Wesleyan Student Assembly — Wesleyan University
Minutes: October 7, 2007
WSA Officers
President: Matt Ball
Vice President: Emily Malkin
Coordinator: Izaak Orlansky
Treasurer: Gianna Palmer
Meeting Agenda and Business
1. Roll Call/Approval of New Members
2. Fight Song
3. Approval of Last Week's Minutes
4. Open Forum
- Bekka Rabison, EON representative
5. Committee Reports
6. New Business and Announcements
Opening of Meeting: 7:10 pm
Attached Documents: Committee Reports
Roll Call/Approval of New Members
New members approved unanimouslyApproval of Minutes From Last Week
Minutes Approved Unanimously
Open Forum
Becca Rabison, Rep from EON
Presidents Climate Initiative- Have Roth sign to show students are behind it.
Have WSA pass a resolution to support Roth
STACK
Sam-
Climate neutrality and to get rid of most waste on campus
Eventually work towards having Wesleyan
Jen- how passing a resolution pass a resolution
Having a legit student government behind it will help Roth sign it.
Izaak- Sustainability is a key factor
gives flexibility for colleges to plan and would be good for WSA to pass a resolution that students are behind it.
Saying decisions in the future is where colleges are heading towards these types of initiatives.
Emily- How much it will financially affect Wesleyan?
John Muir in support of signing it.
Having University Relations/ Alumni support.
Julien- Help save money in the long run
Candace- How feasible is the commitment?
- Yes, because there are specific target goals and dates.
Brian- Wants to know about air travel and the goal of air travel?
-University help with carbon offsets b/c of high air travel. Have to do research
Izzak – Wesleyan won’t do carbon offsets first because it’s expensive
Liana- What is offsets ?
Carbon capture offsets- paying companies to plant trees, etc.
Sami- What is being done to remind students about initiative?/ What is goal?
Argus, info, classes
Create awareness and there is individual responsible
Marjorie- What purpose would a resolution serve?
Sam- Resolution will help
Put organization behind it because large number of students behind it
Mike- Realistically have carbon neutrality in 2 years?
Plan for two years, and Middlebury is starting to put plan in action by 2016
Alex- Have WSA help pay offsets.
Izzak- Have WSA internally helps save.
Rebecca- Not WSA’s position to pay for things like this.
Committee Reports
SAC- Policy for guest speakers
Candidate speakers must come to University first and student groups can’t invite candidates. Help make it easier for student groups to get speakers
Party Resolution Policy- Have public safety know what’s happening in student housing,, so registration is necessary. Make it convenient to have students parties.
Emily- What is a party policy?
Mike- only parties over 50 people need to register party, but wood frame houses’ max capacity is 49 people.
Bradley- What kind of compensation can the university give for travel.
Mike- Can’t give compensation, but speakers
Natasha- Does policy effect people in street?
Matt- Only things on property count
Izaak- What does Tim propose?
Matt- issues and possible resolutions for everyone.
Izaak- Having WSA associated with SLC is good for students
Bradley- Can dean/university make rules without going through SAC
Needs to be voted through SLC
SBC
Next meeting will show what’s being allocated
CoCo
Charlotte- Why wasn’t information being sent out to students about shooting?
Matt- Noise complaint policy?
Every noise complaint, P-Safe needs to respond then gives accused time to settle down.
Sean- Can there be a period of time between 2 calls to shut down party?
No specific policy for I between calls and needs to have policy.
Jessie- Is taking a picture of a party a policy?
Dean Mike- Sounds sketchy.
Izaak- Good we have a seat to talk about things like shooting. Wants report how they dealt with shooting.
Candace- What is the emergency alert number?
Dean Mike- Since no one uses landlines, University will use a message to alert students.
Izaak- Who makes decisions to send message?
Marjorie- What happened in shooting?
Shooting at 11:15 by low rise/ high rise.
Charlotte- Arrests in front of DKE. Police saying to stay inside so no one else gets shot.
Bradley- Send a message if there is an ongoing risk. Since they apprehended people very quickly there was no risk.
Mike- Makes me feel uncomfortable that there is a shooter on campus and 30 minutes without being caught.
Dean Mike- How long would it take Wesleyan to gather and respond. There is a group who would make a decision
Sami- Is there a lockdown system in place?
Becky- Not sure
Mike- Knows there is a lockdown system, but not sure how it works. St. Johns example for having a very effective messaging system to students.
Allison- Is it expensive to send out a message?
Dean Mike- No
Emily- When was [Dean Mike] notified?
Dean Mike- 7am
Sam- Committee Reports are questions for committees and if there is an issue that needs to bring in new business.
EPC-
Melgily- Why does the Electronic Course Evaluations need Social Security?
Izzak- We need to communicate this information to student body. What is the incentive to fill out Evaluations?
Sam- Can’t see grades without filling evaluations.
Izaak- Hates not seeing grade, with example of study abroad program.
Mike- It is important for students to have option to not fill out form.
Jessie- Good thing about electronic evaluation is there is no teacher evaluation.
FiFaC
Bradley- Why is WesShop charging students for bags
Rebecca- It helps provide awareness for students to bring bags
Jessie- Doesn’t think it’s a big deal for charging for bags
Mike- The bigger issue of the $.10 is the awareness for students not to bring bags. Need to focus on publicity. Trey-less Tuesday’s would cause more chaos in Usdan. We need to make getting kitchens in Butterfield
Sam- Since $.10 is not a big deal will not change the bag strategy.
JZ- Confused about impact about charging for bags.
Jessie- Trey-less Tuesdays is about reducing food waste not washing trays. Publicity
Alex- Where does money go for bags?
Matt- Prices are more expensive for everyone.
Saul- Company will pay for grease to be taken to New Haven and turn it into bio diesel.
Brian- We need to look at an incentive system and monetary system needs to be looked at. Where will $.10 go.
Alex- Where did point system data come from?
Becky- Dean Rick found out about point system.
Candace- Why don’t we change to all paper bags? WesShop is already very expensive.
NEW BUSINESS
Emily- Didn’t show prices very well. Have them give us clear list of prices.
Mike- If prices are unfair WSA needs to make an initiative and it will help with WSA’s image.
Natasha- It is important for people know about the prices so there is no speculation.
Candice- Prices shouldn’t be secretive.
Allison- We can’t tell them to change the prices because we don’t know the base price.
Alec- It is a battle to get changing prices.
Matt- We should know how much it cost for what we are eating.
Bradley- Who is apposed to telling us prices?
Strawpoll to get a list of prices of what they were and what they are now.
Strawpoll shows that the majority of WSA want Becky to get information about prices.
Motion for Adjournment 9:18 PM
Respectfully Submitted,
AJ Chan