introduction

contrary to popular belief, the mad cow proved they're funny tonight

college council minutes, 5/2/01

~ introduction ~

this week's meeting found college council back in its traditional baxter lounge locale. garry sanders (campus at-large) hung a banner on the lounge door in the hopes that this gesture will make people feel less intimidated when approaching CC. yes, we are having a meeting, but everyone is welcome to join us at 7:30 pm every wednesday!

joe masters (co-pres) began the meeting with a few announcements. the first is that, thanks in large part to the work of todd rogers (former co-pres) and mark berman (OIT), graduating seniors will have their e-mail service extended for up to one year. this is to give them ample time to find alternate e-mail options and to notify friends and families of e-mail address changes.

also, from now on, CC will not entertain funding requests less than $1,500 (according to the new by-law passed on 4/11/01). the newly appointed fincom will entertain these requests and make suggestions for CC to approve, while requests larger than $1,500 must still be presented to and discussed by CC according to our current system.

this friday (may 4) at 4 pm there will be a friendly game of softball involving minco and CC reps, announced sarah barger (co-pres). also, the annual CC end-of-the-year BBQ will be on sunday, may 13 at 4 pm. all CC members, past and present, are invited!

sarah also announced that the final restructuring forum will be next tuesday at 9:30 pm in goodrich living room. even if you haven't been attending the forums until now, join us for this overview of what we've looked at so far. if you have any ideas or opinions, make sure they are heard, either at the forum or by e-mailing restructuring@wso.williams.edu.

next week is the last CC meeting of the 2000-2001 year (yes! only one more set of minutes!). come to office hours sunday at 9 pm, upstairs in goodrich if you have anything that needs to be addressed.

~ funding requests ~

josh burns (new SAC president) approached CC hoping to throw one more event for the year, the ever-popular outdoor currier club. they have been left basically with no money to do anything, and they would like to do one more event at the end of the year. the event will be two nights - next thursday and friday nights - from 8 pm-midnight. the total cost of the event is $3,070.98 and SAC is requesting $1,070.98 ($2,000 in expected ticket sales).

caleb fassett (off-campus) asked how likely it is that SAC will sell out on both nights. burns responded that friday night shouldn't be a problem, and they will try everything they can to sell-out on thursday night, as well. without much discussion, CC voted to fund SAC $1,070.98 to throw outdoor currier club, 17-3-4. tickets will go on sale this monday for $5.

the mad cow decided to expand its humor to our CC meeting. ha ha. josh ain presented the mad cow's request for $500K ($499,995.00 for a 50-foot writer's yacht and $5 for a captain's hat). CC members inquired about a few points of interest, given the size of the request. garry asked where the yacht would be stored, to which ain responded that the yacht could be stored anywhere, really - it's not the water that's important, it's the actual yacht. ben thompson (bryant/woodbridge) asked who would pay for the docking (it wasn't detailed in the budget) and the mad cow said that they would take it out of members' dues.

after a few more inane amendment proposals, one idea emerged as a way for CC to feasibly promote the creative genius of the mad cow. tim patterson (frosh council) suggested that CC fund the $5 for the captain's hat to the mad cow, and that way they can imagine that they're writing on a writers' yacht. this would have been a nice gesture; too bad it failed, and CC voted not to fund the mad cow $5.00 by a vote of 8-12-4.

~ epimetheus ~

dave jensen approached CC to request recognition for a group to be called "epithemeus". the purpose of this club is to explore the performance art called fire-staff, in which the performer lights wicks on both ends of a staff and does cool twirly tricks with it. a few members expressed a concern over liability and insurance costs, but since the CC bylaws rule that expected cost cannot factor into the recognition of a club, CC voted to recognize "epimetheus", 18-4-2. (for the record, steve floyd (campus at-large) also make several irrelevant, overeducated, and generally useless comments regarding the classical origin of the name, "epithemeus").

~ restructuring forum overview ~

sarah reminded CC that last night (tuesday, may 1) was the restructuring forum on social life at williams. she also emphasized that these restructuring forums are only the beginning in the long journey to improve williams student life. next week tuesday at 9:30 pm in goodrich living room will be the fourth and final in this series of forums, and it will be an overview of what we have covered so far and where we can go from here. if you are interested in making williams a better place for students, read the minutes on the previous three forums and send comments to restructuring@wso.williams.edu.

~ amendment voting discussion ~

this item was placed on the agenda to address some of the problems that arose during the campaign for CC's first constitutional amendment. joe enumerated three problems that have surfaced with the way the amendment voting was run.

there was a clear pressure to vote for the amendment rather than to vote on the amendment. campaign posters flooded baxter and the voting terminals in baxter were "guarded" by pro-amendment CC members.
the appointments committee conducted the election. considered that this amendment directly altered the composition of the appointments committee, there was clearly a conflict of interest. in the future, elections (including constitutional amendments) should be run by the elections supervisory committee.
the tracking of voting percentages was inappropriate and undermined CC's democratic legitimacy.

in the future, CC must come up with a new proposal for the procedure for constitutional amendments. currently, the system is flawed and must be righted in order to restore legitimacy to CC.

~ final fincom appointment ~

sarah, speaking on behalf of the appointments committee, said that at the last CC meeting, jp (treasurer) pointed out that it was unconstitutional to appoint fewer than eight members to the finance committee (fincom). recognizing that they only suggested seven appointments to CC in the first round, the appointments committee reconvened and resolved to recommend tamika murray as the eight and final member on the fincom. her appointment was approved by CC. congratulations, tamika!

~ opinions ~

caroline messmer (class of '02) announced that in response to a previous opinion, there is now a class suggestions forum set up on wso. check it out if you are class-shopping! here are the opinions for the week.

another request to extend snack bar hours (floyd)
an opinion on the extended library hours project (floyd)
need for more 24-hour study spaces (caroline)
the crosswalks on route 2 should be repainted (mark)
lasell bells are still 15-minutes off, giving sender a neurotic condition (garry)
an environmentally concerned student expressed the following opinions (all taken by sarah)
snack bar should emulate goodrich coffee bar's use of glass containers for sugar and other condiments
the college should commit the funds necessary to compost all possible waste
snack bar should install a dishwasher so that it can stop using paper cups/plates and plastic utensils
the college should compose and adhere to an environmental policy statement
course book listings should be available to students so that they can purchase texts through alternate businesses
housing survey - concern about requiring the input of a password - what is done with this info? (ching)
return FP (fitch-prospect) lot to students (mark rosenthal and john phillips and floyd)
card reader on prospect - already being taken care of by phillips

why can't the curling club use its leftover funds to throw a party? according to rich kelley, it's legit. (jp)
lots (11 to be precise) of annoying opinions of no consequence sent regarding the mad cow.

~ project time ~

increased food variety at the log - caroline is a slacker and nothing has happened yet.

funding for WSP travel - so is christina villegas (minco).

course catalog and handbook - garry spoke with barbara casey in the registrars' office, and they discussed the possibility of paring the handbook down so that it is a more effective resource by removing the many regulations. webpage addresses could be provided so that if a student wanted to research a particular topic, he or she could.

window in CC office door - joe announced that this should invited passersby to visit their CC reps in the CC office.

plaques - joe is also working on the plaques for faculty/staff/administrator of the year (3 plaques) as well as the annual CC plaque (to be instituted for every year).

B&G debits to accounts - currently they are allowed to debit accounts without forewarning; jp (treasurer) is working on making B&G more responsible for its charges.

greylock parking - next year there will only be 88 greylock spots (30 less than this year) and mark is looking into parking alternatives for greylock residents.

TV's in the weight room - according to mark, gary guerin said that this is a luxury item, and it would have to be paid for by CC. craig (secretary) suggested finding out if students really want this or not - it could be distracting.

library hours - floyd asked everyone to continue to send him e-mails from students interested in extended library hours. he has about 70, and would like 100+ before he goes back to the nice people at the library.

~ open time ~

josh burns reported that there are lots of tickets left for the J5 concert on thursday. tickets are on sale in baxter and ONLY COST $2.00, so get your hands on one NOW! also, if anyone is available between 11 am and 2 pm, sol ka fe is in desperate need of people to help unload and set up the stage. e-mail 02jmb if you're available and can offer a hand.

burns also announced that outdoor currier club tickets for thursday and friday nights will be $5, on-sale beginning monday in baxter.

tamika murray (gladden) announced that this friday at 7:30 in goodrich, NBC will be performing as part of first fridays.

respecting parking sticker registration for next year, caroline reported that there were severe issues filing requests for stickers, and that many of her housemates were not allowed to request stickers (this turned out to be an all-campus problem). the best way to deal with this is to e-mail security if you were unable to file a parking-sticker request.

darlene forde (dodd complex) has received several comments about the housing survey being conducted by ching ho (campus at-large). many of the questions were badly phrased so that they don't apply to people who live in houses (rather than suites). caroline also reported that she decided not to send the survey out to her class, since it did not seem CC-related.

floyd offered a public congratulations to the new housing committee co-presidents, healy thompson and rob sica.

~ closing ~

sarah brought this rather lackluster meeting (where's the FIRE, CC?) to a close by inviting everyone to wednesday night club. she and christina also reminded everyone about cinco de mayo this saturday. the festivities begin at 1 pm on sawyer lawn and continue through the day, culminating in a party at goodrich.

respectfully submitted,

craig tamamoto, cc secretary

~ ABSENTEES - attendance was POOR ~

nick kerr (minco), royce smith (co-op), pete walke (dennett), tim karpoff (mark hopkins), catherine denver (mills/thompson), ari kessler (morgan/lehman), sophie hood (sage), tracy borawski (tyler), tad hodgson (wood/agard/garfield)