At last night’s College Council meeting, co-president Will Slocum ’99 gave a recap of the first NESCAC student forum, held this weekend at Amherst. The students incorporated the forum, which will likely meet once or twice annually to address issues common to all campuses in the conference. Bert Leatherman ’00 spoke of the widespread agreement among the NESCAC students at the forum that the limitations on post-season athletic competition are undesirable. The 10 schools in attendance tried to be upbeat about the issue and thus created an alternative proposal on post-season play, which is being drafted by the Hamilton delegation. Will also mentioned that some other NESCAC schools have recent graduates serving as trustees. The College Council would like to create such an arrangement at Williams in the coming months. Minutes from the NESCAC student forum will be posted shortly at the College Council’s web site, http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/cc/.

Medha Kirtane ’00 announced that the Calendar and Scheduling Committee has encouraged profs not to hold review sessions before reading period and not to hold evening exams without canceling an equal number of classes.

John Wiener ‘02 of the Campus Environmental Advisory Committee reported that the dining-hall composting program may be expanded to include food scraps. Will Slocum ‘99 hopes that the dining halls will install pig-slop buckets reminiscent of his high school days.

Monisha Agrawal ’99 reported progress from the Registrar’s Committee. The faculty vetoed students’ desire to include more details about class size on Selfreg. The Registrar’s office will make it clearer how students get preference in classes that are overenrolled. Julian Fang ’01 likes the web-based course catalog that links the class-hour directory with course descriptions. George Anthes ’00 hopes the web site will be publicized more. Todd Stiefler ’00 would like to see statistics on section size on Selfreg, though the Registrar’s office would have a hard time getting a steady, accurate number.

Co-president Kate Ervin ’99 mentioned that Amherst, like Harvard and many other schools, prints a student-run publication of course evaluations. The College Council may attempt to get this started, though Eric Soskin ’99 and John Rivera-Dirks ’99 thought the publication would be divisive to the campus and Sarah Barger ’02 was afraid that positive evaluations would exacerbate the pattern of bloated classes.

Carrie Ryan ’00 of the Student Activities Council announced plans for Super Sundays in January. There will be some cool small-time bands throughout Winter Study. SAC is also sponsoring DJ Jewelz ’01 at the Log tonight.

College Council bussing manager Phil Swisher ’01 attended the meeting to offer his help in supporting a proposed College Council bylaw to require student groups to arrange bussing through Phil. Since Phil is regularly in contact with major bussing companies, he can arrange the lowest rates for student groups. Council will vote on the bylaw after Thanksgiving.

Liz Lee ’01 presented mail sent to opinions@wso.williams.edu. There was resistance to frats returning to campus. Not to worry, according to the College Council co-presidents’ investigation. Also, a student wrote to support elimination of the 10-meal required board purchase. Jan Postma ’99 is working on this. Other students asked for more ethernet ports in the library as well as a working e-mail terminal in Mission. Also, a nostalgic senior wrote to object to contracting out food service on campus. Liz will forward these opinions to the student members of the relevant campus committees.

Will Slocum ’99 announced the resignation of the Goodrich manager, Ryan Mayhew ’01, due to time constraints. Ryan has done an extraordinary job and will be missed. The College Council officers met with the Goodrich committee and the remaining staff of Goodrich last weekend to develop a survival plan. In an arrangement coordinated by CC treasurer Anh Nguyen ’99, Sargeant Donovan-Smith ’99 is managing scheduling, Kim Zelnick ’00 is running the coffee bar, and Josh Easter ’01 is taking care of upkeep of the building. The management of the building may be taken over by an intern next year, but for the time being, the multiple-manager system seems to be working adequately, and the College Council is grateful for the remaining staff assuming extra responsibility.

Sydelle Ross ’99 and Monisha Agrawal ’99 have been working with Dean Wanda Lee to make arrangements for a Montreal Winter Study trip open to all students. Accommodations will be at the Queen Elizabeth five-star hotel -- snazzy! Total cost to students will be around $50 for transportation and two nights’ lodging. John Rivera-Dirks ’99 advocated raising the price to $75, saying the increase was not unreasonable and would allow the College Council to save significant money. Will Slocum was afraid that some students might not be able to afford the trip at $75, but Eric Soskin ’99 backed up John, claiming College Council funding could be interpreted simply as a subsidy for a vacation. Jan Postma ’99 and Julian Fang ’01 thought the trip was an appropriate way to spend the student-activities tax, especially since the trip might be appealing to students who otherwise don’t consume College Council funds. Freshman reps to the Council added their support, and Council agreed to pay for transportation for the Montreal outing by a vote of 16-5.

Peter Krause ’02 asked if there was any progress on last week’s issue of gaining easier access to parties for freshmen. Co-president Kate Ervin ’99 awaits the next meeting of the house presidents to get more info on solutions. Look for news on this and other issues after the next episode of College Council, coming up on December 2. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Bert Leatherman ‘00

CC Secretary