Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Student Council discussed a variety of issues in brief at Tuesday’s meeting.
First, the “Thanksgiving in the Spring” referendum is still being discussed by the faculty, the administration, and Student Council. Chase DuBois ’07 is in the process of writing a computer program that will schedule exams that are spaced fairly over a shorter exam period. This computer program will have to be successful in order for the break to be approved.
In order to garner support from faculty and staff, Council also hopes to have Psychological Services write a letter to the Phoenix about why the break is a good idea, and Council will also have to resolve problems caused by the the discrepancies between our resulting schedule and those of Haverford and Bryn Mawr.
In other news, the fall semester “Dinner with the Deans” for first years was tremendously successful, and Dean of Students Jim Larrimore is hoping to expand the program to upperclassmen, with the eventual goal of letting every student attend a dinner during their time here.
After the Kemp dormitory is built, the Lodges will be phased out as housing, and Student Council briefly discussed the problem of where that space will be allocated: some of the things the Lodges may be converted into include a permanent space for the sushi cafe Qub, a lodge for activism on campus, or an expanded space for War News Radio.
At the end of the meeting, some of the Student Budget Committee officers stopped by and Student Council and SBC discussed a possible plan to have SBC hire the directors of Social Affairs Committee and have some oversight power over procedural matters. SAC directors are currently hired by the Director of Student Activities. Since SAC is actually using SBC money when it approves funds for parties and study breaks, and SBC sometimes receives complaints about this, SBC wants to have a stronger working relationship with SAC, and it feels that this change would create that relationship. No decisions have been made yet.
The Board of Managers is meeting this weekend, and their luncheon will have the theme of technology at Swarthmore. If you’re involved in technology here (either through employment with ITS, SCCS, Free Culture, or anything else) and are interested in attending, e-mail Sam Asarnow at sasarno1.
Speaking of technology, the Student Council website was recently revamped by Eric Zwick ’07, and the new website will be going live soon. The community can look forward to getting additional Council-related news there.
