> >Deadlines and Hospitals<<

Todd Rogers (Co-President) started off the meeting by praising the new, experimental CC website (more on this later) and by reminding everyone that the StudFac committee nominations are due Thursday (today) at 4:00pm in SU Box 1016. To read about the committees, visit the college council website. Todd also introduced a new program that council is implementing: every week, a member of the faculty or staff will be coming to council to discuss different elements of student life. Finally, he welcomed Gus Howard, who will be taking Mayo Shattuck’s (Class of 2003 Rep) old seat, representing Morgan.

Ami Parekh (Co-President) told council that on Monday night, a prospective student almost died in the hospital after being found passed out on a freshman entry floor by a security officer. And on Saturday night, another upperclassman was sent to the hospital because of alcohol poisoning and was unconscious for hours in the hospital. She asked council what, if it anything, it should do about this. This topic was brought up again in open time (read on).

Ami also introduced council’s new "open hours," which are similar to Ami and Todd’s campaign open hours. Different campus reps and officers will be in public places around campus twice a week to hear your thoughts and opinions.

>>Improving Council Efficiency<<

Todd introduced his proposed StudFac bylaw by explaining how it will facilitate student-faculty groups reporting to council and also save council time. The general idea is to have groups tell a college council member, in one paragraph per month, what they have done. If they feel that they should come to council to present it personally, or if any one person on council thinks that the group should present, then they will be given a time slot on the agenda; otherwise, the paragraph will be read out loud at council, and comments will be directed through email. This should solve the problem with studfac representatives not showing up to council, and scheduling groups that haven’t met yet. In addition, the bylaw also adds some new groups that will be allowed to present to council on a monthly basis: WSO, OCC, SAC, CEAC (Campus Environmental Advisory Committee), Goodrich, CDC, and WCFM.

Council approved the bylaw: 28-0-0.

>>Torrid State of Affairs<<

Despite the negative figure that council was looking at on Sunday night, college council is now in the black on funding. Ami managed to secure some money for us, the Log both had some extra money and we collected the money given to the DA for submissions. Because the DA was never funded in the beginning of the year, Ryan Mayhew (Treasurer) asked if we could formalize funding the DA $4500 so it can run in the black until the end of the year. Nishant asked if we need to fund the shuttle now, because it was also left unfunded at the beginning of the year. Ryan replied that council is unsure about how much it will cost in the end, and how much B&G will pick up. Council voted to fund the DA: 26-0-2.

>>New & Improved Site<<

>>The Quality of Meat<<

Todd introduced Ginny Skorupski, the school’s nutrionist, to speak about the issues in her job. Ginny started by explaining what a nutritionist does, and how the position varies from school to school. Colleges aren’t required to have any health positions in their staff, but Williams does, and hired Ginny. She is a fulltime member of the dining services staff, and she has influence on menu planning and purchasing food. If a student comes to Williams and has a particular interest or need for health care advice as it relates to food, Ginny can help. It’s as easy as walking in the door or calling her up.

Princess Alegre (Minco Rep) asked about the quality of meat in dining halls. Ginny responded by saying that Williams buys very high quality meat. If you ever want to know exactly what something is, you can ask a manager at the dining hall. Princess then followed up by elaborating on her question, asking if "we get the same meat that’s served in prisons." According to Ginny, Williams students are NOT served the same food that prison inmates get.

Nancy Walworth asked about her experience with eating disorders, what the college has done to educate the student body, and what dining services has done lately? Ginny replied that eating disorders have been here as long as she has. There’s an eating disorders team at Williams College, but the college feels that "if you don’t bother anyone and get good grades, then you’re ok." This clearly does not lend itself to discovering people with eating disorders because nobody’s watching out for it.

If you have any questions for Ginny, she’s in her office (in Baxter, next to the cash machine) or available by telephone (x2889).

> >Purple Bubble<<

JP (Jonathon Pahl) came to council to get formal recognition for the Purple Bubble group. The mission of Purple Bubble is to stimulate interest in social/political issues. This started with the Sunday New York Times earlier this year, but will expand in focus. Hopefully next year, house presidents and the housing committee will be working to get some different periodicals delivered in addition to the Times – like Newsweek, The Economist, the New Republic, the Nation, etc. Also next year, Purple Bubble will be trying to bring speakers and facilitate discussions on campus especially with regard to the upcoming election.

There will also be a change with the New York Times deliveries. The Times will be delivered daily, 500 papers all over campus for the rest of the year. The Times itself is paying for the papers and the delivery, as a trial period. This will allow Purple Bubble to give some money back to council -- about $750. In the next few weeks, surveys will be distributed about the Times and other things that Purple Bubble wants to do. Also, the council will get back about $750. Council voted to recognize Purple Bubble: 28-0-8.

>>Peace & Justice<<

Ian Brown came to request funding for the P&J news typists for future years. The funding was in place his sophomore year, but was suspended soon after. He has written the news anyway, but doesn’t think anyone in the future would type the news for free (about a 3 hour job per day). Because Ian is retiring next year, without funding, it is possible that there will be no more P&J news. He requested $1400/year for the job.

Nancy Walworth (Perry, Brooks, Bascom, Chadbourne) asked about the necessity of having P&J if we’re going to be receiving the New York Times. Nishant Nayyar (At-Large Rep) said he thinks that funding for members of club teams is a precedent that we should not set. A question was asked about why the budget was originally cut, and Ian responded that the treasurer at the time didn’t think that it was a worthy expenditure. Elizabeth Moulton (Prospect) asked that if we fund the DA and Shuttle, why shouldn’t we fund this? Ami answered that the DA and Shuttle are quite different – they are paid positions in terms of shear grunt work, not and original product. Council voted not to give them money out of its current council: 0-21-7.

>>Garfield Republicans<<

Nishant announced that the Garfield Republicans are not going to have a spring speaker. Instead, they will be giving money to the debate team so that it can invite a conservative speaker this spring. Unfortunately, they have been served with a legal request for funding concerning Alan Keyes’ appearance. Last year, the Republicans entered into a contract with another organization and promised to pay $5,000 for Alan Keyes to come. However, last year, council seemed to have voted against funding this because Keyes was a presidential candidate. Seemed, because Nishant had a copy of the minutes of that fateful meeting in hand, and it appeared that council actually had voted to fund Keyes. Because of the situation, Todd asked that council wait until things could be straightened out and legal advice could be given to the group before council vote on the money. Council then voted to table the discussion until next week: 24-0-4.

>>Martial Arts<<

A couple months ago, council funded the Martial Arts club $400 for a tournament coming up this weekend, and asked them to find a student EMT instead of getting $60 from council for one. However, since council didn’t fund the EMS club in the fall, the student EMTs don’t have any equipment. So the club has to pay for one. Council voted to give them the $60: 27-1-0.

>>CUL<<

June Yi came from CUL to discuss a couple things that came up in their meeting on Tuesday. Jim Hodgkins, from Dining Services, came to discuss future renovations next year or the year after for Mission and Greylock, maybe making them cozier, with booths and light falling on each table. Dining Services is also considering different stations versus the big long line and purchases of batches of meals instead of a weekly meal plan. Send comments to 02jhy.

>>Consolidated Social Life<<

Carrie Ryan came to speak to council about a new organization she is working on forming, the Committee on Undergraduate Social Planning (CUSP). Its creation comes to fill the void the college has in centrally organizing events on campus. For example, it’s in the log’s best interest to give away drinks; but it’s certainly not in Goodrich’s best interest. So James Moorhead (head of the Log Committee), Ryan Mayhew (head of the Goodrich Committee), Carrie, and others students got together to make CUSP, which would oversee all campus spaces. CUSP is going to be a place where the heads of the committees that govern social spaces can make policy about these places on campus. Day-to-day operations are not a concern of CUSP, but they would be in charge of coordination of events. If you are interested in the committee, please contact 00chr for more information.

>>Opinions<<

1 Pro-Napster comment, and 3 anti-Napster comments. The pro-Napster comment expressed joy at the return of Napster, and the negative comments detailed how the quality of the internet connection degrades completely with Napster back on. Mayo will answer all of them.

One comment expressed a desire to see student trustees. Nishant, who’s working on that, will answer.

A student would like to see pictures on wso/plans. WSO does not have the staff or energy to do the taking, but if anyone would like to submit photos, WSO might be able to scan them in. Nancy commented that if you’re interested in a house, it’s not a big deal to just visit it and see what the rooms are like in person. Joe will answer the opinion.

A comment about the New York Times being delivered late. Todd will take it.

Someone suggested that bins be put in dorms at the end of the year to donate stuff to needy people instead of throwing it away. Sent to Ben Angarita (Frosh Council Rep).

Another opinion suggested a need for service learning in the form of financial incentive for professors, and allowing community service hours to fulfill PE requirement. Ash Bradley (Sage) will answer it

The last opinion address the problems council has in actually responding to the opinions after the minutes. Mayo is currently in charge of minutes, and chastised any council members who hadn’t done their duty. He then offered to respond to this one.

>>Open Season<<

Ash announced that community service week is coming, and the following events will be taking place: on Tuesday the 25^th, the Gaudino Forum will be on a community service requirement, on Friday the 28^th, there will be an all-campus sleepout to raise money and awareness for homelessness, Saturday the 29^th is All-Campus Service Day and will have a variety of projects, and there will be three 2000 drives; one for food, one for money, and one for clothing. They are aiming to get 2000 of each.

Abid and David Thal (Williams) came to council with an idea sparked by Max Weinstein’s discussion last week of class sizes and departments. They are going to approach the heads of departments that have large classes so that the departments can come to council and talk about what they’re doing, if anything, to rectify the situation. David wants a list of departments to visit; he currently has History, Political Science, Econ, Psychology, Biology, and Art History. Email 03dwt if you have any other suggestions, or want to help on the project.

Ben asked about the school size. Ryan answered that the admissions office shot for a lower number this year, but we won’t know how many incoming freshman there will be until they make their decisions (May 1).

Ed Rossier (JA Rep) raised issues of how council runs its meetings. He would like to see crisper procedures for funding, and better understanding by council of the parliamentary procedure.

Nancy was extremely disturbed about a prefrosh going to the hospital. What happened? It’s a serious issue both legally and socially. Nancy said that with all the uproar about alcohol on campus, you would think we were doing something about this, but a visitor to the school almost died. She is upset about the upperclassmen and freshman involved with bringing a prospective student close to death and then leaving him alone. We need to stress the responsibility that we have and we need to have to address these issues.

James Moorhead (Campus At-Large Rep) spoke about a situation with the Log: local neighbors are calling the police about the noise level. So if students could please be quiet in leaving the Log late at night (like after 9pm) until they get back to campus, it would be a great help. There is currently a threat to close the Log over this noise situation, so please respect the people living near the Log. Also, there’s a band Friday night at 10pm.

Ben Angarita wants arcade games in Goodrich to enhance the social scene on campus.

Todd is one of several students organizing a bone marrow drive; there’s a party in Dodd featuring a capella and a band this weekend to raise money for it. Tickets are selling in Baxter all this week.

Joe Masters

wso.williams.edu/cc