Attendance: Victoria, Emma, Thea, Yasmin, Kabir, Grant, Yehyun
Agenda: StuCo Exec Board Agenda 24/25
- Call to order (1:00-1:02)
- Roll Call (1:02-1:05)
- Adoption of Agenda (1:05-1:06)
- Approval of Minutes (1:06-1:07)
- Community Comments (1:07-1:17)
- Old Business (1:17-1:27)
- Takeout containers
- 3rd party speakers shared governance group
- New Business 1 (1:27-1:42): Danielle Lynch
- Long term plan for intramural / club sport funding between StuCo and Athletics.
- New Business 2 (1:42-1:57): Community Houses
- Discussing changes in funding for community housing
- Adjournment (1:57 – 2:00)
Call to Order
Victoria: I call this meeting to order at 1:05pm.
Emma: More than half of Exec board is in attendance. Quorum has been met.
Victoria: I move to adopt the agenda. I also move to approve the minutes. Any concerns? The agenda is adopted and the minutes are approved.
Community Comment
Emma: Guests please say your names for the minutes.
Danielle: Hello everyone, I am Danielle, she/her pronouns, director of athletics. I am sorry I can’t be in person, I am a bit under the weather.
Club & Intramural Funding
Victoria: Kabir, I believe you have the best grasp on this new business.
Kabir: Grant and I are the co-vps of StuCo. We wanted to use this ExecBoard meeting as a space to discuss some of the events with highest participation across the college. This is specifically intramural sports. It’s more so questions about your perspective on how you see the state of it right now and how it develops. Fustol and IBB have over 100 people signed up. We wanted to ask some questions about it. To begin, where do you see intramural sports right now and their place at Haverford?
Danielle: Intramural sports fall under athletics. In the past, we have had some budget used for intramural basketball to support commissioners and refs. However, we have not had specific budgetary money for this. As a result, I don’t have any earmarked money for intramurals at this time. I would love to talk more about this. I think with budgetary cuts across campus and within athletics, it does get a bit challenging. I think it’s a great opportunity for us to put our heads together and decide what we want this to be collectively. If we have so many students that are interested here how can funding be assigned to support these efforts? In transparency, there is no budget. Also in transparency, that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in assigning funding to support these interests.
Kabir: Thank you so much for that thorough response. For some context, Grant and I have been co-heading the futsal league. We have had the experience of working with athletics. The entire athletics department has been very supportive. We are also aware of there being no room in the budget. A part of haverford athletics 2030 plan is to continue providing support for students to improve athletics. In terms of the next five years, what is the long term road map for securing funding and institutional support for intramural sports?
Danielle: It certainly can start here with these conversations and identifying a budget. I know there is also a surge in intramural volleyball. I want to provide equity across the board for everyone. If IBB is receiving funding and others are not, and we cannot provide funding for everyone, then we can’t give funding to any intramural teams. I don’t think that is the ultimate direction we want to go in. We want to do something smart, throughout, budgeted and equitable. There are many things in the action plan. It also speaks to having club and intramural sports under athletics. That may be something happening later on, maybe not the first phase. That gives us time to figure out what we need. We know what the costs are and we know how we can improve. Coming together and talking about where we can put a line item for intramural sports for what each sport is allocated and the plan for each sport. I respect the role StuCo plays, and I would love to learn from you all as well to get these funding sources identified and advocated for. I would love to see the ways in which you can do that.
Victoria: As a bridge for the student body, we are also a bridge to administration. We are hoping to continue our relationship with the Haverford board of managers to better tackle questions like these.
Danielle: That is a great example. You have access in a way I do not. Whatever best practices you can shed in that arena would be great. If you are going to the board, and saying this is important and how do we make it happen, if we can have a united front, saying this is important, here is the data, let’s get some funding. I think your voices are very powerful.
Victoria: We have a lot of the pieces. Several students are interested and passionate about this. I hope we can bring something to the next board of managers.
Danielle: Aside from intramurals, is there anything else that StuCo is seeing that would fall under the athletics realm?
Kabir: I think this continues conversation from last year, about club sports and facilities and the policies. Last year was a great first step in adjusting the policies. We worked with Megan to continue enabling access to facilities that are realistic, you said, that maybe beyond phase 1, integrating club and intramural into athletics. How do you see that looking like, what would change?
Danielle: What would ultimately change is Tyler would shift to being under the athletic umbrella instead of Student Engagement. There are still needs for him in Student Engage that are beyond the club sport realm. It is figuring out those pieces a bit more. I have a position that is an administrator for intramural, club, P.E. That is a suggested item that could be supportive and would allow us to bridge that gap. When I arrived, club soccer came to me saying that they don’t get any time on the turf fields. I responded and set up a meeting, and from there we want to find time for club soccer to access Swan Field. The student said he had been sending this email for multiple years and never got a response. I am glad that we could start working on this. I really believe our action plan should positively affect all students on campus no matter where they fall. I don’t know how long it will take, I have been told the action plan is ambitious, but I believe that is what is needed to get us up to date with peer institutions. My hope and goal is that this can all be housed under one umbrella allowing for us to work and everyone’s needs being met. We are tapped in terms of facilities space and outdoor turf space. The single turf is really challenging to implement. We have an awesome opportunity in the field house and GIAC. Even that is being utilized more than it ever has. I am glad it’s being used but I think it will take a little time to figure out how this will look like budgetarily. I want our offerings to reflect what students are interested in.
Oliver: I would say, on the budgetary side, Tyler already has a pretty good understanding of everything, but we can provide any historical or current information in terms of budgets, or even work out a transition plan where it doesn’t all have to happen in one year if that would be helpful.
Danielle: That is a great suggestion. I would love to think more about that.
Kabir: I think just to summarize, as students we are only here for 4 years. One of my aims is to set up these foundations. Even when we aren’t students anymore, these foundations can carry on and keep engaging the community. We will keep talking. We will keep pushing. Thank you so much for making the time to speak with us even when you are under the weather.
Danielle: I am also happy to reconnect for a follow-up meeting. I would love to partner with you all, if there is some sub-committee to create this action plan.
Kabir: That would be lovely, we will follow up with you.
Danielle: Have a great day and enjoy the weather.
Kabir: Thank you so much.
Old Business
Victoria: Now let’s circle back to old business. The first thing is the takeout containers. We had mentioned that there was some sort of google form where students could fill it out and gain to-go box access depending if they were sick or scheduling conflicts. However, we could not find this form so we reached out to Mike and Tom from Dining Services. They gave us some clarification. They said, “There is no Google request form for takeout. We have Wufoo forms for requesting special meals. These links are issued through Health services and spiritual life offices.
We have a sick meal take-out process in which any sick student can come to the DC and get a take-out box. They tell the checker they need a take-out box due to illness.”
There were concerns regarding vegetarian Coop options being cooked on the same griddle as meat options. We received some clarification that this does not happen, but in order to prevent cross contamination, they will use a skillet to prepare burgers going forwards. Next is third party speakers and shared governance structure.
Yehyun: This is the third party speakers, especially in tandem with Meeting the Moment. Jesse Lytle has given an open invitation to any number of students that are interested in giving input on the third party speakers we would like to invite to Haverford. He also wanted to inform that the application for funding for meeting the moment events is still available, especially for the second semester. He wanted to see engagement from students.
Kabir: In the events hosted for meeting the moment by students, will those also include speakers?
Yehyun: Meeting the Moment events do not have to involve third party speakers.
Kabir: Was the open invitation, open to everyone?
Victoria: Anyone.
Yehyun: We are still in the infancy stage for what the structure would look like. But he said we could have any number of students.
Victoria: The way the funding works is not that students can host their own events, but rather submitting a proposal, with an event and speaker and Meeting the Moment helps facilitate that process.
Emma: Jesse Lytle is coming to exec board next week to discuss this.
Community House Funding
Victoria: Can we get names for the minutes?
Joseph: I am Joseph, I am a resident from Film House.
Maggie: I am Maggie and I am here for Lit House.
Payton: I am here for Nerd House.
Antonio: I am here for Nerd House.
Yasmin: I am Yasmin, here for the LCC, not StuCo.
Yehyun: I am sorry for the schedule conflict last week. We were so in the craze with the board that it conflicted. I am so sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you all for coming this week. We really wanted to have the space to hear from the community houses what has it been like so far this year when it comes to institutional support and funding. We have been told from various housing student leaders that the prior funding was divided into $700 for events and $300 for housing items. This was changed to all of the $700 had to be spent for events only and the $300 could not be used anymore.
Maggie: Lit house received $100 total for this semester.
Joseph: Reed Soloman and I met with Amy this semester, who is the new point person, and explained that we only get $100 a semester for events. For Film House, we don’t have too much of a problem as we have a projector, and we have subscriptions for streaming services.
Maggie: For Lit House, it is incredibly unhelpful. We host 5-6 events a semester with 30-40 people at each event. 100 dollars is not enough to host 1 event let alone 6. When Lit House was first established they were told they would get $2500 per semester. They actually got $1000 per semester. Last year we got $700 a semester. This year we got $100 with no explanation. We also met with Amy, it is clear this is out of her hands. She got us $300 extra for events. We really need about $500 to be able to host events, especially the well attended events. We only got the email telling us we only had $100 right before fall break, halfway through the semester. We met to plan all of our events in July assuming we would get the same amount of money. Also I know a lot of people who have been in Lit House for a long time. Since we have been established as a community house for a while, it feels very unfair given that we have been hosting so many events that are well attended
Illy: I’m Illy, this is Oliva, we are part of Diabesties in 26.
Ava: I am Ava Kim and I am representing PANA from apartment 50.
Yehyun: We have an open agenda in the sense that we want to hear from you guys. We want to know the challenges and roadblocks, what are the changes. We can then as student council advocate and provide avenues of support.
Victoria: It’s important to clarify there was a rumor that budgeting cuts were from StuCo. We were not a part of this.
Maggie: All of Lit House assumed that was not the case.
Yasmin: To be transparent, I am not a resident of the LCC. I am one of the co-heads for ALAS. I received some bullet points they wanted to bring up. There has been a discomfort from residents about the lack of communication in funding changes. They were expecting the same support from when they applied back in the Spring. The situation with the LCC was different, there are 6 residents, they got $1000 to plan their events, which is much less than in the past. They used to receive $500 per resident. Now they have a much more strict limitation for how much they can use individually to plan their events. There was also a home improvement fund they used to receive to get furniture and kitchen appliances. Now they are also feeling a financial burden because that fund was not received at all this year. The majority of students living in the LCC are first gen and low income. These things should not be a burden on these students and we should not have to ask StuCo for this money. This should be on the institution to fund.
There was also a concern about cleanliness. In the past, they had a facilities person come and mop the floors as many people come and go through the house, such as our board meetings for ALAS. for this year it was not announced that they would be responsible for this. With how often the LCC is used, they have to clean after the LCC guests. People have been uncomfortable with miscommunication issues.
Maggie: I would also like to stress the lack of communication around budget allocation. We have received budget cuts every year and it is not transparent why or who we need to talk to about this.
Victoria: Do other houses have anything:
Ava: The main thing I wanted to bring up is similar to what was said. I am not the head. For the funds allocated to the PANA, the residents are finding frustrations in that we are not being provided with basic necessities. This means the only thing we are getting is toilet paper and that is being provided by Diamond from REEO. Outside of that, we have been in charge of getting our own paper towels, trash bags in bulk. The basic cleaning necessities is something that students have been upset about. This is not how it was before. With the $1000 we are granted to events, this can only go to events. Some of the residents have been discussing if for our private events we order basic house necessities which are not being provided to us. We are the only affinity house that does not have an actual house. We are in the HCA and to not be provided with basic cleaning supplies and having them come out of our own pocket instead has been a frustration.
Illy: For us, Diabesties hosted an event and we know there are a lot of things that come out of our own pockets, like trash bags for events and no help with the clean up. I’m sure everyone can empathize, we are hosting community events, but it is our living space. We have to make up for that without monetary compensation.
Antonio: We at Nerd House would like to emphasize that we have also experienced a lack in communication, specifically over budgeting. The cuts to house facilities fund for things like mops, soap, dish towels have all come out of pocket by house residents. These cleaning supplies are really important for maintaining the houses as both a living space and an event space. Nerd House is open 24/7 to the community and a lot of people do come. Over the past few years, Nerd house had about 15 residents and had historical funding that was worked out in the past. That was ideal as we host weekly events. Our previous historical funding was $2000 to account for the 14 high attendance events that we have consistently run. That’s been brought into question, it has been very tenuous. It has been uncertain if we could secure money to host events.
Thea: To clarify, last year Nerd House lost its historical funding and got wrapped into regular community house budgeting?
Antonio: Yes.
Yehyun: I wanted to see if the community housing was looped in. Last year when we had Erica in Res Life, Erica and Scott worked to implement a new program where affinity house student leaders would be paid. That was part of the implementation for this year. The redistribution of the $1000 also included not paying the student leaders. I know some affinity house leaders felt lied to when they applied to live in the space and also be a student leader in that space, as they were under the impression that they would be paid.
Victoria: It seems to me there is a major difference between community and affinity housing. I want to ask how much funding you get for each house?
Joseph: Film House is relatively new. As of our last meeting with Amy, it seems that our funding is $100 per semester on the condition that we hold at least three events, one of which being a public event.
Maggie: Lit house initially received $100, we spoke with Amy and stressed that we host six public events and that $100 is ridiculous to host one event, let alone six. We got that back up to $400. I don’t know where that money came from and we are very grateful to Amy. In reality, we need around $500 more in order to operate and host the events that we want to.
Antonio: Where we stand right now, the semesterly budget hasn’t been made transparent. Given the trajectory of how we’ve been hosting events and getting them approved, we are on pace to get $1,400. Our concern is more around security that we can rely on that budget so we can plan our events at the beginning of the semester.
Victoria: The specific space you are in, is that you don’t know what the budget looks like.
Antonio: That is why we would like historical funding.
Illy: It cost around $100 for two events. But that only covered the snacks for these events. So we get $100 per semester. Even though we were promised new furniture, we did not receive this. We received older red couches from an old apartment. That is also a point of contention.
Ava: I believe PANA gets $1000 per semester, including three events, one needing to be open to the greater community. Natasha, who is the head of the house, said that not having a community house supply fund is our main concern. Also, to respond to your point about house heads not being paid, I would say that because Natasha is a wonderful person, she is happy to do it. That being said, it really is a job and I feel like whether it be for the future or just to take note of, that is something that needs to be communicated more clearly or find some way to compensate these students who dedicate so much time and energy.
Yasmin: LCC received $1000 for the semester for events. I don’t remember the conditions on it.
Oliver: For context, we allocate $6000 for six community houses. This is Nerd House, Q House, LCC, BCC, PANA, and one more I cannot remember off the top of my head. So that is $1000 per house. The rest I assume is coming out of the Res life budget. We’ve had very limited on the logic and breakdown of that. It is certainly inconsistent. The amount of funding, not every community house has the same needs.
Maggie: There definitely seems to be a lack of institutional memory for the community house side in terms of where funding is coming from and the amount. In my three years apart of this house there have been three different people we have communicated with. We would like some more transparency and consistency with communication about our funding.
Kabir: For clarification, for affinity and community houses, there have been a lot of promises mentioned.Were the individuals making aforementioned promises and budget cuts designated people a part of Res life, and who obtains funding from Res life vs StuCo?
Yehyun: Scott is in the center of a lot of these conversations. We want to meet with Scott next to talk about these things. From my conversations with Scott a lot of decisions aren’t made by Scott but rather by the controller’s office. That is why we want to hear these concerns. I just want to say, $100 for 3 events is ridiculous. Even hosting one event for 100 is ridiculous as if you are also expecting one of those events to be public, that is not enough money. That is incredibly frustrating. I also see the disparity in funding. A lot of these discussions are with Res life alone. I don’t think StuCo is usually looped in. Have you looped in StuCo in the past?
Maggie: Lit House has always been in contact Res life. We have been under the assumption or at least been told that we bring concerns to them.
Kabir: What distinguishes whether someone goes to StuCo versus Res life.
Yehyun: One thing that Oliver made clear is that affinity group housings receive funding from StuCo funding and other community housings receive money from reslife.
Oliver: I would add that though we fund affinity houses and Nerd House, that comes out of our budget. That is basically something that automatically gets taken out and then Res Life controls how it’s spent. We don’t see the budgets of affinity houses or really interact with them beyond that.
Illy: We typically just communicate with reslife, in terms of furniture they let us know these updates. It was disappointing to see other apartments receive funding instead.
Also we did not see the unexpected cost for community housing, including the trash and the represents like that. We did not know the avenue for communication like that. We had only communicated with reslife because that was the only avenue in general.
Yehyun: We have been talking a lot about funding and communication. Are there other topics that have not been mentioned so far that you would like to voice?
Payton: This is in the same vein of housekeeping. Nerd House has had a consistent problem with mold in our cupboard that we have consistently sent maintenance reqs and asked Amy to help fix. It has been 2 months and it has not been fixed. It is in a slightly difficult area to access but it is where we keep our silverware and it is a large problem that has not been addressed.
Yehyun: StuCo co presidents and some members will be attending the campus safety advisory committee meeting and there is also maintenance there so we can bring it up asap
Payton: Amy has said that the cabinet will be replaced but that will not happen until after winter break. We would like a more immediate solution.
Antonio: Continuing off of a previous point, I imagine this would be a reslife mediated channel. In the event that new furniture is needed , where would we start requesting funds for that. For instance last semester four of our chairs broke. We were able to get those replaced because we were operating off the old budgeting model, but now I don’t know where we would start
Yehyun: That would be mostly a Res life medium. Because you also brought that to our attention we can emphasize that when we talk to Scott.
Illy: I also think from personal experience they have these new furniture allocated storage. I had a dingy cabinet and had to explain how I was getting splinters, so it was immediately replaced. There should be allocated pieces of furniture from the budget. There is a disconnect between the allocation and the implementation into community houses.
Joseph: On the topic of maintenance and cleanliness, I want to state that Film House residents have no complaints about maintenance. Maintenance helps with refilling hand soap, trash bags, and so on. Historically, we have had pretty good relations with maintenance and Res life.
Yehyun: Thank you. I want to say sorry for not getting to you all sooner in the academic year. With these concerns, we will definitely put this as one of our highest priorities. You don’t have to come to exec board meeting to bring up these topics. You can let us know any time to bring up these concerns. We’d like to support you guys as much as possible. I adjourn this meeting at 2:05pm
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