SGA Meeting Minutes – December 4, 2016
Summary:
- Role Call:
- The meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM and adjourned at 7:33 PM.
- Present: Ananya Kumar, Abbie Sullivan, Camila Duluc, Tyler Brown-Cross, Bridget Murray, Kyra Sagal, Sam Heyrich, Genesis Perez-Melara, Mariana Garcia, Nora Dell, Priyanka Dutta, Hannah Henderson-Charnow, Connie Lam, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikki Shakamuri, Abby Chernila, Dilesha Tanna, Margaret Gorman, Lea Williams, Manal Hussein, Leticia Robledo, Juhi Aggarwal, Jessica Breet, Nichol Westerduin, Evelyn Aviles, Madison Brown, Claire Romaine, Claire Gaposhkin, Sarah Awad, Celeste Ledesma
- Absent: Elizabeth Hilton, Precious Robinson, Catherine Bunza, Sohini Maniar, May Zhu, Adriana Gay, Veda Nambi, Makeda Warde, Farida Ilboudo, Emma Porter, Phoebe Dopulos, Jasmine Rangel, Emily Drummond, Emma Lasky, Emma Levin,
- Announcements:
- 24 Hour Canaday begins Monday, December 5 at 8:00 AM. Honor Board Head Swati Shastry ’18 sent out an email on common Honor Code violations during 24 Hour Canaday. Please adhere to the Honor Code and respect your fellow student workers
- Your Two Cents:
- There were no Your Two Cents.
- Bryn Mawr EMS:
- Bryn Mawr EMS is a new student organization that will have already EMS-certified Bryn Mawr and Haverford students answer calls from Campus Safety to attend to students in medical emergencies. Any questions can be sent to bmcems@brynmawr.edu. More information can be found in the transcript below.
- Old Business:
- Nora Dell ‘19 raised the topic of accountability of student committees. Shaina Robinson ’17, Vice President and Head of the Appointments Committee, responded that more steps are being taken in the coming semester to make committees more accountable in terms of action and communication with the Committee.
- New Business:
- Nora Dell ’19 raised the concern of the lack of representation of International Students in SGA, specifically students from China. SGA is going to make this more of a priority in the upcoming semester.
- Holiday Picture
- SGA members present for the meeting took a Holiday Picture.
TRANSCRIPT
Roll Call:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Okay, it’s 7:10 we’re going to start the meeting with Role Call.
Rachel Bruce ’18: I am required by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that everything said here tonight will be recorded.
Present: Ananya Kumar, Abbie Sullivan, Camila Duluc, Tyler Brown-Cross, Bridget Murray, Kyra Sagal, Sam Heyrich, Genesis Perez-Melara, Mariana Garcia, Nora Dell, Priyanka Dutta, Hannah Henderson-Charnow, Connie Lam, Lillian Oyen-Ustad, Nikki Shakamuri, Abby Chernila, Dilesha Tanna, Margaret Gorman, Lea Williams, Manal Hussein, Leticia Robledo, Juhi Aggarwal, Jessica Breet, Nichol Westerduin, Evelyn Aviles, Madison Brown, Claire Romaine, Claire Gaposhkin, Sarah Awad, Celeste Ledesma
Absent: Elizabeth Hilton, Precious Robinson, Catherine Bunza, Sohini Maniar, May Zhu, Adriana Gay, Veda Nambi, Makeda Warde, Farida Ilboudo, Emma Porter, Phoebe Dopulos, Jasmine Rangel, Emily Drummond, Emma Lasky, Emma Levin,
Announcements:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Announcements is a time when any member of the Bryn Mawr community can make an announcement. We have allotted ten minutes for this agenda item. Are there any announcements?
Swati Shastry ‘18: 24 Canaday has begun or begins at 8:00 AM tomorrow. I sent out an email and there are some reminders with the honor code. Please keep them in mind.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Anything else? Be a good person at 24 Canaday.
Your Two Cents:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Your Two Cents is a time when any member of the Bryn Mawr community can host a straw poll or propose a topic for discussion. We have allotted ten minutes for this agenda item. Any Your Two Cents?
Bryn Mawr EMS:
Lauren Sauers ’17: Sarah can’t speak tonight because she lost her voice, but we wanted to introduce ourselves. Bryn Mawr EMS is a new organizations on campus, and we’re going live start of next semester. We are both EMT’s and we have eight others that are nationally certified, and are part of Bryn Mawr or Haverford. Bryn Mawr EMS is a 100% volunteer student led emergency service. It will be in service Friday and Saturday nights and dispatched by campus safety for all medical services. Say if someone was ill, we would never respond to call without campus safety. No worries about invading privacy. We would always in presence of Campus Safety. Essentially what we’re going to be doing is stabilizing patience or helping them with assistance, such as with whether they need to go to the hospital. So our goal essentially is to reduce the number of unncessary ambulance transports from campus. We call an ambulance for transport when students don’t necessarily need to go. We have our own medical director… now being put on us. If a person is drunk but doesn’t need to go to the hospital, we’ll help them determine what steps they should take next. It’s also an unnecessary financial burden if you didn’t need an ambulance. So an example where it’s not always going to be intoxicated students. Say you pass out, break your ankle, etc., we have splits, airway management capability— lots of other uses besides intoxicated students. We’re all volunteers at Narberth Ambulance and all have experience with lots of other trauma and medical emergencies. Based on the Pennsylvania and national EMT protocol, you’re always able to refuse service so long as you’re conscience and alert. If you can’t refuse, we have to help you. It’s informed consent. If you are uncomfortable with students treating you, we’ll have you write a refusal form. We’re not going to be forcing our services on you. Privacy is our biggest priority. We are bound by the law, HIPPA, and if we violate it we can get fined, lose our licences, etc. All of our members cannot disclose any calls. If someone asks what they did they can say oh it was good but nothing else. We can’t say the nature, location, etc. of any calls, names of patients, etc. We want to reiterate that privacy is most important thing to us. Keeping trust with student is very important and we want you to know that we take their care very seriously. We will not disclose info to anyone else. Does anyone have any questions or want clarification? If you have any questions, please email us at bmcems@brynmawr.edu.
Nora Dell ’19: Why don’t you get paid? If the Health Center is not in service.
Lauren Sauers ‘17: EMS is always volunteer. We both always volunteered, I don’t know.
Sarah Awad ’17: We’re technically a club so we’re through SGA. But we work with administration more so than most clubs.
Lauren Sauers ‘17: Any other questions? Please email us. We are planning to start in January, or the beginning of next semester
Old Business:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Old Business is a time when any member of the Representative Council can make an announcement or revisit a topic. The subject must relate to the RepCo member’s position. Is there any Old Business?
Nora Dell ’19: Going back to Big Cheese, I was in the group with Reggie Jones and she brought up that there is a Health Center Advisory Board but we never heard from them. That made me think that there are so many committees that never report to SGA or have a lot of interaction with student body. Are we supposed to represent them but represent their own policies because they don’t interact? What are everyone’s feelings on that?
Shaina Robinson ’17: Some of the committees you are referring through go through the Appointments Committee. This is something that Appointments is talking about. It has not been as widely talked about, but we are also working on something for next semester so these committees make sure that they’re aware of their responsibilities.
Nora Dell ‘19: Do you have any concrete ways that you’re going to do that?
Shaina Robinson ‘17: Interviews, check-ins, and asking what are ways they are getting out the word about the student input and their own work. This is something we’re going to talk about, ways in which we can talk about committees can improve communication.
Nora Dell ‘19: What do you think about committees about faculty? For example, committee for new dean, etc.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: If you’re on a search committee for a new dean that’s not under SGA, we just appoint them. There’s going to be a search for Pelema’s old position. Usually a senior is interviewed. For the other committees Shaina’s going to come up with process for the Health Center because we’re close to finals.
Shaina Robinson ‘17: Just to quickly close, the Appointments Bylaws are coming up to a point when they can be revised which can help with accountability.
New Business:
Rhea Manglani ‘17: New Business is a time when any member of the Representative Council can bring up a new topic for discussion that is related to their position. We have ten minutes for this item. Is there any New Business?
Nora Dell ‘19: So in the vain of New Business and my committee (Institutional Archiving), I have reaching out and talking to a lot of people on campus this year and semester. This isn’t everything we’ve been doing but one thing I’ve defintiely found a lot of lack of representation for international Chinese students in SGA. Student government doesn’t serve them and that’s something we should think about doing going forward.
Rhea Manglani ‘17: Are there any comments to add or any New Business?
Holiday Picture:
Rhea Manglani ’17: Are there any motions to end the meeting?
Ananya Kumar ’18 motioned.
Rhea Manglani ’17: Second?
Bridget Murray ’17 seconded.
Rhea Manglani ’17: This is a Representative Council Vote only. Your options are yes, no, and abstain. Yes? No? Abstain?
The meeting was adjourned at 7:33 PM.