resolution is to make it timeless so that in five years from now, it’s still relevant.
Nora Dell ’19: You said something about the education?
Samantha Heyrich ’17: I have had many meetings and the reason that this board was reinstated this year was that the college had increased incidents of drug and alcohol incidents on campus. The college revisited the SGA constitution and saw that we have this board, so we are using this board as an educational tool. We are trying to create an ad hoc committee to have a peer education program hopefully implemented next year.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Another reason is that nationally the government requires continuing alcohol education for students. We have it for first year students and DLT, but not returning students who are not DLT.
Samantha Heyrich ’17: Anything else? Contact us at Sheyrich or Bmurrary02.
Nora Dell ’19: So, I’ve been writing this on institutional memory. It does two things. It creates the position of archivist, and it creates a committee on institutional memory. The function of the archivist is to archive and revise. When an issue arises, the archivist asks, “Has this issue come up before?”, and that way, we have the history of it. The second role would be while they are in the rep council, they are present at each SGA meeting, so they can archive what happens there, rather than going through records. That’s the archivist. The committee is primarily a two-step thing, to take all the archives, and to sort them all, and put them into a public database. So like, important events and SGA meetings, it all would depend on what people are looking for. Incoming members can look up their history of their positions, and so they can be better prepared in regards to their jobs. It would also have a committee history.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Can you give an example of a special event?
Nora Dell ’19: The Confederate flag Incident. We would have sources in the archives to put things in perspective.
Khadijah Seay ’16: With events such as the confederate flag, a lot of the records exist outside of SGA. Would this committee only be within SGA?
Nora Dell ’19: It wouldn’t be in context, so the purpose of that part of the archive is to also provide a resource for people to go back and look.
Khadijah Seay ’16: How is this intuitional memory if SGA is only a microcosm of the institution? This is not necessarily representative of the institution.
Nora Dell ’19: My goal is to bring transparency to our institution, and that way I see that was through special issues, but I’m open to this discussion, and I’m happy to have that talk with you.
Hannah Chinn ’19: Do we have enough to conclude that SGA has been a central force in the institution? If more of the discussion is not in that avenue.
Nora Dell ’19: The bulk of that information wouldn’t be special events. It would be a history of positions.
Jasmine Rangel ’17: My question pertains more to the memory of certain groups and our positions- how can someone who is not part of our positions record that position?
Nora Dell ’19: Through interviews.
Charlie Bruce ’16: I wanted to add to Khadijah’s point and pose a suggestion. I think we need to be careful in the language- to assume that SGA represents the entire institution isn’t accurate.
Angela Motte ’17: What you’re describing through this committee and position overlaps with a lot of what my job entails. How would you envision this position with that knowledge?
Nora Dell ’19: I wanted to talk to you about that, actually.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Any more questions? Ok, next. On to the vote.
Vote on Plenary
Charlie Bruce ’16: We can invite the president and the deans but only if students want, and from there we can give them speaking rights. Invite the deans? Yes, no, abstain. We are inviting the deans. Next is inviting President Cassidy, yes, no abstain. Yup! Inviting her. Speaking rights to deans? Yes, no, abstain. Ok, so no speaking. Now President Cassidy speaking rights, yes, no, abstain. Ok, so no speaking rights. Excellent! Next, can we have Lydia come and speak about the Board meeting?
Board of Trustees Presentation
Lydia Sanchez ’18: Hi, I’m Lydia Sanchez. The board met yesterday, so the conversations varied, like Park Science’s new renovations, like the addition of common space and technology. They talked about the health center being renamed to the wellness center, but they didn’t discuss replacing the staff. We heard from the investments committee, and we have investments in certain areas, but we can’t pull out because they make money. My favorite part was an update to the committee of diversity- what was discussed was the interest and passion that current students on campus have and how they wanted more faculty of color, and this can’t be fixed over night because only so many people of color are in the area with the degrees and wanna work for us. They also talked about increasing the number of students of color on campus. Another characteristic of our institution was discussed- this would be financial aid. The ultimate goal is for Bryn Mawr to be need blind. Right now, we are need sensitive, but we are going to work on that. We have hired new people that are invested in us. Lastly, they discussed the enrollment statistics, so like who is coming in, who is staying, who is leaving, who is transferring out, and who is transferring in. And then, really lastly, they talked about “Belonging at Bryn Mawr”, which was a presentation of personal stories. They really enjoyed hearing about academic experiences. They asked about the honor code and how the student body values it. Most of the board is alumna so they genuinely care and really appreciated that in the meeting, which shows that they have a generosity towards our institution.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Questions?
Hannah Chinn ’19: Since we weren’t at the Friday meeting, what happened?
Lydia Sanchez ’18: All students were invited to the ECC Library, and a lot of alumna of color came and a lot of them had roles in the establishment of affinity groups. We discussed in the meeting how to sustain and grow. They wanted the students of color to have meetings together, and that we are more powerful in a larger group.
Charlie Bruce ’16: The Board is coming again in April. If you have any concerns, you can reach out to the next SGA EBoard. Thank you Lydia. Old Business!
Old Business
Charlie Bruce ’16: Any one? Ok, new business!
New Business
Sarah Andrew ’16: So next week during SGA is valentine’s, day, so I propose a time change.
Charlie Bruce ’16: This will be done in two votes- to move the time, and then a second one to propose a time change.
Sarah Andrew ’16: Ok, yes, no, abstain. Thank you
Charlie Bruce ’16: Excellent, let’s see some time suggestions. 11am, 4pm, 1pm! Thank you, let’s take a vote. 11am, 1pm, 4pm. Ok, next week at 1pm! With that being said, we have reached the end of our agenda.
Nora Dell ’19: I vote to adjourn the meeting.
Delia Landers’19: Second.
Charlie Bruce ’16: See you!
Meeting Adjourned at 5:06pm