College Council
From Willipedia
College Council is the student government organization at Williams. Its website is http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/cc.
Contents |
[edit]
Structure and Representatives
Ordinarily led by two co-presidents, it includes student representatives of each class, neighborhood, and first year dorm. Council also has a Treasurer, MinCo representative, Secretary and representative from each neighborhood's governance board.
[edit]
Current Representatives
[edit]
Spring 2009
Officers:
- Co-president: Lizzy Brickley '10
- Co-president: Mike Tcheyan '10
- Treasurer: Rachel Hudson '10
- Secretary: Zach Evans '12
All-Campus Representatives:
- 2010: Joya Sonnenfeldt '10
- 2011: Emanuel Yekutiel '11
- 2012: Newton Davis '12
- MinCo: Ifiok Inyang '11
Neighborhood Board and At-Large Representatives:
- Currier: Elizabeth Jimenez '12, Christina Metcalf '10
- Dodd: Christophe Dorsey '10, Cameron Nutting '11
- Spencer: Schuyler Hall '10, Hilary Dolstad '11
- Wood: Francesca Barrett '12, Lane Wang '11
First-year Representatives:
- Armstrong: Will Weiss '12
- Dennett: Austin Brown '12
- Mills: Carmen Vidal '12
- Pratt: Aven King '12
- Sage: Amanda Weatherhead '12
- Williams: Shara Singh '12
[edit]
Past Representatives
[edit]
Fall 2008
See CC Fall 2008 picture
Officers:
- Co-president: Peter Nurnberg '09
- Co-president: Jeremy Goldstein '09
- Treasurer: Rachel Levy '09
- Secretary: Emily Deans '09
All-Campus Representatives:
- 2009: Sarah Moore '09
- 2010: Narae Park '10 and Lizzy Brickley '10 (split time)
- 2011: Emanuel Yekutiel '11
- MinCo: Curtis Flournoy '11
Neighborhood Board and At-Large Representatives:
- Currier: Emily George '09, Ifiok Inyang '11
- Dodd: Emily Behrman '09, Andrew Goldston '08
- Spencer: Joya Sonnenfeldt '10, Kieth Butts '09
- Wood: Francesca Barrett '12, Jenny Danzi '09
First-year Representatives:
- Armstrong: Tim Goggins '12
- Dennett: Zach Evans '12
- Mills: Sam Jonynas '12
- Pratt: Austin Davis '12
- Sage: Newton Davis '12
- Williams: Elizabeth Jimenez '12
[edit]
Spring 2008
Officers:
- Co-president: Peter Nurnberg '09
- Co-president: Jeremy Goldstein '09
- Treasurer: Rachel Levy '09
- Secretary: Emily Deans '09
All-Campus Representatives:
- 2009: Sarah Moore '09
- 2010: Thomas Rubinsky '10
- 2011: Emanuel Yekutiel '11
- MinCo: Curtis Flournoy '11
Neighborhood Board and At-Large Representatives:
- Currier: Janay Clyde '10
- Dodd: Narae Park '10, Petya Miteva '10
- Spencer: Toni Kraeva '09, Kieth Butts '09
- Wood: Jon Prigoff '08, Rachel Ko '09
First-year Representatives:
- Armstrong: Lane Wang '11
- Dennett: Tasha Chu '11
- Mills: Joseph Kiernan '11
- Pratt: Brian Shepherd '11
- Sage: To be determined '11
- Williams: KK Durante '11
[edit]
Fall 2007
Full year positions also served in Spring 2007
See CC Fall 2007 picture
Officers:
- Co-president: Kim Dacres '08
- Co-president: Morgan Goodwin '08
- Treasurer: Peter Nurnberg '09
- Secretary: Remington Shepard '08
All-Campus Representatives:
- 2008: Diana Jaffe '08
- 2009: Rashid Duroseau '09
- 2010: Elizabeth Brickley '10
- MinCo: Stephanie Kim '10
Neighborhood Board and At-Large Representatives:
- Currier: Vince Powell-Newman '10
- Dodd: Narae Park '10, Andrew Goldston '09
- Spencer: Toni Kraeva '09, Jon Galinsky '10
- Wood: Jon Prigoff '08, Rachel Ko '09
First-year Representatives:
- Armstrong: Lane Wang '11
- Dennett: Peter Huang '11
- Mills: Muhammad Liaqat '11
- Pratt: Brian Shepherd '11
- Sage: Emanuel Yekutiel '11
- Williams: Justin Routt '11
[edit]
Fall 2006
See CC Fall 2006 picture
[edit]
Responsibilities
College Council's three most important functions are:
- Giving students a voice on campus issues.
- Responsibly and fairly funding over 150 student groups and various campus events.
- Providing a starting point for student initiatives to improve the campus or college programs.
CC also appoints all students to the student faculty committees. These selections take place in the middle of the spring semester. For a list of committees, see the CC website's list of committees. For students interested in applying for committee positions, please read the guide for writing a good self-nom.
[edit]
Elections
College Council elections for the Spring 2008 term will occur February 14-15. Results are available at: College Council Spring 2008 Election Results, College Council Spring 2009 Election Results and College Council Election Results
[edit]
Running
Self-nominations will be due February 7; they can be sent to ephelections (at) gmail. The campaign period will be from February 8 to February 15, when the election period itself will end. The officerships, year-long offices, and semester offices are all up for grabs in Spring elections.
[edit]
Voting
The election will be conducted using the BigPulse electronic election system.
- Everyone will receive a link to his/her electronic ballot via his/her Williams.edu email address.
- This election will use Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). This means that in races with more than two candidates, voters will be asked to order the candidates by preference.
- If any candidate gets more than 50% of the first-choice votes, that candidate wins.
- If no candidate gets more than 50% of the first-choice votes, the first-choice votes that went to the candidate who did worst will be reallocated to their second choices. This process will repeat until a candidate has won with more than 50% of the vote.
[edit]
Projects
College Council works on projects suggested by the representatives or members of their constituencies, and has assisted in the success of such projects as bringing Ephporium to Spring Street and the Motorcoach service.
[edit]
Some Recent Projects
- In the spring of 2006 College Council reps accomplished the projects listed here: Stuff CC has done.
- In the spring of 2007, the newly elected College Council Treasurer wrote and distributed the Nurnberg Funding guide to inform all students about the funding sources available at Williams, the most effective methods for requesting money, and how to use the college's voucher, peoplesoft and purchasing card systems. That guide can be found here.
[edit]
Projects Completed and Attempted by the 2008 (into Winter Study and Feb. 2009) CC
See the end of term CC 2008-2009 Pamphlet
Successful Projects
- In the spring and fall of 2008, College Council undertook numerous small and large projects. The most expansive project undertaken by that College Council was the College Council initiated Permanent Textbook Reserve Program.
- In the Spring of 2008, College Council worked with members of StandWithUS and other interested parties to create and launch the Committee on Community Interactions (CCI). Here is the Committee on Community Interactions Mandate. The reporting guidelines and deadlines in the mandate were amended at future CC meetings. The CCI's meeting minutes and current representatives can be found here.
- In the Fall of 2008, College Council created a Subcommittee to craft a proposal for a Sophomore Orientation Program. That Subcommittee is currently working on making that proposal a reality. The proposal can be found here: College Council Sophomore Orientation Proposal
- In the Fall of 2008, College Council also established the Facilities Director Committee. This committee meets monthly with the three directors of facilities to provide a space where students can know what changes are being made in the future, while also providing feedback and concerns that are brought to them by their constituents.
- In the fall of 2008, College Council created an All Campus Social Calendar to inform the student body about events on campus and help organizations in their planning processes. Click here to view the calendar. See the All-Campus Social Calendar willipedia page for information about how to post an event on the calendar or subscribe to the calendar manager’s weekly upcoming events email.
- During winter study 2009, College Council brought back the snow sculpture competition. See the Snow Sculpture Competition willipedia page for more information about that competition and pictures of the entries.
- To improve communications between CC and student groups and ensure that all students groups know that CC is dedicated to supporting them, interested in advocating on their behalf and determined to address issues important to them, CC created the CC liaison program in the Spring of 2008 and continued the program in the Fall of 2008. Through this program, all CC members were assigned to be a liaison to a few large student groups. Each liaison is responsible to making contact with the groups he or she represents and determining the best way to foster good communication and effective collaboration between CC and the group the liaison is responsible for representing. Suggested methods of contact include meeting with the group’s leadership a few times a semester or attending the group’s meetings a few times a semester.
- In the Spring and Fall of 2008, College Council worked with the Office of Campus Life and Neighborhood Governance Boards to improve the neighborhood transfer process. Aiming to increase the fairness of the process, make the process more objective, improve the chances that students are able to live with their friends, and add additional student choice to the system, CC the Office of Campus Life and the Neighborhood governance boards created a new transfer system to be implemented beginning in the Spring of 2009. The details of that proposal and new policy can be found on the Neighborhood Transfer Process page.
- In the Spring and Fall of 2008, CC worked with members of the senior staff—including the Provost, Dean of the Faculty and Dean of the College—to improve the college’s support for club sports teams, ensure that club sport coaches received fair salaries that were annually adjusted for cost of living changes, and create a formal and fair process for approving and recognizing new club sport teams. As part of this process, the senior staff and CC officially defined categories of club sports teams and outlined the support provided by the college to each category of team. See the willipedia page on Club Sports Policies for the result of this work.
- Book Drive for the 1914 Library: At the end of the Fall 2008 semester, CC organized a book drive and collected 71 books from students to be donated to the 1914 library.
- 101 Things You Wish You Knew: CC created this guide to distribute to incoming freshmen over the summer. The book is designed to share useful information that students pick up during their years at Williams.
- College Council Liason to Mass MOCA: CC created a liaison position to increase student usage of Mass MOCA.
- Ready-Made Lunches (evolution of lunch equivalency): Working with Dining Services, CC created a new lunch option for students with scheduling conflicts. With this program, students can arrange to pick up lunch between 2pm and 4pm on weekdays.
- Computers in Goodrich and second cash to card machine in Paresky: CC arranged for computers to be put in Goodrich and worked with Dining Services to install a second cash to card machine in Paresky.
- Faculty / Staff / Administrator Awards: CC revived the tradition of annually presenting awards to staff, faculty, and administrators who demonstrate a commitment to the student body.
- Formalizing the Lyceum Program: To ensure the continuation and smooth operation of the Lyceum program, CC created a formal procedure for selecting, setting guidelines for, overseeing and training the Lyceum managers. The managers will now be selected in the spring appointments process.
- Reforming the Student Group Approval Process: To ensure the fairness of the process, CC now gives all prospective groups hearings before the full CC. Under the old system, full discretion resided with the CC treasurer.
- 1914 Library Reform: CC proposed amending the school’s policy that prevents the 1914 Library from using the proceeds of sales of books in its collection that can no longer be used for classes to benefit the 1914 Library. In the past, money from those sales was just put into the school’s operating budget. Thus, the 1914 Library did not do the significant work necessary to make the sales. Under the proposal pushed by CC, the 1914 Library would be able to use that money to add to its book collection—without the school decreasing its current or future financial contributions to the library. The Provost's office agreed to change the policy. Thus, going forward, the 1914 Library will be able to sell its unneeded books and use the proceeds to purchase books for the 1914 Library collection.
Unsuccessful Projects
- Convenience Store: Since this project would require a large initial investment and produce little profit, the overall benefit of this project is not greater than its cost to the school. Thus, it would not have been able to offer lower prices than Ephporium. In addition, the school was unwilling to directly compete with Ephorium.
- Donation Reform: Recognizing the College’s need to raise unrestricted funds, CC proposed allowing alumni to earmark a maximum of 50% of their donations to the school for any officially recognized student groups. The earmarks per alumnus would be capped at a maximum of $50 per alumnus per year. CC believed that this would increase the number of alumni donating to the school, increase the resources available to student groups and not take too much away from the school’s unrestricted fundraising—-if it encouraged more alumni to donate, it might even add to the unrestricted fundraising. Unfortunately, the administration worried that this program would encourage groups to directly solicit money from alumni and substantially detract from the pool of unrestricted donations. Since the school wants one point of contact with alumni and is determined to maximize its unrestricted funds, this project was unsuccessful.
- Lunch Equivalency: This program was rejected because there are already many lunch options and it would create a great financial burden on Dining Services. See the ready made lunches bullet for the compromise that was reached.
- Term Bill Laundry System: This project—putting laundry costs on term bills—was brought to the Senior Staff and tentatively rejected. The school recommended resubmitting a more environmentally friendly program. The project also faces substantial financial hurdles. A substantial initial investment would be required to put this system in place.
- Concerts Endowment: This project progressed well through the spring and over the summer. By the beginning of the fall, CC had worked with administrators and altered it into a more flexible fund for any type of performance. The project had taken hold and was progressing nicely. Then the financial markets collapsed in September. As other financial priorities took over, this was put on hold. Given its initial success, it should be taken up when market conditions improve.
[edit]
Historic CC Pictures
See Historic CC Pictures page.