CSI Student Member Meeting Notes

CSI student members meet on a regular basis, as needed. Meetings are organized and convened by the student coordinator. To learn more about becoming a student member or to find out who are the present members, please visit the School of Critical Social Inquiry page.

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10/11/12
Attendance: Eli, Rico, Michael, Ellen, Sola

Sola explained that she cannot be coordinator and proposed that we delegate responsibilities.

Ellen agrees to be figurehead and remains on Econ, Sola takes email announcements, Eli takes odd jobs, Michael takes student member meeting notes and tentatively agrees to join CCFRAP, Sola agreed to stay on the policy committee.

Discussed when we will hold lightning talks. Consensus was to hold it in early February.

9/13/12
Attendance: Nelson, Dina, Rico, Michael, Michael, Ellen, Sola.

Elected members to various school committees: Economics search committee: Ellen Africa search committee: Sola (possibly with one other student) EPC: Dina Policy: Sola

Discussed possibility of having a change in coordinatorship, and distribution of some of the coordinators' tasks (poster making, email management, etc) among the other members.

Discussed the requirements of the representative to CCFRAPP.

2/23/12
Attendance: Ellen, Alex, Harshit, Louisa, Rebecca, Suyeon, Eli, Sola, C. Ella Wind

Revised listserve.

Revised student bylaws (clarifying guidelines for voting rights).

2/2/12
Attendance: Sola, Ellen, Harshit, Alex

Got Harshit and Alex up to speed on student membership policies and voting rules.

Discussed progress of Middle East search so far.

20/4/11
Attendance: Ananda, Sola, Ellen, Katie, Nelson, Claire, Amy, Zilong

1. go over South Asia search

email Harshit and find out what he has to say about the candidates

this is an application for a ASSOCIATE faculty position

Durba Chattaraj

Devika Bordia

Vishnupad: went back over what the heck happened with the reapp't process

Uditi Sen

But what's the student reaction going to be if Vishnupad doesn't make it? These are exciting times...

2. student coordinator election

Amy's statement of interest: hasn't been that active due to scheduling conflicts over the last couple years, but wants to be coordinator to have a more active role--next year's class schedule will fit and she will not be signing for student groups. would like to increase our presence on campus, will work on the Lightning Talks (keep it at 1 a semester), but other ways to keep students informed, possibly thru social media (twitter, facebook, etc.). Student of the month (profile a CSI student)? [Parenthetical comment: ANANDA WANTS A T-SHIRT!!!] Pressed for time, cut it off!

Sola: doesn't want to do it, doesn't feel like she has to to be an active member (on MCP committee). Candidacy withdrawn.

Nelson: he'll be busy, but he's a good organizer, which seems like it's important to the position. Doesn't quite have Amy's "historical passion," but does have the organazational skills

Can't really do co-coordination (not enough work), but maybe have the alternate do more work?...

Amy wins, Nelson's alternate, but Ellen will be acting coordinator until Amy gets voting rights. And we won't have a problem with membership for awhile, which will be nice.

17/2/11
Attendance: Ellen, Nelson, Ananda, Claire, Kelly, Katie

Lightning Talk Organizing--OUTREACH + some

-emphasize that they are short

-posters are together and printed, we can do another round @ some point

-email list on ppl presenting

-Q&amp;A after--provide scrap paper &amp; pencils for writing Qs

-Nelson will facilitate--find him a stopwatch

-email profs to announce -food has been ordered, yay!

-TELL YOUR FRIENDS

Logo Contest

-make friends promise to draw stuff

-advertise at LTs

-Ellen will make poster at work next week

More members! -firsties + transfers

-hey, we have no limit on members...

10-2-11
Attendance: Ellen, Amy, Claire, Katie

We all looked at the flyer Ellen designed and decided it looked okay. Claire will get 50 copies printed and distribute them to the other members for putting up. Amy and Ellen will do the dorms.

We decided that lunch on Friday the 25th was doable, and that Ellen would drop in and reserve the room next Tuesday.

Assuming we can get enough money for food (we're going to assume 20-25 people), we're going to get food from Mi Tierra like Ellen has done for LALS in the past. It's good food and cheaper than a lot of the alternatives.

Ellen will also put together a poster for a logo contest, which will be posted in the art department. Katie is going to make a facebook event for the logo contest. (And for the Lightning Talks because she seems to enjoy that sort of thing...)

After the Lightning Talks, we'll also need to poster for new members to replace graduating members and the coordinator who may be going on study abroad next semester.

Next meeting will be same time next Thursday in a room in FPH. (Ellen will email.) We'll make sure everything is coming together for the Lightning Talks and the logo contest.

The other members approve of my notes! (Though one can see why most groups have a secretary and a facilitator, says Claire...She would take notes if we meet in a room with a whiteboard.)

1-10-11
Attendance: Ellen, Ananda, Claire, Katie

Shared fliers for the lightning talks and discussed publicity options--frequent intranet postings, bugging profs, telling friends, etc. Also, start a facebook event when we have a date and some volunteers.

Filled Ananda in on events of F10

Ellen needs a replacement, which means we need more members coming in over the spring. Publicity for that, also.

We need a South Asia search volunteer.

12-3-10
Attendance: Ellen, Katie, Claire, Sola

Discussed maybe replacing Ellen as coordinator sometime next semester

Went over procedures for providing feedback on and voting for economics candidates

Discussed the anticipated problem of voting population growth next semester

Discussed tactics for the planned publicity campaign for the Lightning Talks over Jan-term

10-31-10
Attendance: Ellen, Katie, Claire, Kelly, Sola

Made popcorn

Filled Sola in on the basics of CSI membership

Discussed Vishnupad's reappointment and where it's going from here

Report back from Ellen and Katie on lunch with [redacted by request] and the Community Council meeting

Report back from Claire on EPC

Report back from Ellen on the CTL discussion of independent learning

Planning for Lightning talks

9-30-10
Attendance: Ellen, Ananda, Claire, Kelly, Zilong

3 Committees to get members into:

Reappointments Committee: Kelly (only reappointment is Wilson)

Economic Search Committee: Zilong, Jake

Graduate Gift Committee: get in touch with development office again next week

CCFRAP name submissions soon (Yaniris)--Ellen is thinking about it. Should we meet with members from all 5 schools to decide which should be represented? Should CSI be represented at all, since most faculty going through CCFRAP are from other schools?

Student-written faculty evals should do something useful--maybe CCFRAP should get them?

9-23-10

 * Voted in Ellen Green as new CSI Student Coordinator, she will serve on the Policy Committee
 * She will follow up with Bob regarding whether outreach email was forwarded to all faculty, possibly consider printing slips again
 * Student member meeting planned for 5pm next Thursday, the 30th

11-30-09
Attendance: Ananda, Luke, DeeDee, Leanna, Sofya, Zilong, Maia, Katelyn, Jake


 * Discussed voting guidelines:

We have 8 voting slots. Before we were 3 members so it didn't matter; not we are more than 8 so it does matter. Voting policy as stated in guidelines reviewed. All we need is the base. Decided base upon seniority. Ananda will update and delineate voting members on Hampedia for clarification.


 * Need for new SS Student Coordinator and Alternate

Members should email Ananda by this time next week (7:00PM, the 7th of December, 2009) to nominate themselves to be student coordinator. Time needed for job is minimal. Phase out to be completed by mid spring semester. Nominations to be alternate coordinator should also be submitted.


 * Cool Creative Ideas!


 * 1) Lightning Talks as done by CS! We should have that for SS! We all love the idea! Will do. We'll have a planning meeting during JanTerm to get this off the ground.
 * 2) Common books availability. We all read some basic text and there is no need for everybody to have to purchase a copy. Limited access through libraries. There should be an SS lounge with a library where people could go and do their homework. Leanna will be in charge of a book questionnaire and report back in the springtime. We would meet over Jan Term to plan it out and do outreach. Too bad that there is no student lounge in FPH. But the building is high priority for remodeling...
 * 3) SS encompasses international relations. Interest in diffusing knowledge of current events to student body. Musing on ways to do that (newsreel, panels to talk bout current events, hosting or facilitating informational sessions on specific countries...)
 * 4) In April or March: panel of Div IIIs talking about Hampshire experience (any and all experiences) hosted by SS student members.

10-08-09
Attendance: Ananda, Katelyn, Zilong, Luke, Jessica, Sofya, DeeDee, Leanna, Sylvia (HACU), Peter (HACU), Claire, Marissa (NS), Maya, Kelly, Thea, Alexa,


 * Discussed the SS Student Member Guidelines

Questions and comments:


 * being an SS student member is awesome because get to see how the inner workings of Hampshire (at least faculty) operate, and student voices are actually respected and listened to by faculty
 * at a lot of places students are not a part of decision-making bodies, really great that we can be here
 * faculty actually really do want to hear what students have to say

What do the committees do?


 * Policy: look at what we need to teach things well, governance, how the structure of the college works and should be changed/improved
 * Reappointment: building files and reviewing them (student rep makes sure students write in), then CCFRAP meets during Jan Term and makes decisions

Questions:


 * possible problems re: UMASS moving dates earlier and cutting into Jan Term
 * what is policy on changing committee members? No set policy, should just contact Ananda and work it out, members tend to change over the course of the year

SS Div II workshops next Thursday


 * for new Div II students
 * need greeters at doors, ppl to put up flyers, people to help advise
 * Poster: Maya Sanchez
 * greeters: Kelly MacDonald
 * helping advising: Alexa Bradshaw, DeeDee Desire, Katelyn Baker
 * Some confidential topics were discussed concerning the state of the college and various community members' feelings on the subject
 * what questions do you have and what is your knowledge base about the current situation?
 * what is the projection for next year? What changes will be made and what might be made? Well, administration isn’t sharing a lot of that. We do not know what they are intending and what is just brainstorming. Administration feels that Hampshire needs to be changed in order to survive…but aren’t sure what that would entail.
 * Concrete changes: Quantitative Resource Centre will be gone by Jan Term, something less than 10 and more than 5 staff reductions.
 * Worries: enough students applying next year. Gave out way too much financial aid money this year… An outside consultant messed up the figures. Are they being rehired??
 * can students go to any kind of admissions/retention meetings? Steve Weisler has offered to invite himself and admissions staff to an open panel where they discuss changes being made and students can ask questions. People interested in helping that happen: Ananda, Leanna. Concerns about certain people feeling comfortable speaking freely about the situation
 * Concerns: “cutting out activist students”; advertising being “need-blind” when really aren’t; misrepresenting ourselves and our curriculum; not representing our strengths
 * what’s up with Re-Rad?
 * Shared vision of the future…it can’t just be the administration’s. What is it about Hampshire that we love and cannot lose?
 * meeting tonight at 7:30pm
 * narrative evals
 * admin. says will not be grades, but are thinking about making them into forms
 * what are the actual weaknesses?
 * the excerpt that goes on your transcript, profs are really unsure about what goes where
 * professors not turning them in or turning them in late. Handful (6, apparently) of professors regularly turn them in late
 * workload
 * Sun Oct 18th meeting in FPH 108 @ 5pm: open to students, staff and faculty, appreciation dinner for staff and faculty. Send out personal emails to everyone you know/like
 * how are faculty and staff feeling about this? Feel as if they are being targeted as responsible for problems, and being constructed as having a bad attitude and needing to be forced to improve/change
 * this is happening in all areas and offices, even the ones that function well. Duties and responsibilities are being added…when question why they are needed, get painted as stubborn and unwilling to cooperate
 * faculty being rated and scored on how productive they are
 * neopotism: Mark Spiro and Marian McCurdy. Is this standard academic practice? administration is hiring friends as “outside consultants” who don’t really understand the situation or the school
 * rumors about the President wanting to make decisions w/out consulting the faculty. How would this even happen? Board of Trustees would need to give him that power.
 * Board of Trustees
 * meet again Nov 12-14th
 * how does communication happen? BoT advises and supports the Pres, also has committees that oversee and advise (academic affairs, etc). President has his Cabinet, this is a creation of Hexter, meets every week, meeting minutes confidential, 5 school Deans only recently allowed to come to meetings.
 * Governance Task Force gets to review all of Hampshire's decision-making processes. Worries: GTF will empower and follow example of Cabinet, more and more power &amp; responsibilities will shift from faculty and student to administration (eg from Comm Council to Dean of Students). Has support from administrators of college. Some want GTF tabled for at least 2 years
 * people are talking about how “there needs to be a culture change at Hampshire”
 * Discussion of Hampshire College's Governance system

02-19-09
Ananda, Luke, Katelyn, Zoe, and DeeDee attended.


 * Decided to contribute $100 to the Index of the Disappeared -- by Mariam Ghani and Chitra Ganesh artist lecture hosted by the film, photo, and video program
 * Katelyn and Zoe are joining the SS Curriculum Committee
 * Luke is interested in the EPC at-large position

11-21-08
Ananda, Sofya, Luke, and Zoe attended.

Curriculum Committe Update: Will be leading discussion of issues at the next full SS meeting. Hope to begin posting notes on Hampedia.

There should be online surveys much more often. Referendums! Give information for/against in the polls to provide better knowledge of issue. Question: when do you delegate, and when do you allow the entire community to have a voice in the decision? You have to define each committee very carefully, give them powers but make sure those powers are well-designated.

We are in favor of:


 * more participatory democracy, but with the provision that background knowledge is always provided so that the community can make well-informed decisions.
 * the college holding true to its founding vision of participatory democracy. There needs to be more checks and balances between students, staff, faculty, and the administration; possibly giving veto power to certain bodies?
 * transparency whenever possible at all levels of the college, including the board of trustees. Meeting minutes should be available to those who are interested, and meetings should be open whenever possible.
 * Other than veto power, the Board of Trustees should empower committees made up of members of the Hampshire community to make decisions. We are in favor of "autogestion" -http://learningandwork.blogspot.com/2007/04/autogestin-in-argentina-self-management.html
 * for example, Community Council needs to be empowered. They should be given the power to change policy, not just make recommendations.
 * having a Governance Coordinator would be way sweet. This person's job would be to ensure that all the different governance bodies were meeting and working with each other, aware of overlapping issues and discussions, and so on. They would have no power; their role would simply be one of coordination and organization. So much of Hampshire's problems are due to disorganization and lack of communication. Hampshire used to have someone with this job; why did we stop?
 * using Hampedia as a platform for sharing information and improving transparency.

Concerning the five-school student meeting... We need to produce an agenda, and ask the students to come to the meeting prepared.

We need to talk to Bob. Ask him where the faculty is with regard to governance, talk about what we are doing, see how we can work with the faculty.

We are going to begin an SS Student Member Student Group, as we are a student group that is engaging in student-organized activies. Woohoo!

11-16-08
Ananda, Gabe, Luke, DeeDee, Sofya, and Zoe attended.

Curriculum Committee report back: Mmmm, tasty Korean food. Discussed how, in upper-level courses, it was difficult to really get into the meat of issues, because students did not have foundational background. Talked about having a a forty-or-so person lecture-based class each semester that is a foundational introduction (to methods, research, and content) to important fields, as lower 200-level courses. Also, talked about what student members of SS could be doing- maybe have a student petition to show support for faculty role in governance. Discussed team-teaching, how it ties into Hampshire's pedagogey, but there was an issue of too many professors team-teaching and thus there not being enough courses provided. Perhaps have one per year?Most of us agreed that having large foundational courses as lower 200-level courses would be a good thing.

Discussion of governance at Hampshire. The faculty hope to put forward a proposal for a system of governance. What do we think as students about Hampshire governance? Want to get a greater sense of students' views on governance. How can we get a better sense of other students' views on governance, so that we can represent the greater student body? There should be student reps on the committee that writes up the faculty proposal. We should come up with a statement saying what we feel should be part of that proposal, and what should not.

Discussion of governance right now at Hampshire: It's a corrupt system, everyone is not fully represented. On Community Council there are supposed to be 22 voting members, 13 students, the rest faculty and staff. CC has no official power, but it can have a deep influence, react to administrative decision with an official statement that has community backing. If it were operating the way it should be operating according to bylaws, it could be a very powerful body. As for the schools, the five schools have their meetings, which we take part in, and the full faculty is above that. If CC truly were the student perspective, then it would be good to have one student member from each school sit on CC.

To think about:


 * We want to answer the question of, what should the role of faculty be in the governance process? How can we support them?
 * We want to meet with reps from the five schools. What do we want to talk with them about? What would the agenda be? Hexter's statement, questions for the students.

10-07-08
Ananda, Gabriel, Sofya, and Luke attended. Jay and Matan were unable to attend.

This meeting was devoted to discussing and updating the 1996 SS Student Member Guidelines. Luke noted the changes and is writing up a revised version, which will be approved at the next SS student member meeting. Touched upon the need to do heavier student recruitment; intend to make a plan at the next meeting.

9-30-08
Ananda, Sofya, Luke, and Matan attended. Jay and Gabriel were unable to attend.

At this introductory meeting, overall goals and plans for the semester were discussed. Students discussed the different committees and the way SS works as a whole, and figured out who would become a member of each committee.