Getting things rolling, Matt Bryson ’99, who attended the recent meeting of the Committee on Undergraduate Life, told what he learned about the coming upperclass housing crunch. Tripod (local Internet company) is booming and anticipates bringing 60 new people next year into an already tight local housing market. Three housing options include converting Mission common rooms into bedrooms, creating more co-ops, and reducing the size of incoming classes. Also, converting more singles to doubles is a possibility. Council members lamented that the promise of sophomores getting singles is waning. Write Matt at 99msb_2 with ideas on housing.

Next, Council addressed the plight of freshmen getting turned away from parties, both after the parties are supposed to be open to the whole campus and after entries have paid for invites. JA co-president Dave Erickson ’00 said that frosh are having to pay a lot for invites, which is the antithesis of what the housing committee said it was aiming to do this year. There is some confusion over whether parties have to open to the whole campus after 11:00. Apparently, they don’t. Dave Walfish ’00 asked where all the freshmen entries’ invite fees are going. Since frosh can’t drink, their money helps pay the security officers’ $30/hour salary. College Council co-president Kate Ervin ’99 promised to take the issue to the house presidents next week.

Matt Whalin ’99 of the bookstore committee came to solicit suggestions for improvements. Hopes linger that the bookstore will move to Spring Street. Also, Bert Leatheman ’00 would like more mainstream books and magazines, noting that few students trek to Water Street Books to seek pleasure reading.

Carrie Ryan ’00 and Sheraz Choudhary ’00 reported that Security is trying to get lighting around the West steps and is asking students to use the coooool "B," the Berkshire Transit Authority, to travel to North Adams to cut down on officers’ time in transit.

Substance-free housing continues to be discussed by the Committee on Undergraduate Life. There will likely be open forums on the issue soon. The CUL had considered extending First Days to mimic the Amherst model in which freshmen spend time on campus before heading off on WOOLF trips, Windows on Williams programs, sports practices, etc. The freshmen reps on the College Council fussed about the ennui of First Days. Heather Matthews ’02 said the obligatory First Days programs need to be more interesting. Matt Heldeman ’02 likes the idea of extending First Days to allow more free time. George Anthes ’00, the JA rep to the College Council, said that most JAs think having all freshmen arrive on campus at once is a bad idea. The CUL has decided not to change First Days, at least not anytime soon.

Medha Kirtane ’00 presented a proposal that the College Council receive monthly reports from Minco on its meetings and activities. The Council was pleased to have the opportunity to communicate better with Minco and unanimously passed the resolution that a Minco rep give a report during the first College Council meeting of every month.

Hoops! Medha got an ovation when she announced that the new outdoor basketball court near Mission is ready for play. The lines will be added in the spring, just before the grand-opening ceremony. But in the meantime, people should feel free to test out the court.

Julian Fang ’01 asked if there exists a protocol for profs to choose which students to turn away from overenrolled classes. Monisha Agrawal ’99 of the Registrar’s Committee will look into this. She’ll also work on the concern of Lloyd Nimetz ’01 that students have such a hard time getting into studio-art classes and facilities. Kristin Sullivan ’01 hopes the Registrar’s Committee will try to make it better known what the cryptic error messages mean on Selfreg. Julian Fang ’01 would like the issue of hyphenated courses reopened.

Lloyd Nimetz ’01 and Owen Boger ’01 spoke about their meeting with President Payne about getting students on the committee to renovate Spring Street for the Year 2000. A student will be appointed soon.

Liz Lee ’01 mentioned a bizarre e-mail from the president’s office that, according to the U.S. Constitution, fraternities must be allowed on campus. Hmm…

Jan Postma ’99 reported on his productive meeting with the director of dining services. Dining services agreed to open a dialogue about the rule that all students, including seniors, must pay for at least 10 meals per week. Jan hopes that giving student more choice on how to spend their food dollars will introduce incentives for dining services to keep meal quality high. Under the current system, students in effect subsidize dining services even if they don’t eat in the dining halls.

Are we missing something? Let us know what you think at opinions@wso.williams.edu. You can find us Sunday from 9 to 10 P.M. in the Goodrich resource room if you’d like to chat.

Bert Leatheman

College Council Secretary