Skip to main content

DormCon GBM Minutes

Date: 9/14/23
Location: Burton-Conner TV Lounge

note

If you find any issues with the meeting minutes, please email dormcon-secretary@mit.edu

TL;DR (will be created after the meeting)​

Agenda​

  • Intros
  • Budget updates
  • Next Haunt funding voting
  • Apple Picking
  • UGs in Grad Housing Rep
  • Updates from DSL Meeting
    • Safety Video Advisory - Need to recommend people
    • External Relations Chairs
      • Mural Fundraising
      • Getting alumni more involved with help from admin
    • Student Org WG - Need finances people
  • Reflection on REX meals

Full minutes​

mitali: quick round of intros. exec and presidents. name, pronouns, dorm, position. I’m mitali. they/them. dormcon prez.

[GUYS I’M SO SORRY THE INTROS WERE FAST AND I AM STILL RUSTY PLS FORGIVE ME IF THERE IS A MISTAKE/SOMETHING MISSED AND IF YOU LMK I CAN FIX STUFF]

rebecca: rebecca, she/her. dormcon vp

temkin: he/they. rex/cpw chairs

daniel: he/him. other rex/cpw chair

sunmee: she/her. secretary [ty rebecca]

nate: he/they. dormcon tech chair

hanu: they/he. dormcon underclass rep

melissa: she/her. treasurer

geoffrey: he/him. underclassmen rep

mateo: he/him. judcomm and nv prez

sara: she/they. other judcomm. random prez

katie: she/her. baker president

zitong: she/her. mccormick prez

ananda: she/her. simmons prez, dining chair.

cameron: he/him. bc prez. housing chair

sruthi: she/her. next prez

amanda: she/her. simmons ad. co-advisor

lusi: she/her. hrs asst dir. other co-advisor

brandon: macgregor vp. he/him

camacho: he/him. new house prez.

gwyneth: 27. macgregor webmaster [sry idk how to spell your name sob]

santi: they/them. 24. not ec prez, jordan is prez. I am proxy ec secretary

mitali: in classic dormcon fashion we do exec updates. pls keep brief.

UPDATES​

  • CPW/REX:
    • lot of updates this year. a bit long this time. rex happened yay
    • funding changes
      • instead of giving 1000 to dorms we asked dorms to apply for funding with budget. dorms got diff amounts of funding
      • due to dsl committee. early returns have to get fed. any org sponsoring early return had to provide meals. originally until 2nd. then dsl changed mind and dining halls opened on 26th. a bit of miscommunication.
    • mitali: we will do rex reflection meeting at some point.
    • daniel: with all rex chairs from dorms. prez can be invited.
    • water wars reflection meeting
      • some changes going forward.
      • will be talking about going forward.
      • long story short we want to hone in on what’s good about water wars and hone down on some of the safety issues and make sure no one is getting hurt during the war part
    • blackout times
      • originally rex was 26-29. told blackout times. then they moved rex without telling us. then they told us new blackout times and events had to be cancelled. those days were stressful for everyone involved. working with ofy and dsl to ensure that doesn’t happen again. can get into that later more
      • if you want to know more come into our dms (joke) we mean email. dormcon-rex-chairs@mit.edu we also own rex@mit.edu now
  • Secretary:
    • follow us on instagram ;)
  • Tech:
    • updating meeting schedule on website
    • dorm prez if you see anything incorrect on website lmk (dormcon.mit.edu -> presidents page)
  • Dining:
    • dining survey
      • already exists. finding best way to get information. qualtrics seemed tricky. google form?
      • posters/flyers with qr code that brings you to survey
      • when you send responses we will see them and can bring them up within a week. pls let us know if you hear dining issues. we then tell to dining admin in dsl.
    • power outage at new vassar yesterday
      • dining was closed. not much else. but was unfortunate
    • confusion about dining times
      • weren’t accurate. but talked to mark + heather from dsl.
      • if you go to dining and see problem with hours just let us know
    • generally
      • food security
        • esp with la verdes closed
      • the stud
        • the retail locations are open. apparently haven’t gone back to pre-renovation numbers so pls go.
        • new place. not accepting credit cards yet but being very nice about this. really tight margin.
        • if you have bandwidth to help restaurants in the stud pls do.
      • food waste
        • mark and heather dealing with that. bon appetit has their own stuff. maseeh will be first big training ground for this
  • Underclassmen Rep:
    • real fake walls
      • has officially launched in next house. announced at house meeting
      • will see what works
      • hopefully if things move quickly enough. we will be opening to extension before end of semester? maybe? but depends on housing.
  • Treasurer:
    • dormcon financials
      • Dormcon Financials -> has all details
      • did not receive house tax in spring 2022, so down about 17k. slight issue because we cannot offer as much funding
      • mit tried to fix this by taking money out of dorm budgets but going to ask them to put it back
      • accounting for budget deficit somehow. looking for opinions
        • each dorm will be responsible for funding apple picking. if dorms have issues pls contact us and we can try to help
          • how much does it cost? we usually fund 1000 to each dorm. will get that number back to you
          • do dorms have to organize? dormcon exec has point people that will coordinate buses and such and contact you about costs
          • last time we funded about 6000
          • are we doing 1k per dorm again? probably but will redo budget and get back
          • your funds: can come from head of house funds, house funds, and charging dorm residents a bit (can ensure people commit to coming)
        • max $1750 for event funding for this year. we know we did more previously but this is for now. we can put resources for event funding.
          • previously limit was 50% of total event budget
          • is the expectation that this will be the same moving forward? like for apple picking
            • depends on how financials go this year. just because of deficit but we can discuss more long term stuff
            • last year we had a lot of cushion from previous years. but this year we will go into budget.
      • breakdown from fall 2022. contains how much money we’ve historically spent.
      • there are resources listed for getting event funds
        • large event fund (asa or sole)
        • baker foundation
        • council for the arts
        • sole supplementary funds
      • can offer 1-2k. if you need more financial help feel free to reach out.
      • cameron: tip if you’re applying for large event fund don’t put alcohol on your list of expenses because it will get denied.
  • Housing:
    • interviewing CAC/SOLE person in charge
      • if there’s anything you want us to advocate for we can try.
      • halfway through
    • working with gsc on undergrads in grad housing
      • trying to make it not suck
      • planning for next year
      • one gsc idea: grad junction (new grad dorm next to simmons. we should allocate some of that space in that dorm as swing space for when dorms are renovated.
        • mit does not want to do this. they have agreement based on kendall stuff that requires them to add 900 beds.
        • if they add undergrad out of those grad beds they could infringe upon this agreement with city council
      • process for undergrads ending up in grad housing was a bit chaotic
        • getting offers and having to act within a few days
        • understanding mit constraints. having undergrad housing maxed out for the next few years
        • grad students don’t love it undergrads don’t love it either
        • figuring it out
    • first meeting with rich next week
      • let us know if there are things we should advocate for
      • priorities for the year when talking with hrs
      • mitali: broadly for all positions. if there is something dormcon should work on pls let us know, dorm level or individual level.
  • Advisor:
    • keep on keepin on
  • P/VP:
    • prez training on dealing with incidents
      • have it on coming tuesday at 6-7:30. tentatively block off on calendar pls. working with nina from spxce.
      • pls let us know if you have opinions so we can relay that
    • apple picking
      • keep an eye out.
      • will send you budget and what we need from you
      • trying to have centrally coordinated
    • meeting with suzy
      • recommending people
        • safety advisory group
          • pre-pandemic concern for hacking and students getting access to roofs
          • recommend students who can provide feedback on safety materials they could provide
          • no strings attached, will not expose you if you are involved in hacking
          • if you’re interested or know someone let us know
        • student organization working group
          • looking for people involved in financial side of student orgs
          • process of handling finances and getting stuff funded
          • need one more rep (geoffrey volunteers)
        • external relations chair
          • next is kicking off real fake walls
          • bc hopefully has better mural panels and ec will get them when reopening
          • quite expensive panels. dsl has idea to do fundraising with alumni. specific funding to help with murals in dorms.
          • dsl can hold sessions with admin that can help form alumni relationships
          • do you have alumni relations chair in your dorm and do you think your dorm would benefit
            • follow up with next
            • bc: alumni relations chair. giving link. have not done anything with it. would be interested in doing something with it.
            • new vassar has like 2 alumni. just graduated last year.
            • 48 hour challenge to fundraise for dorms.
            • giving.mit.edu
          • consider adding external relations chair and if you want dsl help let us know. seems like good opportunity and seems like dsl is trying to be active about this
          • is this just for mural funding or all types?
            • their project was for murals but broadly interested in getting alums more involved
            • this seems cool vibe.
    • we have 150 undergrads in grad housing
      • bigger than random. a lot of undergrads (sry random)
      • representation for undergrads who live in grad housing at dormcon. so they have voices heard
      • judcomm had a meeting
        • looked at constitution
        • current situation. technically dormcon has no obligation to support these undergrads because not an emergency.
        • proposing AMENDMENT for event of temporary dorm closure that results in significant displacement of students. generalizing for future dorm closures. four options
          • represent all who were displaced
          • not represent them, leave constitution as is.
          • represent those who were displaced but those in mit housing, including fsilg
          • represent those who were displaced but those in mit housing, excluding fsilg. (ec ilg of note)
          • cameron: for when bc closed we kept bc votes at original capacity. people who moved to grad housing from not closed dorm. people who moved off campus but are still part of community of the dorm.
          • sara: when bc closed we didn’t have undergrads in grad housing number. ec votes would be double counted. if we do representation discussion of what we do with this
          • daniel: imperfect balance. impossible to correctly count everything at the same time. never going to have exact numbers but always going to be people who live in grad housing not being represented at dormcon, with living situation they are forced into because maybe semester off, other situation. worth it to talk about now with ec. maybe in 2 years it will be mccormick, next house, another dorm in 5 years. we are going to have this conversation for next 10-15 years anyway
          • sara: purpose is that having discussion now will make it easily generalizable
          • cameron: when bc was closed, those votes were distributed across other dorms. now you can get another voting rep of dormcon that is primarily focused on closed dorm
          • mateo: suppose we did create undergrad in grad housing rep. do they have voting power? if they do, they should not represent interests of another group (ex. not someone that is very involved in ec and lives in grad housing, could double count)
          • tyra: outside of elections in what cases do we vote?
            • mateo: some that were population votes, some that were person votes.
            • jordan: person votes for budgets and stuff
          • santi: ec is having microcosm of this discussion with ec ilg. another body separate from typical ec community. another group that also has separate interests. we can have some body of representation for other group where they can have voice but limit some of voting power so they don’t have double counting or overpowering. we’re planning on implementing. we can see how it goes for us and give feedback.
          • hanu: I live in ec ilg. around 60% of residents are from single hall in ec. issue of double voting that hall in ec house comm. analogous to representing renovated dorm
          • ananda: ua has similar situation. ifc and panhel have votes by population. given that half of male population at mit is ifc that’s significant overcounting. how would we pick grad housing rep? easy for dorms because we have elections and gov. same thing with ua off campus rep.
            • daniel: there is undergrad part of house gov at tang. not sure if they want to be part of dormcon but we could bring up to them. don’t want to force to people. but if opportunity is brought up and they want to be part of.
          • mitali: any grad housing people here? they were invited through dorms@
          • daniel: someone over the summer said they had been exiled from undergrad dorms. led me to bring up grad dorm conversation
          • sruthi: if we think it’s too much work to get exact counts. maybe we agree that we give them undergrads in housing minus number in renovated dorm
            • but this is negative
            • mateo: if they become voting block. ec representative is number of votes before closing minus number of people in grad housing is one way. any kind of system without super accurate up to date lists will be inaccurate
          • cameron: apologize in advance if this is shitty. not sure we have obligation to represent undergrads in grad housing. they should work with grad student channels and gsc. does suck that people feel exiled from undergrad housing but not sure that dormcon rep will help ameliorate that feeling. you still do have representation if you live off campus from renovation, your president still has voting power.
          • daniel: none of the grad halls have dining. none of them have dining chairs but grad students can be on dining plans?
          • mitali: gsc has people working on food insecurity. we are addressing when undergrads get kicked into grad housing who is representing them.
          • temkin: does gsc have undergrad representation? no.
          • daniel: unique needs of undergrads in grad housing
          • santi: practicality. undergrad rep within gsc? we don’t have answers and we are most involved. if you are pushed into grad housing and no immediate way of how to go through gsc or graduate representation can be daunting to go through that process. we don’t have obligation but there is a lot of benefit from specific representation.
          • cameron: not sure that representation resolves that issue.
          • temkin: seems like lot of concerns are grad and undergrads. might not be bad to have representation for both. people in both sets of government tackling unique issues
          • ananda: what are these unique needs?
            • food needs
            • contracts
            • need to talk to them
          • temkin: dormcon exec meeting with undergrads in grad housing. just ask them directly. trying to ask issue without people being represented in the meeting.
          • daniel: dormcon got dm’ed via me this summer. undergrads in grad housing I think are going through dormcon.
          • geoffrey: someone should be dealing with this. should it be us? we are leaving out ua in this conversation and they represent all undergraduates. question is a bit unclear. for ua is less unambiguous. ua doesn’t really do housing stuff a lot but in a special case that might be where they come in.
          • mateo: see risk of alienating a group of people if we don’t represent.
          • cameron: ua doesn’t have off campus rep. that group of people might include people in grad housing. there may be issues getting someone. as housing chair, in favor of getting representation and making this less insane but not a fan of getting voting power because double counting issues
          • temkin: people displaced from ec. some got grad housing, ec ilg, off campus, undergrad housing. four different communities being counted in different ways. is ec ilg getting lgc representation. we have to consider the other three groups if we try to help one. solution that affects all of them.
          • daniel: is temkin with simmons ec or both. everyone in ec that got placed into other dorm has same issue. grad housing debate causes debate with everyone.
          • mateo: historically pulled from numbers on housing website not current residents. people move in and out of dorms. so what number at what point? we can set a deadline. people who move to other dorms would be counted part of those dorms because they have become part of those communities.
            • hanu: but don’t they have voting with old dorms? [yes]
          • temkin: can we pull this from starrez? most up to date.
          • tyra: what do we do for double counts
            • mateo: constitution does not address. there was double counting but houses were not as full so issue was not as big.
            • sara: double counting becomes larger issue if we include grad housing. not all from ec. no way to not double count
            • mateo: unless we in some way figure out how many people in ec moved to other places from ec rep. would have to do for every single dorm in the future
            • hanu: the only people who could be “ec residents” 100% would be the people in ec ilg [or off campus]
        • we will pull this discussion back in dormcon exec. come back to gbm in two weeks and recommendations from gsc.
        • mateo: to clarify, some sort of representation is ideal. voting power is tbd.

AGENDA​

  • next haunt budget
    • Haunt Budget 2023
    • jonathan. next haunt asst producer. next couple of week.
    • requesting max of 1750 under new guidelines
    • composing own music. will be overall good improvement from last year which was already good.
    • puzzle type build of house within next house over month. big involvement and takes a lot which is why we are asking for funding
    • we estimate to be about 7k total
    • buffer? how much is that going to be
    • we are getting funds from various sources. asking for funding based on limits for this.
    • how are you getting rest of funding?
      • got through much of links you gave us. unfortunately a lot of them aren’t applicable
      • we are trying to request rest from next house. we will find a way
    • melissa: ok with approving max amount
    • mitali: judcomm run person vote
    • [VOTING...GO JUDCOMM!] -> vote passes
    • CONGRATULATIONS [applause]

PRESIDENT UPDATES​

  • EC:
    • jordan sent me a couple of things
    • ec is currently getting renovated [shockers]
    • ec has a frat now. ec ilg. allegedly called epsilon chi. still figuring out how things are going to work and management stuff.
    • our rex happened
      • everything happened on schedule
      • a couple of issues. speaker got stolen mainly. other than that mostly ok
      • ty to macgregor for storage
      • ty to bc and next for allowing to use kitchens
    • new community liaison. essentially gra while we don’t have a building anymore. apparently has large budget. possibly got budget from all 10 gras previously. discussing how to distribute funds
    • stud space but dk where it is. apparently locked and somewhere. dk where or how to access. figuring out those logistics
    • cameron: is that the basement room bc had?
      • mentions of w20 community space but no numbers
      • tyra: there is number. w20-0 something
      • cameron: below where dunkin is. pretty big, half the size of this room.
    • daniel: which side of murals of lcc?
      • cameron: across from post office
    • didn’t find rooms that weren’t filled to the brim with random stuff. if it’s not a usable space we gotta figure it out
    • cameron: hrs asked us for things we wanted (lights, projector, etc.)
      • dk if it was in budget
      • dennis was like we will buy whatever you need. so we kept asking for things and got them.
  • SIMMONS:
    • things are going well. no updates.
  • NEW HOUSE:
    • rex volunteer feeding? sub houses participate a lot less.
    • temkin: we asked for itemized budget. one thing was that every cultural house was allocated $50 [can sync up on this specifically later]
    • new house has specific way of doing things.
    • rex chairs: email us
  • NEW VASSAR:
    • running elections now. sent out interest form. decided next week.
    • new residential scholar. running documentary class. have not met yet.
    • dining. associate head of house emailed asking about complaints. responded with complaints. asked for meeting. be aware that this might happen to you. head cook of new vassar, ahoh, hoh, and someone from bon appetit.
      • got some insight about how dining works at mit. what new vassar was intended to be and such. shared with dining chairs
      • ultimately not very productive convo.
      • has been pattern for year now. we weren’t able to get any changes. not sure how to communicate effectively in that meeting. not expecting higher level admin to be there. if anyone has any suggestions lmk.
  • RANDOM:
    • RACs disliked letting frosh opt out for any reason
      • 23 frosh, everyone but 2-3 people opt out
    • 2 power outages
      • 17-18 august, 7-8 september (night)
      • last week was 2-6am. 80 degrees. very hot people didn’t sleep well.
      • the whole block was out idk what mit can do about this.
      • allegedly the second one was scheduled
      • generator?
        • emergency lights and outlets in bathrooms were on but doesnt include ac
      • daniel: did they let you know in advance?
        • did not get anything myself. if they communicated to other people did not get that
        • maybe house manager
      • cameron: we had power outage but we had advance notice from house manager
  • BAKER:
    • some people want to chalk the walls in baker similar to murals
    • since it’s temporary been having discussions of whether this is allowed. very unclear. not sure who I would talk to
    • ananda: simmons has its own chalking policy
    • mateo: in house gov we have pushed for it but house team has been more resistant. trying to pilot for one section and trying to expand. working with area director but has to go through operations manager and heads of house.
    • hanu: since this is kinda like muraling. dorm forms of self expression have been big topic for underclassmen rep so let us know. hopefully making more generalizable policy.
  • MASEEH:
    • floor 6 tried to steal printer from floor 2 a couple times
    • replaced TVs. have some old TVs if any dorm has need lmk
  • MCCORMICK:
    • nothing
  • BURTON-CONNER:
    • someone mentioned opt outs. we had 5 this year. matches up with previous years. we don’t discourage people from opting out. just very intentional talking positively about floor exploration. really overcommunicate about this process. people seem to understand that it is integral part of living in BC. has helped keep people in floor exploration process. happy to talk more
    • passed budget yesterday
    • mural panel in burton 3.
    • some people talked to provost. melissa and suzy. push on not painting on walls. not enough resources for muraling in dorms. on campus is not adequate because makes it like art gallery. quoted at 29000 to do entire dorm. but hrs said they would split cost on that [geoffrey: consistent with next house]
    • having meeting next week. trying to get looped in with fundraising convos. still a question of whether this should be directed toward specific floor or group. hrs would prefer this but not equitable to all floors. floors would prefer not to have to spend house money on something that benefits just one floor.
    • hard to communicate that 9 communities have separate interests. there is progress. we have mural panel. really big. really heavy. actually looks like another wall you wouldn’t even notice it.
    • hanu: not enough resources for self expression on the wall? what does that mean
      • old burton conner could just paint directly but now mediated process. had to bother hrs for a while to get canvases on the walls.
      • limited by canvases because they are flammable. code restriction. can only cover 20% of wall with flammable things
      • panel installation is difficult. required special person. costs twice as much to get stuff in bc compared to other dorms.
    • space reservation policy
      • lots of events in bc spaces. porter room and tv lounge.
      • limit what outside groups can do with bc spaces. involved desk captain and input from dorm
  • NEXT:
    • murals
    • wingreps
    • 30 freshmen opted out. pretty detrimental
    • interim AD. frustrated on how this was communicated. usually go through this person and discourage.
    • covid concerns discussion with house team. advised to wait til admin was giving more info to campus as a whole. any covid suggestions?
      • mateo: nv front desk got face masks
      • mitali: talking with suzy and trying to push for this
      • camacho: asking area director about rapid tests
      • will follow up
  • MACGREGOR:
    • rex went reasonably well
    • a bit of issue with opt outs. 61 freshmen moved in, 22 opted out. actually a lot better than last year. made changes to process. could not opt out during actual moving process. might be useful.
    • just had officer elections yesterday. significant overhaul. me and president tyler started halfway last semester. new era for macgregor so excited. with entries a bit isolated. looking forward to more social events
    • having issue with budget. getting 17k less might be correlated? realized that we got deposited 210 residents of house tax but we have 300 residents. 4-5k difference.
      • cameron: freshmen house tax might be still coming.
      • thinking that this also might be ec transfers
      • mitali: emailed tyler about how you can check that. if you can double check and let us know
      • wondering about process for how money is deposited for house taxes?
        • mitali: upperclassmen and freshmen done separately. because charged later. upperclassmen soon after school starts. comes out of tuition. calculates how many residents and comes into your account.
          • should be sub-line items of each individual
          • after that you will get the dormcon portion taken out.
          • for presidents: when doing budget pls account for that. dormcon will take $5 per person. even if that doesn’t happen immediately at beginning of semester.
          • done by actual numbers not maximum capacity

MEETING ADJOURNED