The Chancellor of the Exchequer
Survives (Operation Successful)
[introduction]
Lately,
quite a few emails have been flying across the CC listserver concerning James Moorhead’s (Class of 2001)
proposal to rename the Class Reps to “Class Presidents.” John
Phillips (Prospect) responded to the proposal, pointing out “the
representatives we have already act like mini-dictators.” He continued by suggesting new titles for
current members: Chancellor of the Exchequer Mayhew, Patrician Rogers,
Queen Parekh, General Moorhead, and Court Jester Wessler, to name a few. Todd diplomatically asserted that one
could conceive of the emails as slightly hostile, but that the suggestion was
still a valid one. He sees the measure
as one attempt to fix the things with council that are broken. Following this explanation, Todd pulled on a bizarre cap with lots
of felt spikes on it, complementing the already-bizarre array of costumes
already in the room, with Mayo Shattuck
(Class of 2003) peering out of the mouth of Puff, the Magic Dragon, and Moorhead dressed in camouflage.
Ami and Todd held a second forum on how to
solve the failures of Williams College governance on Tuesday night. Most of the meeting was spent talking about
CC and MinCo funding, and the interaction between groups during funding. Ami
and Todd really believe that
everything is on the table for fixing in the next year; the faculty, staff,
administrators, and trustees are all pushing for change in various structures
on campus. The only group that hasn’t
really been involved in suggesting changes is the student body at large. These forums are the beginning, but from now
on, it’s up to the future leaders of the campus to continue the push for
improvements to our current structure.
Ami also
explained that the Wednesday faculty meeting was an incredibly positive push
for improvements in campus social life.
For the first time in recent memory, when student social life came up in
the meeting, not one single faculty member argued against the necessity of an
active social scene. There was also
quite a bit of discussion at the meeting about the Trustee retreat in
Annapolis, which included discussion of student satisfaction rates at Williams. It turns out that over the past ten years,
student satisfaction at Williams has been on a downturn, and Williams has the
lowest minority satisfaction rate of any other comparable college. (These results are taken from surveys given
to seniors around the time of graduation).
But again, initiative for change has to also come from the student
body. Everyone else is ready.
Tim Patterson (Frosh
Council) and Shenil Saya (At-Large)
jointly related the story of the week: Tim
decided it would be a good idea if he rode his bike down the stairs in
Morgan right toward the bathroom door, where Shenil (his JA) was taking a shower. Apparently Tim bounced
down the stairs, hit the door with the front tire of the bike, and shot over
the handlebars, straight into the shower with Shenil. Shenil seemed somewhat unfazed by this
action, however, pointing out that Tim
also “keeps dead squirrels in his room.”
I think we can honestly say that this sort of loving relationship simply
would not exist in a RA system.
Oh,
and self-nominations are due on Friday at 4pm, if you want to run for College
Council.
[funding]
Ryan commenced the
latest round of funding by asking Council to look to the future. There will be at least an additional $8,860
requested from CC in this semester (if you want to see the latest information on
this, visit http://wso/orgs/cc/). Before funding this evening, we had
$11,343.42 in the General Fund, $2,750 for Nationals, $1,183 for Intergroup,
and $11,149 in the Group Contingency fund.
SSJ Intergroup
Request:
Emily Martin came to
request $350 ($300 for vegetarian lasagna and salad; $50 for drinks) for a
discussion on the issue of sexuality and religion on Thursday, March 1 at 6pm
in the JRC. It’s sponsored by Students
for Social Justice, but members of Williams Christian Fellowship, Newman
Association, the BGLTU, Williams Feminist Alliance, the Jewish Association,
Vista, and the BSU, as well as faculty and community members will be
attending. College Council approved the
$350 without comment 27-2-2. If you want to attend the discussion, RSVP
to 03erm.
SAC General
Fund Request:
Erin Sullivan and Brian Kelly requested $7,583.17 (thanks
to the Student Activities Office and Housing Committee, they were able to knock
$1,000 off their initial request) for the Student Activities Council. Erin
explained SAC’s current situation to Council: Last year, it spent $112,000 on
events for the campus, and was consequently $12,000 over budget. This year, SAC was allocated $72,000, but
$12,000 of that went to pay off their overages from last year, so they
effectively had $60,000 – around half of what was spent last year. However, FinCom also recommended that CC
consider holding $10,000 in funds to be allocated in the spring semester, as
incentive to SAC to be frugal in the fall.
And
SAC did spend fairly frugally in the fall, and didn’t put on as many events as
they had in the past. Several events
fell through, such as another sixth element tour stop on campus with Mos Def,
but they were able to book Bela Fleck for the spring, and put on five small
concerts, the Log, weekly movies, and Currier Clubs.
The
trouble came when the offer for G. Love & Special Sauce was too sweet to
pass up. Students have requested G.
Love year after year, and SAC has been unable to get them, until this year, when
they were available for $5,000 less than previous years. However, funding that concert put SAC at a
point where it is currently unable to fund its staples (the Log, Currier Club,
and movies) for spring semester. So,
they come to council to request some of the $10,000 incentive funding to
provide these services.
Laddie
Peterson
(Class of 2002) asked if there might be any unforeseen costs related to
throwing the Bela Fleck concert or any other of SAC’s events. Brian
replied SAC wouldn’t be able to anticipate all possible extra charges (like if
a band shows up and decides that they need six anchovy pizzas before they’ll
play), but by careful planning, they can avoid most extra charges.
Nishant Nayyar (At Large)
asked if the money would actually go to the items on the budget if such
overages happened; Brian replied
that SAC would indeed use the money for their staples, and that, if needed, SAC
would perhaps look for cheaper movies.
JP (Dodd) made a
motion to cut the budget: 6 movies (down from 11) and all of the Logs, but no
Currier Club (although SoCa is putting on the steel pan Currier Club on March
10), bringing the budget down to $4,558.98.
General
Moorhead asked that in the future,
SAC should request funds for its concerts, not staple expenses. It already received funding in the fall for
a full year of movies, currier clubs, and the log.
Sarah Barger (JA)
requested that CC not cut the Currier Club, because students don’t date enough
as is.
Tim Karpoff (Mark
Hopkins) opined that it is a good idea to reduce the role of SAC, and push more
funding toward individual student-initiated social events. With that, CC voted to pass the amendment to
reduce the budget request 27-1-3, and
then voted 21-7-2 to allocate
$4,558.98.
SSJ Speaker
General Fund Request:
Mike Levien came to CC to
request funds for a speaker on Environmental Justice. Robert Bullard is a pioneer in the Environmental Justice field,
and has published numerous books on the subject, including a standard text in
the environmental justice field (“Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and
Environmental Quality”). The actual
cost of the lecture is $5,880, and most of that has already been funded by
various administrative departments – all except for $1455. Mike
requested $500 to fund a student meeting with various members of SSJ – Dr.
Bullard’s agent has dictated that as his fee for meeting with students. Ezra
Goldschläger (Carter) appreciated the effort from SSJ, but pointed out that
this was the third speaker in as many weeks, and doesn’t feel good about
funding this in light of the current budget situation. CC has given a lot ($1950) to SSJ, and needs
to look long and hard to see the other requests coming down the pipeline.
Mike replied that
SSJ is an umbrella organization, and a new group, and the many different
subgroups of SSJ have to come to council every time they want to fund a
speaker.
Karpoff pointed out
that there are several ways to cut down the budget in general: for instance,
$130 for transportation from the Albany airport. Mayo was especially
concerned that all of the organizations giving money to this speaker were
administrative, and asked if this was truly student-initiated, or a Center for
Environmental Studies project? Mike replied that the
Whose-Responsibility-Is-It-Project tried to get Dr. Bullard last year, and this
year both he and Rachel Louis from the CES have been working on getting funding
for him.
After
a couple suggestions to seek funding outside of council, Nishant asked that council members stop asking people to go to
other sources. Gideon Lee (MinCo) made a motion to cut the request in half, to
$250. Shenil, pointing that $500 is equivalent to two DJs at the Log
(which we funded), believes that this is also better value than the Log. The amendment then passed 17-14, and CC voted to fund SSJ $250 for
the speaker: 19-11-1.
Williams
Feminist Alliance General Fund Request:
Eileen Bevis and Healy Thompson, came requesting $750
for an Erin McKeown concert to be held on March 1st to kick off
Women’s History Month. The event will
have a Williams Grassroots musician opening.
Eileen acknowledged that the
group was not the best known or understood on campus, and thought that
sponsoring a popular artist like McKeown (the concert last year was very
well-attended) would help raise awareness.
Caleb Fassett (Off-Campus)
questioned whether this event could be sponsored out of the Intergroup
Fund. Ryan replied that the Intergroup Fund is really for bringing
disparate groups together, and the primary purpose of an Intergroup event
should be to help groups interact; he doesn’t see that to be the case here.
Shenil and several
other members of Council inquired about the value of several items on the
Women’s History Month budget, including $500 allocated for the lodging of
former Williams students (from the 70s) who have children attending Williams
now, and $200 for a Mother/Daughter brunch.
Healy explained that these
events had already been paid for, and if CC cut funding from the $750 request,
it would only impact the concert, not the other events. Undeterred, Shenil motioned to cut $500 from the $750 request. Joe
objected, explaining that the request for $750 was for the concert
specifically, and if the budget is reduced, it should be on the merits of the
concert, not other items already funded elsewhere. With that, the amendment failed 8-17-4.
Before
a final vote, Lowell Jacobson
(Armstrong) had to get something off his chest: Women’s History Month
inherently discriminatory toward men and hermaphrodites. After an awkward silence, CC voted to give
WFA $750: 20-9-2.
[summit on racial diversity]
Royce Smith (Co-Op)
announced the upcoming Summit on Racial Diversity to be held on Saturday, March
3rd in Griffin Hall from noon to 4:00pm. He is planning to gather as many campus leaders, students and
faculty on major committees, and other members of the Williams community to
discuss race in academic spaces, race in social life (entry situations and
social events), and race in governance.
Royce pointed out that many
CC members in prior discussions had voiced their willingness to help understand
what the issues are, and he hopes that as many CC members as possible will come
to the forums. We know what the
problems are, and the intention of the forums is to come out with solutions in
hand. By the end of the meeting, 23 out
of 32 CC members present had signed up to participate in the forums.
[failures of student governance]
Ami and Todd saw more progress at the second
forum on the solutions of failures in student governance, but they’re on the
way out, and want to have a way to continue the conversation in the
future. Their idea: when the elections
are taking place on JOSE, have a ballot initiative that asks voters, “should
campus leaders ensure that an all-campus referendum take place by the end of
February 2002 whereby the existing current organization of campus life (such as
social organization, campus governance, and residential leadership) is either
re-structured or re-affirmed?”
Rob Sica (At Large)
asked what exactly would happen if the campus voted “YES”? Todd
replied that it would supply a mandate to the future leaders of the campus to
pursue ideas for structural changes, and would give them a decent timetable to
come up with a plan. Mayo doesn’t believe that this is a
necessary step to continue discussing talks – everyone is going to say “yes”
anyhow. Ami responded that every year, CC representatives promise to make
these changes, and it fizzles without a mandate on the specific issue. Garry Sanders agreed, pointing out that
CC is 35 people out of a 2100 person campus.
You might think people will support the initiative, but there’s no way
to know without asking.
Peter Walke (Dennett)
asked why the proposal would have to wait for Winter Study next year; Ami explained that setting it for the
end of this semester wouldn’t give enough time to fully explore the
possibilities. CC will vote on whether
or not this ballot initiative should be included in this election next week. If you have opinions, tell your rep or email
opinions@wso.williams.edu
[position name changes]
Mayo (aka Puff the
Magic Dragon) spoke on behalf of Moorhead’s
name-change proposal (change “Class of 200x Representative” to “Class of 200x
President”). No one at Williams really seems to identify a leader for their
class, and Mayo sees that as
something we need. Karpoff agreed, asking how this measure could possibility hurt
things. Rob voiced his concern that this is an irrelevant movement, when
what really needs to happen are more serious changes. Shenil agreed, and
asked that we table the conversation.
CC agreed, 16-10-1.
[all-campus email policy]
Joe announced
that he and Laddie had been working
on a project to consolidate a central events calendar online and in Baxter that
will include every event announced in the Daily Messages and over the Parties
listserver. However, this puts
all-campus emails in a different light, and Joe would like to know how the campus feels in general about
all-campus emails – is it worth keeping them around in light of this new
system? Would it be okay to end them at
the end of the year? If a significant
number of students want to keep all-campus emails around, then they should
certainly stay.
Ami explained
that there are a lot of schools that don’t allow any all-campus emails, and
there are other schools that allow anyone and everyone to post all-campus
emails. She’s a big fan of eliminating
the system.
Ari Kessler (Morgan/Lehman) objected,
pointing out that a lot of people only read all-campus emails and not daily
messages. Ezra agreed, and brought up the fact that anyone can unsubscribe
from all-campus emails at any time.
Please,
if you have any opinion on all-campus emails (stay or go?) email
opinions@wso.williams.edu
[opinions]
1.
A complaint from a 21 year old student who got kicked out a
winter carnival party. He’s mainly
concerned with the access that 21 year olds have to alcohol.
2.
A senior who lives in West would like it to stay open over
spring break, in addition to Mission, Greylock, and co-ops. Meg
Cooley (West/Spencer) will follow up with Tom McEvoy.
3.
At least one student is happy with the new, later gym hours.
4.
One idea for saving energy: turn off the book aisle lights
in Schow if no one is looking at those books.
Caleb will investigate this.
5.
Several students requested discounts in the snack bar or
Goodrich if using a CUPPS cup. Ami responded that this already exists:
you get more coffee for the same amount of money if you use your CUPPS cup.
6.
Finally, one student complaints that party cleanup in row
houses isn’t done by B&G until morning if students haven’t done so. Nishant
replied that there’s already an incentive to clean up early; the host gets
billed an arm and a leg by B&G to do that cleanup if it hasn’t been done.
[open time]
Todd requested
that some CC member try to get the printed upperclass facebook that they used
to sell at the newsroom back somewhere on campus, especially now that the
Office of Public Affairs is considered not printing the Faculty/Staff
facebook. He also voiced a student
concern that there was preferential admission from student peer monitors at row
house parties during Winter Carnival.
Since all students fund those parties, there should be a fair system for
letting students into the parties.
Caleb asked for a
straw poll of CC members on whether or not the size of College Council should
be reduced (from 35 to say, 18 or 19).
After acknowledging that such a poll really gives no context for the
results, CC voted in favor of the idea 16-8
Tad Hodgson
(Wood/Agard/Garfield) suggested that signup sheets be posted next to the
treadmills in the gyms, because oftentimes they will be usurped by students
just walking by, when others may have been waiting.
Rob asked CC what
the bylaw on scrutinizing groups’ budgets is…
can council make funding decisions based on parts of budgets that won’t
be requested from CC? Nishant quoted the bylaw: “The College
Council may not use the allocation process to directly alter the…agenda of any
organization,” and pointed out that groups could just not report other expenses
to CC. JP interprets this to mean that CC cannot cut funding for groups
based on other items in budgets that CC might find unnecessary or overpriced. Ryan pointed out a more logistical
problem – CC can’t stipulate exactly where the money is going to go. Groups do not have to stick to funding what
is listed on their budget. John disagreed: CC should be able to
cut a budget for whatever reason.
CC Secretary
wso.williams.edu/cc