SGA yeah!

Well, here it is, folks: the last SGA meeting of the year feat. the one, the only DSpar. It’s been a pleasure bringing you the news this year, and I sincerely hope I’ve been informative re: Barnard lyfe. After a year of going to the meetings, I can vouch that SGA does good stuff, and with that, Barnard Bearoness Lauren Beltrone is out.

Yeah, you heard right. DSpar was Monday night’s administrative guest, and yeah, she said she has the flu. Since she didn’t have any fireside chat-y speech prepared for us, we were lucky enough to get 40 minutes of uninterrupted Q&A with DSpar. Before the Q&A started, though, DSpar did a little summary of what’s going on right now in the administrative sphere. The big focus is gearing up for the end of year: commencement, summer programs, the whole shebang. We’re also working closely with the architecture firm designing the Living and Learning Center to move the process along as quickly as possible. Check out the firm’s website if you’re not already ecstatic about this building. According to DSpar, we’ve got enough beds for students to sleep on, but not enough classrooms for us to learn in, hence the LLC. It goes without saying that DSpar also mentioned the large amount of students matriculating to Barnard (and how we plan to house them…). In brief, we don’t really know, but it’s going to be okay.

One of the first questions was about what DSpar wants for the future, not as the president of our college, but “as a human being” (gettin’ philosophical on a Monday night). DSpar’s response boiled down to this: making sure that Barnard is on the radar screen of every smart 16-year old girl around the world. Sounds good to me. When asked about how Barnard will attract more students of color, DSpar cited the Barnard Bound program as a solid first step. She’s also working towards dispelling the misconception that applying ED isn’t something students who are lower on the socioeconomic scale have the option of doing.

DSpar emphasized that our biggest problem in terms of developing the college is space. She says it loud and clear: “We’re not in Vermont or St. Louis.” In terms of restructuring our traditions, look forward to a lot of snazzy 125th anniversary events next year (including a founder’s day celebration). We’re also going to make convocation open to all students, just in case going once wasn’t enough for you!

All in all, regardless of how cynical everyone was at the beginning of the meeting, the Q&A sesh got all of us pretty pumped about Barnard’s future. The meeting ended with the ceremonial handing off of binders from this year’s reps to the newbies. Binders full of (legislative advice from) beautiful, bold, Barnard women.