Hello all —
My most important announcement is that President H. Kim Bottomly has confirmed that the President’s Advisory Committee on Gender will have five student representatives. College Government (CG) has been asked to identify — through the Student Organizations and Appointments Committee (SOAC) process — five students to serve on the committee. The application has been posted on the SOAC Google Site and is due this coming Friday, Oct. 3 at midnight. In the interest of making sure that the representatives we recommend to Dean of Students Debra DeMeis and President Bottomly’s office represent a diversity of viewpoints, backgrounds, class years and gender identities, Multicultural Affairs Coordinator Timothy Boatwright ’16 and I will sit in on applicant interviews. This advisory committee plays an exceedingly important role in defining the Wellesley of the future, and I encourage all who are interested to apply.
Applications for College Government President’s Council (CGPC) are also due this Friday at midnight, to be submitted to me via email.
In the past few weeks, SOAC and the Student Organization Funding Committee (SOFC) completed President’s and Treasurer’s trainings, and student organizations are again in full swing. The Community Action Network (CAN) had its first formal meeting, and Beth Feldstein ’15 and the Committee for Political and Legislative Awareness (CPLA) worked with our new Associate Dean of Students Carol Bate to secure the new TurboVote software that will streamline the voting and voter registration process for Wellesley students. The non-partisan application simplifies voting by allowing users to request absentee ballots, perform basic voter registration and update their personal information, such as a change of name or address, online. TurboVote also sends reminders via email or text to remind users of upcoming elections or deadlines. It is a brilliant tool to help us translate civic engagement on campus to active participation in our outside communities.
We also had our first Senate meeting this week, and I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight one of the more important changes we’ve put in place. We are asking quite a bit of our Senators this year with the ultimate goal that they will be able to bring Senate outside of the Senate chamber and involve a larger group of students in College Government work. It is easy for student government to become a place simply for information exchange and asking things of the administration. While there is certainly a place for that, this limited conception of student government ignores what students can immediately do for other students. So, in addition to the Action Item requirement, we have also given Senators the option to work on semester-long projects with other Senators or to form semester-long working groups with non-Senator students to pursue some achievable goal that makes this campus a better place to be a student. These projects may be textbook drives, dorm-level sustainability initiatives or anything else our Senators can come up with. I encourage you to come by a Senate meeting sometime this semester to see what we’ve put in place, to make your voice heard and to perhaps give our Senators the next big idea. Senate meets Mondays at 6 p.m. in the Academic Council Room on the fourth floor of Green Hall and is always open to the student body.
My office hours this week are, as always, Friday from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the CG/Bursar’s Office. Please feel free to come by with any questions or concerns, or just to say hello. I’d be happy to speak with you about anything that’s on your mind. If you don’t have time to come by, just drop me an email and we’ll set up an appointment.
Best,
Hana
