ASHMC Meeting 11/04/07

Linde Activities Center

4:00 PM

Attendance

Status Reports

South - We had a baja last night, it was fun.  There will be another next week.

CAP - We had a beach trip yesterday, it went well.  We're stopping to give money to things becuase we're nearing the end of our budget for the semester

Linde - Linde was good, there were a good number of people at Pitzer's Bob Marley festival.

Sontag - This coming Friday we're going to have an event with food.

Kacy - We had trick or treating, and we had an open-mic night.  We also had a party in the hour that didn't exist.

Zach - DAC is doing well.  I'm organizing a gender blind housing sub-committee.  If anyone is interested, let me know.  We'll have speakers for social - we're getting them Friday with DC.

West - We'll be doing Wild Wild West on the 17th.  Also we have to do Broomball.

West - Our courtyard is as clean as its ever been, that's going well.

SFC - We are having a happy hour with free pie 12:45 on Wednesday.

Social - The Pitzer people told me to say thank you very very much. The speakers were a little over $4,000.

Zach - I'm not sure if we've finished buying everything.  So far Dean of Students has bought everything.  Social will be reimbursing them, and then we might request funding from ASHMC.  DC wants dollars soon.

Zach - Yea, any costs we incur from here on out will be on the order of hundreds of dollars.  I don't expect the cost to go over $5,000.

North - We had Halloweiner, it went well.

Anu - We have $20,000.

BOT Report = Physical Plant Committee

Sam - We've met three times while I've been here.  They're working on construction and things they did over the summer.  Renovation is pretty much done, but they're putting in a chiller down in academics. There are also some seismic things they're looking at.  They're going to be renovating North after next summer.   They think they want to do

more of them together, becase its easier to schedule.  They seem to be less upset about West this year.  They seem to be satisfied with how things are going.

Lindasy - What's the point of renovating buildings.  When are they going to build a new one?

Sam - They want to build a new one.  It will go next to Sontag in the Sontag parking lot area.  I think right now they're in the looking-for-a-donor stage.  I think they've abandoned the idea of building up North by the field station.

Zach - They're thinking of also building a multi-story parking structure.

Sam - They're thinking of the next dorm having suites, a lot like Sontag.  They seem to have this opinion of what we want, but I'm not sure if that really reflects what the student body wants.  I could organize a survey around that.  But they're probably 3-4 years out from any work on this dorm.

Sam  - They implemented a call-your-cell-phone system for emergency notification.  They're also looking at putting in a large set of speakers down by academics for emergency notification.  All the other campuses are doing the same thing, so it wil lbe the same message on all the speakers.

Sam - We reviewed the insurance policy.  I don't think there was anything interesting other than earthquake insurance for seismic things.  The way the committee sees it, we're in good shape.

Sam - That committee is also the committee that works on sustainability issues.  Three of the other four colleges have signed the President's Pledge to Sustainability.  Basically the committee doesn't want to sign on to that and get tied down to it.  They want to do something Mudd-centered.  I do think they're serious about it, and I'm helping them draft the statement.  That committee is also the sponsor for one of the sustainability clinics.

Sam - I'm also unclear on where they want to go with Platt.  I think it's sort of a half-functional space right now.  It does some good things, but I think we need it for other uses.

Sankriti Proposal

ATHA - Sanskriti

AthaGuy - I'm from the 5C South Asian Club, and every year we put on a show called Sanskriti.  The show is free, but it is preceded by a dinner.  It used to be $5 but we are rasing the cost to $6 this year. We need to rais over $3000 to meet all our remaining costs.  We are asking HMC for $300.

ZACH - Are there HMC students in ATHA?

AthaGuy - Yes, about 15-20 students actually come and perform.  A lot more come to watch the show.

I-Place

Elorm - I'm here on behalf of the international club.  I used to be the President, but I am not this year.  They asked me to come to ASHMC to ask for funding for the I-Banquet.  The event features food from a lot of cultures, it's elegant, and we invite all students and profs from the 5Cs.  Last year, ASHMC gave $400.  We also cover some of the costs by having tickets.  Usually ASHMC donates money and then DOS gives us money for each student that comes, as a subsidy.  I think last year, we got about $400 from ASHMC and over $300 from DOS.  We were really grateful for your contribution last year, but the total cost came out to $6000, and we had a loss of $2000.   This year we are asking for $600.

Anu - Last year CAP subsidized tickets so students only had to pay $2. 

Anu - So you guys only need 2100?

Elorm - Well realistically we don't think we'll get that; we're just trying to cover all the costs we can.

Elorm - This year we're shooting for each college to increase their contribution by $200.

Anu - We gave I-Place $3200 this year at 5C funding.

I-Banquet - I-Place

Newspaper Stand

Jeff: EPC Report

BOT Report = EPC Committee
Jeff - I'm from the Educational Planning Committee. First I want to point out that the committee mostly is a report-receving committee, rather than an acting committee.  The first has to do with the freshmen class.  There were 710 students admitted.  Klawe wrote letters to each female freshman...

Incoming class - Good geographic distribution

38% from Ca. lot from out of state. Good racial distribution. Mostly engineers – 50%. Good distribution otherwise – data doesn’t mean a whole lot.

New E80 course – rocket engineering course. Class is an emphasis on experimental engineering. Is an integrated class this year – aiming towards the final project of rockets. 6 rocket launches – gravel pits or Pomona or the deserts. Intends on expanding over the years as more data is collected over the years. Very student oriented – labs developed by students

Strategic planning – diversity committee – put together over the summer – multi-culturalism at Mudd. While there may not be problem with this at Mudd, it may be very difficult to talk about important issues. Prof. Asai is heading the committee. Not too much information on this.

Research at mudd – lot of research at mudd – increase in bio and chem., decrease in engr. -Students at mudd have an excellent opportunity to work with faculty

Faculty – lot of visiting faculty, lot of new faculty to be hired.

Transfer students – what kind? – this year – UCI and president. Interest in Community college outreach programs.

Any curriculum  changes? -- Curriculum changes – not discussed at all. Change curriculum expectations, not the quality of the curriculum. Board of trustees is not going to make curriculum changes.

Sanskriti:

-          me: summary of funding already received: We gave Ekta $400 for the year during 5C budgeting. DOS gave them $300 for this event alone. We didn’t give them any additional funding for this event last year.

-          hesitant to give them more

IBanquet:

-          asking us for $600

-          a deficit every year usually

-          how much money is being contributed by I-club?

-          Don’t know

Discussion of Sanskriti:

-          they are getting $300 from DOS

-          we didn’t give them anything last year

-          lot of Mudd students go for the event and also participate in it

-          Approved $300 by 14

Discussion of IBanquet:

-          we gave Iclub $400 for this year

-          we gave $400 additional for Ibanquet last year.

-          Approved $600 by 12 people

Muddraker:

-          asking for money to give to the editor because it is a lot of work

-          nobody submitted articles, hence we couldn’t get anything out

-          if there is such a dependency on the staff, paying only the editor would not really help solve the problem

-          maybe bring Lea in here and ask her to tell us what she wants to come up with a solution

-          get more people excited about it, to get people to get stuff done

-          you could make it a class

-          the hum-soc dept. doesn’t allow it because it is a technical skill and we are a liberal arts school and we focus on teaching and not on training

-          How about an independent study?

-          Have her give $5 an article

-          Can we pay her staff too

-          Work study – payment through DOS

-          Next week bring in Lea and DC

Newspaper Stand:

-          Newspaper stand at the Hoch is not that good. Talked to Theresa about it. It would be a nicer place to put up stuff/store information and have it easily accessible to people

-          How does it look

-          Lindsay will send out a picture of it

-          Approved by 14

Minutes approved with ‘Pitzoids’ changed to ‘Pitzer students’

Approved by 10