Minutes — April 9, 2013
Student Assembly Residence and Community Life Committee
4:30pm — 5:30pm, 146 Goldwin Smith Hall
- SA ad hoc Committee: Collegetown Student Council
- Jed Entin ‘14, Collegetown Student Council VP of Finance
- Resolution: SA ad hoc Committee
- Help address issues of students living off campus (off campus and Greek life)
- Would take over responsibility of SA ResLife committee to over see off campus living (except co-ops)
- Take effect Fall 2013
- What they look to gain as SA committee
- Be more connected with student body
- Help students living off campus feel more connected with student body
- Tough to represent students when not democratically elected
- Access to resources
- Things to keep in mind
- Staff at least one SA liaison on ad hoc committee
- SA has no jurisdiction in Collegetown
- However, SA is connected with Off-Campus Housing Office
- SA can only advocate
- Name of committee should change from Collegetown Student Council since overseeing more than just Collegetown
- Vote
- Unanimously in favor of resolution
- Gender Inclusive Housing (GIH) Update
- Statistics
- 87 people initially indicated interest (mostly rising juniors)
- 30% of 87 too advantage of GIH (1% of all those participating in housing lottery)
- Issues
- Not enough staff power to take on GIH program and do by hand despite timeline being established in October 2012
- StarRez Portal has ability to integrate GIH into system, but is expected to be quite costly to integrate for every residential hall
- Designating GIH rooms has been considered unfair
- Falling behind in initial timeline
- Supposed to be fully open to West Campus, program houses, and off-campus halls (continued occupancies only) fall 2013
- Next Steps
- Behavioral study survey
- Measure why people didn’t choose GIH option
- Measure why did the people who did choose GIH option and ended up using it choose it
- Find out price of integrating GIH into system
- Compare price to other universities that offer GIH
- Where would money come from?
- Access database of Ivy Council for comparisons
- Tap into alumni support networks
- RA Staff Training
- New Position: COmmunity & REspect (CORE) RA Position
- Requires supplemental training 1 day before arrival of all RA’s
- Focus on sexual violence, bias incidences, mental health
- Each RHD will choose 1–2 RA’s to fulfill position
- Issues/Potential Consequences
- Assumption that a couple people with specialized training can fix such profound issues
- Regular RA’s do not feel obligated to directly deal with issues of sexual violence, bias incidences, and mental health
- CORE RA’s would not have the time or resources to familiarize themselves with each resident, so residents may be reluctant to approach them when faced with such personally draining issues
- Questions
- How many in each residential hall?
- Will CORE RA’s be placed in West Campus? Off-Campus residential halls?
- If not, would be overlooking upperclassmen still in residential halls
- Why or how is this any different than the training that is already done on these issues?
- Next Steps
- Meet with Joe Burke for more information on CORE RA position
- Student Supreme Court Update
- Meeting with Cat Holmes and Marybeth (in progress)
- Figure out where to house this body
- How fines will work
- Where fines will be submitted
- Next Steps
- Collect sample/mock cases to present to SA
- Do not place too much emphasis on SA vs. student cases
- Hone in on student vs. student, student org vs. student, etc.
- Tap into Ivy Council
- Research other judicial systems and sample cases with potential outcomes/remedies from other universities
- Proposed Timeline
- Hammer out details (with bylaws, committees, admin)
- Submit back to SA ResLife Committee
- Present to new SA next school year
- Pass in early fall
- Hash out serious problems by end of that first semester
- Work with admin/faculty during winter break to resolve serious problems
- Aim for full implementation in spring
- Awareness Campaign for student body
- New SA — Internal Elections
- New committee chairs will be elected
- Side Note: Ulysses will attend meetings of all committees, so new ResLife chair should not disrupt already established timelines
- Committee updates will be incorporated into SA meetings
- Transfer, freshman, and general SA liaison will be required to sit on every committee