Summary:
- Role Call:
- Present: Tyler Brown-Cross, Bridget Murray, Kyra Sagal, Sam Heyrich, Genesis Perez-Melara, Nora Dell, Priyanka Dutta, Hannah Henderson-Charnow, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Veda Nambi, Juhi Aggarwal, Jessica Breet, Farida Ilboudo, Emma Porter, Nichol Westerduin, Evelyn Aviles, Jasmine Rangel, Madison Brown, Emily Drummond, Emma Levin, Clair Romaine, Sarah Awad, Celeste Ledesma
- Absent: Ananya Kumar, Catherine Bunza, Sohini Maniar, Mariana Garcia, Connie Lam, Makeda Warde, Phoebe Dopulos, Emma Lasky, Claire Gaposhkin
- Announcements:
- Candidates’ Forum for Fall 2016 Elections will take place Monday, September 19 at 6:00 PM in the Campus Center. Come learn more about the candidate’s and ask questions. Please email any questions to elections@brynmawr.edu.
- A discussion on the recent incident involving the graffiti of Swastikas at Swarthmore will be happening in the Pensby Center on Friday, September 23. All are welcome. Please email Hannah Rifkin at hrifkin@brynmawr.edu if you have any questions.
- If your organization is interested in tabling at Fall Plenary, please email Swati Shastry at sshastry@brynmawr.edu.
- This week there will be flash-learning events at LILAC including Mock Interviews and seminars. Spread the word!
- September 18 is the last day to apply for an appointed position. Please see availbile positions in the transcript below. If you have any questions please email Shaina Robinson at srobinso09@brynmawr.edu.
- Next week’s SGA meeting will take place at 2:00 PM to respect students observing the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah. This meeting will take place in Dalton 300 instead of the Campus Center.
- Your Two Cents:
- Pem East (Jasmine Rangel and Evelyn Aviles) and Pem West Dorm Presidents (Emily Drummond and Emily Brown) took a poll of potential times to host East v. West. November 12 was not approved via straw poll because of the date’s coincidence with the Fall Student Dance Concert.
- Plenary Resolution:
- Genesis Perez-Melara presented a working resolution on behalf of herself and co-writer Mariana Garcia on changing the resignation process for Representatives and elected members of the Assembly.
- Institutional Memory Vote:
- Nora Dell, SGA Archivist, presented the by-laws for the newly-created Committee on Institutional Memory. The by-laws were approved by the Representative Council.
- Master Budget Vote:
- Jocelyne Oliveros, SGA Treasurer, presented the semester budget for Bryn Mawr clubs and activities. Oliveros also explained the distribution of funds and different variables that played into the distribution. The budget was passed by a Representative Council vote.
- Hot Topic:
- A Hot Topic was hosted by Emma Porter and Colleen Williamson, both of the First-Goers Club, to talk about the role of socioeconomic status on campus. The results of these conversations can be found in the transcript below.
- Old Business:
- There was no Old Business.
- New Business:
- There was no New Business.
- The meeting was adorned at 8:21 PM.
TRANSCRIPT
Role Call:
Rhea Manglani ’17: It’s 7:10 so we’re going to start with Role Call.
Rachel Bruce ’18: Hi everyone, I’m required by the State of Pennsylvania to tell you that everything tonight will be recorded for the minutes.
Present: Tyler Brown-Cross, Bridget Murray, Kyra Sagal, Sam Heyrich, Genesis Perez-Melara, Nora Dell, Priyanka Dutta, Hannah Henderson-Charnow, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Veda Nambi, Juhi Aggarwal, Jessica Breet, Farida Ilboudo, Emma Porter, Nichol Westerduin, Evelyn Aviles, Jasmine Rangel, Madison Brown, Emily Drummond, Emma Levin, Clair Romaine, Sarah Awad, Celeste Ledesma
Absent: Ananya Kumar, Catherine Bunza, Sohini Maniar, Mariana Garcia, Connie Lam, Makeda Warde, Phoebe Dopulos, Emma Lasky, Claire Gaposhkin
Announcements:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Are you good? Sorry, I couldn’t hear. Announcements is a time when anyone from the Bryn Mawr community can make an announcement, so if you have an announcement please come up.
Genesis Perez-Melara ‘19: I just wanted to notify everyone that tomorrow is Candidates forum which is a time for you to be presented with the candidates up for Fall Elections. Some of the big positions up are Member-at-Large, Freshman Class President, so if you’re interested in finding out more about your candidates, you can come tomorrow at 6:00 PM. Ask questions regarding what leadership positions they’ve held before, or like, why they want to run. So if you have any questions you can email at elections@brynmawr.edu. Thanks!
Hannah Rifkin ’17: Hey guys! My name is Hannah Rifkin, I use she/her pronouns and I’m class of 2017. On Friday from 12:30 to I think 1:30 or 2:00 or a little later, in Pensby they’re going to hold a discussion and various programming in response to the anti-Semitic act at Swat. It would mean a lot to the student body if people who are not just Jewish would come out. Thanks!
Sukhan Kumar ’19: Good evening everyone! I am Sukhan, class of 2019. I am a Career Peer and next week, that is September 19th through September 24th, is Career week, organized by LILAC and the Career and Professional Development Office. We would highly encourage you guys to participate in the events and also spread the word. There’s going to be resume reviews and cover letter reviews, mock interviews are going to be held and we would really appreciate your participation. Thank you!
Shaina Robinson ‘17: Today is the last day that you can submit an application for the September Appointments Round. The application closes at 11:59 PM tonight. Positions up for appointment are Bryn Mawr Concert Series Officers, Campus Greening Representative, Elections Board, Financial Aid Advisory Board, Independent Major Representative, Outreach and Communications Committee, Plenary Committee, SGA Institutional Memory Committee, SGA Webmistress/Master/Mistex, Social Committee, S.TEAM, Student Finance Committee, Sustainable Food Committee, and Traditions Committee. More information about these committees can be found on the Appointments Blog at appointments.blogs.brynmawr.edu. You can also email me at srobinso99@brynmawr.edu. Thanks, guys!
Swati Shastry ‘18: Hi everyone, if you want to table at Plenary please email me at sshastry@brynmawr.edu. Thanks!
Rachel Bruce ‘18: Hi guys, I have two announcements. The first is that if you want to volunteer at Plenary the signup sheet is up now (I sent it out this past week with the weekly minutes/announcements email and I will be sending another out tonight and post it on the Facebook page). If you are on the Representative Council, it is highly encouraged that you participate. Additionally, if you are on the RepCo and you miss Plenary it counts as two unexcused absences (you’re only allowed four for the semester so just keep that in mind). If you have any questions, please email me at rbruce@brynmawr.edu. The second is that the Sunday after Plenary is Rosh Hashanah, which is a really important date in the Jewish calendar. It begins during the SGA meeting so, if possible, it would be really cool if we could make the time of the SGA meeting earlier that day. Maybe at some point earlier in the afternoon would be good so people observing the holiday can do so.
Rhea Manglani ’17: I can take the time suggestions.
Rachel Bruce ’18: Okay, cool. Thanks!
Rhea Manglani ’17: It starts at sundown, so before sundown, when would be a good time to have the meeting?
Jasmine Rangel ’17: 1:00 PM
Rachel Bruce ’18: 11:00 AM
Jessica Breet ‘18: 2:00 PM
Emily Drummond ‘17: 4:00 PM
Rhea Manglani ’17: Is that everyone? So we have 11:00, 1:00, 2:00, and 4:00. Sadly this is a Representative Council Vote only because they are required to go to these. So your options are—so we’ll just go 11:00, 1:00, 2:00, and 4:00, you can only vote once. If you’re in a co-held position, you must agree with your co-position holder. So raise your hand for 11:00; raise your hand for 1:00; raise your hand for 2:00; and then raise your hands for 4:00. Okay.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: We’ll do 1:00 and 2:00 again. Raise your hands for 1:00; raise your hands for 2:00. Okay so week after plenary we’ll do 1:00 PM. It probably won’t be in the Campus Center, it’ll probably be in Dalton. Y’all will get an email.
Your Two Cents:
Rhea Manglani ’17: So next thing is Your Two Cents. Your Two Cents is a time when anyone from the Bryn Mawr community can take a straw poll or pose a question for discussion. Anyone with any Your Two Cents please up.
Jasmine Rangel ‘17: Hello, my name is Jasmine Rangel, class of 2017, Pem East Dorm President.
Evelyn Aviles ‘17: Evelyn Aviles, 2017, Pem East Dorm President.
Madison Brown ‘17: Madison Brown, woah that’s really loud, 2017, Pem West Dorm President.
Emily Drummond ‘17: Emily Drummond, 2017, other Pem West Dorm President.
Jasmine Rangel ‘17: So our straw poll we’re doing is about the date for East v. West. We haven’t sent out a poll for our dorm yet, but our initial date we were thinking of is November 19th, which is also the day of the Bi-Co Fall Student Dance Concert. We wanted to get a feel, at least from this room, how people were feeling about that. So yes, that’s a good idea even if the party starts at 10:00 and ends at 2:00, no that’s not a good idea, and abstain? Okay, thank you.
Rhea: Thanks, anyone else have Your Two Cents?
Plenary Presentations:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Onto Plenary Presentations, we have Genesis. Remember there is only one resolution. Please come and we’ll be done faster.
Genesis: Hi guys, my name is Genesis Perez-Melara ’17. Unfortunately my co-head couldn’t come today, so I’ll be giving a brief presentation of our Plenary Resolution. It’s sort of a revision of last week:
“Summary:
This plenary resolution is updating the elections process to hold elected members accountable for their resignations and create a process to regulate resignations.
Whereas, Article VIII, Section I, Subsection E currently reads: “Any member desiring to resign from the SGA Assembly shall submit a written resignation no less than three weeks prior to official resignation to the Secretary of SGA who shall present it to the Assembly for action.”
Resolved, that Article VIII, Section I, Subsection E now reads to:
Any member of the assembly who needs to resign their position must send a resignation letter at least four weeks before their official resignation date. They must submit the resignation letter to the elections head. In the meantime, the member must retain their position until their official resignation date. If the member must resign immediately, then in their resignation letter they must specify who their temporary replacement is. This temporary replacement will retain the position until a new representative is voted upon.
Resolved, that a new subsection be added under Article VIII, Section I that now reads as:
If a member of the assembly resigns too late in their term such that it would be impossible to hold a special election, the member must retain their position. If it is impossible for the member to retain their position, then they must appoint a replacement that will then be voted into office by the Representative Council (two-third votes) in the next SGA meeting.
Whereas, Article VIII, Section IV, Subsection C, currently reads: “With the exception of the Office of the President of SGA (see Article III, Section I, Subsection C), all vacancies shall be filled through the special election which shall take place no later than two weeks after the vacancies occurs, under the direction of the Elections Board.”
Resolved that Article VIII, Section IV, Subsection C, now reads: With the exception of the office of President of SGA, (see Article III, Section I, Subsection C), all vacancies shall be filled through the special election which shall take place no later after the official resignation letter(s) have been presented to the Elections Heads.”
So I’ll be taking questions or suggestions.
Bridget Murray ‘17: Can you go back up? How will you analyze the need or the urgency of a position, like how are you going to go about what’s left to the elections head’ discretion?
Genesis Perez-Melara ‘19: The amount of time left?
Bridget Murray ‘17: The part about analyzing the importance of the position, how do you decide how important the position is?
Genesis Perez-Melara ‘19: Let’s say the LILAC CPD Position. I know they have to meet once every two weeks with the LILAC Committee. Say there’s a break with their meetings or the year’s going to end and they don’t have to attend, then we wouldn’t worry about that position. We’ll just ask them to find a replacement or hold onto the position until it’s over. We’re just saying this because we’ve experienced these kinds of situations before. Any more questions?
Jessica Breet ’18: Can you go down? So you’re asking them to write an additional resignation letter in addition to the one four week’s prior?
Gen: No, it’s the same resignation letter, just one resignation letter.
Jessica: But you’re saying that the special election will take place before the resignation letter is written. So you want an election before they resign?
Gen: So once we get the official resignation letter, right after that the Special Election should take place. Anymore questions? You can email me at elections@brynmawr.edu. Thanks!
Institutional Memory:
Nora Dell: So you should have received an email with the By-Laws from the RepCo. I’ll be taking questions about it before. Are there any questions? Okay, no questions!
Rhea: Do you want us to recap the by-laws?
Nora: Okay!
“By-Laws of the Committee on Institutional Memory
These by-laws shall operate in accordance with the Bryn Mawr College Self-Government Association Constitution and other relevant by-laws subordinate to the Constitution.
Article I: Purpose
Section I: Mission Statement
The mission of the Committee on Institutional Memory is to collect, identify, preserve, and make useful to the Self-Government Association, records of enduring and evidential value; to instill trust in the Self-Government Association through transparency.
Section II: Long Term Goal of the Self-Government Association
“To improve the Self-Government Association’s ability to effectively and efficiently achieve objectives and confront issues through a commitment to the preservation and utilization of institutional memory.”
Article II: Meetings
Section I: The Committee shall meet weekly, and adopt Robert’s Rules of Order at the discretion of the SGA Archivist.
Section II: The Committee shall keep an internal record of meeting proceedings. Furthermore, the Committee shall maintain a general record of archival activities.
Article III: The SGA Archive
Section I: Definition
Subsection A: The SGA Archive shall include an external hard drive and a public, digital archive. All digital materials collected by The Committee shall be housed on the external hard drive. Sensitive materials collected by the Committee shall be exclusively housed on the external hard drive. Physical materials shall be housed with Special Collections.
Section II: Acquisition
Subsection A: The Committee shall acquire digital materials for the archive, which demonstrate enduring and/or evidential value.
Subsection B: Digital materials in their original format must be stored on an external hard drive. Modified digital materials may appear on the digital archive.
Subsection C: Materials will be catalogued numerically, according to date and category of material. “‘Category number’ yyyymmdd_###”
Section III: Preservation
Subsection A: In consultation with Special Collections, the committee shall take proper steps to preserve digital material in the SGA Archive.
Subsection B: Digital preservation is defined as “processes involved in the physical and intellectual protection and technical stabilization of digital resources through time in order to reproduce authentic copies of these resources”.
Section IV: Access
Subsection A: Any member of the Self-Government Association may access records contained within the online archive maintained by this committee. Access to physical records held by Special Collections shall follow policies in place with that department. Contact the College Archivist for more information.
Section V: Permissions
Subsection A: Archival materials are property of the Bryn Mawr College Self-Government Association.
Subsection B: The SGA Archivist may grant permission to publish and/or copy material from the SGA Archive. In accordance with copyright law, a photocopy or reproduction is not to be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research. Scanned materials found in the digital archive are copies of materials found in Special Collections.
Section VI: Privacy
Subsection A: Information may be designated “sensitive information” by the source of the information, the SGA Archivist, and/or Special Collections.
Subsection B: Sensitive information will be periodically assessed in consultation with Bryn Mawr College Special Collections, and relevant parties.
Subsection C: Sensitive information will not be available on the digital archive. Sensitive information collected by the Committee will be stored with Special Collections and on an external hard drive.
Subsection D: Sensitive information collected by Special Collections will be restricted according to Special Collections’ policy.
Subsection E: Sensitive information about a person other than the source of the information shall not be disclosed their written consent.
Subsection F: A source of information has the option to stipulate the terms of the release of that information by forgoing any waiver form and by putting their stipulations in writing.”
And on that document there is a document has a typo, we’ll be voting on the version with the “without”.
So we have a waiver form that when people are using information. They can say yes, I want to disclose. They can say we’ll disclose it in five years.
Aly Robins ‘17: I think one of your major points you mentioned was transparency, to my knowledge that this committee is functioning under the auspices of SGA, is there a check for transparency?
Nora Dell ‘19: What do you mean?
Aly Robins ‘17: Who would be doing this?
Nora Dell ‘19: I would say that is under Special Collections.
Aly Robins ‘17: So not a student
Nora Dell ‘19: No.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Any other questions? Okay, we’re going to move to a vote. This is a Representative Council vote only. Raise for yes, no, abastain? Bylaws pass! Thanks, Nora!
Master Budget Vote:
Jocelyne Oliveros ‘18: Hey, Jocelyne Oliveros ’18. Here is the Master Budget. I’m going to start going over it. I’m the treasurer. Overthe past couple of weeks I’ve been working with clubs to govern over their budgets. The Representative Council got a copy in their emails. This semester what happened is at the beginning I went to the comptroller’s office and they gave me the number to work with. All that money comes out of SGA… significantly less was available (dues were lowered this semester so that’s why). I was working with a tighter budget. I spoke to different people on campus. How much the New York Times is, Film Series, etc. These are numbers the school is working with. Res Life has a budget… So the emergency is a little below 25% of the budget. I did go over when I was with Mary from the comptroller’s office. It doesn’t dip in too much to the overall fund. I allocated the money—things did get cut for a lot of people. That was based on things like interviews, things they indicated. Everyone did get cut off but I tried to be a little bit fair.
Claire Romaine ‘17: I was wondering if there’s a breakdown. On the budget, the amount asked versus the amount awarded, there is more information available?
Jocelyne Oliveros ‘18: All of that is available on the sheet.
Claire Romaine ‘17: I as a DP could not find that
Jocelyne Oliveros ‘18: All of that should be available on the SFC page, but I can make sure that it is distributed again.
Rhea: Are there any other questions?
Claire Romaine ‘17: I just like to say, I think this is a different budget than we were emailed today.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ‘19: The budget you got emailed, the actual amount you got sent got sent to a different page so you have to scroll all the way over
Kyra Sagal ‘17: If it’s a Bi-Co club, should that also be here?
Jocelyne Oliveros ‘18: No, they’re still pending but that will be up next week. Any other questions?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Ready to move to a vote?
Jocelyne Oliveros ‘18: Your options are yes, no, and abastain. Hands for yes, no, abstain?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: This is a RepCo vote so we might have to do this again. Only, yes, no, and abstain. The budget passes. Please email Jocelyne with questions.
Hot Topic:
Emma Porter ‘17: Hi, my name is Emma Porter and I a member of First-Goers, a club that advocates for first-generation college students at Bryn Mawr.
Colleen Williamson ‘19: My name is Colleen Williamson and I am a member of First-Goers.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Before we start, everyone put away laptops and cellphones, this is just my request for making sure that everyone is focused during the meeting and that this remains a space for people to listen and speak.
Emma Porter ‘17: So again my name is Emma, I am the president of First-Goers. Colleen is here with me today as a member of this club. We wanted to open a discussion about the Swat article. I found the article to be pretty provocative and misleading at times—just really harmful and damaging. I identify as a low income student. I found it really damaging because of its claims and tone. First I want to allow for there to be for some information. I am speaking to you as a member of the RepCo and an intern for the Admissions Office. We want to separate our feelings from Erin Jenson, the author of the article. We think that she is a caricature to say the least.
Colleen Williamson ‘17: One thing we want to say is that ignorance isn’t a problem; the problem is how you react to your ignorance. Keep in mind that we want to be able to learn from this experience and also be able to sort our own issues and differences at Bryn Mawr.
Emma Porter ‘17: So we will be breaking up into small groups. I went to speak to someone in Admissions and I was told to let anyone know that if they have any further questions to go to the admissions process to talk to them. What the differences are between our admissions process and Swat’s that first of all, our admissions office is different because we are need sensitive not need blind. That’s not to say that everyone is reading every application with a dollar sign next to it, but it is different from need blind. I also wanted to say that we have merit-based scholarships in addition to need based. The Financial Aid Office is separate from admissions. Financial information is handled by the Financial Aid Office. I also wanted to clarify, because of the difference between the two offices that I can’t speak to what happens in the Financial Aid office, but for tonight let’s think about the other pieces: the Admissions Office and class relations on campus. Okay? Lastly, we have what’s called holistic review. That means that there’s no piece of the application that weights more heavily than the other. If you submit standardized test scores, that’s looked at but not the most important part. Amanda Barwise wants to stress that you can always go and ask about this. Alright.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: So we’re going to do a countdown like last time. We’ll go by five. One’s here, two’s here, three’s here, four’s here, five’s here. Everyone find your number.
–The Assembly broke for Ten Minutes to engage in the Hot Topic Discussion, this portion was not recorded as per the guidelines of a Hot Topic Discussion–
Emma Porter ‘17: Welcome back! I guess I want to hear about some of what happened.
Clair Romaine ’17: I feel really passionately about how we treat our workstudy students because if you’re a freshman student , first years in our dining halls make less than anyone on campus. We’re putting our most financially vulnerable students in the lowest paying jobs.
Jessica Breet ‘18: This is something that I didn’t bring up in the small group. With state funded financial aid, for international students it’s a set amount it cannot change. I know of people who have tried to have it change but could not. When I began here, my family now has to make double what was calculated two years ago. Bryn Mawr is making a huge stride to become need blind. I think we should take care of the people we already have here.
Emma Porter ‘17: I appreciate what you are saying, but we’re going to try and separate that because that is a whole is more of an issue that the Financial Aid Office can address.
Bridget Murray ’17: Something that came up with our group was the Community Day of Learning and how we kind of started this conversation with the Community Day of Learning but these conversations were/are like an echo chamber. It’s always the same people coming out. The people … are just blowing it off and taking a self-care days.
Emma Porter ‘17: What Bridget was saying—the larger question that comes up is how can we have these conversations if it is the same group of people? I guess the question I want to ask you guys is what spaces do we have on this campus to help this conversation stay alive and not just have an echo chamber. What role do we have moving forward?
Emily Drummond ‘17: I think this a conversation that needs to be had by DLT at hall hangouts because that’s a good way to get these questions out of SGA and into the dorms.
Kyra Sagal ‘17: I also think encouraging professors to have these conversations if it’s at all positive to have them in the classroom. We’re already going to have a diverse group of people I the room.
Emma Porter ’17: Any final thoughts or questions?
Christina Stella ’17: Right now, I am looking to produce a piece for Bi-Co Radio for low-income students. What it’s like to survive and share your story. If you have a story you’d like to share please email me at cstalla@brynmawr.edu.
Old Business:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Old Business is a time when members of the Representative Council can revisit a topic previously brought up at an SGA meeting. The topic must relate to their RepCo position. We have allowed ten minutes for this agenda item. Any Old Business?
New Business:
Rhea Manglani ’17: New Business is a time when members of the Represenative Council can present a new topic for discussion so long as it is related to their position. Is there any New Business?
Okay, we need a motion to end the meeting.
Evelyn Aviles ’17 motioned to end the meeting.
Rhea Manglani ’17: Second?
A member of the Representative Council seconded.
Rhea Manglani ’17: Okay this is a Representative Council vote only. Your options are yes, no, and abstain. Hands for yes? Hands for no? Hands for abstain? Goodnight, everyone!
The meeting was adjourned at 8:21 PM.