Meeting Minutes for SGA General Assembly 2/5/23
In Attendance from E-Board:
President Ananya Hindocha ‘23
Vice President Desi Bagot ‘24
Secretary Bryn Osborne ‘24
Co-Treasurer Catherine Fu ‘23
Co-Treasurer Lola Rodrigues ‘23
Social Justice and Equity Chair Fatmata Sesay ‘23
Honor Board Chair Carlee Warfield ‘23
Groups called to Meeting: Representative Council, Club Leaders and Treasurers
Meeting Agenda
- Community Comment
- Plenary Updates
- Budget Voting
- Final Asks
RepCo Attendance
President Ananya Hindocha ‘23 took RepCo attendance, quorum was met
- Community Comment
Ananya Hindocha ‘23: First announcement, if you haven’t filled out our survey on student wages, please do so. It’s part of our efforts to raise wages for student workers and we need info on how many people are working, on off-campus wages, etc. We are trying to get 1000 people to fill out the survey to bring the data to admin. If you or your friends haven’t filled it out, please do so now
Q: Can I still fill it out if I don’t work on campus?
Ananya Hindocha ‘23: Yes, as long as you are a Bryn Mawr student, you can fill it out. Next, Big Cheese is next Sunday, it’s at 5:00 PM to accommodate for the Super Bowl. We have lots of people coming from admin including David Chase, Tim Harte, Cheryl Horsey, counseling and athletics, the medical center director, Tonja Nixon, etc- come and we’ll have cheese, questions for senior staff will be asked during that event. Feb 19th is the Black Excellency panel, which will be here in the campus center. Seniors who were nominated and chosen will be talking about their experiences being at Bryn Mawr, Beza and Fatmata will be there, and others, be here and don’t miss it!
- Plenary Updates
Ananya Hindocha ‘23: Now we’re going to give an update on Plenary. For counselors, there’s not much of an update. We got an email over break saying that they resolved the situation. We have a new director of counseling who was just hired in January who will be at Big Cheese. We’ve been trying to communicate with HCAB, hopefully, we will have more answers soon. For SGA Payment, we passed it at plenary, but the school has not passed it, so we’re not getting paid this semester.
Elle Thompson ‘23: Will it happen in the future?
Ananya Hindocha ‘23: We’re trying to create a system that would make the SGA E-Board be more of a fellowship so that undocumented students can get paid. In the meantime, however, we are not getting paid.
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: Hopefully it will happen next semester
Bryn Osborne ‘24: I’m going to give an update on the Uncommon Resolution. I, along with some Uncommon workers and people who worked on the resolution, met with David Chase and Richard Clowe from Dining and the Uncommon manager. We started talking about the resolution but then we moved on to the wider issue of food access on campus. I know that it’s hard for people with allergies and restrictions, there’s issues with timing for athletes, and also people who live in Brecon. SGA has talked about working with Lusty Cup to open a food pantry like the Nest at Haverford, we’re still thinking of solutions. There will be more meetings in the future about the wider issue of food access as well as the Uncommon issue.
- Budget Voting
Ananya Hindocha ‘23: Just a reminder from Plenary, RepCo voting rules changed so that there is one vote per position. Only treasurers, presidents, or people who worked on the club budget can object to the club’s budget. If you’re objecting to another club’s budget, you don’t have to be a part of it, but if you are objecting to your own club’s budget, you should know what’s involved. Unless you’re an AMO, new clubs can only get up to $250. Clubs that did not attend a budget workshop or did not submit on time will not get budgets. If you have questions about this, come talk to us later. Also, any increases will directly deplete the amount we have for mid-semester review and next semester’s budgets. We have a budget of 10k for mid-semester, so be aware of that.
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: Okay, before we get started we have a couple of announcements. This semester, we are introducing a remedial fund, which will be an opportunity to get funds for emergencies or more immediate needs. There will be an application process, it is not automatically given, and once it is gone it won’t be refilled. For clubs objecting, please consider the mid-semester review which will be happening after spring break, as the amount given tonight can impact mid-semester and next year. Catherine and I will take turns reading out budgets, we will wait 10 seconds for objections. If you do not object within that time, we will assume the club is satisfied, and we will not hear late objections. Repco will then vote on clubs who didn’t object as a whole, and then go back to clubs who objected.
Bryn Osborne ‘24: We will give objectors 3 minutes to make their case, and then we will have 5 minutes for conversation and questions. We can extend that time by motion, but we’ll try to keep to that time to get you all out of here as quickly as possible.
Lola Rodrigues ‘23 and Catherine Fu ‘23 then read the requested and approved budgets aloud, and clubs were given a chance to object
Objections:
Association of International Students
BACaSo
Bi-Co News
Gluten Free Club
Mock Trial
SAS
VSA
Maia Tsalik ‘26: Motion to approve all budgets that haven’t been objected to
Saeina Charles ‘23: Seconded
Vote passed unanimously
Bi-Co News withdrew objection
BaCaSo withdrew objection
- Association of International Students
Kitty Shi: I’m the co-President of the Association of International Students. We need more money because the number is lower than last semester. For study night it’s lower than what we expected, since everything is going normally and most of the international students are back. We have more than 300 members and would like to hold more events. There are two study nights, one at the end of March, and one confirmed at end of Apri. We sent an email to Lusty and asked about the cost, they responded that for 30 people it’s $175, and based on the estimation for each study night we will have 70-80 people, so the $600 originally proposed is fair. We’re okay with the summer package, and okay with cutting logo funding, but we would like to get $650
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: You mentioned there are around 350 international students on campus, how many participated in AIS events?
Kitty Shi: Since it’s post-pandemic and also AIS just revived last semester, we normally have 250 students who got winter package, that’s how we based our estimation. Students who got green cards or US citizenship should also belong, that’s why we have more estimated.
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: You are listed as an AMO, can you get Pensby funding?
AIS Treasurer: We have $1000 from Pensby for the year, but asked to attend a college-wide event that we will need to co-host with VSA. We need around $500 for the Bi-Co event, and put Pensby funding into that.
Catherine Fu ‘23: As you said you have a collab with VSA and host 2 study nights, only 1 is on the budget summary, that’s why money was cut. You also didn’t list the collab with VSA
Kitty Shi: We originally thought that it was a co-event, so we only put it into the AMO budget form, not the SGA form.
Elle Thompson ‘23: Are you now planning on holding two study nights?
Kitty Shi: Yes
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: You’re holding study nights after spring break, can this wait until mid-semester review, and then reevaluate how much money AIS needs?
Kitty Shi: I’m not sure if we can get the amount of money we need after mid-semester.
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: Can you wait and then reevaluate based on AMO and SGA, as if you end up with excess money you will get penalized.
Kitty Shi: For Lusty Cup, we’re already in touch, I don’t think we will have excess money, I think we will use $600.
Catherine Fu ‘23: For 30, it will cost $175, assuming you got 60 for one study night, will be around $350
[Missing transcript]
25 Yes, 4 No, 9 Abstentions
Passed, $650 to AIS
- Gluten Free Club
Siena Martin ‘23: I’ll keep it short. It sucks being gluten-free on this campus. They only put hot food in the gluten-free room at winter break for the first time. Uncommon has 0 gluten-free options, and only Erd has a place. An extra $55 would mean the difference between 1-3 or 4 events, which would mean a lot and we are proposing raising to the requested budget of $505.11
Passed unanimously
- Mock Trial
Anna: I’m Anna, the co-Treasurer of Mock Trial. Our competitions can run for 4-5 hours, and we only got approved for 5 meals. We’re going to ask for a $180 increase, last year we had a scrimmage against Temple and the timing was awkward for meals. It meant people couldn’t eat dinner and had to pay out of pocket, which is not fair to not reimburse. We requested 5 meals for regionals, we need 7 because it’s throughout the entire weekend. Competition materials are not an absolute necessity, we’re asking for $1960 total.
Anai Dominguez ‘24: Could you zoom in, I can’t see.
1 No, 3 Abstain
Passed
- SAS (South Asian Students)
Fatima Irfan: I’m the co-President, we’re willing to compromise on cuts, but we got cut $4000 from our culture showcase. This is an event that SAS has been doing for a couple of years, it was discontinued during the pandemic but we’re wanting to do it again. We budgeted based on our experiences with Diwali and Holi and previous events, the reasoning was that previous years were $3000, and we can’t budget on 3 years ago based on inflation, and things impacted. $4000 will not be enough to even cover food for this huge event, so we’re asking to increase to $5000
SAS Member: I want to emphasize that this event won’t be covered under current budget, we needed over 4k for catering for Diwali and we expect a similar number, not including decorations.
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: I noticed SAS is listed as AMO on the Pensby website but not listed as getting funding?
Fatima Irfan: We did not apply last semester due to difficulties with E-Board, but we anticipate getting $500 from Pensby, our $5000 ask is keeping in mind money from Pensby.
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: Have you looked into food waivers and are sure everything you want to order will be approved?
Fatima Irfan: Yes, because of Diwali. We will get catering from the same vendor which was approved last semester
Ananya Hindocha ‘23: So your total budget would be $10,450
Fatima Irfan: Yes
3 abstains, 0 nos
Passed
- VSA
VSA: We wanted to ask for a $300 addition. We saw you cut Boba, we met with the AIS president and came to a total of a minimum of $400 for that event. We want to ask for $150 for Boba night, as Kitty said we see more international students and need to increase funds for more people, also for Asian Expo collab with ASA and Villanova. We don’t have a lot of flexibility, and want to ask for $150 for that event, for a total of $2,345
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: Did you get funding? You didn’t put the amount from Pensby, have you reached out?
VSA: We’ve reached out to Pensby to ask for $850, but they will only approve around $300 because most events are food-centric which wouldn’t have funding come from Pensby. We’re still getting updates but won’t have a lot of funds from Pensby
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: I noticed for Asian Expo collaboration, you budgeted money for printing, is there a reason you can’t use free printing from the school?
VSA: Lots of decoration will be from outside because it needs to be printed on cardstock. There is also a tradition of painting which will not be on printer paper
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: If you’ll purchase traditional decorations and paintings, do you have a method of storage for after the event?
VSA: Because they are decorations, we would store them in our dorms, and it is an ongoing thing we would like to continue next year.
Catherine Fu ‘23: Question about Boba tea night, you budgeted 200 for ingredients and 100 for decorations, why do you want 150 more?
VSA: Lot of that would go towards ingredients and buying materials, we want to ask for additional money for ingredients and making drinks.
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: So then, can you tell us how much demonstrated interest you have, regular meeting attendance, or international student numbers?
VSA: We’re planning to send out a form that international students will fill out, which will be targeted not just towards VSA, but towards all international students on campus
Lola Rodrigues ‘23: Do you have a listserv?
Kitty Shi: Based on the number from KSA, normally boba night will be more than expected. It is normally 80 people for one event, since it is the international students association with VSA, around 100-120 estimated.
Bryn Osborne ‘24: To answer Lola’s question, I’ve been in contact with AIS and the Help Desk about getting their listserv back, as they were locked out during COVID. So we’re working on it.
Elle Thompson ‘23: Can this be moved to mid-semester review?
VSA: No, as we have also have cut other events and you’re saying AMO money can cover other events, but this will cover events that have been cut in our budget already.
25 yes, 0 no, 11 abstain
Passed
Catherine Fu ‘23: Based on the budget voting, we have given out a $1655.11 increase, which means we have 8,344.89 for mid-semester review. Keep that in mind for the mid-semester requests.
- Final Asks
No final asks
Meeting adjourned at 8:34 PM