12/9 Committee Reports!

Prepared by WSA Coordinator Izaak Orlansky '08 and the Committee Chairs.

WSA Committee Reports for the weeks of

Dec 2 – Dec 9 2007

Highlights

1. Community Outreach Committee (COCo) discussed ways to protect students through the new camera policy in the Public Safety Advisory Committee.
2. Educational Policy Committee (EPC) is getting ready to meet with President Roth at the next EPC meeting.
3. Executive Committee (EC) has no highlight.
4. Finance and Facilities Committee (FiFaC) had a delicious dinner at La Boca on Thursday. The Molten Lava Cake was scrumptious.
5. Organization and External Affairs (OEAC) worked really hard on getting competitive elections and preparing to get out the vote.
6. Student Affairs Committee (SAC) is happy to see that funding was approved for a new part-time therapist at the Office of Behavioral Health Services.
7. Student Budget Committee (SBC) again remained under its $13,000 guideline for weekly spending.



Community Outreach Committee (COCo)

1. Meeting with Leadership Development Intern

Inslee met with Rebecca Chavez and brainstormed a lot of great ideas for facilitating communication between groups starting next semester.

2. Wesleyan’s Sexual Assault Policy

Natasha is contacting the Student Health Advisory Committee and the peer health advisors, Darien is contacting the Yale Crisis Center to hear about their procedures. We’ll set up meetings with the Deans when we get back.

3. 190 High Update

190 High is ACTUALLY almost ready. We have 2 delinquents who don’t have their keys, but will by the end of next week. Cesar and Inslee met with the UOC: they’ll move in during the spring or summer.


Educational Policy Committee (EPC)

1. President Roth to visit the EPC

President Roth will be attending this Monday’s meeting of the student/faculty EPC. He will be discussing some of his ideas for changes to the Wesleyan academic experience, including a possible “capstone experience” for seniors, a re-evaluation of students’ first year experience, and possible thematic groupings of courses. The student EPC will continue to brainstorm about these changes and plans to take a proactive role in making any changes.

2. Curricular Change

The student EPC continues to assemble a list of possible changes to the Wesleyan curriculum, which so far is primarily focused on enlarging pre-existing or creating new programs of study. This is part of an effort to identify “gaps” in the Wesleyan curriculum.

3. Online Course Evalauations

The possible switch to online course evaluations will be voted on by the full faculty at this Tuesday’s faculty meeting. The student/faculty EPC has recommended the switch, but the final decision lies with the faculty as a whole.

4. Issues for the Spring

Looking forward, the EPC discussed several issues to be addressed in the Spring. Highlights include

• the role of the Committee on International Study, which purportedly provides oversight of the OIS (this is Alex’s pet issue)


• how to better make use of course clusters (Sam's pet issue)


• allowing graduate students to register for undergraduate classes through WesMaps
  
• the creation of both student and faculty advisee/advisor handbooks

Executive Committee (EC)

1. Social Justice Day Planning Committee

Social Justice Day Planning Committee met again this past Tuesday and set an ambitious agenda for the day. Among the items discussed were the scope of the day, the application process, and the need to set clear goals to advertise as much as possible. Subcommittees are being formed and will do work during winter break.

2. Dean of the College Discussion

A meeting is being set up with President Michael Roth to discuss the Dean of the College and a possible search next semester.

Finances and Facilities Committee (FiFaC)

1. Transportation Committee

In the last few weeks President Roth, Vice President and Secretary Peter Patton, and Public Safety director Dave Meyer have shown their support for expanding transportation options at Wes. Unfortunately, Transportation Services Manager Marcello Curridori shot most of the Transportation Committee’s ideas down, claiming that there was not enough funding available. The Transportation Committee is hoping to work out the kinks in the next few weeks and get the funds to make their plans happen.

2. Dining

The Dining Committee had its last meeting of the semester. Bon Appetit treated us to a sample of their catering – yummy fruits and cheeses! Some of the things we discussed:

• Starting next semester, Bon Appetit will be purchasing grab-and-go packaging from Bio Mass, a producer of sustainable, biodegradable, and compostable packaging. Check out the Adobe document attached to the committee report email – it’s got BioMass’ answers to FAQ.


• Union Steward Sue Silvestro told us that the AFC sushi workers submitted papers to join the union.


• Last Sunday’s meager dinner in the Marketplace was caused by the last-minute failure of the pizza oven. Unfortunately Bon Appetit did not have enough time to prepare more food to accomodate the 300+ people who usually eat pizza.


• We pushed Bon Appetit to make Summerfields a better venue, because it’s been lacking lately. We’re hoping to see more creative meal options by next semester.


• It’s what you’ve all been waiting for – plans for Late Night Karaoke are in the works.


• The ice cream machine is broken, but hang in there, they’re working on fixing it. Until then you’ll have to settle for that strawberry frozen yogurt…

3. Business Continuity Committee (BCC)

The BCC met and began the early stages of a plan to compile a comprehensive list of all the student EMTs on campus, in hopes that they will all get them qualified for NIMS (the National Incident Management System, developed by the Department for Homeland Security). They also discussed various emergency preparedness plans. Brian has more details.

4. Upcoming Meetings

• The Molecular and Life Sciences Building Committee will be having their final Schematic Design meeting next Thursday. Following the meeting there will be an open meeting for faculty (3-4:30 in Shanklin 107)


• The Sustainability Committee will be meeting on Monday.


• The Code Compliance Board is still trying to schedule a meeting that everyone can make. Oy.

5. And finally…

Melgily is leaving FiFaC next semester to go abroad. We’re going to miss you!!

Organization and External Affairs Committee (OEAC)

1. Winter Elections

The Elections Committee and OEAC ran a great elections week. Here are the participation numbers:

Election # voting % Last equiv. election % Record (year) %
FROSH 208 28.4% 308 42.0% 328 (Fall ‘06) 44.7%
AT-LARGE 745 37.3% 418 24.4% 2007 record!
SBC 895 33.1% 660 24.4% 938 34.7%
SURVEY 721 26.7% 521 19.3% 2007 record!

* OEAC will present a report on the survey results at one of the first few WSA meetings in the spring.

2. Camera policy in WSA meetings

After last week’s meeting, OEAC and any other interested WSA members will be crafting a policy on using cameras in assembly meetings that will both address the open nature of the meeting space and respect guests’ wishes.

3. Thank yous

An official-ish thank you for all the hard work done by those WSA members who will not be with us next semester:

• Alec Coquin ‘08


• JZ Golden ’08


• Morgan McCray ‘10


• Jayvan Mitchell ‘11


• Vignatha Reddy ‘11


• Miriam Rosenau ‘11


• Jessie Schiewe ‘10


• Melgily Valdez ‘09

Student Affairs Committee (SAC)

1. Undergraduate Residential Life Committee (URLC)

• The URLC voted to approve Program House evaluations as recommended by Residential Life.


• Two WestCo Presidents came to the URLC to discuss the issue of Foss Hill distribution. The WestCo Presidents discussed the importance of maintaining WestCo in its current form. The Committee will vote on the issue on Tuesday.

2. Student Life Committee (SLC)

• Some of the new money requests have come in – the part time therapist at the Office of Behavioral Health Servces will be funded. The new money request for First Year Matters and Orientation is still pending. The SLC will try to set funding priorities on Thursday.


• Dave Winakor (University counsel) offered a counter-proposal for the Political Speakers Policy. The SLC will discuss, and hopefully resolve, the issue on Thursday.


• The SLC will also discuss any recommendations made by the URLC.

3. Fire Safeety

Mike sat in on both Fire Safety seminars on Tuesday and Wednesday (Fludie joined him on Wednesday). Students were thrilled to have an opportunity to get $100 of their fine for one hour of their time. Twenty-three students came in total.

4. Other SAC stuff

Preliminary meetings are being set up and taking place regarding the EMT program.

Student Budget Committee (SBC)

1. Argus accounting

Gianna spoke with the Argus's business manager, Andrea Mak, about presenting an end of the semester spending report sometime during reading week

2. SBC paperwork

SBC paperwork was slowed, as Lisa Hendrix was out sick for the week.

3. SBC privileges

Gianna enjoyed one of her first SBC-affiliated perks as she got into Orquestre Fiebre for free on Friday night. (The person taking money at the door recognized her as having allocated funds for the event.)