Community Council held its first meeting on Monday, Sept. 29, during which Council Co-Chair Ben Bogin ’15 and Dean of Students Katy Smith Abbott reviewed the Council’s general responsibilities and proceeded to ask the other members to suggest topics they would most like to address over the course of the year.
“[Community Council] considers policies and issues pertaining to the College and makes decisions or proposes resolutions to the administration,” said Bogin.
The Council serves as a connection between the students, as well as many other community members, and the administration. Community Council is also responsible for making certain appointments at various times during the year. They are also in charge of reviewing and discussing the social and special interest houses on campus.
In the meeting, Bogin began by suggesting that the Council continue to discuss the honor code, specifically “broadening our definition of the honor code to include a social aspect” for the agenda for the upcoming year.
Bogin’s proposal received a lot of support from many of the council members, including Anna Jacobsen ’16. Jacobsen also proposed talking about sexual assault and issues of consent on campus, which according to her, “could tie into a social honor code.”
SGA President Taylor Custer ’15 said he thinks it is important to discuss the procedural aspect of the Community Council and ways to make it more effective, inclusive and responsive to the student body.
Another cause for concern, according to Custer, is the present relationship between Public Safety and the student body.
“A lot of students have come to me saying that there is unnecessary tension there,” said Custer.
Jacobsen expressed uneasiness with the overall representation on the Council, specifying that she was specifically concerned with the lack of racial diversity on the Council.
Bogin responded that this fact “was absolutely not intentional by any means” and the group briefly conversed about discussing how to involve underrepresented student voices in the Council in future meetings.
“There seems to be a feeling of exclusion coming from the students of color on the campus… The diversity at the College needs to be more integrated as opposed to segregated,” added Jacobsen.
The tailgating policy was then brought up by Blake Shapskinsky ’15, who voiced his desire to discuss the issue in the near future.
Other members requested not to focus on the policy, many agreeing that there was nothing to do now since the decision has been decisively made.
Instead, the council members discussed the “concerning” method through which the administration is presenting policy changes to the student body and how this process was illustrated in the recent tailgating policy controversy.
“I think it would be a gigantic mistake to focus on the tailgating issue as a policy. We should instead be coming up with something very concrete for the process so this doesn’t happen again…This has played into a bias toward the administration because the administration made a decision that affects the social life of students,” said Custer.
Custer suggested to instead use the policy as a “platform” to talk about the issue of transparency within the administration. He pointed out that the policy illustrated how an abrupt policy change leads to tension between the students and the administration.
He continued, suggesting that this could lead to a discussion about how the council can better make students aware of potential policy changes far before the actual decision so that they can get involved.
“I think its concerning that this is getting more attention then other larger issues on campus,” said Jacobsen.
Students Jacobsen and Custer discussed the outrage the tailgating policy has created and yet the reality is that few students have sought out ways to discuss the policy with the SGA or the administration.
Custer pointed out how few students came to the meeting the SGA held last week to discuss the ramifications and controversy of the tailgating policy. Finishing up the meeting, the council is looking to discuss what they can do to improve the overall communication between administration and student body as well as address topics brought up by council members.
The Council will meet every Monday at 4:30 p.m. in Old Chapel.
