Candidates Forum Spring 2017
Traditions
Sarah Gu: My name is Sarah, class of 2020. I’m majoring possibly in biochemistry. I use she/her pronouns.
Britt Van der Poel: Hi everyone, my name is Brit Van Der Poel, class of 2019, she/her pronouns, I am a cities major.
Leah Baker: Hi everyone, my name is Leah Baker, class of 2019, she her pronouns, Math and Physics major.
Q: We wanted to ask about emotional problems relating to people complaining on social media . Some things are very harsh and can traumatize you. How prepared are you for that and are you going to be able to get back up after that?
BVP: I totally see that and I think what’s important is that you just know that you’re doing the best that you can and that you’re fostering hope and communication within the community. And to address it in a mature way as to not get entirely involved in it and exacerbate the issue.
SG: I totally understand what you guys are coming from and I definitely feel that. I feel that there are conflicts that are directed towards me directly or you guys there could be some way to separate yourself from it and know that you guys are just doing your job and
Q: How are you going to prepare and manage your time as traditions mistress and what other activities will you be doing that will be taking up your time?
LB: Leah Baker, Class of 2019, Brit and I have talked about this, um, so one example is for myself I’m taking the summer off I’m not doing a very intensive summer internship, so I can prepare myself and make sure my schedule is handled, I also work at New Dorm dining hall so I have my hours there, and I’m also in Pulso Latino, but that I see as like a self-care, so it would give me a chance to kind of take my mind of the things that are going on with traditions. And Brit also works in the campus center but we’ve also talked about how to manage our time so we are fully prepared for the time that traditions will take out of our schedules.
SG: Sarah, Class of 2020, I am a student athlete so I’ll be in season this spring, the good thing is that most of the traditions for the first years are mostly in the fall semester beside may day and wtf week. I’m also going to be customs on Pem East First, so that will be also taking up a lot of my time but I will also be able to manage my time as well so that I can get to the meetings that will be held and I think it will be good for my customs babies and other first years as well to know the traditions that will be held especially if I am going to be the traditions mistress I’ll be able to educate them and like prepare them well for what’s to come.
Q: Can each of you please name all of the traditions that you will be in charge of?
BVP: Lantern Night, Parade Night, WTF Week, Mayday.
SG: Probably all of them, Lantern Night, Parade Night, WTF Week and Mayday.
Q: You’re missing the mugging tradition. So you guys have to come in early for that as well.
Q: Sarah, traditionally this position is held by rising juniors, why is this position important to you, and why do you think as a rising sophomore you will be able to do this?
SG: I wasn’t aware that it was traditionally held by just juniors because I was nominated for it, but I believe I will do well in this position because I loved going through all the traditions, it was so much fun, and like to manage it well I’ll be hopefully talking to the traditions mistresses right now and hopefully do my best.
Q: If you could make any changes to a specific tradition, which one and how/what would you change about it?
BVP: I don’t think this pertains to a specific tradition, but I think we talked about perhaps holding a forum to encourage more communication between the community see if there’s any issues that pertain to specific traditions or the position in general that we need to address.
SG: Class of 2020, I believe that all the traditions as of right now don’t need any, I don’t see any problems as of right now, I definitely agree with them that a forum would be nice for the community to voice any problems, and I actually do think that not many people stay for the sing song steps so I believe that it would be nice to encourage more people to stay for it as it brings the whole community together.
Q: Why do you want this position?
BVP: Leah and I both came to Bryn Mawr primarily, well not really, but one of the biggest reasons was the traditions and we want to extend another year of amazing traditions for the entire community, and we want to make it amazing for everyone.
SG: Class of 2020, I couldn’t agree anymore, being a 1st year, and going into Bryn Mawr I definitely thought the traditions attracted me to Bryn Mawr and participating in the traditions definitely made me want it to be more prominent for the next coming first years and for the community as a whole.
Q: To what extent have you spoken with the current traditions mistresses and learned more about the position?
LB: Leah Baker, Class of 2019, So Brit and I have talked about this so I feel like I can speak about this on her behalf as well, so Brit is Bunza’s hell child, one of the traditions mistresses, so she’s been able to see a lot of what Bunza’s had to do this year through that, and for me I’ve talked to Bunza for what, two hours, talking about it, learning all about what traditions takes, what things you have to deal with the whole entire year.
SG: Sarah, Class of 2020, I remember talking to Tori who’s my customs mom and she told me that her hell mom is the traditions mistress Bunza and she told me a little about it and she told I did not directly talk to Bunza about it and I think (inaudible) about it, and I remember I was talking to Jasmine about it and she did tell me it was a lot of work and I feel that I will be able to do that .
Q: What work or positions have you all held in the past that you believe will help you in fulfilling this role?
SG: I haven’t held many positions here at Bryn Mawr but in high school I held many leadership roles, in my (admissions?) and my own SGA so I think with those leadership roles and just learning from the current traditions mistress, I feel I will be able to learn as the process goes but also just have the skill to be able to take on the role.
LB: Leah Baker, Class of 2019, So Brit works as a conferences events assistant in the campus center, where she is required to work daily without hovering supervision she’s in charge of making sure she gets what she needs to done, and she’s also in charge of like planning events she works with the adult adults that work on this campus. As for myself I work in New Dorm Dining Hall, I’m the assistant student manager, which means I’m in charge of a listserv of over 160 people. I’ve done trainings with these people, during customs week, I have to communicate primarily with first years, because that’s the main class year that students are in the dining halls. This past year I was the showcase coordinator for pulso Latino which means I was responsible for setting up events, reserving spaces, coordinating things between the bi-co, Even we had Penn, a group from Penn we had to coordinate with, yeah I had to reserve Goodhart like a year in advance, so that’s an example of long term planning.
Q: Could you please describe what members of the Bryn Mawr administration you’d be in charge of working with?
BVD: primarily, Mary Beth Horvath, student activities, professors, PSafe, Lisa Zernike (inaudible) who is my boss, probably other people but I think those are at the forefront, people who are on charge of landscaping, glitter, facilities.
SG: Definitely all of those people, I was also thinking of president Kim Cassidy, any of the dorm presidents, facilities, PSafe, but yeah, but probably many others as well.
Q: So we also work very closely with the dean of the college, so right now it’s dean Walters.
Residence Council Heads
Michelle Fleuriot: Hi my name is Michelle, Class 2018, I use she her pronouns.
Courtney Given: Hi my name is Courtney, class of 2019, I use she her pronouns.
Q: What positions have you guys currently or previously held that would prepare you for this position?
MF: Both Courtney and I have been on the Customs committee team, so we helped to plan Customs week, for the first years this past year. And personally I have been on the (Picasso?) Eboard, I work at Erdman, and I have worked in the writing center in the part and I have worked as a coordinator for Adelante.
Q: Why do you want this position?
CG: Class of 2019, Michelle and I have both been involved in dorm leadership in the past and speaking for myself I really want to be involved in SGA, and that’s something that I want to be more involved in in my senior year, so just being a representative and working closely with the dorm presidents.
Q: Have you consulted with the current Res Co heads, and if so, what do you anticipate your duties to be, and if so, what members of the administration do you anticipate you’ll be working with?
MF: We actually have, Keira Siegel was on the customs committee with us and we’ve talked to her and she works with Bridget and she’s talked to us about what this position will entail. And we’re going to work most closely with Angie Sheets and we expect to be a liaison between the dorm presidents, and the res co.
Social Committee Heads
Jessica “Jubs” Breet: Jessica Breet, “Jubs”, Class of 2018, she/her pronouns.
Q: What does your position do?
JB: So, Social committee is responsible for holding dry parties as alternatives to any of the campus wide events and the big wet parties that happen on campus, there’s always one that happens in the campus center. The thing is it doesn’t always have to be “dry” just because it’s dry, you know what I mean? So (inaudible) hosting bomb ass parties, so that is the biggest part of the position, so in addition to that, coordinating the paid bouncers team, on campus, working a lot with public safety, with facilities, and it’s a member of the representative council, so going to SGA every week, being an active member of SGA.
Q: There’s a Social Committee on campus, so how do you plan to interact with that committee?
JB: So I would be head of that committee, so I would be working very closely with the people on that committee, act as a liaison between them and the admin, make sure that we’re meeting regularly and to facilitate conversation within the committee itself and with the greater campus as a whole, making sure that we’re fulfilling the duties that we need to do.
Q: I know that you guys are in charge of the Halloween party and the spring formal. I know that the spring formal didn’t happen this year because they ran out of time, how will you fix it so that this coming year that doesn’t happen?
JB: So this is where I have to admit my faults as a person. I am continuously having to work on my time management skills, and organizational skills, not only because as a person you should keep working at things, but also because it has been one of my weak points in the past, but having the committee to help with that, and I think engaging in well thought out and positive delegation of planning parties can be a pretty seamless process, especially with something as established as social committee and with these events that have taken place for years now.
Q: You said you had stuff you wanted to say, what was that stuff?
JB: Why thank you, So I am actually running for two other positions today and was hoping to run for this one in the event that I don’t get 2018 class president along with Lydia Sanchez because I have currently been a member of the Representative council and it has currently been a big part of my experience at Bryn Mawr this year and being active in SGA has meant a lot to me and I would like to keep doing that and I also like to plan bomb ass parties, so this would allow me to do that , and be on Rep Co in the event that first choice doesn’t pan out, because I just really want to be involved.
Class of 2018 Songs Mistress
Paige Weber: Hi I’m Paige Weber Class of 2018.
Jessica Breet: Jessica Breet, Class of 2018, she her pronouns.
Q: Why are you running?
PW: I am the current class of 2018 songs mistress, I really enjoy it I think it’s fun, I always have a good time during step sing, because I always think it’s nice for classes to get together and enjoy the end of sometimes stressful traditions, I just have a good time with it, and I’d like to do it again, and I’d like to help run lantern night as well, because I know Senior Songs Mistress helps run the swingers and the runners.
JB: Sorry, can’t get over that word, swingers. Also Paige can sing which is definitely in her favor. When I was a frosh coming in in customs week, I tried out for songs mistress. Honestly that was the beginning of my infamy, at Bryn Mawr, I did get into the last two people and then I think it was rigged, okay. I said a comment that was taken very badly, by the judges because I am from South Africa, and the other finalist, Sarah Juma is from Nigeria, and I was like ‘look at the people from Africa! Whoo-hoo!’ And then everyone thought I was being super racist, because they didn’t know I was from South Africa, and then they voted against me, but they didn’t know I was from South Africa. But Sarah was incredible so it was totally fine. It was really funny because also at the same time all of the 2nd year customs people thought my accent was fake, it was a good time. Honestly I’m really good at keeping people up, I like singing even though I do it badly.
Nolan Julien: I am running for songs mistress because it is something I have wanted to do since freshman year. I have a passion for moving and working with crowds as every year I get so excited to sing my class song with my fellow classmates. As a senior, it would mean a lot to have this final experience with my class.
Head of Student Curriculum Committee
Dezirae Gomez: Hi my name is Dezirae Gomez, class of 2020, and my intended majors are Anthropology and Sociology.
Q: What does your job do?
DG: At first when I was nominated, I thought it was more working with students but it’s more of meetings with professors who have curriculums and I am there as a voice. so my job is to speak with students and makes sure that the plans that professors want to put forth is accessible and equitable to all.
Q: What positions have you had in the past that you think will benefit you for this position?
DG: Currently, in my college career, I don’t have any positions that would directly affect this position but my goal in life is to be an education lawyer and work with education equity so over the past summer and in high school I did a lot of work with education and teaching kids and working with organizations that help kids from underserviced communities go to college. I am on Posse so that helps me look at everything from a stand back approach than from a self-point of view and I think it helps me get different perspectives from different students.
Q: Since Bryn Mawr has a diverse student body, how do you think you are equipped to advocate for the student body knowing the varying levels of accessibility, diversity, and the different needs that the students have?
DG: Everyone’s different so I don’t think I can honestly advocate for everybody. but I think having meetings or open forums where people can come talk to me is important. I want more input from students. one of my goals for next year is to talk to more people so that I can get their perspective on class. something brought to my attention is that these meetings are confidential so I would only have to talk to others in hypotheticals perhaps so I think that getting conversations started is important. obviously I can’t speak on the behalf of every individual but I want to make an effort to be able to learn more.
Class of 2018 Presidents
Connie Lam and Ann Tran: she/her pronouns.
Jessica “Jubbs” Breet and Lydia Sanchez: She/her pronouns.
Farida Ilboudo and Anita Ntem: she/her pronouns.
Q: What experience do you have that equips you to deal with this position?
CL: Annie and I have been co-presidents for the past 3 years together so we have had lots of experience. we know a lot of what you’re supposed to do as co-presidents and some of the events that we have thrown were: sibling class socials, sophomore celebration, a lot of different events. We know that we work well together as a team since we have been for 3 years.
JB: I was the dorm president for Erdman this year which meant advocating for 150+ residents. That meant that I was an active member of SGA, went to meetings every week, had to vote as part of RepCo. Lydia has served as the student representative on the board of trustees which means that she has a lot of experience working with administration and advocating for the student body.
AN: that’s a great question. Farida and I have done a lot of separate things which means we maximize things together. For example, Farida is the co-dorm president of the ECC. She’s constantly going to SGA meetings and she always knows the rules and regulations. Farida and I are the co-presidents of Picasso and we have increase participation for events so we know how to throw really good events and advertise. I am a current hall advisor in the ECC and we were both customs persons there. we were both also social culture heads so all we do is throw and manage events. we have managed over $13,000 in the academic school year so we know how to budget effectively. and in terms of planning senior celebrations, we are currently throwing events for the Picasso seniors and making the experience much more memorable. we know how to talk to administration because Farida has had multiple conversations with the board of trustees. so I think combining this we can maximize each-others potentials even more.
Q: How do you think you can bring something new to SGA to bring change for the better?
AT: We are hoping and we have in the past really tried to make our events as inclusive as possible. For example, we realized that the only people who could benefit from our events where those who attend so why not reach out to all of the student body by stuffing mailboxes and holding pop-ups and doing things that make everyone in our class feel included. in terms of next year, in this position, we would want to form an unofficial committee to reach out to all members of the class, try to incorporate new ideas, and make sure that everyone’s voices are heard. that being said, we also want to partner with Farida and Anita as vice co-presidents. so we really want to include new ideas into the mix in a way that makes everyone feel that they’re being heard.
JB: In being a member of the RepCo, I’ve been an active voice in pushing for a lot of the changes that have taken place. I’m on very good standing with the current E-board and I’m a huge advocate for throwing out Roberts Rules of Order. I also have spoken a lot to the current senior class presidents and having learned from them their experience, we’ve found that unlike other positions on campus that are elected positions, there is no guide for this position. so for like traditions mistress there is a guide that tells you the duties you have to follow and how to go through them. and that does not exist for this position and its especially necessary for continued continuity to exist for the senior class president because it is such a large role and far more of an expectation than the underclass presidents. that being said, it is like an anything goes position so holding a town-meeting to help plan the events is something that is totally doable and we would be interested in this. and finding along the way mechanisms that ensure that the community is being served as best as we can.
FI: I always think that we have taken measures in to ensuring that we create a more friendly environment, not only as a senior class but also for SGA overall. We’ve already had meetings with the E-board to figure out how we can include some things that we thought were wrong in the last year. We’ve also been meeting with KCass and we’ve been speaking with the board of trustees on Bryn Mawr’s history and how we can come together and make sure everyone’s voice is represented. something that Anita and I have also been doing, with the help of Ann and Connie as our Vice presidents, we want to bring laughter, joy, energy, and positivity especially with Anita who always brings her cool and calm presence and energy. We have been collecting data with current juniors and seniors on things that they would like to see better and how we as a team could make senior year much more enjoyable and full of love and laughter. the same way carry our position at Picasso and help other affinity groups on campus create a more welcoming and inclusive environment is how we plan on leading the senior class.
Class of 2019 Presidents
Lillian Oyen Usted and Nikitha Shankar Shakamuri: she/her pronouns
Kamara Simms and Yeidaly Mejia
Q: What experience do you have that will help you fulfill your role?
NS: We were class presidents freshman year and this year. we had a great time being together, running this position together, because we started off freshman year as best friends so we came into this position knowing we could do it. and we’ve stayed together creating amazing events and we’ve had amazing turnouts with our publicizing on Facebook. we had a lot of big events this year we had to coordinate together like: flower dance and the sophomore celebration. we had a great time. everything we do, we put a 100% and it turns out to be great.
YM: We’ve both held leadership positions on campus and been involved with various different departments, so have made many connections. This year, I have worked in different communities such as Zami as Co-President, Mujeres* as the Culture Show Co-Representative, and with the first years as a customs person. Kamara has worked as CDA Co-Head, worked in Dining Services and Admissions, and acted as the Black History Month Coordinator for Sisterhood. She has also previously been a part of SGA as a member of the Appointments Committee.
Q: What do you plan on doing for those who are studying abroad and when they come back and need to adjust?
LOU: Nikki and I came in knowing that we were going to run for this position and not to go abroad in order to hold this position. It’s been something that’s important to us on perspective students weekend. although we are not going abroad, we have many friends who have been and are going abroad and I think that one of the things that we’ve seen the current class of 2018 presidents doing is throwing events regarding writing each other letters. one of the things that people focus on that those that study abroad in the fall but we want to be able to continue those traditions for those that leave in the spring as well. It’s very important that people that are returning their senior fall have the ability and support system to readjust when they come back. one of the things we want to do is to have a going away/welcome back mixer so that our classmates know that we have not forgotten about them so that we can go into senior fall unified.
KS: I’m actually going abroad for the fall semester, so will be a great resource for those who would have been abroad in understanding what it’s like to adjust back into Bryn Mawr. I think it’s important in recognizing the hardships people will be facing when they are back in having missed what happened on campus, and acknowledging that for an entire semester they would have had to adjust to an entirely different environment. That’s why I think I will be useful in this role, because in finding resources for myself, I can also help the group of students coming back from abroad whilst also understanding, to an extent, how they are feeling. Also, Yeidaly will be here for fall semester, so we can work well with one another in regards to filling any gaps, and between us we can be representative of the different experiences people will have in junior year.
Q: How would you continue to and improve on representing people in the current climate of SGA?
NS: We’ve learned from the class of 2020 presidents is that they created a class of 2020 Facebook class president page so that people could post their concerns there without being censored so we like this. We also have office hours but have not publicized it a lot so well work on that and make sure everyone can come and email us. also we are close to the E-board so looking forward we can connect and work with them to not only focus on what we want to do for our class but the college’s mission in general.
YM: In the current climate of the SGA, the mission of the 2017-2018 eboard is to uplift the voices of people of color and those with marginalized identities. Kamara and I will continue to highlight these voices in our class year. With the community of Bryn Mawr shifting and changing, it is important for the both of us to be as accessible as possible for the junior class. We are both active on social media and answer our emails very quickly if our peers have any concern and want to contact us. In continuation with being accessible, we wanted to have joint and separate office hours in the Campus Center which is central to all the dorms/an open place on campus for students who live off campus. Kamara and I discussed having polls for our class to decide what they want to do for class hangouts. We want to make sure that hangouts are inclusive of everyone in the community and our peers feel like they have a say in the decisions being made.
Class of 2020 Presidents
Sophia Bokhari: she/her presidents running solo
Lauren Herelle and Juliet Lacey: she/her pronouns
Zainab Saeed and Dilesha Tanna: she/her pronouns
Q: What is your role?
JL: Other than facilitating conversations between the class and SGA, we work closely with the dean’s office. for rising sophomore we would be in charge of the flower dance and also the sophomore celebration.
ZS: apart from the events and mixers, we try to make stuff as smooth as possible for you. like when you’re going into sophomore year, the basic job is to be able to make everything smooth and fun for you.
SB: the most visible things are the mixers but there’s a lot of communication representing the students voices towards administration and showing up to SGA meetings. and making sure to vote in favor of the class.
Q: Can you detail the list of responsibilities that would help you for this position and also what you would be doing to help traditions?
SB: some of the things I do right now for leadership roles: president of law society, a founder of productions of color acting troupe. a lot of that is just planning events and field trips so I’m pretty good at planning events. and that would work well with traditions because my background is with accessibility, I’m also in access service co-coordinator, so making sure that traditions events are as accessible as possible. and my events for my society and club are successful. this makes the process of exploration and going through pre-law as accessible as possible. and the events and those things, monetarily possible. this would help me in this position.
LH: In terms of coordinating with the traditions heads, we would be helping them make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible. one of the reasons I want to be co-president is to be more involved in this community. In the past, in high school I was involved in the multi-cultural alliance, blue-key tour guides, the ESL program at my school, and making sure traditions are accessible to as much as the community as possible.
ZS: Dilesha is already class president so she has experience and she was class president in high school as well. I was a consultant program manager for an educating consulting group in Pakistan so I was in charge of hosting nation-wide conferences and events. that involved financial planning, management, and everything that goes along with it. so I’ve done work with NGOs and for business events. When it comes to management, financial planning, publicity, marketing, all of that, both of us have previous experience. what we do plan on bringing and helping with traditions is making sure that we publicize it effectively so that turnout is great. also just making sure we can help you in whatever way possible- marketing or financial planning.
Q: how do you plan on staying organized in this role and who will you be working with in this position?
ZS: Dilesha and I have always been involved in a lot of things at the same time. that has helped us keep our schedules tight to make sure we get everything done on time. when it comes to working: Mary-Beth Horvath, traditions mistresses, deans.
JL: I am obsessive of organization and I am overly-punctual and very good with time management. Lauren and I went to high school together and have been best friends for 5 years now and we were co-president for ESL in high school. We’ve been working together for a while so that is a big plus. we will work with : SGA, deans, and Mary-Beth Horvath, and others.
SB: In terms of organizations and managing stress, I work well under stress and take a lot of initiative as I have many responsibilities and stay organized. another thing would be, not being afraid to ask for help from my community in order to work together and get feedback on how I should proceed with different things. communication wise we would be communicating with: Mary-Beth from student activities, deans for declaring, study abroad coordinators for information, and other parts of administration is terms of accessibility curriculum.
Q: How would you characterize your current relation as a class with the class of 2018 and if elected how open are you willing to host sister class events?
SB: I have a great relationship with the class of 2018. I feel like a lot of our member have a lot of problems in the class of 2018 and so I feel like we’re pretty close. and so I think it’d be great to continue this relationship. as I said before, I’m really great at throwing events because it’s an organizational things and I just know how to get people to come. I know how to make events as accessible as possible and I think my close relationship with 2018, personally and the class, listening to what they have to say about parties would be very helpful.
LH: We all love the class of 2018 and I’m down to host a bunch of parties with them. I’m pretty good at throwing parties, I like my taste in music and others do too. we work really well together and balance each other out and I think that planning events together would go really well. we went to high school together and threw a graduation party that was lit.
ZS: I would describe our relationship as a mentor and mentee relationship because we all look up to you. we look up to you to answer the questions we have. Dilesha’s a dancer and I’m ready to dance so we’re ready and we have some great ideas. well talk about that afterwards.
Class of 2018 Honor Board Representative
Hayley Johnson: She/her pronouns
Meagan Mulkern: She/her pronouns
Q: How do you plan to address the social honor code violations that go up in dorms (theft)?
HJ: This is one of the big ones I think we need to change in respect to the honor code because it’s not just that people are stealing things, I think there are going to be people who don’t abide by the honor code no matter what we do. I think the big issue of it is student empowerment because the honor code is intentionally written very vaguely so that people are not expected to abide by the letter of the code they’re expected to abide by the spirit of it too. and because it’s so vague people don’t feel like they have a leg to stand on when they want to speak up about something. so I think we recall need to work with reaching out to dorms and dorm president and DLT to work with students and make sure they feel empowered to speak up when they know that someone has done something wrong in the dorm or when they’ve seen something that they don’t think warrants a confrontation. confrontation doesn’t need to be a big conflict or hostile. it needs to be something we practice and get comfortable with so that we can have a healthier and more open community.
MM: And I definitely agree with one of the big thing is that it’s very hard to know what conflict means and how to approach it. It’s definitely part of the honor boards role in community education. but also it goes to the idea that there needs to be more resources available for both students and DLT because there is only so many things you can do with an email. so empowering students as individuals and students who are in leadership roles to take more effective action in terms of the social honor code would be beneficial in curving theft and making it a more functional environment.
Q: Why do you want to run for this position?
HJ: I am a current member of the honor board and I’ve been on it for the past year. it has really shaped the way that I view living in an honor bound community. both that in that I take up a lot more seriously and I see the way in which we could all uphold it better. I mentioned that one of the things I wanted to change was student empowerment but the other thing I want to change is institutional memory for the honor board because there’s currently no real mechanism in place to make sure that say people 5 years apart that have committed similar infractions get consistent resolutions on that. there no way to ensure that it’s not drastically different. so one of the things I want to work on for next year is creating some sort of standardization or reference for the honor board to know what has happened in the past and a guide for the future.
MM: One of the reasons I want to be on the honor board is that the idea of an `honor code and system is one of the things that attracted me to Bryn Mawr. so taking a chance to work actively in forming and making it better than when I got here would be wonderful. also another thing is that I know that the honor board is a very mystified thing and everyone’s afraid of it because there isn’t a lot of communication of what exactly it means. so I want to get involved again in that community education. also I consider myself an expert in the academic side in citation and plagiarism and academic honesty. so I want to bring my knowledge of that to the honor board and to community education to help people understand that citation isn’t a scary thing.
Class of 2019 Honor Board Representative
Sofia Colosimo
Q: What do you want to change about the honor board or the way that it is run?
SC: This past year on honor board, I worked with the Haverford honor council on along hearing. I learned a lot about how Haverford’s honor code works and the processes of honor council and the way they deal with transparency that’s better than here. things are out in the open and there’s a lot of communication between the students and faculty and honor board which I think makes things a lot clearer to the general student body.
Q: How much time can you dedicate to this position?
SC: I currently have a fair number of extracurriculars so time management has been a struggle but I have always found it fairly easy to prioritize on meetings since there isn’t an official schedule and everything is pretty flexible. I found the dean’s office to be fairly understanding when it comes to accommodating everyone’s schedules. so definitely I think that my willingness to be flexible along with the dean’s office understanding makes it pretty easy to get the work done that I need to do.
SGA Archivist
Sasha Rogelberg: class of 2019, they/them pronouns
Q: As a current member of the institutional memory committee, it is very easy to fall flat in this position if you do not maintain a very strong connection with special collections. how do you see yourself able to make a productive professional connection with special collections for this committee to move smoothly in the upcoming academic year?
SR: This position of SGA archivist is an extension of working with the college news as a priority and reserving institutional memory. another huge part of that is making connections and following through with people. I know some people at special collections so that is a great reason to stay connected with them. ultimately it is a question of communication which is something I’m learning more about
Q: How do intend on addressing the more racial history of Bryn Mawr particularly could you see yourself taking role in the potential reading of Thomas?
SR: I remember when that petition was sent out. not necessarily having an explicit conversation about that but I think that starting conversations is really important and a good way to start doing that is to make archives more accessible. I want people to be able to view them and understand them and I know that that’s something this past year’s archivist has worked on doing with SGA record. I would like for people to be able to see what’s happening. Finding out information is the best way of changing.
Q: Do you have any plans to publicize what the SGA institutional memory committee does?
SR: I’m not sure what social media presence you guys have now but I think that that would be the first step. There isn’t a whole lot of information online. So, having an online presence, maybe on Facebook, would be important like special collections book binding folks. doing something akin to that and posting pictures.
LILAC Representative
Dezirae Gomez: Class of 2020, she/her pronouns
Q: What skills sets and past experiences makes you feel prepared for this position?
DG: One of the things I’m good at is being a liaison and that’s the gist of this job. even though I won’t be able to talk to the whole student body, I’m going to take notes and giving information back into the community. I feel like I’m very personable and I think that will help with getting informational about different programs. one of the things that a lot of my peers have expressed concerns about is not knowing about funding opportunities within LILAC and I utilized LILAC a lot by my own finding. a lot of people don’t know all the resources they have like mick interviews. so if I do get this position I would want to make that more known. Bryn mawr has a lot of money that isn’t utilized but you just have to go for it so I want to make it more known and accessible so people get funding.
Q: How does CPD and LILAC overlap?
DG: We will at the meetings and Wyndham but I think we advertise separately as a double team. I think career peers do more with working one on one with students while I would help with advertising.
Committee on Public Safety
Phoebe Dopulos: Class of 2019, she/her pronouns
Q: How do you plan on working with PubSafety to limit the number of people smoking in dorms?
PD: This is the most infuriating thing on my side because I am a customs person and we have had this problem a ton. I have come to the HA and PSafe will come and they are not permitted to know on everyone’s door. I really want to look at the rules because I don’t think that that’s the best answer and I don’t think that PSafe should be knocking on doors. I think that there could be way better way to go about it. a way to talk to HAs and customs people about being more comfortable knocking on doors so that they know if it’s someone they can talk to them. having a way for the HAs and the customs people to find out who it is and report it– nothing really happens if you get in trouble unless it’s a repeat offense. NO one knows the rules well enough and we need to communicate that this is important and this is the process.
Q: The punishment for smoking weed is so lenient as opposed to getting a citation for underage drinking. Do you think that’s fair? if not, do you think that can be lessened by the new EMT group and making it a safer place on campus for people who are drinking?
PD: The Lower Police Department has to deal with many colleges so the citation problem is a clause invented by the Lower Merion PD to target colleges. It is out of PSafe’s control and I disagree with it but you are right that the EMTs can help with calming people down and not sending them to the ER. I was a DP this year so I have a contact with the EMS folks and I think that EMS and PSafe are kind of disjointed now so definitely continuing to build this relationship is a priority for me.
Q: Is there a way to deal with the smoking issue regarding those who aren’t HAs?
PD: I think that there should be a way to anonymously report people in a way that PSafe won’t see except customs people as the start. and if that doesn’t start, it’s their discretion to pass it up the ladder. An anonymous tip bag that could go through the DLT and eventually ResLife so that if there is a call on to PSafe, PSafe can say we’ve heard of this. I know this has many traps so this could stay within the students. I think that people are uncomfortable ratting others out but I think that there should be a system in place for people who don’t know what to do. If it happens again, there could be some connection in the DLT about what to do about it and then it’ll be moved up.
Q: Back to drinking, is there someone we can put in place that PSafe can call before calling the police?
PD: I have been present at 2 EMS calls with a drunk student where both of them went to the hospital and that was the right move. I would like to talk to EMS to pass on information about general knowledge of alarms so that HAs know specifics they need to call but the line can get very fuzzy. so, having a way for EMS to talk to people about when you definitely need to call EMS for because once EMS calls they air on the safer side and that there’s more effort for underclassman to drink safely. So more information of knowing when someone is in danger so they know when to call and to be quick about it.