Budget Committee Recommendations and Allocations
Campus Activities Discussion
Bylaw Changes
Board of Trustee Visits and Events
Open Comment Period

For questions or corrections to the minutes, please contact CSA secretary Robert Orion Martin (martirob@carleton.edu)

 

The minutes from last week were approved.

Budget Committee Recommendations and Allocations

Senate considered the Budget Committee recommendations from last week. Those recommendations less than $1,000 were approved as a block. For details, see the Budget Committee minutes from last week: https://apps.carleton.edu/orgs/csa/bc/minutes/?item_id=459266

The LASO request was approved as well.

Engineers Without Borders appealed their request for $63. The request was for calls made during the summer, and was not approved in full because the calls made before school began constitute retroactive funding.

Barclay moved to amend the recommendation to $47, allowing for the calls made over the summer but not those made during the term. It passed with 15 votes in favor with Kenney abstaining.

DESI appealed their request for $1,260. They have received some funding from other college offices, but would like CSA to cover the entire budget for food. Budget Committee recommended $1,205 with hopes that DESI would raise money from other sources.

Rowe moved to amend the recommendation to the full $1,260. The amendment was approved unanimously, as was the recommendation.

Campus Activities Discussion

Campus Activities Director T. Todd Masman will be visiting CSA next week. President Fleming asked senators to discuss what issues Campus Activities is facing right now.

Kenney said he felt that CSA Senate can support Campus Activities by informing the office about the atmosphere on campus and provide suggestions.

Rowe recommended bringing student workers to the meeting. Aaron Kaufman encouraged senate to become more involved in Campus Activities due to the recent changes in the office. Barclay responded that Masman had proposed a “programming board” which would recommend events.

Turovsky wondered what could be done to improve the funding process for Spring Concert.

Kenney said he was opposed to the concept of a programming board because he believes the organic nature of the system in place now allows it respond dynamically to the needs of the campus.

Barclay noted that most students don’t know what Campus Activities does. He wondered what they have been working on other than obvious events like New Student Week and bus tickets.

Aaron Kaufman wondered what will happen with the Pre-Frosh trips.

Walker is interested in what Masman’s plans for Campus Activities are.

McMurtry said that the freshmen on her floor want to see large events open to the whole campus. They find parties in private rooms intimidating.

Shaughnessey expressed that she has heard a lot of complaints coming from students about the Campus Activities office.

Ali said that she works in Campus Activities and she is concerned about direction the office is going in.

Fleming said she hopes to see criticism of Campus Activities channeled to more positive results. She asked for students to volunteer to meet with Masman and discuss the positive issues.

Turovsky pointed out that website is not up to date.

Shaughnessey added that she was concerned about the public “face” of Campus Activities.

McMurtry said she felt the system for anonymous feedback for RAs and Hall Directors was great and that perhaps something like that would be more fitting than the advisory committee.

Vendell was concerned that the space in the office is still not being utilized well. It seems very professional and closed.

Barclay pointed out Campus Activities went through a lot of changes recently, and is stil adjusting.

Fleming reiterated that next week will be a welcome to Campus Activities.

Bylaw Changes

Senate discussed the bylaw changes which were proposed next week. See the minutes from last week: http://apps.carleton.edu/orgs/csa/about/minutes/?item_id=457141

McMurtry noted that students at large and senator liaisons would be required to report separately at different times. This would lead to multiple reports for a single committee.

Rowe said the goal of the changes would be to encourage conscious discussion and provide some oversight for students who sit on governance committees around campus.

Kenney said he wasn’t sure that these changes would be necessary. He suggested perhaps tabling the changes until next week in order to further discuss the proposal.

McMurtry said she thought that each committee should report. She just wanted to avoid having several people report on the same committee. She suggested a subsection about communication in Senate and CSA.

Shaughnessey said that the purpose of the proposed changes was to institutionalize the positive changes that have been made in the last several years.

Rowe explained that the students sitting on a committee would hopefully meet once every couple weeks to discuss how things were going and draft a report that could keep senate informed on the activities of the committee.

Kimball said that it may help for every committee to have an assigned “secretary” or “go-to person” who would be responsible for these reports.

Board of Trustee Visits and Events

The Board of Trustees are coming next week. The trustees have asked Senate to present about the student reaction to the campus climate survey. The Board of Trustees wants to be informed in order to make better decisions for the future of the college. Fleming asked how students have responded.

Barclay noted that many people were unhappy with the potential disbandment of DIG. He also mentioned the discussion of classism on campus, mentioning particularly the differences between exempt and non-exempt staff.

McMurtry noted that many students were underwhelmed with the results. There is a “Why did we spend so much on this?” sentiment.

Kenney said he felt the results reinforce whatever beliefs one already holds. Students concerned about the issues hold up the results as evidence while others point to the high percent of satisfied studentsTan asked what the school is going to do in response.

Fleming clarified that DIG has not yet been disbanded. There will be a committee to discuss the future of dig.

McMurtry said that reading the open responses, she was surprised by the comments about the negative atmosphere in Northfield. Is there something CSA or the college can do to improve this situation?

Vendell said that the results on sexual assault have made quite an impact on campus.

Fleming said she had heard a sentiment on campus that students were grateful that the administration went through with the survey.

Fleming then asked Senate how Trustees can best interact with students.

McMurtry said that the Trustees are inaccessible to students who are not CSA representatitves.

Kenney responded that he has discussed this with the trustees and they want to meet all kinds of students. However, its difficult to draw a broad section of students to a meeting with the trustees.

Bharucha recommended a big dinner which would be publicized around campus.

Last Spring there was a proposal by CSA to have a student observer on the board of Trustees. Tan said she felt that the meals with various student groups was a good way to reach out to different sections of the campus.

Shaughnessey recommended giving the trustees a schedule of what is happening on campus and letting them approach random students who aren’t pushing an agenda.

Walker wondered if perhaps they could be given an hour of freetime when they could meet with students as they please. There’s not enough time to schedule it for this week, but it could be considered in the future.

Turovsky recommended sending random emails out to all people in order to reach a more representative slice of campus.

Barclay said that during his dinner with the trustees, he was essentially ignored and the trustees spoke among themselves about golf. He hoped to see a time when trustees are asked to actively listen to student concerns.

McMurtry said that CSA can help “demystify” the trustees by publicizing basic information about who they are and how they are selected.

Kimball recommended that trustees be given an extra day to shadow students. Barclay said that perhaps CSA could make a video to this affect and present the videos to the board to inform them about what life on campus is really like.

Open Comment Period

Kenney noted that in the coming weeks, CSA must decide if the student activity fee will be raised or lowered. It must be raised/lowered in 3 dollar increments.

Turovsky announced that the new residence halls are named Cassat and Memorial.

Rowe announced that he had a meeting with Rob Oto, Dean of Student Financial Services, about making the Student Activity Fee reflect the student’s ability to pay.