Wesleyan Student Assembly — Wesleyan University

Minutes: January 30, 2005, No. 14

WSA Officers

President: Emily Polak
Vice President: Jeremy Abrams
Treasurer: Brittany Mitchell
Coordinator: Ali Gomer

Meeting Agenda and Business

1. Introduction and brief explanation of how stack works
2. Discussion of the Green Street Arts Center
3. Committee Reports
4. New Business and Announcements

Opening of Meeting
The meeting is opened at 7:06 PM.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes approved.

Discussion of the Green Street Arts Center

Ricardo Morris, Director of the Green Street Arts Center, discusses the new center. North End is one of the most economically troubled area. It goes from end of Washington to route 3. There are many different socioeconomic problems that go on among Italian, Latino-American and African-American. The way that this started was that Wesleyan staff members asked community members what would be the most effective in diminishing problems. It was agreed that getting Wesleyan students to help should be a top priority. President Bennet has helped to make the university more of an active participant in the neighborhood. This is probably the largest project to date to involve Wes students in the Middletown community. Parents wanted their kids to have contact with Wesleyan students, who could teach them how to be ambitious and go “well beyond the North End neighborhood where they live.” It was very important that the project had lots of different partners: city, state and national participation as well as other partners. The hope is that the Green Street Arts Center will become independent of Wes in 5-6 years, but Wesleyan will always have a unique role in its functioning. Everyday there are 20-30 Wes kids to help over 50 students for several hours a day. Each day, there are art programs, homework help, music and other forms of educational enrichment. We are working to make this a pilot program for other universities, such as Rochester, which is looking into a similar project. The other big program is adult school. However, at this time, not enough adults have signed up and some of the classes have been cancelled. For all of the programs, there are people coming from many surrounding communities, not just North Enders. We have a sliding scale of tuition based on students’ income. The median income is $15,000 to $19,000 in the North End. Wesleyan students are working as apprentices in music and dance classes. There is some need for data entry and registration.

Stack

• Karen Courtheoux asks how are the enrollment rates. Morris responds that the Center has 50 with a capacity of about 90. Unfortunately, they have had to cancel quite a few adult classes. They believe that in the fall of ‘05, they will have a deluge of students.
• Jeremy Abrams asks if Morris has thought of getting Wes students in the habit of helping, specifically if it would be a good idea to put information in Wesleyan’s student initiation packet. Morris thinks it is a good idea.
• Zach Kolodin asks about advertisement methods. Morris says that they have sent out over 60,000 packets to get customers.
• Elaine Garven asks if there has been anyone participating in the work-study program for parents to pay for their children. Yes, there has been one.
• Matt Ball asks if there is a flexible date for when the center plans to become independent of the school. Yes, it will be very flexible and could happen at anytime. $750,000 came from the university, $500,000 came from an alumnus, and more came from other Wes sources.
• Brittany Mitchell asks if students might be able to take classes and fill some of them. Yes, Morris says that they are interested in the idea.
• Rabs Hutchful asks if students can work at the Center for work-study. Yes.
• Anda Greeney asks how Wes is involved in the Center. Morris says that all Center employees are Wes employees and that the Center is maintained by the university. Greeney asks what will happen when the center becomes independent. The board will be responsible for deciding what happens after that. Greeney asks, “How successful has the project been so far?” Morris says that it’s hard to tell right now, but there are more policemen in the area. In addition, property owners are improving the appearances of their homes and attending center meetings.
• Emily Polak asks if the parents are becoming more involved in the neighborhood’s activities. Yes.
• Jacob Mirsky asks if there will be any events coming from the center to Wes. There will be some small performances during the spring. Center participants are allowed to attend CFA events and especially events that aim to teach arts.
• Brittany Mitchell asks if the center can advertise the film series. Yes.

Committee Reports

CC

• We will appoint four new members some time this week.
• Ali Gomer will be heading the Constitutional Review Committee this spring. Send her an email for interest.
• Next week, we will meet at 12 p.m. so that the assembly does not miss the Super Bowl.

EC

• There were four of us on stage at the forum. Emily says she got a fair amount of positive responses for the WSA presence.
• Emily thinks that the office of Affirmative Action’s proposal for sustained dialogue needs some restructuring.
• We will be working on finding Carrie’s replacements.

EPC

• Checked on some eSquid things. No one is in agreement about what they would endorse in terms of what can be posted on the Wes website.

FiFac

• Meeting with Manny to talk about Cafsac and major renovation.
• Will start soliciting feedback and find out what people feel about spaces.
• Elaine Garven and Nathan Victoria submitted a university dining services masterplan.
• Got about 10 suggestions about the RIDE.

IPC

• Makaela Steinberg will be coming in to speak about listserv. Social committee has not been cooperating with the IPC.
• Annie Fox has been working on creating a portal from within the e-portfolio for entering information.
• The tree of power will be done soon.

SAC

• Elaine Garven discussed the community forum and goals for the semester.
• Investigating the idea of a multicultural dean.
• Looking to open community forums for the new campus dean. We will note who the finalists are when we find out. We have looked into the possibility of candidate bios being published in the Argus.

SBC

• New meeting time: 2 p.m. on Friday.
• Allocated funds.
• Looking into finding alternative sources of funding for the film series.

Stack:

• Rabs Hutchful asks if faculty will be required to go to sustained dialogue. The Office of Affirmative Action are bringing these programs for 8 to 10 person groups made of students, faculty and administrators. They are looking into how to make it fit into the Wesleyan sustained dialogue. Bennet is having a student of color meeting on Wednesday at noon that is by invite. When are the forums going to be for the dean search. It will depend on the dean candidate schedules.
• Ali Gomer asks if there is anything online to inform students about SBC allocations. Brittany Mitchell says that it would not be a good idea for a few reasons.
• Zach Kolodin asks what Gabe’s main jobs are on Fifac. He says that it is to simplify financial aid processes.
• Emily Polak asks how eSquid should be advertised, asks Karen Courtheoux about the contents of the faculty discussion. Courtheoux says that the faculty could not agree on anything in regard to this issue.
• Karen Courtheoux asks for interested students to contact her about the Library Committee. She mentions that library workers are especially welcomed.
• Anda Greeney asks if work study can be reduced a little bit. Gabe Tabak says that it would be hard to accomplish this goal. One thing he hopes to do is to make it easier for students to find jobs.
• Jeremy Abrams discusses the possibility of an alumni/current student listserv.
• Jacob Mirsky asks why the film projectors always falter. Brittany Mitchell says that it is partly due to old films and the fact that it’s a hard job. He asks if Bennet could come to talk to the Assembly. Emily Polak says she can work on it.
• CRC advisory committee? Jeremy Abrams emailed the director last week, and he has not responded.
• How will eSquid be advertised? Nora Connor says that we could use reslife mailboxes. Elaine Garven suggests stickers on computers. Ali Gomer says that everyone interested should contact her.
• Evan Simko-Bednarski asks if anyone has corrected the factual inaccuracies at the forum. Emily Polak says that there were only two and that one was corrected by a speaker, but they will look into that.
• How can we get more coverage in the Argus, Jacob Mirsky asks. Ali Gomer says that we will try to get a bigger spot advertising our meetings.
• Zach Kolodin suggests that we put a sign on our meeting room door and open the door as well.
• Brittany Mitchell suggests that we should add a schedule onto the door poster. She thinks that we could post a message in the F.Y.I. section since it is free.
• Jeremy Abrams suggests that we could cut the Argus funding by the amount it costs for an advertisement.
• Anda Greeney motions to suspend the rules to change the meeting time. The meeting does not pass. The WSA will meet at 12 for breakfast and will start at 12:30 p.m. sharp.

Internal Election of SBC Chair

• Meeting is closed for this section of the meeting.
• Anyone can be nominated to be elected the SBC Chair.
• Karen Courtheoux motions to close the meeting and allow Pacho Carreno to stay in the meeting during the discussions. Motion passed.
• The floor is opened to allow for nominations of the SBC chair. Brittany Mitchell is nominated for SBC Chair. Motion seconded.
• Pacho Carreno asks why Brittany Mitchell wants to be chair. She says that SBC needs to clarify its role and its identity. There is a lot it can do in the next semester to improve.
• Ali Gomer says that if there are not any strong objections, then Brittany Mitchell is automatically appointed. No objections.

New Business and Announcements

• Jeremy Abrams asks why students are dropping out. Emily Polak says that the EC discussed this earlier and decided that it would rather discuss this topic when the Assembly is fully attended.

Adjournment
The meeting is adjourned at 8:19 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Arie Eernisse, WSA Secretary