Bryn Mawr College SGA Meeting – April 19, 2015
Prefaced by the minutes from the “Big Cheese Forum”
SGA Meeting Agenda
Announcements
Your Two Cents
Old Business
New Business
Roll Call
Present: Anna Kalinsky, Delaney Williams, Kristian Sumner, Chanel Williams, Aleja Newman, Odeymarys Garrido, Ann Tran, Connie Lam, Shaina Robinson, Lyntana Brougham, Carly Breen, Melanie Bahti, Rachel Feynman, Prerana Vaddi, Leah Kahler, Olivia Hollinger, Sofia Oleas, Shakari Badgett, Rhea Manglani, Brenna Levitin, Paola Bernal, Modupe Olufemi, Mikah Farbo, Makala Forster, Stephanie Montalvan, Lindsay Burak, Nkechi Ampah, Catherine Wagner, Anna Sargeant, Pamudu Tennakoon, Pam Gassman, Dijia Chen, Swetha Narasimhan, Xavia Miles, Ava Hawkinson, Matison Hearn-Desautels, Miranda Smith, Julie Henrikson.
Absent: Heidi Gay, Joy Chan, Natalie DiFrank, Marian Slocum, Grace Kim, Julia Kim, Dani Weismann, Leigh Peterson, Angie Koo, Gabrielle Crossnoe, Sneha Bendapudi, Jillian Moroney, Elaine Holehan, Alexis McDonald.
Big Cheese Forum Minutes
Kari Fazio (Endowment and Revenue)
(Minutes taken by: Angela Motte ’17)
Participants:
Kari Fazio (Endowment and Revenue) (she/her)
Tonja Nixon ‘15 (facilitator) (she/her)
Note-taker: Angela Motte ’17 (she/her)
Lillian Oyen-Ustad (Guest- Admitted student) (she/her)
Nikitha Shakamuri (Guest- Admitted student) (she/her)
Tara Holman (Guest- Admitted student) (she/her)
Carly Breen ‘16 (she/her)
Prerana Vaddi ‘16 (she/her)
Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16 (she/her)
Lyntanna Brougham ‘16 (she/her)
Molly Mac Dougall ‘16 (she/her)
Charlie Bruce ’16 (they/them)
Rachel Rudnicki (Guest- Prospective student) (she/her)
Mary Cooper (Guest- Admitted student) (she/her)
Cassidy Groubargh (Guest- Admitted student) (she/her)
Assata Aceyacey (Guest- Admitted student) (she/her)
Gwendolyn Vary ’17 (she/her)
Tonja Nixon ‘15: So before we get started, we’re going to go over suggested guidelines. Please use “I” statements, remember not to attack people- you can disagree with opinions, but make sure you know that difference. Any questions about that? Ok cool.
Kari Fazio: We can talk about anything you guys want to talk about today. I’ve only been here for 6 months, so anything I don’t know, I’ll get back to you on. What do you think are the biggest financial challenges of the organization?
Prerana Vaddi ‘16: I actually have a question about the health center. I’m not familiar with the distribution of finances, but I’m curious to see the finances of the health center.
Kari Fazio: Like how much money we invest in that area?
Prerana Vaddi ‘16: Yes!
Kari Fazio: We currently have a task force set up for this, it’s not financially driven, but it’ll have financial implications. We aren’t being dictated to save money solely on the health center, but we have a lot of support and outside resources that help us out. We will have a meeting later on where we discuss our decisions, but we’ll keep you updated.
Prerana Vaddi ‘16: Thank you
Kari Fazio: The primary expense is the compensation, like most other departments, so like the people who run it.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16: I think that for all college students in the US, the rising tuition has been a hot topic, seeing as BMC is no longer need blind…
Kari Fazio: We’ve never been need blind.
Elizabeth Vandenberg ‘16: Oh, thanks! So, how is tuition determined, and how is it factoring into who gets admitted?
Kari Fazio: Admissions is more Pelema’s area than my area. But overall, every year the amount that we invest in running the college increases a little bit. We spend about 117 million a year running the college, and only 49 or 48 percent comes from students and families; so about 50 percent of the money comes from other sources such as endowment or donations. 30 percent is endowments, and other gifts and grants makes up about 15 percent. We are sensitive to families’ and their financial situations, and seeing as tuition/room/board rates reflect that, but it also has to reflect the fact that we have rising costs. We’re not for profit, but we also can’t lose money, or we wouldn’t stay in business very long. But over the last 5 or 6 years after the global recession, the average increase has been about 3 and a half percent. I’m sure it still feels like a lot, but actually a lot of the money we have is financial aid, so we are committed to meeting full needs. So, based on our calculations, we try to meet individual students needs. Their are very few institutions that are completely need blind. We would need about 200 million more to be completely need blind, if that gives some perspective. The primary goal is to craft a high caliber class, and not to craft the least expensive class, so all of this is to craft what we think will be a successful class over four year- finances are not the key thing when we evaluate cases.
Prerana Vaddi ‘16: So a couple of years ago we were going through a budgeting issue. Can you talk about the shift as an institution since the recession?
Kari Fazio: I’ll do my best, but I wasn’t here. A little bit of what I’m doing is talking about colleges around the country, but not necessarily here. The financial circumstances of our families have a key role in this, as well as emotional stress. The financial conditions of our families are a key thing. For instance, the average tuition increase has been 3 and a half percent give or take, earlier than that, the rate of increase was about 6,7,8 percent increase a year. So it’s an increase of curve, but the slope of that has flattened out since the recession. Another big impact was the value of our own endowment. We draw a significant portion from our endowment to support ourselves, so you don’t want to draw from the endowment, that way students from, let’s say two generations from now, will suffer, and we don’t want that. We had to ratchet back our revenues so our revenues and expenses would be balanced, so we had to cut expenses. It would be interesting to know how it was for the students. If I were to guess, it wouldn’t have been like complete program cuts, I don’t know if we had layoffs, if we did they wouldn’t have been massive, or if someone left for another job, we wouldn’t have filled those positions. We, as administrators, would have been very focused on the economics of it all. For instance this year, we have a lot of interaction in the budget analysis perspective, we do have a college budget committee, so the officers of SGA sit in on this committee- we went through requests for funding, and tried to prioritize them. It’s a lot of representatives, and we all got together in the room upstairs, and tried to prioritize them based on the amount of dollars we had to distribute. I thought it was really productive. I’m excited to see this process evolve, as I’m here longer, I can see it grow. Ultimately the budget is to express in number what’s happening on the college campus, the budget should be a reflection of the institutional priorities. We’re trying to work towards more transparency.
Prerana Vaddi ‘16: Thank you, I’m going to go switch groups.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: What do you think institutional priorities are in that way?
Kari Fazio: … Or should be?
Nikitha Shakamuri: Academics- I thought that a lot of money would be going to professors, or like study abroad opportunities. Just things that would help students achieve their goals.
Kari Fazio: Those are absolutely key priority areas, and we do spend it there.
Carly Breen ‘16: Well, you were talking about small cut backs that wouldn’t be felt as much on the larger scale, but I think that the little things, like pop up events, that adds a little bit more of encouragement, like a positive atmosphere for students, I appreciate those things as a student. As the administration becomes aware of more things that we need outside of academics- I just really appreciate it.
Kari Fazio: President Cassidy tries to create an atmosphere of a community; we don’t spend nearly the amount of money on things like pop ups as we do on academics, you can spend few dollars and make a big impact, though.
Tonja Nixon ‘15: I’ve seen a lot of prioritizing a community within the community, such as traditions, but other things have lesser budgets such as housing and house keeping. How do we prioritize those?
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Point of clarification- traditions comes from SGA dues. Everyone pays SGA dues at the beginning of the year, which helps pay for traditions. So traditions is technically a club that we budget for, so it’s not from the college.
Tara Holman: Is that allocated through our college?
Kari Fazio: It will appear on your tuition bill.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: You can also have it waved.
Lillian Oyen-Ustad: Back to your original topic, personally finding out that BMC is not need blind is very, very surprising to me. As a student on a very generous amount of financial aid, I’ve seen that quality over quantity is very important to me, and I appreciate that a lot. Back to what Nikitha said about academics, it’s amazing to me to see those allocations being made.
Kari Fazio: I think your point being, creating diversity, including socioeconomic diversity, helps to create a very vibrant campus. We’re investing much of our money in financial aid, we’re committed to accessibility, we’re not trying to be an elitist organization, and we’re trying to facilitate diversity.
Charlie Bruce’ 16: Do we have a motion to extend time for five minutes?
Time is extended for five minutes
Tonja Nixon ‘15: Any other questions, or questions you have for us as students?
Kari Fazio: What should we be focused on, or how can we make things more transparent?
Angela Motte ‘17: I think it would be a really good idea to hold community meetings, that way people who are interested can see what’s going on, and it allows for a more transparent process.
Kari Fazio: I like the idea of community meetings; I like the idea of trying to do that next year.
Lyntanna Brougham ‘16: Maybe besides just emails, we can add it to the BrynMawr.edu page?
Kari Fazio: What information would you want to see?
Lyntanna Brougham ‘16: Where the money is being distributed.
Kari Fazio: I think that’s a good idea, thank you.
Tonja Nixon ‘15: I’m wondering, I’m going off to becoming an alum very soon, how much are we let into the know as to our endowment?
Kari Fazio: We’ll be improving the financial website, so our tax returns and stuff are posted online, but I think that by changing it to make it more appealing would help. It’s available to the public, so its available to alums as well. We have a ton of information, we have fact sheets that we produce every year, so that has a bunch of information inside of it. Our financial statements are posted online, so look at that.
Charlie Bruce ’16: We need a motion to extend time.
Time extended for another five minutes.
Kari Fazio: So we’ve been asking questions back and forth about finances, so please feel free to ask whatever you would like.
Assata Aceyacey: How do financial aid appeals processes work?
Kari Fazio: Finances and financial aid are two separate processes, but we have a separate committee, so the case will go to the committee, they’ll review it, and they’ll make a determination. We try to respond as quickly as we can, but we always try to make it fair, and keep it based on the need. We do review them and make decisions, however, always best to contact the finical aid office as soon as you can, if you need to. Don’t feel intimidated, even if it’s not a problem, it can just be a question, we’re here to make sure that everyone is successful, and we try to do everything that we can. We have lots of resources in our office, and even in Guild hall, which has administrative offices. You can also always call.
End of Small Group Discussion
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Perry House and the Pensby Center
(Minutes taken by: Gabrielle Smith ’17)
Vanessa is here to talk about Perry House and the Pensby Center.
What changes are happening to Perry House??
-In transition for the past several years. It’s more of a community. Perry is the name of the family we bought the house from. Not a donor or an alum.
-2012 students were told Perry would be taken off the grid.
-For students of the African diaspora
-Totally moving location, into something that has been renovated, brand new everything in the inside, 29 students, from the original seven, library, will probably have a new name of someone who we actually have a connection to, no first-year students
How the role of other affinity groups plays a role in the new Perry House
-SAS or Hyphen??? –> A student decision. Students want it to be students of the African diaspora. Selection has already happened, but the programming may include SAS and Hyphen. Vanessa is interested in how the students figure that out. Everyone should be able to use the library. Africana Studies may have a very strong relationship with Perry
Art gallery space?
-There is a lot of excitement around that. Temporary and permanent. Murals and exhibits. Have it be student work. Special collections has been forthright and positive. Pictures of item in Perry won’t compromise items. More visible representation of what matters to the students.
Repping Pensby: Working everyday to build inclusive community.
No safe space for Hyphen, SAS, or Arrow students. A lot of students who live off campus are Asian students.
-Speaking for Pensby ish– We understand the value of trying to create a safe space. We want to help students establish those spaces. The house was bought in 1962 but it was in 1970 that sisterhood wrote a list of demands. I’m saying to write a list of demands, but student activism is very important in this situation. It couldn’t happen by the fall or next year, but we could start thinking about it. Off campus housing is being scaled back which will change what is true of students of color living off campus, Asian students, non Asian Americans, want to cook for themselves, but the lower Merion township won’t allow cooking in the dining hall
A student from Africa did not identify with the same hurt about the confederate flag, while Asian Americans felt a lot for it. Race and ethnicity at Bryn Mawr is very multifaceted. Asian American students feel the model minority myth, and feel like during discussions about race there is a ranking of oppression. Don’t want to pit minorities against each other.
Pensby staff has expanded in the past 2 years, so the college is showing in that way that all these complexities are worth putting some support behind.
29 vs 7 beds. People of color in the dorms / in DLT positions.
-We don’t have a scarcity of people of color and we hope through admissions we get more. We are at a place of having almost a majority of people of color. We want students to have a choice. People can still go to events at Perry and not live there. We don’t think it will be a big concern.
What have your reservations been about Perry? And what have you done to change them?
Ever since it was announced that Perry would be closing there have been committees that have been student driven. Why was Perry old and not new? It was based on the structures and what made sense and what would be the most feasible thing. I still wish there was more student input and money to make those things to happen.
Why are they not all singles? People want to live there but were not willing to live in double. Or why not two room doubles?
-Vanessa does not know the answer to that. She is happy to find it out. There is ADA compliance, but that isn’t really relevant.
What are the more recent Pensby Center initiatives?
-The Pensby center by its nature should have a lot of initiatives but we also want to be responsive. Isabel Barker and Stephanie stepped up to work on the Bias Response group. There will be listening meetings to discuss what we want the bias response team to do. Visit the Pensby website to find out more.
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Public Safety
(Minutes taken by: Rachel Feynman ’15)
Start at 7:15
Rhea read the guidelines of conduct.
Rhea: class of 15, she/her
Lindsay Burak: she/her
Fatima Tasila: she/her
Olivia Porte: she/her
Eve Cantler: she/her
Maranda Smith: she/her
Christa Gorman: she/her
Lil Borroughs: she/her
Tom King: he/him
Olivia Porte: How do you train the officers? What type of training do they go through? Diversity training, not stereotyping?
TK: Lots of in-house. Most people start as on-call or part-time. There’s a regular HR process but they also try to take a close look at people. They are potentially the most diverse departments on campus. They think it’s impossible to fake liking students for very long, so those people don’t last. Both Lil and Tom came from police backgrounds and then worked at Penn and it didn’t matter so much to be good with students, but here, here it’s small, you can’t keep a job if you don’t like the kids. In his 6 years, he’s seen 38 personnel changes. Most just went away if they are unable or unwilling to get what they’re trying to be here, that they’re respectful and right, and this school is really rare that there are no non-students living in the dorms. Other schools say that this is silly, that we can’t keep secure without adults, but BMC campus safety has proved that wrong. They have to be personable and unbiased. The second is that people have to look or be wary to call for help, in this model, bad things happen. They look at a lot of after-action reports, and in every case there are people who could have asked for help but they didn’t. The two reasons for that are that they didn’t want to get the other in trouble, the second most reason is that they didn’t trust it to be handled well by the csafe officer dispatched. They do their best to use the feedback that students give. Not everyone is perfect and there are days, but if it’s clear that someone isn’t a good fit, they’re asked out
Lil: In addition to what they learn from students, it’s a work in process from students. They do formalized training with Stephanie Nixon, the title IX training and LGBTQ+ training. All trainings given to students were given to csafe first (bystander training, alcohol training, etc.)
Tom: We’re not sworn, we’re not armed, we don’t write citations, how we get along with the police is really important. The top administrators of the police respect what we do, they don’t know how it works, but they know that it does. We’re doing a lot better than Villanova, St. Joes, Rosemont, we’re surrounded by places that police are pulling people off sidewalks or out of bars; they don’t have to do that for BMC students.
Lil: We call them when we need them; they call us when they get calls from students who haven’t called csafe yet.
Danielle: I’m a transfer student from George Washington; they had a really different dynamic with the students. Does the mentality you just spoke about pertain to non-students? At East versus West I saw some differential treatment of men of color.
Tom: It does, and that was a teachable moment.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: We’re halfway through the discussion time, there’s ten more minutes left, but if you’re comfortable please stay in your groups.
Tom: We were heightened to alert due to an issue at Haverford about physical assault so there was an alert out. Students had been coming to them saying that issues were coming from people off campus. They had a lot of issues and most of them were non-campus students, people who don’t have to follow the honor code and can hurt students. More specifically, in their review of the incident that happened, they weren’t happy. When it becomes apparent that officers are unwilling or unable to truly embrace what we’re doing with the training for diversity, then they can’t be in a position where it won’t work. So he isn’t any more. That’s vague, but we don’t want it to happen any more.
Lil: It tarnishes the reputation of the department. His role changed. We are privileged to information, we are cautious and protective, and it’s mostly outsiders. When we know that outsiders are doing things to enjoy your parties, your personal invites… we are so protective. It was a major lesson learned. We on the csafe side will help run the next parties, it has to be different, you’re having parties inviting people into your homes. We know that when someone says, “This guy doesn’t belong here” we’re all like, “WHERE IS HE??” It’s only as successful as the students running parties.
We need better training for parties, what’s our expectations, what’s your expectations, we need to be better at filtering out who the invited guests. We want you to know who we are, so we also know who you are.
Olivia Porte: I agree with what you’re saying, but I’m torn, it reflects the school when people call pubsafe on people and it seems to have a racial bias. Six white boys from Nova were allowed in before me and then my presence was questioned by csafe officers, and my roommate also was accused of drunkenness when sober. I’m curious of what attitudes you’re picking up from students because I know other people reported issues and they weren’t taken care of.
Lil: I don’t want to say that I know exactly what you were going through, but the folks that were there, what was going on with who was allowed in or wasn’t in, they told us that the people allowing and not allowing people in, that was students. In terms of saying that someone was forced to walk back to Brecon. We have an outside security contractor, and he’s no longer being hired by the school.
Tom: It’s tough, too, because reputation, things go out and we’re quick to respond, apologize and take action so we can learn from them, but so much information went out… we weren’t there to check ID’s or let people in or out. We are there to help the bouncers cut off when the area was full. The only two people who were working doors were women of color. The accusations were founded and accurate, in terms of letting people in, but it’s difficult to defend. We don’t prophylactically defend anyone. The worst thing isn’t finding out something went poorly or we messed up, the worst is when it doesn’t come to our attention but there’s something out there that something went wrong and letting that bad taste just hang out there.
Lil: We take complaints that someone was rude very seriously. We listen to the recordings, and when we listen to the recordings, then it’s reversed. That people calling say they’re polite and the dispatcher was rude. In such cases sometimes it’s the opposite so we bring in the person to listen to the recording and they maybe changed their mind. On the other hand if people don’t tell us and just say it to their friends.
Olivia: I’m not wanting to bash y’all, there’s just some things I’ve heard.
LiL: YOU NEED TO TELL US! We can’t make anything better if you don’t tell us when it happens. We cannot allow you passing down the lane that you had a bad experience and then have someone saying they’re not calling when they’re in need. You need to tell us what happened, you need to listen, and we need to listen. There’s been some posturing and we need to resolve it.
Miranda Smith: When there are conflicts between students and public safety, can you outline the procedure, and the reporting chain? There would be easier to resolve if there’s more transparency. Is there a way to be more transparent that officers that are acting counter to our community values are being held responsible for that?
Tom: The best way to do it is to report things to either of us. In terms of process and responsibility, that runs the whole spectrum of things that go one. The timeliness of the reports is to identify particular officers, see if they fall into the “they need to work somewhere else”. Depending on how serious, it may be that the first time was enough, and if someone isn’t here any more, they aren’t here any more. Other times, after some counseling, training, retraining, if it’s apparent it’s not working, we care less about the human resource process than other departments because it’s so important.
Miranda Smith: Do we have access to the csafe officer handbook?
Lil: It should be. If you’re not comfortable with someone, you can report to whomever you feel comfortable with.
Miranda Smith: The dissonance is that they’re having people from your department making them uncomfortable so it’s difficult for them to make a report to the department that’s making them uncomfortable. That’s threatening.
Lil: There’s orientation week. Tom and I have told the higher-ups that we need more times with the students. Who we are, what we do. Reporting purposes. From the get-go, they don’t realize they can come to us. I don’t know if you’ve had personal experience?
Miranda Smith: No, I think they do a good job, but there are people who do not feel that way.
Anna Kalinsky: There are two student positions that can take feedback to csafe as well, Rhea is the PubSafe rep, and the ResCo heads also meet regularly, so people can report to us.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: We’re out of time again. (vote is held, five more minutes time)
Tom: Another issue with the timelines is that we need to investigate the veracity. We’ve had meetings, for example after the East-West, there was an agreement that it could have been handled better, but sometimes it’s sort of less clear cut. Sometimes people say that the officer was disrespectful, but sometimes it’s that the person was unable to accommodate the request, and they just can’t do it, so it comes across disrespectful, but they can’t do it. The complaint comes to us in the form that it’s disrespectful. It’s so important to be timely. There’s nothing more important to us, the people who work after it gets dark, they have a tough job. But it’s so important. Although there’s supervisors, we can’t see everything that goes on. Feedback from students is so important. We get positive feedback, as well. The number of interactions that officers have with students, it generally goes well. It’s disconcerting that the perception, perceptions are grounded in fact and that’s important to note, but it’s disconcerting that any group is being treated differently, by gender or certainly by race. What we need to do to keep us safe. Any person who has a hesitation to make a call defeats what we need to do to keep people safe
Rhea: How big is the department?
Lil: We have 23 people – counting full time, part time, and on call.
Tom: There’s this perception that we’re all over and we do everything, salt, keys, parking, keys, but there’s a lot of things we don’t do as well as we do actually do. There’s an assumption that we are responsible for more than we are. We don’t pretend to be able to fix things. If it’s a transportation issue or a facilities issue, we get that to the proper department as much as we can. If it’s a student’s safety, we also work with the deans, the health center, the counseling center.
Lil: If a student feels a situation wasn’t handled properly, the officer should know. We should have a good dialogue, after it happens
Charlie Bruce ‘16: We are out of time. Let’s convene to larger groups.
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Enrollment
(Minutes taken by: Linh Tran ’16)
Big cheese forum group dicussion
Big Cheese: Pelema Morrice (PM) – Chief Enrollment Officer
Facilitator: Bridget Murray’17 (BM ’17)
Note taker: Linh Tran’16
Participants:
Modupe Olufemi ’17 (MO ’17)
Syona Aurora ’15 (SA ’15)
Katie Hinchey ’16 McBride (KH ’16)
Swetha Narasimhan ’15 (SN ’15)
Pamudu Tennakoon ’15 (PT ’15)
Prerana Vaddi ’16 (PV ’16)
BM ‘17: Do you have any questions that you want to ask us?
PM: I do. It’s been a busy year. I’ve only been here since August and we’ve always had something going on. But the one that is particular to my area is the board decision of our admission policy in relation to trans students. There’s a lot of questions but the ones I’m curious about are
1. What do people think about the way the college is handling the policy with the new direction vs other institutions?
2. How do people feel about the policy that the board of trustees have decided on in terms of how we operate the trans student policy?
SA ’15: I’m really happy about the fact that it is a very inclusive policy but it is still somewhat restricted and I’m glad that the board has decided to maintain the status as a women’s college and specify that we keep using the gender language in the way that we have used to talk about college. It is interesting to compare with other women’s colleges with policy regarding queer people because Bryn Mawr did not mention it.
PM: I think it might have been Mt Holyoke?
SA ’15: I have not been to discussions about the decisions but I really liked it and think that people are generally happy about it. I’m glad that it happens now that we are having conversation about it.
PM: The decision of the board is actually not different from what we have already been doing, but it is more concrete and explicit. We operate on the same conditions now just with different language around it and the language is important.
KH ’16: the college is doing a good job in creating space for conversation but I was disappointed in the timing of the announcement. It felt as if it’s the response to the bad national press targeting Bryn Mawr that week.
PM: It is unfortunate that it felt that day. It has always been decided that the announcement will go out around that time because it is right after the board met. It was just unfortunate timing and just happen to be that week.
Katie ’16: I’m also concerned that there hasn’t been conversation on campus about how we are going to support trans women when they get here. They are at the most at risk, most nontraditional students and need extra support. As a Mc Bride and non-traditional student I don’t feel like I have enough support. I was promised a lot of things but the offices didn’t follow through on that so I’m worried that the trans students will not be supported in the way that they are supposed to be.
BM ’17: I have not been hearing about the structure that are in place and don’t know if there is any resources that the school is putting out at this point.
PM: We are having conversations that are similar to yours. It’s clear that we have some room for growth, and we are also talking about the support: we are struggling a bit because it is difficult to promote a certain environment if the structure is not there and it is a huge gap that we are looking forward to working on with the community. I have not heard anything about the next step after the policy yet.
SA ’15: who is the group that is deciding the next step?
PM: The President and the Deans of the college will be the two primary ones but we contribute in the conversations for every topics.
SN ’15: There’s a lot of conversations but I’m curious if anything has happened since the policy announcement?
PM: Yes. President Cassidy got together a faculty admission committee to take the board’s recommendation and wrap the language for how the actual policy will be read as. What was released was the press release so we still need a formal document to put on the website. The committee just finished a final draft and this will be sent to the board next week and the official policy will be available in May. What we do in our office is to think through where we will put it on our website, how we handle inquiries, taking off the old language on the website, etc. mostly brainstorming the logistics. One of the things we have heard from students the last time we came is that they would love for the policy to be firming, welcoming, and inclusive, and I think that the final draft does a very good job on that.
KH ’16: Are you going to be reaching out to other organizations to let them know?
PM: We will but we haven’t done it in the past, so we are strategically planning how to engage with the CPO in our region because we don’t have the ability to be engaged with the CPO nationally. We are talking about it but we haven’t done it explicitly yet.
PM: I was impressed with the language that the president and the board used in the letter in terms of what we are doing and why we are doing it, it is very thoughtful and I like the way that we are doing it.
I can ask questions about Sweet Briar.
KH ’16: Last time I talked to Admissions, I was concerned about how there is no McBride admitted this spring and how it is looking forward. Internally we McBride have talked about being nontraditional students but we haven’t seen the college talking about the non-traditional path to a certain degree. Is there any push back when it is brought up and why it is the way it is right now?
PM: We haven’t got any push back, the issue is there is no plan. When there is no plan, things just happen as they stand and this is where we are. Whenever I brought it up we have always gotten support and ideas and comments but there is no game plan in place. We are relying on the market direction and it can go anywhere at any point in time. We are making a short-term mini game plan so it can get to a better place.
KH ’16: For C3 students, on the website it says we are supposed to receive things like tutoring, priority registration with classes, etc. but we don’t receive anything. It is on the Admissions website so I’m wondering if it is something to talk to the Dean’s office about this.
PM: That is definitely something to talk to the Deans’ office about. That’s a concern that I didn’t know was happening. The admission website just represents what they are offering. We can also talk to the Dean’s office about it.
SN ‘15: I’m wondering if the optional test policy is affecting our applicants whether nontraditional or regular?
PM: We just have our first year of having the test optional, we are still looking at the data to see what happened after the first year. We did get more applications this year but we don’t know the percentage of the optional test application yet because we have some technical issues. As soon as we have the data we will share it.
BM ‘17: In one of our conversation, we learned that the admittance rate for this year has dropped. How are things looking with that?
PM: Things are looking very good. We will probably end up with 365-370 for the incoming group this year, and we have a waitlist of 858 students so we don’t have any problem with our budget number.
KH ’16: I heard that there were 16 McBride students that were suggested to the committee. Has Bryn Mawr made a decision on how many of them will be admitted yet?
PM: I’m not 100% sure. We will probably have the results come out next week.
PV ’16: A tour guide mentioned how selection rate has “increased” from 41 to 39. What is the criteria that determine the rate?
PM: It is the number of student admitted vs not admitted.
PV ’16: So what did you mean when you say the enrollment class this year has dropped?
PM: I was talking about the number of students actually matriculate, the size of the incoming class. Last year it was in the 350 range and that is lower because we are usually in the 360 range.
PV ’16: And what factors would determine that?
PM: Who decides to come. We would sends out offer letters in late March then we prepared today and tomorrow where we do admitted students events and what will decide that final admission number is who decided to accept the admission offer.
KH ’16: Will the Sweet Briar admissions count against the cap on transfer students?
PM: No, not at all.
BM ‘17: Do we have Sweet Briar applicants?
PM: We did get a few, somewhere between 6 and 8. Some of them were ED admitted there, some were regular decision who is coming this fall to Sweet Briar so they are in a tough spot. We also have a few who are transfer students from Sweet Briar. We extended the deadline as soon as we heard about the news and all the sister colleges did.
SA ‘15: Do you have any other questions in particular about Sweet Briar because I know you brought it up earlier?
PM: I’m curious because we talk a lot at our conferences on campus but it’s lovely to hear from students. It is kind of an open-ended questions to see if there’s any thoughts about the Sweet Briar announcement and what students have been talking about.
We are obviously in a very different situation, much more financially stable and secure than they are but the world is always changing so you never know how things go. We are in a good position but if the announcement has caused fear or concerns we would like to know.
PV ‘16: One of the things we talked about is the media reaction towards the announcement. We looked at their endowment and were surprised as how it is compare to Bryn Mawr’s and how quickly the administration made the decision. Another issue is the college was intended to be women’s college and there is legal controversy of how to distribute the land of the college. There’s a concern about problems of management.
PM: Absolutely. These things don’t happen quickly, reality is they have probably been talking about it for years behind closed door. The last president left a year ago. The board doesn’t make hasty decision even though the public bit of it seems hasty and people just heard about it for the first time. Knowing how boards work I think they would have been talking about it for at least 5 years.
Back to your thoughts about mismanagement, it is amazing how colleges run well and there’s good vision long term about where the college wants to be, how can they serve a certain community. We can avoid issues like this with good management and vision. Sweet Briar has been in a tough spot for a long time. Thankfully, we have good leadership and money, which are the two important things, so we are in a good place, but it is unfortunate and sad to see institutions go like that.
BM ‘17: I was scared a little but be I’m glad we had this talk and happy that Bryn Mawr has done what it has done.
PM: And reality is that we are in a good space selectively in terms of the community that we operated in. We are very well positioned so we should be fine.
PT ‘15: Going back to the media and how they portrait women’s colleges. It concerns me how employers would look at women’s college in the light of the negative media. How does admissions promote and make people want to go to women’s college?
PM: It is definitely a tough situation. All of our sister colleges’ admission outcomes have been fantastic, and yet the public narrative is very contrary to what actually happen on the ground. So we are hoping that the president of the sister colleges start planning together and do a better job with priming the media with a better message of what we are.
PM: So I’m new and I’m working on how we can ramp up our admissions: we would want to hear from you what we can do on our end is to increase awareness of Bryn Mawr to prospective students and how we convey the on-campus experience that you are getting without having students come and experience it.
PT ‘15: I was in an online chat group and I thought it was awkward because you didn’t know who you were talking to. The timing was off because I had to wake up at 4 AM to do it. It would be interesting to see more 3-D tours of Bryn Mawr on the website like virtual tours where people can space themselves because photographs cannot capture the physical experience.
SA ’15: There is a very outdated roller coaster tour, maybe something like that but new. Videos of tour guide giving tours to students.
PT ‘15: video highlighting Bryn Mawr students of all class years to give an idea of the diversity that we have.
BM ‘17: trying to network through current students or alum in students’ area. An alum in my high school gave me a May Day gift when she found out I was admitted to Bryn Mawr and even though I already accepted the offer at that point, it would have made a difference. It is good to have such connection.
PM: We are doing that now and it is improving. We have alums who will do interview and follow up with students.
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Community Day of Learning
(Minutes taken by: Makala Forster ’15)
Topic: Community Day of Learning
Facilitator: Shakhari Badgett
Faculty/Staff Rep: President Kim Cassidy
KCass: Would love to hear general feedback – what sessions, what did you appreciate, what would you do differently?
Pam Gassman, ’16: I went to a few sessions, and enjoyed listening to others and specifically appreciated learning about the institutional history (where we came from, and where we are now, and where we are heading)
Mikah Farbo, ’15: Went to a student’s presentation on bi-racial experience (Chantille Kennedy), enjoyed how open the discussion was, and wish she had been able to attend more sessions
Nora Scheland, ’15: Enjoyed hearing about admissions; context/history of admissions format (inclusion/exclusion based off of Harvard admissions). Wish that we had gone deeper into race/ethnicity discussion in admissions session. Appreciated variety of engagement options.
Pam Gassman, ’16: Maybe if sessions were shorter we could have attended more?
Anna Sargeant, ’15: Depended on the event, because some really needed more time than others. I think we lost people after lunch – maybe if lunch was outside next time? Also I think we spent too much time applauding ourselves – YES applaud ourselves, but we still have a long way to go. Need to keep focus on topic of race.
Anna Kalinsky, ’15: I think focus on race is important – maybe have race as the constant topic, and the second one rotates? Like race & class/ability/?, so that race isn’t the only topic but maintains focus. More than one a year would also help a lot.
Michaela Olson, ’15: Dining halls open all day limited student employees and regular employees.
KCass: We understood that not everyone would be able to attend all day, and thought that boxed lunches were going to happen, but still learning what works best.
Rachel Bruce, ’18: Great to learn about community and talk about issues, but had an issue with how windy it was.
Mikah Farbo, ‘15: Weather was fine
Anna Sargeant, ’15: I think timing after Spring Break was perfect.
KCass: It was definitely hard to track student participation, and its very possible we undercounted. Lots of faculty participation, and still very pleased that people engaged even when we all had homework. Potentially involve tri-co and/or bi-co next time.
Nora Scheland, ’15: Fall could be better, taking a day off with spring thesis was very difficult.
Anna Sargeant, ’15: But at the same time, after break was really great.
Shakhari Badgett, ’16: I did really like it, but it felt like there was a culture of shaming for not going. If you don’t go that should be up to you.
Mikah Farbo, ’15: I thought one of the best things about it was talking with others after sessions and throughout the next couple weeks afterwards on what we learned.
Sofia Oleas, ’15: Appreciated length of sessions because people could share stories and variety of questions. Great to hear people sharing and informing each other. It was a shame that I could not attend both sessions because of work. Possibly locations being announced last minute was problematic for people? Is it at all possible to record sessions? Somehow make them accessible for those who couldn’t attend.
KCass: We chose to not record because we were worried how it would be used. We also didn’t want to be recording because there would be a feeling of performance – it would be potentially limiting for open discussion.
Shakhari Badget,, ’16: Maybe opt in to record?
Rachel Bruce, ’18: Better not to record – instead people could share materials like brochures or handouts or PowerPoint’s
Michaela Olson, ’15: Going to sessions was greatly appreciated. Went to 2nd performance and it was disappointing because it felt like the outside group had no idea about Bryn Mawr. Maybe changing outside group?
Shakhari Badgett, ’16: Agree – outside group was not popular. At least at the 2nd performance, didn’t hear about the 1st performance. Was useful but very broad – not tailored to Bryn Mawr. I did appreciate discussion facilitator that included intersections.
KCass: Attended 2nd performance too, and agree. 1st was better. We included performances because could entertain large group at once and manage timing of groups. There are a lot of other groups out there, so we should do more research for the next time.
Sofia Oleas, ’15: What about doing a quarter class of “Community Learning” – weekly for a quarter, not too overwhelming?
KCass: Interesting idea. Other campuses have an all campus hour on other campuses for time that is shorter and more accessible.
Nora Scheland, ’15: What about including it in Wellness course?
KCass: That is on the table, but this was also made so that faculty/staff could participate.
Katie Hinchey, ’16: I had a great experience, but noticed that there were no safe spaces for People of Color to decompress/debrief
KCass: Good idea
Anna Sargeant, ’15: I liked that it was on Wednesday.
Rachel Bruce, ’18: What about Thursdays?
KCass: We may move it around a bit so that Wednesdays don’t get hit hard
Rachel Bruce, ’18: What is the regularity going to be?
KCass: We are going to try to have as many as possible, but all still an experiment. And expensive. Try it once a year, then maybe more. We are struggling with topic, because we want to focus on identity, but maybe Honor/Ethics is also another topic?
Anna Sargeant, ’15: What about support from Deans Office funding?
Michaela Olson, ’15: As important as it is to talk about other important aspects of our identities, we don’t want to feel that one conversation/topic is “in the past” or “over”
Katie Hinchey, ’16: I think we need to continue with race – people still make mistakes. There was also a lack of using “race” and “diversity” language in announcement, why was that?
KCass: Very open in announcement because didn’t want to constrain too much for planning committee – wanted everyone to feel open to hosting a session.
Sofia Oleas, ’15: Noticed that gym wasn’t the most accessible…
KCass: Yes, but it’s the biggest space.
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Dining Halls
(Minutes taken by: Melanie Bahti ’16)
Big Cheese Forum Notes – Bernie Chung-Templeton small group
Student Participants
Nkechi Ampah ‘16
Olivia Hollinger ‘16
Catherine Wagner ‘15
Melanie Bahti ‘16
Delaney Williams ‘17
Shaina Robinson ‘17
Julie Hendrickson ‘16
Bernie: One of the big questions I get is about the one mandatory meal plan. Do any of you know about why this is?
NA16: When we really had budget shortfall we had to get rid of the dining dollars.
BCT: Since this is a residential college, we wouldn’t be able to operate as many meals consistently if we only had a la carte. We wouldn’t have these gathering places. The dining plan is less of a price per meal thing, and more like a membership. About 72% goes towards things other than food – benefits, repairs, salary, other things. That takes a lot of money. About 28 cents on the dollar go towards food. When you don’t eat in the dining hall and actually skip a meal, it’s around $2. It’s hard to communicate that. Are there ways that we could be communicating that more effectively? When dining services was doing a little better, we were able to give students some dining dollars that they could use elsewhere, but as food prices have risen Dining Services hasn’t gotten a commensurate budget increase and so the dining dollars had to go so that we weren’t degrading food quality.
NA16: A question from online: When you’re getting takeout at the beginning of the lunch period, why can’t you go eat during that period again?
BCT: As students started mentioning reasons why they were missing meals, DS came up with the takeout thing, but it had to be somehow limited. It had to be students who were truly missing meals for real reasons. It costs more than that $2-something because of the box. It has to be limited; we have to make sure that students aren’t passing a meal to someone without a plan. We wonder: how much would this actually happen? We were hearing that people were abusing the policy and just saving taken-out meals. We have to limit it to make sure that we’re not wasting food, or giving it to a guest. We will make accommodations for students who have a good reason to need a meal and takeout during the same meal period.
DW17: It would be good to have table toppers that explain the policy that lets students know that they can be accommodated if they have extenuating circumstances.
MB16: Or telling the checkers that they can let students know about this possibility if students are trying to eat and get takeout during the same meal.
CW15: I agree that it would be great to have the checkers inform people about this. It’s the first I’ve heard about it and it’s really useful.
OH16: You can get two takeouts in one day, but not two during the same meal period.
CW15: What happens if you go to Haffner earlier and then go to Erdman later?
BCT: They have different meal periods. Takeout disables your meal plan until the end of that meal period.
NA16: Is it disabled on weekends because of the budget?
BCT: It’s really designed to support students who are missing class, which is usually Monday-Friday.
NA16: It’s harder on weekends because we have all the other class-related things like projects that eat up our time. So it’s hard to plan around meals with that. Can you talk more about the policy of verifying photos on the OneCards that started this year?
BCT: Most students have meal plans on their cards, but some people have dining dollars and money on your OneCard. So if someone picked up your card, that’s real money. So checking the photos protects dining services but it also keeps you from getting your money stolen if you lose your card. Anyone checking your card, like at the bookstore, should be verifying that.
NA16: What was the training process like for getting the students to check that?
BCT: I don’t know. It sounded like it wasn’t going well initially because the students were doing more than just a quick look. We didn’t want the student checkers to make a big deal about it. But I don’t know the details of the training. I know students objected even to looking at the pictures at all.
DW17: For one of my clubs we had an event that we wanted to get snacks for at Acme. But we were redirected to Wyndham. They said it was an existing policy that was just coming back. But the items on the Wyndham menu were kind of against our club since it’s a recycling club.
BCT: The catering policy exists partly to protect community members from things like food poisoning and potentially unsafe food. But we also want to keep college money on campus. If it’s your money that’s fine, but if departments are going to Acme that’s not good. Basically my policy has been that if it won’t kill you, it’s fine. But I’ve been told to follow the letter of the policy. But for students with your club money you should be able to spend it however you want. I’ll bring this up at a meeting tomorrow. Once you get into a public space, we’re supposed to turn down things like Oreos. I’m going to try to create a set of rules that are different for students, so that you can have your snacks from wherever. It’s different from department events.
NA16: Yes, because it’s significantly more expensive.
BCT: It’s not appropriate to have these limitations for students.
NA16: I wanted to talk about the memes about the dishes. Some people didn’t like the Ryan Gosling one; they felt like it was counter to the spirit of what we do here.
BCT: We try to have fun. There’s always a risk that people won’t like that, but we want to have feedback. It could be on Facebook, we just want some communication and that will guide us.
CW15: Is there anything that we could do about Haffner closing early on the weekends? It’s hard to get back in time for dinner, and also if there’s more drinking on the weekends, why is dinner ending so early? By the time people start to socialize, there’s no food left.
BCT: Is there anything that we could trade? Like parts of meal times? Staying open later costs more money.
NA16: It’s hard to get rid of the early hours because of athletes, and so on, but in the gap between the dining halls closing and Uncommon opening it’s hard. It seems like it’s easier for Haffner to stay open because you serve your own portions.
DW17: But Haffner stays open all day. The middle of the afternoon is pretty slow.
CW15: What if Haffner didn’t open for brunch and just opened at two and could stay open later? Could there be a survey about this?
BCT: We could send this out in our next survey.
CW15: I have a comment. I heard really good things from a friend who was on an elimination diet for a few weeks, and she said that the gluten free room was really great. It’s not optimal but it’s super helpful for people who need it. It’s better than it was before.
SR17: There was a survey sent out about the possibility of having lower quality food and more options available, or more local food. I wanted to know about the results of that.
BCT: It was pretty low. Nobody wanted fewer options.
DW17: I love having local food, but I always choose Haffner because it has more options. So it’s hard to choose.
NA16: Can we have French bread in Erdman like in Haffner?
BCT: Yes.
CW15: Can we have the Panini press open at dinner every day?
BCT: I think so, yes. I will check but I think yes.
NA16: It’s called an unlimited plan, but how many times could you actually go?
BCT: It’s set at like 99 times per day. We want you to come and go as much as possible. You can come as many times as your want. I view our dining halls as like your kitchen at home.
MB16: How is this different from when you get takeout and also a meal in one period?
BCT: The reality is that I just don’t know that you’re not taking that box to your friend or someone else.
NA16: We miss the takeout cups that used to come with takeout boxes.
BCT: We got rid of them because now we give the first years a reusable cup in their tote bags each year. It costs less in the long run and reduces waste.
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Diversity
(Minutes taken by: Stephanie Montalvan’18)
Chanel: Suggested guideline for the discussion and then we began.
Provost: What do students mean by diversity training?
Kristian: Being culturally and just aware, does not just have to be racial could also be religious.
Xavia: Ways to encourage conversation that is not targeted.
Chanel: Understanding that they’re (professors) in a position of agency. Silence is basically agreement and professors must understand they have the responsibility to speak up.
Provost: Have you ever had an instance where a group of students speaks up about an experience and the professor does remains silent?
Xavia: Are faculty taught ways about how to talk to people with mental or any type of disability?
Provost: When faculty becomes faculty (if they have a phD) they do not have training. Especially if they are of older age, attention is generally not there. But what happens at Bryn Mawr for the last decade is that we have the Teaching and Learning Institute, and every faculty member of Bryn Mawr that is in a continuing position, enrolls in a course with the Institute. Where faculty definitely does engage in conversation of race, religion, and other topics like those. Every new faculty member goes to orientation for 2 days at the end of August, where faculty are introduced to the undergraduate experience, conversations on how to combine research and classes, conversations on service at Bryn Mawr.
Chanel: Would it be possible to include visiting professors in these activities?
Kristian: Is there any seminar style orientation?
Provost: Currently there is nothing that is in place for this to happen, but I don’t see why this could be enforced if they aren’t a continuing professor. It would be hard to pull this fully off because it would be less meaningful for the professors who stay here longer. There are (too) MANY professors.
Kadijah: I’m wondering how to reach out to professors who are tenured.
Provost: A couple days ago a student came to me and asked me to do research on diversity on Bryn Mawr’s campus. She recently received an internship with the Pensby center and is looking to research the topic of diversity; she is planning to make videos where she interviews faculty and students to get different perspectives. I will make an effort to include these videos in the general faculty meetings.
Kristian: What is the name of the new sociology professor?
Provost: Veronica Montes
Kristian: Ooooooh!
Xavia: How can we balance our relationship with deans and the overload of work Professors are giving us?
Provost: There are these syllabi workshops that professors are encouraged to attend. In the 90’s we had this group of professors called ALANA, where professors from the tri-co would come together and try to connect the classes. If that is something that folks need, we could return that. It was very supported by the presidents of all 3 colleges, and it really allowed professors to better integrate into the colleges. I am wondering, are students feeling that the syllabi are not very well written?
Xavia: Early in my college career when I was taking STEM courses I could not find myself in the course.
Kadijah: For me its not really even in the classroom, I have been a part of conversations of diversity and getting more perspectives in the classroom where there are no professors from my major there.
Provost: I am correct in saying that in lets say community day of learning, during the discussions, and you just didn’t see someone from your departments?
Kadijah: Yes.
Provost: If necessary there can be put meetings for conversations solely for faculty where at least on member of each department need to be in attendance.
Provost: There is the question of adjunct faculty.
Kristian: Adjunct faculty don’t feel comfortable taking risks because of their position.
Provost: Adjunct and interim, the two terms are used interchangeably. These people are hired with the intention that they will not be staying too long. It is very rare for interim faculty to become a fulltime faculty member. There are rules within the college and higher powers, where an interim cannot stay at the college for more than 6 years. It all really depends on the instance.
Kristian: Can they be included in diversity conversations.
Provost: Not really. I need to know about this. People need to reach out to me because all I have is the end of semester student reviews.
Chanel: Is there a policy for keeping visiting professors?
Provost: If there is a position that is available they are able to apply. The college is really not expanding the number of faculty, there is some but not a lot.
Big Group Discussion
(Minutes taken by: Angela Motte ’17)
Charlie Bruce ’16: All right, so after our small discussions, we are going to have a large group discussion. Please raise your hand so I can bring a microphone to you. Gabby can you take stacks? So stacks is speaking order. Who wants to beign?
Angela Motte ‘17: Sorry to interrupt, but please say your name and class year before you speak so I can accurately record it for the minutes.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Yes, please do.
Daniele Roomes ‘17: My question is what are the ways that the school is trying to increase diversity to admissions?
Pelema Morrice: We are always working to increase diversity on campus, community based organizations, Posse, that work is never done, so we continually think about how to be a better partner regionally, we try to focus on diversity,
Vanessa Christman: The other part of that is recruitments. How are we being an inclusive community where diversity thrives? This goes hand and hand with enrollment and the actual experiences.
Olivia Porte ’18: The one I know: last plenary we wanted more professors of color. What work is being done to bring them in? I don’t want to pry, but what process is there?
Mary Osirim: A process is in place. The following things have been done, we have had diversity reps on every single search committee for over a decade, but over this past year we have has reps on appointments, so the hiring committee, so one of those members sits on search committees, they are viewed very seriously, and they represent the interests of the college, where gender/race/ethnicity are looked at closely. In addition, this year we have begun to allow requests where people are appointed. I think we made very interesting progress, and we are not finished yet.
Aleja Newman ‘17: I just wanted to speak to something Pelema said, you said that you used Posse as an example of diversity. Posse is a leadership merit scholarship, they’re talking about diverse leadership styles, they don’t mean by race or income, I want to clarify that.
Katie Hinchey ’16: I spent a lot of time in Pelema’s group. I have a question about C3 students, and trans woman at Bryn Mawr. Our website says that C3 students are given support and advice from our college. We don’t have any of that. Pelema wasn’t aware that we don’t have those things, so trying to move forward from this, how can we guarantee that services that we say we have offered which aren’t offered will be offered?
Judy Balthazar: I didn’t realize it still said that. We’ve tried to integrated C3 students with other transfer students. C3 students have the option to have early registration, I think a glitch happened this spring where it wouldn’t allow it, but I will talk with Pelema.
Anna Kalinsky ‘15: What is C3?
Jusy Balthazar: It’s a partnership to coordinate community college curriculum with our curriculum so we can try to recruit better to bring in strong students who would thrive here. We moved from just having two schools to allowing any community college to do this.
Shakari Badgett ‘17: I wanted to echo what Aleja said. Posse is a leadership merit scholarship, and they pick students from different major cities where they are trained for diverse leadership styles, but it isn’t about bringing racial diversity to schools.
Rachel Feynman ‘15: I wanted to know what a C3 student was, but it answered.
Olive Porte ‘18: I don’t know who to address this to, but as someone who wants to take classes in the summer but can’t afford prestigious colleges that you accept credits from, how can we make community college credits transfer?
Judy Balthazar: We will take any transfer credit from any 4-year college; we also have looked into the possibility of summer transfer credit from community colleges. Our committee has chosen not to act on that now. Talk to Heidi Gay if you would like more information so this can be brought to our attention.
Anna Sargent ‘15: It’s different in every state, and I’m from Virginia, so during the summer you can take free classes.
Anna Kalinsky ’15: But it’s not like that in every state.
Katie Hinchey ’16: C3 students can no longer take community college credits, so I can only take classes as BMC, so this seriously affects the McBride community and C3 community.
Judy Balthazar: Talk to Heidi please.
Aleja Newman ‘17: Something that I’ve talked to a few students about is going abroad, so people who are Chem majors rarely get to go abroad. Why aren’t labs counted for credits? I don’t know anything abut chemistry, I don’t know anything about our program, but I want us to start thinking about making this opportunity more accessible?
Anan Kalinsky ‘15: Hello, Anna Kalinsky, Chem major, also Chem department rep, the Chem major is virtually impossible to go abroad with. We have six core classes which must be taken junior year, and to do otherwise would manage heroic effort. Programs exist where we can parallel chemistry in other places, but Bryn Mawr is very resistant.
Mary Osirim: I want to add something that I know from a colleague of mine who is extremely involved in BioChem, and something she wants to explore is partnerships that Bryn Mawr already has. She wants to pursue what may be possible, even if it’s not a full semester, but even a few weeks. It’s not a substitute, but it’s a possibility for an experience going abroad.
Nkechi Ampah ‘16: This should be said to the larger group. Bryn Mawr needs a noncustodial parent profile. Every year that messes up my financial aid, seeing as my noncustodial parent does not participate in my life. I don’t have a support community for that, like a group of people who have one very dedicated parent who’s helped us go though school, it makes it very difficult to make us feel like we can do well in school if you’re constantly concerned about how you’ll pay for it. This says to students that you have to have this normative life style, like a two parent thing. When I was talking with the office, someone made a comment about it and it made me feel really uncomfortable, and like, really sad. I don’t know who to direct this too.
Pelema Morrice: Financial aid offices report to our area, if anyone made a comment to you like that please let me know. I apologize for that. The noncustodial form causes issues at other places, it’s not a BMC requirement, but it’s a CSS profile requirement. It’s something we will look at. We do make exceptions, but I’m more concerned about you as a student. Please contact me.
Shakari Badgett ‘17: Before I make my question I want to comment, it delayed my financial aid my freshmen year, my award letter, right before I moved in August 4th, I didn’t know if I could come to college, even. In high school they told me that exceptions would be make, but no one got back to me. I had to be physically on the campus and walk to them, to the office, and that needs to be improved. Anyway, I want to know if there is a way to get off the meal plan, if you live off campus, you can, but I use like less than 10 meals a week, and I’m spending money on something I don’t use. Is their any option for that?
Paola Bernal ’17: I know that before we came to BMC their were options for meal plans, I would like to advocate to bring that back, and maybe one cards be used from Uncommon or the Coop.
Bernie Chung-Templeton: Hi, uh, the meal plan, we have one plan, and that’s it. The meal plan that gives everyone access to any meal as much as they want requires a bit of participation, I’ve been here 21 years, so when everyone who lives in a dorm, we take the average number of meals that everyone eats. Think of it as a gym membership. We wouldn’t have as many meals or dining halls open. I thought we would want to better communicate that. First of all, I’d like to explain that over 72% of my money in my budget is for keeping the buildings open, staff salaries, and benefits. Other schools don’t do that, we’re really good to our full time employees and that costs money. Jerry and I talk about expanding meal plans, and if we had points for things like Uncommon Grounds- we’re trying to keep things lower, am I answering the question?
Sharkari Badgett ’17: Kinda. I’m asking- I can’t eat in the dining hall, so I go days without eating food, are their any accommodations that we can reach out to? Like a partial meal plan, so I have money to eat during the week?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: We make accommodations. Talk to Nicole Patience the dietician, for accommodations. I don’t want you going days without eating.
Xavia Miles ‘16: Can you specify the disadvantages of having multiple meal plans?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: We didn’t have multiple meal plans. We had one meal plan with options with fewer meals. They were created when I had more money, and for students who were complaining about the same thing. So it was kind of a not really a full meal plan, they all cost the same by the way, even the one with half the meals. But basically budget reasons, basically the dollars came out of the board plan budgets, so it was used to meet the rising food costs.
Kate Hinchey ’16: McBrides and off campus students don’t need to be on the meal plan which is a catch 22, so the lowest meal plan is just over 11$ a meal when you do the math. I applied for food stamps because I needed to supplement my food, but I was ineligible for, because I am a fulltime student, and I’ve never seen dining services address this issue.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: We’ve reached the end of time, we would need a motion to extend time if we want to continue.
Kimberly Cassidy: Keep in mind that the “Big Cheeses” have situations where people may need to get home, staff was told that 8:30 would be the ending time.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Thank you. I’m going to make an executive decision, and accept the motion to extend time only by ten minutes, rather than to the end of speaking order.
Bernie Chung-Templeton: Ok my answer to that- I get a budget. And more than every penny is accounted for, all of my money is accounted for, so I wouldn’t be able to answer that question. I don’t have the money to give away free meals or discounted meals.
Charlie Bruce ‘17: Decorum, we all respect the time and presence and ideas of other people, so I would like to remind you by doing that, one should address others in a respectful tone, so please criticize the idea not the person. We don’t want to privilege certain ideas in the space.
Jane Rossman ’17: I had heard that you can no longer advocate for study abroad programs, and we can only use the ones that have been accepted by BMC already. Why is that?
Judy Balthazar: My understanding is that we have a lot of reasons; one is staff time- looking into safety and quality of programs, that takes a lot of time. It’s not impossible, but you would need to start the process as a first year student. But my understanding is that first years can still explore, but they’ll have to do a lot of leg work.
Assata Aceyacey (admitted student): I really look forward to duel majoring- but I also really love engineering. I looked at the 4 plus 1 program, has anyone done that with dual majoring? Is that possible?
Judy Balthazar: I’ll talk to you afterwards.
Aleja Newman ‘17: I think I raised my hand for something different, but I want to respond to Shakari’s thing. I know it’s a really big thing, and people don’t argue with numbers, but like after 8pm, I’m so hungry. The dining halls close at 8, but my point is if I eat at 5pm, and I don’t have time to eat later, I’m still hungry, and I noticed that Swat students can get food at later hours, and I think that I personally don’t have the money to go the acme to get pop tarts, and it’s all expensive. Maybe grab and go snacks in the dining halls? Maybe having those items where students don’t have to spend extra money? So maybe adding more grab and go things besides hand held fruit that you can take to your room?
Brenna Levitin ‘16: My question may not apply to the admins here, but what about the blatant malpractice with the health center and the counseling center? What about the board? We don’t put enough money into it. Not only do we encourage mentally ill students to take time off and to do things that are not very healthy for them, but what about abusive households, and abusive guardians? When you tell them to take time off to go somewhere abusive, you’re just continuing the pattern of abuse, and you’re not helping people get what they need. So I guess my question is, what is being done about the health center being run by people who should not have their licenses?
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Decorum. Anyone who can respond that that? I heard that a group was brought in to help fix some issues of the health center. However, you asked that very aggressively and that really was offensive to me. This is intended to be a safe space, and your tone made me feel uncomfortable. Please keep that in mind. Who is next on the speaking order?
Anna Sargent ‘15: I have a question about the dining hall hours, so I am a student athlete, and my practices end at 6:30, but by the time I get to the dining hall it is closed. During the week Haffner is open later, but it’s also difficult for the workers of Erdman because they take on the workload of people who go to Haffner, and its impossible to find a seat in Erdman.
Bernie Chung-Templeton: We’ve adjusted our hours a lot, I will follow up with that.
Mikah Farbo ‘15: SAAC has gone multiple times about this, and we have an agreement to talk to them about it and ask for more food.
Anna Sargent ’15: Once Haffner closes they throw out pizzas, it’s like, can we get an agreement so we can put leftovers in the Campus Center or something?
Charlie Bruce’ 16: We have reached the end of the minutes, and we are going to adjourn the Big Cheese Forum. We will have our regularly scheduled SGA meeting now. Thank you admin for coming out on a Sunday night. The conversations here can continue outside of this space, thank you for spending your time with us. We very much appreciate it; let’s have a round of applause for our guests.
Announcements
Pam Gassman ’16 and Dijia Chen ‘16: Dijia and I are apart of the working group for hell week. They will be sending out a meeting time tomorrow, please check your emails. It is vital to everyone can come to these meetings; we want to hear your voices.
Delaney Williams ‘17: Next Sunday, Green Ambassadors and Hepburn’s closet will host a clothing swap on Carpenter Green from 2-4 o’clock. For every item of clothing you bring, you will receive a ticket. That ticket can be exchanged for another clothing item or put into a raffle for a prize! Also, Voting will take place tomorrow, April 20th at 9 AM until Tuesday, April 21st at 7 pm. Remember to vote! For emergency elections, nominations will start Wednesday Morning at 9 AM until Thursday morning. Info sessions will happen during the day on Thursday 23rd and on Candidates Forum will be held on Friday, tentatively at 4:30. Remember to vote!
Lyntanna Brougham ’16: Hey guys, I’m reading this on Heidi Gay’s behalf. We’re still looking for proctors for self scheduled exams during finals! Without proctors, self scheduled exams cannot run, and students are essential in this process. Please look out for an email with a link to sign up to proctor through the class list servs on Monday as well as in the SGA minutes. Thanks! The link is https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap54D3_7ut_fdHpaQjVjc09xVUlLRjNHQktwM2traVE#gid=1
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Graduation is on the horizon! Which means that we need marshalls. The marshalls participate in the procession and wear the black robes along with the other seniors. Lisa Zerneke, head of conferences and events, asked me to for the names of three student volunteers for commencement. email me at cebruce@brynmawr.edu if you’re interested. You will need to be available for a couple of rehearsals.
Also, next week is the last SGA meeting, which means Repco, you are going to talk about your term. Your homework this week is to come up with an answer to this prompt: Imagine that you’re talking to the person who will hold your position next year. Answer the questions: what was the most meaningful thing that came out of you holding this position? And What could have made your term better? I want these questions to be the opportunity for us to share what we learned, and for you to leave something for the next generation of leaders to think about.
Angela Motte ‘17: Please email me your responses, it would be very helpful, and I would really appreciate that.
Charlie Bruce ‘16: Next on our agenda item is your two cents!
Your Two Cents
Charlie Bruce ’16: Any cents? No, ok, next! Old business!
Old Business
Charlie Bruce ’16: Old business. Any old business? Ok, I have one! I want to keep this brief, but I wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped participate in the discussion yesterday! I really appreciated all the discussion last week. I think that we effectively created a space of constructive dialogue. I also felt that there was healthy disagreement, and I’m really glad that we maintained decorum really well. If anyone has any additional opinions that they would like to share about the conversation, I’ll be around the CC after the meeting is adjourned. Also, I’m canceling my office hours tomorrow, because I will be speaking to admitted students. Thanks everyone! On to new business!
New Business
Charlie Bruce ’16: No new business? Ok, we need a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Anna Kalinsky motions to adjurn the meeting, Paola Bernal seconds the motion.
Charlie Bruce ’16: Thank you all! Meeting adjourned, good night!
Meeting is adjourned at 8:47