IHC Minutes for Meeting with Administrators: April 27, 2005
meeting called to order in Parsons-Gates
absent: Brandi Cossairt;
also present: Margo Marshak, Stan Borodinsky, Karen Greenwalt, Cathy Jurca, Tim Chang,
Warner Leedy, Eddie Truong-Cao, Dan O'Hanlon (for Brandi)
- Discussion of Mural Policy
- Margo reports that two trustees reported yesterday that they
were very upset over the state of the houses. They were not satisfied
with the actions taken so far to clean up the walls of houses.
- Dan asks for clarification as to whether the trustees were upset
over the presence of anything on the wall, or only of "graffiti" or of
"writing on the walls".
- Karen mentions that the trustees are also concerned about liability
with respect to sexual harassment.
- Margo reports that she received an e-mail from an undergrad who
wished to remain anonymous saying that he and his friends were
offended by what was on the walls in the houses, and that they
supported the recent painting over of offensive words/images in the
houses.
- Peter introduces the draft mural policy he put together. There are
some small comments and questions.
- There is discussion over what level of painting on the walls would
be acceptable -- e.g. only paintings versus paintings and
poetry versus anything at all on the walls.
- There is debate over the role of the Stewardship Committee. More
discussion is needed later to figure this out.
- Avery picks discussion.
- Twenty-five spots in Avery are reserved for the unaffiliated
lottery. Some students in Avery were recommending that Avery members
with high unaffiliated picks skip the internal Avery lottery and then
pick into Avery through the unaffiliated lottery, so that the total
number of Avery members living in Avery is increased.
- It is agreed that it is acceptable for an Avery member to drop out of the
Avery picks and eventually pick into Avery, as long as their goal is
not solely to increase the number of Avery residents in Avery. (That
is, something like trying to get a single in Avery instead of a double
because one's unaffiliated pick is even better than ones Avery pick is
acceptable.)
- There is some disagreement over whether or not the above behavior is
acceptable. It is tied to disagreement over the role of Avery and the
number of extra spots needed to be held in Avery for non-members.
- Activity Fees -- Stan describes a simpler version of the plan he discussed
previously with the IHC. Students with at least one affiliation with one
of the seven houses will pay dues as normal, except that the first $35 of
any such dues are subsidized by the new activity fee. Students who are
only Avery members will count as being unaffiliated for the purposes
of billing, and left over money in the student activity fee fund will
be distributed for Avery and off-campus events (or into Avery's
budget). Housing and student life will continue to largely pay for
Avery and off-campus events.