Home >> Archives >> 04.10.06 Minutes
Attachments
I. Roll Call/Agenda
II. Old Business
III. New Business
A. Spring Budgeting (Cortni Jones, Student Bursar)
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: So I have these oranges here today because they are orange and round. I will give one to the person that is taking my position. I want to thank you for the skit; this has been one of the best skits I have seen in Senate during all my years here. I'm not going to speak too long because we have a packed agenda. Now moving straight to new business, will Cortni Jones please step up to talk about spring budgeting?
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: So today is the long awaited spring budgeting determination. First, I would like to give you a brief overview of what exactly is going on, so if there are not enough copies, please share. I want to first review what the fiscal deficit history is. In the past, student bursars assumed that funds would be reverted to go back to the next year. But this year it did not happen. This process was not known to past bursar and every year it was happening without their knowledge of what was going on. Last year in 2005-2006, I was the first bursar to have the opportunity to work with the controllers' office to make sure we can manage our finances above the industry standards. SOFC decided to cover the remaining debt before any allocations were made so that it would not disproportionably affect any student orgs over others. It wasn't as if we were giving out money and then taking it back before we allocated it. The relief was done this year to maintain stability and improve the stability of SOFC as well as make students accountable for their financing of money.
The charges for long term debt would be applied to the principles, so then I sat down to determine the student activity fee. Last year the predicted enrollment was 2195 students. The thing is that we were close, but we were .3% off and we had already done the budgeting, so it was off. We were about $1,265.57 dollars short of the predicted student activity fee. Due to the new student abroad policy it means that next year the actual number of students on campus is going to be highly variable because we do not know how many students will be studying away. We decided to work with a predicted enrollment of 2185 to ensure that we do not have a debt next year. I talked to the VP of finance and he thinks it is in the ball park of what is going to happen. This fee increases at the same rate as tuition, and next year, the SAF will be $212. The total amount of student activity fee is $463,220 dollars. It is an increase from last year obviously.
SOFC took the total predicted from last year and determined the percentages of the honorariums. The honorariums were affected since they had a smaller pool to take from, since they were taken out from the total pool.
We worked very hard on Spring Budgeting. We wanted to be there to help treasurers with their budgets, so each SOFC member had a stack of budgets to study and came up with interesting points and in the end, we looked at every single budget together. It helped us establish stability throughout the funding deadline. We also decided to accept late applications, because Spring Budgeting is so important to organizations, so we set up a scale for how you turn it in, certain percentages would be taken off for the time in which you return your budget. We only fund organizations that have had SOFC budget for at least one semester. We deliberated and solved issues as they came up, and we made sure to solve decisions that had previously been made. Amounts allocated are less because people messed up on their budgets or did not turn in all the forms that they needed to. You can find what individual groups founded their applications for by looking at the hand-out we passed out. We also only have $142,223.40 for Spring Budgeting, so this all the money we can give out for this deadline.
Again, SOFC maintained a very objective view of everything. We did not judge based on purpose. We judged based on taking care of the tasks at hand. A lot of treasurers didn't understand that defining their purpose is something based in the constitution. We allocate if it is accordance to the budget, but there has to be justification. We want to make that clearer to treasurers; that will be a training mechanism that we will institute next year. We have workshops on honoraria, emergency funding, food, printing and small requests treatment versus large request treatment. The amount requested is the amount requested they have on their budget. If they have a percentage deduction because they are late that will be founded on the percentage scale for late applications that we created. All treasurers will see the starting balance for their org as listed in the fall of next year.
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: Can you talk about the amount of time you went thorough with SOFC to check the amounts that you are going through?
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: Treasurers are allowed to come look at the exact numbers and see where they were deducted. Samira Vachani entered all the numbers into the spreadsheet, seriously it took her 10 hours. She took a bunch of notes and I double checked her notes and then we both checked again. So treasurers can really come and see what exactly the deductions and their budgets are. I would hope that if you all have any questions, please talk to me before going to House Council, and keep in mind that this total fund sheet is very much an estimation. We are trying to predict how many people will actually come to Wellesley. Think of it as an actual estimation but it might vary slightly next year.
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: You can ask Cortni or any of the SOFC members throughout the week if you have questions, even after House Council.
Cornti Jones, CGP: You will have to vote on this in house council, Kelsey, can you please talk about how to do that?
Kelsey Contreras, Parliamentarian: I am going to go over the process later in Senate.
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: So today is the long awaited spring budgeting determination. First, I would like to give you a brief overview of what exactly is going on, so if there are not enough copies, please share. I want to first review what the fiscal deficit history is. In the past, student bursars assumed that funds would be reverted to go back to the next year. But this year it did not happen. This process was not known to past bursar and every year it was happening without their knowledge of what was going on. Last year in 2005-2006, I was the first bursar to have the opportunity to work with the controllers' office to make sure we can manage our finances above the industry standards. SOFC decided to cover the remaining debt before any allocations were made so that it would not disproportionably affect any student orgs over others. It wasn't as if we were giving out money and then taking it back before we allocated it. The relief was done this year to maintain stability and improve the stability of SOFC as well as make students accountable for their financing of money.
The charges for long term debt would be applied to the principles, so then I sat down to determine the student activity fee. Last year the predicted enrollment was 2195 students. The thing is that we were close, but we were .3% off and we had already done the budgeting, so it was off. We were about $1,265.57 dollars short of the predicted student activity fee. Due to the new student abroad policy it means that next year the actual number of students on campus is going to be highly variable because we do not know how many students will be studying away. We decided to work with a predicted enrollment of 2185 to ensure that we do not have a debt next year. I talked to the VP of finance and he thinks it is in the ball park of what is going to happen. This fee increases at the same rate as tuition, and next year, the SAF will be $212. The total amount of student activity fee is $463,220 dollars. It is an increase from last year obviously.
SOFC took the total predicted from last year and determined the percentages of the honorariums. The honorariums were affected since they had a smaller pool to take from, since they were taken out from the total pool.
We worked very hard on Spring Budgeting. We wanted to be there to help treasurers with their budgets, so each SOFC member had a stack of budgets to study and came up with interesting points and in the end, we looked at every single budget together. It helped us establish stability throughout the funding deadline. We also decided to accept late applications, because Spring Budgeting is so important to organizations, so we set up a scale for how you turn it in, certain percentages would be taken off for the time in which you return your budget. We only fund organizations that have had SOFC budget for at least one semester. We deliberated and solved issues as they came up, and we made sure to solve decisions that had previously been made. Amounts allocated are less because people messed up on their budgets or did not turn in all the forms that they needed to. You can find what individual groups founded their applications for by looking at the hand-out we passed out. We also only have $142,223.40 for Spring Budgeting, so this all the money we can give out for this deadline.
Again, SOFC maintained a very objective view of everything. We did not judge based on purpose. We judged based on taking care of the tasks at hand. A lot of treasurers didn't understand that defining their purpose is something based in the constitution. We allocate if it is accordance to the budget, but there has to be justification. We want to make that clearer to treasurers; that will be a training mechanism that we will institute next year. We have workshops on honoraria, emergency funding, food, printing and small requests treatment versus large request treatment. The amount requested is the amount requested they have on their budget. If they have a percentage deduction because they are late that will be founded on the percentage scale for late applications that we created. All treasurers will see the starting balance for their org as listed in the fall of next year.
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: Can you talk about the amount of time you went thorough with SOFC to check the amounts that you are going through?
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: Treasurers are allowed to come look at the exact numbers and see where they were deducted. Samira Vachani entered all the numbers into the spreadsheet, seriously it took her 10 hours. She took a bunch of notes and I double checked her notes and then we both checked again. So treasurers can really come and see what exactly the deductions and their budgets are. I would hope that if you all have any questions, please talk to me before going to House Council, and keep in mind that this total fund sheet is very much an estimation. We are trying to predict how many people will actually come to Wellesley. Think of it as an actual estimation but it might vary slightly next year.
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: You can ask Cortni or any of the SOFC members throughout the week if you have questions, even after House Council.
Cornti Jones, CGP: You will have to vote on this in house council, Kelsey, can you please talk about how to do that?
Kelsey Contreras, Parliamentarian: I am going to go over the process later in Senate.
B. SOAC Update (Michel Ballard, CG VP)
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: So next we have Michel Ballard with Yang Qiu for a SOAC update.
Michel Ballard, CGVP: My two announcements are: the first two people that have been selected for the Pinanski Prize Committee are Melissa Chow and Samiya Ilmudeen, from the humanities and the social sciences. The reason we only have two people is because we don't have someone from the natural sciences yet, but this happens every year. In order to fix the situation, we are extending the deadline to Wednesday. And just to review the process, people apply online and we review their application and then we have interviews and the three voting members pick a number out of 7 to rank each applicant. This structure is a little different because there is one student from sciences, one from humanities, and one from social sciences, so the students are only competing against the others in their discipline, not against the general applicant pool.
In addition, I announced a facilities committee at the last Senate and we are also extending that deadline to Wednesday. We decided to move it because people were really busy during elections. Also, the interviews will be conducted soon after Wednesday. Finally if you are interested in being a SOAC coordinator for next year please apply. Those applications are due by April 14 to the CG President. This is a great position, it is a paid position. If you have questions please contact me, Yang or Claire Hua.
Yang Qiu, Severance : I have one announcement for the spring appointment and spring reps selection for SBOG, MAC-OT, CPLA Core, and Gen Judic. The deadlines for the applications are: SBOG April 19th by midnight to "spring reps" and MAC-OT, CPLA CORE, and GEN JUDIC also to "spring applications" by midnight on Fri. April 21st. So, if you know someone who is interested please let them know.
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: What is the tagline for the facilities committee?
Michel Ballard, CGVP: Long term use of facilities on campus. If we do build a new res. hall, what should that look like on campus? Predicting the needs of students in the future.
Samira Vachani, Pomeroy Senator: Are SBOG, Gen Judic, MAC-OT, and CPLA Core year long positions?
Yang Qiu, Severance: Yes, they are.
Michel Ballard, CGVP: SBOG's term is longer because they start at the end of this semester and continue through next year. The others will start in the fall.
Ashira Greene, Claflin: Is there any special eligibility for the committees?
Michel Ballard, CGVP: For facilities, you can't be a first year.
Yang Qiu, Severance: For SBOG and all the others there are very specific guidelines.
Lindsey Boylan CGP: Could you post how to get the information to the conference?
Yang Qiu, Severance: Yes
Michel Ballard, CGVP: My two announcements are: the first two people that have been selected for the Pinanski Prize Committee are Melissa Chow and Samiya Ilmudeen, from the humanities and the social sciences. The reason we only have two people is because we don't have someone from the natural sciences yet, but this happens every year. In order to fix the situation, we are extending the deadline to Wednesday. And just to review the process, people apply online and we review their application and then we have interviews and the three voting members pick a number out of 7 to rank each applicant. This structure is a little different because there is one student from sciences, one from humanities, and one from social sciences, so the students are only competing against the others in their discipline, not against the general applicant pool.
In addition, I announced a facilities committee at the last Senate and we are also extending that deadline to Wednesday. We decided to move it because people were really busy during elections. Also, the interviews will be conducted soon after Wednesday. Finally if you are interested in being a SOAC coordinator for next year please apply. Those applications are due by April 14 to the CG President. This is a great position, it is a paid position. If you have questions please contact me, Yang or Claire Hua.
Yang Qiu, Severance : I have one announcement for the spring appointment and spring reps selection for SBOG, MAC-OT, CPLA Core, and Gen Judic. The deadlines for the applications are: SBOG April 19th by midnight to "spring reps" and MAC-OT, CPLA CORE, and GEN JUDIC also to "spring applications" by midnight on Fri. April 21st. So, if you know someone who is interested please let them know.
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: What is the tagline for the facilities committee?
Michel Ballard, CGVP: Long term use of facilities on campus. If we do build a new res. hall, what should that look like on campus? Predicting the needs of students in the future.
Samira Vachani, Pomeroy Senator: Are SBOG, Gen Judic, MAC-OT, and CPLA Core year long positions?
Yang Qiu, Severance: Yes, they are.
Michel Ballard, CGVP: SBOG's term is longer because they start at the end of this semester and continue through next year. The others will start in the fall.
Ashira Greene, Claflin: Is there any special eligibility for the committees?
Michel Ballard, CGVP: For facilities, you can't be a first year.
Yang Qiu, Severance: For SBOG and all the others there are very specific guidelines.
Lindsey Boylan CGP: Could you post how to get the information to the conference?
Yang Qiu, Severance: Yes
IV. Open Discussion
A. First Year Review Committee (Carlos Vega)
Carlos Vega: Thank you so much for inviting me. We should do this transition between topics in academic council - you are so efficient! My name is Carlos Vega and I teach Spanish and I am the faculty director of the PLTC. And today I am here to talk about the First Year Review Committee. Before this committee was started there were several questions for the faculty. But first, I am going to just read the members of the committee:
Lori Tenser, Heather Hiera, Wendy Boue, Joe Camball, Angela Carempenter, Stainly Chang, Veronica Darer, Rosa Fernandez, Scott Gunther, Alex Johnson, Patty Org , Beth Santos, Cory Tayler, Adele Wolfson
When the committee was first made, we sent notices out to faculty and staff to let us know if any area was left out and we asked them to contact us and this is why the committee is so large. This is one of the few committees I have been on where people really enjoy it.
Key points: many felt that here at Wellesley, we are not doing as much for the first year as we should, so we looked around the country and saw other institutions dealt with a lot more issues than what we were dealing with. The second issue we addressed was if there was a disconnect between the faculty perception of first years and what they know, and what first year students actually do know. One issue was advising. We really felt that we weren't doing as much as we could on pre-major advising. Let me tell you that nobody has the perfect solution for advising and everyone finds faults with their system. One of the models that looks the most favorable is putting you with a faculty member that is connected personally and intellectually to you. Some institutions have different people who have post-undergraduate degrees and know how to help advise for school after Wellesley. We are looking at many different options. We also looked at the dorms not being as productive in helping in the first year advising. The separation between mentors and students is not something that we think is effective. We want to work more with res staff.
What we most want is to help deal with the tension of the first semester in particular. The first semester is very intense, but most students get over and love it. We would like that first connection to be as intellectually satisfying as possibly and for students to connect to Wellesley as soon as they get here.
We started a little late, not until February, but we are trying to get a basic set of recommendations by the end of this year. One is about the formatting of academic program. It might be good to bring back a shared learning community for first year. Again the goal is, how can you make this connection to Wellesley quickly? We will get something out by the end of this year, and then the number of constituencies affected by these changes can come up with the next step of the future.
Amy Wang, Senator Cazanove: You said that the goal is that you really want to concentrate on the first semester. But there seems to be a drop off with the second semester after your first year mentor and first year advisor stop working with you. Have you addressed this?
Carlos Vega: There is very much the need to see this sort of a process, and this issue if very much on the table for more discussion.
Tiffany Sirc, Student at Large: Has your committee also looked at the orientation for the first year Davis Scholars?
Carlos Vega: We have to look at all the different programs. One of them is orientation for the fall. There are a lot of different discussions but the first year experience for Davis Scholars is a very sensitive issue and we are looking into it.
Catherine Day, Chief Justice: I was interested in the shared learning experience and the writing program for Writing 125, and I was wondering how the shared learning experience will fit into that program.
Carlos Vega: The writing program has to accomplish a lot in its current manifestation. The current thinking is to offer more and to make the writing 125 class more expansive.
Edlyn, Pomeroy: Has there been a discussion of making the first year, or even just the first semester, mandatory pass/fail?
Carlos Vega: Several faculty members have suggested this, but we have a Spanish saying. "Las cosas del espacio son despacio." Things in the space are so. So if that were to happen it would have to go through faculty vote. It might come through community discussion though, as well.
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: Who was the charge for this committee from and what is your timeline?
Carlos Vega: The charge was done by the Dean Goff-Crews and Dean Shennan.
Sophie Kim, CPLA Chair: I noticed two student names that you read who are on the committee, so can you confim those two names?
Carlos Vega: Three names actually: Yamini Jha, Rosa Fernandez, and Beth Santos. This is a part of a focus group with first year because there are surveys at the end of first year . The hope is to have a discussion with first years. But if you are hoping to have any curriculum innovation, that would not happen until the fall of 07.
Emily Pighetti, WASAC: I was wondering about the nature of first year and then to transition into sophomore year-have you given any thought to helping make this a more fluid transition? A dean that you will have for a full foru years, starting as a first year, might help this.
Carlos Vega: Some universities have an advisor for four years.
Dean Kim Goff-Crews: Last year, when we did have a review we did think about disbanding the First Year Dean position and having the same dean for all four years. The external committee said that their are so many specific things that you have to do for first year, that if you through to senior year and then go back to advising for First Years, this is a very hard transition to make well.
Tori Voight, Senator Bates: You mention that orientation experience for Davis Scholars and first year, have you talked about transfer students.
Carlos Vega: We need to.
Deanna Evans, Student at Large: I wanted to know if you are dealing with of issues of multiculturalism on the board.
Carlos Vega: The short answer is yes. We would like to cultivate in the curriculum an awareness of the diversity of the student body. Have we been addressing different issues in terms of programs that would be beneficial to the diversity of our students-yes. One of the members is someone who deals with multicultural psychology. Yes we are looking at this. We should have a discussion about, "What would you mean by multiculturalism?" Can you send me an email?
Lori Tenser, Heather Hiera, Wendy Boue, Joe Camball, Angela Carempenter, Stainly Chang, Veronica Darer, Rosa Fernandez, Scott Gunther, Alex Johnson, Patty Org , Beth Santos, Cory Tayler, Adele Wolfson
When the committee was first made, we sent notices out to faculty and staff to let us know if any area was left out and we asked them to contact us and this is why the committee is so large. This is one of the few committees I have been on where people really enjoy it.
Key points: many felt that here at Wellesley, we are not doing as much for the first year as we should, so we looked around the country and saw other institutions dealt with a lot more issues than what we were dealing with. The second issue we addressed was if there was a disconnect between the faculty perception of first years and what they know, and what first year students actually do know. One issue was advising. We really felt that we weren't doing as much as we could on pre-major advising. Let me tell you that nobody has the perfect solution for advising and everyone finds faults with their system. One of the models that looks the most favorable is putting you with a faculty member that is connected personally and intellectually to you. Some institutions have different people who have post-undergraduate degrees and know how to help advise for school after Wellesley. We are looking at many different options. We also looked at the dorms not being as productive in helping in the first year advising. The separation between mentors and students is not something that we think is effective. We want to work more with res staff.
What we most want is to help deal with the tension of the first semester in particular. The first semester is very intense, but most students get over and love it. We would like that first connection to be as intellectually satisfying as possibly and for students to connect to Wellesley as soon as they get here.
We started a little late, not until February, but we are trying to get a basic set of recommendations by the end of this year. One is about the formatting of academic program. It might be good to bring back a shared learning community for first year. Again the goal is, how can you make this connection to Wellesley quickly? We will get something out by the end of this year, and then the number of constituencies affected by these changes can come up with the next step of the future.
Amy Wang, Senator Cazanove: You said that the goal is that you really want to concentrate on the first semester. But there seems to be a drop off with the second semester after your first year mentor and first year advisor stop working with you. Have you addressed this?
Carlos Vega: There is very much the need to see this sort of a process, and this issue if very much on the table for more discussion.
Tiffany Sirc, Student at Large: Has your committee also looked at the orientation for the first year Davis Scholars?
Carlos Vega: We have to look at all the different programs. One of them is orientation for the fall. There are a lot of different discussions but the first year experience for Davis Scholars is a very sensitive issue and we are looking into it.
Catherine Day, Chief Justice: I was interested in the shared learning experience and the writing program for Writing 125, and I was wondering how the shared learning experience will fit into that program.
Carlos Vega: The writing program has to accomplish a lot in its current manifestation. The current thinking is to offer more and to make the writing 125 class more expansive.
Edlyn, Pomeroy: Has there been a discussion of making the first year, or even just the first semester, mandatory pass/fail?
Carlos Vega: Several faculty members have suggested this, but we have a Spanish saying. "Las cosas del espacio son despacio." Things in the space are so. So if that were to happen it would have to go through faculty vote. It might come through community discussion though, as well.
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: Who was the charge for this committee from and what is your timeline?
Carlos Vega: The charge was done by the Dean Goff-Crews and Dean Shennan.
Sophie Kim, CPLA Chair: I noticed two student names that you read who are on the committee, so can you confim those two names?
Carlos Vega: Three names actually: Yamini Jha, Rosa Fernandez, and Beth Santos. This is a part of a focus group with first year because there are surveys at the end of first year . The hope is to have a discussion with first years. But if you are hoping to have any curriculum innovation, that would not happen until the fall of 07.
Emily Pighetti, WASAC: I was wondering about the nature of first year and then to transition into sophomore year-have you given any thought to helping make this a more fluid transition? A dean that you will have for a full foru years, starting as a first year, might help this.
Carlos Vega: Some universities have an advisor for four years.
Dean Kim Goff-Crews: Last year, when we did have a review we did think about disbanding the First Year Dean position and having the same dean for all four years. The external committee said that their are so many specific things that you have to do for first year, that if you through to senior year and then go back to advising for First Years, this is a very hard transition to make well.
Tori Voight, Senator Bates: You mention that orientation experience for Davis Scholars and first year, have you talked about transfer students.
Carlos Vega: We need to.
Deanna Evans, Student at Large: I wanted to know if you are dealing with of issues of multiculturalism on the board.
Carlos Vega: The short answer is yes. We would like to cultivate in the curriculum an awareness of the diversity of the student body. Have we been addressing different issues in terms of programs that would be beneficial to the diversity of our students-yes. One of the members is someone who deals with multicultural psychology. Yes we are looking at this. We should have a discussion about, "What would you mean by multiculturalism?" Can you send me an email?
B. CG Elections update (Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair)
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: Thank you so much for that, Carlos Vega. And if you are interested in multiculturalism please email Adele Wolfson. Next is Sophie Kim with information about elections.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: So this year at CG Elections, we had 53% turnout. I want to address one concern that I have heard come up about the elections and why it was in the campus center and why was it not split up. I can answer that because we had one master list. In previous years when it was split up we has issues of people voting twice. We really needed only one master list. So I wanted to thank all the poll workers, especially you, Senators. I also wanted to thank the members of SBOG. Last but not least, a big thank you to the election committee members who worked so hard. I also wanted to report that in this week's Wellesley News you will see the numbers from the election.
Sabina Khan, MacAffee: Would it be feasible to have an online vote instead?
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: That is definitely something we can look into in the future. The only issue I can see is with guaranteeing confidentiality.
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: The other issue would be maintaining the ideal of democracy and actually getting out the vote and physically voting.
Missy Ford, Cazenove: Instead of a paper master list, there could be one online that the pollsters could update at different locations.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: That is something to explore. The only issue would be those who would be double voting and also the speed at which it would be updated.
Amy Wang, Cazanove Senator : At my high school we had a compute kiosk for voting. You could not resign in after signing once, and this worked really well.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: I am writing all this down so good suggestions.
Mona Minkara, Al Muslimat Senator: Back to first class and online. If wit was between east campus and on campus if there was a list and someone votes and you could send it to the other side of campus. So there would be no double voting.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: Yes, I can see that we need to have a conversation with people in Information Systems. Thank your for the suggestions.
Emily Pighetti, WASAC Senator: I was wondering about the state of concern about the location for voting being in the campus center. Why are you still advocating metaphorical central-ness in stead of actual, physical centralness?
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: Well centrally located metaphorically means, to me, that every student has something in the campus center that they would theoretically go and visit during the day: their mailbox. This isn't the case with Schneider.
Shayla Adams, Ethos: Would it be possible to have the polling at two locations at two different times. Like one half of the day in the campus center and the other half on the East Side, and one in the morning and one at night.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: In terms of feasibility it is difficult to relay how much work there is for the elections committee members in terms of counting ballots and confidentiality. But we will keep all these suggestions in mind.
Roopal Mehta, Student at Large: You could be a client of CS 110 and have students run the program.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: I am thinking something more like registration with the banner system.
Daria Axelrod, Claflin Senator: Class council is actually experimenting with this this year. I wanted to know in terms of trying to make this banner system possible, how significant do you think it is that voting is done physically versus electronically?
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: It is definitely a valid point. In today's society we are becoming technologically oriented. This up to the future chairs of this committee. One last thing, a lot of things came up during the election in terms of the bi-laws of our CG constitution and Lindsey and I are reviewing that closely and we will be presenting soon at Senate so you can hear about that.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: So this year at CG Elections, we had 53% turnout. I want to address one concern that I have heard come up about the elections and why it was in the campus center and why was it not split up. I can answer that because we had one master list. In previous years when it was split up we has issues of people voting twice. We really needed only one master list. So I wanted to thank all the poll workers, especially you, Senators. I also wanted to thank the members of SBOG. Last but not least, a big thank you to the election committee members who worked so hard. I also wanted to report that in this week's Wellesley News you will see the numbers from the election.
Sabina Khan, MacAffee: Would it be feasible to have an online vote instead?
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: That is definitely something we can look into in the future. The only issue I can see is with guaranteeing confidentiality.
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: The other issue would be maintaining the ideal of democracy and actually getting out the vote and physically voting.
Missy Ford, Cazenove: Instead of a paper master list, there could be one online that the pollsters could update at different locations.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: That is something to explore. The only issue would be those who would be double voting and also the speed at which it would be updated.
Amy Wang, Cazanove Senator : At my high school we had a compute kiosk for voting. You could not resign in after signing once, and this worked really well.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: I am writing all this down so good suggestions.
Mona Minkara, Al Muslimat Senator: Back to first class and online. If wit was between east campus and on campus if there was a list and someone votes and you could send it to the other side of campus. So there would be no double voting.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: Yes, I can see that we need to have a conversation with people in Information Systems. Thank your for the suggestions.
Emily Pighetti, WASAC Senator: I was wondering about the state of concern about the location for voting being in the campus center. Why are you still advocating metaphorical central-ness in stead of actual, physical centralness?
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: Well centrally located metaphorically means, to me, that every student has something in the campus center that they would theoretically go and visit during the day: their mailbox. This isn't the case with Schneider.
Shayla Adams, Ethos: Would it be possible to have the polling at two locations at two different times. Like one half of the day in the campus center and the other half on the East Side, and one in the morning and one at night.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: In terms of feasibility it is difficult to relay how much work there is for the elections committee members in terms of counting ballots and confidentiality. But we will keep all these suggestions in mind.
Roopal Mehta, Student at Large: You could be a client of CS 110 and have students run the program.
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: I am thinking something more like registration with the banner system.
Daria Axelrod, Claflin Senator: Class council is actually experimenting with this this year. I wanted to know in terms of trying to make this banner system possible, how significant do you think it is that voting is done physically versus electronically?
Sophie Kim, Elections Committee Co-Chair: It is definitely a valid point. In today's society we are becoming technologically oriented. This up to the future chairs of this committee. One last thing, a lot of things came up during the election in terms of the bi-laws of our CG constitution and Lindsey and I are reviewing that closely and we will be presenting soon at Senate so you can hear about that.
C. SCBT Investment Committee (Melanie Carter)
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: Now we have Melanie Carter from the investment committee.
Melanie Carter, Investment Committee Student Representative: Ok hello, I am Melanie Carter and I sit on the Board of Trustees Investment Committee. Lulu Chow Wang is our chair and our mission is to guide the direction of the college's investments. We give long term commitments to the investment office staff and we try to balance the need of current student with future students. Unfortunately most of what we do is confidential, but I will tell you what I can. Our job is to figure out what investments Wellesley should make. If you are interested in asset classes, ask me about them, because I don't want to bore everyone. The endowment is valued at 1.276 billion dollars, and to give some perspective the endowment was 5 billion in 1995 so it has grown that much in just ten years. In the endowment spending, the endowment supports 35% of our general budget. The tuition supports 35% also, so that gives you some perspective.
Out of the 10 wealthiest colleges in the nation, only 9 spend more than 5% but we spend 5.1% and the rule of thumb is to spend about 5% of your portfolio each year. We use the amount that we spend last year and add 5% of the new gift we receive and increase it by three percent each year.
Sabina Khan, MacAfee Senator: I guess I wanted to know what specifically is being kept confidential. At Harvard you can know the investments so why can't we?
Melanie Carter: That information is actually really incorrect. It is very important to keep it confidential because if they, the fund managers, find out the info has gone public they will shoot out the investment.
Catherine Day, Chief Justice: Are there ethical guidelines to choosing investments?
Melanie Carter: Yes there is a student committee that gives a general guideline to how the committee should invest. We check the financial and social effects of our investments, but a lot of it done through the discretion of the investment office. If you have questions about the finances in general please email me and you can also go to Andy Evans office to get the Wellesley Finances booklet.
Melanie Carter, Investment Committee Student Representative: Ok hello, I am Melanie Carter and I sit on the Board of Trustees Investment Committee. Lulu Chow Wang is our chair and our mission is to guide the direction of the college's investments. We give long term commitments to the investment office staff and we try to balance the need of current student with future students. Unfortunately most of what we do is confidential, but I will tell you what I can. Our job is to figure out what investments Wellesley should make. If you are interested in asset classes, ask me about them, because I don't want to bore everyone. The endowment is valued at 1.276 billion dollars, and to give some perspective the endowment was 5 billion in 1995 so it has grown that much in just ten years. In the endowment spending, the endowment supports 35% of our general budget. The tuition supports 35% also, so that gives you some perspective.
Out of the 10 wealthiest colleges in the nation, only 9 spend more than 5% but we spend 5.1% and the rule of thumb is to spend about 5% of your portfolio each year. We use the amount that we spend last year and add 5% of the new gift we receive and increase it by three percent each year.
Sabina Khan, MacAfee Senator: I guess I wanted to know what specifically is being kept confidential. At Harvard you can know the investments so why can't we?
Melanie Carter: That information is actually really incorrect. It is very important to keep it confidential because if they, the fund managers, find out the info has gone public they will shoot out the investment.
Catherine Day, Chief Justice: Are there ethical guidelines to choosing investments?
Melanie Carter: Yes there is a student committee that gives a general guideline to how the committee should invest. We check the financial and social effects of our investments, but a lot of it done through the discretion of the investment office. If you have questions about the finances in general please email me and you can also go to Andy Evans office to get the Wellesley Finances booklet.
D. Spec Chair Elections (Jerilyn Libby, HPC Liason)
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: Now we have our HPC Liason to talk about the incoming SPEC Chair elections.
Jerilyn Libby, HPC Liaison: So I sent an email to all the incoming Contact Senators about the position of SPEC Chair. To run, you must have one year of experience in Senate and you have to be a contact senator. We are extending the deadline to this Wednesday at five pm. You have to say why you want the position and submit a statement of intent. The outgoing cabinet will select the chair.
Ashira Green, Claflin Senator: What happens if no one applies to be SPEC Chair?
Jerilyn Libby, HPC Liaison: I do not have a specific guideline for what would happen.
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: We would deal with that by a case by case basis. Last year Catherine Day took the position mid year. We would make sure to convey that message to all of you if something like this were to happen.
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: Where exactly is this process stipulated?
Jerliyn Libby, HPC Liaison: This process is stipulated in the CG constitution. You can email me if you want the specific portion.
Jerilyn Libby, HPC Liaison: So I sent an email to all the incoming Contact Senators about the position of SPEC Chair. To run, you must have one year of experience in Senate and you have to be a contact senator. We are extending the deadline to this Wednesday at five pm. You have to say why you want the position and submit a statement of intent. The outgoing cabinet will select the chair.
Ashira Green, Claflin Senator: What happens if no one applies to be SPEC Chair?
Jerilyn Libby, HPC Liaison: I do not have a specific guideline for what would happen.
Lindsey Boylan, CGP: We would deal with that by a case by case basis. Last year Catherine Day took the position mid year. We would make sure to convey that message to all of you if something like this were to happen.
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: Where exactly is this process stipulated?
Jerliyn Libby, HPC Liaison: This process is stipulated in the CG constitution. You can email me if you want the specific portion.
E. House Presidents Council/Auxiliary Services (Ashley Groh and Kate Derrick)
Lindsay Boylan, CPG: Next we have Kate Derrick to talk about the auxiliary services committee.
Kate Derrick, House Presidents Council President: I am here to talk about laundry on campus. On our committee we are talking about getting rid of the quarter system. The members of auxiliary services committee are:
Kate Derrick (Tower HP), Ashley Groh (Pomeroy HP), Bob Bossange (Auxiliary Services), Tom Kane (Purchasing Department), Kris Niendorf (Office of Residential and Campus Life)
We are currently looking at how to report broken laundry services. This means machines will get fixed faster by having online notification of broken machines, instead of everyone calling the 1-800 number. Another thing we are working on is getting rid of the quarter system. We are looking at the best options-for 2008-2009 school year. In the meantime, we did get a functioning change machine in the Campus Center. We are also working on a software program called Laundry View so that students can see the amount of time left on the machines and check their availability. These machines can self report if they are broken as well. The idea is that the entire service goes down the machines will self report. We are going to do a pilot test in Tower and Pomeroy. So if you are interested in the committee let me know!
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: What is the official title: Auxiliary Services or Laundry Committee?
Kate Derrick: The mission of the committee is to improve the laundry services on campus, but we haven't chosen an official title.
Kate Derrick, House Presidents Council President: I am here to talk about laundry on campus. On our committee we are talking about getting rid of the quarter system. The members of auxiliary services committee are:
Kate Derrick (Tower HP), Ashley Groh (Pomeroy HP), Bob Bossange (Auxiliary Services), Tom Kane (Purchasing Department), Kris Niendorf (Office of Residential and Campus Life)
We are currently looking at how to report broken laundry services. This means machines will get fixed faster by having online notification of broken machines, instead of everyone calling the 1-800 number. Another thing we are working on is getting rid of the quarter system. We are looking at the best options-for 2008-2009 school year. In the meantime, we did get a functioning change machine in the Campus Center. We are also working on a software program called Laundry View so that students can see the amount of time left on the machines and check their availability. These machines can self report if they are broken as well. The idea is that the entire service goes down the machines will self report. We are going to do a pilot test in Tower and Pomeroy. So if you are interested in the committee let me know!
Cortni Jones, Student Bursar: What is the official title: Auxiliary Services or Laundry Committee?
Kate Derrick: The mission of the committee is to improve the laundry services on campus, but we haven't chosen an official title.
F. Spring Week Update (Penny Mesen, DOOCA)
Lindsay Boylan, CGP: Now we have our DOOCA Penny Mesen to talk about Spring Week.
Penny Mesen, DOOCA: I am not taking my hair down. So I announced spring week at the election party and I hope you were there. The first event we have coming up is Marathon Monday. Some fun things on Monday are going to be the inflatable slip and slide and the mechanical bull and barbecue outside. WZLY is djing so it should be great.
Spring week. I have flyers for you to take to your residence halls. Please be sure to grab a packet to put under your doors in your res halls!
Kelley Steindel, Shafer Senator: Are non-Wellesley guests allowed to come to the shows?
Penny Mesen, DOOCA: All Wellesley students that get your ticket in advance before the Regina Spektor show are free. If you get if after it is five dollars. For off-campus guests: if you get if before the Regina Spektor show, it is $5 dollars and after, it is 10 dollars. We will also be selling them at Marathon Monday. But mostly we will be selling tickets in campus center at the information desk.
Ashira Green, Claflin Senator: Is there a quota for off campus tickets?
Penny Mesen, DOOCA: I only ordered 500 tickets, but if you have the money to buy all the tickets I will give them all to you.
Penny Mesen, DOOCA: I am not taking my hair down. So I announced spring week at the election party and I hope you were there. The first event we have coming up is Marathon Monday. Some fun things on Monday are going to be the inflatable slip and slide and the mechanical bull and barbecue outside. WZLY is djing so it should be great.
Spring week. I have flyers for you to take to your residence halls. Please be sure to grab a packet to put under your doors in your res halls!
The first person we have Regina Spektor with The Mittens opening, in the ampatheater. Doors open at 7:00 and the concert is at 8:00.
Next is the hoop party, which is especially important for seniors so that they can go buy their hoop. Their little sister can get a place for them in line so they can win the race!
Next we have Movie Night on Tuesday, April 25th starting at 8:00 with Old School and Animal House on Severance Lawn.
We have Wednesday off cause you know, we get tired.
Thursday we have OK Go and Landsdown, which is a local band, in Alumnae Auditorium. Again, doors open at seven and the show is at eight.
The following day, which is Friday, Keri Noble and Ben Lee are playing in the chapel.
And the following night- first you should go to FreeStyle's Jam On It Festival and then there is the toga party on Tupelo Lane.
Next is the hoop party, which is especially important for seniors so that they can go buy their hoop. Their little sister can get a place for them in line so they can win the race!
Next we have Movie Night on Tuesday, April 25th starting at 8:00 with Old School and Animal House on Severance Lawn.
We have Wednesday off cause you know, we get tired.
Thursday we have OK Go and Landsdown, which is a local band, in Alumnae Auditorium. Again, doors open at seven and the show is at eight.
The following day, which is Friday, Keri Noble and Ben Lee are playing in the chapel.
And the following night- first you should go to FreeStyle's Jam On It Festival and then there is the toga party on Tupelo Lane.
Kelley Steindel, Shafer Senator: Are non-Wellesley guests allowed to come to the shows?
Penny Mesen, DOOCA: All Wellesley students that get your ticket in advance before the Regina Spektor show are free. If you get if after it is five dollars. For off-campus guests: if you get if before the Regina Spektor show, it is $5 dollars and after, it is 10 dollars. We will also be selling them at Marathon Monday. But mostly we will be selling tickets in campus center at the information desk.
Ashira Green, Claflin Senator: Is there a quota for off campus tickets?
Penny Mesen, DOOCA: I only ordered 500 tickets, but if you have the money to buy all the tickets I will give them all to you.
V. Dean of Students' Corner
A. Deans Kim Goff-Crews and Michelle Lepore
Dean Kim Geoff-Crews: Last week was really busy with the elections- thanks for all the hard work everyone put into that.
An external committee came and did a review of the PLTC last Friday. Also, I had chance to attend the ally convention. It was a wonderful student lead initiative. You should know that we have a Blue Pride Barbecue this Saturday to support the athletics community. We will also have the athletics position posted next week. We are not going to meeting next Monday because of Marathon Monday, but on Tuesday the 18th we will be having another Dean's Tea in the Campus Center. If it's a nice day we will do it on the deck and we can have some Moroccan tea. We will have also have the Spring Open Campus coming up very soon, so get ready.
Dean Michelle Lepore: I want to thank the Communications Committee for putting on a great banquet Saturday night. I also wanted to let you know that we had Unity training with most of the new cabinet this morning, and there was a training Saturday for all the HPs and the cabinet to get to know each other better. This Thursday we are in Bates for dinner to share a meal with students. Hope to see you at bates on Thursday cause we just take a table and sit down. Thanks.
An external committee came and did a review of the PLTC last Friday. Also, I had chance to attend the ally convention. It was a wonderful student lead initiative. You should know that we have a Blue Pride Barbecue this Saturday to support the athletics community. We will also have the athletics position posted next week. We are not going to meeting next Monday because of Marathon Monday, but on Tuesday the 18th we will be having another Dean's Tea in the Campus Center. If it's a nice day we will do it on the deck and we can have some Moroccan tea. We will have also have the Spring Open Campus coming up very soon, so get ready.
Dean Michelle Lepore: I want to thank the Communications Committee for putting on a great banquet Saturday night. I also wanted to let you know that we had Unity training with most of the new cabinet this morning, and there was a training Saturday for all the HPs and the cabinet to get to know each other better. This Thursday we are in Bates for dinner to share a meal with students. Hope to see you at bates on Thursday cause we just take a table and sit down. Thanks.
VI. Beyond the Bubble (Sophie Kim, CPLA Chair)
A. Evacuees return to New Orleans to vote
Today was the first day for early voting in the New Orleans mayor's race, and all over Louisiana, city residents forced by Hurricane Katrina out of homes that no longer exist drove for hours to cast their ballots at satellite voting centers set up by the state.
This month's election is widely viewed as a potential turning point for New Orleans, with the transformed demographics raising the possibility that a white mayor could be elected there for the first time in a generation.
This month's election is widely viewed as a potential turning point for New Orleans, with the transformed demographics raising the possibility that a white mayor could be elected there for the first time in a generation.
B. France is going to replace the youth job law
French President Jacques Chirac has announced that the new youth employment law that sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests will be scrapped. He said it would be replaced by other measures to tackle youth unemployment. Millions of students and union members have taken to the streets over the last month in protest against the law, which made it easier to fire young workers. Union and student leaders said it was a "great victory" but it is not clear if protests set for Tuesday are still on.
C. Governor Romney takes control over judge nominations
Governor Mitt Romney has taken control over judge nominations in Massachusetts, weakening the Judicial Nominating Committee, a panel which evaluates candidates without regard to politics. A backlash has criticized Romney for attempting to change the judiciary system to help his own political aspirations for a possible presidential run in 2008.
D. On this day: April 10
1998: Negotiators in Northern Ireland reached a landmark settlement that called for Protestants and Catholics to share power.
VII. Cabinet Announcements
VIII. Adjourn
