Attendance:
Paul Wang
Anyi Sun
Brandon Lozano Garay
Danielle Lancaster
Sachin Maharaj
Chase Lenk
Kaya Patel
Niña Ramores
Eisa Rafat
John Donoghue
Mundo Ortiz Alvarez
Harper Stevenson
Alejandro Ramos
Camila Eljuri
Nyla Danzy
Elliott Ewell
Cash Reynolds
Timmy Ignacio
Eva Sola-Sole
Ollie Tannahil
Sadie New
Abigail Martin
Melissa Su
Ugne Stasiukynaite
Eman Okyere
Alex Kruse
Liliana Restrepo
Call to Order
Introduction: Sara Binkhorst, Director of Student Leadership Development
- Sara Binkhorst is the newly appointed Director of Student Leadership
- Graduated from Bowdoin in 2015
- Her office is in Ladd
- Paul: Planning a BSG retreat at the beginning of the spring semester and would like to have her join
Guest: Professor Jeffrey Selinger, GFA
- BSG presentation of preliminary data
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- Over 850 responses to survey received support
- Nearly unanimous support for week-long Thanksgiving break
- FGLI students heavily represented
- Many students expressed desire for college-sponsored programming should there be a longer Thanksgiving break
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- Overview of next steps
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- GFA (Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs) structures the agenda for faculty meetings
- Represent the faculty in interactions with Academic Affairs, the President, and the Trustees, although not a governing source
- One of 3 elected committees
- As it relates to the matter of possibly extending Thanksgiving break, President Zaki wanted to hear from the faculty, but this is not a binding matter
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- Q&A from assembly
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- Cash: What is the faculty’s preliminary stance on this matter as of now?
- Prof. Selinger: Although public isn’t surveyed before official vote on Dec. 1st, there is a surprising amount of skepticism regarding an extension to the break that will be effectively addressed by BSG’s data
- In particular, has concern about international and low income students – open to different approaches based on how student body and faculty feels
- Paul: How to ensure discussions among faculty have represented voices; there seems to be a power dynamic present during these meetings?
- Prof. Selinger: Speaking up might put job at risk; never took a position at opposition with dean before tenure
- Eman: How many votes to pass?
- Prof. Selinger: Simple majority, but this is informal
- Paul: How will you capture all voices at the Dec 1st meeting?
- Prof. Selinger: You can’t. Some adaptations were made: shifted timing so faculty is less likely to have to pick up kids/be home at that time; anonymous voting
- Alex: Extending Thanksgiving break has been an initiative in the past. What has been a hindrance in these instances?
- Prof. Selinger: Uncertainty; concern for certain student groups; carbon footprint; academic threshold of instructional days per semester
- Paul: Using carbon footprint as a reason doesn’t seem fair. Environmental impact will be negligible; students just want mental and physical break to see their families
- Harper: Would be nice to be able to share these student sentiments with faculty
- Eisa: Has there been a conversation around the different possible modifications to the academic calendar and which may be preferable?
- There are 5 possible options as of now
- Camila: With the current Thanksgiving break model, how do faculty view the utility of the Monday and Tuesday before break?
- Prof. Selinger: Most want them to be used as instructional days
- Eman: Anything else you need?
- Prof. Selinger: Want to hear takeaways – numbers on their own speak for themselves
- Cash: What is the faculty’s preliminary stance on this matter as of now?
Committee Meetings
- Assembly members broke off into committees to reflect on the conversation with Prof. Selinger and then reconvened as a whole group
- Paul: Have heard that President Zaki will vote in accordance with the faculty no matter what; about 100 fewer faculty members choose to attend this meeting, which may be concerning given there are 250 faculty; recommends sending out individually-addressed emails to every faculty member as a way to get them to attend
- Eisa: Reiterated that we can divide the work to accomplish goal of reaching every faculty members
- Harper: If GFA doesn’t want a student to present information at the meeting, we can at least ask Dean Lohmann to
Adjournment