Wesleyan Student Assembly — Wesleyan University

Minutes: April 3, 2005, No. 20

WSA Officers

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

Meeting Agenda and Business

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Presentation by Justin Harmon, Director of University Communications, on new mission statement
3. Update from Constitutional Review Committee
4. Committee reports
5. New business and announcements

Opening of Meeting
Meeting opened 7:07 PM.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes approved.

Presentation by Justin Harmon

Justin Harmon’s works with news media and creates internet sites for Wesleyan. Over the past four or five years, the office has been improving the way that Wesleyan is presented in admissions literature, etc. The office is in the process of trying to bring Wesleyan communications into better synchronization. The office wants to convey Wesleyan’s strengths more adequately to smart high school students. Right now, the office is working with some alumni who are now marketers. They have suggested that the office should create a mission statement to attract more attention to Wesleyan. Harmon will present a few of the drafts he has come up with and asks the Assembly to give him some feedback.

Stack

• Karen Courtheoux asks what is the timeline for this. Ideally, in May, says Harmon.
• Elaine Garven suggests that the text should have less prepositions. The title of the second statement is suggested as the best one.
• Brittany Mitchell asks if the mission statement aims to encapsulate students and faculty or just students. Harmon: Ideally, both, but right now it is geared toward students.
• Zach Kolodin suggests that the Office of Communications could use the new key capabilities’ language.
• Dave Woo suggests changing the phrase “men and women.”
• Ben Evar likes the emphasis on problem-solving in the first draft and the emphasis on learning for learning’s sake, but he suggests that students are not part of a factory. A process based education should be emphasized more.
• Nathan Victoria says that the students who end up at Wesleyan are self-selecting. What he likes about the first draft is that it explains how we go about Wesleyan’s goals. The second one explains the goals. Can we combine the two.
• Izzy Greenberg suggests that the mission statement should be more simply worded. Statements about “the world” make the mission statement sound more like the opening paragraph of an admissions brochures.
• Anda Greeney suggests that the wording should change to “find their places.”
• Ali Gomer says that the statement is too focused for what we do after we leave. The immediate connection between Wes and Middletown should also be stressed.
• Harmon says that the University Communications Office could get more in sync if there were a strong mission statement.
• Elaine Garven suggests that there should be a framework that includes matriculation, involvement at Wes and involvement in the outside world.
  Rabs Hutchful suggests that we don’t need to talk about “the world” and should instead focus on communities.
• Nora Connor suggests that we should talk more about ethics instead of morals. “Independent thinking” should also be mentioned.
• Izzy Greenberg suggests that the statement could be shortened to the last sentence of the second draft with some additions.
• Annie Fox suggests talking about bringing different groups together.
• Harmon suggests that we email jharmon@wes if we have any other suggestions. He says that the other half of this is that we will have a consultant, named Ken Lehrer, come to Wesleyan who looks at Wes’s publications. He will be coming on April 18.
• Emily Polak suggests having the members of COCo and CC participate in this meeting but anyone else can email Emily to ask for information.

Constitutional Review Committee Update

Arie Eernisse, Chair of the Constitutional Review, reports on 1) possible voting changes to non-class based representation? Do it this semester or next semester or at all? 2) Article 5 – change “Office Administrator” to something else. 3) more consistent language in Article IV 4. Time sensitive issue b/c needs 2/3 of voting student body to vote in favor.

Stack

• Elaine suggests changing the interim Chair of FifFac
• Zach says that there is a history of changing the way that WSA members are picked. There is no reason to change it now.
• Brittany Mitchell points out that there are not enough people running for the older classes to vote.
• Emily Polak suggests that seniors have a tendency to vote because they want to vote for presidents and vice-presidents. We should talk about increasing the role of our class representatives.
• Jesse Watson suggests that we should look at making minor changes rather than throwing out the whole program.
• Karen Courtheoux suggests that we could possibly change the number of reps from each class, but we should not destroy the whole system because we would be losing important representation.
• Emily Polak suggests that we should add more at-large reps during the fall, not the spring, election.
• Jacob Mirsky says that we should have experienced people on the WSA but that students should represent their classes better.
• Evan Simko-Bednarski suggests that we should realize that there will be distinctions between classes outside of the Assembly.
• Zach Kolodin says that we should look at representation from the Butts.
• Emily Polak suggests that we could have elections for committees.
• Nora Connor suggests that we lower the number of class reps.
• Karen Courtheoux says that having committee-based elections is possibly one of the most disastrous changes to be made. Committees need continuity and informed leadership.
• Izzy Greenberg says that she found the whole process scary. She wanted to participate on COCo but could not do so for sure.
• Karen Courtheoux suggests that we should not specialize before we are even on the Assembly because it can lead to a lack of interest in general assembly issues. Brittany Mitchell says that this has not made a difference in her case.
• Jesse Watson asks if anyone feels that the elections need to be changed. Brittany Mitchell suggests that these issues are important now because the WSA has lost so many people this year and because of the protest movements that occurred last year.
• Courtheoux makes a “plea for simplicity of process.” She worries about putting on too many stipulations.
• Ben Evar suggests that committees would need a lot more visibility if there were to be committee-specific elections. SBC is a special case because it frequently associates with the student body. He thinks that committee-based elections would deter students from running.
• Gabe Tabak suggests that the end result of committee-based elections would be a less democratic process. He also suggests that we keep the process simple, as Karen said earlier. SBC-direct elections are sensible because everyone knows what the SBC does. Tabak says that doing the election now would be extraordinarily difficult.
• Jacob Mirsky says that committee elections would be a bad idea. He also suggests that there could be a sub-chair to help provide continuity in committees. Mirsky also suggests that we should look at why people are dropping out of the WSA and quit worrying about the elections. We should focus on making something out of the decisions. Straw polls to see if we should have five, three or no representatives from each class. Eleven vote for five spots. Seven people vote for three spots. One votes for zero spots and seven abstain.
• Thomas Coen suggests that the precedent set by state and federal legislatures is strongly opposed to direct-committee elections. He straw polls to see who is in favor of direct-committee elections. Twenty-one vote against direct-committee. Five abstain. None vote for.
• Evan Simko-Bednarski suggests that reps can still run on a platform of several critical issues.
• Nathan Victoria suggests that freshmen could possibly have more say in what committee they are in. He suggests that there could be a different structure to the class elections: 6 sophomores, 4 juniors and 4 seniors to account for officer positions.
• Elaine Garven says that we don’t know what the ideal number of class reps is, so we should use this year as an example. She straw polls that we keep the same number of class reps this year and filling vacant class year spots in the fall election. Nineteen in favor. Three against. Three abstain. Second strawpoll: should candidates who lose in the spring elections be allowed to resubmit without rewriting their applications.
• Ali Gomer straw polls: should we change the election policy for this spring’s policy: Two vote for. Sixteen vote against. Six abstain.
• Should we change the Constitution’s wording in describing Cari MacDermott’s position of “Administrator.”
• Zach Kolodin suggests that the Constitutional Review Committee could move the minutiae out of the constitution to the by-laws.
• Karen Courtheoux suggests that we could add something to the by-laws.
• Jacob Mirsky suggests that we should have a debate about more hotly contested issues than something that we are not going to act on immediately.

Committee Reports

SAC

• Dining Accountability Week will start this week. Thomas Coen has created several handouts that he passes out to students. Assembly members are expected to give forms to students so that they can list their grievances. Meet at 11:00 a.m. in the WSA Office to make posters.
• The Multicultural Dean task force will meet this week.

CC

• We will be running the senior elections this week.
• Izzy Greenberg is selected as the member of the week.

COCo

• COCo Yellow Pages will be distributed this week.
• Marcia said something about seeling 5-6 houses each year.
• Middletown Police will be patrolling Wesleyan’s streets on weekend nights this weekend.

EC

• Ask Emily Polak.

FiFac

• Victoria says that several houses are being sold this year.
• Talk to Nathan Victoria.

EPC

• Library Committee has looked into expanding Olin’s hours. Unfortunately, it will not be possible this year.

IPC

• We will need to pay more for our NY Times subscription because this year there has been a billing error.

SBC

• The Cari MacDermott fund is not set on being an endowed fund.
• Ask Brittany Mitchell.

Stack

• Rashida Richardson asks what the police will be doing. Mirsky says they will be looking for students with cups and cans of beer.
• Thursday the 19 th of May is the Senior Semi-formal with buses starting at four.
• Brittany Mitchell says that the NY Times program might be taking away from other student programs.

New Business and Announcements

• Jacob Mirsky calls for people interested in discussing WSA efficiency to meet him after the meeting.

Adjournment
The meeting is adjourned at 9:07 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Arie Eernisse, WSA Secretary