Harvard Undergraduate Council
General Meeting: October 16th, 2016
Agenda
______
1. Presidential Updates (5 mins)
2. Treasurer & Secretary Updates
3. Committee Updates
4. Legislation:
a. 35F-13: Proposed Bylaws Change: Caucuses
b. 35F-14: Fall Grants Pack 4
c. 35F-15: School-wide Study Break
5. Questions + Comments
President and Vice-President’s Updates
1. HUDS Strike
2. Town Hall on Single Gender Groups
3. Congrats to our new Social Chairs!
Treasurer Updates
1. OH Tuesday 9-10 lowell dhall
2. Someone watch Halloweentown with me - <--I’ll be there - love yaz
Secretary Updates
1. Maddy and I are not the same person (jk we are)
Committee Updates
EdCom – Scott Ely, Adams ’18, Chair
Meeting Time: Tuesday, 9 pm, Quincy Stone Hall basement
1. Amazing Dream Session last Tuesday! So many new ideas. We're working through them right now to see which things we might tackle in the near future.
2. Met with Crimson Link team (formerly Freshman Enrichment Program) to discuss transition to new leadership, action items moving forward, and how the UC can be helpful.
3. Setting up further meetings related to course material costs and broader financial accessibility.
4. Please reply to the email you will receive with two things (at least) that you wish you would have known when you got to Harvard. Include everything from academic resources to restaurants to secret study spots. We will work with SRC to distribute these across campus soon and then find a more long term approach to spreading knowledge about these resources.
5. See attached document. EdCom has created a task force to focus specifically on course material costs!!!
FiCom - William Greenlaw, Pfoho ‘17, Chair
Shopping Week Meeting Time: Wed, 7 pm, Memorial Hall basement
1. I didn’t submit my updates in time :(
FCC - Catherine Zhang, Cabot ‘19, Chair
1. 3rd debate watch party set for CQH on Wed, collab with FYSC
2. Town hall/study break collab with SRC
Rules Committee - Cameron Khansarinia, Cabot ‘18, Chair
Meeting Time: Wednesday, 9 pm, Adams Dhall
1. Vote for Caucuses!
2. Referenda Information
3. Why is it going to be 79 degrees this week?
4. #Imwithher
SIC – Maddy Stern, Winthrop ‘18, Chair
Meeting Time: Thursday, 7:30 pm, Lev Light Seminar Room
1. Congrats to vice chair, sec and treasurer!!!
2. Big brainstorming sesh coming your way
SLC – Berkeley Brown, Lowell ’18, Chair
Meeting Time: Monday, 6 pm, Lowell E-11
1. Partnering with SRC on Sexual Assault/Rape Kit information
2. Mental Health Resources on Advising Portal
3. Look out for thanksgiving shuttle pub
4. Go Pats!
SRC – Yasmin Sachee, Currier ’18, Chair
Meeting Time: Friday, 3 pm, Quincy House Shinagel Room
1. Legislation
2. Caucuses - send in applications over the coming week!!
3. Nicholas and Ash are running Presidential election pub
An Act To Address Financial Accessibility To Course Materials
Education Committee Policy Announcement
Sponsored By:
Adam Harper, Elm Yard ‘20
Scott Ely, Education Committee Chair, Adams ‘18
Whereas Article 4, Section 2 of the Undergraduate Council Constitution empowers the Chair of each committee to form subcommittees to address specific issues on campus and refer members to these subcommittees;
Whereas course materials are a staple to student life and are required to be a student at Harvard University;
Whereas the lack of financial accessibility to course materials is a serious problem for all students of many socioeconomic backgrounds;
Whereas addressing financial accessibility to course materials is of great interest to many members of the Undergraduate Council;
Be it therefore resolved that the Chair of the Education Committee of the Undergraduate Council forms a task force made up of members of the Education Committee and broader Council whose purpose is to research issues involving student accessibility to course materials, to create a plan of action to address these issues, and to propose ideas to fix them;
Be it further resolved that this task force reports its finding weekly to the Education Committee with the intent to create a position paper to present to the General Meeting of the Undergraduate Council in a timely manner.
FiCom Club Collaboration Research Proposal
Purpose:
In order to best tailor policy to encourage collaboration between clubs, which will hopefully result in increased event attendance, we need to gather data concerning projected vs. real attendance at various types of collaborative and non-collaborative events on campus.
Club Communication and Data Confidentiality
1. Student organizations shall be notified via the communication channel that we are initiating this survey process.
2. Student organizations’ event will be chosen at random to be surveyed
3. No student organization shall be penalized for the results of the data gathered the survey.
4. No uniquely identifying information will be released to media, Crimson, or otherwise public-facing body. Only meta-data will be reported. All uniquely identifying information shall only be known to the Finance Committee and the Undergraduate Council.
Methodology:
1. We’ll survey at least 40 (non-theatre) events by the end of the fall semester, at least 10 of which should be collaborative.
2. Every week for 6 weeks, we will be randomly selecting 5-7 non-collaborative events and 1 or 2 collaborative events. Each event will be attended by a member of the UC, who can be a FiCom committee member or any other member wishing to offer assistance.
3. We will only attend the events of organizations requesting upfront grants from the finance committee, and assume our analysis holds true for organizations requesting retroactive grants as well.
4. Using an application called the Do Button, we will count the number of people who come to an event, generating a time stamp every time someone walks through the door (taking great care not to double count people who leave and come back, to go to the bathroom, for example).
Data Analysis:
1. For both data sets (collaborative and non-collaborative events), we’ll calculate the average ratio of real attendance to projected attendance.
2. Using a two-proportion z-test, we’ll compare the two ratios to determine whether or not the difference between them is statistically significant.
3. This difference can be expressed as a percentage of projected attendance, and will also represent the percent efficiency loss in fund-allocation (assuming funds are allocated on a $/person basis), due to non-collaboration.
4. If the difference is statistically significant, we will have evidence to support our hypothesis that collaboration increases event attendance and minimizes the inefficient allocation of funds.
5. We can then proceed to extract ancillary information from the data (for the sake of our own knowledge and future studies), and to tailor grant policy around encouraging organizations to collaborate.
Reporting
1. The Finance Committee shall enumerate its findings to the Undergraduate Council at large and will use the data to inform future collaboration policy.
35F-13: Proposed Bylaws Change: Caucuses
Sponsored by Cameron K. Khansarinia, Cabot ‘18
Whereas caucuses would improve communication between underrepresented communities and the Council; and,
Whereas the caucuses would encourage members of the underrepresented communities to run for spots on the Council,
Be it Therefore Resolved that the Undergraduate Council adopt the following changes to the bylaws.
Recommended by Rules: 7-0-2
Docketed by Exec: 5-0-4
Section 35.4: Caucuses
The Student Relations Committee shall be responsible for the organization, approval, and reporting of member caucuses. Caucuses will be tasked with encouraging members of their community to run for the Undergraduate Council and facilitating communication and information exchange between the community and the Council.
35.41: Requirements of Caucuses
Caucuses shall be formed if and only if they meet the following guidelines:
A. There are three elected members of the caucuses’ stated community of interest on the Council at the time of formation of the caucus and in perpetuity.
B. The caucus should have a caucus Head and secretary.
C. The proposed caucus represents a previously unrepresented caucus.
D. The proposed caucus should have a statement of intent or mission statement.
E. The petitioners present a clear plan of action for involvement in their community of interest and communication between said community and the Council.
F. The community of interest is a racial, cultural, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, or gender identity group with particular concerns about under-representation.
35.42: Approval of Caucuses
Caucuses shall be approved through the following procedures:
A. A proposal outlining the meeting of the requirements in section 35.41 shall be submitted in writing to the Student Relations Committee chair no fewer than three days before the next meeting of the committee.
B. The chair will share said proposal with members of the committee for their review prior to the meeting of the committee.
C. The petitioner will present to the committee the necessity, goals, and plans of the caucus.
D. The caucus will be approved with a two-thirds majority of the committee. This approval will be accompanied by a piece of legislation to be sent to the Executive Board and the full Council.
E. The committee chair will present the legislation approving the caucus to the Executive Board for docketing.
F. The legislation approving the caucus, having been docketed by the Executive Board, will be presented to the full Council and will need a simple majority to be approved.
G. The caucuses shall be reviewed annually and are to be automatically renewed so long as they continue to meet all requirements, including the three-member threshold and do not violate any of the provisions of articles 35.43 and and 35.44. Such violations are to be reviewed by the Student Relations Committee on a case-by-case basis.
35.43: Powers Granted to Caucuses
A. Caucuses may release statements on behalf of their members on issues or events of importance to their community of interest, whether on or off-campus.
B. Caucuses may endorse pieces of legislation brought by any committee before the full Council.
C. Caucuses may endorse campus movements, efforts, protests, and causes.
D. Caucuses will liaise between their communities of interest and the Council. They will present monthly reports to the Student Relations Committee and may additionally present as otherwise necessary.
E. Caucuses will encourage members of their community of interest to run for the Council.
35.44: Powers Denied to Caucuses
A. Caucuses may not endorse non-campus movements, efforts, protests, and/or organizations.
B. Caucuses may not endorse candidates for Undergraduate Council office or other office-seekers, whether on or off-campus.
C. Caucuses will not partake in activities which violate any part of the bylaws or Constitution.
35F-14: Fall Grants Pack 4
*see attached legislation*
Recommended by FiCom: unanimous
Docketed by Exec: 5-0-4
35-15: An Act to fund a school wide study break during the HUDS strike
Sponsored by Yasmin Sachee, Student Relations Committee Chair, Currier ‘18
Whereas Harvard University is responsible for providing students all of their meals everyday, accounting for all dietary requirements and allergies; and,
Whereas while HUDS workers are on strike, the University has failed on multiple occasions to provide all of its students with hygienic, healthy and fulfilling options in their dining halls, with instances of mislabelling, uncooked and unsanitary foods being found; and,
Whereas this particularly affects students who cannot afford to buy food to supplement their unsatisfactory dining hall meals; and,
Whereas this also particularly affects students with dietary needs that are not being sufficiently met with the limited options that are available; and,
Whereas a study break would help students meet their UC representatives, alleviate stress and relay concerns
Be it resolved that $300 be allocated from the Student Relations Committee Budget, $300 be allocated from the Freshmen Class Committee Budget and $500 be allocated from the ‘Emergency Fund’ to fund a college-wide healthy study break with sandwiches on an evening this week
Docketed by SRC 10-0-0
Docketed by Exec 5-0-4