College Council opened its third meeting with a packed house. Eager to get down to business, Council jumped to the hottest item on the agenda: funding the men’s volleyball club. The team’s leader, James Apgar ‘01, realizing CC treasurer Anh Nguyen’s opposition to funding a group that missed the Finance Committee’s meeting, immediately made a $400 concession. Still, he asked for $1200. Co-president Kate Ervin ’99 backed up the volleyball team, saying CC had put them through enough heckling over the missed meeting. Jan Postma ’99 and Owen Boger ’99 recommended that Council cut the request to $900, and the vote passed 23-4-1.

Next, Tami Thompson ’01 of the Literary Society, which has 80 new members, asked for $1500 to publish Dewdrops, the society’s magazine, this semester. They’d like to publish about 1000 copies. Again, CC treasurer Anh Nguyen ’99 was tight-fisted, but CC sentiment was strong that Williams needs more publications and that the Lit Society is doing a great job. The allocation passed 25-2-0.

David Ramos ’00 came seeking $1600 to be put toward 2000 printed copies of the Mad Cow, Williams’ humor magazine. Todd Stiefler ’00 ("Nacho") suggested that the magazine sell ads, and Eric Soskin ’99 thought the Mad Cow should remain web-based. He liked the "go to our website to waive your MassPIRG fee" advertising approach the humor magazine used last year. The Council floundered around, coughing up various suggested numbers, and finally settled on the recommendation of Matt Bryson ’99 and Nacho Stiefler ’00 to give $1150 in a contested vote of 16-8-2.

John Alwais ’01 of the library committee reported on the night life at the library. The hush-hush shenanigans among the librarians include a proposal to eliminate the new-books section new the circulation desk. Co-president Will Slocum ’99 wasn’t too pleased and said "the new books encourage me to read." (Is Will taking classes?) David Walfish ’00 asked Jonathan to check into allowing movies to be checked out.

In members’ open time, Monisha Agrawal ’99 made a plug for a new light on the steps by West. Carrie Ryan ’00 will take the request to the safety committee. Eric Soskin ’99 said the dining services office is looking for feedback on the new grab-and-go lunches. Have a food experience? Pass it on to opinions@wso.williams.edu — as long as it’s not revolting. Matt Kim ’01, in this week’s headline story, reported on widespread stinkage of standard-issue headboards on beds. Council will pass that concern on to the Mad Cow. Prompted by Matt’s imagery, Julian Fang ’01 would like more trash cans around campus. Lloyd Nimetz ’01 is getting postal over not being allowed to use college equipment, especially at Spencer, without taking training. It’s a real hindrance to creativity in independent projects. The photo club has run into he same problem trying to use dark rooms on campus. Bert Leatherman ’00 reported that he’s working with Security to get the Goodrich lot (Lawrence Hall Drive) open to student parking at night. One too many parking tickets inspired this effort…

Council passed a new policy on attendance, proposed by Jan Postma ’99. Basically, the new bylaw says come on time and stay for the meeting or else be guillotined by the secretary (unless the secretary is notified before the meeting of the reason a rep will be coming fashionably late or slipping out early).

Kate Ervin ’99 reported that the News Office wants to get the Weekly Calendar back into SU boxes. Profs have been complaining that fewer people are coming to events, and the News Office thinks the Weekly Calendar might be the answer. Medha Kirtane ’00 told of the myriad opinions she collected by e-mail last year in favor of getting the Weekly Calendar out of SU boxes (and the recycling bins). Erin Troy ’01 said it was hypocritical of the Council to tell campus groups not to distribute their literature in every SU box but to support the Weekly Calendar being put in boxes every week. Carrie Ryan ’00 said that getting attendance at campus events should be a priority, and a few members suggested a subscription system for the Weekly Calendar. Sally Umlauf ’99 suggested that the Weekly Calendar might get noticed if it were distributed like the Record — on a certain day all over campus. She said other options like advertising the calendar’s availability ought to be tried before bringing the Weekly Calendar back to SU’s. In a straw vote, only five Council members supported putting the Weekly calendar back in mailboxes en masse. Kate will take the suggestion of Sally and Nacho Stiefler ’00 to the News Office to recommend some stepped-up advertising to make students more aware of the Weekly Calendar. She’ll also see if the mailroom staffnh will distribute the Weekly Calendar on a subscription basis.

Will Slocum ’99 presented a proposal from the administration to make the Mission rec room part of the dining hall. Johanna Kolodny ’01 of Mills said the rec room is great and ought to stay. Erin Troy ’01 thought the new study area under Dennett and Mills ought to go to the dogs before the rec room does. The Council saved its breath and recognized that getting rid of the rec room made little sense. End of discussion.

Next, Will reported that Dining Services wants to upgrade the dirty-dishes repository in Dodd and convert Dodd’s bar/pingpong area to dining space. Cutting back on Dodd’s party space was not popular, and destroying Dodd’s intimacy with wider spaces didn’t win great applause either. Sally Umlauf ’99 said a covered porch would be nice and wouldn’t require knocking out the walls. Bert Leatherman ’00 pointed out that the College should question devoting so much time and energy to small facilities projects when the money might be better budgeted each year to hiring a few more faculty to remedy Williams’ class-size situation.

Finally, Council broke up into small groups related to this year’s long-term issues. Some good discussion transpired, and hopefully there’ll be reports from these committees next week on what they are starting to accomplish.

Bert Leatherman ’00

CC Secretary