Attendance: Emma, Thea, Julia, Maria, Jorge, Claire, Yasmin, Grant, Clay, Emmeline, Kelly, Tim, Vy, Ben, Nicole, Julie, Irene, Stefan, Grace, Nicole, Yuriko
Agenda:
- Reflections
- Voting on Procedures
- Voting on Budgeting Guidelines
- Voting on Posting Policy
- Senior Awards (non-minutes)
- Closing Remarks
Reflections
Maria: Welcome to the last general StuCo meeting, we have made it. We’re going to start off, with instead of check-ins, share what your reflection was. Base it off of that. We can start with Grace.
Grace: I reflected on my organizing that you want to be on top of that and that was the hardest part of my transition. There was no oversight really telling me what to do and I got to decide what I wanted to do.
Ben: In my reflection, one of the things I addressed was my two semester unsuccessful project to reform Bionic and make it easier for students to use. After many meetings I decided that as long as we have Bionic there is not much we can do to change it. However, we will not keep Bionic forever, so when the time comes for Haverford to purchase new software, it is very important that StuCo keep an eye on the dean’s office.
Nicole: I was focusing on advice and what the future freshman rep can do, like continuing conversations around dialogue and how freshmen can participate.
Kelly: For me, it was to have fun, be organized and be confident and choose Haverfest co-heads in the fall semester.
Emmeline: I focused on institutional memory for senior week. Something that was hard is that Schaff left and took all of her contacts. So there wasn’t a lot of documentation. I have been trying to compile all of this, so the biggest thing is being organized to make it a quicker process for next year.
Julie: I also talked about my two goals, to have semesterly art festivals and have a map of the arts at Haverford. I accomplished the first one. There are resources and things I did. The second one was a really big project and involved that it was hard to gather people to contribute. I got almost no contribution. I think that in the future coming up with more concrete steps and relationships right off the bat would be better.
Irene: I focused on BIPOC joy. I emphasized there is a lot of planning and logistical stuff behind it. There are a lot of people in offices you need to get in contact with. Planning ahead always helps so I just put down some advice. I also wrote down that Bukky and I created the Affinity Group Coalition and we had trouble with turnout for some of those meeting.s We want to make sure that next year’s AGC co-heads are in contact with the affinity groups.
Clay: I am working on nominations and elections currently going on.
Stefan: I talked about the strike remembrance panel that the class reps worked on. As well as my CPGC event. For the general class year representative, I talked about the different committees that are available to be a part of.
Grant: Kabir and I are continuing next year, but most of our position next year has been getting the appointment committee up and running. Implementing that this coming semester is going to be exciting and we are going to make sure this process happens moving forward.
Vy: I had difficulty reviving ACC, we are planning an event during Haverfest. Moving forward, we need a more established group, especially with sophomores and first years.
Tim: I am working on making the google drive more organized. It is a challenging process. That will be something I can do next year.
Matthias: I talked about writing roots for the board of manager’s meetings. Also something that me and the co-presidents have talked about is a semesterly info session for students interested in Investure. This was spurred from students by environmental groups, and SJP and JVP who had concerns relating to anti-militarism. I have set up a process with Jesse for next year to make these info sessions a thing.
Julia: In my reflection I talked about how they have to maintain communication with ISO and Res Life. The lounge only exists because of Scott. The near future, to continue communication with Dean McKnight for a better lounge, as this was meant to be a temporary lounge. Maybe in the future, have in mind that he has promised us a non basement lounge.
Yasmin: I have been working on our institutional memory report. Something that comes up is there are always a lot of small things that are really important to be passed down.
Claire: I have been working on making documents about constitutional interpretation and how StuCo has interpreted the constitution. I have also been thinking about ways to update and change the website.
Erin: We have gotten a good amount done with the Nest, now we are just waiting on the Clerk article. We have been training the new co-treasurers.
Thea: Our reflection mostly focused on the policies we have updated, both the posting policy and the email policy. As well as learning how to set boundaries when needed with our job.
Emma: We also emphasized organization. Between taking minutes and all the emails we send, it’s important to stay on top of everything. We also had some advice about navigating the facilities fund and knowing what kinds of things the fund can be used for.
Jorge: That sounds great. Thank you all. We are all happy you got to grow so much in your positions. I remember our first check-ins and everyone was more hesitant. We can see how much you have grown. We are very proud of everyone.
Maria: Also it’s important that you are leaving something behind for the person coming after you. I am very impressed by all of your reflections.
Voting Procedures
Voting on Posting Policy
Thea: This past month we have been working on revising and reorganizing the posting policy. Our main goal was to make it more readable and easier for the average student creating a poster to navigate.
Emma: Some of the changes that we made are including a section about the honor code, guidelines on where to post, what’s mandatory and what’s recommended. We also added an example poster. We also receive feedback from students that are a part of the Students’ Event Accessibility Committee about how we could make the posting policy more accessible.
Thea: We met with both Dean McKnight and Scott about the policy, and they have approved it. All that is left is for StuCo to vote on it, and it will go into effect starting next semester. Are there any questions?
Ben: Where not to poster, it says all external doors, why not on doors?
Emma: If you are stopping outside a building to read, you can be hit by a door. It has happened in the past, it is more of a safety issue.
Matthias: If it is something that someone could sue the school over, then it’s a problem.
Grant: What is going to cause people to change this? Because someone is not going to go around to take posters down. Also how would you put posters up in dorms if you cannot access dorms other than your own.
Thea: This is a long term problem. For the external doors, it’s up to the student body to enforce the policy, and facilities will take posters down. The dorms thing, it comes down to if you wait outside a building for ten minutes you will be let in. There is nothing we can do about that though and there are so many other places to poster.
Jorge; The poster policy last week came into a lot of conversations. I think it is really important we do vote on a policy and have a clear way to communicate the policy. There is no doubt there is a need for a policy.
Grant; It says we allow postering inside resident bathrooms. Is there a reason why?
Emmeline: Like the stall street journal.
Grant: So I could put up posters in any bathroom on campus?
Thea: Yes, you can.
Jorge: Something for the librarians to have in mind, it says it will be till 2026.
Emma: It is required to be looked at every 2 years. We are already planning to update it next year. We will be working with SEAC on this.
Maria: At the beginning of this year people didn’t even know there was a posting policy. To ensure that StuCo knows it’s in their purview shouldn’t they update it every year.
Thea: We have now made the poster policy say Co-secs instead of StuCo so it doesn’t get lost.
Emma: We also are going to start sending out the email and posting policy at the start of every semester.
Jorge: Yeah I think it’s good to have in the constitutional stuff that Co-Secs have the ability to revise the policy whenever they see fit.
Maria: Should we add something about sending out the posting policy at the beginning of each semester.
Thea: It is in the email policy.
Ben: Why not on light posts?
Thea: That is facilities’ rule.
Maria: Can we send out the policy during elections so people can be reminded?
Jorge: Any other questions? I think we can move onto voting. All those in favor raise your hand. All those against? Abstain? This policy passes.
19 in favor, 1 abstain
Voting on Budgeting Guidelines
Erin: We put in our plenary resolution that we would like to start voting on the club funding guidelines at the end of every semester to approve it for the next semester. We are voting to approve this for next semester
Maria: What has changed from last semester?
Erin: Nothing.
Maria; These will be used in the fall.
Erin: Yes
Jorge: Do we mention the raw food policy?
Erin: No. It will be added next semester.
Jorge: It is a long policy. The budgeting committee is very familiar. Are there any questions?
Ben: It says to be registered as a new club, you need five distinct Haverford members, I remember it being three in the past.
Erin: Since I started last semester it has been five.
Grant: Is there a plan to talk about if you don’t spend the money, what happens to it.
Erin: For reallocations, they are mostly for items that are out of stock, you can purchase something else. We try to keep it limited to things that can be replaced or interchangeable. We are doing reallocations through rolling budgeting. We are having people submit requests because it is hard to make decisions like this through emails. We have been discussing with the new co-treasurers how to streamline this process.
Stefan: For transportations, it says there can be exceptions, what is that?
Erin: If you have to pick up from restaurants that don’t deliver and you can’t get delivery that is what it is.
Maria: In that case we can move to voting. All those in favor? All those against? Abstain? The policy has passed.
Unanimous approval
Senior Awards
[The selection of the awardees were picked from the nomination form sent to the student body on April, 15. 2024. The awardees were voted on by the entire council. Any nominee in StuCo was exempted from participating in the voting of that given award.]
Not in the minutes due to confidentiality.
Solidarity Statement
Jorge: We got an email from Barnard to sign a solidarity statement. There is a lot going on at the Seven Sisters.
Emmeline: Can we talk about the context a little.
Jorge: What happened on Friday at Columbia is that SJP along with JVP and other organizations started an encampment to have demands met, which is divestment from any organization aiding the war in Gaza. What the college did, the president was invited to congress, and they called the NYPD to arrest students involved with encampment. This has not been seen on this campus since like the 60s. They suspended students, and some of the organizations got shut down. This letter is addressing the issue that both Barnard and Columbia are going through.
Maria:
“Dear All,
The student government of Barnard College is writing this email to urgently seek your attention and support regarding alarming events that have happened on our campus the past few days. As you may have heard, Columbia University and Barnard College recently authorized the arrest of over 100 students by the NYPD during a peaceful protest. These students were also suspended, leading to the loss of access to student housing and food. Not only is this an aggressive violation of the freedom of speech and expression on university campuses, but it is also an utterly unacceptable treatment of the very students we represent.
That being said, we are asking for your support in upholding the freedom of speech and expression on campus and in holding the University and College accountable for the unjust arrests and suspensions. Please find attached a letter detailing this incident and a call to action here, written by our Representative for Seven Siblings Relations,__________.
Should you wish to be a signatory of a joint statement prepared by Barnard College, please reply to this email as soon as possible and we will share this statement to your emails. This statement will require an image of your student government’s logo to be included, and the name of your student government will be added at the bottom of the statement.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.
In solidarity,
Barnard Student Government Association.”
Maria: All those in favor. All those against. All those abstaining.
Unanimous approval
Maria; Our final closing event is this Friday 4-6 at the newly opened skate house.
Jorge: There will be merch for everyone. Thank you!
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