Bryn Mawr College SGA Meeting – March 22, 2015
Roll Call
Your Two Cents
Admissions Implementation of Recent Board Decision on Mission and Gender*
Plenary Recap
Elections Recap
Old Business
New Business
* In response of the recent Board of Trustees decision to change the admissions statement of the college, an advisory committee called the faculty Committee on Undergraduate Admissions was formed. This committee is particularly interested in student feedback about the kind of language that may effectively communicate the Board’s recommendations. The members of the committee coming to SGA are Alice Lesnick, Pelema Morrice, Peaches Valdes, Marc Schulz (Chair of the Committee), and Leslie Cheng. They will give a short presentation followed by a breakout discussion with students to ask the following questions for the updated admissions policy: What language would students find welcoming? What would be off putting?
Roll Call
Present: Anna Kalinsky, Heidi Gay, Anna Sargeant, Pamudu Tennakoon, Pam Gassman, Dijia Chen, Delaney Williams, Swetha Narasimhan, Kristian Sumner, Xavia Miles, Rhea Manglani, Ava Hawkinson, Brenna Levitin, Makala Forster, Grace Kim, Chanel Williams, Aleja Newman, Odeymarys Garrido, Ann Tran, Connie Lam, Stephanie Montalvan, Shaina Robinson, Lyntana Brougham, Dani Weismann, Jessica Bernal, Angie Koo, Gabrielle Crossnoe, Nkechi Ampah, Carly Breen, Melanie Bahti, Alexis McDonald, Julie Henrikson, Joy Chan, Mikah Farbo, Miranda Smith, Julia Kim, Lindsay Burak, Rachel Feynman, Leigh Peterson, Prerana Vaddi, Leah Kahler, Olivia Hollinger, Elaine Holehan, Modupe Olufemi.
Absent: Sofia Oleas, Natalie DiFrank, Xavia Miles, Marian Slocum, Matison Hearn-Desautels, Shakari Badgett, Jillian Moroney, Sneha Bendapudi, Catherine Wagner.
Charlie Bruce called the meeting to order at 7:10pm
Charlie Bruce ’16: Just in case you guys can’t tell, the theme tonight is E-Board in high school.
Roll Call
Angela Motte ‘17: Just letting everyone know that in accordance with the state of Pennsylvania’s laws I am informing you that I will be recording this meeting.
Present: Anna Kalinsky, Heidi Gay, Anna Sargeant, Pamudu Tennakoon, Pam Gassman, Dijia Chen, Delaney Williams, Swetha Narasimhan, Kristian Sumner, Xavia Miles, Rhea Manglani, Ava Hawkinson, Brenna Levitin, Makala Forster, Grace Kim, Chanel Williams, Aleja Newman, Odeymarys Garrido, Ann Tran, Connie Lam, Stephanie Montalvan, Shaina Robinson, Lyntana Brougham, Dani Weismann, Jessica Bernal, Angie Koo, Gabrielle Crossnoe, Nkechi Ampah, Carly Breen, Melanie Bahti, Alexis McDonald, Julie Henrikson, Joy Chan, Mikah Farbo, Miranda Smith, Julia Kim, Lindsay Burak, Rachel Feynman, Leigh Peterson, Prerana Vaddi, Leah Kahler, Olivia Hollinger, Elaine Holehan, Modupe Olufemi.
Absent: Sofia Oleas, Natalie DiFrank, Xavia Miles, Marian Slocum, Matison Hearn-Desautels, Shakari Badgett, Jillian Moroney, Sneha Bendapudi, Catherine Wagner.
Angela Motte ‘17: Thanks you guys!
Charlie Bruce ’16: Next on the agenda is Your Two Cents. During this item, any new items for discussion, questions, or announcements can be made. We have allotted ten minutes for this agenda item.
Angela Motte ’17: Wait, who’s on that slide?
Bridget Murray ‘17: It’s you.
Angela Motte ‘17: Oh no.
Your Two Cents
Swetha Narasimhan ‘15: We will be having a Campus Clothing Drive! The drive is partnered with Career Wardrobe, which provides clothing to women seeking employment or entering the workplace. It will be running until March 30, 2015 and there are boxes located in Canaday, the Campus Center, Admissions, the Gym and the Graduate School. We are accepting gently worn and clean donations of dress pants, skirts, blouses, blazers, dresses, and Casual Friday wear. All sizes are needed.
I also wanted to gauge interest in doing a bone marrow drive; I don’t have any details on logistics yet, but wanted to take a poll to see if people are interested in the bone marrow transplant drive?
Aleja Newman ‘17: Is there a time span, like an age?
Swetha Narasimhan ‘15: Not off the top of my head, I don’t think so.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: How do they take bone marrow?
Swetha Narasimhan ‘15: So the process…
Anna Kalinsky ‘15: I know the answer! You have two main ways, you can get a pelvic aspiration, its like a giant needle in your hip and it’s really painful, or you go to the hospital where they give you medication where you produce more bone marrow, and they hook you up and take all the extra bone marrow out. It’s safe and painless and you get to watch Netflix all day.
Swetha Narasimhan ‘15: On campus you’d only get your mouth swabbed. Ok, so yes it would be cool to have this, or it would not be cool to have this, or abstain. Thank you guys!
Nancy Yannan Li ’16: As some of you may know, Owl Investment Group is a student run investment club on campus. We invest real money in the market and donate the returns back to our community annually. If your club has upcoming projects or events that you think are beneficial to the Bryn Mawr community, and you still need funding, you can apply for the OIG Club Donation. We will send out email with the link to online application. You may request a maximum of $1000. And the deadline for online application is this Friday, March 27th. After the OIG board member review the application, selected clubs will be invited to submit a PPT presentation by April 1st and do a formal presentation later on. This is a great alternative source of funding that you can consider. And we encourage all who are interested to apply.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16: What are the email addresses?
Nancy Yannan Li ’16: yli02@brynmawr.edu
Makala Forster ‘15: The next Senior Cocktail is this Friday from 10:00pm-1:00am in Rhoads Dining Hall. The theme is Speakeasy and feel free to dress up in your best 20’s attire. Also, Seniors please remember to donate to the juice fund! Also bouncers, if you did sign up, please be there by 9.
Aleja Newman ‘17: Is it too late to sign up to be a bouncer?
Makala Forster ‘15: Yes, sorry.
Dijia Chen ‘16: Traditions will be having a rummage sale this Thursday from 1:00pm-2:00pm in the Campus Center!
Shaina Robinson ’17: I am making an announcement on behalf of Syona Arora and the Self-Government Association Alum Panel. Self-Government Association Alum Panel will be held Thursday, April 23rd at 7pm in Thomas Great Hall. Refreshments will be served. This is a great chance to meet alums who participated in SGA during their time at Bryn Mawr. You will be able to see how their leadership experience at college influenced their personal and professional lives after graduation. This is a valuable opportunity to make connections! Students, staff, faculty, administration, Trustees, and alums are invited to this event. This event is highly encouraged for the representative council to attend, so mark your calendars. Once more, it is April 23rd at 7pm in TGH.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: I have five announcements- wow! I have an announcement from Aminata Simbo over at the GSSW: We hope everyone is enjoying their spring break! The Association of Black Social Workers is still hosting a donation drive at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and on Main Campus. We would like to encourage both students and faculty to bring items from the list below to donate on March 17th as part of Social Work “Shout Out.” Members of GSA & ABSW will be assembling care packages on the 17th but we will continue to accept items & monetary donations through April 10th . Although the number of deaths from Ebola continues to decrease in the West Africa region, there is still a great need for preventive care items.
Our goal is to collect 100-250 care packages:
• Hand sanitizer (8-16 fl. oz. bottles)
• Clorox wipes (preferably in the pouch/packets)
• Anti-bacterial liquid soap (8-16 fl. oz. bottles)
• Latex/synthetic gloves (1 small box or packet–so each care package can have 5 pairs)
We are also accepting monetary donations preferably in the form of a check or money order written to Bryn Mawr College (with ABSW written in the memo line) to purchase above materials for the care packages; each care package may be the equivalent of $10.00 – $15.00 but any monetary donations are welcome. School supplies: notebooks, pencils, pens, geometric sets etc. (greatly needed as all educational institutions had been closed since August 2014 and are slowly re-opening)
Also, putting my CDA hat on for a minute, there’s going to be a Spring CDA event this Thursday at the CC from 3-5pm. The topic will be about the effects of perceptions of body image on mental and physical health. There will be posters where folks can write about their experiences. The event will be catered by Zoe’s kitchen. If you stick around at the end, there will be some more large discussion type activities.
Super important announcement: the field-hockey team is hosting a dodge ball tournament March 29th. The current and emeritus SGA Executive Boards were invited to combine their powers into one unstoppable team. However, since we don’t have at least 5 willing and able people, I’m now begging members of the rep council to join us, but only if they’re good at dodge ball. Any volunteers? You can also email me later at cebruce@brynmawr.edu.
Aleja Newman ’17: I volunteer as tribute
Charlie Bruce ’16: It’s 50$ per team to register, so we also need to collect money! If you can’t participate with your body, you can participate with your wallet!
Pamudu Tennakoon ’15: If you want to support the E-Board, what colors should we wear?
Charlie Bruce ’16: That’s very sweet! Wear yellow and black. On to my next announcement then, Your Two Cents is also now announcements! So if you have a question, straw poll, or announcement, please say it.
Aleja Newman ’17: I have a suggestion. For your E-Board colors, you should wear brown and orange.
Anna Kalinsky ’15: Have you considered the color sparkle?
Charlie Bruce ’16: Thanks guys. It looks like we have reached the end of time. Do we have a motion to extend?
Pamudu Tennakoon ’15 motions to extend time to the end of speaking order, seconded by Nkechi Ampah ’15.
Gabrielle Smith ‘17: The April Appointments round is coming up! Applications will be up March 25th and will close April 8th at 11:59pm. Make sure to sign up for an interview when you send your application! Positions up for reappointment are
Board of Trustees Rep (2)
Curriculum Committee (3)
Bryn Mawr Concert Series Heads (2)
Film Series Committee (4)
Film Series Committee Head (1)
Seven Sisters Representative (2)
Conflict Resolution Committee (5)
SGA Web Misstress/Master/Mistex (1)
Green Ambassador Co-heads (2)
S.TEAM (12)
There will be an info session tomorrow, Monday April 23 at 5pm in Taylor B and Information Sessions Tuesday and Thursday at 9pm in Taylor C. Info sessions will only be about 30 minutes long. You can find Facebook events for April Appointments and the info sessions on Facebook. Join and share with your friends! If you have any questions please email me at gbsmith@brynmawr.edu or bmcappointments@gmail.com
Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16: When is the deadline to apply?
Gabrielle Smith ‘17: The last day is April 8th. It’s a really short application. Interviews only take ten minutes- Easy Peasy.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: We have a wonderful gathering of admissions with us today to talk about the recent admissions decision. Mark Schultz will be introducing himself, and the other committee members. We have allotted 30 minutes for this agenda item.
Admissions Implementation of Recent Board Decision on Mission and Gender*
Marc Schulz: We thank you for your time. I’m Marc Schulz from the Psychology department. Joining me tonight, we have Alice Lesnick, Pelema Morrice, Peaches Valdes, and Leslie Cheng. I wanted to run through our timeline regarding this topic. So, in September of 2014 Bryn Mawr College established a board with a mission to reexamine the mission of the college to examine trans gender, gender nonconforming and gender non-binary applicants. After months of study and consultation, the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College voted at its February 7th meeting to accept the recommendation of its board working group charged with reviewing the College’s mission with regard to trans gender, non-binary and gender nonconforming applicants. We have letters from Arlene Gibson and President Kim Cassidy. In addition, the college has an elected faculty committee that works with admissions. It’s a fairly quick timeline and our charge is very narrow. We have to adopt language that is consistent with the board’s recommendations. We are here to talk about language that the student body finds appropriate. We want to post this on the website so its applicable to students in the future. Our existing policy has somewhat problematic language. I want to briefly discuss our process. We have worked hard to educate ourselves in many aspects. We spent a lot of time doing outreach to folks with expertise. So, in the small groups, my colleagues have copies of the press release. We hope to have conversation about things that we hope to emphasize, such as length, tone, thoughts about the website’s implementation, the perspective that you as students will bring, only to name a few. Your opinions are very valued to us. We are eager to hear what you have to say, please raise questions, but we only have limited authority so please keep this in mind.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: We will have a ten minute discussion by breaking off into small groups, talk, and then reconvene with each other to talk about it as a bigger group.
Students break off into five groups to discuss the presented topic.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Our time has ended, does anyone motion to extend time?
Pamela Gassman ‘16: I motion to extend time 5 minutes.
Anna Kalinsky ’15: I second.
Students continue to discuss the presented topic until time is called.
Alice Lesnick: Good evening, good to see you all. I’m going to speak the greatest hits of group three! Feel free to comment. An interesting suggestion was that the terms around trans gender and cisgender may not be know to all applicants, a suggestion to create a page of working term definitions was brought up.
Rachel Feynman ‘15: We already have a document of that online.
Alice Lesnick: Thank you. We found it important to use respectful language that is open and teaches when necessary. Another key issue is the Bryn Mawr mission to stand with people of marginalized gender identify. Some problematic language such as “Bryn Mawr Woman” was brought up. We wanted to brainstorm how we can open it out. We also wanted to credit the students who brought it to the administration, and give the mobilizing students credit.
Marc Schulz: I’m going to summarize group one. In our group we had some concerns with gender pronouns, and which pronouns to use, and why, noting that it’s a complicated issue. We discussed the idea that with length the longer the statement is the more nervous Bryn Mawr may seem. We suggested a link to additional details. We quickly looked at the FAQ language on the website right now, such as “How Does Bryn Mawr treat trans individuals”, and that brought up a lot of questions. We also talked about wanting to be brief, but not watering it down to simple terms that didn’t give the issue justice.
Leslie Cheng: We also echoed some of the terms being problematic. This group wanted the mission statement to be short and sweet, acknowledging that it will change over time, but that the more nitty gritty information will be easily accessible underneath. We also talked about a contact email to have admitted students have more resources to contact.
Peaches Valdes: Group four echoed some of the above comments. We focused on accessibility of information and on multiple locations for the website to have the information. We would have connecting links that would talk about application requirements, but also an eligibility requirement that would link to our gender policy. We also talked about keeping our language consistent for outside sources, such as the Common App. We talked about being very direct but also open and welcoming.
Pelema Morrice: We talked about making the document short and conscience, as well as a secondary page with more detailed information with a shorter and more concise policy. The importance of specifies, as well as the language around the specifics, had been brought up as important things to take into consideration. We don’t want to be too categorical. We also thought it would be important to have contact information. We brought up the fact that we need to separate the word “transwoman” to “trans woman.”
Alice Lesnick: Sorry, I had the time to think of two more things. We didn’t want the final language to be gender checking, but rather in terms of inclusivity. We also talked about the Bryn Mawr College mission to safeguard and include everyone.
Charlie Bruce ’16: I would personally like to thank the members of the committee for coming out. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to contact them. Next on our agenda is our Plenary Recap. We have allotted ten minutes for this agenda item.
Plenary Recap
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Plenary happened! On February 22nd, 493 students came together in Goodhart to vote on proposed resolutions. Three were presented, and two were passed; Reaffirmation of Constitution and Increasing Opportunities in STEM. For the Plenary minutes and the full resolutions, please consult blogs.brynmawr.edu/plenary. Also, the Plenary Committee has a survey going out through the activities listserv about Plenary. There will also be a link in the minutes on the SGA blog at sga.blogs.brynmawr.edu/minutes. The plenary survey link is
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Fe1crDFNWUA-kcrlLzGdFREN7jB3UXF8cxx1j50vrjM/viewform Does any one have any questions? No, ok thank you! Our next agenda item is our elections recap. We have allotted ten minutes for this agenda item.
Elections Recap
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Our elections ended about a month ago! The following people have been elected. The new E-Board consists of Angela Motte, Charlie Bruce, Molly MacDougall, Lihn Tran, and Gabrielle Smith. The appointments committee consists of Rachel Bruce and Sarah Awad. The elections coheads are Joy Chan and Delaney Williams. If you have any questions, you can contact elections@brynmawr.edu
Next agenda item- old business! During old business, material that has already been presented may be revisited, questioned, or announced. We have allotted 10 minutes for this agenda item.
Old Business
Charlie Bruce ’16: Any old business? No? Ok! New business! New business is for the Representative Council members only. Any new items for discussion, questions, or announcements can be made that relate to the representative’s position. We have allotted 10 minutes for this agenda item.
New Business
Linh Tran ’16: Hi everyone! As you might have known, mid semester review is already on Google form. This was part of my plan to make all budgeting processes available online. Traditionally reimbursement processes uses paper forms but I’m trying to make the process paperless. I’m currently developing a Google form for reimbursement and I’m open to any comments about the idea, or suggestions of how to make the form better, or if you have any expertise with computer science or data processing or achieving and want to help with the process. Anyone have any comments?
Pamudu Tennakoon ‘15: How would you do receipts? Would you scan and upload them?
Linh Tran ‘16: No, they would still send me the receipt, but just the receipt without the form. So the reimbursement process right now- people attach the receipt to a form. I want to get rid of the form. I want to have the form be accessible online.
Nkechi Ampah ‘15: I think this is a really good idea.
Linh Tran ‘16: Thank you very much.
Aleja Newman ’17: How would you make sure the receipt is not lost and paired properly with the online form?
Linh Tran ‘16: If people submit the receipt and fill out the form at relatively the same time, they will be paired. On the receipts I would have a name and their ID number, so I would be able to contact them. A lot of people are just submitting a blank receipt now, so this new method will encourage people to write their information on it.
Delaney Williams ‘17: Will it be harder for people who are doing two clubs?
Linh Tran ‘16: No, it will be very unlikely if I have receipts with the same amount of money. That should solve this issue
Delaney Williams ‘17: Oh! That makes sense- ok!
Linh Tran ‘16: These are good comments and ideas, thank you all.
Nkechi Ampah ‘15: Why don’t we just scan it all?
Linh Tran ‘16: With the receipts, I need to physically submit them to the controller’s office.
Nkechi Ampah ‘15: Ok!
Aleja Newman ’17: Not everyone has the time to go and scan something. Maybe another thing to make sure nothing gets mixed up is using an envelope. That way it’s not just a receipt going in the mail.
Linh Tran ‘16: I would want to have a receipt drop off box so this would solve this issue, thank you so much for all your comments.
Pamudu Tennakoon ‘15: You could also have people just send you online receipts. Like from online orders.
Linh Tran ‘16: You would need a physical copy, sorry, that way we can send it to the controller’s office. Thank you guys. If you have any suggestions, or know anyone who would be interested in working on this, please let me know! We have a lot of behind the scenes work that will be done, so I would really love to have some help. If you have anything else, please email me at lntran@brynmawr.edu
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Any more new business? No, ok! Would anyone like to motion to end the meeting?
Pamudu Tennakoon ‘15: I motion to end the meeting.
Anna Kalinsky ’15: I second.
Charlie Bruce: This is a representative council vote only; please consult with your co-held position.
(Anna Kalinsky, Heidi Gay, Anna Sargeant, Pamudu Tennakoon, Pam Gassman, Dijia Chen, Delaney Williams, Swetha Narasimhan, Kristian Sumner, Xavia Miles, Rhea Manglani, Ava Hawkinson, Brenna Levitin, Makala Forster, Grace Kim, Chanel Williams, Aleja Newman, Odeymarys Garrido, Ann Tran, Connie Lam, Stephanie Montalvan, Shaina Robinson, Lyntana Brougham, Dani Weismann, Jessica Bernal, Angie Koo, Gabrielle Crossnoe, Nkechi Ampah, Carly Breen, Melanie Bahti, Alexis McDonald, Julie Henrikson, Joy Chan, Mikah Farbo, Miranda Smith, Julia Kim, Lindsay Burak, Rachel Feynman, Leigh Peterson, Prerana Vaddi, Leah Kahler, Olivia Hollinger, Elaine Holehan, Modupe Olufemi voted to adjourn the meeting)
Charlie Bruce ’16: Meeting Adjourned! Thank you all!
Meeting Adjourned at 8:37pm