Live blogging | VSA Council meeting on April 26, 2009

LIVE—College Center MPR

Athletics Discussion

Director of Athletics Sharon Beverly: "I think we've had another good year, as far as Vassar Athletics is concerned." Sent two athletes to NCAA tournaments, one fencer and one cross country runner. "I think we continue to show improvement, each and every year."

Class of 2011: How will financial cutbacks affect the teams, the assistant coaches? How has the College asked Athletics to cut back?

Beverly: "We're not being asked to do any more cutbacks than the other areas of the College. We're trying to ensure that the experience of our student athletes is affected as little as possible. We want for everyone to take only a little bit of a hit. We're trying to make sure that this isn't affecting just one or two programs a lot, but everyone a little."

VP for Student Life: "[Brewer Bash] was a great time, and I was wondering what opportunities you see for collaboration in the future?"

Beverly noted that she prefers to hear feedback from student athletes first, but hopes that there can be a formalized liaison role.

VP for Operations: Has Athletics thought about ways that facilities could be used to generate revenue for the College?

Beverly: "We have looked at some money raising opportunities over the past few years, but our primary concern is to keep those facilities available to our students." Beverly was concerned that renting out facilities to the local community might result in wear and tear. "We just completed those $9 million Prentiss Facilities, and if in four years they need to be redone, we won't have the money."

Beverly discussed the possibility of changing Vassar's mascot away from the Brewer. The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) worked on this prospect three years ago, but participation was limited. Brewers remained the mascot.

This year, Athletics worked with Computing and Information Services (CIS) to acquire new recruiting software, which has been working very well.

Rights, Responsibilities and Room Entry

There will probably be a proposal coming to the Committee on College Life in a couple weeks. They are trying to distill all of the rights and responsibilities from the Student Handbook into a single document. "I'm not optimistic that it's going to pass this spring," said Nate Silver VP for Student Life.

Committee on Curricular Policy

Working on CEQ evaluations, major requirements, and advising. President Jimmy Kelly asked whether the committee was effective. The representative, Amory Meltzer, noted that Dean Chenette was extremely effective as a Chair of the committee. "The main issue is that, obviously, anything that students want to do for the curriculum involves the consensus of the faculty. Meltzer encouraged students to express academic concerns by talking to their representatives on CCP, and to vote in spring elections.

Library Committee

The Library will be losing six positions next year, and will be eliminating book binding next year. Director of the Libraries Sabrina Pape has been looking at ways to eliminate duplication of sources online and in print. The student representatives have advocated for expanding or maintaining Library hours. Next year's hours will remain the same as this year.

Bookstore of the Future Committee

The committee decided to go with a smaller café that won't serve food. The café will be on the ground floor. The next meeting will be on May 7. The project will only move forward with a donor gift. It will be called the Juliet Bookstore.

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.