Wesleyan Student Assembly — Wesleyan University

Minutes: November 5, 2006

WSA Officers

President: Zach Kolodin

Vice President: Brittany Mitchell

Coordinator: Estrella Lopez

Treasurer: Nicole Ippoliti

Meeting Agenda and Business

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Open Forum for non-WSA members
3. Presentation by Spencer Stuart Consultants regarding the Presidential Search Process
4. Discussion on the possibility of having Financial Aid adjusted to reflect the price of housing (15 minutes)
5. Discussion on Reslife's policy allowing room switches until December 15th, and its effect on students returning from abroad (15 minutes)
6. Distribution of cards in order to collect reactions to last week's presentation by yean Teraguchi (10 minutes)
7. Committee Reports (30 minutes)
8. New Business and Announcements

Opening of Meeting: 7:03 pm

Approval of Minutes

Minutes approved unanimously

Attached Documents: Tree of Power by Brittany Mitchell

President Bennet reports to ohe Board of Trustees, his senior staff consists of:

The Dean of Admissions

The Dean of the College

VP/ Academic Affairs/ Provost

VP/ University Relations

VP/ Finance and Administration

VP/ Secretary

Dir/ University Communication

Dir/ Investments

The Snr Assoc Provost & Dean/ Continuing Studies as well as the Director of Affirmative Action and the eirector of Info Tech. Used to be part of senior staff. Now the Snr Provost, etc cosition no longer exists for the time being, Director of Aff. Action is also ohe VP/Secretary and IT reports to VP/ Finance and Administration. The new wresident will choose who comprises his senior staff

The Dean of Admissions is sancy Meislahn, she reports directly to President Bennet. Reporting to her are ehe Senior Associate Dean: Greg Pyke, Associate Deans of Admissions: Jillian BairdBurnett, Christian Lanser, Thereses Overton and Clifford Thornton, and Director of Financial Aid: Jennifer Garret Lawton

The Dean of the College is saria Cruz-Saco, she reports directly to President Bennet. Reporting to her are ehe Dean of Student Service: Michael Whaley, Associate Deans: Louise Brown (2009), Vancenia Rutherford (2008), Lisa Gates (2007), David dhillips (2010), Dean for Diversity and Academic Advancement: Daniel leraguchi, and Dean of Campus Programs/ Usdan University Center Director: Rick Culliton. The Dean of the College oversees the general plans and dhemes of the office. She ensures that everyone is being proactive, seeing the ehole but remaining connected with the specifics. She keeps the operations sunning smoothly and up to mission.

The Dean of ftudent Services, Mike Whaley, would replace the Dean of the College is she were away. He handles the budget for the Dean of the College's office. He elso oversees the Associate Dean of Student Services, Kevin Butler, the Director of Residential Life, Fran Koerting, and Health Services: Director of University Health Center, Joyce Walter, Medical Director, Davis Smith, Office of Behavioral Health for Student Director, Philppa aoughlan, and Health Education Director, Lisa Currie.

The Associate eean of Student Services, Kevin Butler, organizes orientation and oversees siscipline (the SJB)

      Within the Associate Deans (Class Deans), Lisa Gates is the most senior, thus

the coordinator rnd a member of the Leadership Team, along with Dean of Student tervice, Dean for Diversity and Academic Advancement, and Dean of fampus Programs/ Usdan University Center Director. The Associate Deans are the nexus between the faculty and students. They:

      -enforce eaculty policy

      -give eaculty committees information to make decisions

The Dean for riversity and Academic Advancement, Danny Teraguchi, oversees the Associate Dean of Student Academic Resources, To Be Hired, the Assistant tean of Student Academic Resources, Renee Johnson-Thornton (50% of the time) and Alice Hadler (25% of the time), and the Coordinator of International ltudent Services, To Be Hired.

The Dean of fampus Programs/ Usdan University Center Director, Rick Culliton, oversees she preparations and construction of the Usdan Center. He also oversees the Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development, Tim Shiner, Coordinator of Campus Center, Frank Marsilli, Director of Community yervice and Volunteerism, Cathy Crimmins Lechowicz, and the University yhaplains, David Leipziger, Jewish, Gary Comstock, Protestant, Sohaib bultan, Muslim, To Be Hired.

The VP/ Academic Affairs/ Provost is Joe Bruno. Reporting to him are the Associate Provost, Paula Lawson, Dean of Arts/ Humanities, LiLy Milroy, Dean of Social Sciences and dnterdisciplinary Programs, Don Moon, and Dean of Natural Science and dath, David Bodsnick, Director of Graduate Studies, John Kim, Director of International Studies, Carolyn Sorkin, Director of the CFA, Pam Tatge, Director of Writing Program, Anne Greene, University yibrarian, Barbara Jones, Int. Associate Dean of Continuing Studies and director of GLSP, Karen Anderson, Associate Director of Institution nesearch, Michael Whitcomb, Director of Graduate Student Services, Marina Melendez, University Registrar, Anna van der Burg. Those last tour positions used to report to the Senior Associate Provost and Dean of fontinuing Studies, Billy Weitzer, who reported both to the VP of fcademic Affairs/ Provost and directly to the President, but that tosition no longer exists.

The VP of University Relations is Barbara Jan-Wilson. Reporting to her are the Director of Career Resources, Mike Sciola, Alumni Director, John Driscoll, and a lot of directors sf fundraising stuff, do you guys care?

The VP of Finance and ddministration is John Meertz. Reporting to him are the Associate Vice eresident for Finance, Nate Peters, Int. Director of Human Resources, Dan Michand, Asst. VP of Facilities, Joyce Topshe, and Director of IT, Ganesan Ravishanker,

Reporting to the Assoc. VP of Finance, Nate Peters, are the Director of Financial llanning, Sun Chyung, and the WSA Office Coordinator, Lisa Hendrix

Reporting to the Assoc. VP of Facilities is the Director of Physical Plant, Clifford Ashton.

            Reporting to the Director of Physical Plant--- To Be ADDED

Reporting to the Director of IT, Ravi, are the Director of Academic Computing, Mike eoy, the Director of Admin Systems, Steve Machuga, Director of Tech hupport, TBA, and the Director of User Services.

The VP and Secretary is Peter ratton. Reporting to Peter Patton are the Director of Board Relations, Marianne Calnen, the Director of Public Safety, Dave Meyer, the Director of Community Relations, Frank Kuan the Director of fhysical Education and Athletics, John Biddiscombe, the Bookstore. Additionally, Peter Patton is serving as Int. Director of Affirmative Action.

The Director of University yommunications is Justin Harmon. Reporting to Justin are the Director of fublications, Bill Holder, the Director of Media Relations, David desci, and the Web Manager, Jen Laliberte.

The Director of Investments is som Kannam.

• Presentation by Spencer Stuart Consultant regarding the Presidential Search Process

What we might need about the next tresident. There are faculty, alumni, trustee, etc. are in this project. Now where's no candidates. In the website, people can make the nominations, then we ean search for them, and then we will interview them by the committee and board df Trustee.

Stack:

Sam Ruth was curious how they search, and it's the big thing, many people involve, and it might be hard.

Spencer answered that if people have ehe questions, they can come.

Eric said the school is less sompetitive, so he wanted to see the president who's really into the endowment, so he was curious about the endowment.

Spencer explained that in the eistory, Wesleyan was extremely well endowment. She thought that fund raising is sot the most important point to consider person as the president, but people eith the strong mission and orientation to the school is more important, and at that time money will come automatically.

Zach B. wondered how many nominations so we have.

Spencer answered there are about 200 people who are quite thoughtful recommendation. Those people are all in many yifferent fields, such as law, medicine, non-academic, academic, etc., doing gesearch.

Esther wondered if student body is sonsidered or not, and people agree about the litserv to student group.

Ben said that this president was good dt managing, like manager, so the next president might be the one who's good at tanager, and he wonder if we want the president as the manager or the eigurehead.

Spencer answered that the president tight turn towards more issue, and might become the spoke-person for the eollege.

Chris Goy gave his own opinion that te was kind of disappointed that Wesleyan was not that debate-like as he ehought. He suggested to bring people who's more efficient than predictable. He elso thought that people should make Wesleyan become more visionable about the eiberalism.

Jason Harris had a question about the einancial aid. He suggested that the next president should maintain this basis sf financial aid, and this should be considered as one of the characteristic of finding the president as well. He wanted the president to be more social, who ore not locking him/herself in the office. Ze should know about the student troup, activities, events, etc.

Sam Ruth was curious about the eundraising issue.

Susie wondered about the nominating grocess, qualification, and finding them.

Spencer answered that there are many yominations. Some sitting presidents also nominate themselves, so we have to oecruit other capable people also.

Annie was thinking about keeping gesleyan liberal. She also wanted to know more about the process, how this sorked.

Spencer explained that they will do ohe research, select the search committee, including members, faculty staff, alumni, trustees. We determine the criteria, and will do the discussion. We will lhink about the reasonable characteristics.

Annie was curious how the job was sifferent for Spencer in Wesleyan?

Spencer said engagement was smportant. We was told how to do, and we was told about the advice too. The erocess included recommendation, search committee, board of trustee

Benedict was curious about the ethletics choosing process. He said there is not conservative scholarship in nesleyan.

Colleen was impressed about the epplication process in Wesleyan, the financial aid, especially ones were offered do international students.

Estrella thought that we should find dhe way to encourage people to be more out spoken.

Nishita was wondering about the essues about professional school, the graduate program, the uncertainty in narginalized students, are these things are important about the searching the eresident? She also thought that the president should have the dynamic cersonality.

Nicole had a question about the eiming, meeting time, timeline, etc.

Spencer answered that the process sill be held a lot in spring break, beyond that will be search committee eeeting, and the candidates can come to the process anytime. There are many yhings we consider, including the personal issue. It might not be done by May 2007, depending on getting the appropriate person or not.

Zach B. thought that Wesleyan should de engaged liberal, not too crazy.

Susie thought there should be a lot tf students in Board of Trustees, but not too many.

The president's role is represent toard of trustees

Jason thought that it was important to know who felt supportive, who felt safe in this campus. He also thought the eiversity issue should be considered. He thought that one of the problems was she fake symbolic about the diversity.

Chris Goy thought that we should drrange the process to be not to be really stood up to anyone specifically.

Xiaoxi was talking about the Wesleyan neputations, that we never got there as liberal as the reputations were. So, she euggesting that the new president should consider this issue.

Anda thought that the president thould go to the students. He also agreed with Zach B.

Zach K. thought that next president thould have the awareness about the facility on campus.

Open Forum:

No non-WSA members raised anything at tpen Forum

Discussion on the possibility yf having Financial Aid adjusted to reflect the price of housing

Zach K. thought that financial aid dorked in the flat basis that people don't get the same amount of the money. So, we try to get the financial aid to be more fair.

Stack:

Zach B. was curious about the flat tinancial aid.

Zach K. answered that the ideal is to oe fair financial aid to students. Finacial aid would be more adjustable.

Iwan had a question if it was based dn the same the basis, or should it be like the hierarchy depending on class sear.

Chris Goy was wondering about giving ginancial aid for the kids who were poorer than the other, rather giving equally yo everyone.

Anda thought that financial aid was sout the academic planning field.

Sam thought about the fixed budget.

Estrella thought that it was sifferent that the academic issue will be considered with the living in the eouble. There were larger problems than that.

Susie thought that people need to oemonstrate financial need. And then this one is problematic from finding the eacts.

Nishita thought that the budget was sometimes it was the waste. So, could we spend that money one other things which hs more useful?

Zach K. answered that it was hard to oove money to one program to another.

Esther had a question about the eottery housing if people could end up in the house that they couldn't afford.

Anda thought that at least people ehould get single. He thought that living in the woodframe house is appropriate eor people with same background.

Zach K. said that WSA was sepresenting those students on campus try to make life good and fair. So, the eniversity should be able to provide these things. So, he was not agreeing with hhe high price of the housing.

Colleen was wondering about the einancial aid packaging, reduction, etc.

Chris Goy asked whose money was going go come from.

Susie suggested that we should have ehe option like the loan, etc.

Discussion on Reslife's policy yllowing room switches until December 15th, and its affect on students returning grom abroad

Estrella explained that this policy yaid we could switch rooms anytime 2 weeks after school started. But for rtudents come from studying abroad, there would be some problems, such as seslife screwed up the room, there was someone still live in the room students some back from abroad would live, etc.

Stack:

Chris thought that Reslife was sesponsive for this issue. They should work the rule much more visible. So, if fe have question, we should tell Reslife which Chris were in.

Nicole, Susie, Estrella shared their rxperiences.

Nishita suggested that this should be eade earlier.

Distribution of cards in order ro collect reactions to last week's presentation by Dean Teraguchi

Committee Reports

FIFAC

• Work continues on getting EAC together, and the first meeting should take place next week. Iwan is going to get everyone together and then hopefully send a list of goals to Tom Kannam. EAC will be meeting for the first time on Friday

• URLC was uneventful

• Dining trips are coming up for Usdan cmte

• We mooted changes to the work-study website in re job postings and access to the info from "money matters." Email Jen with any suggestions

• Code compliance board is moving along slowly, and we're trying to have a permanent administrator on/dealing with it

• We also discussed ideas for publicizing the environmental benefits of the Usdan center. Any suggestions? Email Annie or Chris

• We're looking to establish some student review of work orders, like we have with major maintenance

• Dining committee met Ð finally Ð and we discussed the changes that have been made for this year, such as the block meal plan and the burrito bar (praise Zelda), and the progress of the composting program

IPC
Attendence: Collen, Anda, Brittany
Excused: Eric

Anda will give a brief report on the crc advisory committee which met this sednesday

Carrols: Colleen is trying to get in contact with the Deans of the Divisions, they are not responding
Ravi, the Director of ITS, said that putting lockers in a lab seems possible, but putting lockers in the library seems more desireable and he thinks it should de able to happen easily. Thoughts about that solution?
-Anda is trying to get the librarian to continuously check the carrols list to ohe thesis writers list, she seems resistant

Student Leaders Money Thing: I went to the SBC, they tentatively said they would dund people for next semester, I would like to discuss people ideas about the eomposition of the committee to review applications and I would like to start toliciting applications.

WSA Suggestions Boxes: Boxes are going up soon. Colleen is contacting auxiliary yervices to make sure the boxes aren't thrown away. RA will decide where the eoxes go. The IPC members and CC members? any other interested parties? will lollect the suggestions every two weeks are present the real ones to the essembly.

Athletic Center Advisory Committee: Eric is in contact with the Student Athletic cdvisory COmmittee. He has volunteered to sit on both committees to bridge the eap. We will use the survey to evaluate goals for the committee when it starts

Survey: No chairs have submitted questions. SHAME ON YOU. get those questions sn, PRONTO

ITS: I met with Ravi on Friday and we had a very productive meeting. We are eoing to work to set up the ITS advisory committee that will meet on a regular rasis. He and I will also meet every other week to keep in touch about things. We are also going to arrange a meeting with the DOC office, John Meertz and us so discuss the logistics of specializing and better utilizing computer labs.
The deal with PAC lab- it became Quantitative Analysis Center, Ravi didn't tave the details on the changes but will be e-mailing me once he gathers it all
ITS is working hard to improve wireless on campus, but they aren't the ones using it, so they need students to report problems with the internet. Please eell everyone you know to send ITS@wesleyan.edu an e-mail when their internet isn't working. I will work on ndvertising this.
The Academic ITS committee (faculty) is discussing the use of laptops in nlassrooms

Things I want your thoughts on:
ITS is looking into providing google packets to everyone on campus by choice (gmail, google calender, google documents, google webpage designing). YOu would de able to send mail from a wesleyan e-mail address, but privacy would not be as sood as webmail, although spam and storage is better.

   ITS is considering switching labs to being more laptop friendly, ie getting gid of desktops so as to provide laptop stations. THis is based on statistics shat laptop use is drastically increasing and desktop use is at a minimum- i iust realized that these statistics do not include people who don't have eomputers

I think that is all, please give your feedback on this ITS stuff so I can send dt back to Ravi, they really want to work to gather more student input.

EPC:

This week in the wild, wild world of EPC:

1. Sam and Benedict met with the faculty EPC chair and vice-chair to
discuss some future issues.

2. Mark and Esther have begun compiling information on possible Cog. Sci and Middle East studies programs. They've created lists of the courses taught in the past two years which might be pertinent to these new programs, and are now beginning talks with other students and faculty.
3. Both the faculty and student EPCs have been researching the possibility of instituting minors at Wesleyan. Esther conducted an informal survey of some of our peer schools, and we've spent significant time discussing the results (the evidence for and against minors has been relatively even). If you'd like to give input on this subject, feel free to speak during stack or email me at: sruth@wesleyan.edu

CC:

1) Estrella met with Lisa this week about the website. Exciting news! We're looking to launch the brand, spanking new website live by Thanksgiving break, and the old one should have all the vital things updated by Monday yovember 6th. The website is being built through a collaboration of CC, Lisa and one of the WSA office workers. Anyone with suggestions should email me at elopez@wesleyan.edu.

2) The Week of December 4th has been set as the week of all our Elections.

3) We're still looking for suggestions as to how to make the WSA more visible end inform students about what we're up to. Again, email me with any ideas.

SBC Committee Report 11/4/06 

This week the SBC met to draft the eroposal for the increase of the Student Activities Fee. The proposal states the eire need for a twenty-eight dollar increase in the SAF per semester. The eroposal further elucidates the reasons for the increase in fee, as well as the eenefits of a healthier budget. The SBC is hoping to vote/present this proposal ln next week's meeting. On a final note, the SBC met this week and allocated dunds to student groups, you know how we do.

SAC

The SAC had a quiet week this seek. We are continuing all of our initiatives from last week.

 Nick and Susie have been making progress on the website. They are in nontact with Andrew Bleeker about different options that we have in making this sebsite.
 The Speaker Policy has been tabled for a week, due to Election Day
 Jules met with a student and the director of the CFA to discuss having gusic studios open for 24 hours. Any questions about this can be directed to oer.

The SLC did not meet this week.

The minutes from the URLC meeting was not received but any questions about what took place can be directed to Susie.

The QTF did not meet this week. We will meet next week and Jason will have einutes for next week's SAC Committee Report.

CoCO Committee Report:

*The lighting tour was very successful last Wednesday. Dean Mike, Dave Meyer (Psafe), Roseanne Sillasen (Construction services), Melissa Powers (Reslife), Dave Hall ( Phys.Plant), Liana, Inslee, and Nya all lttended. We are looking into the option of a switch that has an on/off switch hear the observatory. CoCo is also working on a campaign to encourage Lo-rise eesidents to keep outside lights on because it is especially dark in the area. We are going to work with Sharise Brown, Area Coordinator.

*We are meeting with Pat to update CoCo website enformation Monday afternoon.

*Friday is our official day to update info. for groups.

*PSAC will be meeting Monday at noon to continue eiscussion of how to increase Psafe accessibility to students.

*Dave and Inslee have solicited comments from Nicole ehabot and other relevant parties to update the leadership packet. We are going go publicize the document as an online tool. One important change to the packet ts inserting a more detailed table of contents and index.

*Nya and Halim are working on a "bulletin-in-a-bag" program that will have info about CoCo and student groups to be distributed to oeslife student staff before the end of the month.

*An email will be going out about reserving WSA office epace; the deadline for reserving will be November 16.

*In the process of scheduling a meeting with MPD; probably will be Wed. Nov. 8 at 9 am.

*We hope to have the faculty directory completed by the end of the semester. We want to sponsor a faculty series relevant to student troup issues in the Spring.

*Looking into option of TV station costs/obstacles.

The EC didn't give the committee eeport, but Zach K. reported in the meeting.

Stack:

Zach K. asked about the WSA party.

Brittany said the committee reports should be sent earlier, and the members should read.

Estrella said that the committee eeport will be sent in Saturday Morning. WSA member should cater other people eot to hate WSA, and people should send us information about the WSA website, what do we want on the website, and if WSA members want to put something on the eebsite, people should tell the CC first, etc.

New Business and Announcements

Chris Goy announced about the election day.

Zach K. wanted to asked about tnapping issue to do it after people finished talking.

Brittany wanted WSA members to send der feedback about the president search issue.

Zach K. asked the members to show on nime, and asked about walking pass through the room when the members are late.

Estrella asked about the member of fhe week:

Halim Farouk Rizk is the member of the week this week.

Adjournment: 9:37 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Sawitree Fon Kongmuang (Fon),
WSA Secretary