Young McIntire Clark

Greetings Residents of YMCA!

I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather over the past several days and that everyone is wrapping up with their midterms and prepare to take a much-needed Spring Break. Your Senators have been working quite hard to get as many things accomplished as possible before the break. In terms of Senate committee updates, the Alcohol Ad-Hoc Committee presented a proposal to the Senate regarding their recommendation for the revamping of the campus Alcohol policy. Their recommendation included a points system. The proposal passed unanimously and will be recommended to the Yellow Wood Commission at the right time.

The Green Initiatives Committee is investigating into the possibility of taking one step above conventional posting by bringing Wheaton into the era of Digital Advertising. A meeting between members of the GIC and LIS is to occur upon returning to campus. The committee is also working with Dining Services in regards to RecycleMania. This contest is against all other schools in which Aramark operates in. Wheaton is placed in the per capita contest. As of right now, we are recycling 1.48 tons per capita which is in the lower quartile of schools.

The Executive Board made their weekly updates. The Honor Code Commission announced that the optional cellphone bins in classrooms during exams will be released. An article was written about this in the Wheaton Wire this week. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Stephanie Funt.

Treasurer Sasha Kim reminded everyone in the room that Spring 2010 Audits will be occurring on March 27th and 28th. All audits will be due on March 24th. There will be a mandatory Treasurer’s Social on March 22nd at 9pm to discuss the process of both audits and the allocation process. Secretary Alex Schibanoff announced that there will be a Woman’s Leadership at Wheaton Discussion on March 25th from 5-6pm on March 25th in Mary Lyon.

Educational Council Chair Jonathan Wolinsky reported that 30 professors were taken to lunch during “Take Your Professor to Lunch Week.” Therefore, he announced that this will occur every semester before midterms here on out. He also announced that Middle East Week will be the week we return from Spring Break. The Roosevelt Institute will be sponsoring a “Middle East 101″ Panel, while a well-known professor from Georgetown University will be speaking on Wednesday evening and Dining Services will be having a Middle East themed dinner on Thursday night in Emerson. For more information, contact Jonathan Wolinsky.

If you haven’t already heard the news, the Hipbone were first place winners of the Battle of the Bands and therefore play during the Spring Weekend Concert. Runner-ups, Mark & Lukas and Stimulus will also be performing during Spring Weekend, with Mark and Lukas performing on Chapel Field on the Friday of Spring Weekend and Stimulus will perform Saturday night at the Den.

Shannon Ryan, the Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees announced that Student-Alumni/e Liaison Vice Chairs applications will be online immediately after Spring Break. Lastly, President Amo reminded Senate that President Crutcher will be attending on March 23rd to discuss Wheaton’s budget and finances including the body of developments across campus and the community-at-large.

We hope everyone enjoys their Spring Breaks. See you in about a week.

Your Senators,

Aaron, Shane and Zachary

Greetings Residents of YMCA!

Although it is raining outside as this update goes to publication, we are confident that the weather will brighten up in the next few days (then again, predicting the weather is never completely accurate). Much has been going on in the past week. In terms of Annual Priorities, the Transportation Ad-Hoc Committee is pleased to state it has obtained quite a few responses in terms of where additional commuter parking should be located. The committee will inform Chuck Furgal of the commuter’s overall consensus at a meeting next week.

The Transportation Ad-Hoc is also preparing documents for Safe Rides to key offices of the college administration, more information concerning this will be released next week. According to this week’s Wire, it has stated that the Student Government Association was in disagreement with the newly-formed Yellow Wood Commission. One of the Alcohol Ad-Hoc Committee members, Kenny Monroe ‘12 has been selected by the commission to serve as a participant in the process. The Student Discounts Ad-Hoc Committee has released a survey that they would like as many students to respond to. You can find the survey on the Senate portion of the SGA Website.

The Senate this week focused on completing a nearly month-long discussion on Senatorial responsibilities by passing a renovated code of standards, introduced by Senator MacDonald of Craign Hall. This piece of legislation outlined specific mandates and procedures to make sure we as your elected officials, work efficiently as well as transparently. A piece of legislation, introduced by Senator Agush of Clark Hall discussing accountability, unfortunately did not make it to debate but it will most likely be put onto the agenda for the next Senate meeting. Both pieces of legislation will be made available as soon as possible.

Dean Williams made an appearance at Senate this week to discuss with the Senate the current news concerning a petition registered with the Town of Norton about taxing the tuition of Wheaton students. From her report, the Dean stated that the administration is currently undergoing an economic impact study to see the effects of the taxation if it managed to pass Norton’s Board of Selectman. Technically, the college is exempt from paying property taxes due to a number of reasons but even if the Selectman do approve the petition, there will still be legal issues brought in court. Dean Williams stated President Crutcher plans on releasing further information concerning this issue in the near future. According to the Dean, the town plans on discussing the taxation proposal on May 10th.

The Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) has been unable to make its presentation to the majority of Senate for the past two weeks but since the discussion concerning accountability and responsibilities has been completed, they shall be making their presentation to Senate at the upcoming Senate meeting on March 2nd. The BAC made their presentation to the Board of Trustees last weekend.  If you want a general overview of what occurred during the Board of Trustees meeting, please refer to President Crutcher’s email. If you have any questions, feel to contact either Aaron, Shane or Zachary for more information.

The Educational Council has finalized the Take Your Professor to Lunch Week to be March 1st through March 5th. Meal passes will be available in Balf0ur-Hood, the Administrative offices in each of the academic buildings and in the dining halls. Meal passes will be valid between the hours of 11am and 4pm. For more information, contact Jonathan Wolinsky.

Attention all seniors, Rosecliff tickets will be sold in the near future. Keep an eye out for further information from your class officers.

For all club leaders, the Programming Council shall have its second Planning Committee meeting next Friday, 3/5 at 2pm to continue developing plans for Spring Weekend, which shall be occurring between April 30th and May 2nd. The Programming Council would like to remind everyone that we shall be hosted a Battle of the Bands event on March 5th at 10pm in the Atrium. The winner of this battle will be allowed to perform during the Spring Weekend Concert on May 1st. Programming Council is also co-sponsoring a dance with Hillel this Saturday 2/27/10, called EsterFest 2010. The Programming Council Executive Board would also to once again apologize for the crenelation of Joshua Bennett, a spoken word artist. The crenelation was beyond their control. The PC Executive Board will make further information known as soon as possible.

The Honor Code Commission is pleased to announce that the signature case has been installed and as of today, beginning to present the signature’s of all current seniors. Additional news from the Commission includes that the Honor Code Survey, a follow up from the 2007 survey, shall be administered some time during the month of March. For more information, contact Stephanie Funt.

The Treasurer, Sasha Kim has given the Senate the current remaining monies in each of the three major discresionary funds:

• Venture Fund = $22,900
• Speaker Fund = $5,200
• Senate Fund = $13,600

If you have yet to obtain money to fund your event, fill out an application ASAP! There is still plenty of money to allocate this semester. You will find funding request forms in the Treasurer section of the SGA Website.

We hope everyone is doing well and hope that the rain will not deter people from attending the TryBe Gala this Thursday through Saturday. We wish you a great rest of the week and would like to inform you that all Senate meetings are open to the public and begin at 7pm. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to email any of us.

Your Senators,

Aaron, Shane and Zachary

Greetings Residents of YMCA,

Aaron, Shane and myself hope everyone is doing well — although I am certain everyone believes the snow storm was quite disappointing. Regardless, we have been slowly getting back to work since the end of Winter Break and several ad-hoc groups are waiting upon email returns from members of the staff and faculty and once we get some responses, there will be more information available to the public regarding our priorities.

For all club and organization leaders who are planning on having an event during Spring Weekend (April 30th-May 2nd), your club or organization MUST send a representative to the Spring Weekend Planning Committee meeting tomorrow, February 12th at 1pm in the Old Game Room. If you have further questions, either contact Natalie Allen (allen_natalie@wheatonma.edu) or any other member of the Programming Council Executive Board.

As most people are aware at this point concerning the Yellow Wood Commission, President Gabe Amo stated the following: “Let me make this clear, this is not an attempt to make Wheaton a dry campus. This is about examining the culture around alcohol at Wheaton and finding out how to make a clearly ineffective status quo work best for the lives of students. That is why the conversation has been elevated to such a level of importance.” If you have additional questions, contact President Gabe Amo or the other Co-Chairs, Associate Dean of Health and Wellness Craig Andrade or Assistant Director of Life Andrea Holden.

This evening at 6pm in Hindle is Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968. The documentary examines killings that took place on a college campus. On Feb. 8, 1968, following a week of escalating racial tensions, police shot into a crowd gathered at South Carolina State College to protest segregation at a local bowling alley. Three young African American men were killed and 27 others were injured during the Orangeburg, South Carolina, incident that is now referred to as the “Orangeburg massacre.” Following the end of the documentary, there will be an question-and-answer period with the filmaker.

There are several events coming up from the Programming Council: Joshua Bennett, a Spoken Word Artist has been canceled for this evening (9:00-10:30) in Balfour-Hood but he has been rescheduled to perform on February 25th at the same time and location. The Battle of the Bands will be occurring once again on March 5th. If your band is interested in competing, contact Natalie Allen as soon as possible.

Executive Chef Jennis Heal has seen a great turnout for his Chocolate 101 Cooking Class that will be happening on Saturday, February 13th from 1:30-3:30 in Chase. There are still a few more spaces but they are going fast! Register either by emailing Jennis Heal himself or register at the Dining Services office in Emerson Dining Hall.

Back in November, Wheaton participated in the Second Greener Wheaton Competition. We are still determining who is the winner since there are several factors we need to take into consideration. We will hopefully have a decision by the upcoming Senate meeting on 2/16/2010. The information of last academic year’s contest and this year’s will be made available on the SGA Website upon the winner being announced. Additional GIC news includes: Wheaton is now competing in RecycleMania against other colleges to see who recycles the most waste over a set number of weeks. The Eco-Reps shall be instrumental in assisting both Aramark (the company responsible for the contest) and GIC in our efforts. The Eco-Reps shall also be working to make the campus more environmentally aware by maintaining a blog on our website every week with environmental suggestions and recommendations for personal efforts to make our community greener. Stay tuned for their posts!

We hope that everyone’s Semesters are still going well, until next time.

Your Senators,

Aaron, Shane and Zachary

Residents of YMCA,

Your Senators: Aaron, Shane and Zachary have participated in the final Senate meeting for this semester. As promised, we received progress reports from the various ad hoc committees. Before we go into depth concerning the committees, Dean Andrade met with the Senate to discuss the College Health Information Study. This study is design to examine how different Wheaton students use the health information website, MyStudentBody.com, and what factors influence their use. In terms of MSB, the website is an interactive web-based education program designed to address health issues relevant to college students. If you are interesting participating in this study, check your emails for an invitation from the Office of Health and Wellness.

In terms of announcements from amongst our fellow Senators, Belltower Books, will be making announcements in the near future in regards to purchasing student textbooks for cash. The SEA Board and the future of this vital organization on campus will be brought to Senate’s attention in the Spring Semester so keep an eye out for further developments. And the Executive Board had their own amount of announcements. The Treasurer’s Advisory Committee met to discuss formally developing an policy concerning apparel which will be brought before Senate early next semester.  The Educational Council is beginning the process of determining what textbooks will be chosen to be purchased via the Textbooks-on-Reserve Program. If you are in a class that you feel need some textbooks on reserve at the library or they are quite expensive, please bring it up to your professor’s attention since only they can request such orders. According to the Treasurer, Test Prep Courses will be offered again next semester. The tests being offered include the LSAT, GREs and the MCATS. The price is 500 dollars and there might be financial aid available. Further information concerning this will be emailed to the community over winter break. The final Executive Board update is that during finals weeks, there will be optional cellphone bins where students can place their cellphones in during the time frame of an exam. This is suppose to discourage cheating with electronics. I shall state it again: optional bins. If you have any questions, contact Stephanie Funt or Jonathan Wolinsky.

What is the progress on Senate’s numerous priorities? The Alcohol Ad Hoc has been looking at the issue through three goals: (1) revisiting the sanctioning process, (2) its relationship to the Honor Code, and (3) the prospects of a “Amnesty” Policy. For the first goal, the committee met with Dean Williams, who looked over their initial proposal and was very open to discussion. The next step they need to take in regards to this is prepare a final proposal for Senate’s endorsement before submitting to Dean Williams. The committee is also evaluating the social and academic aspects and its impact on alcohol; while in summation, they are comparing other Northeast Nine schools for their alcohol policies and if they have a amnesty policy and thus see what they do and what could work for Wheaton.

After much analysis, the Internet Usage Ad Hoc, realized that the campus is using double the amount of bandwidth that we are currently supplying. In order to purchase more bandwidth, it would require the College to make a significance investment. As mentioned in a prior Wire commentary, it is stated that Wheaton has 80 MB of bandwidth; this isn’t the case — we only have 40! Back in the 1980’s, the College had the chance to provide cable in the rooms, but they said no. Now, if we were to do it, as in wiring the campus with cable for all, it would cost well over five million dollars.

Several meetings and numerous jogs from one side of campus to the other, the Transportation Ad Hoc has faced some pitfalls. As of this evening, December 8th, due to poor sales, the Airport Shuttles for this break will have to be canceled but they were most optimistic that providing shuttles before Spring Break might work better. We obtained a concession from Public Safety who will be allowing students to park in any faculty lot from Friday 5pm to Monday 6am, provided they leave prior to 6am on that Monday. We will try this out for a month. In terms of the Haas Lot, there will be more reserved commuter parking along with a certain number of student spaces to elevate parking in other lots. This change will take place at the beginning of next semester. The Committee is working out any last minute logistics concerning Safe Rides before having it go into a trial period by the end of February.

The Bookstore = Evil Ad Hoc has finalized a list of alternative textbook providers and will be displaying this list in Balfour-Hood by the end of this week. Some of their Spring Semester goals including: obtaining discounts, Student Advantage Cards, and a textbook buyback program which will be brought before Senate at some point during the next semester.

The last Ad Hoc, Norton-Wheaton Relations and Discounts has been contacting nearby businesses for their support in offering discounts to Wheaton students. They are currently waiting to hear back from Pro Dry Cleaners and Strand Salon. One of their members is looking into how it would be possible to obtain discounts for Mansfield Crossing and Patriots Place. Another member will be looking into Honeydew Donuts. If you have any suggestions, please email us and we will gladly forward it to the right people.

Since this was the last session of Senate until next year, we hope that everyone will do well on their finals and that everyone has a happy holiday and a very relaxing Winter Break.

Sincerely,

Aaron, Shane and Zachary