SGA Meeting Minutes: October 23, 2016
Summary:
- The meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM.
- Present: Katherine Nichols, Abbie Sullivan, Camila Duluc, Elizabeth Hilton, Precious Robinson, Bridget Murray, Kyra Sagal, Sam Heyrich, Catherine Bunza, Sohini Maniar, Mariana Garcia, Genesis Perez-Melara, Nora Dell, Priyanka Dutta, Hannah Henderson-Charnow, Connie Lam, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikki Shakamuri, Abby Chernila, Lea Williams, Manal Hussain, May Zhu, Leticia Robledo, Adriana Gay, Juhi Aggarwal, Jessica Breet, Makeda Wade, Emma Porter, Nichol Westerduin, Jasmine Rangel, Emma Lasky, Claire Romaine, Claire Gaposchkin, Sarah Awad, Celeste Ledesma
Absent: Ananya Kumar, Tyler Brown-Cross, Margaret Gorman, Veda Nambi, Farida Ilboudo, Phoebe Dopulous, Evelyn Aviles, Madison Brown, Emily Drummond, Emma Levin
- Announcements:
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- Dorm Trick-or-Treating is happening Monday, October 31 in every dorm except Brecon. Those interested in participating should email the Residence Council Heads at resco@brynmawr.edu.
- Lillian Oyen-Ustad ‘19 presented the dates of several upcoming athletic games, including a soccer game on October 29 to benefit breast cancer research. More details can be found in the attached transcript.
- Nora Dell ‘19, SGA Archivist, announced that the SGA Archive Committee has released their first project on the history of racial and religious minorities at Bryn Mawr. They hope to publish a new project each week going forward.
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- Your Two Cents:
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- There were no Your Two Cents.
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- Lantern Night Meeting Time Change:
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- Next week’s meeting will take place Saturday, October 29 at 2:00 PM in anticipation of Lantern Night. Location is to be determined.
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- Big Cheese Forum Discussion:
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- Members of the Assembly discussed potential members of the Bryn Mawr Administration they would like to invite to Big Cheese Forum on November 20. Potential guests included President Cassidy, Provost Osirim, Bernie Chung-Templeton, Stephanie Nixon, Vanessa Christman, Vippy Yee, and Ellie Esmond. Details can be found in the transcript.
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- Old Business:
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- There was no Old Business.
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- New Business:
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- Social Committee is looking for bouncers for the SoCo Halloween Party on October 28. If you are interested please contact Sam Heyrich at sheyrich@brynmawr.edu. Bouncers will be paid $10.00 per hour and must sign up for at least two hours.
- Precious Robinson ‘19 brought up the issue of the extra work housekeepers have had to do to clean all dorms because of the lack of a designated Denbigh housekeeper. Members of the Assembly discussed possible solutions.
- Abbie Sullivan ‘17 recounted the last faculty meeting she attended as Faculty Representative, which included talks about the Mellon Mays Scholarship, accessibility, and other initiatives.
- The meeting was adjourned at 7:53 PM.
Role Call:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Okay, it’s 7:10. We’re going to start the meeting with Role Call.
Rachel Bruce ’18: I am required to tell you that everything said tonight will be recorded for the meeting minutes.
Present: Katherine Nichols, Abbie Sullivan, Camila Duluc, Elizabeth Hilton, Precious Robinson, Bridget Murray, Kyra Sagal, Sam Heyrich, Catherine Bunza, Sohini Maniar, Mariana Garcia, Genesis Perez-Melara, Nora Dell, Priyanka Dutta, Hannah Henderson-Charnow, Connie Lam, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikki Shakamuri, Abby Chernila, Lea Williams, Manal Hussain, May Zhu, Leticia Robledo, Adriana Gay, Juhi Aggarwal, Jessica Breet, Makeda Wade, Emma Porter, Nichol Westerduin, Jasmine Rangel, Emma Lasky, Claire Romaine, Claire Gaposchkin, Sarah Awad, Celeste Ledesma
Absent: Ananya Kumar, Tyler Brown-Cross, Margaret Gorman, Veda Nambi, Farida Ilboudo, Phoebe Dopulous, Evelyn Aviles, Madison Brown, Emily Drummond, Emma Levin
Announcements:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: First we have Announcements. Announcements is a time when any member of the Bryn Mawr community can make an announcement. We have ten minutes for this agenda item. Are there any announcements?
Kyra Sagal ‘17: Hi I’m Kyra.
Bridget Murray ‘17: I’m Bridget. We’re the ResCo Heads. Okay, so the annual dorm trick or treating for faculty and staff’s children will be next Monday. There will be trick or treating in all the dorms except Brecon. If you want to hand out candies to really cute kids come see us after for a sign to put on your door.
Kyra Sagal ‘17: Thank you!
Bridget Murray ‘17: Hi everyone, I’m not here in any official way but I’m working really closely with conferences and events. If you have not been caught in the loop we have been putting together a plea—we’re trying to get Michelle Obama to come speak at 2017’s commencement address. This is probably a long shot but we’re trying. Also afterwards, we have signs where you can say your name and take your pictures and put a collage together to show the First Lady. Please humor us.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad: Hi guys, I’m also on SAAC, that’s what my announcement is about. I’m the SAAC PR Representative for this year. In order to highlight the department and Bridget I’m going to start doing announcements about events. Upcoming events are volleyball plays Tuesday, field hockey plays Tuesday, swim is on Sunday, and rugby plays on Saturday. Field hockey played Johns Hopkins. Everyone did really well. Senior Day for soccer is the 29, field hockey is the 30, and Saturday’s game is to benefit breast cancer research. We’re selling things people can come buy to benefit research. Thanks!
Nora Dell ‘19: I’m the SGA Archivist and I want to announce that our website is up and running with our first publication. It is a piece from the archives and it is on the history of race and minority groups at Bryn Mawr so that includes not only African Americans but also Latino, Asian, and Jewish Americans who came to Bryn Mawr. You can find that at archives.blogs.brynmawr.edu. I think we’ll be having a publication every week from here on out. Right now we’re working on adding everything from the diversity box online.
Abbie Sullivan ‘17: as the new Faculty Rep, should I give the recap of the faculty meeting now?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: It’s not during Announcements but later in the meeting.
Your Two Cents:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Announcements is a time when any Bryn Mawr student can host a straw poll or new topic for discussion. We have ten minutes for this agenda item. Are there any Your Two Cents?
Lantern Night Change in Time:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Next Sunday is Lantern Night, which happens during SGA. When would you all like to meet?
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ’19: Can we please take into consideration that there are two games going on that day. Or maybe we can work something out? Field hockey at 1:00 PM swim at 4:00.
Sam Heyrich ‘17: Point of information.
Sohini Maniar ‘18: The Traditions Mistresses will start doing stuff around 2:00 PM. We’re also having dress rehearsals.
Jasmine Rangel ‘17: I would like to propose 10:00 AM.
Mariana Garcia ‘19: 11:00 AM.
Emma Porter ‘17: How many meetings can we miss?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Four.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ‘19: How long is the meeting agenda?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Probably as long as it usually is.
Juhi Aggarwal ‘18: What time does lantern night start?
Catherine Bunza ‘18: Lantern Night starts at 8:00 PM. Swingers come at 6:30 PM, freshmen come at 7:00 PM.
Emma Porter ‘17: Recommendation for a time, Saturday regular time.
Jessica Breet ‘18: Scrapping the meeting?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: I don’t think we can do that, sorry.
Rhea: Manglani ’17: So your options are Sunday at 10:00, 11:00, and Saturday regular time.
Celeste Ledesma ‘17: Saturday at 2:00 PM.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: So we’ll just call out all of them. This is a Representative Council Vote only, please consult with your co-held position. Hands for Saturday at 2:00 PM? Saturday normal time? Sunday at 10:00 AM? And Sunday at 11:00 AM? We have to vote between those again. Saturday at 2:00? 10:00?
Shaina Robinson ’17: Saturday at 2:00.
Rhea Manglani ’17: Okay, we’ll try to book Dalton. See you all Saturday.
Big Cheese Forum Discussion:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: I know this is way in advance, but big cheese will be the 20th. President Cassidy wanted it to be, sorry. At Big Cheese Forum we invite administrators to come talk, so KCass, Provost Osirim—it’s also supposed to be senior staff but people have invited people from like Bernie Chung-Templeton. People sit in small groups, one person facilitates, one takes notes. Then we come together, talk about questions, misunderstandings, etc. It’s a really great event. Also tell all your best friends and friends who don’t go to SGA to tell their friends since people don’t know which admins do what. Kari Fazio has a huge roll that Pelema left. We’re going to break into small groups and talk about people to ask. Come up with a list. Be like hey we’re going to change this up or this should happen. As usual we’re going to have a count off. Count to four. So you’re just going to get into these groups and talk about people you’d like to invite.
—The Assembly Broke for Ten Minutes to Discuss Potential Big Cheese Forum Guests–
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Can one person come up? So we’re going to just go in order.
Genesis Perez-Melara ‘19: So a few of the people we thought about inviting Nina from facilities. We were concerned about that because Denbigh doesn’t have a housekeeper. We also thought about inviting Stephanie Nixon because of all that’s happened in the Tri-Co. Dean Walters because she’s new to the school. LILAC representatives like Vippy or Ellie to make it more accessible. I don’t know if there’s an EMT. Talk more about the group because it’s new on campus. Lastly, we thought about the Health Center. Come talk about the new changes they made.
Emma Porter ‘17: I’m with group two. We also talked about Pensby and Dean Walters, but we also want to add someone from the Financial Aid Office because of the turnover in the last year. We want someone from CFO to talk about wages. Park renovations and just different renovations. We wanted the Dean of Admissions, Peaches, to come. Lastly, we wanted someone from development to come to talk about the campaign (Expect Bryn Mawr).
Shaina Robinson ‘17: Speaking for group four. We wanted a representative from dining services, as well as a representative from Cartriff to expand on what’s going in there with relationship between dining services because sometimes dining services puts a request in but it doesn’t get a response or nothing happens. Also Campus Safety with Lil Boroughs to give updates. We also mentioned dean Walters. There’s also the potential of expanding upon Dining Services and food. A representative from Residential Life about pets in the dorms and what the policy is on that.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ‘19: I’m representing group three. We talked about inviting someone from Dining Services because Rhoads dining hall could be used. KCass because it’s a tradition. Angie because we don’t know where we’re going to put all the students. And Kathy Tierney with national anthem at games.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Some of these roles are interchangeable. Taken in what’s being recorded at the minutes, we’ll vote on that. Go ahead and save it, Swati.
Old Business:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Old Business is a time when any member of the Representative Council can revisit a topic for discussion. The topic must relate to the representative’s position. We have ten minutes for this item. Is there any Old Business?
New Business:
Rhea Manglani ’17: New Business is a time when any member of the Representative Council can present a new topic for discussion related to their position. We have ten minutes for this agenda item, is there any New Business?
Sam Heyrich ‘17: SoCo is having the SGA SoCo Halloween Party and we need bouncers. We’re paying $10 per hour. If you’re interested in being a bouncer, email me at sheyrich@brynmawr.edu. If we don’t have bouncers, it will be me.
Jessica Breet ‘18: Are there shirts?
Sam Heyrich ’17: There are hats.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ‘19: Arere there shifts or is it the full four hours?
Sam Heyrich ‘17: Usually we give preference to people who can work four hours but we can use two.
Emma Lasky ‘17: I don’t think we need bouncers anymore because we can’t afford them.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Can you clarify?
Emma Lasky ’17: It comes out of the dorm fund. This is only for Radnor.
Sam Heyrich ‘17: We’re still looking for bouncers.
Precious Robinson ‘19: As we were going through people we wanted to invite it was mentioned that Denbigh doesn’t have housekeeper. That means the others have to fill in and are not getting extra money. I don’t know about any of you but Darlene has knee problems that she was gone for a long time. She has to do Denbigh in addition to Pem West. I was planning on sending around petition.
Nora Dell ‘19: Do you know why they haven’t had a housekeeper?
Precious Robinson ‘19: The consensus is that they haven’t gotten around to it. If it’s a lack of budget, there shouldn’t be an excuse. Do dorm presidents have any suggestions?
Emma Porter ‘17: Have you started speaking to anyone in facilities or housekeeping? Like we could even bring this up at the ResCo meeting on Wednesday.
Precious Robinson ‘19: Yeah, I’m just bringing this onto the point to the floor. I overheard two people talking in the shower while they were cleaning the bathroom.
Claire Gaposchkin.: I was in Rhodes south talking to Filomena in North. She has to do extra work because there’s no one else to do … this is something that’s not an isolated incident.
Precious Robinson ‘19: They said they’d bring in an outside source but there hasn’t been any extra.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: I’ll talk to KCass about this at our next meeting.
Abbie Sullivan ‘17: There was a faculty meeting last Wednesday. I’ll give the updates. KCass said there’s a new four page version of … Provost Osirim announced that they’re beginning the search for new Chief Enrollment Officer. A reminder about Mellon Mays fellowship, they are encouraging sophomores to apply. The period in which faculty raised questions about how students are conducting research for classes, referring to another event that I was not there for because I hadn’t been elected. The committee on academic priority gave a talk. They did a survey of every building on campus. The committee is also trying to make sure that students can voice their concerns– trying to shift from reactive to proactive so that issues people are talking about come up in meetings. They also talked about implementing engineering into liberal arts.
Nora Dell ‘19: Can you elaborate on implementing engineering into liberal arts?
Abbie Sullivan ‘17: They didn’t say too much about Bryn Mawr but just talked about liberal arts in general. Something for the future.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Does anyone have anything else? Is there a motion to end the meeting?
Nora Dell ‘19 motioned to end the meeting.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Second?
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ‘19 seconded.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: This is a Representative Council vote only. Your options are yes, no, and abstain. Hands for yes, no, abstain?
The meeting was adjourned at 7:53 PM.