Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Minutes 10/21/08

Excused Absence: Dimitri Da Gama Rose, Adam-Maliq Muro, Samuel Solomon

7:10 - Meeting called to order
  • Roll call and approval of minutes

Student Liaison to the Board of Trustees: Franz Meyer
  • Update on the topics discussed in the last Board of Trustees meetings
    • the alcohol policy
    • student involvement in planning
    • infrastructure - building, grounds, technology: IT and how that affects Mac; new Gmail
    • Leonard Center now finished;, IGC finished by May
    • Academic Affairs - student assessment: ways the administration can assess whether we learn anything at Mac; sabbatical policy - budgetary side, impact on student life
    • Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
    • Admissions Committee- slightly fewer first years this year: fewer people accepted their admission decision; college remains committed to access: $42 mil for scholarships via Capital Campaign
    • our endowment has dropped about 20%: focus resources on maintaining academic quality, faculty and staff compensation, maintain access
  • next Board of Trustees meeting in March - coinciding with Founder's Day

SERF and Sustainability: Justin Lee
  • MCSG donated 20,000 to SERF
  • 45,000 cash balance: 20,000 invested
  • Meetings: 4th Tuesday every month - email Justin for more info
  • students come up with projects; 10 sustainability work-study positions across campus
  • people need to start talking about sustainability in a serious way
  • trying to get as many people who were not previously involved to become included in this process: the issue extends beyond environmentalism to include community engagement and academic integration
  • 10 scheduled sustainability days between now and the end of the semester

FAC
  • Art Alliance request for $295 - motion to table passed
  • distributed proposed changes to bylaws

AAC
  • open-access textbook day: advocating that all the electronic journals should be free
  • we need to sit down and have some serious conversations about textbook related issues
  • EPAG update:
    • handbook revision
    • academic emphasis versus a tract
    • student involvement in department reviews: may be some institutional opposition
  • IGC Update:
    • internet dialogue space: inviting everyone to talk about different issues of global concern
    • Event: debating for democracy

ERC
  • win a lunch date with an Exec: working on publicity
  • new tradition of birthdays: celebrate the birthdays at the end of the month
  • senior election coming up very soon:
    • publicity starting tomorrow
    • filing period ends Oct 31st
    • election is on Nov 11th
    • new senior will be on the ERC
  • the MCSG website - please submit anything you would like to be on the website to Owen

PB
  • Surround Sound is on Saturday - a couple spaces left for volunteers

Pres Commission
  • Resolution 001 on student involvement in college decision making - made a minor amendment and motion to approve was passed
  • Campus survey - impressive response so far; analyze these results on friday
  • working to facilitate communication across campus via Campus Committee Reps
  • Mac voter coalition - encouraging students to volunteer on election day
  • working with BLAC et al: how race and gender affected the election (will be held on election day)


Meeting adjourned at 8:07

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