The Safety and Wellness Committee has created a new page on TrinitySGA.com that we hope will help you all know what Trinity offers by way of staying safe and healthy. If you navigate over to the “Services” tab at TrinitySGA.com, and click on the first link on that page, (or click here) you’ll find a list of the phone numbers/websites/information for stuff like the Campus Safety department, the Health Center, the Sexual Assault Responce Team, the Campus Safety Shuttle, etc.

Interested in participating in Trinity’s first-ever campus-wide squash tournament which also happens to benefit a good cause? Then register today for the First Annual ConnPIRG Campus Climate Challenge Squash Global Warming Tournament! It’s only $15 to play, and no experience is required! For more information, contact me, Bryce Blum, or Maggie Thomas!

The Center for Teaching & Learning in conjunction with several other campus units is looking for students interested in participating in a panel discussion on Critical Reading in the Digital Age early next semester. During this session we will discuss the impact of new technologies (e.g., Google, Blogs, Facebook) on the process of reading and how this is affecting our teaching and learning practices. In a multimedia era, what’s the role of the printed word? Do you read more, or at all? How do you handle class assignments? Can you multitask and still be a critical reader? Even if you don’t use much technology, you probably have dealt with these issues. If you are interested, please fill out the form available here.

Participants will receive a gift certificate to an online bookstore. This event is sponsored by The Dean of Faculty’s Office, The Center for Teaching and Learning, Academic Computing, The Blume Language & Culture Learning Center, the Trinity College Library and the Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric.

After seeing the high student demand Trinity’s two Zipcars have gotten, we’re adding another one! This one will be conveniently located in Mather parking lot, and we expect it to be on campus by the time we get back from winter break. If you haven’t yet signed up for a Zipcar membership, go to www.zipcar.com/trinity — it’s only $35 to start, and that amount goes towards driving credit! Zipcar is wheels when you want them, at the rate of only $8 an hour or $65 per day! Give it a try!

I sincerely enjoy this advertisement every time I watch it on YouTube. It never gets old.

For the third time, I met with a person from the administration to discuss the issue of PAC access to residence halls. Amy DeBaun, Director of Residential Life, explained the history of dormitory access here at Trinity, going from keys to codes to network cards. A disdainful but strong theme iterated during the code access period was once again the sharing of codes, for which there is actual data (not made available to me, except as a citation for the fact that every month tens of PAC’s are replaced). Actually, an interesting data point brought up was the fact that during code access, access was granted to an individual only for his/her own dormitory; only since the advent of network cards was it viable to allow students universal residence hall access (i.e. due to the very nature of the cards being networked). Thinking about it in this way, the PAC dorm hall access is sort of a step backwards. Taking it from the angle of safety, I pressed the point that a student losing their ID card would be very much at risk from all sorts of malevolent forces with no way to get to the safety of the dorms especially at late night, should such a terrible circumstance ever arise. A terse but admittedly adequate response to this concern was that such a student should simply call campus security, from either a personal phone or from the “safety phones” installed around campus (yellow poles). This would actually be quite a bit troublesome, but campus security is required to assist any student in getting in to their residence halls when such troubles arise. I cannot question this logic. A major aspect of this brought up was the financial requirements needed to even undertake the project. It cost the college quite a huge amount to actually install the card networks and to continue this takes quite some resources. However, the administration holds these costs justified due to the safety they seem to provide. To actually add PAC access to dorm would require eventually going to each dorm individually and programming all of them individually to the regular inhabitants and also to reprogram every year, on a manual basis. In this sense, the network cards are easier. In addition, with the financial tragedy that we are currently experiencing and the resultant cutbacks, no such action would be technically feasible. In summation, the administration has answered rejected this venture at all levels for myriad reasons, but mostly because they believe in the cards and refuse to implement PAC access to residence halls. There is apparently little that the student body can do to sway this opinion. At this point, I am currently marginalizing this issue, for I have met with all the top people in charge of these things, and also waiting for results from the student survey.

So, unfortunately, the campus pub project has been put on hold (I assume for at least this year) because of our current financial crisis. This of course is disappointing to myself, the others who are working on the project, and I would assume the student body at large who was excited for a new outlet for student-teacher conversations and a fun, on-campus weekly option. Alas, Trinity’s budget and endowment is infinitely more important to the overall operation and security of the institution and the students, than a campus pub. So, my next project was to address the issue of broken/problematic washer/dryers in some of the dormitories around campus. After speaking with David Andres, hoping to have the school do a campus wide audit of all the machines to see which needed maintenance I was told that the problems could be addressed much more easily; that is, students can report broken machines on an individual basis within their dorms. There are phone numbers posted in laundry rooms that students should call if there is a problem. This way seems much more efficient and logical to me, and, although the burden is now on students to be responsible, I think it will save the school’s staff time and money. My next project is to get “patio furniture” in the concrete jungle. If you have any thoughts or ideas about this project, or others that you think we should tackle, please feel free to contact me! Thanks

Peter Walters ‘11

Senator At-Large

So I met with Sally Katz from Buildings and Grounds last week and she informed me about the current situation with dormitory bathroom updates on campus. As of now, their funding for facility updates are solely for emergencies. They have a small pool of money for reworking and renovation of the campus facilities, and they feel this money’s use should be guided by what students want to see change. I think this money should be used to update some of fixtures in our bathrooms. Faucets and showerheads in select dorms are inadequate in many people’s opinions. What we thought would be cool is to make this into an environmental update as well. If we install water efficient fixtures that better serve the student’s needs, it can be even more tempting for the college to fund. My goal is to find which dorms need these updates first. If you feel your dorm merits this, or you know of other dorms specifically that need these updates, please let me know. I need to get back to Sally before Thanksgiving with these specific dorms. So far, I have only pinpointed Jones as one of the recipients. Look forward to hearing from you!

Hello! I’m updating the Trinity community on what’s been going on in Food Committee. Some of my peers and I have met with Toby several times during the last few weeks to talk about some important changes we want made to Chartwells. One was the “rollover” idea: He has told me that it’s on his minutes and ready to be discussed.  I have stressed how much Trinity students would really like to see that happen in the near future.   We’ve also discussed the overpricing in the Cave and in the Bistro.  A lot of the prices are assigned because Chartwells is a business and must cover all of its expenses.  However, we are working on ideas to make more meal ideas in the Cave (ex. cereal, milk, fruit and an oj) so that we’re not constantly scrambling to find random things to make a meal and spend most of our time practicing our killer addition skills. If anyone has any suggestions about a meal/combo, please email me (rebecca.herrigel@trincoll.edu) or Toby (toby.chenette@trincoll.edu) with ANY suggestions!  Again, Food Committee meets every Thursday at noon in Mather.  All are welcome to join and voice their opinions, constructive criticism, and suggestions in order to make their Chartwells experience the best it can be. Rebecca. 

I think we can all learn a valuable lesson about perseverance from this little guy. Enjoy

Two events this week:

1. The lighting walk is on Tuesday (11/1108) at 6:30pm, starting at Campus Safety. We’ll walk around campus and see what areas are too dark, what lights are burnt out, etc. and any student is welcomed (and encouraged) to attend.

2. Voices Raised in Power is on Wednesday (11/12/08) at 6pm at Gallows Hill. It’s sponsored by SART, SATF, the WGRAC, and others and seeks to “to raise awareness and help prevent sexual assault and rape”.

Senior Class President Dan Hoyle was kind enough to join the Student Life Committee this past Wednesday to discuss the Class Officer Constitution that Andrea Wise is spearheading on behalf of the Student Life Committee.  The main objective of the Constitution is to increase the accountability of officers to their respective classes. We proposed a series of checks and balances according to which class officers would report to, and have some oversight by, the SGA.  Dan was adamant that the SGA should not have any oversight of class officers for a series of (well-articulated and rational) reasons, though he supports the underlying notion that class officers should be held more accountable.  We worked together to develop a series of ideas to further that goal:

*Officers will send monthly emails to their respective classes in which they detail that which they are   doing for their classes.  It should be noted actualizing the idea requires the creation of new student email accounts for the officers that grant them access to global distribution lists for their classes.

*Officers will to maintain and regularly update a class page on sga.com.

*We need increased awareness of the fact that class officers receive $3000 to spend on their class.

*OCL needs to be more proactive in its oversight of class officers’ work, beginning with clearly establishing the rules with officers when they are elected.

*Class Councils should be established (groups of people to sit alongside presidents at meetings, similar to the way in which senators sit amongst president of SGA.)

All thoughts on the proposed ideas, as well as new ideas, are appreciated.  Thanks.

As a dove-tail to Eamon’s post last week, I’m working on setting up a pilot program for next semester for student-professor dinners. Dinners would be student-initiated, and would help build personal relationships with professors. Although faculty can currently receive reimbursement for meals with students, field-trips, and meetings over coffee, there is no institutionalized program so that a small group of students themselves can organize a dinner with a professor. My plan would build such a program.

As I’ve written it thus far, the program would be a simple system of reimbursement at any restaurant up to $15 per student; any fraud would be accounted for by trust in the form of signatures and acknowledgment from professors that each dinner did take place. The as-yet-unnamed program would be integrated with the Dean of Students Office’s system of faculty reimbursement mentioned above.

I am looking for student input as to how such a program would best serve you. What should it be called? How would it best be advertised? Is the system of reimbursement as outlined fair? What, if any, set limit should be imposed on the number of students participating in any particular dinner? What are your thoughts? Thanks for your input!

~ Will Yale

Class ‘12 Senator

Academic Affairs Committee

Hello again,

As our beloved secretary, Rebecca, will be graduating at the end of this year, we are looking for a new secretary so that Rebecca can train him or her. Below are the duties of the secretary. If you are interested in the position, please come to the SGA meeting this Sunday, November 9th, prepared with a 2-3 minute speech on your qualifications and why you would be the best person for the job. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at jordyn.sims@trincoll.edu.

As a non-voting member of the SGA, the Secretary’s duties include:
- attend and take minutes at: full senate meetings, steering board meetings
- maintain attendance records
- compile and make copies of the agenda for every full senate meeting
- make copies of all resolutions for each full senate meeting
- compile documents for the webmaster to post online
- assist the executive board

The secretary position is large time-commitment and should not be taken lightly. As a result, the position does include a $650 stipend per semester. Ideally we would like someone who can hold this position for two or more semesters. Unfortunately seniors cannot apply as we try to create as much continuity as possible with this position.

Again, if you have any questions, please e-mail me at jordyn.sims@trincoll.edu and we look forward to meeting all of the interested candidates at this Sunday, November 9th’s meeting!

Thanks,
Jordyn Sims
Elections, Recruitment, and Communications Committee

The Student Safety and Wellness Committee is off to a great start, and looking to have a successful first semester in existence. You can visit our committee page for more details about what we’re doing, but to sum up:

-Writing/Revising a Student Safety Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

-Working to improve sanitation and cleanliness in Mather Dining Hall

-Improve accessibility of information about existing safety/wellness services on campus

-Integrate a safety orientation into the first year program

-Improving handicap accessibility

-Combat eating disorders on campus

Also, the lighting walk will be next Tuesday, November 11th, at 6:30, so please come out and join us for that.

If anyone has any questions or ideas for things you’d like us to address, again, feel free to contact me (Andrea.Wise@trincoll.edu)