CONFIDENTIAL
Campus Center Room 204
Thursday, November 9, 2006 7:00pm
Members Present: Meg Ambrus, Jillian Flynn, Molly McCadden, Jan Arbaugh, Adrienne Lee,
Margaret MacRae, Ayesha Siddiqui, Michele Chapdelaine, Devin Burke, Rae-Anne Butera, Mary
Opler, Ali Woodruff, Aliza Leventhal, Shadavia Jones
Members Absent: Kamille King
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Call to Order: Mary
A. Mary called the meeting to order at 7:00pm
Opening Activity – Jan
Minutes – Adrienne/ All
A. Motion to pass minutes from 11-09-06 passed 13-0-0
Committee Updates – All
A. Molly
1. Dean Ohotnicky came, talked about house renovations (new apartments, new
themes), HPs were unhappy
2. Will draft a letter to the Sophian about the importance of not losing tradition
B. Devin
1. OpEd piece in the Sophian about the ORC, and that cabinet is “opaque” (specifically
the Dems)
C. Mary
1. Had a good meeting last time; putting together a new plan with new goals
D. Jan
1. Need receipts from Seven Sisters Leadership Conference dinner
E. Ali
1. 007 theme
F. McKay
1. 27-11 Dec.: Course Critiques
2. Aspects up after break
3. Bookstore raffle if complete at least 3 of the Aspects, publicity the last two weeks of
classes
G. Jill
1. Awesome Wine and Cheese
2. Communication problems among the class (not getting information efficiently), so
will send out an all-class e-mail every week
H. Aliza
1. 20 care package orders so far
2. Hot tub on last day of classes (groups of 8, 30 minutes shifts)
3. Want juniors who stayed or seniors who went abroad
Special Guest: Scott Johnson
A. Discusses Outdoor program and Strategic planning
1. When first started outdoors program, came out of first-year students’ attrition rates,
looked at quality of life
2. Idea came about to offer a outdoor trips throughout the year
3. Climbing wall, boathouse, trainings with students
4. Very much a student life program, even though operating out of athletics program;
meet other students and go out and have fun, meet students from other houses
5. Offer a lot of different off-campus trips, try to fill in other needs that other programs
don’t cover
6. All of trips have huge wait lists => big demand
a. Many colleges come to Smith for the outdoors program
7. At least 1,000 different people participate throughout the year in this program
8. No assistance hired; all student leaders; been able to do a lot with what they have, but
there’s a lot more they can do
9. Strategic planning: hire professional assistant, and to do leadership trainings
10. Have all the space they need on campus
11. Gear check-out, and 5-College connections, and outside (Williams, Dartmouth)
12. Try to improve quality of life for students right when they arrive at Smith (but of
course it’s not for everyone)
13. Pushing for creation of a back-country retreat
14. Outing Club – used to have to try out for it; Smith owns ~200 acres 10 minutes from
campus, can be used for camping, retreats
15. Within the science conservation proposal
16. Important that if students feel strongly about this, let people know, because it’s for
the students
17. Students can get a voice in via student government
18. Created the Outdoors Program at Smith after they blew half the money, and then
built
19. Went to school for recreation; environmental sciences, forestry, resource
management (science field) => recreation, and taught before coming to Smith
20. Try to accommodate multiple use
B. Outdoors Pre-Orientation Program
1. Most of the people that go through end up staying in touch with each other
2. Low attrition rate
3. Bond more easily, facilitates strong friendships
4. Rae-Anne: put in a proposal to try to get every student to participate in pre-o
programs (right now: ~½), and include transfer students and Adas
5. Goal: increase the level of involvement of leaders, including planning of trips
6. Oldest, longest-running pre-o Smith currently has, with Bridge and ISP
C. What can cabinet do to help?
1. New programs are great, but we should make sure we are maxing out the programs
we currently have
2. Boathouse: make it an outdoor center/place to hang out, but just to rent boats
3. Graduate program: someone to work with him, more help so that
4. Enable students to create their own trips
5. Outdoor program doesn’t have to be school-sponsored
6. More students involved, in active leadership roles; but need more help, staffing
7. Wilderness program originally came from Dean Mahoney’s office, now permanent
under athletics
8. Wellness, being active, learning life skills
9. Almost everything Smith offers is competitive; very few intramurals compared to
other schools
10. Non-competitive, recreational, athletic, healthy, social; relieve stress
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11. Only takes a small amount of resources to make it bigger because it already exists
12. Sister house trips?
13. Resources: vehicles that people struggle to obtain
14. Best to take 10-20 people on trips (large groups are not so good)
15. Victoria Murden McClure (trustee) went on camping trip two years ago
VII. College Updates
A. Reactions to Georgia’s thoughts as part of updates
1. Margaret: good suggestions regarding the bylaws
2. Ayesha: would like to learn more about it
3. Michele: make consitutions really specific, and bylaws voted on by cabinet and
Senate only
4. Devin: silly that only bylaws explain how we function (ORC has guidelines); change
them so that they’re less like constitution
B. Constitutional reviews
1. E-mail, and work on it the first cabinet meeting back after J-term
C. Party Policy updates
1. Not much
D. Fireside Chat Topic for Dec. 7th, 4:15-5pm in the Goldstein Lounge
1. Topic: Bar/Hub; can everyone go to the pub, or only those over 21?
2. Dining Services in charge – trial pub nights next semester, then maybe every other
week or a Saturday night, if that’s successful then Thursday/Friday/Saturday nights
3. Dean Ohotnicky, Dean Mahoney, President Christ, and Rae-Anne are onboard
4. Topic that is Smith-controversial: women’s roles after graduation (family vs.
workplace) – Briefcase or diaper bag, or both?
E. Rally Day discussion
1. No skits or banner-making this year
2. Alternative: event in the CC (game night), midnight madness, inflatable bouncy
house
3. Funding: it may happen the following year when it’s included in the budget
F. Strategic Planning updates
1. Released beginning of next year
2. Three major centers: social responsibility and the world (international study), social
justice and engagement in society, environment, sustainability, and justice
3. Students could be fellows and have projects, similar to the Kahn project
4. Advising system – no core requirements, but more structured plan for four years
a. Everyone strongly encouraged to take first-year seminar
b. Professor will be first-year adviser
c. Sophomore year – change to your major advisor; formal moment when you’re
supposed to reflect (adviser takes you out to dinner, write a reflection essay)
d. Junior year – seminar, to prepare for senior-level coursework (to keep people on
campus, and for people writing theses, research methods, different methods of
investigation, coming up with a topic, or a capstone project in lieu of a thesis)
e. Change special studies to independent research project
G. Cabinet secret snowflakes
1. Week before last cabinet meeting
VIII. Seven Sisters debrief
A. What we want to pursue as a result of discussions at the conference
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IX.
X.
1. A happy day (like Mt. Holyoke’s “Beat the Blues”) in March or April (a Smith spirit
day)
2. Wellesley’s “Favorite failure” – celebrate a failure that led to a success
3. Other schools were impressed with Float Night and that people attend it
4. Smith Athletics is cemented, unlike other schools
5. Integrate cafés into meal plan
6. Convenience store (because not in their local area)
Closing Announcements
A. Molly is doing the opening activity next week
Motion to Adjourn
1. Meg motioned to adjourn at 8:59pm
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