VSA Updates – January 25, 2022 – The Miscellany News

VSA Updates

This meeting was held on Zoom on Jan. 25, 2022.

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Residential Affairs:

The chair stated that any students interested in working on House Team alongside them should reach out to them.

Health and Wellness:

The chair noted possible RISE events centered on group dynamics. The chair also noted that some people still need to pick up their first aid kits from the VSA office. The Committee of Health and Wellness will also resume their newsletter.

Organizations :

The committee did not meet this week. They plan to have future meetings regarding organizations not registering events. They are also working on recertifying full organizations and organizing the organizations’ closet.

Academics:

The Committee on Curricular Policies (CCP) met. There were discussions on what is going to happen with course
evaluations. The Community-Engaged Intensives in the Humanities (CEIH) Committee will also meet with the Academics committee in the future.

Finance:

Finance is almost done with virtual training for treasurers. The committee noted that evaluation of applications will be limited to new treasurers, and will be organized once people come back on campus.
The committee also provided funding for First-Year Programming.

Programming and Traditions:

Munchie Mondays and Tasty Tuesdays began this week.
The chair spoke to administration about Founder’s Day and will be discussing more with the committee, as well as the chairs of Founder’s Day, which have been decided.

Operations:

Laundry has gone up 10 cents. According to Operations, the College forgot that laundry was supposed to go up 10 cents due to a contract with the provider.
Joint meetings for committees will begin for the first time this week. By the end of the meeting, committees will need to have schedules figured out for joint meetings.

VSA President:

A Board of Trustees meeting will be held next month. A VSA report is in the works. The president wants to adopt something in legislation that allows agendas to be set by the day before or something and not updated last minute.
VSA is in talks to implement Land Acknowledgement. Senate meetings will likely be in-person again starting next week.

COMMITTEE CHAIR UPDATES

First-Year Programs:

The committee collaborated with First Year Experience (FYE) and will be hosting a viewing of Encanto on Feb. 4.

Environmental Action:

The committee is working on implementing sustainability peer educators by next week. They are also meeting with Dining administrators to go over the usage of reusable, environmentally-friendly containers.

Communications:

Athletes

Student Labor:

Since their Operational Division representative went abroad, the committee will be putting out an application to fill this spot and for the College Divisional representative. They are also working on a pamphlet for student employees that answers commonly asked questions.

Community Affairs:

SENATOR UPDATES

Class of 2025:

Students raised concerns about the 10-cent increase in laundry prices. Other students also raised concerns about the CARES Act payments, saying that the payments were not what they had expected.
After hearing the Class of 2025 Senator’s statement in the meeting, the VSA President stated that they had sent an email to Dean of the Office of Student Growth & Engagement Wendy Maragh Taylor regarding the act. The VSA President was informed that Dean Taylor will let the VSA know if there are any more opportunities for funding in the future.

Class of 2024:

Members of 2024 made a petition against the administration. What the petition pertained to was not mentioned during the meeting. According to the Senators, most items on the petition were met.

Class of 2023:

The Constituents Dinner was cancelled. The committee is currently searching for the fourth Senator of 2023.

Class of 2022:

The committee is working on a bylaws amendment. They are working with Metcalf and the reform package discussed from last semester.