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.
The Daily Gazette was not able to send a reporter to Student Council’s meeting on October 16. In lieu of a report, you can find StuCo’s official minutes below, recorded by Secretary Maria Thomson ’14.
StuCo minutes 10/16/2011
Present: Olivia, Maria, Eugene, Victor, Fai, Aya, Tramane, Gabby
Constitution Reviewal
-Makes most sense assign this to second-term StuCo members (Olivia, Maria, Victor, Gabby), since majority of concerns about constitution arose from practical problems we ran into last semester. Also, easier to coordinate a meeting time this way.
-Will draft up revisions, and submit to full council for feedback and approval
-Reviewal will include reevaluation of positions on council, possible division or reassignment of responsibilities
Student Life Panel
Tuesday, Oct. 25th, 8pm, Scheuer Room
-Dean Braun and Tom Elverson will be on the panel, but no faculty since the panel will be happening so late at night (Deans’ Office can’t require them to stay that late). StuCo will facilitate.
-Will still push to get faculty, Myrt Westphal, and Diane Anderson on the panel, but ultimately Dean Braun and Tom Elverson are the people with power to change Thursday night policies.
-Will not have students (PAs, ie) on the panel. However, there will likely be PAs and RAs and DART members present to comment on the situation for the student life panel.
-Intend the event to be more of a student conversation, not the Deans’ Office lecturing students. Discussion of “student life,” as catalyzed by Thursday party permit issue.
-StuCo will kick off the discussion, but anticipate that there will be enough students who want to talk that an agenda/heavy facilitation will not be necessary.
-Will start by allowing deans to give their perspective on Thursday night policies, so that they have a chance to explain their thinking before receiving questions.
-Hope that this can tie back in to “student wellness” as part of Strategic Planning
-Expect that this will be the first in a series of future discussions. Will take note of key topics from this panel in order to frame future panels/discussions
-Plan to hand out notecards at the end of the panel discussion for students who didn’t have an chance to voice concerns. Will let Dean Braun know about this plan on the 21st.
-Will advertise beforehand with an email and flyers (Maria will make the flyer)
Halloween with the Deans
-Time changed to 2:30-5:30, so that people with sports practices can still make it for some of time.
-StuCo: meet in Parrish at 1:30 to head over together and help with setup.
-Will create a postcard to put in mailboxes, advertising both Halloween with Deans and the Student Life Panel
Small Steps Forward Board
-The board is completed and ready for use. Victor will send related video to the Daily Gazette for publishing.
-Responding to Board feedback: Will go over new feedback every week in meetings. Will publish responses in News Flushes, as well as on the Board in a separate notecard.
-StuCo: send Fai a picture for the board.
Paces Fees
-In addition to the standard $100 rental fee for Paces, now there is also a $50 non-refundable fee for people to come in and clean after parties.
-Previously, the $100 deposit was in places for the purposes of paying for damages, but now have to pay $50 in addition to whatever gets taken out of $100.
-This change was put into Paces employee contracts without informing the student body as a whole.
-Technically, Deans’ Office funds Paces, but if they are making students pay this much money to hold Paces parties, then students are effectively subsidizing Paces.
-If paying this much money, should Paces still be allowed to charge students for food?
-Could be a good topic to bring up during the student life panel.
Election Reform
-Dean Braun was supportive of the idea of paper-ballot voting in the next election
-Need to get master list that we can cross people off of.
-Use a single, hard paper list, as opposed to an electronic GoogleDoc
-Will keep ballots in lock boxes stored with Tom Elverson
-Want to get feedback prior to the election, in case students have reservations we need to address. Important to maintaining election’s legitimacy.