Notes from the Board of Trustees' Committees' Student Representatives' Meetings

This are notes from meetings held by the student representatives to various committees under the Board of Trustees.

September 25, 2009

 * Meeting minutes. We want to have public meeting minutes within one week of the meeting having occurred, in order to post them to Hampedia and share them with the larger community. Legally, everything said at the meetings is confidential, which makes it difficult for us to engage with the community about issues, in a timely fashion.
 * We have no reciprocal relationship with the community, need to have a system where student voice can be properly relayed to the Board. Lack of communication on both sides. Lack of trust in representatives to governing bodies.
 * Student Representatives
 * (Go to the Board of Trustees page to find out more about the specific committees)
 * Sarah Mullens: Academic Affairs
 * Dominique Desir: Student Life
 * Evan Wagner: Buildings and Grounds
 * Alima Catellacci: Development
 * Matan Cohen: Finance and Academic Affairs
 * Ananda Valenzuela: Development and Enrollment
 * Need to set our agenda for things we want to address this semester
 * Evan: environmental sustainability takes precedence
 * Ananda: Transparency, strategic planning, and governance
 * Alima: funding, ensure that the school is reflecting what students and alumni want from the school. want to set up a way to approach the board to talk about that
 * Sarah: Attracting more students who do well at Hampshire. Interested in exploring the idea of having a 5-year Master's/Bachelor's degree. Retention and admissions selectivity
 * Matan: Retention is a cyclical problem. Worried about how admissions does grading. Improving the system
 * DeeDee: getting students to understand what reps do, gaining trust, talking about student life
 * Get the student-trustees listserv back up to date
 * Is the mandate of Community Council well-defined?
 * There are structures in place, but it's not kept up well
 * Have an open meeting, to inform community about our roles and get their feedback
 * We should have an agenda to take to every Board meeting; give them a succinct report about our questions and issues
 * Do a monthly dinner with trustees who live in the community?
 * We will have another meeting in two weeks, Matan will email everyone