~ money goes through our hands like water ~

college council minutes

october 3, 2001

~ opening ~

joe (co-pres) opened the meeting by reminding CC members that it is their job to represent the campus. recently there seems to be an increasing discomfort on the part of CC reps in their ability to represent the campus. joe, however, argued that all elected representatives are charged with the mission of representing their constituents to the best of their ability, and that we mustn’t fail to execute this responsibility.

he also noted that the safety committee would be looking into the issue of on-campus storage. with the fairly frequent theft that occurs from on-campus storage units, perhaps the college should investigate sponsoring off-campus storage? anyway, this is being looked into. in addition, the amendment supervisory committee met for the first time this past monday, and students should be getting a letter in their SU boxes in the next week or so soliciting ideas and proposals for change in the way student governance is conducted at williams. there will be info sessions every thursday night from 7:30-8:30 in baxter lounge, as well as a special info session next thursday (10/11) at 7:30 in griffin 6.

sarah (co-pres) then warned students to be respectful, especially regarding the late hours at the snack bar. CC fought hard to get the snack bar to extend those hours last year, but there have been numerous complaints of harassment filed by snack bar employees. not only does this jeopardize the extended hours (if the harassment continues, the snack bar might return to regular hours) but it’s also simply rude, and a poor reflection on the college. shape up, williams.

on a lighter note, one of the next three fridays will be mountain day!!! you will know when the bells toll at 7 am. be prepared to get outside and celebrate the berkshires!

last year, three members of the williams community were selected as faculty, staff, and administrator of-the-year by students and tonight we presented those distinguished people with plaques (as per our bylaws). without further ado, here are the winners, including a little bit of what the nominating student had to say…

faculty of the year: professor susan loepp — she makes linear algebra fun! what more could you ask for?! staff of the year: pat bentley — cleans up after the notoriously sloppy armstrong house! administrator of the year: marcela villada peacock — she does more than her job description says and sports a "contagious enthusiasm"! thank you all for your hard work — williams wouldn’t be what it is without you!

molly butzer came to invite CC to initiate a class ring program at williams through her company, milestone traditions. according to her, "we do class rings they way they were done 40 or 50 years ago". milestone’s philosophy is to unify a school under a single design for a class ring. at other schools who have jumped on the milestone bandwagon, sales of class rings have skyrocketed because there is so much more unification and spirit surrounding the ring. her company would also subsidize half of a "ring ceremony" where each person who purchased a ring would receive their ring at the same time. in addition, the college could either collect royalties on the sale of each ring, or they could choose to simply lower the cost of each ring.

floyd (all-campus) asked if each class could elect to tailor their design to their own class. molly affirmed that this was indeed possible, but that milestone would urge us to maintain a certain degree of resemblance from year to year. mayo shattuck (gladden) asked if these would be exclusive rights, and molly responded that yes, milestone asks that the college enter into an exclusive agreement so that the ring (designed by the college, by the way) could legitimately be promoted as the "official class ring of williams college". if you have an opinion on this issue, as with other issues, please email opinions@wso.williams.edu or talk to your elected representative.

caroline messmer (class of ’02) presented the opinions for the week, and they are as follows:

craig tamamoto (secretary) introduced CC to the brand spankin’ new mediation group on campus. he and darlene forde (prospect) are both members of this group designed to mediate conflict on campus. the group consists of a diverse collection of students and administrators who recently completed an intense but worthwhile training session based on issues of social justice that spanned (perhaps "consumed" would be a better word?) two full weekends. this is a completely voluntary process whereby two parties (currently only mediating student-student conflict) agree to come to mediation to resolve an issue. for more information or to schedule a mediation session, call x4546.

christina villegas announced the mincofest, which will be occurring this next wednesday from 11-1 on baxter lawn. there will be entertainment and all the minco groups will be tabling to tell students what they are all about.

regarding parking in greylock lot, tom cubeta (carter) was wondering if students could park in the faculty/staff spots on the weekends. joe suggested that he get that information from security.

~ council business ~

this past sunday, the general fund allocation committee (GFAC) met for the first time to entertain funding requests from student groups. in total, GFAC recommended $4,807.40, to be split between men’s club soccer ($450), the irish society ($300), the purple bike coalition ($1229.40), a play by the newman association ($378), dancesport ($1400), and the mad cow ($1350).

caroline asked if cap and bells shouldn’t take care of funding the play by the newman association. jackie hom ‘04, who happened to be in attendance, gave a little background: tiffany medina ‘02 is putting on the play, and she has been working on it for two years. several different sources, including cap and bells, have denied her funding, and if she doesn’t receive this funding, her hard work will all be for naught.

charlie davidson (dennett) stated (more to himself than to anyone else) that the purple bike project is cool. following that eloquent thought, CC voted to approve the slate suggested by GFAC 25-0-1 (2).

the figure skating club, represented by kari lock ‘04, jackie hom ‘04, and laura spero ‘02 brought a request for $8,820.00 to CC to fund lessons, dues, and competitions for the year. they began by saying that they realize that this is a lot of money, but that it a) covers the whole year, and b) there are many additional expenses built into this sport for each athlete that don’t even appear on this budget. they pleaded with CC to realize that this is a lot of money for college students to pay.

will asked if it would be ok for more experienced skaters to teach beginner skaters, rather than hiring someone to do lessons for them. the club is already planning on doing this, and that would hopefully lead to some revenues for the club. caroline pointed out that the reason that the athletic department has probably refused to fund this in the past is that they looked at their budget and realized that it just didn’t work. we must also be fiscally responsible and realize that we simply cannot allocate $8,820 to one group. will motioned to amend the request by cutting out the lessons ($6,240) so that the total request stands at $2580. this motion passed by a vote of 22-5-0 (3).

mayo (shifty guy that he is) then tried to pull the rug right out from under the figure skating club’s feet [editorial opinion]. since we cut the funding of the lessons, the figure skating club conceded that fewer people would probably be competing. therefore, mayo proposed that we further cut two competitions ($1250) out of the figure skating budget, and allocate them $1330 instead. CC, however, voted the motion down 7-13-3 (4). CC then voted to fund the figure skating club $2580 21-3-3 (5).

ching ho (all-campus) then moved to fund swing club an additional $3700. he argued (albeit overdramatically) that last year, the swing club got $6400. this year, the swing club has received only $2800 and he needs this extra money to "restore the swing club to the basic necessities" that it received last year. mayo tried to re-center CC’s perspective, contending that last year was an exception. the swing club only received $3400 through the subgroup allocations last year, and the additional $3000 came later. despite this information, CC funded ching and the swing club the additional $3700, 13-11-5 (6).

~ unfinished business ~

CC voted (secret ballot) for up to four candidates to place on the general fund allocation committee. the following people were selected: hall o’donnell (tyler/annex), scott grinsell (armstrong), and michael henry (mills/thompson).

~ new business ~

rory kramer (minco co-chair) argued against he "1/3 clause", saying that if a group offends 100 people on this campus, CC should hear those complaints. also, he warned CC about completely relinquishing their power to de-recognize a group. to allow reps to discuss this motion with their constituents, CC postponed this motion for discussion at the next meeting on october 10 by a vote of 20-0-1 (9).

~ NO absences, way to go! TUNE IN NEXT WEEK for the next exciting episode of…CC! ~

respectfully submitted,

craig tamamoto (02cat)