SGA Update

The SGA meeting on Jan. 17 began with announcements from Director of Membership Zak Fisher ’16 who proxied for SGA President Ilana Gratch ’16. Fisher welcomed Abbie Spector ’17 who is replacing Michael Brady ’17.5 as Chief of Staff, Junior Senator Karina Toy ’17, who returned to SGA from abroad and Hannah Street ’16, who is the new SGA press secretary.

Fisher announced that the faculty voted on Jan. 16 to reform the AAL Distribution Requirement. There are now six new categories from which students must take a minimum of three classes, each from a distinct category: South and Southeast Asia Pacific, North Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Americas. It is still required that students take a course that focuses on the comparison of two cultures and/or civilizations, denoted as CMP.

The faculty also voted to maintain the Pass/D/Fail option with no expiration date. Gratch later remarked, “I was thrilled to see such enthusiastic faculty support for both the AAL reform and the Pass/D/Fail legislation. These are proposals that were initiated and fought for by students over the past few years, and it is incredibly exciting to see their hard work come to fruition.”

Spector reported the creation of a working group to improve the McCullough Student Center. The group is looking for short term solutions to increase the number of students who use the building for either social or academic purposes. Senators observed that McCullough could use more comfortable study areas, and that students might be more attracted to the center if there were weekly SGA-sponsored events. Speaker of the Senate Reshma Gogineni ’16 noted that for McCullough to be open 24 hours, the building must be monitored overnight to prevent theft of food items and alcohol in Crossroads Cafe and The Grille. Suggestions for long term solutions included altering the building’s architecture to make room for more study spaces and relocating the bookstore from Proctor Dining Hall.

First-Year Senator Charles Rainey ’19 expressed concern that students are encouraged to annually tip their Commons’ custodial staff, but that no such practice is in place for the dining staff, and suggested that SGA advocate to implement what he believes would be a more equitable system. Senator Jin Sohn ’18 noted that other colleges have poster boards for students to write messages of gratitude, and that it may be helpful to post the names and faces of the dining staff so students are more familiar.

Maryam Mahboob ’18 updated SGA on the progress of her project to bring a mac and cheese food truck to campus. The MAC (Macaroni and Choose) Truck aims to provide students with “high quality, inexpensive, local and organic mac and cheese during late nights,” Mahboob said.

Through student contributions and a grant from MiddStart, Mahboob has raised $2,175 and will be able to cover the costs of ingredients, legal expenses, kitchen equipment, student wages and the fees from the Addison County Parent Child Center, from whom Mahboob is renting the food truck.

Sarah Kearns of the Vermont Small Business Development Center is coordinating with Mahboob to build a team to manage the truck, and they are still looking for volunteers. Mahboob will begin “sewing the financial aspects of the project together” in mid-February. “Once the Truck’s fixed and initial costs are covered, MAC is projected to generate enough revenue to cover its expenses,” Mahboob said. “My hope and vision for MAC is that it eventually becomes a social enterprise.”

Additional reporting by Will DiGravio.