Maya Edwards (BC ’17) discusses winter housing policies of Seven Sisters and other NYC schools.

These updates to the goings-ons of Barnard’s SGA is brought to you by Barnard Bearoness Raji Ganapathy. Whereas SGA sometimes does much and sometimes does little, we will always have consistent coverage of it.

In stark contrast from last week, SGA’s meeting last night was jam-packed with things you’d probably want to know! This week we kicked things off with a presentation regarding winter housing from SGA President Shivani Vikuntam BC ‘16 and Representative for Campus Affairs Maya Edwards BC ‘17. Edwards started off the presentation by stating that in a meeting held with Dean Avis Hinkson earlier that day, Hinkson confirmed that the Barnard res halls would be closed over winter break. In the last few years, Barnard has been closing dorms and limiting student access to dorms over winter break, citing a lack of financial resources. Hinkson mentioned that she would be open to discussion on students coming back to campus earlier or amendments to the application process currently in place.

Edwards and Vikuntam went on to compare the winter housing policies of peer institutions such as Wellesley, Smith, Williams, and Middlebury. An appraisal of these policies showed a range, from Swarthmore and Davidson’s complete closure of res halls to The New School and Columbia’s much more generous policies, which essentially allow students to come and go as they please.

SGA members voiced ideas for what to include in the winter housing policy proposal. One of the first issues mentioned was transparency. Whereas other schools had a clearly delineated policy on their websites that confirmed who would be eligible for winter accommodations, Barnard’s policy is decidedly more obscure. Another consideration discussed was the employment of staff over the holidays. Several accounts from members of the SGA of conversations held with staff members confirmed that they would prefer to work over the holidays. Going without income for the several vacation days in December makes it hard for staff members to support their families through the holidays. Simplification and increased accessibility of the application process was also called for.

Moving away the discussion on winter housing, which will be continued in future weeks, VP Policy Michelle Depardieu proposed an official statement for SGA support of fossil fuel divestment. The official statement, unanimously voted in at the meeting, is as follows:

“As a council elected in representation of the Barnard College student community, SGA recently conducted a referendum to gather popular opinion on fossil fuel divestment. The results of this referendum show that for the 23.82% of the student body who voted, 95.92% voted in favor of fossil fuel divestment. Because of this overwhelming majority, SGA supports fossil fuel divestment and encourages Barnard College to take swift and responsible action to remove all investments in fossil fuel companies from its endowment.”

Our last topic of discussion for the day was elections. SGA President Shivani Vikuntam and Senior Rep to the Board of Trustees Alejandra Figueroa presented a proposal for an amendment to the SGA constitution in order to include provisions for the CEB (remember them from a few weeks ago?). The amendment included disbanding of the two-member SGA Elections Commission (currently consisting of Vikuntam and Figueroa) and including provisions for the CEB to oversee SGA’s general election. The Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees was also designated as an intermediary between the CEB and SGA. Concerns voiced by SGA members regarding the amendment included Barnard representation on the CEB. Proposed revisions included appointing a Barnard chair to the CEB and provisions for the CEB to include at least one Barnard student.

External updates from yesterday include:

• First Year Formal is this Friday in Low Library. Buy your ticket now to hang out with fellow first years, dance, and eat from a chocolate fountain.
• Nominate fellow students, departments, administrators, and staff members for an SGA leadership award by Wednesday, March 2nd at 11:59PM.
• Come out to support Barnard women in athletics on Spirit Night, next Sunday at 3pm at the women’s basketball game against Penn.