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.
StuCo met briefly Sunday before elections start this week to discuss candidate platforms, the budget, and the possibility of streaming their meetings in the future.
Elections
Platforms for the five open StuCo positions were due yesterday. StuCo has candidates for every position and multiple for some. Elections will open today and end Thursday. StuCo hopes to announce results Thursday night.
StuCo decided campus-wide Q+A sessions with each of the candidates were not practical this election cycle given low-attendance at past sessions. Instead, they encourage students to comment on candidates’ platforms in The Daily Gazette‘s comment section using their real names.
Tarble Games
A student pointed out to StuCo Co-President Gabby Capone ’14 that the games in Tarble are damaged or else unusable due to missing parts. StuCo isn’t sure who is responsible for replacing games, but Capone said she would follow up on the student’s concern.
“[They’ve] been a mess ever since I’ve been here,” Secretary Sarah Dwider ’13 said.
Budget
At the moment, StuCo does not have a budget. Dwider will meet with SBC to find out if they can request supplementary funds for this semester, and StuCo will revisit the issue next semester.
Transparency Solutions
Appointments Chair Will Lawrence ’13 suggested video recording all StuCo meetings as a way of increasing accountability and transparency and also of archiving StuCo’s work. Lawrence also suggested live streaming the meetings using UStream or another online tool. It was proposed that The Daily Gazette could stream it to their website and archive the footage, but it was decided that this should be StuCo’s responsibility.
“I think that it would positively affect the way we would carry ourselves if we knew we were going to be on camera,” Lawrence said.
Not all members were comfortable with being video recorded. The move was tabled while Lawrence researches UStream and other technologies they could use to easily record or stream meetings.
Miscellaneous
The Queer Student Alliance (QSA) will meet with Assistant Dean for Residential Life Rachel Head to talk about gender neutral bathrooms in dorms. Ali Roseberry-Polier ’14 will attend this meeting in support of the Queer Student Alliance (QSA).
The Board of Managers is hosing a luncheon this Saturday, September 22. Most of StuCo plans to attend along with the newly elected members. The topic of discussion is “High Impact Summer Projects.”
