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.
Elections
Platforms for Student Council elections were due Sunday at midnight; they can be seen here. (The deadline was extended from noon because there was confusion about appointments platforms being due the same day at a different time.)
StuCo Lounge has been cancelled for this week, but there will be a Q&A; session with the candidates at 7:30 on Tuesday in Kohlberg Coffee Bar (with pizza). Council plans to hold a Sharples dinner with the candidates and StuCo members on Thursday at 5:30 so that students can come and meet them. Voting begins on Wednesday night.
Go! Boards
Haverford students have been in contact with Student Council to talk about setting up a Swarthmore version of the Go! boards, a popular discussion board used there. There would be a Swarthmore-only section of the forums moderated by Swarthmore students, with a Tri-Co section that would be available to students from all three schools. Student Council would set up the rules of the board, and then a handful of students — appointed by StuCo — would moderate the postings.
StuCo suggested contacting SCCS to find someone to help design and set up the Swarthmore-specific side of the forums.
Some StuCo members brought up concerns about how these boards would interact with the Phoenix’s forums set up for the community last year. The Phoenix had also been in touch with StuCo to suggest revamping their forums to make them more appropriate as a StuCo-sponsored project. Council members worried, however, that those forums have not seen much use and do not have the Tri-Co community aspect that the Go! boards would.
Because the next term of Council would do the brunt of work in setting up and initially running the forums, Vice President Deivid Rojas ’11 preferred that any firm decisions be postponed for the next Council to make. Others, however, expressed concerns that it would be easier to set up the system over winter break, before the new members would normally meet.
StuCo voted to delay the decision until the next term of Council. Campus Life Representative Lizzy Bryant ’13 clarified that they would continue to gather information and talk to all the parties involved beforehand. Rojas noted that the new Council could meet immediately after elections to deal with this and other issues.
Rollover Fund
Council members met with SBC before Thanksgiving to talk about the new rollover fund initiative, which would replace the current Fun Fund. Student Events Advisor Luis Peå˜ate ’13 said that SBC members had some useful feedback which would be incorporated into StuCo’s proposal.
StuCo now needs to make decisions about the exact structure of the fund and the committee. They plan to meet with Dean of Students Liz Braun soon to get her thoughts on the matter.
The idea of making the decision a student referendum, to be on the same ballot as StuCo elections, was brought up. Several Council members thought that the student body needed to learn more about exactly what the new fund would be before that happened, and also that since the details have not yet been decided, it would be inappropriate to hold a referendum yet.
Rojas suggested a student survey (as part of the election process) on the matter instead, which would not be binding but would bring student feedback into the process somewhat.
Resource Guide
Rojas said that he wanted this Council to accomplish something concrete in its few remaining weeks. Members agreed that the resource guide could certainly be finished in time and would be a good product to have out soon.
Council members have done research on the various sections of the guide already; they need to be consolidated and formatted appropriately, as well as sent to various administrators and others for feedback on the content. StuCo hopes to have this accomplished soon, although they still need to decide whether to distribute the printed copies before or after winter break.