Wesleyan Student Assembly — Wesleyan University

Minutes: October 9, 2005, No. 2

WSA Officers
President: Jesse Watson
Vice President: Monica Arduini
Coordinator: Emily Malkin
Treasurer: Matt Ball

Meeting Agenda and Business

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Approval of Newly-Appointed Members
3. Presentation and Discussion by Dean Rick Culliton (15 minutes presentation, 20 minutes questions)
4. Committee Reports (7 minutes each, 15 minutes discussion / Q&A)
5. New Business and Announcements (15 minutes)

Attached Documents
News Coverage of WSA to Date (Word File)

Opening of Meeting
Meeting opened 7:03 PM.

Approval of Minutes
Minutes approved unanimously.

Approval of Newly-Appointed Members
Newly-appointed members approved unanimously.

Presentation and Discussion by Dean Rick Culliton

• New university center: Usdan University Center. 2 years of construction: Completion July 2007. Over the next couple of months, foundation will be completed. Usdan will be triangular, between squash field and Fairweather hall. Building was under consideration for at least 5 years, students have been very involved in the decision making process.
• Ground level: retail space, Broad street books annex, some art supplies. Maybe two or three different operations. Box office and post office will be moved from Davenport. Every student will have his/her/hir own mail box. Living room of the campus center in middle of ground floor: new café, comfy chairs, etc. More flexibility in dinning. Also meeting spaces of different sizes for groups, students, faculty, staff, etc. Student activities and operations will be here (campus programs, catering, administrative offices). Kosher Kitchen will be moved here. WSA office will be moved here, for SBC meetings, office coordinator, etc. Will only replace first floor of 190 High street.
• Second level: main dinning area, will fit 600 people. Can be either board program or a la carte. A lot of this will come forward to dinning committee. Maybe less required meals. Concept foods: Mongolia grill, etc. Lots of light, good views: atrium, terrace, lots of windows, seating around windows.
• Whole building will have wireless.
• Third level: University club, used to be in Downey house. Primarily faculty dinning, students will probably eat here as well. Can be reserved for other activities when it’s not being used for the University Club (lunchtime). Two elevators: pedestrian and service.
• Basement: A lot of space here is mechanical: heating, air conditioning, etc. Also food preparation and dish cleaning happens here. All catering will now be done through here. Steel drums will move here, as well as other musical groups. Team rooms for football. Connected to Fairweather Hall.
• Ground floor: theater and dance rehearsal space. Can be reserved for student groups during evenings and weekends. New Ballroom.

Stack

• Sam Ruth says that current University Club was very underused and had to be discontinued. Wants to know if it will be cost-efficient to have it in the new University Center. Dean Rick says they are anticipating heavy usage, because it’s a more central location than Mt. Vernon Street.
• Rashida Richardson asks about the purpose of the CFA spaces currently used for dance and theater, if those rooms are moved to Fairweather. Dean Rick says that there is a need for more dance and theater space. The CFA will continue to be used.
• Dave Wiener asks what the differences between University club and other dinning facilities are. Waited table service, more expensive. Does this represent a shift from Aramark? Not necessarily. Dinning committee will have to figure out a dinning concept for the future.
• Sean Cortlett asks about handicap accessibility. Dean Rick says accessibility will be greatly improved.
• Annie Fox asks about dinning facility. Will there not be a Freshman dinning facility? This will replace Mocon. Doesn’t seem like a large enough space. Dean Rick says that there is more capacity.
• Gabriel asks about Davenport and Mocon. There will not be use for Mocon anymore, Davenport will be used for faculty, etc. What is the current capacity of Mocon and Davenport? Mocon is around 499. No idea about Davenport.
• Jerry asks about kitchens and type of food: Dean Rick answers that they have to refer to Dinning service committee. Too premature to discuss details.
• Emily Morris asks about late night dinning: New building WILL provide late night dinning. Summerfields will not have late night anymore.
• Natalie asks about area for student events: Dean Rick says that there is discussion about this. There are spaces for it, just don’t know where and how.
• Annie Fox considers lunch line to be a big issue. Also, last year they talked about bigger spaces for meetings. Currently the largest space is for 500. Will there be possible retractable walls in dance and theater spaces? Dean Rick isn’t sure. Fairweather space will be larger than anything we have currently.
• Annie says that the Fauver/Clark aesthetic for interiors aren’t very popular. Dean Rick says that students will be involved with interior and exterior design.
• Recycling question (secretary didn’t get this down)
• Anda Greeny asks about considerations for University expansion: post office with 3,000 boxes will be out of date relatively quickly. Dean Rick says that the place is planned for current population, although there is potential for some increase, not significant.
• Gabe Tabak says that there are no plans to increase student body.
• David Wiener asks about potential job losses in dinning staff. Dean Rick doesn’t know specific numbers, but the new center will require a lot of staff.
• Jerry Ai asks if there is a chance that WesShop would be replaced, maybe a national chain, like Duane Reade, instead of overpriced Aramark? Dean Rick says there isn’t room in new facility for this.
• Matt Ball asks if WesWings will continue operations. Dean Rick says probably.
• Nya Roy asks about how big the stage will be in the ballroom (Dean Rick: stage can be placed here, lots of capabilities, will be comparable to Crowell), and if there will be Veagan options in addition to Kosher (Yes).
• Zelda Ferguson says that Davenport is very handy for grab-n-go dinning. The new plan looks like there will be a lot of congestion. Will there be another café to replace Davenport, instead of just the little one on the ground floor? No plans for new café.
• Nathan Ratner says that the campus center isn’t centrally located. Dean Rick says that geographically, it is exactly in the center. Nathan still wants to know if there is going to be anything else to attract people there. Dean Rick says the building will be very alive, not just during mealtimes.
• Matt Ball asks about THE ping-pong table. Dean Rick says that there will be ping-pong tables and pool tables in team rooms.
• Manny asks about time: probably will be open from 8am till 1or 2am. Staffing is most important.
• Dave Woo asks about THE arcade machine. Dean Rick says he’s not sure we will continue to have it. The arcade machine yields very low profits.
• Anda Greeny asks about possibility of keeping a grab-and-go facility in Davenport. Dean Rick says anything is possible.

Committee Reports

EC

• Jesse Watson: Discussed committee leadership, assembly meetings, Rise/Traverse fence, the Dean of Multicultural Affairs position (Monday, 6pm, Shanklin 107, second session with Dean Maria about this position, please come), Holly Wood’s wespeak, and other topics. The EC will hold office hours at 9pm on Tuesdays in the WSA office. Anyone who wishes to add an agenda item can contact Emily Malkin or Jesse Watson. Specific work items for the committee include:
  • Publicize EC office hours (9-9:30 Tuesdays), in WSA office.
  • Administration structure handout for students and representatives
  • Inviting various administrators to Sunday meetings
  • WSA member of the week
  • WSA channel headlines on portfolio
• Jesse also prepared an informal report comparing WSA news and radio coverage to date with coverage over the same period last year: shows remarkable growth in coverage. Thanks to Josh Brandstader
• The EC is very interested in any ideas of how to increase WSA visibility.

CC

• Website Committee met on Tuesday; worked on coming up with ideas for making the website cleaner, less cluttered, easier to access. Our number one priority right now, however, is updating incorrect and outdated information.
• CC did appointment interviews on Wednesday, met with tons of qualified applicants, and chose (along with Annie and Matt) five new WSA members! The turn-out was very exciting and the applicants expressed a lot of interest in the WSA (as well as lots of confusion about how the WSA runs as a whole)
• Ashley will be looking into creating a folder/filing system for archiving old WSA documents in the WSA office. She’s talking to Lisa about ordering binders on Monday, and we plan on having a system up and running within 2-3 weeks.
• Xiaoxi and Emily are going to try to work with the Argus on ensuring that there is a systemized way for getting the minutes summary in for Tuesday’s editions, as well as putting the agenda into Friday’s edition.
• Emily applied for a WSA lyris listserve, and we should get one it approved with two weeks or so.
• Emily sent out 1st weekly all-campus email from the WSA -Emily and Annie Fox are in charge of channel headlines.
• Advertised for this meeting! (did you see the pretty flyers???)
• Argus WSA logo suggestions?
• WSA member of the week….. No chairs nominated anyone. Shame on you.

EPC

• Sam Ruth: Student (Sam and Dave) and Faculty EPC met on Monday. Reviewed a department's grading procedures which may need to be changed, talked about the new registration process, ratified changes to the Government Dpt.'s major (gened requirements must now be completed by end of sophomore before declaring gov major, will require that double major students in gov department below a certain GPA have to drop a major). Sam and Dave were weary about these decisions, couldn’t really do anything. and tried to formulate an approach to address the advising concerns.
• Dave Wiener looked into better course evaluation sheets. Out of date.
• The student EPC met Monday. Decided to do research on the department in question's grading procedures and advising concerns.

SBC

• The SBC met two times this week.
• Met with Dean Rick about Waiver forms for out-of-school trips. Dean Rick will consult with community service, and get back to us.
• Held weekly hearings. Received budget requests from around 23 groups. Also met Wednesday to finish up decisions on the budgets and go over a few issues for the year. Lisa Hendricks (office coordinator) and Matt Ball began re-doing the object codes on the budget request forms.
• Discussed some of these changes and come up with new ideas for the form. Discussed our new debt policy, which will hold over group debt from year to year, and the status of our surplus.
• Mike will be investigating Physical Plant’s policy on stage rental.
• Emily will be looking in to the discount policy of Staples and WB Mason.
• Rashida will be exploring the situation of WESU, the Argus, Red & Black, and a proposed wireless internet service between the three.

IPC

• IPC met and established the following goals:
  1. Maintain status as coolest committee.
  2. Produce an aesthetically pleasing website and office.
  3. Produce faculty talks.
  4. Advertise WSA programs and gauge student interests.
  5. Get the Cari MacDermott Fund up and running - get money.
  6. Set up meetings with ITS involving free lunches.
  7. Secede and take over the WSA.

FiFaC

• FiFac met and set goals for the year, parceled out jobs:
  • Dining – Zelda, Eric
  • University Center – Katie
  • Financial Aid – Katie
  • Library – Zelda, Katie
  • URLC – Nya
  • Campus Center – Eric
• Responsible Investment initiative – Nya, Eric  
• The dining committee will meet next week. other meetings TBA

COCo

• This week COCo got 4 new members: David, Casey, Jason and Sean.
  • Kieth: activism
  • Sean: program housing
  • Dave: identity groups
  • Casey: performance and yellow pages
  • David: sports and handbook
  • Jason: publications
• Updating splash pages and working and assigning members to groups.
• Will begin to contact identity groups about plans for the dean of mutli-cultui affairs, middletown events, etc.
• Will start working with groups to work on lobbying with the adminstration.
• The waiver policy is in the middle of being impelemented.
• Dave has been in contact with Marrian Whigghim of psafe and will be in contact with AWARE members.

SAC

• URLC-Whitney and Garth OBHS and Health advisory board- Nate
• QTF- Renee
• Raffi met separately with both Dean Maria Cruz-Saco, Dean of the College, and Dean Mike Whaley, Dean of student services, and started planning for the first Student Life Committee (SLC). Meeting with both on Monday to finalize date for the first SLC meeting and to create an agenda.  
• Will meet with Fran Koerting, Director of Residential Life, and discuss issues concerning the Undergraduate Residential Life Committee (URLC). URLC needs to meet soon to deal with these three pressing issues:
  1. Fence between traverse sq. and Hi/lo residences is on hold. We have to decide whether to go on with the project or not.
  2. Fence behind Foss and Fauver residences
  3. Foss Hill dorms renovations… looking into converting the current student storage space into programming spaces, such as kitchens.  
• Other issues:
  1. Buddhist, Film and Womanist houses will be sold.
  2. Gender Neutral Housing (GNH)- For 2009, fifteen students filled the form to live in GNH. Out of the fifteen only four request were legitimate. Reslife approached these four students, and found the location of their residence was more important than living in GNH.
  3. Higher compensation for House managers
  4. Do we want senior wood frame houses to be furnished? WSA has to decide by next semester
  5. Focus groups to get feedback from the new Fauver residents and senior prototype houses
  6. Cable service is inconsistent between residences
  7. Cell phone reception on Fauver residences: trying to get reception
  8. The role of Orientation Leaders  
• Queer Task Force (QTF)
  • It will meet every other Friday from 12:30-1:30 at the Registrar’s conference room. Student representation and becoming a bigger resource. Currently working on improving queer resources for admissions, health services, athletics, facilities (bathrooms).  
  • More bilegatas throughout the year, making sure RAs are pro-active. New funding source!!! Speakers/exhibits/performances. We should all be thinking of big speakers, performances, installations we’d like to see at Wes. We need to be careful not to step on toes for April, but let’s have queer all year, not just April.  
• Annoucements:
  • Discussion with dean Cruz Saco about multicultural dean
• Freshman Committee:
  • Had a party in Renee’s room Thursday night, reached out to constituents
  • Discussed election process, internal WSA relations, strategies for the year.

Stack

• Nathan Ratner asks about Government Majors: Can you grandfather in? Sam says that most likely, no one here will have to worry about new requirements.
• Jerry Ai asks about the grading procedures of the department in question: Sam says it’s entirely up the professor, we’re looking at a very particular case.
• Jerry asks about wireless for campus: Hopefully it’ll be everywhere soon.
• Eric Rosenblum asks about new registration system. What’s the logic behind having only 5 choices? Dave Wiener says the new system will mostly guarantee that everyone will have a full schedule that they will be very satisfied with.
• Anda Greeny asks about the fancy algorithm: Students sometimes have flow-charts. Is the new system too simplistic? Sam Ruth says that he will bring it up on Monday in EPC meeting with Faculty. The new system is still going to be significantly better regardless.
• Rashida Richardson asks about cable. Rafael says that some residences have good cable, other places don’t. Trying to be fair.
• Dave asks if it’s a hardware problem. Raffi says that everyone is supposed to get basic. Zelda Ferguson says that everything is wired for extended cable, but some older residences just haven’t literally “flipped the switch.”
• Jesse Watson corrects the Argus article: the Hi/LoRise fence hasn’t really gone past student committees. The general concept of beautification did, but the particular fence did not. Now it will.
• Gabe Tabak says that the IPC isn’t the coolest committee.
• Emily asks about choosing 5 classes: Dave says that if you don’t get a full schedule, you can pick up seats during drop/add. There won’t be that much congestion. Less switching around.
• Anda says we should do a trial of the new registration system.
• Jason Harris asks about student evaluations. When will the evaluations be changed? Sam says there is a current committee looking into it.
• Dave Wiener says that the new registration system will only be implemented next fall. The spring registration will be a sort of trial basis.
• Anda Greeny thinks that students should be able to store more furniture in the house, not necessarily have the school provide furniture. Recommends that we start with as few pre-furnished pieces as possible. Anda says that we should lower RA compensation, and raise house manager compensation. Why is Womanist house being sold? Raffi says that it’s not a safe area of town.
• Annie says that they should refer to Evan from last year for advising issues.

New Business and Announcements

• Queer social dinner Monday: Woodhead lounge, 5-7pm
• EC stay after meeting
• Sam says that we should think about fraternity issue. Will be on agenda within the next two weeks.
• Dave Woo asks if we’re going to have WSA bonding time. Annie suggests Jesse’s house. Jesse volunteers Gabe Tabak’s house.
• Emily asks if someone is dealing with E-squid. No one. Will talk about it in EC meeting.
• Asks about handouts vs. projector for committee reports. We like Handouts
• Tuesday Night: Sociology lecture in PAC001
• Anda Greeny wants to amend the by-laws: when minutes are posted, all associated documentation should also be on the website.
• Fifac stays
• Raffi says that we should email him about foss hill renovations.
• Annie Fox asks if there will be a push for league certification for the new campus center.
• Dean Rick says that it will not be league certified. Annie thinks that it’s really sad.

Adjournment
The meeting is adjourned at 8:31 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Xiaoxi Tu, WSA Secretary