College to streamline communications with MyWellesley page

Dean Debra DeMeis presented the results of the social media survey released Oct. 2013 and the work that has been done since then to design a new, more effective method of communication between the administration and the student body. The survey results showed that the two most effective ways to reach students are email and MyWellesley. 98 percent of students who responded to the survey check their email daily. Currently, students receive information from the administration in the form of emails and college announcements and can find information about college policies, events and dining hall hours on various websites. In addition to the survey results, DeMeis presented the current proposal for a new communication page on MyWellesley that has been in the works since October. The proposed MyWellesley page has six boxes corresponding to announcements, hours, menus, jobs, events and policies and one last box has yet to be determined. DeMeis hopes that integrating five of the most commonly accessed types of information and announcements on campus into one page will help students access important information from the administration more efficiently. The page is still under development and will be finished by July 1, 2014.

Cabinet presents Constitution Amendment to address anonymous movements

College Government (CG) Cabinet has proposed a constitutional amendment in response to the anonymous Facebook page “Campaign to Abstain” that surfaced last week. The amendment defines the way CG will address similar instances of anonymous online campaigns or pages in the future. The online campaign “Campaign to Abstain” urged students to select “abstain” rather than vote for the uncontested Multicultural Affairs Coordinator (MAC) candidate, Timothy Boatwright ’16. The online campaign violated the College’s nondiscrimination policy and the official “tone and spirit” of CG elections. The amendment states that CG will not acknowledge campaigns without a student representative who can be accountable to the Wellesley community. It reads: “Any online forum or account will only be recognized by College Government to represent concerns or interests of any Wellesley student if it has a contact person who is a Wellesley student.” The amendment seeks to hold students accountable to the Wellesley community,and outline a course of action for anonymous online movements. CG Cabinet members at Senate stressed that they hope the amendment would shift focus from locating the responsible individual to students who are negatively affected by anonymous pages. Senators will vote on the amendment during the next meeting of Senate, next Monday.