Sunday, November 2nd
Big Cheese Forum
Roll Call:
Present: Present: Anna Kalinsky, Sofia Oleas, Heidi Gay, Anna Sargeant, Pamudu Tennakoon, Pam Gassman, Dijia Chen, Molly MacDougall, Mikah Farbo, Swetha Narasimhan, Kristian Sumner, Xavia Miles, Rhea Manglani, Ava Hawkinson, Brenna Levitin, Miranda Smith, Mikala Forster, Marian Slocum, Grace Kim, Chanel Williams, Aleja Newman, Odeymarys Garrido, Ann Tran, Connie Lam, Rachel Bruce, Matison Hearn-Desautels, Julia Kim, Stephanie Montalvan, Angela Motte, Shaina Robinson, Lindsay Burak, Rachel Feynman, Lyntana Brougham, Dani Weismann, Jessica Bernal, Shakari Badgett, Leigh Peterson, Angie Koo, Gabrielle Crossnoe, Sneha Bendapudi, Jillian Moroney, Cat Wagner, Carly Breen, Neha Kamran, Olivia Hollinger, Elaine Holehan, Modupe Olufemi, Rebecca Cook, Julie Henrikson, Linh Tranh
Absent: Nkechi Ampah, Alexis McDonald, Prerana Vaddi
Syona Arora ‘15: Welcome to Big Cheese Forum! First on the agenda is an accelerated roll call. Also, feel free to help you to snacks but please try to not move around too much during the forum.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Hey everyone! By the order of the state of Pennsylvania, I’m telling you all that I’m taking an audio recording of the minutes. I’m going to do an accelerated roll call.
Syona Arora ‘15: Thank you Charlie! Before we move into the agenda today, I would like to take the time to thank the Big Cheeses. Thank you so much for coming out on a Sunday night to speak to us! We’re really glad to have you here. We’re going to begin with short introductions, just please say your name, department, position, and email address or other ways of getting in touch with you. We hope that students could reach out to you after the Forum.
Lillian Burroughs: Good evening, I’m Lil Burroughs, I’m director of operations for campus safety. Go on to the campus safety website for information about how to reach me.
Stephanie Nixon: I’m director of diversity, social justice, and inclusion and the Title IX coordinator. I work out of the Pensby center. My email address is snixon01@bmc. You can find all of my information at the Pensby center website. I do open office hours on Fridays from 1:30-4. If you email my email address or call our office our administrator assistant, you can set up a private appointment.
Kim Cassidy: Hi I’m the president, you can email me at kcassidy@brynmawr.edu. If you want to meet with me, talk to marge pyle.
Judy Balthazar: Hi I’m dean Balthazaar, interim dean of the college, (jbalthaz@brynmawr.edu) if you want to contact me, send me an email, or call the office and set up an appointment.
Tom King: I’m director of campus safety here and at haverford. Contact me at campussafety@brynmawr.edu
Pelema Morrice: I’m the Chief Enrolment Officer my email is pmolorrice@bmc. I’m always interested in talking to students.
Reggie Jones: I’m in the counseling center and the health center, call me if you want to reach out to the health center (610-526-730) and email rjones@brynmawr.edu. If you want to reach out to me, please call me first.
Vanessa Christman: I’m an assistant dean and director of leadership and development at email (vchristma@brynmawr.edu) to make an appointment or come over to the Pensby Center.
Jerry Berenson: I’m the chief administrative officer, I work with a lot of administrator offices, like dining services, facilities, and campus safety. My email is jberenso@bmc. My telephone number is 610-526-5183.
Syona Arora ’15: Thank you again cheeses. If you’re sitting on the balcony or the stairs, if you want to speak, you have to be on the main floor. Before we get started, I’m going to give a summary of the structure of the Big Cheese Forum. We have five student volunteers who will introduce each topic to contextualize its importance. Thank you so much volunteers! Because we want every topic to be covered, there will be a time limit on every question. In order to have a diversity of student voices and cheese voices, there will be a strict speaking order, which Alexis will be taking. If you want to be added to speaking order, please look at Alexis. Please limit your questions to no more than one minute and thirty seconds, as we have only allotted 15 minutes for each discussion topic. Namita will motion if you are running close to the end of your time. She’s keeping time on her phone. A couple more rules: an individual may make up to two comments or questions in a row but then we ask that you return to the end of the speaking order so as to maximize the number of individuals who are able to participate. Again, I want to emphasize that we do have a limited time limit but this does not mean that the conversations will end once the meeting is over! Everybody is highly encouraged to reach out to the Cheeses after this Forum.
Does anybody have any questions?
If you haven’t signed in yet, please sign in at the cheese table. Let’s get started!
Title IX
Mental health
Admissions
Perry House
Administrative response to the Confederate flag
Sam Heirich ’17: I’m Sam Heirich class of 2017, and I’ve prepared a statement to introduce Title IX to the big cheese. Title IX is a monumental piece of legislation that expands farther than women’s equality in sports. It is imperative that the students of Bryn Mawr know their rights that are protected by Title IX. As a survivor of sexual assault on a college campus (not at Bryn Mawr), I cannot emphasize enough the importance of “Knowing Your IX” and the resources available on and off campus. I never want another person to suffer as I did. Together we stand with survivors. We, the student body of Bryn Mawr, hold the administration accountable to increasing awareness of all aspects of Title IX to the community. Thank you.
Syona Arora ’15: Thank you so much, if anyone wants to make opening statements, please begin.
Aleja Newman ’17: Can we go over what title IX is and its importance.
Stephanie Nixon: I want to first thank the person who shared the statement, I think it underscores how critical it is that we engage in this topic as a community. Lil and I were excited to see this is a topic because it is something that we both care a lot about, so I appreciate folks wanting to engage this. Your question was information about what is title IX. At its heart, title IX is about gender equity, so that includes perceptions of gender, and it protects individuals to have an equitable college experience, and it cuts across faculty/staff/students. Broadly, it started with sexual harassment, and over time, that that sexual harassment umbrella has come to include all harassment that is based of discrimination based off of gender, sex, and perception of sexual activities. So actions would include stalking, partner violence, so as members of the community, (students, grad students, staff, faculty) are protected. If anyone experiences anything of creating a hostile environment, related to gender/sex or perceptions gender/sex or folks are receiving misperceptions based off of perceptions gender, that is something that you can come to either of us. We have a new official member of campus safety who can talk to students officially. However, there are many avenues that lead to us, you can contact members of the DLT who are resources who will lead you to us.
Nora Scheland ’15: I know that this topic came up in our Big Cheese prep because there was issues of how the title IX training was used during customs training. In planning training for next year, will the HAs be separate from customs people? Could the surveys for customs week be separate?
Stephanie Nixon: It will definitely change to next year, I appreciate that feedback, because its important to me that the training will be useful, it’s important to me that student leaders know what their responsibilities are and understand what their responsibilities are in reporting lines. We separated out Customs and HAs from the DLT this year, which is different than last year, but we’re continuing to change the way the meetings are structured.
Pamudu Tennakoon ’15: I was wondering who the mandatory reporting roles are for leadership roles.
Stephanie Nixon: A mandatory reporter is someone who must report to me that they’ve received information of a potential harassment of sexual harassment. HAS have that reporting nature all of the time, customs people must report for their first years all of the time. Those are the only mandatory reporting roles in leadership position. Everyone in terms of faculty/staff, deans must report to me, as must coaches, campus safety staff, and others of us who have front line student life roles. For example, even if I weren’t Title IX director, I would have to report since I’m in an office that is an extension of the dean’s office. In terms of the opposite end, the health center, counseling service are confidential. Their only required to report numbers at the end of the year. They do not have a title IX reporting obligation. They are fully confidential spaces.
Brenna Levitin ’16: Can you explain mandatory required reporting for McBrides/transfer, because that’s a little different.
Stephanie Nixon: there are no mandatory McBrides or transfer except for the dean who works with McBrides and transfers.
Michaela Olson ’15: I was wondering if there was considered adding bystander or intervention training to student DLT training?
Stephanie Nixon: Yes. I know that you participated in the Speak About It! For upperclass students who weren’t part of DLT, one thing we were really fortunate to add this year was a program called speak about it, which allows folks to positively engage in topics about speaking about it, participating in consent, as well as basics of bystander intervention, and we also invited all the folds of the DLT. Customs week is one of the few processes that hits all students during their time here, so we’re thinking of adding it to that. Some folks have reached out around connecting to broader messaging through other avenues, perhaps through traditions, because we recognize that we want to continue to reeducate who aren’t first years or sophomores.
Shakari Badgett ’17: I would like to note what exactly definition of sexual harassment is and what are the consequences of a Title IX violation.
Stephanie Nixon: definition: we have one policy, sexual assault also falls under our policy. It is any unwelcome conduct related to a sexual nature. It is a pretty big umbrella, if we find that there is a violation, there’s a whole slew of options. Another piece of it is that we try to have someone who has been targeted guide what also makes sense for them. On a student level, it can be a conversation. There are options like expulsion. If there’s a title IX case that goes through a deans panel hearing, there are specific deans that go through a specific title IX case. We do everything we can to make sure to pick the best action for all.
Syona Arora ’15: We have two minutes left who wants to be added to speaking order?
Namita Dwarakanath ‘15: I’m interested in learning about the differences between colleges in the consortium ? If an incident occurs at another college, what do you do?
Stephanie: It depends on the particulars of the situation, but I usually can work with my counterparts on other campuses. In the Bico, it’s fairly easy because our campus safety is the same. The investigator works with both campuses. It depends on whether the student from another college has the relationship with Bryn Mawr. We can have authority over them if they have some kind of involvement here. If they’re not enrolled in a Bryn Mawr class, we have less authority over them. We do have the ability to determine who can or cannot be on our campus. We try to help students here navigate the process on other campuses.
Syona Arora ’15: We have reached the end of this discussion topic.
Stephanie Nixon: One last thing, students who are interested in reaching out to talk about this, please reach out to me and Lillian, because we want to grow and incorporate student voices.
Lillian Boroughs: re: bystander training: checking in with one another. Friday night, we had a student who checked in with another student and kudos to her!
Syona Arora ’15: Thank you so much! If you want to continue the discussion, please contact Lillian or Stephanie.
Brenna Levitin ’16: Mental health problems affect the majority of students at Bryn Mawr, but the majority of those students are unable to get quality mental health care from the Counseling Center. Because of the lack of quality or often any care, students turn to alcohol and drugs to cope. A quick snapshot of commonly expressed issues includes: Insurance issues, including having to have access to the $75 copay out of pocket before the insurance reimburses us, inability to make lasting relationships with counselors, as most are trainees, age and life experience differential between McBrides and most, if not all counselors, For those without outside insurance, such as lower-income and international students, the Counseling Center is their only option. We have a responsibility as a college, especially one that acknowledges its high-stress nature, to provide quality mental health care to all students.
Syona Arora: Do any of the cheeses want to start a discussion or do students want to make a statement!
Reggie Jones: I’m glad you said that, because I’m excited to start this dialogue about counseling center. There’s no financial barrier. For the first six sessions, counseling sessions are at no charge. At the point that a charge takes in, students use insurance. They either, they use private insurance or the college insurance. For students who are uncomfortable using insurance, because they don’t want their parents to know, they complete a waver, and it waves the counseling fees. For students who do use insurance, they do not pay 75$ up front. They can pay immediately or can defer the payment for 30 days, and then the insurance hopefully kicks in. If the insurance does not kick in, we encourage students to contact the insurance agency. Students who use insurance, the most they have to pay out of pocket is 15$. Whatever private insurance doesn’t cover, if you submit it to the college insurance, the college insurance will pay 85%. If you insurance is 50$ and 25$ is left over, and you submit that to the college insurance, the amount that you pay is 5$, because the college insurance will pay 20$. The most important thing is that if you are concerned about cost, you talk to the counselor about it. We don’t want there to be any barriers for students to see a counselor. I recognize the challenge of this process. It is a hassle to get the insurance to pay the pill if they don’t want to answer. If you talk to the counselor about that, we can help you in terms of trying to navigate that.
Brenna Levitin ’16: I have a question about who a student would report to if something happens with a counselor, because I went to see a counselor and told her that I had PTSD relating to men. And she said that she couldn’t help me, and she recommended three private male counselors outside of Bryn Mawr that I could see. She clearly didn’t listen to anything I said about PTSD and I didn’t have anyone to report to about that. Who would I report to about that?
Reggie Jones: In the counseling service, there are 13 of us, and four trainees. We have more staff counselor than we do trainees, if you see a counselor and have a problem, please let me know. We appreciate the feedback. If I’m the problem, talk to Dr. Kerr, because she is my immediate supervisor, that’s the reporting chain, sometimes I’ve met with students and they’ve met with a counselor in the service, and they’ve met with counselors off campus.
Aleja Newman ’17: I want to talk about a different topic that has to do with mental health, one of the things that bother me and my friends is how we talk about self care. There’s a list of six things like water, food, sleep. Those are pretty basic. I think we need to step up our game about self care, we need to be able to have the community step in and tell each other for folks to take care of themselves. I feel like students are discouraged from talking about mental illness.
Reggie jones: there’s a self-care committee and there’s as student who is on that committee, there’s a student Palak Bhandari, who is on that committee. I encourage all of you who have an interest in changing how we talk about self-care to join that that committee. Often folks in the counseling center encourage you to work with a counselor and how mental health issues make it more difficult to perform. I understand that students have difficulty performing when they struggle with mental health issues. There should not be any stigma associated with getting help. The dean’s office also collaborates with the health center to help.
Kim Cassidy: I just want to speak to the faculty roll. I think that the faculty is increasingly becoming aware of mental health. Judy and I are informally meeting with faculty to talk about how faculty can support students better. Some faculty are doing it themselves. We’re asking the faculty to understand the importance of having academic breaks.
Shakari ’17: I want to speak to counseling services but the part that medicates students a lot. In my first meeting with a counselor, she asked me if I needed medication. I felt that there’s a stigma where students feel they need to get rid of your problems with medication. Is there a policy against medication instantly, I don’t think that it’s in the interest of the student to have medication immediately?
Reggie Jones: In the first time you’re meeting with a counselor, they’re assessing you.
Sometimes they make a recommendation to see a psychiatrist. It’s not required to take medication. For people who use medication, they don’t exclusively use medication but also talk practice. If you’re encouraged to see a psychiatrist, it’s to give you helpful information so that you can make an informed decision. If what the counselor is saying to you makes you uncomfortable, reach out to dr. Kerr or me. We want to make sure the students get the best possible care.
Syona Arora ‘15: We’ve reached the end of this topic. Please feel free to reach out to Reggie or the other cheeses. Thank you for everyone who has asked questions
Rachel Bruce ’18: Hello, my name is Rachel Bruce and I am a member of the Class of 2018. Admissions is a extremely vital part of our community at Bryn Mawr, for instance no one would be sitting here right now had it not been for the individuals in Gateway. As someone who recently experienced the admission’s process, I can vividly remember the immense, and very much unnecessary, stress that this process can cause from the thought put into our applications and then the wait for our responses. What measures is the Office of Admission’s taking to make this process as stress-free as possible? In what ways is the Office of Admissions seeking to diversify Bryn Mawr? How are we making sure that students can come to Bryn Mawr following their acceptance by means of financial aid and merit? How are we making sure that all prospective Mawrters are able to receive the education that they both want and deserve? We have Pelema Morrice, the Office of Admissions’ latest edition, here to discuss with us these and other issues that the department is currently dealing with. On behalf of the Bryn Mawr undergraduate community, thank you for your time and we look forward to an informative discussion.
Syona Arora ’15: Does any student want to make a statement?
Brenna Levitin ’16: I was a transfer student that wasn’t admitted with merit aid and I know that’s a policy. Could you speak to why that’s a policy?
Pelema Morrice: Merit aid is a non-need based aid for us. Those are opportunities that we have towards scholarships towards non-need based aid. It’s an expensive proposition to offer non need-based aid to everyone. There will hopefully be some opportunities for us in the future to think about how we can provide more financial resources towards that population. I’m a former transfer student, so I understand that situation. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources to offer that right now but it will change.
Elaine Hollahan ’16: Are we still need blind for admissions?
Pelema Morrice: Technically not, we meet 100% need, but we have not been completely need blind for a time. There are probably 35 institutions in the country that are in the financial position to be 100% need blind. It requires a committed financial investment. We are what’s called a need sensitive or need aware institution.
Pamudu Tennakoon ‘15: Are we need aware for international students as well?
Pelema Morrice: Only for domestic students. We don’t have financial resources for international students. We’re need aware for international.
Miranda Smith ’16: I’m also the SGA McBride rep, we’ve noticed a significant decrease in admissions for McBrides. I’m curious if you could speak to that and talk about the direction of the McBride program.
Pelema Morrice: We’re fortunate in that we’re one of the few liberal arts and we can connect with McBride students. There was a dip this year, and it wasn’t intentional. We just quit the Jack Kent Cooke program, which meant there was less grant funding available for students. That does not mean our commitment to that population exists. We’re a victim of our own success, the program was very successful early on, and anything that fell after that put us in a different space than we were last year. Right now, we’re having a good dialogue about how to sustain this commitment and to move forward. The primary contacts for these kinds of questions would be me, Peaches Valdes, or Tiffany Shumate, who is our C3 program coordinator and McBride coordinator. There is less funding than there was before, but we’re working on getting more options. To summarize, the dip last year was in now way tied to an intentional decision. We do want to make dialogue.
Ann Tran ’18: Can you speak more about the change in admissions policy of standardized testing?
Pelema Morrice: I hope everyone knows that we went test optional, that means ACT/SAT scores will no longer count for students who don’t want to submit those scores. It no ways penalizes those who make those who do well on standardized test scores. We’re lucky in that we have a holistic admissions process. We thought carefully of what it means to be test optional. So while the test scores are another tool to help us get a picture of the student, it’s not the only factor.
Brenna Levitin ’16: Can you speak about homeschooling admissions process? I know, as a homeschooler, that I was required to submit sat scores? I know for a lot of colleges are test optional, they are not test optional for homeschoolers.
Pelema Morrice: I don’t know why because I wasn’t here when that decision was made. Now we’re in a position that the test optional piece applies to anyone outside of international students.
Aleja Newman ’17: You just said that domestic students don’t have to submit test scores but what is the policy for international students?
Pelema Morrice: We require standardized testing for international students.
Aleja Newman ’17: Why?
Pelema Morrice: We’ve been test flexible for some time there’s been a lot to think about when going test optional, and we want to go one step at a time. It’s just about collecting information about the impact of the decision. There’s also a lot of technical complications.
Anna Kalinsky ’15: What is the testing policy for undocumented students?
Pelema Morrice: We’re still trying to flesh out that decision. We’re still trying to walk through if we can make them test optional. Once we know, we’ll share that.
Leigh Peterson ’15: Could you elaborate on your policy for undocumented students in general? When you are looking at the applicant does that play into decision-making process.
Pelema Morrice: Any time you would like to have a dialogue with me, please talk to me! You can readily access Peaches or me or me via email, we really love hearing your stories, this is a special space, it’s helpful for us to hear those stories. It provides more pathways for students to get here.
Modupe Olufemi ’17: Hi I’m Modupe Olufemi one of the current dorm presidents of Perry House, and I’m going to introduce the topic of Perry House. The reason this is important is because the Perry house building that was near Arnecliffe used to serve as a safe space, cultural space, and living space for BaCaSO, Mujeres, and Sisterhood. In 2012, when the space got taken away there was a debate on whether there was a new space or not. People could live there next fall. This is important because some there are questions of how this space is going to be used? And also questions of Perry visibility.
Vanessa Christman: Thank you Modupe for the preamble. Last Tuesday, a committee met which will move forward to discuss the new space. It’s called housing options committee or Perry house committee. It’s a group of a dozen students, a faculty member, and a staff member to discuss a number of specific pieces on launching Perry. We are going to be reaching out the input of multiple people on campus, we want the input of people on the college campus community. One of the questions that we want to ask is what we would change the name of the building to be. There are members of that committee here. Jerry and I can answer questions.
Sharkari Badgett ‘17: We would be changing the name?
Vanessa Christman: It’s possible that it could be changed. It would be a group decision
Anna Kalinsky ‘15: It would change because the Perry family donated the original house.
Vanessa Christman: It was bought from the Perry family. It has come to mean a lot to the community. The college purchased it in 1962 from a family named Perry.
Aleja Newman ’17: Will there be a kitchen and how large will it be?
Vanessa Christman: There will be a kitchen and a dining space. A lot of people on the housing committee talked about the importance of communal space, a social space, a library space, and other places that were revered in the previous structure. Those spaces aren’t built yet but the plans are there.
Aleja Newman ’17: I’m looking for specific details about the kitchen. Will there be an oven or a stove?
Jerry Berenson: There are all of those things. The kitchen is being designed that it will be for events or ceremonies, it’s expected that the students will be still on the meal plan. But the kitchen will be available for community activities that involve food.
Kristian Sumner ’17: I’m wondering why the old Perry house was deemed unlivable and why it wasn’t reconstructed.
Jerry Berenson: It’s very complicated to move a residential building to a commercial building. It never worked particularly well as a residential building. It didn’t meet any of the accessibility codes, once you do some renovations, you must bring the building up to code. In order to change that, it needed 1 million to 2 to renovate a building that only houses 7 students. And the question became whether or not there was a residence hall or community space that could provide a space for these students. I have to admit that during this process, we realized that the building was inhabitable, there was water getting in and that it wasn’t safe. Optimally, we would have had conversations first, but we couldn’t.
Shakari Badgett ‘17: You say that the kitchen would be for community events. Does that mean we are not going to be able to use a kitchen besides community events? Can anyone use the kitchen like the SGA house?
Jerry Berenson: at the meeting that Vanessa referred to, one of the groups that is a policy group to decide those issues. I don’t mean it will only be used for kitchen. That group will decide who will have access and how it will be used.
Aleja Newman ’17: The issue surrounding kitchen usage that student would rather be off the meal plan like batten house. Who is on this policy board so that students can have an input?
Vanessa Christman: I will make sure that it will be on the Pensby website, there are records of those. Khadija has been excellent at keeping those. I’m not going to name individuals right now. Its students from affinity groups relating to Perry and students on alternative housing list, it’s about 12 students from different class years.
Syona Arora ’15: We’re going to move on to the next topic, which is the administrative response to the confederate flag incident.
Kristian Sumner ’17: A couple of students hung a confederate flag in a public space earlier this semester, as a result many students heard about it and due to the fact that the flag is a symbol of racism and oppression students felt the college did not respond to the best of their ability. Some students felt that the response was late as well as well as a lack of communication between the people handling the situation and the student body. Students also feel that there are not adequate channels to handle these things that affect them in different ways on campus. (For example, the small number of counselors available.) This is not a lone incident and while these acts aren’t physically harmful they create emotional distress. Within a year there have been two, racism related incidents both not having been dealt with efficiently. Is there now a response system for dealing with these issues? What has been added to the protocols that help deal with these issues to prevent this from happening again?
Kim Cassidy: I think that we all have been looking at individual behaviors but we also want to look at our policies and practices and I’ve asked for there to be a working group formed of the diversity leadership group and the diversity counsel to look at practices, protocols, so that if we need something new, they will propose an idea. That group will be looking at policies and practices, and they’re committed to the community. They will be sending out a timeline very soon about their timeline. And within that timeline, which will wrap up in the middle of spring, it will include moments of reaching out to the community. We are concerned about what happened, and want to make sure we’re responding in the best possible way.
Aleja Newman ’17: I have a question about confidentiality. I didn’t need to know who it was or when they’re meeting, but it would’ve been nice to know the specific acts that the students are doing to take recognize their actions.
Judy Balthazar: there was an email that explained one of the processes that took place and that was something that the community cared about. There are pieces that can ‘t be made public and I ask you to trust the rpocess. Unfortunately their names were revealed, so confidentiality was broken folks are trying to avoid further infractions of giving their information place. We all want to assume those things are taking place
Stephanie Nixon: In terms of the group that wants to look at this, it is to make sure that we have multiple responses possible to the situation. We will be doing what we can to create some open conversations for the community to participate and how best to move forward. In the interim, we will inform the community about who to talk to where to go. Later we will inform the community of what spaces exist for input and confrontation.
Kristian Sumner ‘17: I appreciate the steps that are going to be taken and the information that’s going. The issue is that post incident the flag was being taken down, it wasn’t clear if the students involved were being informed or going through a process. I want to know that there was a meditation or thought process.
Judy Balthazar: I appreciate that that’s the things that students would hope would be coming forward. There’s confidentiality about specifics.
Xavia Miles ‘16: I’m wondering if you can explain the resources that we have to understand the proceedings.
Judy Balthazar: the student handbook outlines what can or can’t happen in this situation. Some situations are resolved with one on one conversation, some go to a social honor hearing, some go to a deans panel. The outcomes can range from feeling that both parties are satisfied, to educational piece, to a sanction, or something on the punitive side: a separation from the community. Most of those are in the handbook. I may not be telling you which of those are put into place this time, but those are all of the options.
Modupe Olufemi ‘17: One question I had was how do you support student leaders so that they know they don’t have to do everything themselves? Second questions, how will people be held accountable with keeping the community informed?
Judy Balthazar: I think there was a disconnect between the students and staff. Staff felt that they were helping students negotiate what to do under the social honor code. The students were looking for an administrative action. To the second question, you have to trust us, there was a process, it has been resolved.
Vanessa Christman: I would add to that, this fall has been a learning opportunity. I hear the pain you’ve been speaking of. I do feel president Cassidy has said and dean Balthazar has said that we’ve respected the honor code and this is a time to ask what are things about the honor code that serve us and things that don’s support us. If the honor code was intended to protect honor, but it ends up with frustration and feelings, we have to relook at how the system doesn’t serve us.
Judy Balthazar: I want to make sure that I say out loud what an unusual and hard and painful thing it was to know that a process had taken place. In all other processes, we don’t understand that a process it had taken place. In the resolution, we built in an announcement. I want to make sure that you understand that this is unique.
Syona Arora ‘15: We’ve reached the end of the Big Cheese Forum Thank you so much everybody for coming to the Big Cheese Forum! I’m sorry for everyone whose questions we didn’t answer. If there are cheeses that are able to stick around to discuss, please stick around and talk with them. You can still continue with contacting people. Following the forum will be the regular SGA agenda.
Announcements
Melanie Bahti ’15:The Honor Board will be hosting an event on Thursday November 13th from 8:30-10pm in CC 105 (pool table room). We will have snacks, board games, and some arts and crafts. In addition to providing an opportunity to take a break and have some fun with friends, members of the Honor Board would like to invite you to come get to know us, ask questions if you have them, and discuss the Honor Code. The other thing is that occasionally, Haverford’s Honor Council requests that the Honor Board publish the abstracts from Honor Council trials involving Bryn Mawr students. In order to make those abstracts available to the Bryn Mawr community, they will be published on the Honor Board’s webpage at sga.blogs.brynmawr.edu/honor-board under the ‘Hearing Reports and Abstracts’ tab. You can also find a link to the Honor Council’s website on the Honor Board website.
Molly MacDougall ’16: The ballot for the Special Election for LILAC CPD Representative opens tomorrow at 9am and closes Tuesday at 7pm. There is only one ballot for this election, because there are no class specific positions.
Rebecca Cook ’15: Me and Julie Henrikson ’16 are the batten co-dorm reps. We’re doing only Mondays at 6:30pm gluten free vegan food for batten community diners on Mondays at 6:30. The contact email for that is acouderc@brynmawr.edu Please RSVP for each week before 8am Monday morning! If you do not RSVP, we might not have enough food for you. For more info about us, or for the latest news on Batten dinners and events, like us on Facebook: facebook.com/BattenHouse
Swetha Narisman ’15: I have a message from Ellie Esmond who is one of the coordinators for civic engagement is calling on students to help out at the Bryn Mawr garden. We have Bryn Mawr garden coordinators, Frankie Leech and Elaine Schmidt who would like and need more volunteers. They are responsible for working with Ed Harmon (the BMC head of landscaping) to maintain the garden. Part of their job is to find volunteers to help water, weed, harvest, seed and plant throughout the year. They have really been struggling this year to find any volunteers. Usually members of BMC Greens and residents of Batten House help out along with other interested students. However, this year has seen a dip in participation. Frankie and Elaine would be happy to work with customs groups, student organizations, and individual students who would like to get involved in helping with the garden. They host weekly workdays on Friday afternoons that anyone is welcome to join.
Namita Dwarakanath ’15: Mid semester reviews have been finalized, and they should be up by tomorrow morning.
Alexis: quick appointments announcement: November appointments are going up soon! I will have the appointed positions up soon on the blog. If there’s anything that is related to a particular committee that you would like changed, I can update it on the blog.
Your Two Cents
Charlie Bruce ’16: I’m thinking of posting an audio recording of the minutes. The options are yes, no, abstain. Great! The second question: has anyone ever read the minutes? The options are: yes at least one all the way through; no (never), and abstain. Candidate’s forum minutes count. Reading the minutes means you’ve read the minutes from the beginning to end of one meeting at least once.
Brenna Levitin ‘16: I have a question for appointments committee. The last appointments round was a couple of weeks ago, and there have been no announcements, and I was wondering why that is.
Alexis: I’m just updating the blog, and I have posted the information on social media. Relevant faculty or staff members relating to the committee have been informed.
New Business
Charlie Bruce ’16: I want folks to send me their announcements before the meeting.
Anna Kalinsky made a motion to adjourn the meeting and it done.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:43 PM.