SGA Meeting 3/23/14
Syona Arora calls the meeting to order at 7:10 PM
Present: Anna Kalinsky, Emma Rosenblum, Carolyn Jacoby, Colin Baumann, Pamudu Tennakoon, Molly Mac Dougall, Karina Siu, Sarah Lovegren, Daniele Arad-Neeman, Erin Saladin, Rhett Richardson, Christine Newville, Sara Kim, Lindsey Crowe, Jancy Munguia, Kaeun Bae, Karunya Venugopal, Angela Blatz, Odeymarys Garrido, Celeste Gambino, Noor Masannat, Christina Tse, Hannah Hastings, Alex Beda, Jessica Ferreira, Ivy Drexel, Chrystyna Colon, Kayla Bondi, Sarah Gilmour, Meg Sumner-Moore, Jessica Arbon, Jenna Myers, Jennifer Mendez Alba,, Dani Weismann, Phoebe Jordan, Emily Garcia, Emma Burke
Absent: Nina Shmorhun, Alex Francendese, Xavia Miles, Sarah Lesser, Sofia Oleas, Natalie Zamora, Alexandra Krusinski, Sam Terry, Lucy Gleysteen, Frankie Leech, Danyelle Phillips,
Introduction of new treasurer
Namita Dwarakanath ‘15: Hey! I’m Namita. I want to work with Melanie and the Honor Board to incorporate the honor code in to the budgeting process. I know there are some problems with the SFC. I want to make the Committee more accessible by changing some things like altering the elections. I want to increase understanding of external funding to SGA. I want to make sure resources are more available to people Working with rest of eboard to make sure SGA accurately reflects student dynamics.
Announcements
Anna Kalinsky ’15: Hi guys! I’m one of the res co heads. Room draw is coming! I’m excited. Everyone who is not graduating needs to fill out housing sign ups by tomorrow. They’re on the room draw website. Even if you’re an HA, batten student, or off campus, you need to fill out housing sign ups. Thursday, April 3rd at 8pm, we will have a mock room draw.
Pamadu Tennakoon’15: What’s the theme for room draw?
Anna Kalinsky ’15: The theme is dorm Olympics!
Karina Siu ‘14: There are two games this week. One is on Wednesday: Tennis is playing Haverford at Haverford. Also there’s a tennis game here on Saturday against JHU at 1pm.
Lindsey Crowe ‘14: Last night was the first senior cocktail of the spring semester. We hope you enjoyed it. Our next one is April 12th. Our final is on May 10th. Regarding T-shirts, we have finalized an ordering system. We will be sending that out later this week.
Karina Siu ‘14: Over spring break, Claudia went to nationals for indoor Track and Field. She placed 10th in her race, beat her PR, and placed a school record.
Syona Arora ‘15: Big Cheese forum is next week! We don’t have a finalized list of people, but the present list is Kim Cassidy and Dean Balthazar. We’re doing preparation for that later this meting. It’s next week, please bring questions for open Q & A
Melanie Bahti ’16: I’m keeping up with Amani’s office hours that she set last semester. I’m available Wednesdays 10AM-NOON in the lower level of guild. I’m happy to talk about anything relating to honor code and procedure. Since April elections round is coming up, I’d really like to talk to anyone interested in running for the honor board. Please tell people you know who are interested to talk to me. I’d really love to see people running.
Your Two Cents
Molly MacDougall ’16: I’m head of the elections board. I’ve received some questions and comments about the emergency elections round we’ve just had, so I wanted to bring it up to open up the discussion. The situation was not ideal. It was rough because the resignation period is two weeks but a normal elections round is three weeks, which is why runoffs was over spring break, which is not ideal for everyone. Especially with moodle and webmail being down, it was hard to get everything organized in the right timeline, but we needed it done by last Sunday. I’ve had questions about voter turnout. Our turnout for the first round and the emergency runoffs were almost comparable to run offs last spring and last February. This February was statistical outlier in that more people voted in the first runoff than in past runoffs. We want to hear your feedback so that we can prevent this from happening in the future. Any questions or comments?
Syona Arora ‘15: Thank you Molly, for further questions, contact molly @ elections@brynmawr.edu or exec board @ sga@brynmawr.edu
Health Center Advisory Board Presentation
Sarah Gilmour ’14: We’re members of the advisory board and we’re here with Regie Jones and Dr. Kerr. We’ve received questions from students that we will present to the professionals and hear their answers. We’ll open it up for an open Q & A afterwards.
We will open it up for short questions and answers. Is there anything to be done about the waiting time at the health center. Are there better times to go?
Doctor Kerr: I want to thank the student health advisory committee. This group is our connection to concerns of the student body. This years’ group has been good about getting issues that come up. Wait times is always an issue, in the medical world its not unusual to wait 15 minutes, because unpredictable things matters come up. I always tell people bring a book. We can’t always predict time, and we can’t staff up so that everyone is always ready when the appointment is, because that’s very expensive. There are other things that are problematic; One problem at the health center is the layout. In the community, the patient waits in the office, then the doctor comes in and it’s sorted out. We have adjacency issues. we have to move the patient a couple of times, so the patient a couple of a different times. The nurses here do a lot more. The nurses help the patients get the medication, they will check the insurance to see if you’re insured, they arrange medicine delivery, they perform blood work. They’re doing a lot of different things. We reconsider if we should do all of these services. If we give students the prescriptions to ask them to pick it up, we would have less delays and less wait time, but we would lose convenience. We have a new computer system that is challenging and has increased wait time. We’re working on that. GYN is the most on time. To avoid wait times, we have same day appointments Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We have more staff at that time. 9-10 AM when the Health center opens is a good time. All in all, it comes down to luck. We have more staff when it’s more busy than when it’s less busy. We arrange medication to be picked up at the end of the day, it’s usually more time consuming.
Reggie Jones: For Counseling, the students are typically seen at the time that they’re expected to be seen. The challenge is that they’re unexpected situation. If a student comes over with an emergency, the appointment may be made later than normal. We encourage students to come over early. One of the things that delays appointments is paper work. Prior to counseling, they do a self-report, depression scale, and anxiety scale. If students finish paperwork, they can see their counselor on the hour. Always bring a book, because if there’s an emergency, there’ll be a wait.
Rachel Shields ’14: Is there information available for students for referral to specialists or doctors with different insurance plans?
Doctor Kerr: We’re happy to refer you to a specialist. You may want to look at mainlinehealth.org, There’s a find a physician option, where you can find the information for physcians in the area. The physicians in the area don’t accept many kinds of insurance, especially out of state. If you call, they will find you someone who will htough.
Reggie Jones: community providers for counseling: we can help students find a community provider. The important thing to think about is how to pay for sessions. Look at your insurance plan online to insurance provider and enter the zip code type of counselor you would like to see. Counseling center will work with you to find someone who we know who we have a good relationship with. For people who are not using insurance, the staff counselor can help you find people in the community we have a good relationship. The problem is that many cousnelsors don’t accept most insurance. We’re always happy to help you to find someone.
Sarah Gilmour ‘14: Can you please explain the organizing structure of the Health Center? Why are there so many part time positions in the counseling center?
Doctor Kerr: Full time means academic year. The full time staff is me, Regie, the counseling director, nursing director jackey ramsey, our clynical coordianator Rhonda talor, sally hymen administrative director joanne melina counseling receptionist. The rest of the staff is part time. Part time nurses, their time doesn’t add up to full time. Sally hymen does GYN as a part time. Other medical areas are filled with part time people allows us to be fully staff and keep to minimal cost.
Reggie Jones: I’m the only full time staff in the counseling service. The staff is made up of Eileen Bazalann psychicatrist, Sarah cooldisade, Cathy donor Michael blanch drug and alcohol, shoby canal, the other folks are trainees. They’re all part time to save cost. Another benefit is that we have many people who offer students a wider choice of specialization, gives diverse options of therapy. All the therapists have specialty training in different areas, we can provide students with staff that specialize in their need.
Rachel Shields ’14: Is there anything students can do to prevent the spread of disease through dorms?
Doctor Kerr: There have been two times ive sent emails. One we sent GI virus. Another time we had a small outbreak of the flu, pretty contained. The way people get sick for respitory is that if people get sick is touching contaminated areas and then their face. If people didn’t touch eyes noes and mouth. The flu is exception, it is airborne illness. We treat this with a room isolation procedure. We have arrangement with dining services and residential life people that we isolate them in their room to help them recover. We give them medicine and meals in room. People should not go to class if they’re ill. If you have a fever of 100+ you need to stay in your room for 24 hours. GI viruses are more of a problem where students share bathrooms. If there’s a GI virus in your dorm, wipe off toilet seat and sinks before/after use. You can catch it through sharing food drinks or make up. Kleenex, have them! Cough into your arm, cough in your hand lines up germs.. Those are the best ways to deal with it. We increase housekeeping when there’s a GI virus.
Sarah Gilmour ‘14: why do nurses frequently ask about our period??
Doctor Kerr: In medical practice, we have to ask anyone has to ask anyone at childbearing age about last menstrual period, because it can indicate certain illness. one of the things you need to do is consider pregnancy. Medication is dependent on menstrual cycle.
Rachel Shields ’14: One question was manner in which the nurses come in and out of rooms and how they communicate with students, how has this been addressed?
Doctor Kerr: Since we started with electronic medical record, there’s been a steep medical curve. We’ve had two new staff this year. One of the things we look lose sign of is how people perceive our work. When we are teaching people how to use equipment that we sometimes lose sight of how the patient perceives this miscommunication. If the student is excluded from conversation, it is inappropriate.
We’ve since brought it to the attention of the nursing staff. Another issue our nursing station is the hub of everything, medication, forms, charts. It’s also where each student goes to get diagnosed. The adjacency issues are a challenge.
Sarah Gilmour ‘14: is there anything to be done about the sometimes-negative perception of the health center. These comments negatively affect other students. Which leaves a tension between the doctor and a student of unresolved conflict. Between the student body Bryn Mawr respects an atmosphere of open and respectful confrontation. Are the doctors open to students who feel their illness is not being treated well?
Doctor Kerr: I would love you to come and tell me if you have a concern or problem that takes place in the health center. Please come talk to me if you feel that there’s something wrong in the health center. If you can’t see me, see Judy Balthazar. People learn best when you provide constructive criticism. Whenever something goes wrong in the health center, something goes wrong, and you feel that you didn’t receive appropriate care, there’s probably been a miscommunication. I don’t like when people gripe about a problem and don’t try to change them. When you have the ability to do something to change, speak up. I would greatly appreciate people talk to me. The other thing in health care is that it is extremely common to have miscommunication. When you see a doctor in 15-20m in you can have doctors appointment about something, you tell them your symptoms as you perceive them. We discuss problem, do physical, potential diagnoses, then medication, and how to treat it. In that time, a lot can be lost or miscommunicated. In that time, the doctor goes through a lot of information that only half is retained. Another problem is that there are many illnesses that can’t be diagnosed until they’re in the late stages. If you come in with a cough, and we do a swab and wait for the results, it might end up as mono. It’s rare that you leave a doctors office and feel worse rather than better. Any time you leave the doctors and feel worse instead of better, go back and see them, because it will help the diagnosis.
Reggie Jones: in the counseling service, we are striving to provide quality and appropriate service. We rely on your feedback. We have a suggestion box in the counseling service waiting area. You can always contact me make sure we are providing quality care.
Rachel Shields ’14: What do we gain as a community by having a health center?
Doctor Kerr; one of the problems in US is access to heath care. College students generally don’t have access to health care. Ability in private sector is limited by insurance, transportation, and quality of care. At the health center, you always have access, which is why colleges always have health centers. Sometimes they outsource it to the community. The kind of care in the community is dependent on symptoms. Your seen in an office most of the time by people who have a lot of a variety of problems. A lot of times they don’t give a lot of attention to needs. I’m a family practitioner, so I deal with lives and the community. We know the days of the year that will effect students help. We help counsel you and coordinate behavioral health issues and medical issues. We have as system that is set up for our student community. You have the freedom to go into the community. The emergency room is very expensive way to get health care and they’re mainly there to keep you alive.
Sarah Gilmour ’14: Any questions?
ANNA KALINSKY ‘15 You look for feedback, but people don’t feel comfortable addressing you in person. Have you considered anonymous report?
DOCTOR KERR; You can email health center advisory board. We’ve also had a recent survey.
Sarah Gilmour ’14: Also we’re sending out a survey again. If you contact the advisory board, we can bring student concerns forward anonymously.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: I walked into the health center and I was seen by a 4th year medical student without being asked. Was my experience was wondering a one time thing or the practice?
DOCTOR KERR: We’ll generally ask you if you want to see a medical student. Sometimes with the nurses that doesn’t occur. Medical students students should always introduce themselves as student.
Jennifer Mendez-Alba ‘16: I have a question about the future financial system know in the past for counseling there was a sliding scale. This year students go through private insurance, then student insurance we’re enrolled in. With obamacare will these things change?
DOCTOR KERR: we’ve had this insurance product called FirstDollar, no copays no deductables, we always have provided care. Obamacare took away limits. We can’t have a 25,000 policy anymore, this year it’s 50,000, next year it will be unlimited. Not sure we can keep it, the insurance broker said it’s the cheapest policy in the country.
Alisha Pandit ‘15: Some of my friends haven’t been able to get appointments after calling 8 times, how does one get an appointment?
Reggie Jones: Students are offered the first most available appointment for the counselors when they call. It is possible that a student might need to miss a class to make an appointment. We have been able to hire and have more hours available to students this year. Every semester from November to December and Mid-March to May, things get incredible busy. We will give appointments we don’t make a waiting list. We will go to half hour appointment to give student ability to meet with counselor to assess student’s needs. Typically will develop an intervention with follow-up counseling appointment. We’re now to weeks ahead of schedule in terms of busyness. If you call the health center and if you cant get an appointment after a second time, please contact me.
DOCTOR KERR: we strive to have appointments within the week.
Anna Kalinsky ’15: There is the issue that you can not book appointments two weeks advance. I had tried to make an appointment two weeks out and it was fully booked. That should be addressed.
Doctor Kerr: That should never happen. We have meetings on Wednesday and the counseling receptionists always say there are openings. We will work on a solution.
Syona Arora ’15: If you havemore questions, contact Sarah or Rachel or any of the health center staff. You can also email sga@brynmawr.edu. Thank you for your presentation.
College Budget Meeting Report
Namita Dwarakanath ‘15: We met on Monday with college budget committee. We have a tuition increase that’s on par with our peer institutions. There are exceptions to this because of comparative tutitions and tuition freezes… bmc is not at an unreasonable to place but we moved from 3.5 to 3.7 because Haverford students weren’t paying for lab fees and now they’re built into tuition. Faculty salaries were a pretty substantial part of the meeting. We’ve the highest increase in our peer group right now. bmc is now competitive for good faculty. The increase in assistant professors has slipped a little bit, but there are a lot of factors around that. One is that assistant professors are promoted pretty quickly. Looking at the endowment shows exactly when the recession happened. As a means of countering potential changes, we have a floor and a ceiling on our endowment. We have to spend at least 4.5% every year to make sure every year is experiencing benefits. We have a ceiling of 5.5 % so that no future class year is negatively effected. We had a three percent increase to our non personal budget. Most of it is non discretionary (eg, exterminations, food, menu online) Unfortunately the budget is limited. The discretionary information was health center hours and increasing research funds for professors. Our five year model is a 3.5% tuition increase, and a 0.5% discount rate on, which is how much a student gets off of tuition. The college budget community wants to get feedback on how to fix this, because it makes it more difficult for future students. The budget sensitivy make increases in small things make big impacts on the budget. Hopefully this year with campaigning, we will breaj even, possibly the red with the snow days. Any questions?
Colin Bauman ‘14: What is the distinction between associate professors and adjunct professors?
Namita Dwarakanath ‘15: Adjunct professors are in the associate professor situation in terms of paygrade, but they’re going to be promoted quickly.
Hannah Rifkin ‘17: I know that we’ve got a two year deal for housing for new professors in nearby apartments. Haverford has housing on campus for most professors, are there going to be changes to that?
Namita Dwarakanath ‘15: No I don’t think so. Please ask at Big Cheese.
Syona Arora ’15: Please send the sga@brynmawr.edu or Namita @ sgatreasurer@gmail.com with any more questions.
Big Cheese discussion Preparation
Syona Arora ‘15: We’re going to break into small groups and talk about things we’d like to be presented at big cheese. We’re counting off into seven groups. And we’re going to vote.
Karina Siu ‘14: We wanted to reopen the discussion on financial aid. We also want pub safe to be invited, update from Haffner and other res life conversations to see long term plan for residential space. If possible, Kim Cassidy could discuss her long/short term goals while she’s president.
Emma Rosenblum ‘13: Our group had Haffner question, wanted an update on privacy and safety in with asbestos. We want to know why Haffner why had to close dining hall early around spring break. Want to make sure construction doesn’t interfere with student health. We want CFO update and all other interim positions update. We brought up old question of class matters type questions. We had college wide initiative in my freshman year called class matters discussing class among the student body. In terms of housing, how long are apartments available and for how long. What are the bryn mawr specific rules for what allows a professor to be allowed a continued tenure track. We also want to know the effectiveness of student input.
Colin Bauman ’14: We’re mostly interested in CFO and interim positions. Haffner as well. We’re also interested in admissions policy about representing campus. Anna Sargent could you speak to this?
Anna Sargent ‘15: They’re doing more pamphlets and online materials that are new. They reached out through the administration to specific students. How did they decide who to reach out to? If they’re trying to get a good image of the campus how are they painting Bryn Mawr?
Colin Bauman ’14: We also wanted to be use of space. An example the empty student life office, how can we make it a functional space? will there be space redistribution?
Nora Scheland ‘15. What is time line for Haffner? Interim positions because people have been moving between situations. What’s with the quick turnover of professors? Who has been hired? Professors are leaving unexpectedly. How can we be better updated? Why still the unlimited meal plan? Can we can use money at uncommon using OneCards? Expanding gluten free foods at Haffner. We also want to know about maternity or paternity leave for professors. What is going to happen if we miss more school due to snow days?
Jennifer Mendez-Alba ‘16: Our groups main concern is financial aid, would the increase in tuition effect aid? Two years ago there was a presentation at SGA of financial aid presentation. There is lack of accessibility with how financial aid can be managed/delt with. We need to know more about student account or holds account. If we need to shift tuition because lab fees, we need more explanation. How is our model so different from HC, how does it makes sense?
Hannah Rifkin’ 17: We talked about mainly hell week involving faculty members and getting their input on the activity? We want them to feel comfortable, respect hell-free spaces. We also talked about inviting dean Heyduk for talk on international students. Dean Heyduk is considering changing ISO. We want to know more about that as well as make sure international students feel comfortable with all levels of student life.
Syona Arora ’15: I wanted to address a couple of things. We usually have two weeks between preparation and big cheese to take suggestions, so we’ve already sent out the invite list. Unfortunately, we didn’t invite pubsafe or Dean Heyduk. We can invite them to future meetings. We can also invite the customs committee to a meeting if that’s be interested. Alexis, would you like to speak to admissions?
Alexis De la Rosa ‘15: I was wondering if you’re referring to the students were reached out to share stories?
Anna Sargent ’15: how are they making decision of who to talk to? How do they chose?
Syona Arora ’15: Melanie is going to type topics I gleaned form presentation. Biggest question is Haffner (residential life and spaces, and space on campus in general fall under this), hiring of interim positions is another topic, under that we can clump professors and qualifications. How can students be updated on hiring of faculty and staff positions? Then meal plans, dining services questions, uncommon money. Then feedback from president Cassidy about her present goals and upcoming initiatives. Then Financial aid, transparency, and accessibility. Then Maternity and paternity leave. Then Repercussions of bad weather days. How to potentially facilitate other discussions as class matters and other campus wide discussions. Admissions policies and what’s changing in the office, how bryn mawr paints itself. Participation of faculty during hell week, especially first year. We can add ISO discussion to future discussions.
Hannah Rifkin ‘17: Dean Heyduk is spearheading the cause, I don’t know if it would be as worthwhile to talk about this while he’s not here.
Syona Arora ’15: Whatever is not discussed at Big Cheese we can talk about at future SGA meetings. We have 11 topics, can everyone vote three times.
Hannah Rifkin: At the last big cheese forum we had a similar conversation about uncommon. I’m not sure if we should add this?
Syona Arora ’15: We want to present this as an option. Please vote for your top three choices. The top five we will send to those invited to present. This is not a representative counsel vote.
Haffner = 15
Interim position = 10
Hiring of professors = 7
Dining services = 8
Feedback from kim Cassidy = 14
Financial aid transparency = 22
Maternity/ paternity leave = 0
Moving forward from bad weather days = 9
Furthering discussions like “class matters” = 2
Admissions policies = 10
Participating of faculty during hell week = 7
Syona Arora ’15: The positions in bold are those that are are going to be discussed. Thank you all for helping getting these questions together. We can talk about these topics at future SGA meetings. We will be compiling questions to send to staff/faculty.