The Scripps Voice

By Mikayla Raymond ‘15
SAS Media Relations Chair

Hello Scripps Voice Readers! My name is Mikayla Raymond and I am this year’s SAS Media Relations Chair! It is my job to keep you all up to speed with what’s going on in SAS so that we can all participate and be aware of what’s going on in our community.

SAS training began a week before classes started, and during our numerous meetings with both the executive and programming branches, as well as Dean Lee and President Bettison-Varga, we were able to discuss (and occasionally argue about) our goals for the start of the semester and how best to implement these goals. One of our biggest goals is to increase our visibility on campus. The largest aspect of this change will be an overhaul of the SAS website. Over the summer, we began designing a more attractive, useful, and better organized website to help both SAS and the student body communicate, participate, and advertise events as well as to make necessary information for CLORGS and student leaders more readily available. The site still has a very long way to go, but we have made a lot of progress and expect to have things running soon. In conjunction, I am leading a WordPress tutorial for SAS officers so that the entire SAS team can upload important information online for your viewing pleasure. In the same publicity vein, we are currently working hard to create an enticing logo for use on the SAS Website, flyers for SAS events, and t-shirts. We are also working on building our Facebook presence so that students can engage with us easily. We are confident that these changes will begin to create a closer connection between students and SAS and help inform students about what we are currently doing on campus.

Another goal is to create a set of policies for the Student Union. We want to make the space as useful for Scripps Students as possible and are currently working out procedures for reserving the conference rooms. We also want CLORGs to have the option to reserve the entire Student Union space for community events.

Additionally, we are in the process of revamping the Hall Council system. We are reevaluating the existing structure and plan to make significant changes to create a more substantial role for these representatives on our campus and within SAS. The current structure of Hall Council is not facilitating the need for more student representation on SAS and more collaboration between SAS and Residential Life, Peer Mentors, Hall Directors, and RAs.

If you have been using your dorm kitchen, you likely noticed some new additions! Thanks to a generous gift from last year’s SAS, every dorm kitchen is now fully stocked and ready for you to use. These lovely tools include: toasters, hand mixers, vegetable peelers, can openers, pots and pans of all sizes, silverware, strainers, knives, and more. No more running over to GJW for a cupcake tin and then back to Dorsey for a spatula! Until next time, keep yourself informed by liking our Facebook page, and by looking out for signs about Hall Council and First-Year Rep elections! You can visit the SAS Facebook page here.

By Oriana LaVilla ‘14
Features Editor

Attending open houses, averaging assignment numbers, scrutinizing hall charts, and that moment of panick when you realize all of your top five room choices have already been taken may soon be sensations of the past. This week’s Be Heard Forum asked students to critically consider our current hall draw process and propose new ideas for a smoother, more enjoyable, and stress-free process. Most students who were at the forum were not avid supporters of the current process. A few issues that students felt strongly about included open house efficiency, rules for friends wanting to combine their numbers to share a room or suite, and the final moment of decision-making in Balch auditorium.

Open House
Problem

Scripps students gather on the Motley stage to discuss the rules and ramifications of this year's Hall Draw.

Open houses can be beneficial to students on some level, but it is difficult for students to be efficient in their room search when every room is slightly different and many current residents are not available to keep their doors open. One student may look at 5 rooms in a specific dorm but come time of hall draw those five rooms are taken and that student has no idea what other rooms in that dorm are like. Running around to all the different open houses can potentially waste a lot of time.

Solution: In addition to having open houses a small committee could create a hall directory for each hall. These directories would detail the perks of each room. For example, Room 100 has a sink, a balcony, and a walk in closet. This would allow students looking for certain “room perks” to see which rooms had what amenities without having to knock on every residents door.

Rules for Students Drawing Singles Together
Problem: The current process requires groups of students wanting to draw at the same time in order to live in single rooms near each other use the lowest of the members’ numbers in a group when drawing.

Solution: Why not let students average their numbers? This would allow them to take advantage of group members’ higher numbers while still keeping things fair.

Final Decision Time
Problem: Students only have a few minutes to look over the hall charts laid out in the Balch conference room, only to realize all of their top five room choices have already been drawn into creates a stressful situations when they are given one minute in the auditorium to draw into another room.

Solution: Create hall charts online, similar to registration, that are updated to show which rooms have been drawn into and which are still available. With this feature, students can check online ahead of time and will be able to re-think their choices without feeling stressed out come draw time.

October’s BeHeard forum, held Oct. 27 at the Motley, focused on fostering community, improving dorm life and the creation of a student union. Scripps’ Associated Students (SAS) began discussion with the idea of a first-year only dorm. Reactions to this idea were mixed. Some students said they would like to be completely surrounded by other first-years, which could help build class unity. Others felt that a first-year dorm could become cliquish, or they had positive relationships with upper class women in their dorms as first-years. The dorms’ living rooms were also a topic of discussion. These rooms are used as quiet study spaces or places for group meetings. However, Scripps already has browsing rooms set aside as quiet study spaces, and living and recreation rooms are infrequently used as places for all dorm residents to socialize. As a way to open up living rooms so more people can use them, SAS plans to purchase more couches to fill the living rooms. As the evening progressed, students began to warm up, and ideas and opinions flowed.

One of the biggest concerns voiced at the forum was the sense of community at Scripps. As Beth Olesen (’10) put it, “every year, we are always concerned about a lack of community.” In the past, neither SAS nor the student body has been able to initiate a lasting and satisfactory solution to this percieved lack of community.

The idea of organizing dorms around a common theme or interest was presented as a way to build community. Many students, however, raised questions on how dorms were to be organized. Suggestions included substance-free, quiet study and loud dorms, or dorms organized by major and extracurricular interests. However, some students said they do not want to give up neighbors with diverse interests for a community based on such specific ones. Others expressed fear that a certain interest or community may be assigned to a dorm they do not wish to live in. “Students don’t have to sacrifice dorm choice for community,” Simrat Dugal (’10) said, “but they may have to sacrifice room choice.” Discussion also centered around the idea that students shouldn’t separate themselves into the more desirable single rooms; instead, living in groups of doubles in the same hall could foster a sense of community, as friends would be more likely to keep their doors open. Hannah Pickar (’11) also suggested that large groups of friends be able to draw into the same hall.

The creation of a student union is also in the works, but SAS is still searching for a location. Part of Denison’s basement, the offices in Vita Nova Hall and SARLO are all projected places for a space for students. SAS will send out surveys about these projected changes on campus before taking substantive action. The next BeHeard forum takes place Dec. 1 and will focus on enviromental issues at Scripps.

At SAS’s first BeHeard Forum last month, we introduced ourselves and presented our budget for this academic year. We also opened up the discussion to talk about any pressing student concerns or needs. The first thing that came up was housing and community, or lack thereof. These issues are always the first to be raised every year so we want to focus an entire BeHeard forum on Housing and Student Space. Come and discuss any of your housing issues, what you think should change and what should remain the same.

SAS has come to the consensus that Scripps is in need of a Student Union. We feel that a Student Union would foster greater community, encourage students to get out of their dorms in a centralized location and provide a space on campus for students to control.

SAS will be presenting a proposal for a Student Union to the Board of Trustees and we need YOUR input now to help figure out our dream student space. We have a lot of questions to answer before we can begin to write this proposal, and we need your help. What would the function/mission of the student union be? What should it to look like? Should it be primarily a study space or should it be more of a lounge? Should we have computers, tables, couches, dry erase boards, TVs, conference tables, etc.? What hours should it stay open? Where would we like it to be located and when would it be possible to open? Whose responsibility will it be? Would the living rooms, SARLO or browsing rooms work for our purpose? Why? Do we even need a space?

Please come to the next BeHeard Forum on Oct. 27 at 9 p.m. to share your ideas, comment on others and, as usual, receive a delicious Motley drink on SAS.

The first SAS BeHeard forum of the year took place on Sept. 28. Meeting at the Motley at 9 p.m., SAS co-Treasurers India Mullady (‘11) and Guadalupe de la Cruz (‘11) began by introducing SAS’s funding budget for the 2009-2010 school year. Mullady and de la Cruz reported that SAS’s budget had been cut by 6 percent. The percentage of funding set aside for each club or organization has remained the same, but the number of Scripps Clubs and Organizations has almost doubled since last year.

This increase in number of CLORGs has resulted in less funding for each one. In spite of the budget cut, SAS’s focus remains in providing quality programs and events to the 5C community—such as the Sept. 22 “I (Heart) Female Orgasm” event—while also sponsoring fun events that are low-budget. Upcoming events discussed at the forum include the SAS Book Club, to be led by a different professor every month, and the 5C Music Fest, to be held Oct. 24 at CMC.

The discussion at this month’s BeHeard forum focused around community at Scripps and SAS’s theme for this year: “What is a Scripps Student?” SAS president Anna Salem (‘10) mediated discussion on dorm community and better ways to foster a Scripps community. There has been talk of a substance-free dorm and all first-year dorms, as well as the possibility for groups of friends to move in to groups of singles in certain halls. Many students feel that an open-door community should be cultivated starting the first year at Scripps.

Because Scripps is currently in a state of flux with a new president, Salem said that now is a critical time for students to effect change and influence the direction of the school. Beth Olesen (‘10) called for more students to join her on the Strategic Planning Committee and voice student opinions on the direction of the college. A new dorm is in the works, and students have the opportunity to provide input, as well as to influence what kinds of spaces will be available to students, such as a student union or a lounge similar to Harvey Mudd’s Platt Center.

Concerns about feelings of alienation among students who have interests and majors that are not necessarily represented by the Scripps website or magazine were also voiced. About half of the Joint Science students are from Scripps, and there are more math majors in the class of 2010 than French majors. Despite the portrait that official publications paint, Scripps’ identity is not defined by the humanities. Some science majors feel they are celebrated
only when it serves the purpose of the College. Maria Luca (’10), a science major, opined that theses due on different days for different majors decreases the sense of community, celebration and accomplishment of a finished thesis as a class.

Next month’s BeHeard forum will take place on Oct. 27 at 9 p.m. at the Motley.