Home >> Archives >> 03.14.05 Minutes
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I. Roll Call/Agenda
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: We have another packed agenda. We will first need to reach quorum. We're really close to not reaching quorum tonight. Senators, please come to Senate and be on time.
On the agenda tonight: We'll vote on eligibility for CG elections. In new business, Alex will present the newest SOAC appointees and a representative from the Legenda staff will propose funding changes.
In open discussion, we'll hear from Lindsey with SOFC and Kim Chin about election day protocol. SOAC reps from the President's Advisory Council and the Student Health Advisory Council will present their updates. Then Sharifa Samuels and DeAnna Evans will speak about the issue of Black faculty recruitment and retention. We'll wrap it up with an Athletics ad hoc update and the Deans' corner.
We'll get started with old business.
On the agenda tonight: We'll vote on eligibility for CG elections. In new business, Alex will present the newest SOAC appointees and a representative from the Legenda staff will propose funding changes.
In open discussion, we'll hear from Lindsey with SOFC and Kim Chin about election day protocol. SOAC reps from the President's Advisory Council and the Student Health Advisory Council will present their updates. Then Sharifa Samuels and DeAnna Evans will speak about the issue of Black faculty recruitment and retention. We'll wrap it up with an Athletics ad hoc update and the Deans' corner.
We'll get started with old business.
II. Old Business
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: If you remember from last week, we proposed a change that would allow all Davis Scholars and all students on academic leave to vote in CG elections. Are there any questions before we vote?
Motion to approve changes in CG constitution regarding voting eligibility
Motion carries
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Thank you for being efficient with this process and thank you for being here so we have quorum, it's especially important this week because we have to get the list from the registrar of eligible voters.
Motion to approve changes in CG constitution regarding voting eligibility
Motion carries
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Thank you for being efficient with this process and thank you for being here so we have quorum, it's especially important this week because we have to get the list from the registrar of eligible voters.
III. New Business
We'll move into new business now. Would Alex Kim please approach the podium?
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: We had interviews for the Drug and Alcohol Hearing Board and the appointed students will sit on hearings when students are accused of being in violation of the drug and alcohol policies. They are Emily Y. Wu '06, Shloka Ananthanarayanan '08, Alex Coari '08, and Meagan L. Froemming '08. Please take that back to your house councils to approve the student reps. If you have questions contact me.
The Pinanski Prize committee is a committee of seniors, chaired by the dean of the College, and they select the faculty member who wins the prize and write the citation for the faculty winner of the prize. Applications are due March 28 to the SOAC applications conference. Wellesley Conferences?Student Forums?SOAC Applications?Spring 2005 Applications.
New organization project proposals are due April 10 to Alexkimcgvp. The next round of interviews for cabinet-headed committees will have applications due on April 15 at midnight to Spring 2005 applications. The next VP will be doing interviews for those. These will be the committee members for MAC-OT, CPLA Core, and SBOG.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Do we vote on the DAHB reps en bloc or individually?
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: Individually.
Meri Smith, Parliamentarian: Did everybody get the announcement sheet?
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: Feel free to contact the cabinet members if you are interested in sitting on a cabinet-headed committee next year.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you Alex. Now onto the Legenda.
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: Dear Senators: The current financial structure of the Legenda is not working and without your support the Legenda will be unable to produce a yearbook next year and perhaps for years to come. To understand the financial bind the Legenda is in, it is important to understand how the billing for book production works. There is a minimum base rate for producing the book, plus a fee per book based on the number of books printed. The more books we order, the lower the cost is per book and the fewer books we order, the higher the cost per book. In January we need to notify the printer of how many books we plan to print. We therefore need to guess how many students will want to order a book. Each year it becomes harder and harder to estimate how many students will be interested in ordering books and thus determining the cost per student. Each year we cut back on the number of books printed yet, we have still sold less than anticipated. When this happens, we don't bring in enough money to cover the cost of production and go into debt.
The Legenda Yearbook is currently an honorarium and receives approximately $5,000 for expenses. This may seem like a large amount, but given the scope of Legenda's operations it is only enough money to cover postage and promotional campaigns. It in no way contributes towards the production of the book itself. The students interested in purchasing books are therefore responsible for paying the entire production cost for each book. Over the years the cost per book has risen to $100 per book. This seemed too high a price for Wellesley students to pay personally. In an effort to keep the cost of the book within an affordable range for our students, we cut 70 pages from the book (the student organization section). This made it possible for us to charge $70 per book this year and $75 for next year.
The Legenda and many members of the student body desperately want the cost of the yearbook per student to be within their reach. We came to Senate in the fall to explain our situation and sent out a survey to all members of the student body. Of the responses received from the student body, the majority selected the option: "I do think the yearbook is important. I would like to have the charge for a yearbook covered by the current student activities fee so that as a senior I will automatically receive a yearbook (student activities fee is covered by financial aid). All other students must pay full price for a book (full price is currently $70)."
Recognizing the financial constraints, the option of seniors receiving a free book is not realistic. We would at least like to sell the Legenda at an affordable price to seniors by having a portion of the cost subsidized by SOFC. Underclasswomen will continue to pay the full production price. Instead of seniors paying $75 out of their pocket, we propose that seniors only pay $35 with the rest subsidized by the Student Activities Fee. SOFC would be contributing $40 per book for all seniors (approximately 500), bringing the total to approximately $20,000 for production costs. The Legenda would continue to need our previously allocated $5,000 to cover operating expenses, bringing our total honorarium to approximately $25,000.
We would like to thank you in advance for your support. Without it, there will not be a yearbook next year.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Can you reiterate the goal for senators?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: You will need to vote in your constituency whether or not you think the Student Activity Fee should subsidize the yearbook so that every senior can get a book.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Before this goes to House Councils, I will make an addendum to show how the other honorariums will be affected. When we increase the number for Legenda, we take it out from the general budget. That means that the $20,000 that would go to the yearbook would come out of the allotted funds for other honorariums, including CG which gets about $6,000 and SBOG which gets $29,000.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Can I recommend that you and the yearbook girl get together and make up the actual wording for senators so they are clear with their constituencies?
Lindsey Boylan: Yes, we'll do that.
Crystal Jin, Director of On-campus Affairs: On the cost of the yearbook, why does it cost anywhere from $75-100 per book?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: to get the presses rolling it costs $15,000. The more books you order the lower the cost per book.
Crystal Jin, Director of On-campus Affairs: If you sold more books, the price per book would decrease?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We do try to sell more books. We send out multiple mailings to parents and students. You are voting if you want the yearbook to survive.
Motion to accommodate speakers and close the speakers list.
Motion carries.
Catherine Day, SPEC Chair: I want to emphasize what Lindsey said. The money that will go from the general budget that benefits the entire student population will then only go to seniors because only their books are being subsidized with this plan.
Ariella Huff: Where does the $35 figure come from?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: The cost of the book for next year is $75. Most students said they wanted a free yearbook. We decided to subsidize half.
Ariella Huff: Is this based on the fact that you are selling 300?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: This is based on every senior getting a book and some underclasswomen.
Erika Woods: What are some other options you've looked at? Why do the student organizations have to suffer for something that seems to important for archiving the college's history?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We are constrained by the same things as every other club. That's the reason our funding needs to come the same way-through the Student Activity Fee.
Karin Mathiesen: Based on past years, do underclasswomen purchase books?
Jue Wang: About 100-150 first years purchase books and 20-30 sophomores and juniors purchase books.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: The Student Activity Fee will not increase; the amount we have to give to each organization will decrease. All the other organizations will see a decrease in their amounts.
Cortni Jones: I had a question about campaign money. How much did you say you spent in the past?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: about $4,000.
Cortni Jones: That number seems large to me. If you're spending $4,000 now to get people to buy, will this added money recruit more purchasers?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We aren't completely subsidizing the cost so we still need to send out mailings.
Cortni Jones: Keep in mind what Lindsey said about SBOG, which gets $29000 a year. Think about SBOG's events and compare.
Nadine Abraham: In the future, supposing this passes, would this be a permanent fix?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: This would be permanent. This would cover our production costs.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: This would be increasing the amount they get per year. It's not fixing the problem this year, but changing the way we fund the yearbook.
Andrea Swartz: How has this issue been presented to the Administration? I would think that the school would think it's important for archiving.
Kelly O'Connor, Director of Student Activities: We've been working on this for years. About 3 or 4 years ago the Legenda found themselves in a significant amount of debt. Our publisher took advantage of our lack of institutional memory. We went into debt of 30k, I whittled it down to 15k. The administration then bailed them out with a check for 15k. I also meet with them regularly-also a sign of institutional support. We've tried to make the book more affordable, we still get feedback that it's too expensive. Last year we dropped the price and sold 100 more books. The cheaper the book, the more people want them. It'd advantageous for the student body to purchase more. We looked into adding an additional fee of $17 per year and get a free book your senior year or pay $25 and get a free book every year. Since it wasn't absolutely necessary and not the highest priority, we couldn't add a new fee to the Student Activity Fee. We then decided to look at how we're funded within the structure that we have. If the issue is that you want to subsidize for everyone we do have that option.
Andrea Swartz: How is this compared to other schools like us?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We surveyed the COFIE schools and they are facing similar problems. When the books are subsidized, the numbers go up.
Alison Buchbinder: Part of the reason that people aren't ordering is that people aren't getting their books after they are ordered.
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: With trying to make ends meet with Legenda, we have a limited staff. It's a very taxing activity. Editors work for 15 hours a week. It's hard for us to do everything. It is a problem that people aren't getting books. It's up to each person to contact us if you don't receive your book because it's a problem with Josten's, our publisher.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: Have you looked at other publishers?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: Yearbook publishing is a narrow field and the prices are comparable between companies.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: Have you considered advertising?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: There are ads in the back of the book. We try not to have businesses in your book because you may not want to see a Vidalia's ad in 30 years. There are parent advertisements.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: Maybe you could recruit people onto your staff. Secondly, as a first-year I haven't heard much about the yearbook. Could you have a sneak preview to promote the book and get more purchasers?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: It is an area we need to work on, but it comes back down to funding and manpower. We do recruit, but not many people are interested.
Ashira Greene: Is there a reason why Legenda thinks that Senate would approve the funding increase when you aren't even including student orgs in the book?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: With the funding increase we could include student activities and organizations. We are asking you to vote to see if the book is important to Wellesley students.
Kelly O'Connor, Director of Student Activities: We didn't just make up this number. This came from the college community. We surveyed every student on this campus. The students from Legenda decided it was too much to ask to ask for the full cost of subsidizing the books for senators.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: First of all, thank you for coming to senate. You're very knowledgeable about the facts and figures. I love the yearbook. About the survey, what have the students said? What was the response?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We got a better response than I expected. We got 40% return.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: How much of that supported this option?
Kelly O'Connor, Director of Student Activities: Options 2 and 4 were very close, within 10 votes. Option 2 was "I do think the yearbook is important. I would like to have the charge for a yearbook covered by the current student activities fee so that as a senior I will automatically receive a yearbook (the student activities fee is covered by financial aid). All other students must pay full price for a book (full price is currently $70)" and option 4 was "I do think the yearbook is important and I would like the book to be subsidized by the student activities fee for seniors only. All other students must pay the full price for a yearbook." We had 2 batches of votes, I counted the second batch of about 500.
Crystal Jin, Director of On-campus Affairs: I don't know if people who filled out the survey understood what the options actually meant. Did they realize that the money would be taken out of other budgets?
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Still, there were 400-500 votes for options. That's something. Also, I'd like to encourage you to advertise. I wouldn't mind advertising in the book.
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We have looked into that. Businesses in the ville aren't willing to advertise in our yearbook. We did call and ask. It would not generate much money.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Could you summarize your points? It'd also be helpful to have information about the surveys. Lindsey and I are available to discuss this tonight. Email Lindsey at student bursar with questions. Thank you for coming to senate.
Are we all clear that with your constituency you will be voting on whether or not the Student Activity Fee should cover a yearbook subsidy for seniors?
Now we'll move into open discussion. Would Lindsey Boylan approach the podium?
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: We had interviews for the Drug and Alcohol Hearing Board and the appointed students will sit on hearings when students are accused of being in violation of the drug and alcohol policies. They are Emily Y. Wu '06, Shloka Ananthanarayanan '08, Alex Coari '08, and Meagan L. Froemming '08. Please take that back to your house councils to approve the student reps. If you have questions contact me.
The Pinanski Prize committee is a committee of seniors, chaired by the dean of the College, and they select the faculty member who wins the prize and write the citation for the faculty winner of the prize. Applications are due March 28 to the SOAC applications conference. Wellesley Conferences?Student Forums?SOAC Applications?Spring 2005 Applications.
New organization project proposals are due April 10 to Alexkimcgvp. The next round of interviews for cabinet-headed committees will have applications due on April 15 at midnight to Spring 2005 applications. The next VP will be doing interviews for those. These will be the committee members for MAC-OT, CPLA Core, and SBOG.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Do we vote on the DAHB reps en bloc or individually?
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: Individually.
Meri Smith, Parliamentarian: Did everybody get the announcement sheet?
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: Feel free to contact the cabinet members if you are interested in sitting on a cabinet-headed committee next year.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you Alex. Now onto the Legenda.
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: Dear Senators: The current financial structure of the Legenda is not working and without your support the Legenda will be unable to produce a yearbook next year and perhaps for years to come. To understand the financial bind the Legenda is in, it is important to understand how the billing for book production works. There is a minimum base rate for producing the book, plus a fee per book based on the number of books printed. The more books we order, the lower the cost is per book and the fewer books we order, the higher the cost per book. In January we need to notify the printer of how many books we plan to print. We therefore need to guess how many students will want to order a book. Each year it becomes harder and harder to estimate how many students will be interested in ordering books and thus determining the cost per student. Each year we cut back on the number of books printed yet, we have still sold less than anticipated. When this happens, we don't bring in enough money to cover the cost of production and go into debt.
The Legenda Yearbook is currently an honorarium and receives approximately $5,000 for expenses. This may seem like a large amount, but given the scope of Legenda's operations it is only enough money to cover postage and promotional campaigns. It in no way contributes towards the production of the book itself. The students interested in purchasing books are therefore responsible for paying the entire production cost for each book. Over the years the cost per book has risen to $100 per book. This seemed too high a price for Wellesley students to pay personally. In an effort to keep the cost of the book within an affordable range for our students, we cut 70 pages from the book (the student organization section). This made it possible for us to charge $70 per book this year and $75 for next year.
The Legenda and many members of the student body desperately want the cost of the yearbook per student to be within their reach. We came to Senate in the fall to explain our situation and sent out a survey to all members of the student body. Of the responses received from the student body, the majority selected the option: "I do think the yearbook is important. I would like to have the charge for a yearbook covered by the current student activities fee so that as a senior I will automatically receive a yearbook (student activities fee is covered by financial aid). All other students must pay full price for a book (full price is currently $70)."
Recognizing the financial constraints, the option of seniors receiving a free book is not realistic. We would at least like to sell the Legenda at an affordable price to seniors by having a portion of the cost subsidized by SOFC. Underclasswomen will continue to pay the full production price. Instead of seniors paying $75 out of their pocket, we propose that seniors only pay $35 with the rest subsidized by the Student Activities Fee. SOFC would be contributing $40 per book for all seniors (approximately 500), bringing the total to approximately $20,000 for production costs. The Legenda would continue to need our previously allocated $5,000 to cover operating expenses, bringing our total honorarium to approximately $25,000.
We would like to thank you in advance for your support. Without it, there will not be a yearbook next year.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Can you reiterate the goal for senators?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: You will need to vote in your constituency whether or not you think the Student Activity Fee should subsidize the yearbook so that every senior can get a book.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Before this goes to House Councils, I will make an addendum to show how the other honorariums will be affected. When we increase the number for Legenda, we take it out from the general budget. That means that the $20,000 that would go to the yearbook would come out of the allotted funds for other honorariums, including CG which gets about $6,000 and SBOG which gets $29,000.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Can I recommend that you and the yearbook girl get together and make up the actual wording for senators so they are clear with their constituencies?
Lindsey Boylan: Yes, we'll do that.
Crystal Jin, Director of On-campus Affairs: On the cost of the yearbook, why does it cost anywhere from $75-100 per book?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: to get the presses rolling it costs $15,000. The more books you order the lower the cost per book.
Crystal Jin, Director of On-campus Affairs: If you sold more books, the price per book would decrease?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We do try to sell more books. We send out multiple mailings to parents and students. You are voting if you want the yearbook to survive.
Motion to accommodate speakers and close the speakers list.
Motion carries.
Catherine Day, SPEC Chair: I want to emphasize what Lindsey said. The money that will go from the general budget that benefits the entire student population will then only go to seniors because only their books are being subsidized with this plan.
Ariella Huff: Where does the $35 figure come from?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: The cost of the book for next year is $75. Most students said they wanted a free yearbook. We decided to subsidize half.
Ariella Huff: Is this based on the fact that you are selling 300?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: This is based on every senior getting a book and some underclasswomen.
Erika Woods: What are some other options you've looked at? Why do the student organizations have to suffer for something that seems to important for archiving the college's history?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We are constrained by the same things as every other club. That's the reason our funding needs to come the same way-through the Student Activity Fee.
Karin Mathiesen: Based on past years, do underclasswomen purchase books?
Jue Wang: About 100-150 first years purchase books and 20-30 sophomores and juniors purchase books.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: The Student Activity Fee will not increase; the amount we have to give to each organization will decrease. All the other organizations will see a decrease in their amounts.
Cortni Jones: I had a question about campaign money. How much did you say you spent in the past?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: about $4,000.
Cortni Jones: That number seems large to me. If you're spending $4,000 now to get people to buy, will this added money recruit more purchasers?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We aren't completely subsidizing the cost so we still need to send out mailings.
Cortni Jones: Keep in mind what Lindsey said about SBOG, which gets $29000 a year. Think about SBOG's events and compare.
Nadine Abraham: In the future, supposing this passes, would this be a permanent fix?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: This would be permanent. This would cover our production costs.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: This would be increasing the amount they get per year. It's not fixing the problem this year, but changing the way we fund the yearbook.
Andrea Swartz: How has this issue been presented to the Administration? I would think that the school would think it's important for archiving.
Kelly O'Connor, Director of Student Activities: We've been working on this for years. About 3 or 4 years ago the Legenda found themselves in a significant amount of debt. Our publisher took advantage of our lack of institutional memory. We went into debt of 30k, I whittled it down to 15k. The administration then bailed them out with a check for 15k. I also meet with them regularly-also a sign of institutional support. We've tried to make the book more affordable, we still get feedback that it's too expensive. Last year we dropped the price and sold 100 more books. The cheaper the book, the more people want them. It'd advantageous for the student body to purchase more. We looked into adding an additional fee of $17 per year and get a free book your senior year or pay $25 and get a free book every year. Since it wasn't absolutely necessary and not the highest priority, we couldn't add a new fee to the Student Activity Fee. We then decided to look at how we're funded within the structure that we have. If the issue is that you want to subsidize for everyone we do have that option.
Andrea Swartz: How is this compared to other schools like us?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We surveyed the COFIE schools and they are facing similar problems. When the books are subsidized, the numbers go up.
Alison Buchbinder: Part of the reason that people aren't ordering is that people aren't getting their books after they are ordered.
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: With trying to make ends meet with Legenda, we have a limited staff. It's a very taxing activity. Editors work for 15 hours a week. It's hard for us to do everything. It is a problem that people aren't getting books. It's up to each person to contact us if you don't receive your book because it's a problem with Josten's, our publisher.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: Have you looked at other publishers?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: Yearbook publishing is a narrow field and the prices are comparable between companies.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: Have you considered advertising?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: There are ads in the back of the book. We try not to have businesses in your book because you may not want to see a Vidalia's ad in 30 years. There are parent advertisements.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: Maybe you could recruit people onto your staff. Secondly, as a first-year I haven't heard much about the yearbook. Could you have a sneak preview to promote the book and get more purchasers?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: It is an area we need to work on, but it comes back down to funding and manpower. We do recruit, but not many people are interested.
Ashira Greene: Is there a reason why Legenda thinks that Senate would approve the funding increase when you aren't even including student orgs in the book?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: With the funding increase we could include student activities and organizations. We are asking you to vote to see if the book is important to Wellesley students.
Kelly O'Connor, Director of Student Activities: We didn't just make up this number. This came from the college community. We surveyed every student on this campus. The students from Legenda decided it was too much to ask to ask for the full cost of subsidizing the books for senators.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: First of all, thank you for coming to senate. You're very knowledgeable about the facts and figures. I love the yearbook. About the survey, what have the students said? What was the response?
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We got a better response than I expected. We got 40% return.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: How much of that supported this option?
Kelly O'Connor, Director of Student Activities: Options 2 and 4 were very close, within 10 votes. Option 2 was "I do think the yearbook is important. I would like to have the charge for a yearbook covered by the current student activities fee so that as a senior I will automatically receive a yearbook (the student activities fee is covered by financial aid). All other students must pay full price for a book (full price is currently $70)" and option 4 was "I do think the yearbook is important and I would like the book to be subsidized by the student activities fee for seniors only. All other students must pay the full price for a yearbook." We had 2 batches of votes, I counted the second batch of about 500.
Crystal Jin, Director of On-campus Affairs: I don't know if people who filled out the survey understood what the options actually meant. Did they realize that the money would be taken out of other budgets?
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Still, there were 400-500 votes for options. That's something. Also, I'd like to encourage you to advertise. I wouldn't mind advertising in the book.
Jue Wang, Legenda staff: We have looked into that. Businesses in the ville aren't willing to advertise in our yearbook. We did call and ask. It would not generate much money.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Could you summarize your points? It'd also be helpful to have information about the surveys. Lindsey and I are available to discuss this tonight. Email Lindsey at student bursar with questions. Thank you for coming to senate.
Are we all clear that with your constituency you will be voting on whether or not the Student Activity Fee should cover a yearbook subsidy for seniors?
Now we'll move into open discussion. Would Lindsey Boylan approach the podium?
IV. Open Discussion
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: We had an exciting spy mission to Brandeis. I'm here with some of the SOFC members who went with me.
Beth Ryder-Kenna: They give out twice the amount what we do and they fund capital goods. They had a newly constituted gun club and they funded goggles, arm pads. Their student activities fee is also twice as much as ours. They fund really cool capital goods there that we can't. They can't fund lodging, publicity, or food though. We don't fund fundraising and they won't either.
Marjorie Mocco: We have deadlines throughout the year. They don't. There, you fill out a form online and set up an interview. They decide on the spot in between interviews what they fund. They don't cap themselves. They stay within a range, but it is much looser than ours.
Samira Vachani: We all came to the conclusion that we have a more objective set of procedures. We give out money in the same way each deadline. They are more subjective with their flexible cap. Also, we have across the board percentage budget cuts and there they decide the cuts for orgs. At Brandeis you have a much larger chance of getting money if you apply a week that there aren't many applications. Also, our Honor Code is key for our student organizations.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: They were interested in learning on our system. They were interested in how each org has an account and a separate profits account. We stayed there until almost midnight talking about funding processes. We may go to Babson next.
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: When you went to Harvard, any individual could request funding. What kind of accountability is there at Brandeis?
Beth Ryder-Kenna: They have constituted orgs but it's so much easier to become constituted than it is at Wellesley.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Also, once they are constituted they have immediate access to funds. They admire the SOAC system.
Nadine Abraham: Did you learn anything that we'll bring into SOFC?
Beth Ryder-Kenna: They have this crazy online submission system and I think if we could do more on FirstClass it'd be easier for treasurers.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you for your presentation! Now Kim will let us know about election day.
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: You don't have to vote on this. There are 3 reasons why I'm telling you how elections will work. 1, tell your constituency. 2, you work on this day and 3, after last year there have been request for improvements and I'm bringing them to you now.
Election Day is Wednesday, April 6. Remember that: April 6!! Voting will take place in Schneider only. Previously, we had voting in all dining halls. This year, only in Schneider. Voting will be from 8am - 10pm. This is to cut down on the possibility of voter fraud. Everyone will need to come to Schneider.
Other policy changes are that we will not redo the election unless it will affect the outcome. If we find out that one student votes 2 times, but the margin is 200-100 votes, we will not redo the election.
However, if we do find out that you do manage to vote twice we will bring you to GenJudic on honor code violations, but we won't publish your name in the News.
On election night, we will have a party in Schneider. We will announce around 11:30pm. The polls close at 10pm.
April 3 is the campus wide debate with all the candidates. Location and time is TBA. The 31st is the Ethos debate.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: In response, to the move of locations. The positive from the incident last year is that we got to run a test. We had strong and comparable voter turnout when we only voted in Schneider.
Clara Peterson: Will there be a long line to stand in?
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: No, there will be 4 different tables with different alphabet sections for each number. You can only vote at one table and that will cut down on the lines.
Jun Chu: I was concerned about voter turnout. Are you going to publicize to attract people to vote?
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: We had to redo an election last year. The first day was in all dining halls, the second day only in Schneider. Voter turnout was the same. As to your question about publicity, the campaign starts a week before Election Day and the candidates will generate their own publicity and we will publicize Election Day and the debate.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: It's also your job as a part of cg to get people to vote.
Nawar Najeeb: Are you looking into electronic voting?
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: Mt. Holyoke and Smith use electronic voting. At Mt. Holyoke it works well, but at Smith the voter turnout is really low. We also want to get people out to the polls, there's something unifying about going to the polls.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Also, there was a concern about fraud because we can't monitor what goes on when people are voting at their computers.
Motion to extend time by 4 minutes.
Motion carries
Motion to close the speakers list
Motion carries
Cortni Jones: As a member of last year's election committee, thank you Kim for making this more efficient and uniform.
Fiona Cousland: What was voter turnout last year?
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: It was around 40%, the highest of the Seven Sisters.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: What if we had electronic stations in Schneider? It'd help with calculating the results.
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: We did think about that, but it takes time to create a program and we don't have funding.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Moving on to Alison Buchbinder and Cortni Jones of the President's Advisory Council.
Cortni Jones: I'm one of the SOAC appointed reps, class of '07.
Alison Buchbinder: I'm class of '05.
Cortni Jones: We're here to give you our representative update. Because we are representing students on an advisory council for President Walsh, we serve with distinguished faculty members and vice presidents of the college. This is a committee looking at the college as a whole, not specifically student life. We have about 3 meetings a semester. In December we talked about Civility and Diversity.
Alison Buchbinder: I'm playing Bad cop. This is the semester of honesty. It's a nice gesture of the College to have this committee. It is not actually the place where she gets her advice. I think she looks more to Unity and executive administrative council. It's nice that we go and students get to be part of it, but I don't think it makes much of a difference.
Cortni Jones: We are meeting with President Walsh and her staff on Friday. We would love to take your opinions and ideas back to the meeting on Friday.
Nawar Najeeb: How is it that Civility and Diversity are contradictory?
Alison Buchbinder: President Walsh gave us a really interesting book about how it happens in politics. It's a cultural thing and not the role of the College.
Cortni Jones: Keep in mind that this was soon after the presidential election and she was concerned about the postings on Community.
Erika Woods: I would like you to take back the issue of faculty representation. As a SOAC appointed committee, I think you should take back what you hear tonight in Senate.
Cortni Jones: It will definitely go on the list of things to talk about.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: There could be two reps on this committee in the future.
Andrea Swartz: What are you talking about the difference between student issues and institutional issues? That hurt. Why is that something that may not be brought up? Aren't student issues the same as institutional issues?
Alison Buchbinder: We are failing to recognize that student life is not the only facet of the college. Pres. Walsh has to be concerned with faculty research and how we live up to other schools. We also have to think about institutional longevity. Sometimes student wants go against what is necessary for institutional longevity.
Cortni Jones: She doesn't have to have student representation on this committee so it's evident that she does care about student life because there are students on the committee.
Motion to accommodate speakers and close list.
Motion carries
Shelly Anand: How do you think this could be more effective and distinguish it from Unity?
Alison Buchbinder: Probably if we met more often and came together seminar-style. Now it just feels like we don't actually advise.
Shelly Anand: When you were talking about Civility and Diversity, is that in a specific context to Wellesley?
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: I just want to clarify that I think she comes to Unity for student life issues because we represent the student body. This is different because it is her advisory group. The PAC doesn't represent students, but the College as a whole. She is looking at the PAC as an academic group. Maybe we need to think about this in SOAC. Her style of leadership is very academic and looking at other writers.
Alison Buchbinder: I do love President Walsh. Diana is stellar.
Cortni Jones: Things do change and it may be different in the future. It depends on what is going on on-campus currently.
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: The committee is relatively new; it's the brain child of President Walsh. She asked SOAC to appoint students. It's difficult because the meetings are fit into her very hectic schedule. This is always appointed in the spring and any rising sophomore, junior, or senior can apply. There are now 2 SOAC reps instead of 1 and the College Government President to provide access to the President to more students.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Thank you Cortni and Alison. Moving on to the SHAC reps.
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: Hi! I'm Michelle Desnick, class of '05.
Petrina Chan: I'm Petrina Chan, class of '07.
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: We are the SOAC appointed representatives to the Student Health Advisory Council. We serve as the liaison between students and Health Services. We meet with Dr. Britto and other students on SHAC. I'll give you an update. You can find out about us on the FirstClass SHAC conference, the booklet distributed by SHAC at the beginning of the year, and at Health Services. Personally, I've received several e-mails from individuals and have passed the concerns on. You can directly convey your concerns to the problems and praises box in the waiting room at Health Services.
Petrina Chan: I'm going to clear up some common misperceptions. You do not need College Health insurance to come to Health Services. You only get billed if you don't have College Health insurance if you need extra lab tests, vaccines, and other non-standard things. There is always someone on duty, 24 hours a day. Also, we do have travel vaccinations available for traveling or studying abroad.
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: Some initiatives from this year have been an online satisfaction survey that went to half of the campus. The next big initiative was the anti-flu campaign, which including hand-washing campaign and the Purel by the public computers. We also made little anti-cold and flu kits thanks to the Dean of Students office. The next think is that appointment scheduling in online, it is no longer manual. You'll get bills faster, it's really great. Last year I presented that we were beginning IV hydration therapy, which is working well. We still transport serious cases to the hospital.
The last initiative will be on Monday April 11. We'll have a bone marrow drive on campus. We could really use your help.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Michelle, how long have you been on SHAC?
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: 2 years, I reapplied after last year.
Petrina Chan: For the past summers the hours were Monday-Friday 10am-1pm. The plan is the same for this summer. We also hope to have electronic medical records so that students can log onto a website for routine appointments.
Clara Peterson, Bates: Do you have any relationship with dorm health reps?
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: We met with them last semester and this semester. The group included OMHA reps and Stone Center reps. They convey health tips and we convey concerns, it's a different role.
Yang Qiu: When were we supposed to get the flu packets?
Dr. Britto: The plan was for everyone to get one before winter break. Some RDs picked up the bags over wintersession. There are still a few ResHalls that may not have gotten them yet. Talk to your RD if you haven't gotten one yet.
Catherine Day: What is the protocol for handling intoxicated students? What is the response to Emily Oxford's idea for a student EMT service?
Dr. Vanessa Britto, Health Services: The protocol is monitoring the student over time. It's important for you to understand that it's a dynamic process. The nurse makes assessments periodically and a decision is made after observing the student over time.
Student EMTs, that's an interesting question. We have talked about it recently. There are pros and cons. It's a process that would take some time.
Emily Oxford: I've contacted the person who started the service at MIT and will meet with him later this week. I'll keep you updated.
Terrika Duckett: What do you mean that medical records will be online?
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: It will be secure. The way I've heard about it is that it would come in with each new case.
Dr. Vanessa Britto, Health Services: Right, it would be something for incoming students and it would be secure, only available to Health Services staff.
Fiona Cousland: I've had many conversations about Dyke Ball night. How many nurses were on duty?
Dr. Vanessa Britto, Health Services: At one point there were 3 nurses on duty and I was there too. There was a shift change and one nurse stayed late.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Thank you for that update! Now Sharifa and DeAnna are presenting on the topic of Black faculty hiring and retention rates. Thank you for coming!
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: Good evening. My name is DeAnna Evans and I am the VP of Ethos and Sharifa Samuels, Ethos President and I will be presenting the current state of Wellesley's faculty diversification, focusing our lens of inquiry to solely deal with the recruitment and retainment of Black faculty, explore the implications of a non representative faculty for students of color as well as provide the college community with suggestions to be more proactive in their pursuit of black tenured faculty.
Thanks to the support of the Office of Opportunity as well as concerned faculty, Ethos has been able to obtain statistical information regarding black faculty, which includes African Americans, African and Caribbean tenured faculty for the 2004/2005 academic year as well as overall trends in hiring practices for the past 8 years at the college. During the 8-year period between 1995 and 2003, the college has hired 65 tenure track faculty: 2 (3%) black faculty, 5 (8%) Latino-Hispanic faculty, 7 (11%) Asian faculty, and 51 (78%) white faculty.
There are currently 12 tenured black faculty.
Africana Studies - 4
Art - 1
Biological Sciences - 1
Chemistry - 1
English - 1
Music - 1
Philosophy - 2
Physics - 1
Political Science - 1
Unfortunately one black faculty member will retire at the end of this academic year and two others are on the "early retirement" plan, which means that they will retire within 5 years. Although there is a committee on minority recruitment, hiring and retention whose role is to address such discrepancies in representation and hiring practices, the loss of these key faculty members if they go immediately unreplaced will have serious implications to the notion of Wellesley's diversity as well as will continue to push black students to the margins.
The issue of black faculty recruitment, tenure and retention has been the topic of much discussion within the black community at Wellesley College. Many of us came to Wellesley under the auspices of entering a diverse environment, however after disaggregating some of the data provided to us we are now beginning to see the politics of exclusion that are found in the hiring practices of this institution. As I spoke to perspective students of African descent as well as their parents for the Office of Admissions, many of their concerns were not only how proactive is Wellesley in terms of its recruitment of black students but more poignantly what do the numbers look like for black faculty? It was their belief that if Wellesley College truly took diversity seriously, the representations of black faculty would be parallel to the representation of black students.
Working on black student recruitment is one thing, but insuring that black students see a reflection of themselves is quite another issue, one that has many racial undertones. More broadly, as of last year there were 197 instructional faculty who were women compared to 140 male faculty. As important as it is for us as women to see reflections of ourselves in the classroom and in leadership, it is that much more important to make sure that the 6% of the black students on campus see a reflection of themselves in at the very least 6% of the faculty or in the departments that black students are most likely to major in, instead of the reported 3% of black faculty in total the at college. Additionally it is important that departments such as Economics, the Languages, the Writing Department, Sociology and the History Department strive for the inclusion of not only the black experience in curriculum, but be invested in the recruitment of people of African descent that can be incorporated into the fabric of their department as tenured professors.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: I'm just going to continue. I'd like to talk about how the lack of black faculty affects student life on this campus and doesn't aid in the retention of black students. They are less likely to feel valued as a cultural group and as part of the academic life here. This contributes to limited accessibility to certain subjects because we depend on physical similarities for initial entryways to develop repour. Black students are at a perpetual disadvantage because they are unlikely to see other black students in class. The fact that women are on faculty in such strong numbers shows the college's commitment to women. We have come up with some possible solutions and we'd like to hear from you. First and foremost, we think that the College should make a commitment to maintain the Africana Studies department while enhancing black faculty in other departments. We are talking about using the alum base for potential new faculty members. We also considering looking beyond the US and evaluating the requirements for hire or helping people along the way getting Ph.Ds. We're also looking into visiting professorships for faculty from historically black colleges or universities. We should talk to them about how they are recruiting professors.
I want to point out that Harvard is number 11 on the list of top 20 schools with black faculty. We have access to them. Howard University, a historically black institution, is also a source of black faculty.
We expect Wellesley to take an active and public stance. This problem is urgent and calls for drastic and creative measures. At one point, Wellesley was the leader in the area in black faculty. I assume that as women dedicated to being at the forefront of social justice we will undertake this issue.
If you have any questions, DeAnna and I will try to answer. Joanne Berger-Sweeney is also here.
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: You did a great job. Just one small error: You mentioned that 3% of the hires were faculty in the last 8 years and you are correct. Currently, the faculty is 5 percent black which is more in line with the student population.
Ashira Greene: Is there interest among the departments to have more black faculty?
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: The economics department did contact black candidates but they had trouble getting them to come to Wellesley. We need to look at why they aren't coming. Wellesley needs to meet them half way.
Ashira Greene: If we agree that it's an issue, will it change anything?
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: If we agree and apply pressure to change hiring techniques it could change the faculty composition. Student involvement is present in the hiring processes here. As it stands now, the econ department is bad. Maybe if they were aware that it was a concern of the student body at large, not just black students, they'd be more willing to change current practices. Black students shouldn't have to bear this alone.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: The 2 black women candidates looked at the Economics department were alums and their unwillingness to come may indicate that they did not have good experiences here.
Terrika Duckett: Thank you for presenting.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: We can work together to draft a letter and senators can vote to endorse a letter.
Nadine Abraham: Thank you for your presentation. You said that Wellesley College has politics of exclusion. I want to make sure I understand because I misunderstood. Could you explain more?
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: I'll say I think historically the black experience has been muted in academic experiences, from kindergarten on. The politics of exclusion means the stories told in classes.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: What do the minority recruitment and other committees do?
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: The Minority Recruitment, Hiring and Retention is a committee of Academic Council. This year, one of the things is putting together guidelines they put out to all of the chairs of committees that are conducting tenure track searches. They came up with guidelines they think would increase the pool of minority applicants this year because of the problems the college has had in recruitment. They met with all chairs, were available as a resource, and initiated the diversity liaison program. They are expanding the applicant pool, making calls to departments. This is the first time we've had an effort quite like this.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Any student involvement on that committee?
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: No students on MRHR.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Is there a plan to meet with those people to see if they actually use the guidelines? Students have shared in private conversations with me that they are concerned that certain departments are racist. Could you meet with departments? To see if they use the guidelines. mrhr meeting with every dept. diversity liaison and members of mrhr who are doing exactly that.
Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Associate Dean of the College: group of faculty looking to increase applicant pool. Our pool for tenure-track jobs is not large. We had 14 identitfied people of afriacn desent in 1200 applicants. Another thing is to invite grad students in the area to a conference at Wellesley to get them to want to teach at a liberal arts institution.
The possibility of exchanges with HB institutions. I think it is a terrific idea. I am going to try to get together a group of faculty and students. In my opinion, there is no reason we can't do this.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: You mentioned the effects on students not being represented in the classrooms. Have students changed majors to departments where they feel comfortable?
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: I'm a psych major, econ minor. We just had a black hire in the psych department. I didn't get a major advisor until 2nd semester junior year and I just got a minor person to sign 2 weeks ago. I think the feeling of accessibility is important. Can you imagine attending WestPoint where it is majority male. The things you assume you have in common with people are limited since your first impression is largely based on physical characteristics. I think I share this experience.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: many of my friends who were premed felt no support and switched. Many black students major or minor in Africana studies just so they see something similar to them. The thigns you'd like to focus on in economics, for example..
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: professors are involved with social and extracurricular life. What happens in the black community is that a woman's passion in medicine, for example, will not get . investment. Other professors . that's just kind of the smaller or larger indirect ways that things are affected. What types of organizations.naacp.
Ariella Huff: Do you have stats for comparable institutions in the area?
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: I don't have them
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: many institutions are dealing with this.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: at one point Wellesley was at the forefront.
Lindsey Silver: if you have any suggestions about what we could actually do please let us know.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: when you go back to hc, talk to students about bringing these issues back. Weneed to create dialogue. It says more for a white, or nonblack student to talk about this.
Yang Qiu: students are encouraged to attend faculty selection seminars and especially support minority candidates.
Krystal Walker: do you know how mnay profs. Of afriacn descent are tenured.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: we have 12 total tenured. From 1998-2004, we have had 12 total except from 2001-2002 we had 13.
Krystal Walker: is there the possible
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: There is only one professor on tenure track. Only one opportunity for the next 7 years.
Krystal Walker: have you mobilized to get ethos members to write letters on behalf of that one faculty member.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: we'll look into it.
Jennie Lee: do you think it'd be productiove to get more black faculty if we should include other minority groups. This problem is not just limited to the representation of black students, but also latino and asian.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: I think other minorities are important. I think the situation for latino and black candidates is worse right now than with asian.
Jennie Lee: There are 5-6% black students and faculty. There are well over 25% asian students, while only 11% are asian faculty.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: these numbers are so powerful. In workingwith the administration it's important to have figures. We just need to find the data.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: I think that when things aren't specific and just say "minority" you ignore the specific target areas.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: One deterrent of black applicants was that there wasn't a strong black faculty, specifically African American. The black community is a deterrent.
Natalie Archibald: The MRHR.who sits on it?
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: it's a combination of races.
Natalie Archibald: can the department chairs who get these guidelines relate to them? People relate with people with shared experiences. Also, we need to be active in approaching deans and meeting with people. Last semester I met with dean Shennan about Latina issues. We should join forces.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President; Both ash and I have done this and you're more than willing to work with us.
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: There is a Black Task Force rep on CFA. What's the difference between BTF and MRHR.
Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Associate Dean of the College: BTF isn't an AC committee, it's the faculty equivalent of Ethos. MRHR is a committee with members appointed by the agenda committee. The BTF can appoint members to any committee on campus.
Clara Peterson: to what extent would students be able to express support for the measures to pressure the administration in general. Can we have input on the type of pressure? I think it's important that actual . I'm not a cultural minority or racial minority, does any cultural affinity go with different white people.polish, etc.
Ashleigh Georgia: I think that Sharifa tried to point this out. When an individual feels an affinity and reaches out. People base unconscious immediate coi don't know that the cultural element comes into play immediately. It is very much a physical and immediate thing. It is not unique to the black community.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: that affinity is amplified because most students are alone or one of two in a calss. I hope you do support our initiatves. Having fluidity in requirements. Making that sacrifices.additionally, they can review. There are a lot of politics with phds as well. Social circles. Not as much access/opportunit
Terrika Duckett: in terms or applicant pool, a lot of the ways of getting our jobs as seniors is through networking. Is there talk about using black networks?
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: informal networks, more diverse pool by looking at a diverse informal network in addition to the ads that are places.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Feel free to talk to your faculty members and represent your constituency and CG.
Chair of athletics ad hoc.
Amelia Manderscheid: I am chair of athletics ad hoc. Fudning and space main issues. We don't have room for more equipment at sports center. Giving timeing, we want to develop a concrete plan of action. You can't solve this in one year. We awnat to decide what the ideal would be. I went to Smith and their athletics building is amazing. We have dorm ellipticals thtough SOFC and the dean's office with reducing stress. We are looking into looking into Schneider as a work out space, it's not safe.
I'm also looking into club sports, part of cg. Student org and sport. There are legitamite concerns with pe credit. We're looking at position between cg and atletics. We need to form a subcommittee with just club sports.
Meeting Wednesday 9pm penatrium.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: we have gone long. Please stick to time limits. We would love to continue this, so come back any time you want. Thank you for continuing this. From a CG standpoint, Lindsey and I will continue to work with you.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: We saw problems with funding this year. Rugby concerned us when they requested a first aid kit from SOFc. If we are the only option and we can't meet their needs, we need to find out ways to make things more safe. We need increased support from athletics department.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Can you talk about it tonight at SOFC.
Beth Ryder-Kenna: They give out twice the amount what we do and they fund capital goods. They had a newly constituted gun club and they funded goggles, arm pads. Their student activities fee is also twice as much as ours. They fund really cool capital goods there that we can't. They can't fund lodging, publicity, or food though. We don't fund fundraising and they won't either.
Marjorie Mocco: We have deadlines throughout the year. They don't. There, you fill out a form online and set up an interview. They decide on the spot in between interviews what they fund. They don't cap themselves. They stay within a range, but it is much looser than ours.
Samira Vachani: We all came to the conclusion that we have a more objective set of procedures. We give out money in the same way each deadline. They are more subjective with their flexible cap. Also, we have across the board percentage budget cuts and there they decide the cuts for orgs. At Brandeis you have a much larger chance of getting money if you apply a week that there aren't many applications. Also, our Honor Code is key for our student organizations.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: They were interested in learning on our system. They were interested in how each org has an account and a separate profits account. We stayed there until almost midnight talking about funding processes. We may go to Babson next.
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: When you went to Harvard, any individual could request funding. What kind of accountability is there at Brandeis?
Beth Ryder-Kenna: They have constituted orgs but it's so much easier to become constituted than it is at Wellesley.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Also, once they are constituted they have immediate access to funds. They admire the SOAC system.
Nadine Abraham: Did you learn anything that we'll bring into SOFC?
Beth Ryder-Kenna: They have this crazy online submission system and I think if we could do more on FirstClass it'd be easier for treasurers.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you for your presentation! Now Kim will let us know about election day.
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: You don't have to vote on this. There are 3 reasons why I'm telling you how elections will work. 1, tell your constituency. 2, you work on this day and 3, after last year there have been request for improvements and I'm bringing them to you now.
Election Day is Wednesday, April 6. Remember that: April 6!! Voting will take place in Schneider only. Previously, we had voting in all dining halls. This year, only in Schneider. Voting will be from 8am - 10pm. This is to cut down on the possibility of voter fraud. Everyone will need to come to Schneider.
Other policy changes are that we will not redo the election unless it will affect the outcome. If we find out that one student votes 2 times, but the margin is 200-100 votes, we will not redo the election.
However, if we do find out that you do manage to vote twice we will bring you to GenJudic on honor code violations, but we won't publish your name in the News.
On election night, we will have a party in Schneider. We will announce around 11:30pm. The polls close at 10pm.
April 3 is the campus wide debate with all the candidates. Location and time is TBA. The 31st is the Ethos debate.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: In response, to the move of locations. The positive from the incident last year is that we got to run a test. We had strong and comparable voter turnout when we only voted in Schneider.
Clara Peterson: Will there be a long line to stand in?
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: No, there will be 4 different tables with different alphabet sections for each number. You can only vote at one table and that will cut down on the lines.
Jun Chu: I was concerned about voter turnout. Are you going to publicize to attract people to vote?
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: We had to redo an election last year. The first day was in all dining halls, the second day only in Schneider. Voter turnout was the same. As to your question about publicity, the campaign starts a week before Election Day and the candidates will generate their own publicity and we will publicize Election Day and the debate.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: It's also your job as a part of cg to get people to vote.
Nawar Najeeb: Are you looking into electronic voting?
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: Mt. Holyoke and Smith use electronic voting. At Mt. Holyoke it works well, but at Smith the voter turnout is really low. We also want to get people out to the polls, there's something unifying about going to the polls.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Also, there was a concern about fraud because we can't monitor what goes on when people are voting at their computers.
Motion to extend time by 4 minutes.
Motion carries
Motion to close the speakers list
Motion carries
Cortni Jones: As a member of last year's election committee, thank you Kim for making this more efficient and uniform.
Fiona Cousland: What was voter turnout last year?
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: It was around 40%, the highest of the Seven Sisters.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: What if we had electronic stations in Schneider? It'd help with calculating the results.
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: We did think about that, but it takes time to create a program and we don't have funding.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Moving on to Alison Buchbinder and Cortni Jones of the President's Advisory Council.
Cortni Jones: I'm one of the SOAC appointed reps, class of '07.
Alison Buchbinder: I'm class of '05.
Cortni Jones: We're here to give you our representative update. Because we are representing students on an advisory council for President Walsh, we serve with distinguished faculty members and vice presidents of the college. This is a committee looking at the college as a whole, not specifically student life. We have about 3 meetings a semester. In December we talked about Civility and Diversity.
Alison Buchbinder: I'm playing Bad cop. This is the semester of honesty. It's a nice gesture of the College to have this committee. It is not actually the place where she gets her advice. I think she looks more to Unity and executive administrative council. It's nice that we go and students get to be part of it, but I don't think it makes much of a difference.
Cortni Jones: We are meeting with President Walsh and her staff on Friday. We would love to take your opinions and ideas back to the meeting on Friday.
Nawar Najeeb: How is it that Civility and Diversity are contradictory?
Alison Buchbinder: President Walsh gave us a really interesting book about how it happens in politics. It's a cultural thing and not the role of the College.
Cortni Jones: Keep in mind that this was soon after the presidential election and she was concerned about the postings on Community.
Erika Woods: I would like you to take back the issue of faculty representation. As a SOAC appointed committee, I think you should take back what you hear tonight in Senate.
Cortni Jones: It will definitely go on the list of things to talk about.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: There could be two reps on this committee in the future.
Andrea Swartz: What are you talking about the difference between student issues and institutional issues? That hurt. Why is that something that may not be brought up? Aren't student issues the same as institutional issues?
Alison Buchbinder: We are failing to recognize that student life is not the only facet of the college. Pres. Walsh has to be concerned with faculty research and how we live up to other schools. We also have to think about institutional longevity. Sometimes student wants go against what is necessary for institutional longevity.
Cortni Jones: She doesn't have to have student representation on this committee so it's evident that she does care about student life because there are students on the committee.
Motion to accommodate speakers and close list.
Motion carries
Shelly Anand: How do you think this could be more effective and distinguish it from Unity?
Alison Buchbinder: Probably if we met more often and came together seminar-style. Now it just feels like we don't actually advise.
Shelly Anand: When you were talking about Civility and Diversity, is that in a specific context to Wellesley?
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: I just want to clarify that I think she comes to Unity for student life issues because we represent the student body. This is different because it is her advisory group. The PAC doesn't represent students, but the College as a whole. She is looking at the PAC as an academic group. Maybe we need to think about this in SOAC. Her style of leadership is very academic and looking at other writers.
Alison Buchbinder: I do love President Walsh. Diana is stellar.
Cortni Jones: Things do change and it may be different in the future. It depends on what is going on on-campus currently.
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: The committee is relatively new; it's the brain child of President Walsh. She asked SOAC to appoint students. It's difficult because the meetings are fit into her very hectic schedule. This is always appointed in the spring and any rising sophomore, junior, or senior can apply. There are now 2 SOAC reps instead of 1 and the College Government President to provide access to the President to more students.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Thank you Cortni and Alison. Moving on to the SHAC reps.
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: Hi! I'm Michelle Desnick, class of '05.
Petrina Chan: I'm Petrina Chan, class of '07.
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: We are the SOAC appointed representatives to the Student Health Advisory Council. We serve as the liaison between students and Health Services. We meet with Dr. Britto and other students on SHAC. I'll give you an update. You can find out about us on the FirstClass SHAC conference, the booklet distributed by SHAC at the beginning of the year, and at Health Services. Personally, I've received several e-mails from individuals and have passed the concerns on. You can directly convey your concerns to the problems and praises box in the waiting room at Health Services.
Petrina Chan: I'm going to clear up some common misperceptions. You do not need College Health insurance to come to Health Services. You only get billed if you don't have College Health insurance if you need extra lab tests, vaccines, and other non-standard things. There is always someone on duty, 24 hours a day. Also, we do have travel vaccinations available for traveling or studying abroad.
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: Some initiatives from this year have been an online satisfaction survey that went to half of the campus. The next big initiative was the anti-flu campaign, which including hand-washing campaign and the Purel by the public computers. We also made little anti-cold and flu kits thanks to the Dean of Students office. The next think is that appointment scheduling in online, it is no longer manual. You'll get bills faster, it's really great. Last year I presented that we were beginning IV hydration therapy, which is working well. We still transport serious cases to the hospital.
The last initiative will be on Monday April 11. We'll have a bone marrow drive on campus. We could really use your help.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Michelle, how long have you been on SHAC?
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: 2 years, I reapplied after last year.
Petrina Chan: For the past summers the hours were Monday-Friday 10am-1pm. The plan is the same for this summer. We also hope to have electronic medical records so that students can log onto a website for routine appointments.
Clara Peterson, Bates: Do you have any relationship with dorm health reps?
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: We met with them last semester and this semester. The group included OMHA reps and Stone Center reps. They convey health tips and we convey concerns, it's a different role.
Yang Qiu: When were we supposed to get the flu packets?
Dr. Britto: The plan was for everyone to get one before winter break. Some RDs picked up the bags over wintersession. There are still a few ResHalls that may not have gotten them yet. Talk to your RD if you haven't gotten one yet.
Catherine Day: What is the protocol for handling intoxicated students? What is the response to Emily Oxford's idea for a student EMT service?
Dr. Vanessa Britto, Health Services: The protocol is monitoring the student over time. It's important for you to understand that it's a dynamic process. The nurse makes assessments periodically and a decision is made after observing the student over time.
Student EMTs, that's an interesting question. We have talked about it recently. There are pros and cons. It's a process that would take some time.
Emily Oxford: I've contacted the person who started the service at MIT and will meet with him later this week. I'll keep you updated.
Terrika Duckett: What do you mean that medical records will be online?
Michelle Desnick, SHAC: It will be secure. The way I've heard about it is that it would come in with each new case.
Dr. Vanessa Britto, Health Services: Right, it would be something for incoming students and it would be secure, only available to Health Services staff.
Fiona Cousland: I've had many conversations about Dyke Ball night. How many nurses were on duty?
Dr. Vanessa Britto, Health Services: At one point there were 3 nurses on duty and I was there too. There was a shift change and one nurse stayed late.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Thank you for that update! Now Sharifa and DeAnna are presenting on the topic of Black faculty hiring and retention rates. Thank you for coming!
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: Good evening. My name is DeAnna Evans and I am the VP of Ethos and Sharifa Samuels, Ethos President and I will be presenting the current state of Wellesley's faculty diversification, focusing our lens of inquiry to solely deal with the recruitment and retainment of Black faculty, explore the implications of a non representative faculty for students of color as well as provide the college community with suggestions to be more proactive in their pursuit of black tenured faculty.
Thanks to the support of the Office of Opportunity as well as concerned faculty, Ethos has been able to obtain statistical information regarding black faculty, which includes African Americans, African and Caribbean tenured faculty for the 2004/2005 academic year as well as overall trends in hiring practices for the past 8 years at the college. During the 8-year period between 1995 and 2003, the college has hired 65 tenure track faculty: 2 (3%) black faculty, 5 (8%) Latino-Hispanic faculty, 7 (11%) Asian faculty, and 51 (78%) white faculty.
There are currently 12 tenured black faculty.
Africana Studies - 4
Art - 1
Biological Sciences - 1
Chemistry - 1
English - 1
Music - 1
Philosophy - 2
Physics - 1
Political Science - 1
Unfortunately one black faculty member will retire at the end of this academic year and two others are on the "early retirement" plan, which means that they will retire within 5 years. Although there is a committee on minority recruitment, hiring and retention whose role is to address such discrepancies in representation and hiring practices, the loss of these key faculty members if they go immediately unreplaced will have serious implications to the notion of Wellesley's diversity as well as will continue to push black students to the margins.
The issue of black faculty recruitment, tenure and retention has been the topic of much discussion within the black community at Wellesley College. Many of us came to Wellesley under the auspices of entering a diverse environment, however after disaggregating some of the data provided to us we are now beginning to see the politics of exclusion that are found in the hiring practices of this institution. As I spoke to perspective students of African descent as well as their parents for the Office of Admissions, many of their concerns were not only how proactive is Wellesley in terms of its recruitment of black students but more poignantly what do the numbers look like for black faculty? It was their belief that if Wellesley College truly took diversity seriously, the representations of black faculty would be parallel to the representation of black students.
Working on black student recruitment is one thing, but insuring that black students see a reflection of themselves is quite another issue, one that has many racial undertones. More broadly, as of last year there were 197 instructional faculty who were women compared to 140 male faculty. As important as it is for us as women to see reflections of ourselves in the classroom and in leadership, it is that much more important to make sure that the 6% of the black students on campus see a reflection of themselves in at the very least 6% of the faculty or in the departments that black students are most likely to major in, instead of the reported 3% of black faculty in total the at college. Additionally it is important that departments such as Economics, the Languages, the Writing Department, Sociology and the History Department strive for the inclusion of not only the black experience in curriculum, but be invested in the recruitment of people of African descent that can be incorporated into the fabric of their department as tenured professors.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: I'm just going to continue. I'd like to talk about how the lack of black faculty affects student life on this campus and doesn't aid in the retention of black students. They are less likely to feel valued as a cultural group and as part of the academic life here. This contributes to limited accessibility to certain subjects because we depend on physical similarities for initial entryways to develop repour. Black students are at a perpetual disadvantage because they are unlikely to see other black students in class. The fact that women are on faculty in such strong numbers shows the college's commitment to women. We have come up with some possible solutions and we'd like to hear from you. First and foremost, we think that the College should make a commitment to maintain the Africana Studies department while enhancing black faculty in other departments. We are talking about using the alum base for potential new faculty members. We also considering looking beyond the US and evaluating the requirements for hire or helping people along the way getting Ph.Ds. We're also looking into visiting professorships for faculty from historically black colleges or universities. We should talk to them about how they are recruiting professors.
I want to point out that Harvard is number 11 on the list of top 20 schools with black faculty. We have access to them. Howard University, a historically black institution, is also a source of black faculty.
We expect Wellesley to take an active and public stance. This problem is urgent and calls for drastic and creative measures. At one point, Wellesley was the leader in the area in black faculty. I assume that as women dedicated to being at the forefront of social justice we will undertake this issue.
If you have any questions, DeAnna and I will try to answer. Joanne Berger-Sweeney is also here.
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: You did a great job. Just one small error: You mentioned that 3% of the hires were faculty in the last 8 years and you are correct. Currently, the faculty is 5 percent black which is more in line with the student population.
Ashira Greene: Is there interest among the departments to have more black faculty?
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: The economics department did contact black candidates but they had trouble getting them to come to Wellesley. We need to look at why they aren't coming. Wellesley needs to meet them half way.
Ashira Greene: If we agree that it's an issue, will it change anything?
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: If we agree and apply pressure to change hiring techniques it could change the faculty composition. Student involvement is present in the hiring processes here. As it stands now, the econ department is bad. Maybe if they were aware that it was a concern of the student body at large, not just black students, they'd be more willing to change current practices. Black students shouldn't have to bear this alone.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: The 2 black women candidates looked at the Economics department were alums and their unwillingness to come may indicate that they did not have good experiences here.
Terrika Duckett: Thank you for presenting.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: We can work together to draft a letter and senators can vote to endorse a letter.
Nadine Abraham: Thank you for your presentation. You said that Wellesley College has politics of exclusion. I want to make sure I understand because I misunderstood. Could you explain more?
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: I'll say I think historically the black experience has been muted in academic experiences, from kindergarten on. The politics of exclusion means the stories told in classes.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: What do the minority recruitment and other committees do?
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: The Minority Recruitment, Hiring and Retention is a committee of Academic Council. This year, one of the things is putting together guidelines they put out to all of the chairs of committees that are conducting tenure track searches. They came up with guidelines they think would increase the pool of minority applicants this year because of the problems the college has had in recruitment. They met with all chairs, were available as a resource, and initiated the diversity liaison program. They are expanding the applicant pool, making calls to departments. This is the first time we've had an effort quite like this.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Any student involvement on that committee?
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: No students on MRHR.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Is there a plan to meet with those people to see if they actually use the guidelines? Students have shared in private conversations with me that they are concerned that certain departments are racist. Could you meet with departments? To see if they use the guidelines. mrhr meeting with every dept. diversity liaison and members of mrhr who are doing exactly that.
Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Associate Dean of the College: group of faculty looking to increase applicant pool. Our pool for tenure-track jobs is not large. We had 14 identitfied people of afriacn desent in 1200 applicants. Another thing is to invite grad students in the area to a conference at Wellesley to get them to want to teach at a liberal arts institution.
The possibility of exchanges with HB institutions. I think it is a terrific idea. I am going to try to get together a group of faculty and students. In my opinion, there is no reason we can't do this.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: You mentioned the effects on students not being represented in the classrooms. Have students changed majors to departments where they feel comfortable?
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: I'm a psych major, econ minor. We just had a black hire in the psych department. I didn't get a major advisor until 2nd semester junior year and I just got a minor person to sign 2 weeks ago. I think the feeling of accessibility is important. Can you imagine attending WestPoint where it is majority male. The things you assume you have in common with people are limited since your first impression is largely based on physical characteristics. I think I share this experience.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: many of my friends who were premed felt no support and switched. Many black students major or minor in Africana studies just so they see something similar to them. The thigns you'd like to focus on in economics, for example..
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: professors are involved with social and extracurricular life. What happens in the black community is that a woman's passion in medicine, for example, will not get . investment. Other professors . that's just kind of the smaller or larger indirect ways that things are affected. What types of organizations.naacp.
Ariella Huff: Do you have stats for comparable institutions in the area?
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: I don't have them
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: many institutions are dealing with this.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: at one point Wellesley was at the forefront.
Lindsey Silver: if you have any suggestions about what we could actually do please let us know.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: when you go back to hc, talk to students about bringing these issues back. Weneed to create dialogue. It says more for a white, or nonblack student to talk about this.
Yang Qiu: students are encouraged to attend faculty selection seminars and especially support minority candidates.
Krystal Walker: do you know how mnay profs. Of afriacn descent are tenured.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: we have 12 total tenured. From 1998-2004, we have had 12 total except from 2001-2002 we had 13.
Krystal Walker: is there the possible
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: There is only one professor on tenure track. Only one opportunity for the next 7 years.
Krystal Walker: have you mobilized to get ethos members to write letters on behalf of that one faculty member.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: we'll look into it.
Jennie Lee: do you think it'd be productiove to get more black faculty if we should include other minority groups. This problem is not just limited to the representation of black students, but also latino and asian.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: I think other minorities are important. I think the situation for latino and black candidates is worse right now than with asian.
Jennie Lee: There are 5-6% black students and faculty. There are well over 25% asian students, while only 11% are asian faculty.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: these numbers are so powerful. In workingwith the administration it's important to have figures. We just need to find the data.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: I think that when things aren't specific and just say "minority" you ignore the specific target areas.
DeAnna Evans, Ethos Vice President: One deterrent of black applicants was that there wasn't a strong black faculty, specifically African American. The black community is a deterrent.
Natalie Archibald: The MRHR.who sits on it?
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: it's a combination of races.
Natalie Archibald: can the department chairs who get these guidelines relate to them? People relate with people with shared experiences. Also, we need to be active in approaching deans and meeting with people. Last semester I met with dean Shennan about Latina issues. We should join forces.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President; Both ash and I have done this and you're more than willing to work with us.
Kim Chin, CPLA Chair: There is a Black Task Force rep on CFA. What's the difference between BTF and MRHR.
Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Associate Dean of the College: BTF isn't an AC committee, it's the faculty equivalent of Ethos. MRHR is a committee with members appointed by the agenda committee. The BTF can appoint members to any committee on campus.
Clara Peterson: to what extent would students be able to express support for the measures to pressure the administration in general. Can we have input on the type of pressure? I think it's important that actual . I'm not a cultural minority or racial minority, does any cultural affinity go with different white people.polish, etc.
Ashleigh Georgia: I think that Sharifa tried to point this out. When an individual feels an affinity and reaches out. People base unconscious immediate coi don't know that the cultural element comes into play immediately. It is very much a physical and immediate thing. It is not unique to the black community.
Sharifa Samuels, Ethos Co-President: that affinity is amplified because most students are alone or one of two in a calss. I hope you do support our initiatves. Having fluidity in requirements. Making that sacrifices.additionally, they can review. There are a lot of politics with phds as well. Social circles. Not as much access/opportunit
Terrika Duckett: in terms or applicant pool, a lot of the ways of getting our jobs as seniors is through networking. Is there talk about using black networks?
Joanne Berger-Sweeny, Associate Dean of the College: informal networks, more diverse pool by looking at a diverse informal network in addition to the ads that are places.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Feel free to talk to your faculty members and represent your constituency and CG.
Chair of athletics ad hoc.
Amelia Manderscheid: I am chair of athletics ad hoc. Fudning and space main issues. We don't have room for more equipment at sports center. Giving timeing, we want to develop a concrete plan of action. You can't solve this in one year. We awnat to decide what the ideal would be. I went to Smith and their athletics building is amazing. We have dorm ellipticals thtough SOFC and the dean's office with reducing stress. We are looking into looking into Schneider as a work out space, it's not safe.
I'm also looking into club sports, part of cg. Student org and sport. There are legitamite concerns with pe credit. We're looking at position between cg and atletics. We need to form a subcommittee with just club sports.
Meeting Wednesday 9pm penatrium.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: we have gone long. Please stick to time limits. We would love to continue this, so come back any time you want. Thank you for continuing this. From a CG standpoint, Lindsey and I will continue to work with you.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: We saw problems with funding this year. Rugby concerned us when they requested a first aid kit from SOFc. If we are the only option and we can't meet their needs, we need to find out ways to make things more safe. We need increased support from athletics department.
Jamie Bernthal, College Government President: Can you talk about it tonight at SOFC.
V. Dean's Corner
Kimberly Goff-Crews, Dean of Students: I spent time going over what we've done since last week in regard to the alcohol transports. Once we made last week's announment regarding tower court and Dyke Ball. We've met with Unity, individual students, etc. We did hear you. Student leadership was put in a tough position because of our decision. Thank you for delivering the message. On Friday we met with the police, health services. We're thinking about support services. We're looking into coming up with a solution within the next several weeks. Our goal is to lift the ban as soon as possible. We've had conversations with a group called Outrage. We've been emailing and having individual meetings. We are having conversations abdout the social scene and alcohol culture on campus. We want to know why people drink so much. We also want to know why TC and DB are so important to this campus. We're learning a lot.
The President did some processing herself. She heard that students wanted a statement to the Herald specifically. She posted her letter. I wanted to read it to you: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Other than that we are going to move forward to resolve these issues. We want to have serious conversations about the culture and move forward.
Michelle Lepore, Associate Dean of Students: One question was about the number of nurses. The shift changes at 11:30. for portions of the night there were extra students. If a student went it before 11:30 there was only 1 nurse.
I also want to mention the student activity fee. Percentage increase each year with SAF.
HAPPY SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!
Kimberly Goff-Crews, Dean of Students: In the midst of this, SPECTRUM held many events. OMHA is also having events about mental health. Thursday at 7 there will be a meeting in the library lecture room about mental health.
The President did some processing herself. She heard that students wanted a statement to the Herald specifically. She posted her letter. I wanted to read it to you: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Other than that we are going to move forward to resolve these issues. We want to have serious conversations about the culture and move forward.
Michelle Lepore, Associate Dean of Students: One question was about the number of nurses. The shift changes at 11:30. for portions of the night there were extra students. If a student went it before 11:30 there was only 1 nurse.
I also want to mention the student activity fee. Percentage increase each year with SAF.
HAPPY SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!
Kimberly Goff-Crews, Dean of Students: In the midst of this, SPECTRUM held many events. OMHA is also having events about mental health. Thursday at 7 there will be a meeting in the library lecture room about mental health.
VI. Announcements/Adjourn
