LIVE—College Center MPR
Shuttle Committee Report
Daniel Gordon reports for the Community Shuttle. Gordon is the student intern for the program, which runs a shuttle both on weekdays and weekends. The Sunday Shuttle now runs from 2 - 6 p.m. Weekday average per week is 160. Galleria and Family Partnership Center are the most popular stops. The Campus-Community Advisory Committee has been putting up fliers around the College detailing the new schedule. The Co-Chairs (Jeff Kosmacher and James Challey) are considering adding a shuttle-related Orientation event next August to ensure that first-year students are aware of the resource.
Class of 2009: "How will the financial crisis affect the shuttle?"
Gordon: "Funding overall this year is down, and we had to cut several stops... but funding is assured for next year."
The Council discussed several issues related to communicating the schedule of the shuttle, including the effectiveness of neighbors.vassar.edu and signage relating to the location/time changes. Members also discussed partnering Vassar's shuttle system with local colleges like Marist and Dutchess Community College.
Campus-Community Advisory Committee
Formed sub-committees, working on better collaborating with the Orientation committee to better educate first-year students. The Committee is hoping for more feedback from both students and administrators.
Food Committee
Danny McBee '10 is chair of the Committee. The group is discussing a meal equivalency system in UpCDC. McBee hopes that this will occur by the fall. "We're continuing to be vigilant... on menu complaints and routine issues like that." Senior Meal Plan will not be ready for next year. Committee is looking at Wesleyan University's model for reusable to-go containers. Class of 2009 raised concerns about the lack of a better option seniors to have a limited meal plan. "That's one-fourth of the student body that simply doesn't have access to the DC, unless you expect us to pay exorbitant prices."
College Committee on Educational Technology
Next year, Vassar will switch from Blackboard to Moodle. Last week, Vice President for CIS Bret Ingerman e-mailed the faculty to inform them of the decision. Because Moodle is open-source, the switch will cut down a lot on costs. Blackboard costs the College approximately $35,000 per year.
Certification of Transmission
Activities Committee has been working with the group since November. The group has spoken to Women's Studies, Baldwin and Metcalf to discuss gender issues. They also participated in All-College Day. VP for Finance spoke strongly against the certiification of any new organizations, as he has in all orgizantion certification discussions. Class of 2009 spoke in favor of certification. "This group provides services to a very specific group on this campus," he said. "Usually I agree with Finance on being very fiscally conservative, but I think that this is a unique case." The group members argued that being a VSA organzation would allow them to have longevity, being listed on the Web site and having an independent e-mail address. They would also be allowed to reserve rooms for campus meetings.
Council votes to certify Transmission. Finance was the only no-vote.
Council votes to declare SASA the Organization of the Month for March.
Amendments to Article IV and X of the VSA Constitution
These amendments, brought in an earlier form last week, dictate that VSA representatives uphold certain standards for their actions. The language has been slightly changed this week. Council continued to debate the pros and cons of regulating the behavior of student representatives for about 15 minutes.
Council votes to amend Articles IV and X of the VSA Constitution
Note: Comments are paraphrasing of the discussion, except for text in quotation marks, which are verbatim quotes. Only summaries of the discussion by members of the VSA Council are included. Note that financial allocations are not included here, although this information is available under meeting minutes at vsa.vassar.edu.
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