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Special Guests Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger and Dean of Finance and Administration Elizabeth Eismeier
7:01 p.m. | First Council meeting begins with Attendance and an introduction of Vice President for Finance and Administration Elizabeth Eismeier. “We have to plan for a very long recovery,” said Eismeier who began with a discussion of the economy.
7:03 p.m. | Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger enters the room and takes her seat beside Eismeier.
7:07 p.m. | “Financial Aid has emerged as the leading financial priority this year,” says Eismeier. The endowment supplies over 30 percent of our budget, and when it gets hurt, we get hurt. The other piece of it is that we get about 10 percent of our budget from private gifts form graduates and parents and friends of the College,” said Eismeier. “The potential right now for those gifts to get up is pretty hard to imagine. The annual fund is still achieving a high level, but it’s not growing. We’re still looking carefully at this year’s goal, to see if we can make. All of our sources were hard-hit. It’s a difficult time.”
7:10 p.m. | “We want to find ways in which we can reorganize the things we do and think about how we can do things differently, so that we can really adjust the biggest category of expense at the College, which is compensation,” adds Kitzinger.
7:12 p.m. | “The other thing that we have to prioritize is our physical plant. We have to have buildings, we have to have labs, we have to have space for drama, for music, for art,” says Kitzinger. “All of these things are expensive and we have an aging campus. It’s very tempting as we have in the past to delay putting money into the physical plant rather than reducing compensation or staff. But we can only do that to a certain degree, because it can cause very large problems for the College.”
7:16 p.m. | “One thing that has come up a lot are the Library hours. We’re wondering how many people are in the library around 9 a.m. Could we open the library later in the morning, but keep it open later at night,” asks Noyes House President Hannah Groch-Begley ’12.
“We’ve looked at absolutely every other option,” says Kitzinger. “The idea of rearranging people’s workdays is not as easy as what you’re asking. It actually involves lots of tensions and pressures and risks. I appreciate that the Library goes to the heart of our mission, and that having the library there is extremely important. We’re working hard to find a solution to keep the Library open until 1 a.m.
7:29 p.m. | “Our goal is to do this through involuntary departures. And that means that the planning is fluid, and will continue to be fluid, since we don’t know when there will be unexpected vacancies,” says Kitzinger.
7:35 p.m. | “When it’s possible to give information, we really want to do that. We have no desire to hide anything. If you ahve something that you really want to pursue, you need to inform yourself about which Senior Officer is most responsible for the area that you’re interested in,” said Kitzinger.
7:36 p.m. | 2010 President Selina Strasburger ’10 asks, “Is there a space alternate to the Library that we could use for late-night studying?”
7:37 p.m. | It needs to be accesible, it needs to be a card-swipe-accessible and it needs to be safe. We’re considering the Faculty Commons,” says Kitzinger.
“There could be a student monitor at ACDC. It’s a possibility,” says Eismeier.
“My problem with the Faculty Commons,” says Strasburger, “is that it may not be big enough. I’ve spent time down there at night and it feels very crowded.”
7:45 p.m. | Kitzinger and Eismeier leave the room after answering questions from Council members
Motion to allocate $5,000 to the Community Shuttle
8:12 p.m. | By a vote of 22 to zero, the motion to allocate $5,000 from Council Discretionary to the Community Shuttle passes
Exec Report
8:15 p.m. | “There is an open forum this-coming Sunday,” says VSA President Caitlin Ly ’10. “The trustees are coming into town to give an update on the economic situation and to answer questions and have discussion. We absolutely have to have a strong showing.”
8:17 p.m. | “We’re working really hard to get the Atrium back and to improve the Meal Plan,” says Ly.
8:18 p.m. | “I know a lot of people were upset about the Health Care hours getting reduced, but it’s really a liability issue, and we’re mimicking our peer institutions, who have all eliminated late-night health care,” says Ly.
8:21 p.m. | “We’re aiming for a bigger and better Meet Me in Poughkeepsie this year,” says Ly. “We want there to be 40 events with over 1,000 people participating.”
8:23 p.m. | “The committee situation is one aspect that I’m working on,” says VSA Vice President for Operations Brian Farkas ’10. Farkas also explained that he worked over the summer with VSA Web designer Eric Estes ’11 to redesign the VSA webstie, http://vsa.vassar.edu.
8:31 p.m. | VSA VP for Activities Aaron Grober ’11 motions to recess for five minutes. Motion passes.
Goals Document
8:40 p.m. | Council resumes meeting and begins discussion of the Goals Document.
8:42 p.m. | Farkas discusses the possibility of the Vassar/Yale Formal, an alumnae/i event meant to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Vassar’s coeducation.
Appointments
8:48 p.m. | By a vote of 22 to zero, Lindsey Andon is appointed to the position of Noyes Secretary.
8:48 p.m. | By a vote of 22 to zero, Michael Mestitz is appointed to the position of Noyes Treasurer.
Adoption of the Athletics Proposal
8:51 p.m. | VSA VP for Student Life Elizabeth Anderson ’11 endorses the Athletics Proposal. She explains that half a credit will be given to students participating in more than a year of varsity athletics. Speaker’s List quickly grows to over six representatives.
8:53 p.m. | Class of 2012 President Tanay Tatum says that she feels “the proposal is exclusive.”
8:55 p.m. | Cushing House President Rosie Russo ’12 suggests that to get academic credit, athletes should have to write a paper to make sure that “they are getting something out of it.”
8:57 p.m. | Strong House President Laura Riker ’11 expresses concern that “other students who are not involved in atheltics—but are involved heavily in extracurriculars—will feel that they should get credit too.” She also wonders about non-varsity sports such as the Rugby and Ultimate Frisbee teams.
9:00 p.m. | “We’re not making a significant change in the way we view athletics on campus,” explains VSA Vice President for Academics Stephanie Damon-Moore,” because we already have P.E. credits. All we’re saying is that we respect the kind of learning you’re getting from a varsity sport, just how we respect the kind of learning you’re getting from a P.E. class.”
9: 03 p.m. | Noyes: “I agree with this proposal. Participants in VRDT and drama programs get academic credit. This is just extending that gesture to the athletes in our community.”
9:06 p.m. | President: “This is not a huge step—it’s a minor addition. And I can say with full confidence that [President Hill] has endorsed this proposal.”
9:07 p.m. | ”By adopting this change,” said Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President Laura Smith ’10. “We would not be pact-makers in the world of Division III athletics. THere are a lot of Colleges who give academic credit for varsity sports.”
9:12 p.m. | VP for Student Life: “Rugby and Ultimate Frisbee will not receiving credit, since they are not covered or funded by the Vassar Athletics Department.”
9:28 p.m. | By a vote of 19 to 3, the Athletics Proposal passes. In the following weeks, the proposal will be taken to the Committee on Curricular Policy, upon which—if it is endorsed by that committee—it will move to the Faculty Floor, where faculty will vote on the issue.
9:50 p.m. | Open Discussion
9:55 p.m. | Motion to adjourn has passed.
