4/7/19 Students’ Council Meeting Minutes

Each week, Students’ Council releases meeting minutes to the Haverford community. The ideas represented in these minutes do not necessarily reflect verified facts, nor do they necessarily capture all of any speaker’s intended point. The original document released by Students’ Council can be found here.

Sunday 7 April 2019

5:15 PM – 5:50 PM

Minutes by Katie Leiferman and Mariana Ramirez*

Meeting Minutes

Table of Contents

1. Attendance
2. Officer Updates
3. Absent Officer Updates
4. Surplus Discussion
5. Mental Health
6. SC Senior Awards

Minutes

1. Attendance
   1. Council Members
      1. Co-Presidents: Andrew Eaddy & Maurice Rippel
      2. Co-Vice Presidents: Sydney Churchill & Sean Hashemi
      3. Co-Treasurers: Alejandro Wences & Danny Mayo
      4. Co-Secretaries: Katie Leiferman & Mariana Ramirez
      5. Officer of Multiculturalism: Jhoneidy Javier
      6. Officer of Academics: Ethan Lyne
      7. Officer of Arts: Rachel Kline
      8. Officer of Athletics: Claire Cai
      9. Officer of Campus Life: Tina Le
      10. Representative of International Students: Jason Ngo
      11. First Year Rep: Jacob Gaba
      12. Sophomore Rep: Devi Namboodiri
      13. Junior Rep: Katie Guild
      14. Senior Rep: Julia Blake
   2. Absent: Marked with Red
   3. Late: Marked with Orange
   4. Guests: Mike Elias and Michelle Leao
2. Officer Updates
   1. Katie: We have one response from the Ford Form. The person is concerned about two things–One, the DC doors which slam incredibly loud and their lack of handles which prevent people from coming inside. The other point was about the doors to the VCAM which are a safety hazard and a “threat to human dignity.” So, does anyone know who I can reach out to to address this concern?
   2. Andrew: Facilities
   3. Ethan: There is a reason there aren’t handles on the outside
   4. Julia: But then how do you eat outside?
   5. Katie:  Also, CER reached out to us about starting an initiative in the WC, so we will be starting it this week–it’s a “green blurb” that contains facts and tips for students to be more environmentally responsible on campus!
   6. Katie G: Ethan and I will discuss what we have been up to later in the meeting.
   7. Alejandro: We sent out the emails about campaign money, hashing out last minute budget stuff.
   8. Danny: The last day for us to write checks is April 22nd at 5pm.
   9. Jacob: I have been working on the normal first years dean council things including competitions for merch for frosh. Also continuing Dean’s library project. Also working with Claire on affiliating Haverford with “It’s On Us.” She talked about it with Wendy in their weekly meeting and gave me some info to follow up on.
   10. Rachel: I don’t have any updates. I can try to bump the James House applications in my position.
   11. Julia: I don’t have any updates.
   12. Devi: I’m trying to bring back the blackout boards, so I’m talking to Jhoneidy about that after SC today. I also want to help facilitate the CER audit with the treasurers in CER.
   13. Julia: What’s the blackout board?
   14. Devi: An open forum (it was present until last years’ seniors were frosh) and it is where people would post about issues on race and marginalization. I think with all the Customs issues, and other issues of marginalization on campus, it is important to bring this conversation on race, marginalization, and identity back. I want to try and modify it in a way that it can be 2.0 project.
   15. Rachel: Why did they stop it?
   16. Devi: Some people called out individuals on it. Then people would respond, and it created a toxic environment. So, if we use guidelines it could be more productive.
   17. Rachel: Anything anonymous can devolve into that.

1. Absent Officer Updates
   1. Claire: Met with SAAC on Tuesday. There’s interest in consolidating the collected information about the student athlete experience and having the different groups focusing on this topic work together. We also talked about how Customs relates to the student athlete experience. Points include working more with Customs Heads/leaders to start this conversation, encouraging more student-athlete participation in Customs, and increasing communication between coaches, captains, and Customs Heads. Also, Met with Wendy on Wednesday. Checked in on Div3 week related activities.

1. Surplus Discussion
   1. Andrew: We have a pretty sizeable surplus. Traditionally, that would roll over until next year. But, I wanted to talk to see if people had ideas on what to do with it? One thought has been paying for Customs’ meal tickets or using it to try and subsidize Customs program. Another thought I had was using a portion to be open to applying for grants for entrepreneurial initiatives.
   2. Devi: Over fall and winter break there are international students who have to stay on campus and they usually have to pay for the meals at the DC, whereas athletes don’t have to, so maybe we could subsidize the cost of meals for people who have to stay over break for financial reasons.
   3. Andrew: I also know OMA break pantry has had to come down a bit because of financial reasons.
   4. Ethan: I don’t think there is a need for a huge influx of money for clubs, so maybe using the money towards facilities fund for students to access that way?
   5. Jhoneidy: Since Ehaus will not be a community house next year, some folks have been talking about setting up a food pantry there. A place where students who are low-income can get access to food. I know Shaleia Thompson and maybe Alicia are involved in trying to get that together?
   6. Andrew: I will send out a google doc for people to put their ideas on after the meeting and we can decide next week
   7. Devi: Also, I think we could do something with textbooks for people who need money for that.
   8. Alejandro: I think there are some policies around that for financial aid, so talk to financial aid about that.
2. Mental Health
   1. Katie G: There were a lot of suicides on college campuses publicized on the media, so we started thinking about this sense of over-exertion and the rise of mental-illness on college campuses. We started talking about how normalized this pattern of stress is normalized on Haverford’s campus. We reached out to community members who have been doing mental health work on campus.
   2. Ethan: We recognize people discuss these issues a lot, so we don’t want to mirror what others are already doing. One thing we have seen is a lot initiatives surrounding mental health on this campus. However, there is little use of these resources–there’s a disconnect. The best thing we can do is support what is already happening and encourage connections between initiatives.
   3. Katie G: We think there is a lack of awareness, but more so a normalization of mental health struggles and over-exertion on campus. We think in order to increase participation there needs to be a shift in this culture, mindset, and conversation around mental health–breaking down stigma of reaching out, but also recognizing that we don’t need to be in this space of turmoil all the time. We think it would be cool to have a student council and student driven initiative to act as a disruption to this mindset–something really simple.
   4. Ethan: Essentially having a day/time where we have lawn games, tables out on founder’s green as an encouragement for people to take a break, play a game, work outside, enjoy the spring weather–to take a breath. An intentional even to disrupt what people typically see.
   5. Katie G: We are hoping that while this is simple it could be something that happens every week and something that is visual to start this conversation. For example, have flyers/pamphlets distributed describing intentionality behind the space. This could encourage community and destressing, while also starting a new conversation in a formal way.
   6. Ethan: Given the surplus in the StuCo budget, there is enough money that we could put to use to really benefit sutdents.
   7. Katie G: We would love to get feedback!
   8. Julia: How is this different than pinwheel day?
   9. Katie G: We want it to be more than one day, and it is a space that could be used anytime during that day.
   10. Ethan: There’s also no games/association with taking an intentional break–no resources provided to students to encourage them. Knowing that these periods of severe stress occur throughout the semester, we can extend resources beyond finals week.
   11. Andrew: What kind of next steps do you need from SC to move forward?
   12. Katie G: Budget-wise we need money to buy lawn games. Also, large lawn games function as a disruption of space and along with that of our mindset and routine. We would also love support getting the word out there.
   13. Ethan: Also logistical help getting things outside. Is there a good day to do it?
   14. Alejandro: Mike Elias also has a lot of games available
   15. Rachel: There is also a badminton net.
   16. Alejandro: Also other club sports might loan you some stuff.
   17. Katie: Maybe every Sunday you can check the week weather and choose a date, and then we can put it in the WC which day that week it will work.
   18. Katie G: Yeah that sounds perfect.
   19. Andrew: I think it would be cool if you included connections to the wellness center.
   20. Katie: Yeah we were going to reach out to Brittany and Franny also because they are doing a lot of work with the wellness center.
   21. Andrew: Anymore feedback?
   22. Katie G: Also, Brittany and Franny are working with Kelly on creating the wellness space and we have talked to them about potentially coming to a SC meeting to let everyone know what they have been up to.
   23. Ethan: I also think it would be fun if each day that we do it there is a different inflatable game, where there is something large and disruptive to draw different people in. I think we should be intentional about the kind of people we are trying to get out there–would bringing soccer balls bring certain people into the space to make it less accessible.
   24. Rachel: The giant chess board would bring in the huge chess community on campus
   25. Katie G: We also want to have an action with an achievable goal to do that work, so we thought that was a good place to start.
   26. Andrew: I will also add that to the google doc so people can comment
3. SC Senior Awards
   1. Andrew: Last thing, is SC senior awards–do people know when the next StuCo is going to be elected?
   2. Alejandro: Sunday.
   3. Andrew: We will be meeting with the new SC to select who is going to win the new senior awards. Any preferences for how that space looks like?
   4. Rachel: Not 8am like last year.
   5. Katie G: Food! The place we had our meeting was nice–common space in Ardmore.
   6. Andrew: Yeah, but it will be a pretty large group.
   7. Julia: It will be facilitated by the new presidents and seniors won’t be there.
   8. Andrew: We only have a few more meetings for the rest of the year. Keep an eye out for my email tonight. Thanks!

*These minutes reflect summaries written by Katie Leiferman ‘20 and Mariana Ramirez ‘20. Questions/comments? Email hcsecreatries@gmail.com or submit to the Ford Form.