Dear Will Yale,

I know you’re always eager to hear from your constituents, and after our conversation over the bagel toaster in the Cave last week, I got to thinking about salad dressings.

The salad bar at the Bistro is 2409234 times better this year (thank you, SGA?) but the variety of ingredients is wasted on those same 6 slightly congealed gag-inducing salad dressings (much love to the Ranch, though). Perhaps the SGA could encourage Chartwells to mix up the dressings a bit. I’m a fan of the sesame soy dressing that Mrs. T sometimes has on her salads at Mather… mm…. could we put some of that in a cup and stick it at the end of the line at the Bistro, please? Maybe a Dijon vinaigrette? At the very least, could we have some white/red wine vinegar in addition to the balsamic?

Thanks for listening, my dear Senators.

-Disgruntled and Hungry Bistro Salad-goer.

Just to let everyone know, the Budget Committee has allocated all of its funds for this year so we will not be meeting anymore this year.

Also the final ~$1,000,000 SAF budget was approved last night. If anyone has questions about the budget, please contact me via email.

The Budget Committee and EAC are now requiring that ten copies of every financial request be turned in with a cover letter. Because the cover letters make it easier for us to determine which body should hear your request, starting March 1st, we will not accept any requests lacking a cover letter, or any that have not been photocopied.

For more information about requesting funds, download the Financial Request Information Sheet.

There haven’t been any posts in a few days, so until SGA gets kicking again, enjoy this disney favorite, in italiano.

The position of SGA Vice President of Finance has opened up for next semester, and I would like to formally announce my candidacy. I love the SGA, I love this school, and I want what’s best for both.

I have served as a senator for the Class of 2011 since the first semester of my freshman year. My freshman year, I sat on the Academic Affairs committee and chaired an ad-hoc committee to address issues of sexual assault. This semester, I have sat on the Student Life committee, founded and chaired the new Student Safety and Wellness committee, and co-chaired the faculty/student Safety Advisory Group, along with David Andres, Director of Strategic Projects. Although I have never served on the SGA Budget committee, I do have institutional financial experience, having sat on the faculty Planning and Budget Council for my entire freshman year.  I also helped to establish the new Entertainment Activities Council, which you all will vote on shortly.

For as long as I’ve been on the SGA, I’ve wanted to do more. I want to help this organization grow and I want to leave Trinity better than I found it. I know it sounds cliche, but I really mean it. Outside of the SGA, I’ve been involved with the Anti-War Coalition, Trinity Zen, the African Development Coalition, and most recently, Trinity Students Organized Against Racism (T-SOAR).

All I can ask of you is your trust, and your vote. I’d love to hear from you if you have a questions for me, concerns, general issues that you’d like me to bring to the SGA, pretty much anything. I always respond to email promptly, so please don’t hesistate. Andrea.Wise@trincoll.edu

Thanks so much, and I look forward to the vote in February.

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.

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”.

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)

The following is a letter that was sent out to the entire student body a few minutes ago:

Our campus is in a critical period right now. The actions, or inactions, that we, as students, take in the coming days will define us in more ways than we know. The issue of racism at Trinity is particularly visible right now, and while it is not a new one, we have an opportunity before us to send a clear message that we stand for compassion and inclusiveness, not for racism and bigotry.

Everyone at Trinity seems to have a different opinion about how to deal with the racism that faces us, and everyone seems to have different ways of coping with it, but let us not allow these technicalities to distract us from the real issue before us. Often times, when we feel hurt, we need to find a source for our anger, and in times like these, we pick a person to wrongly blame. At this time, no one knows who posted the offensive TrinTalk post except the author him or herself, and we hope that you will all dismiss any rumors that you may have heard about its authorship.

Today, Monday, October 27, 2008 we will be standing together, as members of the Trinity College family to show our friends and classmates that we want Trinity to be a truly welcoming and inclusive place. So, please join us at 5:00pm on the Mather Quad (in front of Austin Arts) to stand in solidarity with all those who have been hurt by racist or otherwise offensive statements at our precious institution. Trinity is our college and let’s claim it as such.

Peace,

Rosalia Abreu ‘11
Ibrahim Diallo ‘11
Marston Hefner ‘12
Adam Katcher ‘12
Tomas Kavanagh ‘11
Channon Miller ‘11
Shannon Smith ‘12
Bryan Wedeen ‘12
Andrea Wise ‘11

Monday, Oct. 27th.

5pm.

Mather Quad.

Please join us, members of our beloved Trinity, to show our classmates and friends who have been hurt by acts of racism and bigotry on our precious campus, that we are united together, and that we want Trinity to be a welcoming and accepting place for ALL.

There were three issues with the GPS that are being addressed:

1. The information was refreshing every 30 seconds. It is now refreshing every 15 seconds.

2. When the system goes offline, it displays the most recent image. Right now there’s no way to tell if you’re looking at the location of the shuttle 15 seconds ago, or 10 minutes ago when it went offline. The powers that be are working on it so we’ll keep you all updated.

3. When the shuttle is stopped (driver taking a bathroom break, or something) there’s no indication that it’s stopped. The magical shuttle powers are also working on that.

Also, we’ve asked that the shuttle drivers stop at every stop for 30 seconds (to wait in case someone is waiting inside their building for the shuttle to arrive) before they go onto another stop, so hopefully they’ll start doing that soon.

Please keep me updated with problems/compliments on the shuttle system.

Are you interested in helping to improve safety on campus?

Are you free on Thursdays at 4pm?

The SGA needs 2 additional students to be part of the Safety Advisory Group, with the Director of Strategic Planning, a representative from the Dean of Students, Campus Safety, and the SGA.

If you’re interested, please email me (Andrea.Wise@trincoll.edu) with a brief description about why you’d be valuable on that committee.

I’d like to thank everyone who’s contacted us about issues with the new Campus Shuttle. In particular, the GPS tracking feature is obviously not working very well right now. We’ve also gotten some reports that the shuttles are not stopping and waiting briefly at every stop (so that people waiting in their dorms can see the shuttle arrive, and have time to get outside and catch it). We’re also aware that currently, the designated stops are not marked. This is a new system and we’re still trying to work out all the kinks, so please bear with us and keep the feedback coming!

At tonight’s SGA meeting, we passed a resolution creating a new standing committee, the Student Safety and Wellness Committee. This committee will proactively address anything related to safety and wellness (duh). We’ll be addressing such issues as sexual assault, unauthorized access to dorms, STDs, mental and physical health, lighting, etc. We want to act as a liaison between existing organizations who aim to address some of those issues, and the SGA, as the official voice of the student body.I’d really like to get as many people involved with this as possible, so whether you’re involved with the SGA or not, if this sounds like something you’d be down with, please e-mail me (Andrea.Wise@trincoll.edu). Since this committee was just formed about an hour and a half ago, I don’t yet have a meeting time, but I’ll e-mail any interested members and we’ll find a time that works for everyone.

Additionally, if you’ve got any ideas/concerns/issues you’d like us to address, just let me know and we’ll see to it.