Tabled Initiatives Spill Over to Next Year's Agenda

Author: Paul Barnwell

Plans to implement a permanent residential "access" system, discussion surrounding an African-American Studies major and Honor Code revisions are three policy issues that have dominated Community Council and Student Government Association (SGA) discourse this year and will continue to be salient issues next year, said members of both groups.

Though only several weeks remain in the 2001-2002 academic school year, both the SGA and Community Council can look back upon a series of positive accomplishments. Some initiatives opened dialogue with the administration, while others directly improved the College's social, community and academic policies.

Campus Security

Student Co-Chair of Community Council Erica Rosenthal '02 recognized the College's effort to address campus safety — more specifically the locking of residence halls — as an important Community Council initiative this year. Acting President Ronald Liebowitz's approval of the Campus Access Committee (CAC) and of the Community Council subcommittee on public safety's recommendation to engage Strategic Technology Group to design the new system gave the College the green light to make detailed design plans for the enhanced access system.

Chaired by Assistant Treasurer and Director of Business Services Tom Corbin, the CAC met last Friday to establish the direction of the security system initiative. The most sensitive point, Corbin said, will be establishing protocol concerning the capacity of the proximity card scanners to track who enters a building and when. "The issue here is who can access data. Some schools have taken that up and said only the president can release data. Other schools have established three person groups," Corbin said.

Identifying doors to be equipped with these scanners is also on the CAC's agenda. "We're going to talk to commons deans about traffic. I suspect in most buildings it's quite apparent which doors are used most often," Corbin said.

A proximity card system is the "simplest way" to manage the permanent locking of the buildings, he said, stressing that other identification cards usually require swiping and are more prone to vandalism and weather damage. Corbin said he hoped College community members would not have to remove cards from their pockets when entering a building. He noted that fellow NESCAC member schools Colby and Bowdoin Colleges have already installed proximity card systems.

"By fall we should know exactly what we're doing," Corbin said. "But the installation will take a while," he added, noting a target completion date of January 2003.

African-American Studies

The question surrounding the creation of a new African-American Studies major may not be resolved any time soon, but the SGA petition in favor of the establishment of such a major, signed by over 600 students in early March, alerted faculty to the significant interest in a program.

"The faculty knows this is of concern to students," SGA Director of Academic Affairs Suzanne Slarsky '02 said. "To have had students voice support in a variety of ways jumpstarted the conversation."

SGA President Brian Elworthy '02.5 maintained that raising the issue to a "level of prominence it deserves" was a success in and of itself. "I have been told that recent attempts to address this issue have not been as successful as we would have hoped either because of timing, lack of sustained student interest or lack of support among administration and faculty members," Elworthy said.

With hopes that next year's SGA will continue to pursue the African-American Studies initiative, both Elworthy and Slarsky are optimistic that the major will eventually come to fruition. "I believe in the next several years we'll see substantial change in African-American Studies," Slarsky said.

Honor Code

After deliberating for almost eight weeks last fall, Community Council drafted a revision of the Honor Code, said Dean of Student Affairs and Co-chair of the Community Council Ann Hanson. The faculty voted in favor of the changes late February, and the amendments will be printed in next year's handbook, Hanson added.

One part of the revision included deleting the word "moral" from students' obligation to report infringements of the Honor Code, emphasizing the duty is mandatory despite differences in students' morality, Secretary of the College Eric Davis said in the Nov. 14, 2001, issue of the The Middlebury Campus. Despite long debates over whether or not to include the word in the final language, the faculty voted to reinsert it into the revised version.

"Community Council's work on the Honor Code will hopefully mark an important turning point in the way academic honesty is viewed on campus," Rosenthal said.

Despite upcoming changes in the language to clearly delineate student and faculty roles in academic honesty, the challenge to "keep the Honor Code alive" — maintaining a high level of student awareness — is an ongoing issue, Hanson said.

Other Issues

Transportation initiatives were among SGA's successes this year, Elworthy said. "The airport shuttle to Burlington during College breaks was one of the initiatives of which we are most proud to have accomplished," he commented. Instead of paying up to $55 for a one-way trip from an area taxi service, students paid between $10 and $15 for the ride.

Because a two-year trial period is required for the administration to institutionalize the shuttle program, Elworthy said the "plan needs to be developed further," adding that he hoped next year's SGA president would continue working to make the shuttle service a permanent transportation amenity for students.

The SGA also worked to expand the MiddRides service. Student-Public Safety Liaison Kristie Gonzalez '02 said, however, that there would be plenty of room for improvement next year. Currently, MiddRides is only a weeknight call-in service and has run into trouble finding consistent commitment from student drivers.

The potential to expand MiddRides next year to a scheduled and daily loop service on a combined campus and downtown route was "exciting," Gonzalez added. She noted the alleviation of parking problems as a likely benefit. However, an expansion of the service would most likely eliminate the student driver job. "It would be a hired staff position," Gonzalez said.

The Community Council subcommittee on social and academic interest houses recently completed a review of the academic interest houses, and its recommendations regarding social houses are currently under discussion by Community Council.

Hanson said the evaluation process could improve, stating that the subcommittee might be able to further examine positive effects of the houses.

"We don't seem to have good ways to measure the extra positive things the houses bring to the community. We also don't have a lot of information about why people join, or enjoy, a house," Hanson said. As a result, Hanson added, a review of the current social house review process should be on the future agenda of the Council.

The Community Council has also continued to push for the implementation of a College Web site change to include student pictures under the "People Finder" section. Students would have the option to choose whether or not to include their MiddCard photo in the online database.

"Many people have suggested that this can be a useful tool in efforts to build community at Middlebury, as well as a great convenience in helping to put names with faces," Rosenthal said. Council members have met with the Information Technology Services (ITS) staff regarding the initiative. Hanson said the option to include pictures online could be available as early as next fall.