First Days: There won’t be any big changes to next year’s program. The committee on Undergraduate Life had considered making it longer.

Housing: Will Slocum ’99 reported that next year’s freshman class might be deliberately smaller than those of late. Council is hopeful that such a move will start to alleviate the housing crunch (as well as the class-size problem).

Money-saving (it’s true!): College Council busing manager Phil Swisher ’01 is willing to help campus groups get the best deals on buses. Contact him at 01pas to help your group’s budget go farther.

Committee on Educational Policy: Thanks to the support of President Payne and the efforts of the College Council and the NCAA Advocacy Group, the CEP is recommending to the faculty that teams be allowed to go to nationals during exams. The CEP will also be releasing a full report loaded with statistics on class size. Finally, the CEP is considering how better to integrate study-away into the curriculum. Thanks to Joe Kaufman ’99 for all the good news he reported.

Lecture Committee: Todd Rogers ’01 told of the themes of upcoming lectures. Ideas include the necessity of failure, witnessing history, and biological mysteries like the brain. Carrie Ryan ’00 recommended that the Lecture Committee schedule lectures not at 4:00 but in the evenings, except evenings with classes scheduled.

Computing: In a show of support for the world’s embroiled cyber-monarch, the Office of Information Technology will be shifting Jesup to a 50-50 mix of Macs and Wintel (eek!) machines. Sheraz Choudhary ’00 also reported that Griffin, full of data ports for laptops, might soon be open for late-night work. Hopefully there will be a printer appearing in Baxter sometime too…

Chow: Grab-n-go lunches, late-night pizza at Mission, and dinner until 8:00 at Greylock are among this year’s innovations, as reported by Danielle Torantello ’01. Thanks to a recent Record article, bringing in franchises is under study. Eric Soskin ’99 hopes the price of the Mission late-night pizza will come down. He praised the classy open-cooking setup that the dining halls are starting to adopt. Carrie Ryan ’00 asked that deli meats be out at supper. There is low-level murmuring of privatizing our food service, but nothing really to report. Will Slocum ’99 relayed to dining Services the College Council’s thoughts that converting the Mission rec room to eating space was a bad idea, and such a change won’t occur. Sydelle Ross ’99 showed a diagram of next year’s renovated Dodd. Changes include a walling off the dish area where scraps get chucked out of view, upgradng the décor, and expanding eating space into the bar area. Jan Postma ‘9 questioned the need to spend money on ambiance when it might be better spent on higher-quality food. Matt Bryson ’99, Julian Fang ’01, and Erin Troy ’01 urged that Dining Services not convert the bar area into eating space, saying it was better used as a party space. Medha Kirtane ’00 and John Finkbeiner ’00 pointed out that some of the spending was wasteful, especially when essentials like class size and some campus services are problematic. Kate Ervin ‘99 and others asked why Dodd’s dining area needs to be expanded since Dodd is already pretty for the number of people who eat there. Council took a straw vote that showed no support for annexing the for dining space, though Council liked the idea of letting people eat in the bar area, so long as the bar area doesn’t change much and it remains under the Dodd house president’s control.

Gravestones: Matt Bryson ’99 presented a statement on the posting of "Quit Your Whining" flyers on the gravestone exhibit on Baxter lawn. Many people commented that the language of Matt’s letter was acceptable because it focused on the method of the gravestone-exhibit dissention rather than its content. Wilmot Harkey ’00 and Owen Boger ’01 were concerned that sending the letter out late made it irrelevant since people have already talked through the issue. Wilmot asked the Council to wait a few weeks before making a statement in order to allow campus dialogue on this issue to continue. John Pearson ’00 was concerned that signing the letter was a superficial way to save face. George Anthes ’00 didn’t feel the same way, noting that the statement was forward-looking, and John agreed. Amish Shah ’00, who represents Minco on the College Council, and Medha Kirtane ’00 pointed out that many people are waiting for the College Council to issue its response to the treatment of the gravestones. After some hair-splitting over verbiage, Council passed the statement unanimously with 3 abstentions. It will appear in the DA.

Shuttle Service: The Council approved creation of a manager’s position for a new shuttle service and allotted $1125 to help cover van maintenance and drivers’ salaries. This voted passed with one hold-out,

Feedback: Opinions, as relayed this week by Medha Kirtane ’00 and Ami Parekh ’01, included reducing the size of admitted classes; getting ashtrays and better bike storage in the Berkshire Quad, more cash-to-card machines on campus, and smoother toilet paper (Owen Boger ’01 excited about this one!); and keeping the Xerox machines and Colrain working.

Want to talk? We’re at opinions@wso.williams.edu and in Goodrich Sundays from 9 to 10 P.M. We’d love to get your ideas!

Bert Leatherman ’00

CC Secretary