The times, they are a’changing (and we still want more beer)

College Council Minutes for 10/11/00

 

[anger management]

Todd Rogers (Co-President) started the meeting by raising some student concerns about student social conduct. Apparently quite a few students and visitors to Williams have been accosted on unfriendly terms lately, and Todd thinks that College Council has a duty to discuss and focus on this. If you have had any experiences like this, please email them to opinions@wso.

[President Schapiro]

Todd then introduced President Schapiro, and thanked him for helping CC receive the cash infusion of $29,000. Schapiro replied that it was a fairly easy decision; after listening to students and reading the minutes, it was evident that student life on this campus would suffer as a result of the shortage. Schapiro also came to discuss the plans for the future of Williams with council. He wants the school to look and function similar to how our viewbook projects it. For instance, we see pictures of classes under the trees in disproportionate quantities in our viewbook. The Williams experience may be similar to 80% of the viewbook, but we need to make it 100%. With that in mind, we as students need to tell administrators what we want and need on campus. Otherwise, they’re going to decide for us, and they’re probably going to screw up. No one knows what Williams has and what Williams needs more than the students do, and Schapiro knows this. So if you have any ideas about anything at all: curriculum (small seminars, interdisciplinary classes, requirements), student spaces (they’re going to gut Baxter, add a floor, and make it a killer student center – what should be in it?), housing (non-seniors in coops?), please send in your comments. Email your CC reps, committee reps, Morton.Owen.Schapiro@williams.edu, or opinions@wso.

[budget update]

Ryan Mayhew (Treasurer) updated council on our financial situation. FinCom has solicited proposals from student groups for immediate monetary needs, and will have a proposal next week for how much money should go to those groups. The rest of the money will be broken down thusly: nationals, general fund, immediate group release, and some to a group reserve fund to serve established groups (in subgroups) if they run out of funds in the spring. Currently we have around 27 grand in the general fund, with eleven reserved for fall spending (these numbers are pre-cash-infusion).

[recognition]

Jeremy Da and other band members of Dyskize, a campus rock group, asked College Council for recognition. They plan to play "music that excites, but within limits." Mayo Shattuck (Class of 2003) asked if they expect to be paid, like DJs, for performing at parties. Jeremy replied that in general, no, but they would take it on a case-by-case basis. CC voted to recognize 22-0-0.

William "Billy" H. Green and several members of NBC (Nothing But Cuties) requested CC recognition for their hip-hop dance group. NBC has 20 performing members who meet three days a week for practice, and they’re thinking about opening the Sunday practice to the entire campus as a dance workshop. Laddie Peterson (Class 2002) asked if NBC had explored becoming a part of the dance program; Billy replied that he thinks students would lose control of the group, and in turn the quality would decrease. Council voted to recognize NBC 23-0-0.

John Phillips (Prospect) from Liberty at Williams asked CC to recognize the group. From the mission statement: "Williams Liberty exists to promote the ideals of market liberalism and limited government. It actively seeks to communicate the values of political tolerance, free speech and individual rights to the Williams Community." Voted to recognize 18-0-5.

[thompson parking]

James Mackay and Noel Johnson, house presidents of Thompson, asked CC to review their proposal for senior parking for Thompson residents. Essentially, they would like to designate fourteen spaces in the mission upper lot as Thompson parking, and leave the rest of the lot as is (first come first serve mission parking). Todd explained that council would actually vote on the proposal next week; this initial discussion is just to introduce the idea to the campus and get CC reps to ask their constituents about it. Meg Cooley (West/Spencer), questioned the wisdom of singling out Thompson residents for a good parking arrangement since there are other senior houses on campus (West, Berkshire Quad) that do not have adequate parking. Mayo added that this seems like a slippery slope; first Thompson residents will ask for spaces, then West, then Dodd, until all of the sophomores in Mission are forced into the apparent circle of hell that is Mission Lower Lot. Tracey Cheung (Pratt) added that she doesn’t understand why the seniors in Thompson should get 20% of the spaces in the lot when there are around 280 sophomores in Mission. Finally, Catherine Denver (Mills/Thompson) spoke in support of the plan because CC has shown a commitment to supporting seniority in parking in the past (a CC proposal last year initiated it), and because the sophomores she knows think the plan is a good idea. Because of the controversy, council members will be soliciting opinions this week. If you have a comment, email your house rep or opinions@wso.

[goodrich representation]

Ami Parekh (Co-President) announced that CC needed to select a Goodrich Committee representative. The Goodrich Committee hires managers, sets hours, food selections, financial priorities (lighting, tables, couches), and basically steers the path for Goodrich. Chris Koegel (At-Large) volunteered for the job.

[free the listserver]

Caleb Fassett (Currier) wrote a proposal that would open up the postings on the college council listserver to the entire campus. Ezra Goldschlager (Carter) spoke up in support of the idea, and proposed that we give the options receiving daily or weekly digests of college council emails. After approving that amendment to the proposal 21-0-2, several CC members voiced their opposition to the plan in general. Catherine thinks that council needs a private forum, and that if our posts are openly distributed, it would be very easy to take quotes out of context. Nishant Nayyar (At-Large) agreed, and voiced a concern that CC conversations would go "underground" if the listserver were opened. Dan Elsea (Mark Hopkins) and Gus Howard (Dennett) disagreed; CC needs to be an open, democratic, and transparent body, and this is an excellent way to help us accomplish those goals. Council then voted to open up the listserver 15-8-0.

[opinions]

Mayo received no opinions this week. He wonders how will he spend his free time now that the campus is perfect.

[student-faculty groups]

Gus discussed with council the issues before CUL this year. The main focus is housing, and the apparent lack of housing interaction between classes, genders, ethnic groups, athletes/non-athletes, etc. The question is: how much engineering should be done to achieve this ideal of diversity, and how laissez-faire should the college be? Do we know what is best for ourselves, or do we need a "distribution requirement"? Another issue that CUL is looking at is the future shape of co-ops, and the possibilities of non-seniors living in them. Gus assured us that no one currently on campus would be affected by these changes; they are for future generations of Williams students. Furthermore, no one on CUL has any concrete ideas about what exactly should be done, so send your opinions to 03aph.

Nishant and Laddie both spoke up against administrative-assigned upperclassmen housing, preferring to give students their own preferences. In that vein, John asserted his belief that if students are allowed to pick the students with whom they live, there is no interaction problem on campus; if we thought there was, we wouldn’t be picking into housing as we do.

[open time]

Joe Masters (Secretary) presented Darah Schofield’s (Woodbridge/Bryant) proposal to create a college council fund that would encourage student group fundraising. Essentially, for every $2 raised by a group in a fundraising activity that is not an alumni or parental donation, College Council would kick in $1, up to $100 of CC money. Koegel questioned the idea, saying that the money raised would be enough of a reward in itself. This issue will be coming before council next week for a vote.

Nishant updated council on student representation in administrator selections. This year the college will select a new Admissions director and the new director of OIT (Office for Information Technology). There will be student input in both of these selections, and Nishant is making sure that students will actually be able to sit on the committees that do the selecting.

James Moorhead (Class of 2001) will be approaching dining services to request that they have beer served on tap in the snack bar at certain hours of the day. Hopefully this will lead to a breakfast point meal deal of a Coors Light and Bagel Supreme. However, Caleb doesn’t think this is a good idea, there being already too much beer on campus.

Finally, Gus asked if college council should be concerned or involved at all with the apparently ugly situation that occurred between the committee and Dean Roseman on Monday. [This is all secondhand knowledge and guesswork, so take the following with a few grains of salt] The conflict seemed to arise over student concern that Roseman had made a social policy change without consulting the student body, and a general disrespect of Roseman by the members of the Housing Committee. It is essential that CC know all sides of the issues before delving into the details, so further discussion will wait for future meetings.

Joe Masters

CC Secretary