Gratch Speaks On Year So Far

The Middlebury Campus met with Ilana Gratch ’16 to discuss the first half of her term as president of the Student Government Association (SGA). In this profile, Gratch speaks on initatives she has worked on and goals for the remainder of her presidency.

Middlebury Campus (MC):

We interviewed President of the College Laurie Patton in last week’s issue discussing the first few months of her presidency. What has your involvement with Patton looked like over the course of your own presidency?

Ilana Gratch (IG): I meet with President Patton every other week, and my Chief of Staff and I meet with her and the rest of the senior leadership group once a month. The purpose of those meetings is twofold: first, they are for us to keep them informed with things that not only the SGA is talking about but [also] relevant issues we hear around campus; the other half of it is for them to take advantage of the student perspectives on issues they’re discussing. In the past, there was no SGA senior leadership group involvement on any regular basis. Working with President Patton [has] undoubtedly been one of the highlights of this whole experience because she has been so incredibly open to suggestions, feedback and working together on all sorts of things.

MC: Who are people on campus you look to as mentors?

IG: I would say my adviser, [Assistant Professor of Psychology] Rob Moeller. I speak with him all the time about the SGA, and he’s always very supportive and instructive. I certainly do look up to President Patton, and she’s been great in terms of not only working with me in an SGA capacity [but also] checking in [with me] as a leader. It’s been really cool to learn from her.

MC: You launched 10 o’clock Ross in the fall semester. Has it been successful, and what improvements do you want to make to it?

IG: I would say it’s been incredibly successful. I’m there almost every night, volunteering my time with the paid monitors. For a while I was taking a count every night, and there has never been fewer than 100 students in attendance — usually it’s between 100 and 200. I’d call that a success. There’s still definitely work to be done. In an ideal world, there would be a greater variety of food options. Not everybody is a cereal fan or wants ice cream in the winter, but we’re working on that, and I think this year is really meant to establish the program and ensure it goes well now [and] into the future. I’ve been working with dining services to transition it from being a program that’s overseen by SGA — which it currently is — to being part of dining’s program. That, for me, would be a huge accomplishment.

MC: How does the SGA plan to make the College more inclusive, especially in light of recent events that have occurred on campus?

IG: [That’s] a tough question because I don’t know how possible it is for any one group, person or school to move the community forward to the extent it needs to be moved. The SGA is doing a lot this year to think about diversity and inclusion in ways it has not previously thought about those issues. We spent one meeting in the fall watching the video by Tim Garcia, “Accounts of the Invisible.” We spent the rest of the meeting talking about what role SGA could play in this conversation on campus. I don’t think there’s an easy answer, and we’ve spent a lot of time talking about it — I think we’re still trying to search for the best way forward. In J-term, I [initiated and] was part of a working group that was looking at the comparative [distribution] requirement to see if it could be repurposed in some sort of way to better address issues of power difference and dynamics of difference and identify in an academic setting. [It was] different than JusTalks because it’s not about your own identity but about history and institutional racism and things that you can learn about in class. More broadly, I’ve been meeting with individual cultural organizations. We have one meeting coming up between all of SGA and as many of the cultural orgs that can [attend]. I hope that will be a good thing and I think it’s important for SGA to take the time to listen to what we can do to better serve cultural organizations on campus and other students that are feeling marginalized.

MC: What role do you see the College having in educating students about racism and living in a diverse community?

IG: I absolutely think the College has a role in educating students about issues of racism and difference. That’s why I formed the working group because I think one of the biggest takeaways for me, after one of the town hall meetings, was exactly this issue of education. We’re at college, and yet, people don’t know where to turn for education about an issue that everyone is talking about all the time. I think colleges are uniquely positioned right now to be leaders in this conversation. I don’t think having a class where you learn about the history of race in the United States is a conversation ender, at all, and I don’t think it has any opposition to free speech — I think it’s a part of our history that a lot of people [are unaware of]. We could benefit as a community if we just learned a little more.

MC: What is the SGA’s position on the banning of energy drinks in retail spaces on campus?

IG: The SGA has no formal opinion and [had] no role in that [ban]. It was a Community Council decision. Personally, I think it’s a bit silly — I think what’s silly about it is linking [energy drinks] to problematic behaviors like high risk sexual decision making.

MC: What other goals do you have for the remainder of your presidency, and what projects should your successor pursue or initiate?

IG: One major goal that I have is internal SGA reform. The senators don’t know this yet, but I want to collapse both the Senate and the Cabinet into one cohesive SGA. I think we have an inefficient system right now — if the senators don’t know what’s going on with the cabinet, and the cabinet doesn’t know what’s going on with the senate, how can we expect the general student body to know anything? I thought I could play the role of keeping everyone informed at all times, but it’s just not a manageable thing to do. [As such], one of the big goals I have is proposing to the Senate a restructuring of SGA such that cabinet members — such as the Director of Environmental Affairs, of Institutional Diversity, of Health and Wellness — would all be elected by students instead of appointed by the SGA President. They would sit in a room every Sunday night with a first-year president, a sophomore president, a junior president and senior president ­— and that would [comprise] the SGA.

MC: It’s a Saturday night, and you’re at the Grille. What is your go-to order?

IG: Mozzarella sticks. I’m a vegetarian so the options are kind of limited — but bread and cheese are my favorite foods.