Home >> Archives >> 11.22.04
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I. Roll Call/Agenda
II. Old Business
none
III. New Business
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: I know a lot of you aren’t having House Councils tomorrow, but we’ll vote on these student representatives by online vote. The new Student Council to the Board of Trustees-Student Life Committee members are Eleanor Blume ’06 and Lindsey Silver ’07. The Board of Admissions reps are here tonight. SOAC asks student reps to present at Senate so that you get a good idea of what our reps do.
Also, let me know if your e-board has changed so that SOAC can update our records.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: We’ll move on to Phil Harty and Linda Davey, they are here to discuss the new and improved meal plan options.
Also, let me know if your e-board has changed so that SOAC can update our records.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: We’ll move on to Phil Harty and Linda Davey, they are here to discuss the new and improved meal plan options.
IV. Open Discussion
Phil Harty, Dining Services: Thanks for having us. On Nov. 8 Linda Davey presented the 3 meal plan options. I’d like to recap what happened. Linda and Pat Byrne presented information about the Campus Center and the meal plan options that we were working on with the Dining Services Advisory Board. We got a list of questions and discussed them at the November 11 DSAB meeting. We came up with a different variation of Option 1. If you remember, it was $200 of flex for food purchases in the campus center. Students said in the meetings that it would help if there were a late-night dining option on the east side of campus. There are staffing and financial barriers to that, but we did come up with a plan that could work.
With this option you will be given $200 a semester in flex dollars to be used in the campus center. On the east side of campus we will have reduced service from 8-10pm in one dining hall. For this to work, we’ll have to stop serving a hot breakfast in one of the Quad dining halls. We could accommodate all the Quad students with this option.
A couple of things about this option: It evolved from suggestions heard in the DSAB. Get to know members of the committee and they can represent you. We have 2 more meetings this semester, we meet on Thursday evenings. We also work on recycling, china issues. This was come up with student input. We looked at the barriers and ways we could get around them. The hot breakfast will not close the dining hall; it will still be open for continental breakfast.
We will be checking ids on the east side of campus from 8-10pm. We don’t want it to turn into another Schneider. We wanted people to be able to get a cup of coffee without going all the way across campus. Originally I said that we wouldn’t allow guest meals, but that wasn’t favorable in the DSAB meeting so we decided to allow them. It will only be open from Monday-Thursday nights so we didn’t think the guest meal option would be much of an issue.
Beebe will still remain open until 8pm. With any plan, we really need to run these things for a full year to see the costs. We can then make changes. We’ll evaluate at the end of the first semester and then at the end of the year to come up with changes or anything. Hopefully on December 9 we’ll choose in DSAB.
Options 2 and 3 are still on the table. Option 2 was the $175 flex…Option 3 was $150 flex.
Laura Northrop, Shafer: Where is the East Campus location?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: That hasn’t been decided. We’re still working with the union staff to decide how we can move the staff around. We want to affect them the least.
Laura Northrop, Shafer: Will this be an extension of the campus center or a dining hall option?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: A dining hall option
Fiona Cousland: What about the 2-4pm reduced service “free” swipe?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: That would be adding to an existing plan. It would be best to run it through the first year and see if we could add that time later. If students choose option 2 or 3 we can discuss that next year.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: Will it be financially possible to offer hot breakfasts in one of the quad dining halls?
Linda Davey, Dining Services: Yes, we’re only closing 1, there will still be 2 open for hot breakfasts.
Ashira Green, Claflin: Is $200 enough? How much will the food cost?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: The pricing will be driven by campus decisions. Our goal is to be well below the competition; competition would be a place like Starbucks. We’re not here to make money, we just want to break-even.
Ashira Green, Claflin: The campus center will be open from 8am-10pm, less time than Schneider?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: Yes, but until 11:30 on Friday and Saturday. This is because of labor, the pub, and the Hoop.
Meri Smith, Parliamentarian: Reminder-state your name, constituency, and number of questions when you speak.
Ariella Huff, Claflin: Why isn’t it possible for students to have a choice of what option we want?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: Because of the community effect of the plan. The college has a history of just having one plan. We don’t want to isolate students with different plans. We want this to build, not break apart, the community.
Kathy Fairhurst-Lown, Davis Scholars: My constituency is the DS so we’re happy about the East Side option. What happened to the suggestion for 7 swipes a week instead 1 a day?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: You’re saying with options 2 or 3 would students be allowed to use their cards during the reduced schedule? We looked at the C-board system. We don’t have the financial work for the cause and effects of that. We will need to look at variations in that if the times come.
Mikaela Hagen, Severance: Obviously, the amount of money I could spend at the Campus Center with a “free” swipe is greater than the difference in flex money. How does that work?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: It’s a risk. The true effect of the “free” swipe is somewhat a mystery. Some of the reasons we limited it to one swipe is to be able to manage it with the C-board system. We need to be able to take those figures.
Mikaela Hagen, Severance: So you’re assuming that students won’t use all of their swipes?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: Yes, it’s like Schneider now. We’ll need to analyze that next year.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Do you all understand Mikaela’s point? Okay, so what she was raising was the issue that with one plan you have $200 for the whole semester, but with another plan you get $150 but get 7 meals a week for the whole semester. Did that clarify? Good.
Roshni Kapadia, Claflin: I like the new option. I think my House Council will like it too. The biggest problem I heard was with athletes and this solves that. I think my House Council would choose this for the athletes who need a place to eat late.
Krystal Walker, Cazenove: Could we have a monetary value each day instead of a “free” swipe?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: In an effort to streamline we decided to stay with the swipe to maximize the swipe. We want to maximize the community feel.
Motion to extend time by 7 minutes and close speakers list
Motion passed
Ashleigh Georiga: Will Molly’s have food capabilities?
Linda Davey, Dining Services: Similar to what they have now, so snacks.
Phil Harty, Dining Services: I don’t think they’re planning to expand offerings.
Nadine Abraham, Freeman: I just wanted to follow up on the monetary amount. I understood that students could take coffee at one point in the night, and then come back for food. I think that’s flexibility, not shattering community.
Phil Harty, Dining Services: If we had $7 for one day the system can’t handle it. It could over the course of the week, but not daily.
Emily Amick: Have you thought of making coffee and soda “free.” It’d be sad to use all my money on soda or coffee.
Phil Harty, Dining Services: The campus center coffee bar will be different. In essence, soda and coffee are free from dining halls. We’ll have gourmet drinks, lattes, cappuccinos. We couldn’t use bottle beverages as the meal plan, but perhaps fountain beverages.
From here, we have 2 more meetings: December 2nd and the 9th. We’ll vote in DSAB on the 9th about what the meal plan will be.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Please discuss House Council reactions with House Presidents. We wanted to conduct a vote for the DSAB so they are voting with our input in mind. Email me at CGPresident. Amita Parashar, Yang Qui, Emily Oxford, and Kahini Ranade are some people you could contact. Also, contact your food reps.
We’re so excited to have President Walsh with us tonight!
President Diana Chapman Walsh: I’m delighted to see so many people here so shortly before Thanksgiving break. When I was a student here we had “calendar” days before and after holidays and we couldn’t miss class.
I’ll say a bit about some things that Jamie and Dean Kim thought you’d like to hear about. This is my 12th year as president and this year we’ve had the best leadership I’ve ever seen. You’ve brought this can-do attitude. I’m looking at Ashleigh and her meals with MAC programming. The grading policy discussions…I’m really grateful for all of your work this year. You’ve dealt with serious issues and have done a wonderful job. There’s also this wonderful sense of spirit and fun. I was late to the Widows concert Saturday and was sitting in the back and the HPs asked me to sit with them. I really appreciated that.
I’ll talk about the campaign, the trustees, and other big topics on my mind and yours, including the Honor Code.
I wonder how much you’ve heard about the Campaign. This is the last year of the 5 year campaign. The books close in 2005. There was a 2 year silent phase plus a year of planning, so it’s really an 8 year saga. In the silent phase, we set a feasible goal. We didn’t want to set an unachievable goal. We talked to some of the most important donors to get a sense of if they were on board. The trustees went on a retreat to set a list of priorities. The goal was $400 million, which is the largest campaign goal in the history of any liberal arts college. The Board of Trustees was here in October. The good news is that we’re almost to our goal. We still have 8 months to go, but we’re inching close. I met with Jamie and she asked me to make a list for her the things that the campaign had made possible. I’ll run through that list right now.
Global Education, money for study abroad, international students, professorships, internships,
New Professorships and programs in Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Environmental Science.
The Pendleton renovation was one of the first big projects, the atrium was a result of the campaign.
The Pforzheimer Learning and Teaching Center was endowed, which means there’s a corpus of capital in our endowment that will remain there and grow over time. It was a $3 million gift.
The Knapp Center
The renovation of Clapp Library
Internships, the whole program of both domestic and international internships. We’ve raised millions for internships.
A few years ago, the Student Life Committee met with the trustees and expressed their desire to work abroad. The trustees found this funding to establish stipends and programs abroad.
The campaign has raised $60 million dollars for need-blind financial aid. We’re one of about 20 colleges and universities in the country that can afford that. We wanted to replenish that and make it possible for years to come.
The campaign has also affected Religious and Spiritual life with the Chapel renovations.
The Ruhlman Conference resulted from the campaign, as did the Tanner Conference and the Quantitative Reasoning program. All of those, endowed. They’re here to stay. We’re only spending the returns.
The whole Alumnae Valley Project emerging from the mud is also a part of this campaign. It’s quite wonderful.
Those initiatives have already made a big difference. They’ll continue to make a difference. In some ways, it’s hard to imagine Wellesley without them.
The other important thing is the sense of momentum, spirit, and success…really confidence in the College. Those gifts mean that they believe in this place. They are giving generously to us, which is such a bode of confidence in you, what you are, what you will be. There’s a sense that you’re going to go out in the world and make it a better place. Every time I talk to donors it’s that that inspires them. Among the Board of Trustees the total giving is $123.6 million dollars. What an extraordinary level of commitment. At the peak of the pyramid we have this amazing support, but also at the base.
We have about 23,000 individual donors. There are 10 donors for every student. About 70% of living alumnae have made a donation to Wellesley. That’s an amazing number.
Kudos to you for deserving that support.
The first Board of Trustees meeting was in October. They meet four times a year. Then the executive committee meets 3 times.
We have 5 new trustees this year, we had 3 new ones last year. We are shifting toward trustees with a lot of academic interests. Many of them are Ph.Ds. These are the five new trustees:
Douglas ("Doug") Bennet, President of Wesleyan University in Connecticut
Mahnaz Ispahani ‘79, Senior Fellow for South and West Asia - Council for Foreign Relations
Lynn Dixon Johnston, Director and board member of various charitable organizations
Heather Long ‘04, Young Alumnae Trustee, Rhodes Scholar
Joan Wallace-Benjamin ‘79, President and CEO -The Home for Little Wanderers
We have wonderful new trustees. I hope you get to meet them all.
Now for some big topics.
These are the topics on my mind: the Honor Code Review. I think this is desperately, terribly important. We should all be able to trust that we have a base of integrity. It’s the core value of this institution. We need to reaffirm this on a regular basis. Nothing is more important than our integrity. There’s a good bit of evidence that integrity has eroded very seriously in high schools. Ambitions to be a good person shouldn’t conflict with academic excellence. We shouldn’t have that choice here. It should be possible to excel academically without feeling like you have to cheat to do so.
The theme of civil discourse, which Jamie Bernthal, Kimberly Chin, and Ashleigh Georgia have all been working on is also a big topic now. All of you really have been working on that with the presidential campaign. We did really well, but not during the days following the election. We need to value, respect, and listen to each other. We need to respect viewpoint diversity, including the republicans. There really is a conversation we need to have. What’s at stake are conflicting values. On one hand there is a passionate commitment to causes, but then the other thing that is embedded is a respect and commitment to learning from others’ values and ideas. That’s the time we need to work hard to listen to each other. We did lose it for a few days. The passion overrode the commitment to respect.
We’re also always looking for financial equilibrium.
Another important thing is the faculty diversity, especially with African Americans, but not only.
We’re also reaffirming our commitment to academic excellence
Of course the campus center/alumnae valley are big things now too.
I’ll take questions now.
Nawar Najeeb, Tower: Thanks for coming. What happens when the campaign is over?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: That’s a great question. We never stop asking for money. The question is how to set new priorities. There will be a period of a year or so when we will be digesting and completing projects. During that phase we will have some priorities. We will not have a big public planning project. Some will be things we didn’t think about earlier and some will be things we just couldn’t do this time around.
Roshni Kapadia, Claflin: I feel like the Honor Code is in peril and we need to address it. I think it’s also linked to the grading policy. Over the last year when we were discussing it, the student body rose up and highlighted this fear of getting something lower than an A-, lower than a B. I think this is linked to the Honor Code. People are now scared to take risks, to do badly. When our professors give us lower grades we get conflicted messages.
President Diana Chapman Walsh: I think you’re right. There’s an even larger umbrella construct. Chailee has done a terrific job on this issue. How willing are we to judge one another. How willing are we to uphold standards of excellence? We talked about this in Academic Council. It’s like the movie The Incredibles that sends the message that everybody is wonderful. We’re uncomfortable making distinctions. If something’s excellent that means that some things aren’t excellent. We need to recognize the difference. The grade inflation issue is a part of this. Then there’s the whole idea of success here: does it mean getting a’s? or becoming a well-rounded and balanced person?
Maria Nassen: What will happen in the future? What will the campus look like in 4 years?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Great question. We’re starting to ask ourselves that question. We’re starting to think about how to take that question out into larger conversation. What is our preferred future? In depends on our environment, its challenges, and our unique identity. It’s a very big question and I don’t know the answer. We knew some things when we started this campaign that we wanted to remain the best women’s college and one of the best liberal arts colleges.
Natalie Archibald, Tower: I just wanted to reiterate the diversity of faculty members, but also departments and course offerings. There were Asian studies and Latin studies meetings last week. Students want more options. I see my options as an English major as either British or American literature. How can we have better course offerings here? I know that some much smaller schools have specific cultural departments that we don’t have here, Dominican Studies for example.
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Dean Shennan is very much focused on interdisciplinary studies. We are looking to see if our academic departments are organized as well as they should be. The growth over the last 25 years has been toward inter- or extra-departmental programs. We can’t keep growing the faculty. The other part of this is resources. The concept of the endowment is that it’s there forever. We only spend roughly 5% of it annually. There are social, financial limits to growth. Dominican Studies is probably more specific to the local constituency and circumstances of that school.
Kahini Ranade: How are trustees chosen?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Boards have the process with a nominating committee made of board members. They take recommendations. In our case we have the faculty trustee and young alumnae trustee who represent specific viewpoints. The committees get to know prospective trustees and decide whether or not the person is right for the group or not. It’s sort of like dating I guess. We try to do it thoughtfully. It’s a long process, it takes years.
Clara Peterson, Bates: Did you say that there was someone from Wesleyan on our Board of Trustees?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Yes, the president of Wesleyan is one of our trustees. I’m on the Amherst Board of Trustees. It’s not unusual to have 1 or 2 sitting presidents. I recuse myself at Amherst from issues that could be a conflict of interest, like salaries. But it can be helpful for academics. There is a lot of overlap and it’s a way of having another perspective. It’s good not to get too insular. These people can ask questions in different ways.
Clara Peterson, Bates: Did you mention Environmental studies?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Yes, we now have an environmental science department.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: I’d like to commend the administration for taking up the Honor Code review. I was surprised that there was such an emphasis on achievement when I came in as a first year, whereas alums discuss the idea of becoming a moral, better person while at Wellesley. I think to reiterate the Honor Code explicitly is important. It’s so important to involve the faculty in that.
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Yes, I think we were taking some things for granted. When I was a student I was a Ville junior, which is somewhat similar to an FYM. We spent the first few months talking with first years about the hHnor Code and we assumed that was still going on, we found out it wasn’t.
You’re right that it’s important for faculty to be involved. There weren’t as many group projects, no internet when I was a student. There’s a lot that’s changed.
We’ve had faculty lunches to discuss these questions. It’s clear that faculty members care about this.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you so much for presenting at Senate. We know you’re very busy, and we really appreciate you taking time to come speak to us.
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Thank you for having me.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Now, I’d like to ask Lindsey Boylan to present about SOFC.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: There were 2 other points that came up in the Uniquely Compelling review. One was crediting SOFC for sponsoring an event. We will not police, but will reaffirm with treasurers their need to credit organizations for funding. I have a flyer for you to take back to your House Councils about this.
As a committee, when looking at Uniquely Compelling as a whole we came up with several points to run the process better. Nadine Abraham, SOFC senator, will present more about this.
Nadine Abraham, SOFC: Coming around to you is the SOFC constitution. There were a couple of changes to be made. One was an extension. If you look, the first change was that as a committee decided to implement a cap to help other organizations to get a part of the money. We came up with 30% of the total, which would be $3000. We aren’t trying to stop organizations from getting expensive items. No organization in the last round got more than $3000. We will enforce that orgs that received money are ineligible for Uniquely Compelling the following year. From the revised constitution:
The justification requirements are just questions we wanted organizations to answer. We came up with these questions when we were reviewing the applications. All we want is to make sure that the organizations have thought through their requests.
From the revised UC application:
“Justification Requirements:
*If an organization wishes to purchase an item whose cost exceeds the cap, it may do so, and SOFC will fund up to the cap, provided the following two stipulations are met:
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: At your next constituency meeting vote on that.
Lauren Nelson, Pomeroy: Is the clause about being ineligible effective next year?
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Yes, if enacted this year it will affect orgs next year.
Nadine Abraham: With the idea of the cap, if an organization has a request for a good that is more than $3000 they can request that amount and get the rest of the funds from other sources.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: That would be a way to get a more expensive item. The idea is to fund more than 4 or 5 organizations when 71 apply, like they did this year.
Clara Peterson, Bates: What are the justification requirements?
Nadine Abraham: One is the same as always: why you need it, how it applies to your org’s mission and goals.
One regards the up-keep of goods. We want to make sure that organizations have planned to maintain the good. The second is placement of the good. For example, the location of ellipticals in residence halls.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Nothing should be more difficult, it’s just common sense clarification and a written explanation of something you should’ve considered anyway.
Ashira Green, Claflin: Does this rule change allow the loophole for a new board for WZLY because the mission statement for the club is to play music if the board was $15000?
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Yes, logistically it does. That would be the only organization that would receive money, but yes. If you could find the other $12000 you could apply and receive money from the UC fund.
The SOFC committee worked very, very hard on this. E-mail Student Bursar with questions.
Next we’ll talk about Legenda. We need to resolve a financial commitment.
Jue Wang, Legenda: Legenda has been in severe fiscal trouble in the last 10 years. For about 5 years the college had accrued a debt. Our new publisher, Josten’s, has been patient with us. At Wellesley there hasn’t been enough interest in the books to cover costs. The more books we order the lower cost per book.
Last year we came to senate with the proposal to include a small fee to the Student Activity Fee. That option isn’t viable. We’ve worked with Lindsey to look for new options.
Several options included are to leave things as they are, with possibly no yearbooks in the future.
Motion to extend to accommodate speakers and close list
Motion passed
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: I was wondering if the Legenda was looking into other options, CD-Rom perhaps.
Jue Wang, Legenda: Publishers will only do CDs as a complement to the physical book.
Chailee Mann-Stadt: I never hear about Legenda. I never see the current yearbooks, this could be why it seems like people don’t care—they don’t know.
Jue Wang, Legenda: We do send out mailings to your home and to your dorm mailbox. With the constraints of working on the books, getting advertising, etc. we don’t have time to do more. Perhaps with this financial backing this could change.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Take this back to your constituency to get their opinions. It would be very helpful to make this a genuine question. We need information about how the campus feels. We need a commitment from the students to adjust how the Student Activity Fee is allocated.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you for your work on this important issue. Next we’ll have the students who attended the NACA conference present.
Anna Basevich ‘06
Elisabeth Gorra ‘07
Catherine Lee ‘08
Suilin Yap ‘08
Anna Basevich: We just wanted to bring information back to you from the regional conference for the National Association of Campus Activities. We go to get access to the great performers and the resources available. We had 46 informational meetings and 10 roundtables. Some examples of performers and lecturers are Dorian, the woman who gave the female orgasm lecture last year, and the band Ryanhood.
We looked at teambuilding, leadership, publicity, and budgeting.
There’s a hand out going around about programming we thought would be good at Wellesley.
Elisabeth Gorra: I went to an improv comedy session about how to get your groups motivated. Group dynamics go through several different stages. You start off happy, then people get at each others’ throats. That’s when you need these activities.
I also went to an education session about thematic programming. My personal favorite was WPI’s construction weekend. They had shirts that said “Get hammered, nailed and screwed…”
Catherine Lee: I went because I was interested in efficient budgets. I’m the ’08 treasurer. One thing that kept coming up was tying our fundraisers into the college’s goals as a whole. One thing I thought of was the power of our alums. We made our ’08 e-board’s goal to unify our class. One thing we’ve already done are themed class-wide study breaks. One thing we’re working on now is a class mascot. This can be used on letterhead, t-shirts, etc. I’m really excited to be implementing it throughout the year.
Suilin Yap: The conference was great. Go if you get the opportunity. I will concentrate on publicity. It’s so important because you want people to attend. I’m going to summarize here… ABCDE. E- excitement, enthusiasm, having genuine enthusiasm is contagious. D-different, you attract more people with different ideas…like t-shirts for e-board members, C-curiosity, better subject headlines, B-benefits, fun and free food or other freebies, A-all the time, 6 is the magic number, collaborating with professors, chalking, etc.
André Isaak, Faculty Liaison to Senate: What are condom Olympics? (from the handout)
Anna Basevich: A combination of sexual education with fun.
Kelly O’Connor, Director of Student Activities: These ladies mentioned the regional NACA, the registration for National NACA is over wintersession. E-mail “NACA” if you are interested in going to the national conference. The deadline is Friday, December 10.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: First, congratulations. It seems like it was helpful. Particularly, Catherine I think you should get in touch with other class councils and stress your idea for class unity. I don’t feel like that’s stressed as much with other classes.
Catherine Lee: We get together in Class Council Executive Board Council meetings and I definitely plan to bring this up.
Elisabeth Gorra: It’s so much fun, go! We got to see great performers, great vendors.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you so much for attending the conference and learning how you can make Wellesley better for all of us.
Now we’ll hear from the student representatives to the Board of Admissions.
Salwa Muhammad ‘06
Emily Siedell ‘06
Melissa Chow ‘06
Katy Miller ‘06
Emily Siedell: We represent the juniors, only the junior representatives on the board look at Early Decision applications
Salwa Muhammad: We got on this committee by applying through SOAC in the spring. We have a SOAC interview. The four positions include 1 international and 1 student of color representative. There are 4 seniors and 4 juniors. This is the board for reading applications for US citizens. The international representative also looks at international applications.
Emily Siedell: I’ll give a brief overview. We are in Green Hall. There’s a room specifically for reading applications. We’re divided into teams and each team represents a different region. The team is made up of a faculty member, student, and admissions person. We look at the applications and vote on each students individually. We give each student a score from 1.0-3.0 in increments of .1. 1.0 is the best. We usually discuss the people we like but have reservations about. We have committee sessions to discuss who is accepted, deferred to regular admission, and denied.
Melissa Chow: We have 249 Early Decision applicants for the Class of 2009, a 14% increase over last year’s ED applicant pool.
That’s all the info that we have for this year because we are still in the ED process. Early Decision Committee meetings are next week and we expect to mail decisions to applicants on December 9.
Here are last year’s statistics: 218 students applied ED (Total applicants was 4,094)
Admitted 133 students ED
61% of ED applicants were admitted as opposed to 36% of the overall pool
22% of the Class of 2008 were admitted Early Decision
General average SAT scores for class of 2008: Verbal 689/ Math 678
On average ED ones were on average higher by about 10 points
Katy Miller: You can be involved in the Student Admission Representative volunteer program as a lunch, lobby, or overnight hostess. We also have a letter-writing campaign in the spring. Soon we’re having the SAR ambassador program when you go back to your high school or high schools in your area. The last training session is Dec. 2, 7-8pm in SCI277. Contact me, Brittany Sherman or Milena Mareva with questions.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: This is a two-year position, right?
Emily Siedell: Yes, and this is our first year.
Charlene Liu: Is there a cap for ED acceptances?
Katy Miller: There is no cap on anything. There is no cap on number of acceptances, test scores, or GPAs. We look at each candidate as a whole.
Emily Siedell: It just works out.
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: Thank you for coming. So you get equal voting rights as a faculty or admissions representative? Is that unique?
Emily Siedell: Definitely, people are impressed that we actually get to vote with the same weight as professors and admissions people.
Clara Peterson, Bates: Do you rank candidates in separate categories?
Melissa Chow: We look at everything and take it all into account.
Suilin Yap: I’m an international student and in Malaysia the system is different. Would I participate in the same way that US ambassadors would? How could I get more information about the program?
Katy Miller: It would be helpful to attend the ambassador training and you can talk to Milena Mareva for more specific information about how to do this at a time other than Wintersession.
Salwa Muhammad: There is a position for the international student on the board; I sit on the regular board also. Contact Sylvia Hiestand.
Motion to accommodate speakers and close list
Motion carries
Yang Qui, Severance: Different institutions weigh different parts of the applications separately. How do the proportions work for Wellesley?
Emily Siedell: We definitely look at the student as a whole unit. You accommodate specific schools and her life style and circumstances.
Yang Qui, Severance: Will there be more training sessions?
Katy Miller: You can e-mail me, Brittany Sherman, or Milena Mareva if you can’t make the meeting.
Jennie Lee, Stone: Do you go through training of how to best pick applicants?
Melissa Chow: We have a meeting with the admissions board and then we have a 2 hour training to learn how to read applications. We get a book, look at sample applications, and work with Jen Desjarlais, Dean of Admissions.
Katy Miller: We look at the offerings available to the applicant when evaluating her. We look at students from prep schools differently than we would look at a student from a small, rural school.
Maxine Brownstein, Lake: If a sophomore would like to apply, but is planning to go abroad, could you do that?
Emily Siedell: It’s a two year commitment so it doesn’t really work with going abroad. It’s a unique program and it’s just something you have to judge.
Salwa Muhammad: You could go abroad senior year fall.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Are you happy with the applicants? Are you impressed, happy with the diversity? Do you see any gaps?
Melissa Chow: I’ve seen very talented applicants and I have seen diversity. I’ve seen students from large public schools to prep schools.
Katy Miller: I’m reading California and the west coast and I think it’s a very strong pool.
Emily Siedell: I’ve seen that they all seem qualified so it is hard.
Salwa Muhammad: I’m reading the central region, and they are qualified but not very diverse.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Who sits on the South?
Emily Siedell: There isn’t a student on every committee, so I’m not sure.
With this option you will be given $200 a semester in flex dollars to be used in the campus center. On the east side of campus we will have reduced service from 8-10pm in one dining hall. For this to work, we’ll have to stop serving a hot breakfast in one of the Quad dining halls. We could accommodate all the Quad students with this option.
A couple of things about this option: It evolved from suggestions heard in the DSAB. Get to know members of the committee and they can represent you. We have 2 more meetings this semester, we meet on Thursday evenings. We also work on recycling, china issues. This was come up with student input. We looked at the barriers and ways we could get around them. The hot breakfast will not close the dining hall; it will still be open for continental breakfast.
We will be checking ids on the east side of campus from 8-10pm. We don’t want it to turn into another Schneider. We wanted people to be able to get a cup of coffee without going all the way across campus. Originally I said that we wouldn’t allow guest meals, but that wasn’t favorable in the DSAB meeting so we decided to allow them. It will only be open from Monday-Thursday nights so we didn’t think the guest meal option would be much of an issue.
Beebe will still remain open until 8pm. With any plan, we really need to run these things for a full year to see the costs. We can then make changes. We’ll evaluate at the end of the first semester and then at the end of the year to come up with changes or anything. Hopefully on December 9 we’ll choose in DSAB.
Options 2 and 3 are still on the table. Option 2 was the $175 flex…Option 3 was $150 flex.
Laura Northrop, Shafer: Where is the East Campus location?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: That hasn’t been decided. We’re still working with the union staff to decide how we can move the staff around. We want to affect them the least.
Laura Northrop, Shafer: Will this be an extension of the campus center or a dining hall option?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: A dining hall option
Fiona Cousland: What about the 2-4pm reduced service “free” swipe?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: That would be adding to an existing plan. It would be best to run it through the first year and see if we could add that time later. If students choose option 2 or 3 we can discuss that next year.
Suilin Yap, Japan Club: Will it be financially possible to offer hot breakfasts in one of the quad dining halls?
Linda Davey, Dining Services: Yes, we’re only closing 1, there will still be 2 open for hot breakfasts.
Ashira Green, Claflin: Is $200 enough? How much will the food cost?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: The pricing will be driven by campus decisions. Our goal is to be well below the competition; competition would be a place like Starbucks. We’re not here to make money, we just want to break-even.
Ashira Green, Claflin: The campus center will be open from 8am-10pm, less time than Schneider?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: Yes, but until 11:30 on Friday and Saturday. This is because of labor, the pub, and the Hoop.
Meri Smith, Parliamentarian: Reminder-state your name, constituency, and number of questions when you speak.
Ariella Huff, Claflin: Why isn’t it possible for students to have a choice of what option we want?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: Because of the community effect of the plan. The college has a history of just having one plan. We don’t want to isolate students with different plans. We want this to build, not break apart, the community.
Kathy Fairhurst-Lown, Davis Scholars: My constituency is the DS so we’re happy about the East Side option. What happened to the suggestion for 7 swipes a week instead 1 a day?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: You’re saying with options 2 or 3 would students be allowed to use their cards during the reduced schedule? We looked at the C-board system. We don’t have the financial work for the cause and effects of that. We will need to look at variations in that if the times come.
Mikaela Hagen, Severance: Obviously, the amount of money I could spend at the Campus Center with a “free” swipe is greater than the difference in flex money. How does that work?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: It’s a risk. The true effect of the “free” swipe is somewhat a mystery. Some of the reasons we limited it to one swipe is to be able to manage it with the C-board system. We need to be able to take those figures.
Mikaela Hagen, Severance: So you’re assuming that students won’t use all of their swipes?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: Yes, it’s like Schneider now. We’ll need to analyze that next year.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Do you all understand Mikaela’s point? Okay, so what she was raising was the issue that with one plan you have $200 for the whole semester, but with another plan you get $150 but get 7 meals a week for the whole semester. Did that clarify? Good.
Roshni Kapadia, Claflin: I like the new option. I think my House Council will like it too. The biggest problem I heard was with athletes and this solves that. I think my House Council would choose this for the athletes who need a place to eat late.
Krystal Walker, Cazenove: Could we have a monetary value each day instead of a “free” swipe?
Phil Harty, Dining Services: In an effort to streamline we decided to stay with the swipe to maximize the swipe. We want to maximize the community feel.
Motion to extend time by 7 minutes and close speakers list
Motion passed
Ashleigh Georiga: Will Molly’s have food capabilities?
Linda Davey, Dining Services: Similar to what they have now, so snacks.
Phil Harty, Dining Services: I don’t think they’re planning to expand offerings.
Nadine Abraham, Freeman: I just wanted to follow up on the monetary amount. I understood that students could take coffee at one point in the night, and then come back for food. I think that’s flexibility, not shattering community.
Phil Harty, Dining Services: If we had $7 for one day the system can’t handle it. It could over the course of the week, but not daily.
Emily Amick: Have you thought of making coffee and soda “free.” It’d be sad to use all my money on soda or coffee.
Phil Harty, Dining Services: The campus center coffee bar will be different. In essence, soda and coffee are free from dining halls. We’ll have gourmet drinks, lattes, cappuccinos. We couldn’t use bottle beverages as the meal plan, but perhaps fountain beverages.
From here, we have 2 more meetings: December 2nd and the 9th. We’ll vote in DSAB on the 9th about what the meal plan will be.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Please discuss House Council reactions with House Presidents. We wanted to conduct a vote for the DSAB so they are voting with our input in mind. Email me at CGPresident. Amita Parashar, Yang Qui, Emily Oxford, and Kahini Ranade are some people you could contact. Also, contact your food reps.
We’re so excited to have President Walsh with us tonight!
President Diana Chapman Walsh: I’m delighted to see so many people here so shortly before Thanksgiving break. When I was a student here we had “calendar” days before and after holidays and we couldn’t miss class.
I’ll say a bit about some things that Jamie and Dean Kim thought you’d like to hear about. This is my 12th year as president and this year we’ve had the best leadership I’ve ever seen. You’ve brought this can-do attitude. I’m looking at Ashleigh and her meals with MAC programming. The grading policy discussions…I’m really grateful for all of your work this year. You’ve dealt with serious issues and have done a wonderful job. There’s also this wonderful sense of spirit and fun. I was late to the Widows concert Saturday and was sitting in the back and the HPs asked me to sit with them. I really appreciated that.
I’ll talk about the campaign, the trustees, and other big topics on my mind and yours, including the Honor Code.
I wonder how much you’ve heard about the Campaign. This is the last year of the 5 year campaign. The books close in 2005. There was a 2 year silent phase plus a year of planning, so it’s really an 8 year saga. In the silent phase, we set a feasible goal. We didn’t want to set an unachievable goal. We talked to some of the most important donors to get a sense of if they were on board. The trustees went on a retreat to set a list of priorities. The goal was $400 million, which is the largest campaign goal in the history of any liberal arts college. The Board of Trustees was here in October. The good news is that we’re almost to our goal. We still have 8 months to go, but we’re inching close. I met with Jamie and she asked me to make a list for her the things that the campaign had made possible. I’ll run through that list right now.
Global Education, money for study abroad, international students, professorships, internships,
New Professorships and programs in Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Environmental Science.
The Pendleton renovation was one of the first big projects, the atrium was a result of the campaign.
The Pforzheimer Learning and Teaching Center was endowed, which means there’s a corpus of capital in our endowment that will remain there and grow over time. It was a $3 million gift.
The Knapp Center
The renovation of Clapp Library
Internships, the whole program of both domestic and international internships. We’ve raised millions for internships.
A few years ago, the Student Life Committee met with the trustees and expressed their desire to work abroad. The trustees found this funding to establish stipends and programs abroad.
The campaign has raised $60 million dollars for need-blind financial aid. We’re one of about 20 colleges and universities in the country that can afford that. We wanted to replenish that and make it possible for years to come.
The campaign has also affected Religious and Spiritual life with the Chapel renovations.
The Ruhlman Conference resulted from the campaign, as did the Tanner Conference and the Quantitative Reasoning program. All of those, endowed. They’re here to stay. We’re only spending the returns.
The whole Alumnae Valley Project emerging from the mud is also a part of this campaign. It’s quite wonderful.
Those initiatives have already made a big difference. They’ll continue to make a difference. In some ways, it’s hard to imagine Wellesley without them.
The other important thing is the sense of momentum, spirit, and success…really confidence in the College. Those gifts mean that they believe in this place. They are giving generously to us, which is such a bode of confidence in you, what you are, what you will be. There’s a sense that you’re going to go out in the world and make it a better place. Every time I talk to donors it’s that that inspires them. Among the Board of Trustees the total giving is $123.6 million dollars. What an extraordinary level of commitment. At the peak of the pyramid we have this amazing support, but also at the base.
We have about 23,000 individual donors. There are 10 donors for every student. About 70% of living alumnae have made a donation to Wellesley. That’s an amazing number.
Kudos to you for deserving that support.
The first Board of Trustees meeting was in October. They meet four times a year. Then the executive committee meets 3 times.
We have 5 new trustees this year, we had 3 new ones last year. We are shifting toward trustees with a lot of academic interests. Many of them are Ph.Ds. These are the five new trustees:
Douglas ("Doug") Bennet, President of Wesleyan University in Connecticut
Mahnaz Ispahani ‘79, Senior Fellow for South and West Asia - Council for Foreign Relations
Lynn Dixon Johnston, Director and board member of various charitable organizations
Heather Long ‘04, Young Alumnae Trustee, Rhodes Scholar
Joan Wallace-Benjamin ‘79, President and CEO -The Home for Little Wanderers
We have wonderful new trustees. I hope you get to meet them all.
Now for some big topics.
These are the topics on my mind: the Honor Code Review. I think this is desperately, terribly important. We should all be able to trust that we have a base of integrity. It’s the core value of this institution. We need to reaffirm this on a regular basis. Nothing is more important than our integrity. There’s a good bit of evidence that integrity has eroded very seriously in high schools. Ambitions to be a good person shouldn’t conflict with academic excellence. We shouldn’t have that choice here. It should be possible to excel academically without feeling like you have to cheat to do so.
The theme of civil discourse, which Jamie Bernthal, Kimberly Chin, and Ashleigh Georgia have all been working on is also a big topic now. All of you really have been working on that with the presidential campaign. We did really well, but not during the days following the election. We need to value, respect, and listen to each other. We need to respect viewpoint diversity, including the republicans. There really is a conversation we need to have. What’s at stake are conflicting values. On one hand there is a passionate commitment to causes, but then the other thing that is embedded is a respect and commitment to learning from others’ values and ideas. That’s the time we need to work hard to listen to each other. We did lose it for a few days. The passion overrode the commitment to respect.
We’re also always looking for financial equilibrium.
Another important thing is the faculty diversity, especially with African Americans, but not only.
We’re also reaffirming our commitment to academic excellence
Of course the campus center/alumnae valley are big things now too.
I’ll take questions now.
Nawar Najeeb, Tower: Thanks for coming. What happens when the campaign is over?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: That’s a great question. We never stop asking for money. The question is how to set new priorities. There will be a period of a year or so when we will be digesting and completing projects. During that phase we will have some priorities. We will not have a big public planning project. Some will be things we didn’t think about earlier and some will be things we just couldn’t do this time around.
Roshni Kapadia, Claflin: I feel like the Honor Code is in peril and we need to address it. I think it’s also linked to the grading policy. Over the last year when we were discussing it, the student body rose up and highlighted this fear of getting something lower than an A-, lower than a B. I think this is linked to the Honor Code. People are now scared to take risks, to do badly. When our professors give us lower grades we get conflicted messages.
President Diana Chapman Walsh: I think you’re right. There’s an even larger umbrella construct. Chailee has done a terrific job on this issue. How willing are we to judge one another. How willing are we to uphold standards of excellence? We talked about this in Academic Council. It’s like the movie The Incredibles that sends the message that everybody is wonderful. We’re uncomfortable making distinctions. If something’s excellent that means that some things aren’t excellent. We need to recognize the difference. The grade inflation issue is a part of this. Then there’s the whole idea of success here: does it mean getting a’s? or becoming a well-rounded and balanced person?
Maria Nassen: What will happen in the future? What will the campus look like in 4 years?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Great question. We’re starting to ask ourselves that question. We’re starting to think about how to take that question out into larger conversation. What is our preferred future? In depends on our environment, its challenges, and our unique identity. It’s a very big question and I don’t know the answer. We knew some things when we started this campaign that we wanted to remain the best women’s college and one of the best liberal arts colleges.
Natalie Archibald, Tower: I just wanted to reiterate the diversity of faculty members, but also departments and course offerings. There were Asian studies and Latin studies meetings last week. Students want more options. I see my options as an English major as either British or American literature. How can we have better course offerings here? I know that some much smaller schools have specific cultural departments that we don’t have here, Dominican Studies for example.
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Dean Shennan is very much focused on interdisciplinary studies. We are looking to see if our academic departments are organized as well as they should be. The growth over the last 25 years has been toward inter- or extra-departmental programs. We can’t keep growing the faculty. The other part of this is resources. The concept of the endowment is that it’s there forever. We only spend roughly 5% of it annually. There are social, financial limits to growth. Dominican Studies is probably more specific to the local constituency and circumstances of that school.
Kahini Ranade: How are trustees chosen?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Boards have the process with a nominating committee made of board members. They take recommendations. In our case we have the faculty trustee and young alumnae trustee who represent specific viewpoints. The committees get to know prospective trustees and decide whether or not the person is right for the group or not. It’s sort of like dating I guess. We try to do it thoughtfully. It’s a long process, it takes years.
Clara Peterson, Bates: Did you say that there was someone from Wesleyan on our Board of Trustees?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Yes, the president of Wesleyan is one of our trustees. I’m on the Amherst Board of Trustees. It’s not unusual to have 1 or 2 sitting presidents. I recuse myself at Amherst from issues that could be a conflict of interest, like salaries. But it can be helpful for academics. There is a lot of overlap and it’s a way of having another perspective. It’s good not to get too insular. These people can ask questions in different ways.
Clara Peterson, Bates: Did you mention Environmental studies?
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Yes, we now have an environmental science department.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: I’d like to commend the administration for taking up the Honor Code review. I was surprised that there was such an emphasis on achievement when I came in as a first year, whereas alums discuss the idea of becoming a moral, better person while at Wellesley. I think to reiterate the Honor Code explicitly is important. It’s so important to involve the faculty in that.
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Yes, I think we were taking some things for granted. When I was a student I was a Ville junior, which is somewhat similar to an FYM. We spent the first few months talking with first years about the hHnor Code and we assumed that was still going on, we found out it wasn’t.
You’re right that it’s important for faculty to be involved. There weren’t as many group projects, no internet when I was a student. There’s a lot that’s changed.
We’ve had faculty lunches to discuss these questions. It’s clear that faculty members care about this.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you so much for presenting at Senate. We know you’re very busy, and we really appreciate you taking time to come speak to us.
President Diana Chapman Walsh: Thank you for having me.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Now, I’d like to ask Lindsey Boylan to present about SOFC.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: There were 2 other points that came up in the Uniquely Compelling review. One was crediting SOFC for sponsoring an event. We will not police, but will reaffirm with treasurers their need to credit organizations for funding. I have a flyer for you to take back to your House Councils about this.
As a committee, when looking at Uniquely Compelling as a whole we came up with several points to run the process better. Nadine Abraham, SOFC senator, will present more about this.
Nadine Abraham, SOFC: Coming around to you is the SOFC constitution. There were a couple of changes to be made. One was an extension. If you look, the first change was that as a committee decided to implement a cap to help other organizations to get a part of the money. We came up with 30% of the total, which would be $3000. We aren’t trying to stop organizations from getting expensive items. No organization in the last round got more than $3000. We will enforce that orgs that received money are ineligible for Uniquely Compelling the following year. From the revised constitution:
i. “Organizations that have received Uniquely Compelling funding must wait one school year before reapplying for Uniquely Compelling funds.
ii. No organization may receive more than 30% of the total $10,000 allotted for Uniquely Compelling, for the purchase of one item.
ii. No organization may receive more than 30% of the total $10,000 allotted for Uniquely Compelling, for the purchase of one item.
1. However, an organization can apply for an item whose cost exceeds this cap, provided the organization specifically and definitively indicates how it will cover the extra cost SOFC cannot fund, and meets all other Uniquely Compelling rules.
The justification requirements are just questions we wanted organizations to answer. We came up with these questions when we were reviewing the applications. All we want is to make sure that the organizations have thought through their requests.
From the revised UC application:
“Justification Requirements:
- Three-part question: Why does your organization need the item, what purpose will the item serve, and how (specifically) does the item relate to your organization’s mission and goals?
- (If applicable) Two-part question: Please specify how you plan to maintain the upkeep of the item and cover its warranty costs. (For example, what funds do you foresee allocated for this purpose in the future? Is it feasible within your organization’s budget?)
- (If applicable) Where, specifically, would you place your item? (Especially important if the item requested is large, such as exercise equipment, pool tables, etc.)
*If an organization wishes to purchase an item whose cost exceeds the cap, it may do so, and SOFC will fund up to the cap, provided the following two stipulations are met:
- The organization clearly and specifically indicates how it plans to cover the extra cost that SOFC cannot fund, specifically from whom it will receive funding. This must be a definitive statement.
- All other SOFC rules (as stated above) are met.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: At your next constituency meeting vote on that.
Lauren Nelson, Pomeroy: Is the clause about being ineligible effective next year?
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Yes, if enacted this year it will affect orgs next year.
Nadine Abraham: With the idea of the cap, if an organization has a request for a good that is more than $3000 they can request that amount and get the rest of the funds from other sources.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: That would be a way to get a more expensive item. The idea is to fund more than 4 or 5 organizations when 71 apply, like they did this year.
Clara Peterson, Bates: What are the justification requirements?
Nadine Abraham: One is the same as always: why you need it, how it applies to your org’s mission and goals.
One regards the up-keep of goods. We want to make sure that organizations have planned to maintain the good. The second is placement of the good. For example, the location of ellipticals in residence halls.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Nothing should be more difficult, it’s just common sense clarification and a written explanation of something you should’ve considered anyway.
Ashira Green, Claflin: Does this rule change allow the loophole for a new board for WZLY because the mission statement for the club is to play music if the board was $15000?
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Yes, logistically it does. That would be the only organization that would receive money, but yes. If you could find the other $12000 you could apply and receive money from the UC fund.
The SOFC committee worked very, very hard on this. E-mail Student Bursar with questions.
Next we’ll talk about Legenda. We need to resolve a financial commitment.
Jue Wang, Legenda: Legenda has been in severe fiscal trouble in the last 10 years. For about 5 years the college had accrued a debt. Our new publisher, Josten’s, has been patient with us. At Wellesley there hasn’t been enough interest in the books to cover costs. The more books we order the lower cost per book.
Last year we came to senate with the proposal to include a small fee to the Student Activity Fee. That option isn’t viable. We’ve worked with Lindsey to look for new options.
Several options included are to leave things as they are, with possibly no yearbooks in the future.
- Option 1. No, I don’t think the yearbook is important. I would rather let it disappear.
- Option 2: 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).
- Option 3. I do think the yearbook is important and I would like to have the student activities fee subsidize a yearbook for every student every year so that each student only needs to pay a small fee for their book.
- Option 4. 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 full price for a yearbook.
Motion to extend to accommodate speakers and close list
Motion passed
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: I was wondering if the Legenda was looking into other options, CD-Rom perhaps.
Jue Wang, Legenda: Publishers will only do CDs as a complement to the physical book.
Chailee Mann-Stadt: I never hear about Legenda. I never see the current yearbooks, this could be why it seems like people don’t care—they don’t know.
Jue Wang, Legenda: We do send out mailings to your home and to your dorm mailbox. With the constraints of working on the books, getting advertising, etc. we don’t have time to do more. Perhaps with this financial backing this could change.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: Take this back to your constituency to get their opinions. It would be very helpful to make this a genuine question. We need information about how the campus feels. We need a commitment from the students to adjust how the Student Activity Fee is allocated.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you for your work on this important issue. Next we’ll have the students who attended the NACA conference present.
Anna Basevich ‘06
Elisabeth Gorra ‘07
Catherine Lee ‘08
Suilin Yap ‘08
Anna Basevich: We just wanted to bring information back to you from the regional conference for the National Association of Campus Activities. We go to get access to the great performers and the resources available. We had 46 informational meetings and 10 roundtables. Some examples of performers and lecturers are Dorian, the woman who gave the female orgasm lecture last year, and the band Ryanhood.
We looked at teambuilding, leadership, publicity, and budgeting.
There’s a hand out going around about programming we thought would be good at Wellesley.
Elisabeth Gorra: I went to an improv comedy session about how to get your groups motivated. Group dynamics go through several different stages. You start off happy, then people get at each others’ throats. That’s when you need these activities.
I also went to an education session about thematic programming. My personal favorite was WPI’s construction weekend. They had shirts that said “Get hammered, nailed and screwed…”
Catherine Lee: I went because I was interested in efficient budgets. I’m the ’08 treasurer. One thing that kept coming up was tying our fundraisers into the college’s goals as a whole. One thing I thought of was the power of our alums. We made our ’08 e-board’s goal to unify our class. One thing we’ve already done are themed class-wide study breaks. One thing we’re working on now is a class mascot. This can be used on letterhead, t-shirts, etc. I’m really excited to be implementing it throughout the year.
Suilin Yap: The conference was great. Go if you get the opportunity. I will concentrate on publicity. It’s so important because you want people to attend. I’m going to summarize here… ABCDE. E- excitement, enthusiasm, having genuine enthusiasm is contagious. D-different, you attract more people with different ideas…like t-shirts for e-board members, C-curiosity, better subject headlines, B-benefits, fun and free food or other freebies, A-all the time, 6 is the magic number, collaborating with professors, chalking, etc.
André Isaak, Faculty Liaison to Senate: What are condom Olympics? (from the handout)
Anna Basevich: A combination of sexual education with fun.
Kelly O’Connor, Director of Student Activities: These ladies mentioned the regional NACA, the registration for National NACA is over wintersession. E-mail “NACA” if you are interested in going to the national conference. The deadline is Friday, December 10.
Lindsey Boylan, Student Bursar: First, congratulations. It seems like it was helpful. Particularly, Catherine I think you should get in touch with other class councils and stress your idea for class unity. I don’t feel like that’s stressed as much with other classes.
Catherine Lee: We get together in Class Council Executive Board Council meetings and I definitely plan to bring this up.
Elisabeth Gorra: It’s so much fun, go! We got to see great performers, great vendors.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Thank you so much for attending the conference and learning how you can make Wellesley better for all of us.
Now we’ll hear from the student representatives to the Board of Admissions.
Salwa Muhammad ‘06
Emily Siedell ‘06
Melissa Chow ‘06
Katy Miller ‘06
Emily Siedell: We represent the juniors, only the junior representatives on the board look at Early Decision applications
Salwa Muhammad: We got on this committee by applying through SOAC in the spring. We have a SOAC interview. The four positions include 1 international and 1 student of color representative. There are 4 seniors and 4 juniors. This is the board for reading applications for US citizens. The international representative also looks at international applications.
Emily Siedell: I’ll give a brief overview. We are in Green Hall. There’s a room specifically for reading applications. We’re divided into teams and each team represents a different region. The team is made up of a faculty member, student, and admissions person. We look at the applications and vote on each students individually. We give each student a score from 1.0-3.0 in increments of .1. 1.0 is the best. We usually discuss the people we like but have reservations about. We have committee sessions to discuss who is accepted, deferred to regular admission, and denied.
Melissa Chow: We have 249 Early Decision applicants for the Class of 2009, a 14% increase over last year’s ED applicant pool.
That’s all the info that we have for this year because we are still in the ED process. Early Decision Committee meetings are next week and we expect to mail decisions to applicants on December 9.
Here are last year’s statistics: 218 students applied ED (Total applicants was 4,094)
Admitted 133 students ED
61% of ED applicants were admitted as opposed to 36% of the overall pool
22% of the Class of 2008 were admitted Early Decision
General average SAT scores for class of 2008: Verbal 689/ Math 678
On average ED ones were on average higher by about 10 points
Katy Miller: You can be involved in the Student Admission Representative volunteer program as a lunch, lobby, or overnight hostess. We also have a letter-writing campaign in the spring. Soon we’re having the SAR ambassador program when you go back to your high school or high schools in your area. The last training session is Dec. 2, 7-8pm in SCI277. Contact me, Brittany Sherman or Milena Mareva with questions.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: This is a two-year position, right?
Emily Siedell: Yes, and this is our first year.
Charlene Liu: Is there a cap for ED acceptances?
Katy Miller: There is no cap on anything. There is no cap on number of acceptances, test scores, or GPAs. We look at each candidate as a whole.
Emily Siedell: It just works out.
Alex Kim, CG Vice President: Thank you for coming. So you get equal voting rights as a faculty or admissions representative? Is that unique?
Emily Siedell: Definitely, people are impressed that we actually get to vote with the same weight as professors and admissions people.
Clara Peterson, Bates: Do you rank candidates in separate categories?
Melissa Chow: We look at everything and take it all into account.
Suilin Yap: I’m an international student and in Malaysia the system is different. Would I participate in the same way that US ambassadors would? How could I get more information about the program?
Katy Miller: It would be helpful to attend the ambassador training and you can talk to Milena Mareva for more specific information about how to do this at a time other than Wintersession.
Salwa Muhammad: There is a position for the international student on the board; I sit on the regular board also. Contact Sylvia Hiestand.
Motion to accommodate speakers and close list
Motion carries
Yang Qui, Severance: Different institutions weigh different parts of the applications separately. How do the proportions work for Wellesley?
Emily Siedell: We definitely look at the student as a whole unit. You accommodate specific schools and her life style and circumstances.
Yang Qui, Severance: Will there be more training sessions?
Katy Miller: You can e-mail me, Brittany Sherman, or Milena Mareva if you can’t make the meeting.
Jennie Lee, Stone: Do you go through training of how to best pick applicants?
Melissa Chow: We have a meeting with the admissions board and then we have a 2 hour training to learn how to read applications. We get a book, look at sample applications, and work with Jen Desjarlais, Dean of Admissions.
Katy Miller: We look at the offerings available to the applicant when evaluating her. We look at students from prep schools differently than we would look at a student from a small, rural school.
Maxine Brownstein, Lake: If a sophomore would like to apply, but is planning to go abroad, could you do that?
Emily Siedell: It’s a two year commitment so it doesn’t really work with going abroad. It’s a unique program and it’s just something you have to judge.
Salwa Muhammad: You could go abroad senior year fall.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Are you happy with the applicants? Are you impressed, happy with the diversity? Do you see any gaps?
Melissa Chow: I’ve seen very talented applicants and I have seen diversity. I’ve seen students from large public schools to prep schools.
Katy Miller: I’m reading California and the west coast and I think it’s a very strong pool.
Emily Siedell: I’ve seen that they all seem qualified so it is hard.
Salwa Muhammad: I’m reading the central region, and they are qualified but not very diverse.
Jamie Bernthal, CG President: Who sits on the South?
Emily Siedell: There isn’t a student on every committee, so I’m not sure.
V. Dean’s Corner
Kim Goff-Crews, Dean of Students: Michelle Lepore, Associate Dean of Students: Thank you SOFC for your work on Uniquely Compelling. It’s very important that you took the time to look at that. We met with Jamie and Lindsey and wanted to look at how we update TVs, VCRs, DVD players because so many House Councils requested those items. We’ll meet with Peter Eastment and Kris Liu to figure out more about that.
The ellipticals will be in dorms by the end of the semester, December 10th or 13th.
Kim Goff-Crews, Dean of Students: Have a great break, get rest and good food.
The ellipticals will be in dorms by the end of the semester, December 10th or 13th.
Kim Goff-Crews, Dean of Students: Have a great break, get rest and good food.
VI. Announcements/Adjourn
Star Senator: Sarah Beaudette: Dedicated member of SPEC, working on SPAM policy, Senate rep to Academic Council as a first year.
Congratulations Sarah!
See attachment for Announcements
Congratulations Sarah!
See attachment for Announcements
cgmail (at) wellesley.edu
Created: July 2004
Last Modified: 18 October 2004
Expires: June 2005
Wellesley College
