• About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
      Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
    • CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
      CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
    • WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
      WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
      Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
    • Turn it off: healing from news fatigue in the digital age
      Turn it off: healing from news fatigue in the digital age
    • Let them eat bread: the unequal effects of food price inflation
      Let them eat bread: the unequal effects of food price inflation
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Controversial
      The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Controversial
    • Lucy Dacus Brings a Minimal Yet Powerful Performance to Northeastern University
      Lucy Dacus Brings a Minimal Yet Powerful Performance to Northeastern University
    • “Glass Onion” Takes Shots at Easy Targets
      “Glass Onion” Takes Shots at Easy Targets
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
    • Books Before Boys
  • Sports and Wellness
    • Student-Athlete of October
      Student-Athlete of October
    • Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
      Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
    • The Case for Body Neutrality
      The Case for Body Neutrality
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • The Wellesley Snooze
    • Rejected Snooze Articles for the Week
      Rejected Snooze Articles for the Week
    • Happy Valentine’s Day from Spog
      Happy Valentine’s Day from Spog
    • The Four Best Places to Loudly FaceTime Someone on Campus
      The Four Best Places to Loudly FaceTime Someone on Campus
  • Miscellanea
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
      Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
    • 50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
      50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Diana Paulsen News, News and FeaturesApril 4, 2018

Senate Report: 4/2

Senate Report

Professor Rothschild presents on Budget Committee

Professor Casey Rothschild of the economics department gave a presentation on the activities of the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC), a body composed of faculty, staff and students that offers recommendations to the Board of Trustees about tuition costs and faculty and staff compensation. He discussed how Wellesley currently runs at a budget deficit of several million dollars, a situation that will be exacerbated by a new tax bill taxing college endowments. This deficit is a result of the College ignoring maintenance and renovation of buildings in favor of expanding faculty in the past couple of years. As a result, the College is now facing the problems of crumbling infrastructure and increased faculty costs while also having a tuition lower than its peer institutions. The cost per student at Wellesley in 2017 was $97,954, while tuition was only about $63,000, meaning that the College is running at about a $34,000 deficit per student, without taking financial aid into account. In order to counteract this situation, BAC has recommended increases in tuition by 4.9 percent following last year’s increase.

Rothschild also addressed student questions about where their tuition goes and the breakdown of the budget. About 60 percent of the budget goes to personnel costs, with half of that sum being faculty members and the other half being staff, about 20 percent of the budget goes to maintenance costs and the other 20 percent goes to administrative costs.

Senate Discusses College Government Elections

The recent College Government (CG) elections took center stage at Senate. The discussion had been tabled before spring break with a promise that the subject will be discussed after the break. Both the College Government President (CGP) Maryam Khan ’18 and Dean of Students Sheilah Horton expressed dismay at the mean spirited tone of the public debate.

One issue that was central to the discussion was constitutional eligibility, especially as it concerns the office of CGP. The error occured due to some issues with the CG constitution. CG had been considering changing eligibility policy to allow rising juniors to run for CGP, and the new policy had been added to the constitution as a suggestion on Google Docs and had accidentally been made permanent. This oversight was not caught, a fact for which the CGP apologized.

Another issue that was discussed was the current state of the Elections Committee (EC), with some criticizing the fact that EC is largely made up of current cabinet members. This means that candidates cannot talk to current cabinet members about their positions without committing a campaign violation. Another student expressed her support for the continued membership of cabinet members on the committee, saying that they provided valuable knowledge.

Several students also proposed better publicity for the conflict resolution workshops being hosted by Sherman Cowan throughout the semester, which were suggested as a way to mitigate vitriol during the campaign cycle.

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleCommunity walkout honors victims of Parkland shooting and inspires activism at Wellesley
Next articlePoet and activist Yosimar Reyes talks about undocumented immigrant experience

You may also like

Historic extreme cold blasts Wellesley

Pendleton East closure displaces social science departments

Stone-Davis dining staff report mistreatment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

  • Logos of social media apps such as Twitter, Tiktok, Netflix, Spotify, and Discord. Andrew tate: ending the cycle of toxic masculinity
  • Stone-Davis dining staff report mistreatment
  • The 95th Academy Awards Nominations: The Cool and The Contro...
  • A collection of a wide variety of foods in the colors of the rainbow Let them eat bread: the unequal effects of food price inflat...
  • Red envelope that contains money to celebrate the Lunar New Year. America’s cultural appropriation is a modern form of i...

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top