Wesleyan Student Assembly — Wesleyan University

Minutes: November 13, 2005, No. 6

WSA Officers

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

Meeting Agenda and Business

• Open Form for Student Concerns
• Approval of Minutes
• Discussion with Fran Koerting, Director of Reslife
• Committee Reports
• New Business and Announcements

Attached Documents

Report on Traverse Square fence forum (Nya Roy)

Opening of Meeting

Meeting opened at 7:07pm

Open Form for Student Concerns

Approval of Minutes

Minutes approved unanimously

Discussion with Fran Koerting, director of Reslife

Koerting just started in July. 8 years of experience from Fairfield University. She likes Wesleyan better. Traverse square fence has been put on hold, looking at alternatives. Student concerns a priority. Fence behind Foss Hill has been put up to stop theft. Wood frame houses: furnished or not? Foss renovation plans will be up by December. Lots of flexibility in design. Will have sprinklers/ new fire alarm system. Won't be on the same scale as Clark Hall a few years ago. ResLife took over keys, because Physical Plant moved all the way to Long Lane Farm. House sale plan: very complex. Want to remove houses farther away, and houses that are in very poor shape. Prototype houses or renovate old houses? Will come down to cost issue, most likely. Community based living: Westco and 200Church. Will give more feedback to students. Housing Lottery: input welcome. Would like to streamline it. Frosh rooms in non-frosh halls. Possible program housing in storage spaces on Foss dorms. Graduate housing: where group/family housing should be, cost, etc… Might turn a few of graduate houses for senior wood frames.

Stack:

• Sean Conlon asks about off-campus housing, and frats. Koerting says off-campus students has been reduced from 200 to 45 this year, mostly due to Fauver. URLC will be talking about options with frats soon, waiting for frats to make proposals.

• Anda Greeny says that students are allowed to store in wood frame houses, should be allowed to store more furniture. Koerting says it's a complex issue: want to minimize inconvenience for current seniors and theft. Also difficult for Physical plant to clean properly, and increases wear and tear on the house. Will look at storage issue after deciding whether or not to furnish. Furniture will be flexible, not 100% furnished.

• Jerry Ai asks about cost difference between renovations and prototype houses. Koerting will find out tomorrow. Some houses are historical, cost of demolition will be expensive, and will take longer. Depends on condition of house. Standard number of students in each house will be easier for lottery (5).

• Sam Ruth asks about resistance from Reslife granting different status to frats instead of program housing. Koerting says that many sectors of the university is strongly opposed to frats as on-campus housing.

• Benedict Bernstein asks about energy efficiency. Wood frame prototypes are much more energy efficient than renovations. Will be starting campaign soon to get students to conserve energy. Does not know exact cost difference. Wants to wait one year for estimates.

• Anda Greeny returns to his previous point. He says students should be able to leave a couch in the houses over the summer. Feels that seniors would be willing to make a sacrifice. Encourages Reslife to tread carefully with furniture. Does not like program houses in dorms. Feels that they would be poorly received. Koerting has met with Buddhist house about that idea. Thinks it would be ok for a new program house that would like to get started, then move on to a house.

• Emily Malkin says that furnishing senior houses is a great idea. Would board be increased for furnished houses? Koerting says rate would go up $50, for the next ten years. Gabe Tabak says that it would be much cheaper than buying your own furniture.

• Jerry Ai asks about where storage is going to be, if those spaces are going to be renovated. Koerting says that there are a lot of options. Might charge. Will have info for URLC within 2 weeks. Jerry Ai likes the idea of outside contractors.

• Nathan Ratner asks when Foss Hill renovations will begin. Koerting says they will begin as soon as buildings close in May, and must finish before fall semester. Ratner asks about goals. Koerting: safety, fire alarms, lighting, painting, railings on balconies, etc… Might not do all in one summer.

• Jesse Watson asks about community based living evaluation, and update for program houses that will be sold. Koerting says program houses will not be sold if there isn't a serious buyer by January. Is still looking at alternatives. Mostly safety concerns. Community based living evaluations started in URLC last year. Making Community based living responsible. Watson asks if there will be a point system. Koerting says maybe, but probably not.

• Nya Roy asks about the $50 increase to room and board. How would that affect HiRise, which is in sad shape? Koerting says HiRise is on the list in the next few years. Reduce doubles to singles. New furniture. Nya says kitchens are really sad.

• Anda Greeny gives advice about surveying seniors, and makes another plug for unfurnished houses.

• Rahsida Richardson asks about attic and basement policy. Koerting suggests bringing it up to URLC. Not an issue right now. Rashida also asks about the pink house next to German house. Would the University purchase it? Koerting says that there's no talk about purchasing new houses.

• Sam Ruth hopes that fire alarms will be heat activated and not smoke activated. Koerting doesn't know about heat detectors, but will definitely have smoke detectors.

• David Wiener says that he's really excited that Koerting is here. Good leadership for Reslife is overdue. Wants to know about card access for specific buildings. Koerting says for safety and vandalism. Will be more of an issue later. Wiener says it was a pain to buy furniture.

• Koerting wants increased student input.

• Benedict asks about the new coordinator for Fauver. Koerting says new search will start in February. Benny asks if the new position will be pro-Westco. Koerting says she would like someone who is excited about Westco.

• Raffi clarifies that community based living evaluations are not to eliminate them.

• Nya Roy says that card access would be very good. Lounge space keys are a hassle.

Committee Reports

Committee reports submitted by committee chairs-- All personal pronouns refer to the committee or committee chair.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

EC met this week and discussed matters relating to the upcoming Trustee Weekend and the Student Activities Fee and our accounting program Lockbox. We also met with Lisa Hendrix and the WSA Office Student managers regarding office policy, student workers, and the Social Committee. This Friday from 10-11:30 is a forum with trustees in Pac 001. Those who do not have class would do well to go.

COORDINATING COMMITTEE

-SBC elections will be held the week of December 5. Might tag on surveys to the election.

-Juniors going abroad: tell Emily.

-WSA Archive system is (somewhat) up! It's going to be really pretty cool

once everything is established and made really organized. Will really help

transitions from year to year.

-Website and Email account stuff was taken care of

-Member of the week…. Nya Roy for work on Traverse sq. forum.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH COMMITTEE

Yellow pages finally came out!

Give them to your friends!!!

The lighting tour was rescheduled to this Wends.

There is an activism training meeting set for Nov. 22nd but we may have to push this back...

Dave is meeting with Dean Maria to talk about forum responses to the new dean

The student leadership manual should come out this week

Sean and I are meeting with Maureen Islib to talk about reslife programing

STUDENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

I met with Dean Mike and briefly talked about the proposal for changes to the current Guest Policy. The proposal will be reviewed by the SJB and later by the SLC. The diversity initiatives are being finalized.

At my meeting with Dean Cruz-Saco we discussed the new Dean position. We talked about the Strategic Vision for the office of Behavioral Health. Dr. Caughlin will present the strategic plan on February. Mike Butterfield is a member of the Advisory board for the OBHS. I updated her on URLC projects to raise student satisfaction with the office of residential life. Since Fran is coming to the meeting you can ask her (also you can ask me) about these initiatives. Review the URLC minutes if you need more info. She also expressed concerns about energy consumption. She would like for the WSA to come up with suggestions as to how create initiatives to promote energy efficiency.

URLC stuff: There is going to be a meeting with students living in the senior prototype houses on Wednesday at 9AM.

Undergraduate Residential Life Committee Meeting Minutes for November 10, 2005

Present: Rafael Medrano, Gabe Tabak, Garth Mitchell, Kim Lam, Matt Johnson, Mike Whaley, Jeff Miller, Fran Koerting, Nya Roy

Update on community forum about the traverse square railing.

-residents suggested to improve lighting on the area in order to make the drop more visible and prevent people from falling. Can Wesleyan and Traverse Sq. form a partnership program to address the lighting issue?

-another suggestion was to paint the edge of the drop with bright/ reflective colors.

-there was talk about creating a community garden instead of having a railing. Having a community garden will redirect pedestrian traffic and people walking on the edge of the mini-wall.

-Students were mostly concerned with the code violation than the safety concerns presented by public safety. I believe so far this semester there have been only two or three incidents when individual run through traverse square when fleeing Wesleyan.

-At the meeting students also brought the concern that the playground, which is located on Wesleyan's property, should be fixed up. This is not related to the railing, but it was brought up to bring awareness and to create initiatives to improve community relations.

Overall, it can be said that there is opposition to having a railing and would rather see something like a community garden instead.

What is the next step?

Jeff Miller is going to place a major maintenance request to eliminate the hazardous fall of the mini-wall. If and when it gets approved a designer along with input from the URLC, students, ect. Will create a plan as to what is the best way to beautify the place and abide with building codes, while not sending a message of division between traverse square and Wesleyan.

Cable:

As you already know there is an all-campus audit taking place to bring all students on campus to have basic cable. It was suggested to increase the room and board fee to include extended cable. Currently a Middletown resident pays $48.00 a month or basic cable. A Wesleyan student pays only $4.00 (with the current deal with Comcast) For all students to get extended cable it would cost and increase of $6.00, making it a total of $10.00 a month. The problem lies in that it is difficult to propose a raise on the room and board fee because as is things like room and board fees are set in a way that we are at the same level with our peer institutions. Raising the room and board would cause various problems. It is something that need to be approved by the board of trustees, not all students would want to pay extra money for a service they find not to be essential, etc…

Suggestions: -get this money by raising the student's activities fee. -students who want extended cable in their common areas should speak with RA's about getting it funded from the residential life budget. (this is rather problematic as the budget is not large enough to fund cable along with the many residential life programs RA's put together for their residents).

Lastly the URLC projects with December deadlines are coming along and areon point.

No SLC or QTF meetings this past week.

Nathan met with dean mike and talked about OBHS stuff

FINANCES AND FACILITIES

Dining committee will meet next week to review old institutional research and begin the new concept of dining.

URLC met, see SAC report.

Major Maintenance met, and will meet again next week. There are a few hundred projects on the docket now, so the challenge will be to prioritize about which are most critical for the next year. Also, the money that was allocated for the Traverse square fence is now available to be used on another solution to the current fall hazard. Let Gabe know if you have any questions, or if you want to see the list of projects.

Foss renovation subcommittee will be seeking student input (Katie and possibly Benedict) in the next few weeks. December 1^st?

Gabe and Katie will be meeting with Jennifer Lawton (head of financial aid) on Monday.

Library committee soon.

STUDENT BUDGETARY COMMITTEE

The SBC met this week and allocated money, but was more financial conservative than usual because we'd like to spend less money before winter break. We had success with groups looking to Alternative Sources of Funding, as many of the groups who came in had already looked to several funds or expected raising money before their event. Thus, we did not end up cutting very much funding from groups, but rather funding things less because our policies seemed to be carried out. In addition, we strictly enforced our two-week policy for student groups, which led to several groups being rejected for their funding.

This week was also the first week for our new forms, and for the most part, they went well, without mass confusion. We have a written up guide to the sheets in the SBC office, which should help groups understand things. Our new project, updating the website, should also help us out with communication and transparency.

We are currently reviewing the projections we made for the rest of the year, but we're a little unclear as of now what these are going to look like. We should have something to report when the meeting occurs.

EDUCATIONAL POLICY COMMITTEE

Week of blistering successes! Talk to Sam or Dave about new survey forms.

Blistering success #1: New pre-registration system that allows more flexibility was passed unanimously.

#2: Peer-advising: everyone likes this idea so far. Will go through SARN.

#3: Guest Alumni lectures was also well received.

INDEPENDENT PROJECTS COMMITTEE

First talking point is coming up soon.

Office beautification committee met: came up with color scheme—light yellow and sea blue for main room, one room will be pink, lavender lounge, burgundy for bathroom and kitchen.

CRC advisory committee: having "career day" with worshops and what not in Feb.

Stack:

Anda Greeny asks about cable service: Raffi doesn't know, will get back about it. Greeny gives anecdote: his Freshman year, less than 1 in 4 people had cable.

Greeny asks about student activities fee raise: Jesse says no.

Benedict Bernstein asks about MTVU. Dean Rick will check with ITS.

Nya Roy says that one suggestion was a community garden for traverse square. Maybe an IPC thing?

New Business and Announcements

• Benedict says that the call number on the WSA office is actually a book on the history of student activism. He has it.

• Annie Fox says that an idea for community forum with snacks for Traverse sq. Also says that the atmosphere in WSA meetings is sometimes uncomfortable.

• Nathan Ratner says that he took a little informal survey. Results: unanimous support for Dean Rick being at every WSA meeting. It's a great help. Nathan presents a snack.

• Emily Malkin says that there will be a WSA newsletter this year. Based on one from Wellesley. Anyone can contribute. Rough draft by next week.

• Everyone should stay afterwards for pictures.

• E-Squid: what to do? Course evaluation site developed by guy who made WesMatch. WSA owns it. Anyone with suggestions, or interest in taking this on? Nathan Ratner says it would be a great thing to publicize. Emily wants to institutionalize it by university. Professors hate it.

• Benedict asks if we could put teacher evaluations online and public: some schools do that.

• Zach Blau asks about advertising. Emily says we shouldn't advertise it before we find someone to update it.

• Matt Ball says that there are other services like this out there. Doesn't think we need to put time into this.

• Rashida Richardson says this is better than other sites because all of it has been true for her so far.

• Anda Greeny asks if we could combine it with ratemyprofessor.com. Also suggests faculty of the year thing for EPC.

• Annie Fox asks why Rashida thinks the reviews here are better. Rashida says that for one particular class, E-Squid was correct, ratemyprofessor was stupid.

• Monica Arduini says that there was a column in the Argus last year. Jesse Watson says that Josh B. wants to hold it to the same competitive standard as other columns. Might be easier to just write Wespeaks.

• Nya Roy says everyone should come to Samsara: will be awesome.

• Garth Mitchel would like to congratulate some Owen Keily for winning the NESCAC in cross-country

Adjournment: 8:19pm

Respectfully submitted,

Xiaoxi Tu, WSA Secretary