7:03| Attendance. All are present. Raymond House President Sam Brucker ’14 has sent a proxy.
7:04| The following consent agenda is approved:
- $200 from the Speakers, Lectures and Panels Fund to Ballroom Dancing
- $600 from the Conference Fund to On Tap
- $930 from the Conference Fund to Vassar Animal Rights Coalition
- $2,649.80 from the Council Discretionary Fund to Vassar Haiti Project
- $1,000 from the Conference Fund to Slow Food Vassar
- $3,750 from the Collaboration Fund to Class of 2012
- $675 from the Community Fund to Hip Hop 101
7:05| Executive Board Reports
Activities
VSA Vice President for Activities Mookie Thottam ’12 informs council about an “all-organizational meeting” tomorrow. Topics on the agenda include trigger warnings, organization constitutions and event financing.
Finance
“The VSA is in good financial health, with all funds at high levels,” says VSA Vice President for Finance Jason Rubin’13. The timeline Annual Budgeting will be released soon, he adds.
7:08| Day of Action For Education discussions, led by the GAAP.
Sprung from student assemblies that find their basis in the Occupy movement, on Thursday, March 1, students will be “walking out, protesting and marching” educational inequalities. A GAAP representative says that “we will be standing up together to make our voice heard, and rally the message that education is a right and not a privilege.”
Another GAAP representative informs Council about a timeline for the day’s event at Vassar. Starting at the residential quad, the day’s event will include “class walkouts” — “if you have no midterms or anything important to do on that day” — and lectures by professors.
“We just want support from the VSA, but we don’t know what exactly that will look like,” GAAP says. Mostly, they hint at Council being able to send email notifications to their constituents.
To a query from Class of 2014 President Michael Moore about the relevance of skipping classes, the GAAP representative said that the walkout “is a sign of the fact that these inequalities are bigger than a day of classes.”
South Commons President Matthew Wheeler ’12 says that he is uncomfortable, as a VSA Council member, with disrupting the academic procedure of the College and to promulgate tendentious messages using his email privileges. Again, GAAP goes back to its first principles — essentially, a claim that the message of the event transcends “one small midterm that you may have on that day.”
Lathrop House President Dallas Robinson ’14 asks what GAAP is doing to introduce these issues to Vassar’s administrators and local politicians. “It’s a little vague,” he says, but one idea is to create a tapestry of visuals that come out of group break-offs during the day’s events. Anyway, he says, he doesn’t see “bringing an envelope to a politician as cutting it.”
7:30| Tap That Resolution
The Vassar Greens have introduced a resolution for Council to endorse that bans bottled water from the Dining Services. A similar resolution was passed that prohibited bottled water at VSA-sponsored events. They have brought a presentation to Council, which will shortly be available at miscellanynews.com.
Here is the full text of the resolution:
Vassar Student Association Resolution 26-9
A Resolution in Support of the Removal of Plastic Water Bottles from Dining Services
WHEREAS, this Council recognizes recent student efforts to encourage tap water and reusable water bottles over plastic bottled water consumption on Vassar College campus;
WHEREAS, there are many adverse social and environmental effects related to the bottled water industry;
WHEREAS, this Council recognizes that The Vassar Greens, the Environmental Studies Majors, the College Committee of Sustainability, the Grassroots Alliance for Alternative Politics, as well as members from the Vassar Haiti Project, Poder Latino, the Outing Club, VARC, and Slowfood
WHEREAS, this Council recognizes that dozens of peer educational institutions have banned bottle water from dining services;
WHEREAS, this Council recognizes that the Environmental Studies Seminar conducted a comprehensive study illustrating that Vassar’s tap water is cleaner, healthier, and safer than bottled water;
WHEREAS, this Council recognizes that B&G has detailed plans to install and improve tap water systems (i.e. sink filters, bottled water filling stations, and water fountains) by the following school year and specific funding from the VSA and Environmental Studies department to implement this plan in seven dorms and the college center;
WHEREAS, this Council recognizes that the AAVC has committed to purchasing alternatives to bottled water at Founder’s Day in lieu of their traditional bottled water donation;
WHEREAS, this Council passed an expenditure policy in April 2011 banning the use of VSA funds to purchase bottled water;
WHEREAS, Maureen King, head of Dining Services, and Ken Oldehoff, are prepared and willing to stop selling bottled water in all Dining Services facilities (i.e. the Retreat, UpC, the Kiosk, the Bean and Express Lunch) should the resolution move forward;
THEREFORE, this Council, in accordance with its Constitution and/or governing documents resolves, this 26th day of February, 2012, to dedicate itself to support the removal of plastic bottled water from Vassar Dining Services.
Josselyn House President Michael Kiel ’14 wants to “go out on a limb and vote” without tabling — as Class of 2012 President Pam Vogel suggested — because this ban “is just generally good sense.”
There is a motion to table this endorsement. More than 75% support the motion.
7: 51| Challah For Hunger Certification
Challah for Hunger bakes and sells challah, donating the proceeds to various charities. “It’s kind of shocking” that they aren’t certified says a member. Certification would hake them more able to sell with VCash. They would also be able to broaden their platform and become more of an advocacy group. Currently run under VJU, a realtionship that works, but doesn’t make sense as Challah is a secular group.
Thottam says the Vassar branch of Challah has been recognized by the national organization.
Wheeler seeks to clarify that if they are certified, next year they would only be able to pply to funds from the New Student Fund, though now they can apply to any of the other Funds. The members say this is fine.
Wheeler questions the propriety of Challah offering a $1 discount on their purchase if they sign an advocacy letter. He believes it may violate a bylaw about political endorsements.
Moore says that the letter is “clearly just a way to encourage people to be politically active, and there’s no set price for challah loaves.” Moore also believes the certification process needs to be streamlined.
Thottam points out that the bylaws require organizations to reimburse the college for any event promoting legislation.
They will not have to go through the VJU; “We want to keep it separate from religious undertones as much as we can.” They’d also be able to use VCash machines without funds getting lost, and both organizations would be able to apply to the Conference Fund.
Dobb asks how sustainable their leadership is. Members say they have Executive Board members from every class and support from the national organization.
Thottam asks how their ability to advocate would be changed by certification. A member says that she feels they lose a certain amount of members from being associated with a religious organization.
Wheeler asks if changing their relationship with the VJU would have a similar affect as certifying the organization. A member asks what the VSA has to lose from certifying them. She feels if they were less responsible, they would be more able to get certified. Wheeler says the VSA is always concerned with the amount of funds they have for new organizations, and must ask these questions. The members say they need very little money and are mostly self-sustaining.
Wheeler asks if Activities has a recommendation as to whether Challah should be certified. Thottam says they do not.
A motion is made to certify Challah for Hunger. It passes unanimously.
8:18| VSA Public Relationships Update
Tatum updates the Council about the VSA’s Executive Board’s meeting with other student body governments. “Talking to other schools’ Executive Boards, like those at Marist, have been very informational,” she said. Tatum stresses that “one thing we should work on is the transition of student leaders” between successive VSA administrations.
A conference call for the Seven Sisters school student governments, which included items of existential nature — “What is the purpose of this relationship? What is this relationship? What is Vassar’s place in these connections? — occurred between Konstantine, Tatum and other student representatives from Seven Sister colleges.
8:33| Conference Fund Amendment, Bylaw Article III, Section 9(A)
The following amendment is read out. It will be voted on at the VSA Council’s next session, on March 18:
VASSAR STUDENT ASSOCIATION
Principal Author: Jason Rubin
AN AMMENTMENT CONCERNING
THE CONFERENCE FUND RESTRICTIONS
Let it be amended to the Vassar Student Association Constitution:
Article III, Section 9, Subsection A shall be revised to read
Section 9: Polices and Procedures of the Conference Fund
- This Fund shall be used to sponsor the participation of members of the VSA in non- annual off-campus conferences that are relevant and compatible with an organization’s goals and objectives as stated in its Constitution.
1. Non-Annual Conferences shall be defined as conferences that the organization does not attend on an annual basis. Conferences that occur annually but that the organization does not attend annually will be considered non annual.
8:44| Open Discussion
Vogel announces there are 83 days until Commencement. She also wants Council Members to make sure everyone know the Tap That resolution is happening.
Dobb says they are collecting feedback from All College Day to help improve future events. The big afternoon event did not have the turnout they expected.
There is a motion to adjourn. It passes.
