SGA Minutes
7:10 – Sophie Papavizas ’11 calls the meeting to order
Roll Call
Assembly Member Present: Katie Dahl ’11, Liz Ritchie ’11, Miranda Hansen-Hunt ’11, Aki Snyder ’11, Isidora Armentrout ’13, Sara Jane Rodgers ’13, Jennifer Savage ’12, Blair Smith ’12, Sarah Kelley ’11, Gabby Marangell ’12, Mae Carlson ’12, Giang Tran ’11, Duong Nguyen ’13, Adelyn Kishbaugh ’12, Malina Toza ’13, Courtney Pinkerton ’12, Sarah Aubrey ’13, Ellen Halbach ’11, Irene Shin ’13, Sam Salazar ’11, Lindsey Turr ’11, Heather Taddonio ’12, Kyle Aguilar ’13, Akshyeta Suryanarayan ’13, Liz Kamel ’14, Hannah Smith ’14, Krista Imre ’13, Elizabeth Olecki ’12, Maya Sachdeva ’14, Daisy Sheng ‘14, Olivia Xia ’14, Keshia Koech ’13, Ali Raeber ’13, Joo Park ’11, Hope Wayman ’13, Kate Gould ’11, Mary Margaret Peebles ’13, Jordan Cottrell ’13, Sarah Schnellbacher ’13, Tanvi Surti ’12, Sarah Abbasi ’12, Emily Zhao ’11, Vrinda Varia ’13, Naznen Rahmen ’13, Sarah Capasso ’11, Priya Saxena ’12, Jenny Wang ’13, Katharine Woolls ’12, Sarah Henkind ’13, Tiffany Olszuk ’12, Callie Jensen ’11, Kerlyne Jean ‘11
Assembly Members Absent: Priya Gupta ’13, Anna Perrochi ’12, Sumehda Niranjan ’11
Community Members Present: Elizabeth Held ’12, Amanda Kennedy ’13, Aya Martin-Seaver ’13, Alice Fischer ’13, Haley Martin ’14, Lillie Catlin ’13, Gabrielle Logaglio ’12, Bianca Boranda ’13, Ariana Hall ’12, Larken Wright Kennedy ’11, Zandra Martinez ’11, Audra Fannon ’11, Selin Kori ’11, Daniele Arad-Neeman ’14, Ntshadi Mofokeng ’12, Adrienne Webb ’11, Angana Roy ’11, Fatema Esaa ’14, Esther Chiang ’14, Chelsea Dunkel ‘11
Announcements
Sarah Kelley ’11: Thanks to everyone who voted, there weren’t actually that many votes. 40% of the freshman class voted, which is great, but only about 15% of the upperclassmen did, which is not so great. I hope Blackboard worked better this time, but we can talk about that later. The winners of this election are:
SoCo Co-Heads: Isidora Armentrout and Sara Jane Rodgers
Off Campus Rep: Ellen Halbach and Irene Shin
Faculty Rep: Mae Carlson
COPS Head: Courtney Pinkerton
CEO Rep: Giang Tran
OIA Rep: Duong Nguyen
Members at Large: Daisy Sheng, Elizabeth Olecki, Pragya Krishna, Maya Sachdeva, Krista Imre, Olivia Xia
Board of Trustees Rep: Adelyn Kishbaugh
Class of 2014 Presidents: Liz Kamel and Hannah Smith
Samantha Lopez ‘13: You are cordially invited to Mujeres’ Latino Heritage Month Keynote Speaker event with Professor Alan Gomez. He is a Historian and Assistant Professor in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University. His research areas include social movements in the U.S, Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands; political cultures; white supremacy, violence, law and state formation; prison rebellions and incarceration logic. His core areas of teaching are citizenship, migration, and human rights globalization; sustainability and economic justice; social identities and communities. He will be speaking on the topics concerning the SB1070 law in Arizona, the 14th Amendment, and Human Rights. The lecture will take place this Thursday September 30th in Dalton 300 from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.
Lindsey Turr ‘11, Sam Salazar ‘11: We want to remind Seniors that t-shirt orders are due Wednesday.
Sam Salazar ‘11, Laurel Lemon ‘11: We’d like to thank everyone who came to the cake ceremony, it was a big success. We were made the news.
Yong Jung Cho ‘12: After 8 hours of interviews, the Appointments Committee made decisions. Thanks to everyone who applied.
Sophie: If you haven’t seen already, Plenary is next week. Assembly members are required to volunteer. Volunteers need to be there at 9am, which is also when tshirts will be distributed.Food service starts at 10. The ResCo heads Liz and Katie will be assigning positions in the glass atrium, so you should get there early if there’s a particular position you want. The Frosh reps had their first meeting last week, they all seem really enthusiastic, their first big project is going to be related to the seven sisters conference.
Your Two Cents
Discussion with Campus Visibility Consultant
Sophie: We have some visitors who are here to talk about the Campus Visibility study they are conducting.
Mona: I’m Mona, and we’re from the Baker Group. Our project goal is to look at what students do on campus. How can we make Bryn Mawr a more vibrant campus? How can the campus be more visible? We want to understand where you socialize, and we want to learn how you spend your time on campus. We’d like to ask you tos top by either Erdman or Haffner tomorrow and Tuesday to fill out a survey. It’s a visual preference survey, and we just want you to tell us which images are your favorites. We’ll be giving our prizes, 6 gift certificates. Please encourage everyone to participate. If you want to give us feedback on dining services or if you have any questions, we’d like to hear that.
Sam Salazar ‘11: Is this survey evaluating us in our service or is it about adding another dining location? Will you be meeting with dining hall supervisors?
Mona: It will involve looking to see if retail locations are open at the right time. We also want to see if there is a gap on campus. Is Dining Services meeting your needs? We might be meeting with supervisors, but I don’t know for sure?
Bernie Chung-Templeton: Yes, we’re having a meeting with supervisors tomorrow morning in Erdman.
Mona: I’m going to ask a couple quick questions. If Valerie and I were going to hit the town in the next few days, where might we find students?
Liz Ritchie ‘11: I think honestly because a lot of spaces on campus are smaller, there aren’t a lot of places to congregate. You might see people at Starbucks, Milkboy, Wawa. If we could get a Wawa on campus it would be great.
Mona: What is Wawa? Why would you want one on campus?
Liz Ritchie ‘11: They’re like a Seven Eleven and they’re open 24 hours. They have really great sandwiches. All hot food on campus stops after 11pm., but Wawa helps get ready for another late night round of studying.
Blair Smith ‘12: It’s important to note that tonight is a Sunday so most people won’t be off campus.
Mona: Is there a night that’s not a study night on campus? Where would you go on a Thursday or Friday?
Sarah Capasso ‘11: I think a pub would be a great addition on campus. A place to hang out, do homework, or play pool. We don’t have many lounge places on campus.
Mona: When you say lounge do you mean like soft seating, it can be nice, but doesn’t have to be pretty? Would you go if there alcohol wasn’t served?
Liz Ritchie ‘11: I would suggest looking at Rhoads as a space that could be utilized.
Kyle Aguilar ‘13: I don’t live in Rhoads, but I think if people were constantly coming in and out that might get annoying.
Gabrielle Logaglio ‘12: I’m the president of a new starting concert club, and we’re working with ACS, but the campus really lacks on concert space. A cool lounge space that could be easily converted into a concert space or art display would be great. Something that has a stage, with easy sound set up would be really cool.
Elizabeth Held ‘12: I was wondering if you would expand on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Mona: My goal is to match the interests of students with the program, and look into providing socialization spaces. Making sure the dining program matches what you’re looking for. If someone’s walking through campus, they can see lots of people interacting.
Katharine Woolls ‘12: You have 2 days to accomplish all of this?
Mona: We’ll be here through Wednesday, and then there will be some follow up.
Emma Rosenblum ‘14: I think in considering anything to add to this campus, you make sure it reflects Bryn Mawr’s growing diversity. Make sure our growing diverse population feels comfortable in whatever new space there is.
ACS Fund Presentation
Kate Grant ‘12: Hi everyone, I’m the head of ACS. I want to talk first about our show we held with Mawrter Enterntainment this weekend. Because this was our first semester with the new Plenary resolution in place, we didn’t get the assembly’s permission on funding, but we’re going to do that from now on. Our next show we want to do is with The Spring Standards from New York. The all-inclusive cost, of travel, meals, etc would be $2000. The Hood Internet was about $7000 total, $3500 just for The Hood Internet. The capacity of Rhoads was 200, and we did hit that. We had some security issues once we hit capacity, but we’ll work on better security for the next show.
Blair Smith ‘12: Are all your shows in conjunction with Mawrter Entertainment?
Kate Grant ‘12: No, we might be working with BACaSO on an upcoming event though.
Malina Toza ‘13: Could we change the venue instead of dealing with Rhoads’ capacity issues?
Kate Grant ‘12: We weren’t going to use Rhoads all the time, we just didn’t know how many people to expect for our first show. We have to figure how many people are going to come to each event. For the opening act of the next show, we want to welcome back Lucas Carpenter, who was here last year, and he was really well received. He wants $1000 all inclusive. It will cost around $1500 or $1600 for sound equipment rental, so the whole show should cost a total of $4500 to $4600. The show will be in Rhoads.
Sam Salazar ‘11: I think you should think about moving it to another site, or maybe change the date.
Kate Grant ‘12: There’s something else booked in TGH at that time, but I will look into other dates.
Sophie: We’ll now move onto approving the show. The vote will be to approve the show, against approving the show or abstentions. This is an Assembly member only. Show approved.
Plenary Resolution Feedback
Sophie: We’ll move onto presenting Plenary resolutions. Is Audra here? She’s going to read the resolution she’s written and then you’ll have the chance to ask questions, make suggestions
Audra Fannon ‘11: Gendered Single-use Restrooms
Whereas, Bryn Mawr being a women’s college, there are usually more women on campus than men and thus more women than men in need of facilities such as restrooms,
Whereas, a single-use men’s restroom includes the same fixtures and amenities as a single-use women’s restroom,
Whereas, many women choose to use the men’s restroom when faced with the inconvenience of waiting for a single-use women’s restroom,
Whereas, it is socially acceptable to use lockable, gender neutral, single-use restrooms and thus it is unlikely that Bryn Mawr community members and guests would feel uncomfortable using one,
Whereas, individuals with non-binary genders, on the other hand, may feel uncomfortable when choosing between two gendered restrooms,
Whereas, we the students make an effort to be more inclusive of individuals with non-binary genders in our dorm bathroom labeling,
Whereas, Facilities Services also makes an effort to include bathroom and changing room options for individuals with non-binary genders in new building projects,
Whereas, Facilities Services supports changing single-use restrooms to gender neutral and can cover in their own budget the nominal cost of completing this change in non-dorm spaces,
Whereas, Pennsylvania building codes restrict our legal options for converting the restrooms in question,
Be it resolved that a committee of at least 3 student volunteers be formed to aide facilities in identifying the lockable, gendered, single-use restrooms in non-dormitory buildings (including the dining portions of Erdman and Haffner), determining which restrooms are legally available for conversion, and implementing a change to gender neutrality for optimal convenience in keeping with the law.
Blair Smith ‘12: So this is only for non-dorm buildings? Have you thought about the religious implications of this resolution?
Ali Raeber ‘13: What are the legal issues you mentioned?
Audra Fannon ‘11: There are laws that require a certain number of men’s and women’s bathrooms on each floor.
Liz Ritchie ‘11: Is there a reason we’re doing this as a resolution since it’s non-dorm related?
Audra Fannon ‘11: I did think about that, but I think it will give it more credibility.
Blair Smith ‘12: Do you have buildings where you want to switch the signs in mind?
Audra Fannon ‘11: I was thinking Erdman, and Park.
Jordan Cottrell ‘13: I was going to ask about the definition of non-residential? I remember something about dining hall dorms not being included.
Sam Salazar ‘11: We’re talking about the bathrooms of Erdman, Haffner, and Taylor? I don’t really understand the definition of single use bathrooms.
Audra Fannon ’11: I’m talking about bathrooms like the ones where you enter and immediately lock the door, no stalls.
Sophie: Okay, we’ll move on to the next resolution, that I’m presenting. It’s supposed to come out of lots of conversations we’ve had in SGA.
Whereas, computer access has become necessary for academic success in the 21stcentury.
Whereas, Bryn Mawr professors in particular have become more dependent on the use of Blackboard and other online resources for course readings, out of class discussions, blogs, problem sets and paper submissions.
Whereas, students have expressed frustration with current public computer access on campus, in particular 24-Hour computing space.
Whereas, public computer access is always at risk during the annual budget process and vocal student support of public computer access is essential to maintain our current access.
Whereas, Bryn Mawr prides itself on innovative use of technology and digital media in the academic environment.
Whereas, at the request of Information Services a student committee was formed to examine public printer use and saw success
Whereas, Information Services has been receptive to student input in the past and has expressed the desire (such as the student committee on public printing) for more student involvement.
Whereas, student groups have effectively brought issues to Information Services in the past but there has been no consistent line of communication.
Be it Resolved, that two undergraduates be appointed by the Appointments Committee to serve as Computer Access Co-Coordinators and work with a committee of student volunteers to work on issues related to computer access on campus.
Liz Ritchie ‘11: I don’t know if I understand what this resolution is supposed to do.
Sophie: I think sometimes there’s a disconnect between what Information Services hears from students and what they hear from the administration. The faculty gives a lot of credit to appointed and elected positions, so if you go to someone saying you have the support of the student body it will be better received. Any other questions? There are only 2 resolutions, but we still need quorum. Encourage all your friends to come.
Special Events Fund Presentation
Sophie: People are going to present their Special Events Fund proposals, they have 3 minutes to give an overview and say how much it will cost. We’ll then ask you then to rank the events. We’re not sure how much money we have yet.
ASA
Peony Yiu ‘13: We’re from ASA, and we want to bring the band Tim Be Told to campus. They started out as college students from Virginia, and have gotten pretty big on youtube. I’d rather have you listen to a song, because I think that will give you a better idea of there sound. Just in terms of budgeting, we think it will cost about $1700 total. We’d like the whole campus to feel involved, not just have it be an ASA event.
Sam Salazar ‘11: You know that’s parents weekend right? $1700 is that including lighting and sound?
Peony Yiu ‘13: We chose that date because TGH is open that weekend, November 5th and 6th.
Ruilin Xu ‘11: They bring their own sound so that number does include that.
Liz Ritchie ‘11: You’ve already contacted them about the cost?
Peony Yiu ‘13: Yes, and they’re really interested in coming.
Art Club
Adrienne Webb ‘11: Art club was just thinking we’d like to have a block party, December 3rd.It’s a wintertime block party, open to the whole Bryn Mawr community. It will involve Parkway West, TLA, Ludington Library, Milkboy maybe. All the artists teaching workshops will be students, so free. We’ll be in the Campus Center from 10 to 5. There will be cake-decorating, make your own Lady Gaga sunglasses and other fun workshops. Total budget will be $1852, but we’re trying to cut it down a bit. We also want to give the Ludington Library a donation because they’re struggling a bit with their renovations.
Sam Salazar ‘11: Have you considered talking to alum to see if they would give money, or the Deans? I know there are other ways of getting money.
Adrienne Webb ‘11: I’ll look into that. We have gotten money from the Deans before.
Blair Smith ‘12: What birthday are you celebrating again? Why is this event so late in the semester?
Adrienne Webb ‘11: It’s Arnecliffe’s 2nd birthday. We’re having the event kind of late, to help people gear up for finals, and make some crafts before winter break.
Angana Roy ‘11: We also want to host a Works in Progress event. There’s an art space in Canaday. We want to show off student works that might not be finished yet. We’ll have it in Arnecliffe, with food, live music, critique boards for the artwork. It should cost $762.66.
Sam Salazar ‘11: Why don’t you have the event in the gallery space?
Angana Roy ‘11: The space won’t be ready until next semester.
Jordan Cottrell ‘13: You don’t have a specific band in mind yet?
Adrienne Webb ‘11: Will there be opportunities for people to give feedback on artwork?
Angana Roy ‘11: Yes. We plan on having space available next to the art for people to leave comments.
BACaSO
Ntshadi Mofokeng ‘12: We’re from BACaSO, and we want to bring Wale, a Nigerian-American rapper to Bryn Mawr. He’s got very accessible music, inspired from the DC area. We think it would be good for tri-co relations, and increase diversity of music on campus. There hasn’t been a hip-hop event on campus in the time that I’ve been here. We’re looking to have it on December 3rd or 4th. He is really popular. His booking fee is 20,000, so it’s kind of expensive. The total for this event would be $20, 919.79, but one way to reduce costs is that ACS has offered to chip in and pay for the sound costs. The booking fee is up for negotiation, so we might be able to get the fee down.
Sam Salazar ‘11: I would start to negotiate now. Don’t wait for Mary Beth.
Ntshadi Mofokeng ‘12: Okay, that’s a good idea, but I have been working with her, so I’ll have to see what she thinks.
Sam Salazar ‘11: His agent will respect you a bit more as a student group, if you do it yourself.
Ntshadi Mofokeng ‘12: Here’s a track to get you guys psyched. Basically, youtube him.
Blair Smith ‘12: Is there any possibility you could do it earlier?
Ntshadi Mofokeng ‘12: He’s on tour, so this is the only time we can do it.
Assassins
Erin Washburn ‘13: I’m representing Assassins, an independent tri-co production. We want to encourage interaction with the tri-co. Our total budget is $7000, with contributions from Swarthmore and Haverford, we’re only asking for $1550 from Bryn Mawr. We want to make it a quality production, which will be in Goodhart.
Blair Smith ‘12: Is the event being held at each campus? Is that why everyone is chipping in?
Erin Washburn ‘13: It’s only being held at Bryn Mawr, but since everyone is participating we want to make sure is benefiting.
Katharine Woolls ‘12: The biggest expense is way under $7000?
Erin Washburn ‘13: Most of the money is going to the set. We have a much more detailed budget, but I didn’t include that for this presentation.
Sam Salazar ‘11: I spoke with the director, because I was going to work with them, and it’s legit.
Erin Washburn ‘13: The show is going to be on the 9th, 10th and 11th of December.
Post Secret
Sarah Sherman ‘11: Colleen Haley is skyping in from Cairo. We’re trying to bring in Post Secret to campus in March. They’ve already booked their shows for a lot of the spring. We have the letter of intent, so if we get the funding, we can send it in as soon as possible.Hopefully the event will be on March 31st. We’re not having an overflow room. All he needs are two microphones and a screen. The event will be open to the tri-co, but Bryn Mawr students would have preference in getting tickets. Post Secret is run by this guy who was having a midlife crisis and had people send in their secrets, which is now posts on his website. He’s currently the most requested college speaker right now. He has 5 books out. His speaking fee is $18,500. It’s likely he might just go home for the night, so we might not have to pay hotel fees. They require that we have books for purchase which he signs. Apparently he’s never not sold out of the books, but if we don’t sell them all, they will buy them back.
Mawrter Entertainment
Gabrielle Logaglio ‘12 and Lillie Catlin ‘13: We have 3 events we want to have this semester, but we’ll go through them pretty quickly. This is our timeline for all events, our shows always start at 10. The first show will be Magic Man & The Juliets, which would cost $2600. Magic Man is still a pretty unknown band, but they’re getting popular. They’re music is catchy indie.The Juliets are more classical/rock. Magic Man’s album is available for free online. Our second show features The Smith Westerns on October 29th, which would cost $1590.They’re really renowned and on Pitchfork’s rising artist list. The last show will be with Pictureplane & Twin Shadow, and will cost $4340. Most of these artists are considered rising artists. Pictureplane is more rave-y, dance music. They’re known for doing great shows. Twin Shadow just came out with a new album. All of these bands give the school a chance to catch them before they get big. The Hood Internet was really successful this weekend. We’re trying to do intimate events for really low costs.
Sam Salazar ‘11: Why are you doing these shows in the dining hall again? Why are you presenting these events if you’re already getting club funding?
Gabrielle Logaglio ‘12: I think these shows are going to be smaller than The Hood Internet so Rhoads would still be a good fit. We might try making the stage smaller, but it is a learning process.
Blair Smith ‘12: Can we go back to the second show’s slide?
Gabrielle Logaglio ‘12: The budget is $1590. It’s on a Friday because Saturday is the Halloween party.
Sarah Kelley ‘11: Laurel, can you give us a ballpark figure of how much the Special Events Fund account holds?
Laurel Lemon ‘11: It’s a complicated process, but anything that wasn’t spent last year rolls over, so this year we don’t have as much since we spent a lot last year. It’s kind of flexible right now, but we probably have between $30,000 and $45,000.
Sophie: The way we’re going to do this is if you could write on the sheet your name and position and then rank the events in the order you want them in. We’ll then rank all of the votes and let everyone know what events were approved hopefully in early this week.
Old Business
New Business
8:33 – Meeting Adjourned