SGA MEETING 4/2
CAMPUS CENTER 7PM
Summary of the Meeting
During this meeting we continued using the new meeting structure and it still moved smoothly. There were many announcements and upcoming events shared. RepCo made a request for volunteers for room draw as well as sharing information about the room draw events for Multiple Occupancy and Hall Group coming up this Wednesday. There is an event for admitted and prospective students this Thursday that is a great time to introduce them to Bryn Mawr and SGA. Be on a look out for all of the events created by SAAC happening around campus for Division III week this upcoming week. We also had a discussion about the Big Cheese Forum (an event where people from various parts of the administration come to a meeting and students are able to ask them questions and share ideas). We decided that it would not be beneficial to have it this late in the semester but we are going to ask the “Cheeses” from last semester’s forum to report back via videos and take the energy to better plan next Big Cheese. During the community forum there was a proposal to incorporate the structure of deliberative forums into SGA when we have discussions. The RepCo is excited to explore the ways that we can incorporate this. And finally the Red Team won the trivia question giving them two points total!
Announcements
Bridget Murray ‘17 and Kyra Sygal ‘17: We still need people to volunteer for room draw for the sophomore room draw! If you want to volunteer or if you have any questions you can email resco@brynmawr.edu
Events
Bridget Murray ‘17 and Kyra Sygal ‘17: Room draw’s begin this week, Hall group on Wednesday at 7 and Multiple Occupancy on Wednesday at 8.
Emma Porter ‘17: There is a prospective and admitted students event on Thursday the 6th at 6:30pm in the campus center, we want SGA people represented there. It will be a great time to mingle with admitted students and talk about your role in SGA. Email us if you have any questions
Samantha Hyrich ‘18: Tomorrow is the beginning of division three week,there are a number of events throughout the week. Monday: It’s on us during the day in the campus center. At night there will be a hot topic about student athletes in the community at 7:30pm in the Campus Center. Tuesday: Tennis match. Diversity and Inclusion statement will be revealed at 7:30 in the campus center. Wednesday: Body positive photos will be displayed in the campus center. At 8pm there will be a screening of female athletes on screen in the Campus Center. Friday: There will be a kickball tournament in the gym at noon. Sunday: Lacrosse v franklin and marshall at noon and then the sga meeting at night
Big Cheese Forum
Alisha Clark ‘18: Do you guys want to see another big cheese? Do you feel like it’s necessary?
We voted and only two people said that they wanted to have one this semester and so we decided to discuss why
Jasmine Rangel ‘17: What do we hope to achieve with this big cheese forum?
Alisha Clark ‘18: Can the people who want Big Cheese to happen tell us why they think it is important.
Cassidy Gruber Baruth ‘19: In general it’s a really useful event for people who do not generally come to SGA there is more of a turnout and anything that encourages student involvement especially now because we had problems with plenary so anything that involves students voices is important.
Lea Williams ‘20: More transparency between the administration and the student body has been a problem and so i think that would be helpful to increase this.
Kyra Sagal ‘17: I think if we were going to have one this late in the year we would need to have the goals for it very clearly stated, like is this going to be something that is going to happen next year, also i feel like we always have the same people and talk about the same things so would this be a continuation of that?
Alisha Clark ‘18: I agree I wish it wasn’t so late in the year but I have a lot of changes we would like to make if we did have it. I recently went to a conference and saw a panel type discussion led by Juniata College and it included getting to know the people at a more personal level before delving into questions to increase trust. I want to have a speed dating type thing with the cheeses so that you can have a more genuine conversation instead of a roast. Because they’re humans too and we have a lot to change but being harsh isn’t beneficial. That’s what I was going to talk about if you thought it was going to be a good idea.
Emma Porter ‘17: I was thinking that it would be really good to have some feedback from the cheeses from last semester to see if they have followed through on what they were saying that they were going to work on.
Alisha Clark ‘18: So inviting the people from last semester to come back?
Claire Romaine ‘17: I feel it would be a better use of the effort on SGA’s part to put more energy into next semesters but maybe inviting back the people would be a good idea.
Alisha Clark ‘18: I like that idea I think it would be a good way to get experience while also planning for the next Big Cheese.
Juhi Aggarwal ‘18: I don’t think that if we do this kind we don’t need it to all be in one day, the people can come as they have time to SGA meetings to report back.
Emma Porter ‘17: I have a comment, my only concern is that we would have to designate a time for them to come and then go because having this be a student only space is important so having it all at once may be important
Emma Levin ‘17: I also agree with Emma but also if we aren’t able to get everyone at once I do like Juhi’s idea
Ananya Kumar ‘18: My only concern is that it would take more time on every SGA meeting and its April so its getting closer to finals and we all have a lot of work to get done.
Alisha Clark ‘18: It would be implemented in the normal time frame of meetings, it wouldn’t be in addition to it.
Ananya Kumar ‘18: I think that having it all at once would be better for people’s schedules.
Cassidy Gruber Baruth ‘19: I am not against the idea of having people come in every week but I think that having the space for this communication is important and if it was one person at a time it might feel more like grilling that person. We could format it so that they present and then there is space for a few questions.
Alisha Clark ‘18: Yeah i don’t want them to feel like were attacking them because that’s not helpful for things that we want to change but we definitely need something solid because I need to tell them soon.
Swati Shastry ‘18: I feel like only RepCo shows up to the forum and that’s not super helpful because that’s not the idea of Big Cheese and so I don’t know how they are getting info if RepCo isn’t giving it to them.
Alisha Clark ‘18: I could reach out and maybe they could make fun little videos about what they presented and the things that they’ve done on that since then. I don’t want to invite administration into this space because this is our designated time, but maybe if we had a quick video like two minutes each week from someone that we can show and then if you have questions we can write them up and send them to the Cheeses. We will get the updates, do big cheese in a way, and still keep our space.
Kyra Sagal ‘17: I think that’s a good idea they can also just send emails, I think if you wanna get it to the rest of the community maybe not using the term “Big Cheese” because other people may not know what it is and ignore that email.
Alisha Clark ‘18: Thank you, so we’re not going to do the big cheese this semester, is that okay?
Everyone gave thumbs up
Let’s revisit!
The Erdman party didn’t happen because they didn’t end up getting enough bouncers.
Community forum
Jasmine Rangel ‘17: I just wanted to talk about this thing that 20 students were involved in on Friday about deliberative forums as a part of someone’s thesis. So we had a deliberative forum that was structured and talking about the health center. I kinda wanted to talk to you all about it so that we can consider using it in the future as a way to structure forums at SGA meetings because there aren’t concrete structures for those discussions now. So beforehand small amounts of info are given by students anonymously. So instead of everyone sharing their feelings within that space you read the info and are in the same place about the issues.Then there is a panel of administration there so that you can talk to them about any questions you have. Then you talk in smaller groups with moderators and here you can share how you felt: What resonated? What you found surprising? In general getting footing on what the issues are. Then you get together as a whole group and decide on things. So that is the first part and then the second part is actually creating resolutions that you can present on how you want to see it changed.
Okay so do you find that technique valuable to what we do here at SGA and around the campus?
Claire Romaine ‘17 I think that is a really good idea to have a concrete goal that we are working to. I just wonder what kind of panels there would be?
Jasmine Rangel ‘17: There wasn’t much of a panel on friday but looking forward I think there would be people who would be able to answer the questions best and they wouldn’t be there for the whole time only that segment.
Emma Porter ‘17: How do you see this incorporated into SGA?
Jasmine Rangel ‘17: When we break into smaller groups and talk about issues. The panel could be administration or students so that things get resolved instead of just talking about feelings the whole time.
Alisha Clark ‘18: I love this and would love to see it implemented.
Priyanka Dutta ‘17: I was thinking that it would go really well with the Big Cheese Forum, especially having the anonymous comments ahead of time.
Jasmine Rangel ‘17: I was also thinking about it for Big Cheese because it is only a small group talking to one person so if there is a panel lots of voices can be heard on both end.
Swati Shastry ‘18: Something the senior who was conducting this research mentioned was doing this for Plenary resolutions so that we don’t have the first discussion of the resolutions at plenary and people can actually think of ways to improve the resolutions based on feedback while they are being written and revised.
Aly Robins ‘17: So this would be before plenary? I think that sounds wonderful but people could have talked about it before at SGA meetings in the past and didn’t show up so would they now? But more of these discussions need to happen and would be great.
Trivia Time
Question: How many people are buried in the cloisters?
Answer: 3
Bridget Murray won the trivia question, point goes to red