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.
Boy Meets Tractor Representatives:
Marina Tempelsman ’10 and Alex Friedman ’09 came to the StuCo meeting to update StuCo members on their current activities. Their recent first annual Comedy Awareness Weekend was a success and Yongjun Heo ’09, StuCo President, commented, ”I really liked it. It was a great Comedy Weekend. It was cute.”
Marina and Alex also commented on the role of funding for the weekend. Marina mentioned that BMT could always use more funding to attract outside comedy sketch groups to perform at Swarthmore. StuCo members suggested places for funding, such as the Forum for Free Speech.
Nate Erskine ’10, Vice President, asked about other opportunities for students to get involved. Some students who were rejected from BMT may want to continue the pursuit of comedy as an activity. Marina acknowledged this issue and suggested, “One thing is that when people audition, we would ask them, ‘Would you like your name to be shared with other people so that you can start your own group?’ “
Alex shared his support for more comedy sketch groups and elaborated, “Next year, we’ll do anything that we can to facilitate more comedy groups at Swarthmore. We’d love for other groups to pop up and the more comedy, the better.”
StuCo Elections:
Erskine, VP and the chair of the elections committee, set the dates for StuCo elections. This week, he will release an announcement for elections and next week candidates can send in their platforms. In the third week, online balloting will start and paper ballots will be distributed for the last two to three days of the election.
For this election, Erskine brought up some concerns about participation. He mentioned a need to get enough candidates to run for office and a desire to publicize what it means to be on StuCo since “there are a lot of different expectations to what Council does.” Heo suggested an open meeting with food, and Rachel Bell, Student Events Advisor, suggested publicizing StuCo members’ contact information for people who have questions.
Other notes: – Andrew Scott Taylor ’09, Campus Life Representative, failed to attend the StuCo meeting. Other StuCo members mention that he has thus far only attended two meetings this semester. – Ambar La Forgia ’11, Campus Life Representative, confirmed that Rachel Head will institute a grace period and extra storage room for international students who have problems with visas, flight delays, and storage problems. – Nate Erskine ’10, Vice President, sent out an email regarding applications for Committees. – Ayanna Johnson ’09, Education Policy Representative, emailed librarians regarding the possible extension of the Cornell Library hours. The librarian will get back to Johnson after figuring out next year’s budget issues.
