SA Community Life Committee

SA Residential Life Committee Meeting Minutes
February 12, 2013
Rockefeller Hall
4:30–5:30 PM

• Announcements
  • Committee Member Reception — Monday, Feb. 18 (4–5 PM, Willard Straight Hall)
• Student Spotlight/Organization Spotlight
  • New feature on SA website
  • Weekly spotlighting of a student and monthly spotlighting of an organization
  • Send Ulysses spotlight suggestions
• Resolutions to Review
  • SA Events Calendar Resolution - Juliana Bautista ‘16 & Ian Harris ‘16
    • Why
• There lacks a comprehensive list of campus events that can be found at one centralized hub of information
• Students are often unaware of all the great opportunities and events on campus
  • What
• Pilot Program to bring more attention to events.cornell.edu
• Invite leaders of approximately 30 student organizations to inform them on the benefits of using and how to use the online calendar

  • Discussion/Suggestions

• Allow organizations to have profiles so joining and learning more would be easier for students using the calendar
• Do not place too much (or any) emphasis on possible resulting emails that would be sent out to the student body to promote upcoming events found on the calendar
• Allow for customizing/filtering so students can view the most relevant events
• Allow students to create own profiles which would then be used to provide a more personalized calendar of events
• Streamline event planning process to the events calendar website
• Look into the Hotel School’s system (orgsync.com)
  • Vote (voting outcomes were contingent on discussion points and suggestions stated above)
• In Favor: 3
• Abstain: 3
• Against: 0
  • International Student Centre — Enrico Bonatti ‘14
    • Why
• Ensure positive mental health and quality of life of international students
• See to the unique issues and needs of international students (i.e. culture shock, language issues, academics, programming)
• Provide a safe space for international students
• Help bring the various backgrounds of international students together
  • What
• Establishment of International Student Centre
• There are a lot of unoccupied space on campus
• Would act as a resource center and encourage unity
• Would work closely with International Students and Scholar’s Office (ISSO)
• ISSO is a purely administrative support network
• Open to undergraduates, graduates, faculty, staff, and affiliated families
  • Discussion/Suggestions
• Confirm and publicize the support of alumni of the resolution when presenting
• Identify possible locations on campus that could serve as the center
  • Vote (voting outcomes were contingent on discussion points and suggestions stated above)
• In Favor: 6
• Abstain: 0
• Against: 0
• Residential Staff Training (assigning teams)
  • Survey (within 2 weeks) — speak with group responsible for creating campus-wide surveys; work with them to create survey
    • Team: Rebecca Sharma, Gillian Trimber
  • RA Input (within 2 weeks)- Contact RA’s from a variety of places (West Campus, Co-ops, North Campus, Program Houses, RHDs, Assistant Deans, etc.); invite to committee meeting to give feedback
    • Team: Elsie Liaros, Elaine Lin, Shiva Bhargava
  • Class Projects (find contacts) — Find classes willing to take this on this semester or next semester
    • Team: Nick Vasko
• Next meeting: Tuesday, Feb. 19 @ 4:30 PM (Goldwin Smith Hall, Room TBA)