College Council Minutes from 5/10/00

Todd Rogers (Co-President) announced, regrettably, that this would be the final College Council meeting of the academic year. He went on to thank Council for its work in the past five weeks and in the past year, and ran over a highlight list of CC’s achievements this year: freshman reps working with security over entry sweeps; the rewriting of bylaws; getting the weight room to be a top administrative priority; encouraging the Winter Study committee to evaluate adjunct professors; and working with the sailing team to keep it around for years to come. On the topic of the sailing team, Benjamin Finholt (Off-Campus) will be meeting with senior administrators shortly, and it looks like the team will be in business for next year.

Ami Parekh (Co-President) thanked council for working through the difficult situations of the past weeks – money, the log, and the sailing team. This summer, some members of CC will be working on the following projects: Goodrich renovations so that the CC office will be more accessible; preparing the Log for business in the fall; and the all-campus email policy.

Ryan Mayhew (Treasurer) announced that council is about $4700 in debt right now. With the $2000 soft cap set last week, this gives council about $1800 to fund end of the year events.

Peter Munoz asked College Council to recognize the Handball club. They want to play (and a wall to play) Handball, to teach it, and to represent Williams at handball tournaments. The Handball team has played in the Towne Field House, but it’s an over-booked space during winter study, so they’re looking to get recognition, more members, and a dedicated place to play. CC voted to recognize 26-0-0.

Seth Brown came to defend the Mad Cow against the problems CC has raised with the publication, including the number of contributors and the quality of the magazine. He pointed out that the current issue has 20 authors, and while this isn’t as many as they’d like, it certainly is an improvement. Seth also provided a possible analogy for council to consider: "I like to think of the Mad Cow as a football team," he said, "but they could beat us up." Seth feels that the past issue was a result of a "rough season," but he feels that this issue the rookies are pulling through, and they’ve produced a good 32-page humor magazine. Todd reminded council about what groups are moved to subgroups, and explained to Seth that no one on council wanted to stop funding the Mad Cow, but that past issues with the publication might cause future issues that might stall the subgroup process.

Shenil Saya (At-Large) voiced his concern that council shouldn’t be judging the maturity or quality of groups on campus. Nishant Nayyar (At-Large) had changed his opinion concerning the publication over the past week; after seeing the new issue, and speaking to several of the contributors to the Mad Cow, he now feels they should be in a subgroup. Ben Connard said that the opinions he has received as Dennett House rep indicate that the magazine shouldn’t move into a subgroup. Nancy Walworth (Perry, Bascom, Brooks, Chadbourne) feels that council gets into unclear territory when we judge quality on any group, and that because the Mad Cow fills an underrepresented niche on campus, it deserves to go to a subgroup. Council voted to put the Mad Cow into the publications subgroup 24-2-0.

There were 2 opinions about the Mad Cow (both in support of it going to a subgroup)

One opinion about Currier needing renovation. Sent to Ami.

And a final opinion about why heat is still on in some buildings, like Morgan. Sent to Tom McEvoy.

In a follow-up to a previous opinion, cable in Mission won’t happen until next (2001) summer because of the massive amount of renovations needed (basically gutting the building).

James Moorhead (Class of 2001) thanked council for welcoming him in, and said that the past weeks have been pleasant, and offered his congratulations to Women’s Lacrosse for making it to nationals, and winning their first round game.

Dave Thal (Williams) wants chairs in the library that fit under the desks (arms of the chair get in the way).

Ben Connard asked why the suites in Mission couldn’t be locked anymore. Ryan replied (unofficially) that if suites are locked, then students running into the fire stairway during a fire might not be able to get out of the stairway if it’s burning. This exact thing happened at Seton Hall, and so the college is taking steps to prevent the hazards that contributed to that fire’s destructiveness.

Ben Angarita reported that students working on getting a Latino Studies program at Williams will be meeting with the Deans today (Thursday), and asked CC for its opinions on the issue. Ben said that they had met with the Dean Murphy and Dean Smith two months ago, and the students were told that there wasn’t much student outcry or available faculty to teach these courses. Ben is now armed with information about an internet site that details many professors that specialize in Latino Studies, and also wanted an indication from council about how its members felt about the issue.

Nishant said that he supported the issue, but said that he didn’t think council was well informed enough to make a solid statement. He also asked Ben if he had spoken with the Minority Curriculum Review Committee (MCRC). Todd pointed out that the curriculum has already been set for next year, and that Ben shouldn’t worry too much about getting a statement from council, but should instead just tell the Deans that council did discuss the issue for fifteen minutes, with all of the members speaking about the issue in support of it.

Jon Wiener updated CC on his bike project – somehow he will raise $165 for the locks and clamps, and next week he will be trying to collect donated bikes from seniors, and next fall, they will be painted and distributed. Wiener also announced that next Thursday is "Bike to Work Day," and you can donate your bike at Baxter on that day. If you want to donate, or just want information, email 02jaw.

Mayo Shattuck (Class of 2003) asked about the funding for Nationals for the Cycling team. Around midday Wednesday, John Wiedower asked to be put on the agenda to ask for money for Nationals, and at six the agenda was amended, but he did not show up. Wiedower wrote in the email that Nationals would cost about $1800, and in addition, the group is about $500 in debt right now. Nishant replied to Mayo that he feels that the current situation is the Cycling team treasurer’s fault, and because no one showed up to council for them, we shouldn’t be rewarding mismanagement.

Ami, followed up on the discussion we had last week, said that the deadline for student group constitutions has been postponed until the end of winter study. In addition, because of his visit with CC, Professor Morgan will be adding two students to the committee that does the faculty lecture series.

Todd congratulated Phil Swisher and Rob Sica on their election as President and Vice-President of Housing Committee (respectively). He also told council about Mike Levien’s and Becky Sanborn’s 2000 Fund, a socially responsible fund that would benefit the college. If you’re interested in more details, email 01mjl or visit http://wso/orgs/2000fund

Susan Levin (Armstrong) brought up Medha’s article in the Record about open time, and stressed that we make it clear to all students that open time means open time for anyone. Joe said that because of that meeting, council has since increased open time to 15 minutes per meeting.

Abid wants to see more of Ryan’s excellent budget accounting in the future, and likes the frequent budget updates.

Ben Connard wants to know if something better will be done with funding in general so these problems with having no money doesn’t happen again. Ryan replied that the general fund won’t be so large next year because he will subdivide it into separate categories, including club nationals and also paying the DA and shuttle at the beginning of the year. Laddie stressed that council must be "hard core" about funding, and should be willing to restrict funding to conserve resources.

Nancy ended the session by sharing her infinite senior wisdom – remember that council is not just a fiscal body, and that we do the most good when we’re representing student interests to the college.

While you’re enjoying (hopefully) your summer break, remember that CC is available for questions, suggestions, and comments all year round. So feel free to email your at-large reps and officers over the summer. And see you next year…

Joe Masters

Council Secretary

wso.williams.edu/cc