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.
Students’ Council Weekly Meeting
Sunday December 8th, 2019
5:15-7:00pm
Minutes by Devi Namboodiri and Sydney Churchill
Meeting Minutes
Table of Contents
- Attendance
- Officer Updates
- Presidential Updates
- Lunt Update with Mike Elias
- Attendance
- Council Members
- Co-Presidents: Katie Lieferman & Mariana Ramirez
- Co-Vice Presidents: Noorie Chowdhury & Evan Moon
- Co-Treasurers: Dex Coen Gilbert & Eliza Koren
- Co-Secretaries: Devi Namboodiri & Sydney Churchill
- Officer of Multiculturalism: Brittany Robinson
- Officer of Academics: Lev Greenstein
- Officer of Arts: Mackenzie Somers
- Officer of Athletics: Rodrigo Zuniga
- Officer of Campus Life: Katie Chung
- Representative of International Students: Saket Sekhsaria
- First Year Rep: Rasaaq Shittu
- Sophomore Rep: Natalia Cordon
- Junior Rep: Brian Hu
- Senior Rep: Emily Lin
- Absent: Marked with Red
- Late: Marked with Orange
- Council Members
- Officer Updates
Mariana: We did it guys, it’s the final stretch, it’s the last Meeting of the semester! Brian do you want to get us started with updates?
Brian: 1) I helped out Margaret Zhang with her Sunrise Events. 2) I met with the Board of Managers. 3) I am going to meet with Rebecca Avery soon in the next week. I will flush that out for next semester.
Dex: Engage is getting set up we met with Haverfest coheads to get that set up, they want more money for Haverfest from the surplus just to put that on everyone’s radar.
Eliza: There might be less money actually available that there we thought there would be because people are still cashing checks but after this Thursday we will know how much surplus there is
Katie L.: Your plan is to make the form for the surplus and send it out to all the students?
Eliza: Yea
Mariana: How much are you guys anticipating will be available for the surplus?
Dex: Have $100,000 but get 15-20 check requests a day so hard to tell how much will be used up.
Sydney: We have five responses on the form so we can go through and discuss them.
Hi! Is it possible for the SC to ask the college to fix the flickering desk lamps in the Science Library? The majority of the desk lamps there have had this issue for at least 2 years by now. Thank you.
If you’re sending out a poll for the Customs options, please include an option for students that aren’t satisfied with any of the models presented!
I’m not sure who to tell, but I think you can get this information to the right people: One of the two all gender bathrooms on the second floor of the East Wing in the KINSC still has open urinals. This seems like a mistake since most all gender bathrooms that used to have urinals either have individual stalls or are no longer in use (marked with a sign or a trashbag). It would be awesome if someone could fix this. Thanks!
I have gotten emails from “loop” service??? What is this (besides a meme) and how do I use it? Is it a prank? Help!
How can we hold Honor Council accountable when there is a blatant violation of mutual, trust, concern, and respect? How can Honor Council be held accountable for bullying sectors of the student body (sports teams, socioeconomic status groups, clubs/organizations, etc.)? How can we hold Custom teams accountable for ostracizing and degrading other students?
Sydney: I work at the scili, so I can talk to my boss about the lights.
Mariana: I forwarded the loop email to Mike Elias and it is legitimate according to him.
Lev: Just look up Loop and sign in
Katie L.: The Customs survey as of Thursday had 210 free-response comments so I think people used that feature to express those concerns. We can send the facilities email to deal with the concerns about bathrooms.
Lev: What will happen to the responses on the survey?
Mariana: The goal is to convene all the data for Monday/Tuesday. A lot of the comments were very insightful so we want to see if we could build some of the comments and suggestions onto the models.
Evan: Is the form response about honor council shared with them?
Sydney: No, not yet but we can share it with them if we feel that would be helpful.
Saket: I spoke with Teressa about the situation with CPT. If anyone wants notes from the meeting I am happy to share those Unsure how to share them out. *If anyone wants to know from the community email Saket*. We’re setting up biweekly meetings so I can be more in the loop with that. Evan is also involved with this, is there anything you want to add?
Evan: We’re trying to get more voices involved with CPT. So the form is on the international students facebook group and we’re looking for feedback.
Dex: For those that are unaware, what is CPT?
Saket: Curricular Practical Training and it is a way for international students to work outside of college. It’s a whole technical thing that i am happy to talk about but don’t want to take up meeting time on this.
Mackenzie: I emailed Charles about a possible supply checkout system for James House. I haven’t heard back yet but I am also thinking that something that official might not be what we need especially because we don’t have a checkout person. It’s been a slow week with my stuco resposibilities.
Rasaaq: I’ve been planning on meeting with Theresa Thensuan about the consent workshops and will be soon. Tomorrow there should be a meeting with Katrina about the student governance module.
Katie C.: Mike and I emailed Tom, trying to find a meeting time for the logistics of the facilities fund and the components that are needed for the food pantry. We’re trying to figure out what they need from us on this.
Emily: Commencement committee just had a meeting and that included everyone involved, facilities, the Presidents office, etc. Basically, if seniors have concerns, ideas, or suggestions regarding the commencement set up, we want them to let us know and they can reach out and email me..For example languages the program should be in or physical accessibility concerns: I met with the search committee for the new Provost and the timeline is for the end of spring they should have someone. They would love more student feedback. I was the only person there even though it was meant to be a community forum. I emphasized faculty hiring for diversity and with more inclusive initiatives in mind. The academic council which is comprised of faculty is leading this search.
Katie L.: Going off of this, I know Wendy is interested in having a meeting with seniors about what kinds of things they would change and what their experience has been. We were going to put you two in touch about this.
Lev: I was not able to work as much on the classroom climate initiative, but was able to check in with Brian Cuzzlina confirming it’s still happening, the OAR is still interested in it and I will be putting in the plans of what I hope to design based on student feedback, in the coming week and over break and that will start solidifying into workshops next semester.
Rodrigo: I reached out to the registrar for demographic information comparing race/ethnicity of athletes to non-athletes and the entire school. I will present this information at the task force of Athletics and Community this coming Friday. Feel free to reach out to me if you want the data.
Julie Hanss has met with Franklyn Cantor about the situation with Gender Neutral locker-rooms in the GIAC. It’s looking like we have support from the president’s office to include this in the Haverford College 10 year plan, but as far as I know nothing is concrete. I will be joining her in subsequent meetings regarding increased (and much needed) support for LGBTQ+ athletes. Baseball is hosting a toy drive. There is a captains meeting happening with Wendy Raymond and they are going to talk about the athlete-non-athlete dynamic, this is happening in an hour.
Mariana: Are you able to make it?
Rodrigo: Yeah, I’m going to try to be there
Evan: We appointed the Honor Council Librarian: João Pedro de Carvalho ’22 and two people to
CSSR (Committee on Sustainability and Social Responsibility): Ben Laufer ’23 and Emma Castiblanco ’21.
Today we are having interviews for LSAC (Library Student Advisory Committee).
Natalia: We were supposed to have a dinner for SoHo but that was cancelled for the fourth time in a row. I am going to meet with them soon to make sure we can adhere to timelines.
I also went to the campus safety advisory meeting and have a few updates from this. The first thing was the number of hospitalizations and the number of calls already this semester is above the total hospitalizations and number of calls from last year. I have the statistics if anyone wants to see them. We didn’t talk about or address why they think that was happening. The second thing they noted was that smoking has become the new problem in place of drinking. It’s more difficult to monitor smoking than drinking and they said they will respond to calls if someone is violating the smoking policy but they can’t go and tell people not to smoke.
Regarding the hospitalizations and calls they are going to start looking into the reasons for that next semester.
Katie L.: In terms of smoking, do they get calls in terms of people being hurt from it? Or what is making this problem?
Natalia: I think it’s like popularity. Tom King just said that smoking has become the new drinking and I don’t think that reflects the hospitalization/number of calls. I think he meant it to reflect student feedback and changing culture on campus
Mariana: Do you know if it’s going to be a continuous working group and if there will be more meetings?
Natalia: Yes, I think it is going to be
Eliza: Dex and I wrote and email with a final budgeting update for the school and we got one response. So we’re hoping to send that out again and see if we can get more feedback. *Here is the link*:
Brittany: I met with Dean Wilcox to discuss the status of CAPS staff bios/competencies on the CAPs website. She explained that this is a Winter Break project for CAPS staff and that bios should be up after break. (The point of the bios is to give students a sense of the counselor’s experience so that they can better decipher who would be best for them.) Hasibe reached out to the OMA with an idea for an Affinity Group Caucus. So next semester, the OMA will host two meetings for affinity groups to meet to discuss their groups, challenges, and potential collaborations.
- Presidential Updates
Katie L.: Updates from our end: It’s Lloyd lights season and we emailed the lloyd residents and each hall gets 50 dollars to spend and they are going to send us the photos. The winning hall will receive 75 dollars.
The strategic planning steering committee is hosting forums on Monday and Thursday. The questions are super broad, asking how do you feel about Haverford? Talking about what is working well and what is not working well. If you can’t make it, you can always email us and respond to ford forum.
Mariana: On Wednesday we met with Allison Cook-Sather about the course on the Hidden Curriculum at Haverford. The sense that I got is that they are still in the ideating stage. They haven’t applied for funding yet and they are still trying to figure out the vision of the course and how best to support marginalized students. It’s definitely not going to be a course offered next semester because they are still thinking about the purpose of it. Currently, she is working with 11 faculty members to address this idea and as of now they are thinking about making it a quarter class and designing what they want it to look like and how they can work with existing structures such as MSP, Chesick, Horizons, etc., But it is all still very much in the works.
For Customs, as of last Thursday, we had gotten 512 responses to the survey! It’s very impressive that more than half of the campus has voted on the models. Michelle Leao is going to look at the data and see if there are any obvious responses and on Thursday we’re going to be meeting with SWOL and customs committee to figure out the next steps.
Katie L.: In terms of Custom’s Co-heads stuff, it looks like apps for coheads will be going out over winter break. The only other updates is for one-on-one meetings with StuCo members and Co-Presidents, everyone should have signed up for a slot.
- Lunt Updates
Mike Elias: Last week, the health inspector from Haverford Township showed up unannounced and the woman who inspected stopped half way through because she refused to go any further. I went down there with two staff on Friday because I wrote to the staff to figure out what was going on and there were a few major concerns. All of the cheese for sandwiches was so old that it had liquified, everything in the fridges was past expiration, everything in the freezer was unfrozen, the handles were greasy and the countertops were dirty, these were the concerns of the health inspector.
I spoke to management team after and the sentiment was that the college cannot keep this operating the way it is going both from the health safety perspective and in terms of the other issues. At this point, there’s staff interested in the cafe being more operationally sound and we want to consider closing it through the spring and spend good time hiring 3-4 students who are interested in learning how to run a cafe and who would want to put operation policies in place.
The guys who ran it for two years prior, spent a lot of time but this information wasn’t passed down this year and in order for the cafe to continue we need to spend time training everyone.
Also, frankly, it shouldn’t be cash-based because the cash was disappearing faster than it was coming in. There needs to be time to do this properly and set everything up well. It needs to be done in a safe and healthy way, whether we are making money or not it’s super important. That’s where we are right now.
Lev: How likely do you see this *closing Lunt* being implemented?
Mike: I am having a hard time understanding this as well, with the food pantry, which should start building it next week I think there will be food options on campus. My question is more to the group, what is the value of the space *Lunt*? And can we get to a point of commitment with employees to get students to run this properly? Outside of the investment that the previous managers made, is it feasible for students to run this in the way it needs to be? We’re looking at other models too like if the cafe was open thursday-saturday, instead of every day, then it would be more around $12,000 for 15 weeks for operation costs and we wouldn’t have to give $30,000 per semester. For example, if they (*Lunt*) know they are going to spend 11,000 dollars on labor, they would have to hold the money to make a food order and then at some point they would need to have money to roll over to the next semester.
Devi: How many student jobs are there *at Lunt*? And if this was discontinued could they be absorbed into other areas?
Mike: I have to count, probably about 20-24 students and some delivery folks. Everyone gets paid the same amount, there is no tiered structure in terms of labor. One option is that as the food pantry begins to operate, we would need students to monitor the pantry and there are employment opportunities there. There is also more employment opportunities on campus than there are students on campus. I think students could still find jobs in the spring.
Evan: One concern from the community aspect, I think that Lunt and Lunt management has created and been a low-income, QTPOC-friendly space. I am wondering what are the alternative spaces? And what are the measures we can take to make this occur in a way that respects the space and the workers?
Mike: It’s definitely not just about food late at night, it is definitely also a social space. If there is a way we could use the space that would meet both of these needs? (*Cafe and social space*). Could it be an open-campus kitchen space? We don’t have to think about it as just a social space or a cafe. Is there a way we can be more intentional about how we use the space? I’m open to that
Mackenzie: This also connects to an issue that I’ve seen on campus with student-run spaces. I know partially about it from working in James House, there are pros and cons of student-run spaces and the stress of taking care of a place that feels really important to the community. It can definitely feel very isolating and challenging. Happens with things like BLAST, band room, etc.. I wonder if this could become a conversation about staff support and having people that are designated to guide but not overstep. How can students and staff work together to help each other out?
Mariana: Going off of that, something that has come up for me is the idea of self-governance. This feels like another example of self-governance maybe not being the best way to do things at Haverford.
Mike: You make a great point. It definitely ebbs and flows and there is definitely stuff looking from a staffing end can hold us back, but in the end we are able to usually figure something out. In the spaces that you named, there have been changes, with BLAST for example, they report to a staff person. But there is a difference between those types of spaces and in James House you can do things without anyone getting sick but this is different from a cafe which could be much more likely to have an issue such as food poisoning/student safety. The thing is that, its my 5th year here and I see the students want this *Lunt* but I also wonder how our current understanding of what people want is for example if people wanted X in 1999 and we still think that’s what the student body wants but we haven’t taken a comprehensive look at this and maybe that’s something we need to do.
Devi: I remember my freshman year, Lunt was also closed down? I was just wondering in terms of the shutdown and restart process, it was difficult for student workers to struggle with the continuity of that job. The more I think about it, the less practical it seems to have as a place for student employment
Mike: I feel really bad about this one. The only time it got shut down by the health department before was in 2010, then it got turned into the space it is now but it impacts the staff regardless. We need to get it to a point where there is passing down information from generation of staff to generation of staff.
Devi: We just seem to have a campus culture with a lack of institutional info
Mike: We’re trying to use the Engage thing because every group could store their documents in their. I think that it is worth the investment to keep it going but it just comes down to accountability
Katie L.: Is there any way you or the CCPA can make sure the staff are able to work elsewhere and make sure the students can find jobs?
Mike: Yea, I could actually get the data on how many have jobs in other places on campus. We also have to figure out the food pantry stuff and there will be opportunities for student employment there.
Mariana: And you can compensate them for this work?
Mike: Yea, they were going to be paid for the same hours they expected to work until the end of the semester. The financial structure– happy to manage this with the treasurers was to split the 30,000 and we have enough money from a donor to maintain food for LIFTFAR eligible students for break. Within the Dean’s office we have money to support this. Regardless, I think we should allocate around half or more of the $30,000 to the food pantry.
Eliza: Who are you thinking is going to make that decision– Is that an us thing or you thing?
Mike: I guess I am asking for some collaborative process with the decision. I will write a check and then trusting student engagement office to allocate this and I really want you guys to tell me.
Katie L.: Is this a decision we are trying to make in this meeting?
Mike: No, this can be something that a subcommittee of you could work or a decision that you guys get to me after break.
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