General Assembly

Minutes from September 27, 2007

Topics: WASC, Residence Life

Associated Students of Occidental College

General Assembly Minutes

September 27, 2007

12:00-1:30, Fowler 302

Minutes by Chelsey Brack

Guests Present: Sabrina Strand, Ben Dalgetty, Elizabeth Wytychek, Daniel Landesman, Bruce Steele, Jackie Keeley, Ruben Campos, John Mortl, Roland B. Seymour, Bobby Rodgers, Scott Nishinaka, William Carlson, Sarah Flocken, Marina Nakamura, Abe Cohen, Emma Thorne-Christy, Isaac Hale, Malia Latin, Elizabeth Titus-Yoakum, Joe Statwick, Adriana Guarderas, Bena Li, Jacob Berry, Zak Stoltz, John Eaton, Barbara Avery, Jonathan O’Brien, Caroline Kim, Anahid Yaljian, Kathleen Luevano, Nick Lee, Mike Donovan, Meliani Bowman-Kamahaio, Rozell Hodges, Connor Nelson, Mike Groener, Chelsey Brack (37).

Senate Members Present: Denise Loera, Ken Smutny, Xochiltl Ramos, Andrew DeBlock, Tilak Gupta, Patrick McCredie, Rob Calderon, Santiago Mendez, Alison Dempsey, Mike Myers

Laura Knuttunen and Jessica Simes opened the meeting at 12:05 PM. Laura and Jessica welcomed everyone to the official student forum. The General Assembly is a place for students to bring up issues and policy change. The General Assembly recognizes that the student body is one of many forums that form the community, and it is a forum for students to work with other students and administrators.

Jessica introduced the Dean of the College, Eric Frank

Housing Services Staff, Kecia Baker and Amanda Atkinson

Facilities Management, Ruben Campos, Bruce Steel, Ron Seymour, John Mortl

RHA representatives, Meagan Colvin and Daniel Landesman

Residence Life & Housing Services, Bobby Rodgers and Connor Nelson (Area Coordinator)

Administration and Finance, Mike Groener

1. Eric Frank, Dean of the College

Eric said he was here as the Academic Liaison to the Accreditation process. The WASC process encourages the institution to identify several themes that are subject to a research program that results in a program/process with a result that the institution identifies to improve itself. He said that the Occidental College administration is currently trying to identify a series of themes. Last year he used to meet with Matt Kuzio and a committee to discuss themes that would be important to Oxy. They ran a whole other series of activities as well with staff, used student surveys, focus groups throughout the spring, and workshops on WASC for the faculty as well. They have identified themes to look at, by process, to discuss and construct a process to implement things discovered. Eric said he was taking today to inform this group here at the GA that the first theme identified by all constituencies is “What should be the nature of a residential college in Los Angeles?" and also “What's distinctive about our position as a college here in LA?” General themes about what it means to be living on campus, what the relationships between your residency at the college to living in LA, the academic experience we have in relationship to that, and then the ways in which living in LA relates to that. Eric said he has no predisposition about where themes will go, but that it will be discovered what the community believes as the best use of Oxy. The second theme is institutional governance – “What can we do to make this structure at Oxy better for everyone?” Through communication, transparency, and trust. We need to fine ways to communicate amongst and between ourselves to build this community and to make it better than we have in the past. The third theme is a required WASC stipulation: to have a component that assesses student learning in some way, and that Oxy has selected the senior-comprehensive exam/experience. He explained that engaging in the WASC process is to result in a full assessment relating to what we want to do here at Oxy and that it gives us reflection and temperance to help us improve our community. He added that students will see these plans being rolled out in the next couple of months.

2. Kecia Baker - Housing and Residential Life

Kecia said that Housing Services are much more than just housing services and that students may see them in a variety of capacities - in a judicial way, if you have a roommate problem, in transitioning to college, might even see them if you have a medical emergency (if at hospital). In their duty response system, always go to hospital if student is there. Residence life and Housing Services have dual purposes. Housing Services are the basic things - beds, rooms, keys, doors, etc. There have been some issues with housing services this semester. Kecia apologized for letting down the students and acknowledged that it was their fault, that they didn't do the absolute best that they could, and that they want feedback to improve their services to provide the best that they can. She talked about Area Coordinators, saying that there are two currently and that they are looking to fill the position of the third AC. Amanda Atkinson is filling the void in lower campus as AC for now. Kecia said that Oxy has wonderful RA's across campus that have stepped up and taken leadership role as well.

Kecia addressed the rumor about the new building not opening up on time saying that it is not true – that the building will open in January, the move will happen in January. She said that soon Housing services will start talking to students about the move, how it will happen, etc. Yesterday met with the architects and designers for when the three older buildings close and renovations take place - color scheme board being put together for carpet, tile samples, etc. They will start off with RHA and then go around to various hall spreads to get feedback from students as design process takes place.

On the issue of triples, Kecia said that they knew last year what the situation would be. They got the opportunity to close three of the halls for renovations, so they had to make do on several things, and had to house all students who wanted housing. She had heard in the past from several students that room draw was this horrible experience that left upperclassmen left without housing, so last year made commitment to give as many students as possible housing, wanted to adhere to that commitment to house everyone. She said that she heard the rumor that students were forced to live in triples at the end of room draw, but wanted to clear up that there were doubles available still, but for example when people wanted to live in Newcomb, it had to be a triple, so they took that and felt "forced." The other issue, needed to spread freshmen out over campus because original plan was that BY would be a FYRH (but it is going to be renovated) so they put the first years in the Haines Annex and Pauley. Kecia said she has heard from students that they were forced to live in triples, so students in Haines were asked about that and said that they had chosen to live in triples but were willing to move into doubles. Some students chose not to move because opportunity was given to them. She added that one thing that they did fall short on was the Norris Orange relocation. During room draw it was completely offline, no students allowed to live there, but because of increase of students wanting to live on campus, they opened up Norris orange. As people canceled housing assignments, they were going to move people into Norris orange. They did their best to respect roommate pairs, tried to move as many people into Norris as possible, but once those rooms filled up, started moving students across campus. They tried to keep whole suites together, etc. She said they failed on communication process on that, but definitely did all that they could do, and she apologized. She said The Women's Center right now is currently the way that it always has been, in the future that building will be closed. the new women's resource center will be in the lower lounge of Stewie. this year is still operating, but this year is a transition year.

3. RHA - Meagan Colvin and Daniel Landesman

Meagan and Daniel explained that RHA is a liaison between residents and administration, and that they continue to facilitate policy development that will benefit students in res halls. They will focus on programming which includes Friday at 5, the Welcome Back Dance, Hall of the Year Event, Winter Formal, etc. They are working with other clubs, other res life sources, etc. and are trying to benefit students. They said that if students had any particular questions to email Daniel Landesman or the RHA email account. They hope to plan events and make things work so students on campus and at Oxy enjoy what they do. They are also trying to find ways for students to work with them to help them do their job better, etc.

4. First Year Mentor Program - Kathleen Luevano, Elizabeth Wytychak

Kathleen and Elizabeth said that they are working to provide first years with an additional service besides RA’s to help them. They want first years to be able to come to them with any personal, individual, or academic issues. There are five of them and they are each assigned to two of the CSP classes. They will get involved with the CSP classes to help design hall screenings of certain movies that the professors want their classes to watch. They are planning on doing one program a month, bi-weekly study breaks, etc. The goal is to build community, help first years take a break, de-stress. The mentors are in contact with the professors of CSP’s. They are also trying to plan a field trip

5. Q and A

Laura and Jessica set down the ground rules for the question and answer session: actively listen, show respect, be aware of speaking space, use "I" statements, speak from experience, aim to be proactive, think progress.

Jackie Keeley asked Housing why it took so long to get keys for people who live on campus, and wanted to know what steps would be taken to make the process shorter. Kecia said that the way to shorten it would be to get card swipes but one thing that posed a problem for them was the express check-out, students dropped keys in a box and it was very time consuming to match keys up (many students didn’t turn in the right keys as well). Also the surplus in triples made it take longer and made things more complicated. She acknowledged that the wait was very long for some people, but that it was a combination of things, including the fact that people didn’t let Housing know right away, people lost their keys and said they never received one, and generally many things slowed down the process. She said that the process is that work orders are put in and answered. She also added that there really is no excuse, she knows that they let the students down, and in the future they will definitely do everything they can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Sara Flocken said she was moved out of Norris Orange and understands that Norris Orange wasn’t supposed to be opened up at all, but then was, and asked why those students were not informed that they could possibly be moved out. She asked why people in the annex were informed before people living in Norris Orange were informed, and wanted to know if there will be better system of being informed. Kecia said that yes, definitely in the future students will be better-informed. This summer many things went wrong – they were short-staffed, had to talk to each and every individual, takes time. Long conversations were had with people over the phone to address problems, issues, etc. Amanda Atkinson added that if you wanted to live in Norris, you should have applied as well.

Isaac Hale, the RHA rep for Braun, said that he was confused why Braun doubles that are forced to be triples are being charged the same amount as Braun triples that are a legitimate size. Isaac said that he feels as if people are not getting what they're paying for, living in tiny rooms. Kecia said that there are five prices set for housing. Triple rooms are charged triple rate, if you have questions about that, maybe start a dialogue in a hall spread.

Will Carlson said some of his friends were told they couldn’t live in the new dorm because no name had been given to the new dorm yet. Kecia said that doesn’t make sense at all, Amanda said that it could possibly be because the new dorm had no name, wasn’t in the new computer system, wanted to get it in the computer so are calling it Rangeview. Before there was just empty space, room numbers couldn’t be picked.

Santiago Mendez asked if Kecia thought the RA's and HC's have enough funding to do the programs they want to do, and Kecia said that they are all more eager to do more programming and are looking at ways to do as much programming as they can. She acknowledged that the RA's could always use more funding because they always want to do more, but said that there will always be an adequate amount of money.

Rozell Hodges asked if next year there will be FYRH and Kecia said that yes, they would be by Braun, Stewie, and Pauley.

Rob Calderon asked about the lack of notification in changes in housing services staff. He asked if there any way to officially announce that staff members are gone, so students don’t feel abandoned, etc. Kecia said that they do send out notices as they hire and as people leave, but with the timing of some things, it kind of slipped through the cracks. She said she knows that students and staff build connection with staff and it matters, are planning on doing better about that. will try to have better welcomes and goodbyes. Bobby Rodgers added that from a legal standpoint, cannot tell students exactly WHY a staff member left, it cannot be disclosed legally. can get into trouble for that.

Jackie Keeley said that people in her dorm (Norris Yellow) are putting in work orders for things about windows, someone put cardboard over their window because rain came through on their bed. She asked when those work orders will be taken care of. Ruben Campos said that prior to students arriving, almost all windows were fit with screens. He asked for the room number because he hasn’t heard of any more complaints or work orders coming through. Jackie said that she didn’t know specifics, but that her friends just said that the response given has been "Oh they will be there within the week". Ruben added that generally they are not able to follow up on every single work order they get, more of a responsibility for the AC's and then taken to facilities. He said that if students have work orders and they’re are not sure what has happened to them, contact them again.

Xochi Ramos asked about the Women's Center switch to the Stewie lounge, saying that she thinks its an invasion of their space because there are many study groups that take place down in the lounge. She asked if it is just going to be locked down, if students cant go down into the lounge still, or what will happen. Kecia said that last February plans to phase it in started taking place. The plan is also to create a space for the Women's Resource Center, and they are not just taking away computer lab, another lab will be created, and upper lounge is still there to meet in and socialize and watch TV. Kecia said that it is a campus-wide initiative, so there will be other opportunities to dialogue about it as well. She also added that about the new building - once its up and running will change the feel of the campus and will change the way things work. Students will definitely be utilizing spaces in the new dorm as well.

Abe Cohen said that last year on April 26th, 2007 GA and Senate passed a resolution asking for a committee to be established to review AC's as grad students, and said he is wondering when they will be able to hear results of committee and if it was even established, because he hasn’t heard anything about the committee. He said that it sounds like there already are plans for Residential Cooridnator's in first-year halls and asked if they could hear about it. Kecia said she meant to say that with the RC they are still looking to explore that. Abe says that people are angry about it. Kecia said that committees will be formed, many departments have advisory councils, RHA came to her saying that that was what they were. many of the issues will be going before RHA. Patrick McCredie, senator, said that he thought it was never implemented - thinks the committee is yet to be established, in all honesty.

Ben Dalgetty asked about the elevators on campus, there are two or three that have inspection labels. Bruce steel said that it is an LA City resource issue, don’t have enough resources to deal with our new paperwork and situations. He said that when students see those elevator inspection notices, it’s that regular maintenance is being done on it, people are coming in to address the issues.

Daniel Landesman asked Kecia if BY repairs will be finished by next year to be a FYRH. Kecia said that the renovations on the three halls will be started in January of 2008 and will be completed by Fall of 2008. She said that facilities is working very hard in a tight time frame to get it done.

Joe Statwick asked if the FYRH's will still be triples, and Kecia said that there still will be triples on campus, but are still looking at which halls will have triples, etc. and that it’s a cost thing. They are looking to have triples, doubles, and singles in each res hall.

Isaac Hale said he noticed in Braun that for awhile there were tons of dressers in the hallways being a fire hazard, and that facilities came and put the dressers back in the rooms with angry notices. He asked why that was so difficult to just remove them. Bruce said that the college has no storage space for extra furniture. Bruce acknowledged that it was a huge fire hazard issue. He said that its better to go into a common area or a lounge so as not to block the hallways. He said that ideally no furniture should come out of the room, that students should let facilities come in kind of in a sweep to take care of that.

Amanda Atkinson said that for a fact there was a message put out to freshmen through email, as an AC knows about this. Literally feedback received from six people saying they had excess furniture. She said that there is a process to it, wants to be clear and fair about the facts: when it was brought to Facilities’ attention that there was an issue with the furniture, there was a process created to facilitate that change, email was sent, opportunity was made. Freshmen need to be aware of the emails they are getting, as well as all students.

Anahid Yaljian wanted to know if housing was going to remain mandatory only for the first year here. Kecia says yes, but that it is a college policy, not a residence life policy. She said she is going to have a meeting soon and will bring up that question, knowing that its on the minds of many students.

Meilani asked if there is something that the students can do to help relay information so that the students know what’s going on. She realizes that staff has their own issues going on, but students could help with that pressure and help relay that information so students stay informed. Kecia said she knows that it starts with RHA, is the advisor for RHA, so each week they have her attention. She recognizes res life's need to step it up, but urges students that as emails are sent out, try not to complain because they are notices for their benefit - not enough info yet, but more information to come. asks students not to complain as much as they do for getting "so many emails". Housing Services could send out 10+ per day, but don’t. They are going to come up with a compromise of information relay. She also urged students to go to hall spreads too to learn of new information.

Marina Nakamura said that she has always lived in dorms with students from every grade, and that it seems like now Oxy is so intent on separating the grades. Kecia said that she thinks a different forum outside of this space is needed for this dialogue, and that there were various focus groups last year that said that they enjoyed the first year res halls. Amanda Atkinson added that colleges around this country have students in FYRH because its classified as a "safer" and "more protected" community/environment to transition into. can aid in retention, etc. After first year, students can live anywhere they want. Statistics show there is a benefit of these students living together. There is something comforting about living altogether.

Abe said that he agrees that there are good reasons for having FYRE, but hasn’t heard of any of these focus groups or other outside forums. He said that its not about the validity of first year res halls, but who do we as students concerned with this policy turn to in regards to concern about the way things are being run right now. If we cant go to res life, he asked who we go to, and Kecia said she wasn’t sure at this point, Amanda said that last year she ran one of the focus groups of first years, so only first years were there. She said that if she were a first year living in a first year community, she wouldn’t openly say she loved it if she does, because so many people are against them. People just get so angry about it.

Jessica had to close the dialogue, but acknowledged that these are important issues, and wants to continue the dialogue, followed by action. She encouraged everyone to email Laura and her at asocga@oxy.edu with questions, concerns, comments, etc.

Meeting adjourned at 1:19 PM.