Attendance: Michaela, Quinn, Sophie, Hannah (referred to as Han), Luna, Lia, Sydney, Sadie, Caroline, David, Griffin, Henry, Jerry, Maya, Natalie, Nicole, Nisha, Phoebe, Mateo
Han: Hi all! Good to see you!
Michaela: Agenda is in the chat, let’s get started. Thank you all for coming out- very busy time rn, we won’t be meeting again until march!!! February is too fast. First things first: HUGE shoutout to Mateo and Henry for Euchre last night!! Fantastic event. A couple last minute events this week! An additional first-year drop in housing session on Friday at 1PM. If there is anyone who is interested in joining, join the zoom.
Quinn: The Zoom link will be in our Teams, feel free to join.
Michaela: Message from Rachel Mery: hoping to organize a hockey/skating event this weekend once she figures some stuff out. She’ll send an email. And Milk & Cookies!
Quinn: Milk & Cookies!! Game plan: put out a form that people can fill out to get some cookies. They can fill it out and pick a time to come and pick up a cookie and say hello! This is probably going to be based off-campus??? Not totally sure when, but I think it would be good.
Michaela: Do people think off-campus is a good idea or is on-campus prime?
Jess: I think on-campus might be good?
Quinn: only pro for off-campus is that anyone can come whenever?
Jerry: Delivery?
Quinn: I think a hybrid option would be a good idea. Does that sound good to people? Who can bake?
Han: Everyone might pick delivery which might be problematic for the time commitment. But Tinson, Hannah, Sydney, Sadie have offered to help bake.
Quinn: I will look at my calendar and this will happen before reading week. Method of obtaining will be solved.
Michaela: Okayyyy this is all pre-reading week stuff. Done. Maya senate update?
Maya: Senate meeting was yesterday. Here’s what happened.
COVID updates: university is offering free level III masks in the libraries. Also, in terms of free rapid tests, this is probably not something the university will provide. Grocery stores and pharmacies are starting to give out free rapid tests more often when they have stock. Someone also raised the issue of mask mandates not being followed especially because of omicron. University offered that they would continue to monitor the situation but don’t really have a solution.
Other things: got some new diplomas, got rid of some certificates. Previously noted a change in the diversity policy, the change was somewhat large and removed freedom of expression changed to academic freedom and whoever changed it didn’t tell anyone. That wasn’t great. People got mad. Rightfully so. The change will be resolved.
University is also pushing a new sustainability plan that will be fully implemented by 2026. Suggested that they speak with the indigenous studies department on improvement to that plan.
Han: Okay thank you!! As you all know, we started the WW selection committee stuff a bit ago. We’ve been working on making the WW planner position paid, through arts and science. This seems like a good idea, a good opportunity for people who otherwise feel like they don’t have the financial resources to volunteer that much time. 2 planners would be paid for spring, summer, and fall, varying hours.
Nicole: I think it’s a good idea to have it as a paid position because it takes so much time. The only other faculty that does this is commerce. But I am very pro-this idea.
Michaela: This is a pilot program launched by the main WW organizer, different faculties will take on different strategies. We decided to have 2 planners getting payed less than 1 head planner just because this way there’s less fear of animosity and unpaid reps taking on huge roles.
Jerry: How does this affect the governance of SASS? And how does this impact the hiring process?
Han: While this allows us to work more closely with Admin, we will still have a selection committee but Shelley will sit in on it as well because they will be reporting to her. We will be making the final selection decision though. Planners will still have a voting position on SASS… I think.
Lia: You could also offer the opportunity to have one or two planners, this way people don’t feel pressured to find a partner if they don’t want to. They should be able to apply individually. Payment is probably a good idea. There will always be a bit of an awkward power dynamic between the payed and unpaid positions but hopefully the rep volunteers will be there out of sheer excitement.
Han: They will have the opportunity to apply individually but we’ll encourage them to apply in teams so the bond between the planners is good. If we selected individuals, they would be paired up.
Nicole: I think we should definitely do 2 planners and not 1 because otherwise we’ll inevitably have some unpaid harder working reps and there might be some animosity.
Michaela: We are only planning on paying planners for the planning process, not the actual welcome week events (besides a few hours each day for meetings and set up stuff), thus the planners will also be volunteering a bit during the actual welcome week, just like reps.
Sydney: It’s also just not realistic for 1 planner, it’s a lot of work. If we did 1 planner, we would need to encourage them to not toss work off onto the reps.
Han: I think we’re definitely going to do 2. We would pair people up if we hire 2 individuals. We won’t create the barrier of pairs-only applying but we will strongly encourage it.
Quinn: I think that in this paid position, it would make a lot of sense that there are separate roles for reps and planners. Reps are meant to come to campus and facilitate the entire days but not plan anything. Planners are meant to plan and organize. This year was a bit messier just beacsue of covid and experience with campus. When we do pick planners, we should sit down with them and tell them the job expectations of planners versus reps.
Sydney: Yeah. The reps should not be committed to working the whole summer but planners are. Could be helpful to have a volunteer to work under the planners and shadowing for the opportunity to eventually become planners.
Michaela: Yeah we used to have 4 exec volunteer rep positions (media, air bands, etc)
Quinn: I also think that if we selected 2 individuals, they would have been strong applicants already.
Michaela: We can talk about this further as the selection committee. But do we think this is a good idea?
[everyone does]
Han: Current guidelines: come feb 21, we can have 50% capacity indoor events. 100% outdoors I think.
Maya: Did they post regulations around events that include eating/food?
Michaela: Student website has posted the bare minimum. In classes, a brief lowering of mask is allowed for a snack bite or water.
Han: Let’s hammer out plans for the month of march.
Michaela: We have so many events that can happen. Let’s use that word doc sophie so kindly made. Here’s our plans: Formal, Artshow, Fac vs Student trivia, BBQ, General meeting, Musical, Let’s pick some DAYS!!!!!! March 31 IS formal, Jerry thank you, we cannot wait. March 23 is the Art Show.
[Sophie types furiously on the calendar… you’ll see it soon. Sorry!]
Han: Let’s end this meeting early!!! Great work everyone!!!