SGA Meeting Minutes – February 5, 2017
Summary:
- Role Call:
- The meeting began at 2:10 PM.
- Present: Camila Duluc, Elizabeth Hilton, Tyler Brown-Cross, Bridget Murray, Sam Heyrich, Catherine Bunza, Mariana Garcia, Genesis Perez-Melara, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikki Shakamuri, Lea Williams, Manal Hussain, Leticia Robledo, Adriana Gay, Veda Nambi, Makeda Wade, Farida Ilboudo, Emma Porter, Jasmine Rangel, Madison Brown, Emily Drummond, Emma Lasky, Emma Levin, Claire Romaine, Claire Gaposchkin, Sarah Awad, Celeste Ledesma
- Absent: Katherine Nichols, Ananya Kumar, Abbie Sullivan, Precious Robinson, Kyra Sagal, Sohini Maniar, Nora Dell, Priyanka Dutta, Hannah Henderson-Charnow, Connie Lam, Abby Chernila, Dilesha Tanna, Margaret Gorman, May Zhu, Juhi Aggarwal, Jessica Breet, Phoebe Dopulous, Nicky Westerduin, Evelyn Aviles
- Announcements:
- SAAC hosted a Super Bowl Party on Sunday, February 5 in the Campus Center. SAAC will also be selling carnations on Monday and Tuesday February 6 and 7 for a dollar. All proceeds go to the student initiative against breast cancer at the Bryn Mawr Hospital.
- The application to become a Peer Mentor is live until Friday, February 10 at 5:00 PM.
- Sophia Bokhari and Isobel Blanchart will be hosting office hours in Campus Center 200 as part of the Access Services Board.
- The application to become a Tour Guide for the Admissions Office is now live. Everyone is encouraged to apply with the exception of seniors.
- There will be a Customs information session on Monday, February 6 at 9:15 PM in Dalton for those interested in applying.
- Updates on Meeting with the Administration:
- Rhea Manglani ’17 met with members of the Administration, including President Cassidy, this past week following the College’s statement regarding the immigration ban. Bryn Mawr already does not release the immigration status of its students and provides financial aid for undocumented students. President Cassidy explained her reasons for avoiding the name Sanctuary Campus for fear that it would target Bryn Mawr first if legislation targeting sanctuary campuses were ever handed down. Students broke into groups to discuss their feelings and opinions on the subject as well as steps SGA should take as well. The details of the debrief can be found in the transcript below. Students voted to have President Cassidy have a town hall on the subject during the afternoon so faculty, staff, and students could attend (date to be determined).
- SGA Budget Vote:
- The Representative Council was unable to vote on the Spring Semester SGA Budget because there was a slight majority of RepCo Members Present at the meeting. In order to prevent having to wait until next week, the budget was emailed to the Representative Council for a vote and approved via Google Form.
- Old Business:
- February Elections will begin Monday, February 6 at 9:00 AM and run until Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00 PM. Voting will take place via Google Form. Mariana Garcia ’19, Co-Head of Elections, took time for the candidates present to introduce themselves. They are, in speaking order:
- Sophia Bokhari ’20, Candidate for Head of Elections
- Milan Fredrick ’20 and Sophie Goldstein ’20 for Co-Heads of Elections.
- Lillian Oyen-Ustad ’19, Write-In Candidate for Secretary
- Genesis Perez-Melara ’19, Candidate for President
- Rachel Bruce ’18, Candidate for President
- February Elections will begin Monday, February 6 at 9:00 AM and run until Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00 PM. Voting will take place via Google Form. Mariana Garcia ’19, Co-Head of Elections, took time for the candidates present to introduce themselves. They are, in speaking order:
Other candidates not present include Nanda Bhushan ’19 and Delia Landers ’19 for Vice President, Megan Pemberton ’20 for Secretary, Anna (Anran) Huang ’19 for Treasurer, Ruby Zeng ’20 for Appointments Committee, and Cassidy Gruber Baruth for SGA Archivist. There were no candidates, as of Sunday, for Head of the Honor Board, Member-at-Large, and three of the positions for Member of the Appointments Committee. If you have any questions about the election, please email elections@brynmawr.edu.
- New Business:
- Rachel Bruce ’18 proposed the idea via straw poll of improving the SGA website by combining the various SGA websites for Elections, the SGA Archive, the Appointments Committee, as well as the main SGA website with the Constitution and Honor Code. As per the results of the straw poll, it was ruled something the community members present indicated this was an initiative worth pursuing.
- Rhea Manglani ’17 announced the date of Plenary as March 19 at 7:00 PM in Goodhart.
- Rhea Manglani ’17 also made a statement on the importance of keeping decorum in SGA meetings when discussions go on for a long time.
- The meeting was adjourned at 2:50 PM.
–Transcript–
Role Call:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Okay, it’s 2:10. We’re going to start the meeting with Role Call.
Rachel Bruce ’18: Hi everyone, I am required by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to tell you that everything said here tonight will be recorded for the minutes.
Present: Camila Duluc, Elizabeth Hilton, Tyler Brown-Cross, Bridget Murray, Sam Heyrich, Catherine Bunza, Mariana Garcia, Genesis Perez-Melara, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikki Shakamuri, Lea Williams, Manal Hussain, Leticia Robledo, Adriana Gay, Veda Nambi, Makeda Wade, Farida Ilboudo, Emma Porter, Jasmine Rangel, Madison Brown, Emily Drummond, Emma Lasky, Emma Levin, Claire Romaine, Claire Gaposchkin, Sarah Awad, Celeste Ledesma
Absent: Katherine Nichols, Ananya Kumar, Abbie Sullivan, Precious Robinson, Kyra Sagal, Sohini Maniar, Nora Dell, Priyanka Dutta, Hannah Henderson-Charnow, Connie Lam, Abby Chernila, Dilesha Tanna, Margaret Gorman, May Zhu, Juhi Aggarwal, Jessica Breet, Phoebe Dopulous, Nicky Westerduin, Evelyn Aviles
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Real quick, if you’re on RepCo can you raise your hand and count? If you have a co-held position only one person raise their hand. Go ahead and put your hands down
Announcements:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Swati isn’t here because she signed up for something she couldn’t get out of. Does anyone have anything for Announcements?
Sam Heyrich ‘17: Hi, Sam Heyrich ’17. I’m the SAAC President and today at 6:30 in the Campus Center we’re hosting an open to everyone Super Bowl Party. Also related to SAAC, tomorrow from 10:00 to 1:00 as well as Tuesday and Wednesday we will be selling carnations, one for a dollar (tonight as well). All profits go to the Breast Cancer Student Initiative at the Bryn Mawr Hospital.
Aly Robins ‘17: I’m one of the co-heads for Peer Mentoring Services. Our application is out and is due Friday at 5:00. There’s a Wufoo form, go DLT.
Sophia Bokhari: I’m one of the Access Services Co-Heads. Isobel Blanchard and I will be hosting office hours in Campus Center 200 at a time to be determined.
Emma Porter ’17: I’m one of the Interns for the Admissions Office. The application to be a tour guide is live. We encourage all to apply, except for seniors.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ‘19: I’m a member of the Customs Committee. We’re hosting an information session Monday at 9:15 in Dalton 300.
Updates on Meeting with the Administration:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: The next item was going to be SGA item vote but I will go with updates on administration. I will update you all on what’s going on. First off, a lot of you are interested in the school declaring itself a sanctuary campus. The term sanctuary camps has no meaning because it doesn’t have a legal procedure. Bryn Mawr offers the same protections and ideologies as a sanctuary campus. KCass is opposed to the idea in case there is legislation that targets sanctuary campuses first. Again the school already already offers these services and would be willing to talk to the students if it means a lot. I wanted to open it all to you.
The next thing is a lot of things have been going around with the way the messages go out. If you have a criticism with the way messages are sent out please email them and let them know. UPenn has done a similar thing where the messages were weak and students said something.
KCass is doing this but there are several Pennsylvania schools who are sending a petition to Pat Toomey. They are going to deliver the petition to the office by hand to know it was taken. All college presidents saying that we don’t want you to do this or that. KCass is also working on building relationships with pro bono lawyers in case students need it because the school’s lawyer is for the school’s [legal issues].
Working on event planning. She is working with the Political Science Department on different talks. An immigration lawyer came a week ago, talking to admin to help advertise better. Before I break us up does anyone have any questions?
Claire Romaine ‘17: So you say there is no official policy but there are thing that sanctuary campuses do. What are those things?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: A lot of schools that don’t do this are offering financial aid to undocumented students. The person who is charge of international… because she knows that this is a dangerous time to have access to this information. The term is to build a wall, removed undocumented students from this process. There’s a process of knowing international students but saying that she can say she doesn’t know about undocumented; If there’s a cop that says where are your papers the school can say you can’t see them without an official order. [There’s] a breakdown of policies to sound the same. Anything else?
Okay, I know Hannah Rifkin is working on talking to admin about how to improve the way the school is doing it’s things. She’s a good person to talk to. If you have any questions about anything you can reach out to them or me and I will bring it up the next time I talk to them. I’m going to ask we break up and see if we want a sanctuary campus. I know these are a lot of terms. Anything you want during these times that you think admin is not doing well or well enough take this time to talk about it.
Students Present Count Off By Four
Ones’ in this corner, two’s in the middle-ish, three’s here and four’s here. Give everyone a chance to get there.
Students Present Break for Ten Minutes to Discuss
Rina Patel ’18: I just Googled what it means to make our campus a Sanctuary Campus. It says you can’t allow immigration on campus without warrant, can’t disclose immigration status, all things we do already. Like Rhea said this might make us more targeted. That might put more students in danger because it would call students a Sanctuary Campus. This might keep students a little more safe.
Genesis Perez-Melara ’19: A lot of us were saying what that actually means when we define ourselves. We need to have this info passed on and student body needs to know what’s going on to have a say.
Emma Porter ‘19: We were talking about how we are concerned with protecting students who are already here. We’re okay with not labling ourselves a sanctuary campus. We had a small discussion about how are we going to publicize how to create a safe space n our campus. We couldn’t find a balance of both of those.
Veda Nambi ’18: Pretty much our group was just discussing sort of what a Sanctuary Campus is. What are the benefits of officially being a Sanctuary Campus.
Mariana Garcia ’19: You sort of said everything we said in our group, but we sort of said that since students put the energy into classes. Professors could implement what a sanctuary campus means into class readings and discussions and if there are any repercussions.
Claire Gaposchkin ‘17: Something we also talked about there is ambiguity. Had someone from administration come in and address that directly, possibly through SGA and email or in a separate space. We are a college and busy and we need have information spread through more common means.
Claire Romaine ’17: We talked about how the other stuff how we’re not experts. We also discussed how the administration goes through email a lot and how people want to be involved they have to check their email. They’re explicit in how they communicate and they try.
Aly Robins ‘17: We also talked about how we’ve seen some alums reaching out to have students stay if they’re afraid to leave the country. We made this more well-known. That could be cool to know there is a community on campus and off campus.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Just to address a few things I forgot. Instead of communicating to the whole campus, Dean Walters has been meeting with MSA. The woman who is in charge of ISO said she had open office hours the weekend of the ban. They are reaching out to specific students. It’s a little scary when the whole student body is fear mongering. Someone said that with the Penn email someone said don’t travel. We’re trying not to fear monger. President Cassidy offered to come to an SGA meeting. If that is of interest we can vote on this as a group of students to do a town hall. I guess let’s vote on it. Do you all know what the town halls are? It’s basically a giant meeting that will happen at 4:00 PM in TGH. A bunch of people come up— faculty, staff, and students— Stephanie Nixon facilitates the conversation. They usually do it in times of crisis on this campus. I’m just going to ask that enough students reach out vote yes for one not both. If she chooses not to have a town hall we can always have her come to an SGA meeting.
Sam Heyrich ‘17: This is a request, slash statement, slash point of interest. Town halls are typically scheduled during the activities part of the day which makes it inaccessible for people who do things. I’m proposing that if we do this that it is after 7:00 PM to respect students’ time between the 4:00 to 7:00 PM time slot.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: I can request that she just do it earlier.
Aly Robins ‘17: If we want professors, we should have it earlier in the day it would make it more accessible.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: So the way this will work is raise your hands for yes with town hall, raise for hands for no with town hall, and then abstain.
Genesis Perez-Melara ‘19: Is this a RepCo vote or everyone?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Everyone; we’re just going to vote as a group of people. Yes for town hall? Okay I don’t think we need to count, I will propose for a town hall and if she says this is too much I will say next week we will go back and ask about an SGA meeting.
SGA Budget Vote:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Okay so we were supposed to vote on the budget today we don’t have enough people here. I think we need 18 or 24 but we need people there. It’s by voting member. If you could spread the world that if someone needs to put something through it couldn’t get it that’s why.
Veda Nambi ‘18: If people came late, and they’re part of RepCo I guess maybe do a recount?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Raise your hands, just have one co-held person vote. We’re still under. Cautionary tale, you guys showing up means a lot. It’ll go through next week.
Old Business:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Old Business is a time when members of the Representative Council can revisit a topic for discussion. We have ten minutes for this agenda item. Is there any Old Business?
Mariana Garcia ‘19: So elections are happening. Voting starts tomorrow at 9:00 AM. A Google form will be sent out. If candidates who are here, please come up and introduce yourselves for people who were unable to make it to the Candidates’ Forum because we want people to know who they are they voting for.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ‘19: Does that include write-in’s?
Mariana Garcia ’19: Sure!
Sophia Bokhari ’20: Hi, name is Sophia Bokhari and I am running for the position of Head of Elections.
Milan Fredrick ’20: Hi, my name is Milan Fredrick ’20 and I’m running for Head of Elections with Sophie Goldstein.
Sophie Goldstein ’20: Hi, I’m Sophie Goldstein and I’m running for Head of Elections with Milan Fredrick.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ’19: Hi everyone, name is Lillian Oyen-Ustad and I am running for the position of Secretary.
Genesis Perez-Melara ’19: Hi guys, my name is Genesis Perez-Melara and I am running for President.
Mariana Garcia ’19: Delia Landers and Nanda Bhushan are running for Vice President. There’s also Megan Pemberton for Secretary. Ruby Zeng is running for Member of the Appointments Committee (there are three additional slots); Cassidy Gruber Baruth for SGA Archivist. There are no Candidates for Head of the Honor Board and no one for Member at Large. There’s also one more candidate but she was taking the notes.
Rachel Bruce ‘18: Hi guys, my name is Rachel Bruce and I’m running for SGA President. I’m the person who sits behind the desk and takes the minutes, and occasionally I ask you to say your name and class year.
Genesis Perez-Melara ‘19: Also if you guys have questions please email elections@brynmawr.edu.
New Business:
Rhea Manglani ’17: New Business is a time for members of the Representative Council to bring up a new topic for discussion related to their position. We have ten minutes for this agenda item. Is there any New Business?
Rachel Bruce ‘18: This was more of a Your Two Cents item, but I was thinking that something the incoming Secretary, Webmistress/Master/Mistex, and members of the Representative Council could work on is combining the different SGA websites (Elections, Appointments, the main SGA website with the Constitution and honor Board, Archive, etc.) into one giant website—a larger center for information about SGA. I’m going to take a straw poll to see if you all think that would be something worth pursuing. Hands for yes? No? Abstain? Thanks!
Rhea Manglani ‘17: One thing for Head of the Honor Board is that they have to have served on the Honor Board. If you know someone on the Honor Board, write them in, talk to them too.
Genesis Perez-Melara ‘19: A lot of people don’t know how many votes you need for a write-in and it’s nine.
Bridget Murray ‘17: With Plenary being moved, are all of these positions going to take place now or be delayed?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: The new E-Board gets delayed because the Constitution has to be reaffirmed. Please make sure people come to Plenary!
Aly Robins ‘17: So realistically what happens because you’re a senior?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Honestly I think if it goes digital it’ll be a long process. Make sure people show up. We’ll be giving around a lot of room draw numbers.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ’19: What is the date of Plenary?
Rhea Manglani ‘17: March 19th. One quick thing one thing on decorum. Decorum isn’t just not clasping, howling, showing favoritism, etc. I’m not saying that if someone says something racist you should not call them out. I’m saying if someone is talking a lot do your best not to be passive aggressive or rude. This isn’t towards anyone in particular. We’re all guilty of it. It’s hard to be nice when things we get stressful but please be respectful.
Okay, is there a motion to end the meeting?
Bridget Murray ’17 motioned to end the meeting.
Rhea Manglani ’17: Second?
Lillian Oyen-Ustad ’19 seconded the motion.
Rhea Manglani ’17: Okay, hands for yes, no, and abstain? Goodbye!
The meeting was adjourned at 2:50 PM.