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 held a meeting with Dining Services last week to discuss issues such as the possibility of a soft-serve ice cream machine, the cracked tile (to be fixed over fall break) and issues with the twenty-meal plan. Council found out why you can’t swipe twice on the twenty meal plan–plans are designed around students missing a certain number of meals, and if you could swipe twice missed meals would go down drastically.
Sharples had an idea of its own–an “Amnesty Week” for bringing back stolen china and silverware. Last year Sharples spent nearly $11,000 on replacing these items–about $3,000 of that went to replacing broken items, but the majority went to replacing stolen goods. This week may happen at the end of the semester.
“Thanksgiving in the Spring” is still being discussed. Once the administration’s position is finalized, there will be a student referendum determining whether students approve of the new plan, which will most likely involve dropping two days from reading week.
Student Council debated their role in the controversy over Kick Coke and the Board of Managers. They do not want to issue a statement on their opinion of the Kick Coke campaign, but they do plan to formulate an opinion on the proper relationship between the Board, the administration, and the students when making these sorts of decisions.
In related news, the proposed Social Responsibility Committee plans to get student feedback this semester before possibly going into operation.
Student Council is pushing back the deadline for events to be purged from Reserved Students Digest to right before October Break. Things such as deadlines and interest meetings can still be publicized on RSD, but not regular meetings or lectures and art events, which can often be redundant.
The syllabus-on-Blackboard initiative was a useful initiative, but one that not very many professors use–Student Council will be creating an e-mail address for professors to send their syllabi to so that Council can post them and will be meeting with department chairs to stress the importance of the initiative.
Also scheduled for this week:
A meeting with Stu Hain about issues such as getting more lighting on campus, including a blue light system, the OneCard system for universal dorm access, composting food waste, and the plans being drawn up for a possible renovation of Tarble/Clothier.
A meeting with CAPS on Wednesday about outreach and feedback among other issues.
The Appointments Committee will be announcing their decisions for committees such as SAC, SBC and Movie Committee by Tuesday morning.
Student Council will also be surveying people about the possibility of extending library hours soon.
I think that there should be some public discussion about this soft serve ice cream machine before student council decides on it. It sounds like a cool idea, but it will cost dining services several thousand dollars (someone please provide the specific amount), and I can’t speak for the whole campus but I think there are much more meaningful things we could be spending that money on. I mean, soft serve ice cream tastes good, but is it really important enough to throw down that much money?
I understand changing the RSD to not allow advertisements for regular events, but it’s crazy to ban advertisments for art events (like concerts or gallery shows) or lectures. These events happen only once and RSD is an important advertising mechanism for them. I know that many people find out about events they want to go to first through RSD.
I agree with Mark. Please keep art events and lectures on the RSD. In fact, I think there’s often a lack of advertisement for such events because when I ask around to see who’s going, 99% of the time, no one knows what I’m talking about. Usually it’s because people tend to bypass the flyers that are posted around the school. I actively seek them out, but even so, it’d be a great help if I could be confident that all such one-time events would be on RSD… If people think the server is getting bogged down, well, that’s what the headings are for. They can glance through them quickly and then use Ctrl-F to get to what they want fast. A slight excess of information is preferable, I think, to a lack of it.
I’m still not sure why taking two days off reading week is such a great idea. It’s more like taking four days off if you include the weekend before. Sure having a couple days off in April would be nice, but they would come back to haunt you when you most need the free time to study/relax.