AAS Meeting Minutes 11/5/12

AAS Meeting Minutes 11/5/12 Meeting Begins: 8:30 PM

I. Attendance (Noah) II. Public Comment

a. Open to all students on any topic III. Keefe Space Allocation Plan (Noah Gordon ‘14) Noah Gordon: I want to discuss the overall vision that has emerged from meetings we’ve been having. In the first meeting, we discussed possible proposals with Peter Root of facilities. This originally was conceived as a move of the MRC. Once the need emerged for the moving of the Women’s Center, we’re moving toward re-envisioning the campus center. We wanted to get more visibility for the MRC and Women’s Center; more foot-traffic on first and second floors. To help with that, Mr. Root suggested we make general improvements to the building like carpeting, lighting, etc. We also wanted to move toward seeing Keefe as a more unified aspect of campus… right now it’s kind of isolated. When you think of Keefe, you think of mailroom, gameroom, and all these rooms, but they’re not really unified into one sort of campus center. The Amherst Student and WAMH were represented at each meeting: they were the two groups willing to sacrifice space to make the move possible. MRC and Women’s Center represented at both meetings as well. This is a proposal, not a final solution. There will be concessions on all sides of the proposal. WAMH and The Amherst Student were generous in being willing to give up their space. I think the MRC is already on the right track for establishing a vision. I think there needs to be a greater framework established for the Women’s Center. Dean Fatemi made an argument that a lot of foot traffic will be on the second floor.

Dean Fatemi: If we envision the gameroom on the second floor, room 208 is currently a conference room. One thing students have asked for over the years is more video games. We currently have one tv and an Xbox in the gameroom. If we envision in room 210 (lounge above post-office), a pool-room. And 207c (one of WAMH’s current spaces), could be a ping-pong room. The second floor would thus have more foot traffic. The Asian Student Organization is used for storage and small club meetings. Relatively unused space.

Chris Friend ’14: So it looks like we’re making two separate moves here. It seems like the two moves don’t have to be connected.

Noah: Good point. If they are two separate moves, then they’re complementary. There’s traffic going by the Women’s Center and more visibility of the gameroom to people going upstairs.

Peter Crane ’15: What does the AAS need room for? Dean Fatemi: Five or six years ago, the senators held office hours and there was an increase of AAS presence on campus. More access to student reps. It allowed for more direct interaction of the student body with the AAS. Most student governments on campus have an active office with office hours. By bringing the student government back to the campus center, it will bring traffic into the building on the lower level and throughout Keefe.

Jess Sidhu ’14: If we go to third floor, one of the concerns is how broken up the gameroom is. I feel like having it all together is a large benefit. For instance, it’s convenient for Big Brothers and Big Sisters to have everything in one room. Is there a way to make the gameroom one area rather than three split up areas? Perhaps we could change the way WAMH is set up.

Noah Gordon: To address your first comment, this is where we run into issues with how the building is constructed. One of the proposals we looked at is maybe having the gameroom in this center area (points to diagram). These spaces however as weirdly constructed; there’s a chance for a random pillar to be standing in the middle of the room. With WAMH, we have similar issues: there’s a random elevator, no longer in use, in the middle of WAMH. There’s also the issue of replacing WAMH’s equipment once they move because it all has to be plugged in. Construction issues include: low-bearing walls, obstacles in the middle of rooms and acoustic differences.

WAMH DJ: Most of this space is non-negotiable. Just a few questions that are born out of ignorance, maybe: What does the MRC do presently, what will the women’s center do and who uses these resources on campus? How many people actually use them? Is it more than people who listen to WAMH?

James Liu ’16: Can room 210 fit two pool tables instead of one?

Noah: 305 square feet… if there’s room, we might be able to do it!

Matt deButts ‘13: I feel like common resources are losing out- something like the gameroom that doesn’t have a specific advocate. In this case, room 210 is a pretty well-used lounge room. People use it to hang out if they have to check mail, are waiting to go into the Friedmann room, if they have a meeting, etc. So this is a loss of one of those lounge areas. The second thing I wanted to address is how there are a lot of ideas on campus about the way our social life can change: students have a lot of interest in talking about this. I think we’re going to move faster than the student body would like. I think we should elicit much more student feedback about this move plan.

Dean Fatemi: I see the campus center as the social health or the living room of campus. It should be an unstructured place to access services. Is it our goal to have the MRC and Women’s Center become more visible and more usable on campus? Sunday – Wednesday, the gameroom is used by about 40 students who sign out equipment. Thursday – Saturday night, the gameroom has its highest use of about 150 students over the course of night and day. Mostly used on the weekends during the evening hours.

Chris Friend ’14: Is there any reason that the Women’s Center and the MRC could program around each other? It strikes me that the MRC and the Women’s Center won’t be used at all times, with events everyday of the week.

George Tepe ‘14: Something to look at for the committee to look at, if possible.

Meghna Sridhar ’14: Matt’s argument for unstructured lounge space is a good one, but one thing I’d like to propose is that the Women’s Center shouldn’t and won’t be a closed-off space where only feminists can enter and use the room. Our goal is to make it an open space with snacks available.

Shruthi: What is going to be in the MRC?

MRC Rep: The front area of the MRC will be a lounge space and can be converted for all-campus events. I would urge you guys to think of the lounge spaces simply moving and becoming larger, with a television! Right now, I’m the only staff member for the MRC and my time and resources are limited. The MRC will have more staffing and will be more flexible and open more of the time. Now, we don’t have a lot of visibility on campus because we don’t have the space in the basement.

Amani Ahmed ’15: I wanted to express how important the gameroom is to students on campus. Splitting it up and moving it away from Schwemm’s takes away from the experience that is the gameroom. The MRC is important to me. However, I think many students will be affected by the change. Discussion during the Day of Dialogue related to how students don’t have very many places to hang out and chill doing things not related to alcohol, not specific to any organization. To move the gameroom and to divide it up, and to move it away from food, it takes away from what we have.

John Yarchoan ’13: One of the arguments put forward is that moving the gameroom into three separate rooms might actually be desirable because videogamers might not want the sound from other things. My opinion is that it’s not that big of a concern. I think all the noises in the gameroom correlate and make it clear that this is just a room to have fun. I think that would be taken away when you have a small, darkly-lit room where you have to flick on the light, and where you’re the only people making noises in that room. That seems much less fun to me. I want to echo Matt and say this discussion should be more directly involved with the student body. Tania Dias ’13: There are arguments for not splitting the gameroom, but there are some for splitting the gameroom. We’d be making three spaces in Keefe, expanding the fun into more places. Walls and windows will be opened up, creating more light and allowing for a more relaxed gameroom: no confined, claustrophobic spaces. And I definitely see the concern of (WAMH DJ). If we put the MRC and Women’s Center in these locations, they wouldn’t have resources to do anything. However, both MRC and Women’s Center have special committees set up to come up with visions.

Noah: To WAMH DJ: There’s a reason why you don’t know about the MRC or the Women’s Center: no full-time staff people and they are located in tiny places no one knows about.

WAMH DJ: So you know that a vision is being formed for both centers, but you do not know if the vision being formed will merit the need for this space.

Noah: Good point. It’s sort of a chicken and the egg issue. To Chris: one of the conflicts that comes into play with having the MRC and Women’s Center program around each other is that while the MRC wants to be an open space, the Women’s Center needs both open space and privacy. There’s need for a private group for survivor group therapy sessions and such. To Amani: The gameroom actually used to be upstairs. Moving it upstairs won’t be so much a change of tradition. Also, we are planning an all-student meeting. These discussions are simply a precursor.

Christina Won ’15: Will the new science center affect any of this? Will it affect large social spaces?

Noah: I don’t think so…

Facilities rep: Science center will not affect anything we’re doing in Keefe. New science will have amazing lounge areas set up within it. There will be large atrium spaces with lots of seating and study area. Envisioned as a center with lots of non-academic, non-classroom rooms.

Servet Bayimli ‘16: If we decide to fuse both rooms, why can’t the MRC share the Women’s Center space?

MRC rep: Women’s center requested their own space.

Jess Sidhu: Seems like the Amherst Student is asked to give up double the space that WAMH is asked to give up. Just want to clarify for myself.

Noah: We could take up more space from WAMH, but what we’d be taking is a hallway. Jess: This plan takes an unstructured and social gameroom and structures it by dividing it into a ping-pong room, a video game room, a pool room, etc. It seems like we’re not creating an unstructured, social hub. There’s going to be less interaction. I’m not necessarily saying we should keep the gameroom where it is. At least keep it together.

Dean Fatemi: In this plan version we have available, this was the best version in order to accommodate WAMH and The Amherst Student. The Student has been very generous, but its request is to keep the main room to keep the integrity of how the organization functions. In order to make the changes, if every group gives a little, the ripple effect of all these changes is positive.

Abigail Xu ’15: In the past, when the gameroom was upstairs, where was the gameroom?

Dean Fatemi: In the yellow room, where we posed that The Student would stay.

Matt deButts: Hard cases make bad policy (LJST phenomenon): when tough cases arise, it’s a good time for consciousness raising, but not the best time for long- term decisions. There hasn’t been any previous talk about moving the Women’s Center… I’m going to go ahead and say there is a need for the Women’s Center to have a larger presence on campus, but there hasn’t been a need for 5 years plus, unlike what is the case with the MRC. I think it would be valuable to let things calm down a bit. Channeling Amani: Labels prevent people from going into rooms. For instance, take the Rainbow Room. Any student can go in there any day of the week. However, people don’t go in all the time because it has a label. I wish everyone would feel comfortable hanging in one room, despite any labels. But it’s not the case. I fear that groups that already using the MRC will continue using the room, but new students might not. I’d also love to know what the next steps are going to be: is a referendum going to happen? Slower process? Formal way for students to approve this move?

Tania Dias: There will be a referendum, but I can’t say with authority or certainty that it will be to approve the move. It might be non-binding.

Chris: Do we have a time table? Facilities: We have a preliminary time table. No specific goal, other than the president’s goal for the MRC. We can get most of the construction done during Interterm. It’s fairly significant construction that shouldn’t be happening during the school year. Motion to end discussion passed.

IV. BC Recs (Abigail)

Film Forum rep: 15 Amherst Memberships needed. $600 each. To get these, you can contact Danielle Amadeo or Joey. Hillel has Thanksgiving dinner on Friday for Shabat. Requesting $100 more because Kosher turkeys are expensive.

Conference: Nov. 15th-17th. Request tabled.

Meghna: Working with Shruthi through Senate Project. Amanda Villarreal was a senator last semester and she coming to talk about women and alumni. Requesting money for food and publicity. 4:30 to 6:30 on Nov. 10th.

James: Funding event for Thursday (organized with Tania). BC recs passed.

V. Reports a. Committee Reports

Rama Hagos ’15: Matt Yglesias will be here to talk about election results and economics in general.

Risalat Khan ‘13: I want to use homecoming to gather opinions from alumni on creating a new mascot. Preliminary stage to get opinions and see where people stand.

Tania Dias: Matt and Chris: Thanks for the election party! Day of Dialogue went really well. I’ve spoken to Dean Boykin-East and Dean Moore… I’m trying to get a liquor license at Schwemm’s.

b. General Announcements Election watch night party in Friedmann room!

Meghna: Toughts after election? Email The Amherst Student with your reactions. Please contact me or Shruthi about Amanda Villarreal’s event.

c. Officer Reports

VI. Appointments Board Nominations for Sexual Respect Task Force (Noah)

Noah: 7 seats and 13 applications. We chose the 7 best people and tried to make it even with regards to gender. Approved.

VII. Judiciary Council Election (George) a. 1 senator Servet Bayimli ‘16 is elected.

VIII. JJ Hoffstein ’14’s Email to Chief Carter regarding : Students have voiced concern to me over The Winter Ban, which is a blanket rule saying you have to move your car after 2 in the morning so snow can be removed. Chief Carter hates towing cars. He fears without a blanket ban, a student might not move his/her car and the car would be towed. The road behind East Drive (behind the socials) fits about 15 cars. They should consider not having a ban. Motion to pass JJ’s email to Chief Carter as written. Passed.

Sabrina Statue Idea: Discussion as to whether the “game” (in which odd and even classes “steal” the Sabrina from each other and hide it) should continue. Senate is calling for the current hiders to show the Sabrina. JJ would like to create a unifying moment for the campus.

IX. Approve Minutes, 10-22-12 (George) Minutes approved.

X. Adjournment

Attendance policy: Members will be permitted 3 unexcused absences per semester. Arriving at the meeting 30 minutes after roll call or leaving 30 minutes before the end of the meeting counts as a half-absence. Leaving earlier than 30 minutes amounts to a full absence. Excused absences will only be available to students who cannot control the circumstances of their absence; this excludes having too much school work to do. This policy applies to the Executive Board and the Senate.