Hey Wellesley!
Welcome to the President’s Corner! This will serve as a space where updates regarding the work that College Government is engaged in will be a shared on a biweekly basis. Your Cabinet has been making a collective effort to be more present on campus and to get to know the student body on a more personal level—we are your peers after all!—be that through interactions in our residential halls, social media, or in attending events on campus. We intend to continue being a present, conscientious and goal-oriented Cabinet that also takes and integrates feedback from all of you. I intend for this column to contribute to honoring that commitment.
Together we will strive to:
- Be accessible and visible leaders who offer the CG space to the student body as a place of productive discourse and action.
- Cultivate community in the Senate space and in the larger community through engaging events.
- Increase transparency and trust between Cabinet and the student body by keeping a log of everything occurring within CG and sharing it through media.
- Hold each other accountable by following up on our projects and sharing our successes and needs for improvement.
It hasn’t even been a month since the semester began, but CG has been at work! We arrived mid-August for Student Leader Training and created our vision for the academic year. I have met with representatives from the Office of the Dean of Students, Student Involvement, Student Financial Services and House Presidents’ Council since mid-August in efforts to collaborate on initiatives on behalf of the student body.
As the semester has started, Chief Justice Tashay Campbell ’18 and I were fortunate to speak at Convocation, marking the beginning of the academic year. The Schneider Board of Governors (SBOG) hosted a spectacular Lake Day overseen by our Director of On Campus Affairs (DOOCA) Paige Cheatham ’18 while the Student Organizations and Appointments Committee (SOAC) facilitated a productive Org Fair. Multicultural Affairs Coordinator Dina Al-Zubi ’19 called the first meeting of the Multicultural Presidents’ Council this past week, while CPLA Chair Sarah Nealon ’18 and Senate are collaborating with Career Education’s Civic Engagement Council to participate in phonebanking for DACA. Our Student Bursar Natalie Jin ’18, CG Vice President Karen Su ’19 and Secretary-Treasurer Margot Lipin ’20 all successfully hosted trainings this past Saturday morning and afternoon.
Monday evening we had our first Senate! Moving forward, our Senates will be structured to feature a discussion that introduces at least one Cabinet member so that students are all familiar with the work each of us and our respective committees. Our agenda featured a discussion on Remix, and while time constraints prevented us from addressing all questions, we have not forgotten them. Post-Senate, Cabinet is working to host a town hall on “Social Life at Wellesley” and hopes to invite Dean Horton, as well as representatives from Student Involvement, Residential Life, and Transportation Services to continue this dialogue.
This week we hope to see many familiar as well as new faces at your HoCos & Teas across campus! HPC-CG Liasion Maggie Neel ’18, helped facilitate Cabinet’s visits across campus. Come ask us how we can better serve you or just stop by and say hi!
We hope to begin this year honest about our goals and intentions so we can continue to foster a community of accountability and transparency. Thank you all! I look forward to a year that I know will be productive, meaningful and fun!
Take care of yourselves, and until next time,
Maryam
