Meeting Minutes 2023-05-11

Elections

Sarah: Welcome to the 2023 dormcon elections!!

Roll Call: New House absent, rest present UPDATE: New house showed up

Sarah: Dormcon elections are very casual, you do not necessarily have to announce your candidacy in advance, and if you are in the room you can be nominated for a position.

Sarah: If there’s an urgent situation that means you have to leave before your election, tell Jordan and I. Candidates have a 1 min time limit for their speech, and 30 sec for the Q and A.

Sarah: The vote is a population vote. Dorm residents can exercise their democratic rights by voting separately from their president if they so wish, candidates leave the room during deliberation

Q: What are the population numbers being used for the dorms?

A: The numbers on the guide to residences website.

President

• Nominate Mitali
  • Accept
• Nominate Rebecca
  • Decline
• Mitali Speech: I’ve been on dormcon since freshman spring in various rules including i3, RAC, risk management chair, and dining chair and I want to run for prez bc I am the only person standing up here right now. In all seriousness, dormcon is something I care about a lot and I’ve learned a lot and I obviously still have a lot to learn and I’m really excited to learn more and to guide the dorms in a better direction.
  • Questions:
    • Q: Do you have experience holding leadership positions?
      • A: I’ve been a hall chair in EC and have experience running events, planning hall meetings and representing my hall. I was also a publications coordinator in divest. I was also a vice president of one of the committees in the south asian association of students
    • Q: Speak to your experience advocating for students
      • A: My main experience is as dining chair this year. Rebecca nad I had a lot of fun meeting with Mark and Heather and advocating for smaller things and also more long term things.
    • Q: What are the biggest issues you want to address as president next year
      • A: Preserving dorm culture and ensuring that students have the autonomy to express their culture as they want. Also there are the overcrowding issues. For dining, food insecurity has been an issue and even more since the pandemic. Over the next few years we also have the opportunity to talk about the bon appetit contract and how that is structured. Over all, I think that this is something that dormcon as a group will decide.
• Result: Mitali elected as president

Vice-President

• Nominate Rebecca
  • Accept
• Rebecca Speech:
  • I live in Burton Connor and am a junior and this past year I’ve been dining chair with Mitali. Like everyone else I’m really happy to be here and be part of dormcon. This past year I’ve learned a lot about the change that can be effected by students. My goals would be to increase the priority of student feedback. Recently we’ve been having many large scale changes such as renovations and the bon appetit contract. I’m also interested in making sure that exec members on dormcon feel comfortable and able to pursue the changes that they want to see
  • Q: favourite colour?
    • A: Solo cups when they’re green
  • Q: how well do you think you work with the president elect
    • A: Mitali and I have been dining chairs together for the past year and we’ve been buddies before that and we’ve worked really well together in that position and have been able to check each other, as we’re different people with different priorities
• Result: Rebecca elected as vp

Treasurer

• Nominate: Melissa
  • Accept
• Nominate: Geoffrey
  • Accept
• Nominate Tyra
  • Accept
• Nominate Temkin
  • ACcept
• Melissa Speech
  • I’m a sophomore and live in BC. I’m responsible for finances in two clubs, MIT consulting group and Mince and thus work with a lot of money. I’m very familiar with working with budgets and spreadsheets and with ATLAS and Mary Mango. I’ve also talked with club members on their budget and how much money they can spend. People often want to spend a lot more money on food and other unnecessary things.
    • Q: How on top of emails?
      • A: Check emails consistently in morning and at night
    • Q: Why treasurer of dormcon?
      • A: So many people I know have found culture and community through dorms and is a fairly universal experience which is why I want to be involved. I also just enjoy knowing where money goes and money flows because it influences how tradition and culture are carried on
    • Q: First restaurant you would order from?
      • A: Bonchon
    • Q: How good are you at saying no?
      • A: lot of people try to spend money on stupid things in MCG (e.g. rolex watches lmfao), so I can say no. kind of a stingy person, so I don't like it when money is wasted.
• Geoffrey speech
  • I live in Next House and am currently the dormcon underclassmen rep, which is kind of like an exec at large position as our stated role is to represent the interest of 1st and 2nd years in dormcon and with admin. We’ve been working on the mural pilot which will hopefully debut at Next house soon. We’re also currently working on how to prepare dormcon to more effectively advocate for dorms during renovations. I want to run for treasurer because helping to start more interdorm events would be very nice.
    • Q: How on top of emails
      • A: I think I’m pretty good with emails. Jordan and I are currently back and forth with admin about the murals pilot
    • Q: Why treasurer of DormCon?
      • A: Treasurer’s position as a funding source for inter-dorm events open to the wider community is useful, especially given dorms are closing. Inter-dorm social gatherings can strengthen our communities
    • Q: First restaurant you would order from?
      • A: Cafe Luna, both have pretty good food and do cater to wide variety of dietary restrictions
    • Q: Are you good at saying no?
      • A: I think I’m generally pretty good at saying no. Especially in heated moments, being able to be more dispassionate and logical
• Tyra Speech
  • Freshman in EC. current dormcon i3 chair, which is just for the spring semester. Specifically I want to be treasurer because I love spreadsheets. I was the treasurer for bad ideas, so I made budgets for events, submitted funding requests, made budget reports, etc. I have many expense tracking spreadsheets. I have experience with relevant platforms like Atlas, Mary Mango and I are like best friends.
    • Q: How on top of emails
      • A: I respond pretty quickly to emails, people from EC know.
    • Q: Why treasurer of dormcon?
      • A: I think dormcon is special in the way that it directly supports student events within dorms
    • Q: What would be the first restaurant you buy food from?
      • A: iHop
    • Q: Are you good at saying no?
      • A: Yeah - I’m currently east campus soccomm (social committee), which means my job is basically just to say no (courtyard reservations, friday afternoon clubs, etc.). As well as being able to say no, I can compromise.
• Temkin Speech
  • I am a ‘26, course 11-6, live in EC, moving to Simmons, currently dormcon CPW-REX chair. Been a part of dormcon since late last semester and have been working on CPW, coordinating with admissions and we’re about to start on REX. As treasurer I hope to collect RFPs and help with finances *thumbs up*
    • Q:How on top of emails:
      • A: I’m pretty quick at responding to emails
    • Q: Why treasurer of dormcon?
      • A: Echoing, DormCon is really specialized, focusing on important student issues; treasurer is a backbone for that and I’d like to support other positions
    • Q: First restaurant you would order from?
      • Really good mexican catering, which is lowkey the best mexican food I’ve had in Boston
    • Q: How good are you at saying no?
      • Q: I say no a lot. I will actively fight for what I think is right, so I can absolutely so no
• Election Result: Melissa elected as treasurer

Housing Chair

• Nominate: Jordan
  • Accept
• Nominate: Geoffrey
  • Accept
• Nominate Sara
  • Accept
• Nominate Cameron:
  • Accept
• Nominate Mateo, Sunmee, Fatime, et. al.
  • Decline
• Speech Jordan (blue is my favorite color, 2025):
  • EC president; I want to run for housing chair because—I am a suitable candidate because I was a RAC for EC last year and I have had a lot of interaction with the housing system on the individual sense and how it fails students. We’ve also worked on issues with respect to the EC renovations; I worked with the DC housing chairs at the time of overcrowding to resolve the problem in a way that was not what Rich Hilton wanted. I think I’m a suitable candidate for those reasons and my experience with talking to Housing.
    • Q: Email response time?
      • A: Obsessed, check it like 35 times a day.
    • Q: (experience working with admin?)
      • A: Have had to make time for Rich Hilton already; I met with him five times in one week
    • Q: Comfortable telling administrators something won’t work?
      • A: Yes, I’ve had to tell admin no many times, a recent example would be with the EC housing placement situation
    • Q: How will you balance the issues of your dorm with other dorms?
      • A: EC obviously doesn’t have a building next year, which will give me a larger role in advocating for all dorms without bias
    • Q: How much do each of you know about intradorm housing assignment?
      • A: I was an EC RAC last year, but I also know that our system can be needlessly complicated. Every dorm has their own process that works well for how their community is structured and I plan to advocate for dorms to have autonomy over their process
    • Q: What are your commitments in the coming year?
      • A: 48 units and TAing and possibly a UROP, but I’m very good at time management and prioritizing what is important
• Speech Geoffrey (red, 2026):
  • I live in Next house and am a freshman. I want to run for housing chair because especially in these times of dorm renovations, strong leadership and a good relationship between housing chairs and MIT admin is important. I believe there’s many ways I can use this position to make dorm living better for everyone.
    • Q:Email response time?
      • A: Check my emails quite often
    • Q: Time for face to face meetings?
      • A: Yes. I love face-to-face emails meetings.
    • Q: Comfortable telling administrators something won’t work?
      • A: Catching Will and Phil up to speed and had to tell them that the canvas in Next is not sufficient.
    • Q: How will you balance the issues of your dorm with other dorms?
      • A: Agree with the general points made - like the great power of DormCon is that dorms can come together and create a unified stance with admin which helps in advocating things, even if they may pertain to one or two dorms
    • Q: How much do each of you know about intradorm housing assignment?
      • A: Yeah - I think I know fairly well from the start when I first entered DormCon, doing a lot of research about the dorms and their individual cultures/housing processes especially, so I think I have pretty good knowledge
    • Q: Time commitments
      • A: pretty good, four classes next semester, maybe with a UROP, don’t believe I have any major time sinks
• Speech Sara (purple, 2024):
  • I am a junior and current Random President. I am running for housing chair because I am very aware of the tier system and differences between dorms eg. size, fluctuating state (renovations). I am personally concerned about how renovation will impact everyone. Coming to dormcon has made me more aware of other people’s issues, such as McCormick elevators and MacGregor overcrowding. I care a lot about these issues and want to work with admin and students to solve these issues.
    • Q: Email response time?:
      • A: Assuming, I’m not in the middle of a meeting, I check my emails within the hour and respond
    • Q: Do you have time for face-to-face meetings:
      • A: There’s been stuff in random that requires lots of face to face meetings on short notice, so I’m very used to it
    • Q: Comfortable telling administrators something won’t work?
      • A: Currently in the reslife principles WG and have had to tell administrators that some of the things you say are not how it works
    • Q: Balance your dorms against other dorms
      • A: I think dorms are unique; lots of overlapping and unique issues. Dorms need to approach things specifically; communicating with presidents and having them express what’s going on in their dorm.
    • Q: How much do each of you know about intradorm housing assignment?
      • I work very closely with the Random R-A-Cs and have had pretty in-depth conversation with EC and a few other dorms; I’d like to learn more about that and preserving each dorms process while looking into areas of improvement
    • Q: What are your commitments in the coming year?
      • A: 4 classes, running random desk, and grad apps, but should be fine
• Speech Cameron (blue, 2024):
  • Cameron - BC president, running for housing chair because I need to go into retirement somehow. Have been working with Housing since the BC transition team and have had lots of conversation around muralling. Have facetime with HRS every week or every other week, and am plugged into a lot of the issues via DormCon. Would like to represent the entire dorm community and our current system; it would be really good to fight for you all like that
    • Q: How fast do you respond to email?
      • A: Constantly check my email
    • Q: face-to-face meetings?
      • A: I’ve got one tomorrow.
    • Q: Comfortable telling administrators something won’t work?
      • A: Usually i text zangi first and zangi usually tells me yes, you should say no
    • Q: How will you balance the issues of your dorm with other dorms?
      • A: There are many things where when one dorm solves a problem, it also solves problems for other dorms, such as with the EC mural panels. However, there are other issues which are unacceptable, such as flooding laundry that must be addressed
    • Q: How much do each of you know about intradorm housing assignment?
      • A: I basically run the floor assignment process in BC and I’m also talking with other dorms about their process because I’m trying to learn and collaborate
    • Q: What are your commitments in the coming year?
      • A: should be same, dropping TA, adding class; maybe less BC HRS meetings will help but integrates well with existing dorm role
• Election Result: Elected Jordan and Cameron as housing chairs

Dining Chair

• Nominate Tyra
  • Accept
• Nominate Lindsay
  • Accept
• Nominate Sruthi
  • Accept
• Nominate Ananda
  • Accept
• Nominate Geoffrey
  • Accept
• Nominate Sara, Mateo
  • Decline
• Ananda Speech (‘25, Simmons)
  • Current Simmons prez. I am really passionate about dining, love Simdin and know Mark and Heather for actually going to 8 am meetings. Very passionate about putting up signs about how each dining has organic disposal. There’s different systems between each dorm and and people in those dorms don’t know how they work.
  • Q: on a meal plan?
    • Yes
  • Q: Specific areas of interest?
    • A: I definitely am interested in the publicity part. It’s very difficult to change anything with dining and we need to share with students that fact and the process for change. Another very important thing is food waste.
  • Q: how do you deal with surprises in your assumptions?
    • A: I do theatre, so improvise, adapting is my lifestyle. I’ve also encountered it a lot within Simmons, where the way the building works is not the way you expect it to. I’m also interested in negotiation and taking a class on it next semester.
• Lindsay Speech (‘24, Maseeh)
  • Was on INstitute Committee for Student Life; talked a lot about food insecurity, and wants to see immediate improvement on the dining plan especially with contract renewal in two years. Have lots of experience with this, would love to be part of Dormcon and advocate more
  • Q: on a meal plan?
    • Yes
  • Q: Specific areas of interest?
    • Had a roommate last semester with really severe food allergies; bon appetit does not meet standards that we set for them and we’d like to hold them accountable. Retail dining and publicity are also important issues to me.
  • Q: how do you deal with when your assumptions are wrong?
    • This has come up when I’m meeting with Mark; it’s important to really hear out admin, and then really communicating that to the students; i.e, how can we adapt to these limitations and explain to students “it’s not simple, but how can we move on going forward”
• Tyra Speech (‘26, EC)
  • Want to be dining hair bc it’s a very interesting time for dining bc on year 5 of 7 of bon appetit contract. I think there’s a lot of student feedback and I would be the interface between that and admin
  • Meal plan?
    • Not on a meal plan, but have some swiptes
  • Q: Specific areas of interest?
    • A: One of the main things to look at is getting a replacement for La Verdes in the stud as well as the other vendors. Having a convenience or grocery store in the stud is really important
  • Q: how do you deal with surprises in your assumptions?
    • I’m on the EC transition time and working on transitioning EC through renovations. So we’ll come in with our priorities gathered from students and admin will have different perspectives. It’s an ongoing dialogue that I have experience with.
• Sruthi Speech (‘24, Next)
  • President of Next; I think the reason I’m interested in dining specifically, there’s a large disconnect between what students think they can change and what they can, and there’s not a lot of transparency. I really enjoy being that interface and I enjoy help making compromises and working with groups of people
  • Q: on a meal plan?:
    • Yes, whole time
  • Q: any particular interests in working on dining?
    • A: publicizing existing programs, e.g. swipeshare, get a little more publicity each time. Working for students with dietary restrictions (vegetarian, soups, e.g.)
  • Q: how do you deal with surprises in your assumptions?
    • A: coming into these conversations with both goals that spur solutions, along with concrete plans; if you come in with a concrete plan, you should identify the ultimate goal and allow admin to use the knowledge of your expectations to work towards something better
• Geoffrey Speech (‘26, Next)
  • Dining chair is a particularly compelling position, as I first saw by helping out with the dining forum. Students, admins and dining staff can be diametrically opposed sometimes and dining chairs still find a way to make changes that help the dining experience for all parties. I think the negotiation and communication aspect is very cool and something I would like to
  • Q: On a meal plan?
    • Yes, block 225
  • Q: Specific areas of interest?
    • Interesting thing to look into is the utility of the meal plans themselves; e.g., some universities have systems where the swipes and dining dollar aspects are fused, and, in general, trying to find ways to make the meal plans more accommodating to people’s different lifestyles and eating habits could be interesting
  • Q: how do you deal with surprises in your assumptions?
    • Happened fairly recently with the mural pilot; we assumed that installing the panels would be modular, but we discovered that you have to break down the walls themselves; currently prioritizing getting down and actually getting a good idea of the constraints
• Election Results:
  • Tyra and Ananda elected as Dining Chairs

Judcomm

• Nominate Temkin
  • Accept
• Nominate Mateo
  • Accept
• Nominate Sunmee
  • Accept
• Nominate Leo
  • Decline
• Nominate Sara
  • Accept
• Mateo Speech
  • President of NV. Was dormcon i3 chair previously. Want to be judcomm chair bc like dormcon’s advocacy and want to support it to best of ability. Commitments next semester are fairly large, but think I can fulfill role of judcomm chair and auxiliary projects
  • Q: Experience interpreting bylaws and constitutions?
    • A: Professionally, no. Did look at the DormCon constitution and am currently working on the NV constitution.
  • Q: This position is more of a member at large kind of position that voices their ideas, why do you want to be on exec?
    • Seeing a lot of the advocacy that Judcoom has done has been very inspiring to me and I would like to be a part of that
  • Q: If not elected Judcomm what other position will you run for?
    • Because of my time commitments, I would not be running for another position
  • Q: Suggestions for elections being done by 9:30?
    • More streamlined and documented election protocols + having hard cutoffs
• Temkin Speech
  • I like laws. I am pre-law. I rewrote multiple constitutions back in high school. It’s fun. I like government. EOM. I’m also in DormCon right now.
  • Q: Are you aware if elected for this position, you would be giving up your REX chair position. Judcomm is mutually exclusive with other positions and we would have to elect another REX chair
    • A: I will withdraw then
• Sara Speech
  • Random President. I think dormcon is very important and to some extent it is not well known in the community what dormcon does and more people would be interested if they knew that, including how elections work. I’m also rewriting the random constitution over the summer as a pet project, so I care a lot about laws
  • Q: Experience interpreting bylaws and constitutions?
    • My UROP is looking at legal things, Random had a constitutional crisis 3 months ago, UA had a constitutional crisis 3 weeks ago
  • Q: This position is more of a member at large kind of position that voices their ideas, why do you want to be on exec?
    • A: Dorms is why I came to MIT and I want to have a voice in that and the decision-making from the student side of things.
  • Q: If not elected Judcomm what other position will you run for?
    • A: Maybe secretary
  • Q: Suggestions for elections being done by 9:30?
    • Having more protocol and encouraging people to prepare a few words beforehand before they come up
• Sunmee Speech
  • Junior in Simmons; previously DormCon CPW/REX chair and Secretary. Really enjoy being part of DormCon and am passionate about what we stand for; I like looking at the history of where our organization has been and I’d love to be in that position.
  • Q: Do you have experience interpreting bylaws and constitutions?
    • A: I used to look at laws on electric vehicles.
  • Q: This position is more of a member at large kind of position that voices their ideas, why do you want to be on exec?
    • A: Love to provide a voice; in the room, there’s a lot of interesting things happening, and it’s good to listen as they try to figure out things together.
  • Q: If not elected Judcomm what other position will you run for?
    • A: might run for secretary; interested in trying something different
  • Q: Suggestions for elections being done by 9:30?
    • Strict time cutoffs; that’s the biggest problem that we face
• Election Results:
  • Mateo and Sara elected as Judcomm chairs

Secretary

• Nominate Sunmee
  • Accept
• Nominate Geoffrey
  • Accept
• Nominate Aliyah
  • Accept
• Aliyah Speech (Temkin Proxy):
  • Friend lives in McCormick, course 8+12?; discussed a lot of dorm issues and she wants to be involved in dorm life and dorm issues. She has a class. Next semester she will only have 4 classes, no conflicts; very passionate in dorm life, very responsible and on top of her shit, very cool
    • Q:
      • On all the email threads she is on, she responds very quickly
    • Q: Are you good at poking people when they don’t reply?
      • She seems like she would be. Don’t think I’ve had to be poked though
    • Q: Do you use social media?
      • Yeah
    • Q: How free are you on Thursday nights?
      • I’m free thursday nights and i’m only taking 48 units
    • Q: What other positions?
      • Underclass
    • Typing skills
      • Idk what she does
• Geoffrey Speech:
  • Particularly interested in secretary because of the responsibility of maintaining dormcon’s institutional knowledge. I spend my free time reading old dormcon minutes from 3 years ago and that guides my philosophy and how I approach things in dormcon. Further I want to use the secretary position as an information liaison with other dorms that want to collaborate with dormcon
    • Q: Do you send emails in a timely manner?
      • Overall, fairly timely; I imagine I’ll just send them night of at the latest
    • Q: are you good at poking people
      • Yes. I’ve done that with Will + Phil
    • Q: Do you use social media?
      • I use Twitter more than I would like to admit
    • How available on Thursday nights?
      • Very available
    • What other positions?
      • No
    • Typing skills
      • I can hit triple digits on a good day. Good with grammar
• Sunmee Speech:
  • I really like typing fast. Another thing I feel that secretary can do is improve the presence of dormcon in the community, like using social media
    • Q: email timeliness?
      • Pretty good, I would say; when I was secretary, there were some minutes that were sent the week of, but overall, I’m pretty good at sticking to the schedule
    • Q: Are you good at poking people when they don’t reply?
      • Yeah I would say so
    • Q: Do you use social media?
      • Yeah, a bit; not really on the posting side. I did the posting for DormCon before
    • Q: How available will you be on Thursday nights in the coming year?
      • Very
    • Q: What other positions?
      • Nothing
    • Q: Typing skills:
      • A: I was the dormcon secretary in the past
• Election result:
  • Sunmee elected as secretary

Tech Chair

• Nominate Nate:
  • Accept
• Nominate Temkin:
  • Accept
• Nominate Cameron:
  • Decline :)
• Nominate Lindsay
  • Decline
• Temkin Speech
  • I like CS, I’ve made too many website in my time at MIT. I’ve poked around the current dormcon website too many times. I have time this summer and I’m already REX chair which does a lot of website backend stuff
  • Q: Do you know React w/ Docusaurus (DC website)?
    • Would also have to learn react, but already know JS
    • Haven’t used Docusaurus, but used a lot of other Markdown things
  • Q: Do you know React + Python scripts(REX booklets)?
  • Q: Do you know anything about GitHub Actions?
    • Used it quite often since middle school but also for UROP
  • Q: There’s a lot of TS/Github with the React, as well
  • Q: Athena lockers?
    • Yes
  • Q: How much time do you have over the summer?
    • Even now, I spend a lot of my free time poking around and I’m also planning to spend a lot of time over the summer doing web code stuff
  • Q: Have you assisted dorms with putting up things and working with IS&T?
    • I have looked at the EC wiki and been sad. I am familiar with all the tools; we have a meeting with IS&T in a few days.
  • Q: Are you willing to migrate the dormcon drive to a shared google drive?
    • I’ve seen the mess and I am willing and able
  • Q: Where are you living next year?
    • Simmons
  • Q: Ideas for projects?
    • Website for communication purposes, right now we just put minutes on there and I thik we could use it for more
• Nate Speech
  • ‘24 in EC; not super experienced with website things but have done them for Course 9 and have switched to 6-2 to be more computer science; LA for .009
  • Q: Do you know React w/ Docusaurus (DC website), Python, Github, Github Actions, and TS?
    • Not familiar with react broadly speaking but could learn
    • Learning TS this semester in (6.031); not familiar with React broadly speaking. Very experienced with Python and GitHub.
  • Q: Athena lockers?
    • Yes
  • Q: How much time do you have over the summer?
    • I’m doing an internship, normal 40 hrs/week over the summer. I think my schedule in the fall should be flexible enough that I can move things around
  • Q: Have you assisted dorms with putting up websites/intefacing with IS&T
    • shadow member of EC web chair, have good experience
  • Q: Are you willing to migrate the dormcon drive to a shared google drive?
    • Yes, even though I don’t know what it looks like
  • Q: Where are you living next year?
    • Maseeh
  • Q: Ideas for projects?
    • Being on DormCon would be cool because on DormCon you would be able to express ideas with respect to Dorm life at meetings. Potentially, dorm-related event calendar would be cool.
• Result:
  • Nate elected as Web Chair

Underclassmen Rep (1 of 2)

• Nominate Aliyah:
  • Accept
• Nominate Hanu:
  • accept
• Nominate Faith:
  • Accept
• Aliyah Speech
  • I want to be underclassmen rep; I’ve had a great time at MIT so far but I think that it’s important that freshman/sophomore classes have a lot to add to the community.
  • Q: Underclassmen Rep is not super well defined bc this is the first year of the position, what do you want to do with the position?
    • I agree that underclassmen rep is very broad so you can do a lot of things with it. It’s important to acknowledge that coming into MIT is a very weird time for people (CPW is not representative); being in a position to influence how underclassmen will experience in MIT.
  • Q: What does it mean to represent the underclassmen?
    • I think underclassmen rep is responsible for making sure you’re accurately portraying the needs and desires of others. A lot of people don’t know the history as well, so providing that information from the beginning of your experience is important.
  • Q: How good are you at bugging and poking people to respond?
    • I’d like to think I’m pretty good at that. USing dormspam and stuff; calling/texting people repeatedly when they’ve made commitments to things while also knowing when to backoff.
  • Q: Regarding the mural pilot, there’s a disconnect between what we want and what they think we want, how will you bridge that gap?
    • I think it’s very important to make sure that you’re making your intentions very clear and figuring out where the misunderstanding is coming from, is it that you want something and they want something else? In that case you have to communicate with them and find a way to bridge that gap and find common ground
  • Q: how free are you this summer?
    • I will be here all summer working at edgerton center and will be free most of the time
  • Q: What is the best way to get underclassmen opinions?
    • You have to engage with multiple different methods as different groups of people engage in different ways (eg. events, emails). I’ve heard so much stuff about MIT just having conversations with people
• Faith Speech
  • As a current EC resident, I’m interested in the current projects of mural boards in NEXT and renovations. I’ve been on EC Rencomm and transition team and worked to hire a community liaison. I want to get more involved in things like this, so I’m here.
  • Q: Underclassmen Rep is not super well defined bc this is the first year of the position, what do you want to do with the position?
    • I think as an underclassmen rep being ill-defined, it might be a good idea to make it take on some of the projects in dormcon that other roles might want of it. Underclassmen are also affected by everything that’s going on, so if there are excess tasks from housing chairs or dining chairs, for example
  • Q: What does it mean to represent the underclassmen?
    • To represent the underclassmen means to… for sophomores and freshmen, you’re doing a lot of figuring stuff out both in classes and dorms and that means making it a hospitable space for new people
  • Q: How good are you at bugging and poking people to respond?
    • I haven’t had to bug people much often in my life so far in this way, but in this way it’s for myself. But, for a position like this, I usually I set myself reminders for when to do things.
  • Q: Regarding the mural pilot, there’s a disconnect between what we want and what they think we want, how will you bridge that gap?
    • I think communications like that - it’s important to ask them to repeat to you what you think they want; i.e., what they are prioritizing.
  • Q: how free are you this summer?
    • Working a 20hr./wk UROP this summer
  • Q: What is the best way to get underclassmen opinions?
    • I think in general, talking to people and also talking to the people who talk to a lot of people eg. representatives of a class, representatives of a group of people, or members of dorm exec
• Hanu Speech
  • EC first year, want to get involved because one thing that I learned when I was doing the history class before which is that half of t he MIT experience happens outside of the classroom. It’s the freedom to choose where you live and the extent that you engage with communities and the self-expression that is important to preserve at MIT for underclassmen who come in and through renovations that are going on. That’s why I’m also a member of EC TT and rencomm working with admin to preserve the culture.
  • Q: Underclassmen Rep is not super well defined bc this is the first year of the position, what do you want to do with the position?
    • I think one of the most important thing is being fully immersed in the living communities and giving them freedom to do what they want w.r.t “they know how things run”. That means learning from upperclassmen how to build a loft that make me learn more and feel well-connected in my community
  • Q: What does it mean to represent the underclassmen?
    • I think underclassmen rep, especially in terms of dorm life, should be involved in making dorms welcoming to underclassmen and helping underclassmen understand what the living communities are like and which ones they most fit well with.
  • Q: How good are you at bugging and poking people to respond?
    • This is something that I’ve only started doing more recently. I’m “swag bitch” for EC and I’ve sent emails getting people to submit designs and fill out forms. For me, it’s start early and start often, so I already have schedules for when I’m going to be bothering people in the future
  • Q: Regarding the mural pilot, there’s a disconnect between what we want and what they think we want, how will you bridge that gap?
    • I feel like when you’re representing people, you have to know what they want first and that is understanding what the desired outcome is for students and then bringing that to admin and doing it to the best of my ability
  • Q: How free are you this summer?
    • A: Hopefully, I’ll be SPA for Interphase; will be here for the summer and that’s basically the only thing you’re doing
  • Q: What is the best way to get underclassmen opinions?
    • A: I feel like talking to people directly is probably the best way to get honest feedback. I think I’m a pretty sociable person so I think that method works well for me.
• Election Results: Hanu elected as underclassmen rep

Summary of Results

Position	Person
Mitali	President
Vice President	Rebecca
Treasurer	Melissa
Housing Chair	Jordan and Cameron
Dining Chair	Tyra and Ananda
Judcomm Chair	Sara and Mateo
Secretary	Sunmee
Tech Chair	Nate
Underclassmen Rep	Hanu

And so too this chapter of dormcon comes to an end…