DormCon General Body Meeting
Date: September 28, 2023
Location: Maseeh PDR
note
If you find any issues with the meeting minutes, please email dormcon-secretary@mit.edu
TL;DR (will be created after the meeting)
- housing
- ug in grad housing discussions (representation, process, talking with gsc)
- dorm renovations timeline and pricing changes
- housing timeline drafted, under review by dorm prez + racs
- new admin being hired w/ student input
- murals - fundraising and installations
- rex post-mortem (esp. regarding food), feedback form drafted
- dining
- working on improving dining communications (ex. outfinite food truck wednesdays, daily table free delivery)
- dining consulting
- stud
- some vendors struggling, tell people to try em out <3
- new grocer seems pretty set but working out details
- had presidents’ training last week
- pushing for covid communications (ad and hohs can support)
- conversations with gender identity initiative
- apple picking being coordinated! buses booked, more details soon
- starting discussion on house team relationships w/suzy
- dormcon rex funding distributions delayed til house tax collection, if this is causing financial concerns reach out to us
- ifc rep visit
- publicizing boarding availability
- ifc wants to make a dormspam list, looking for advice
- looking for suggestions on campus-wide philanthropy event
Agenda
- Updates (Exec, Presidents, IFC)
- President training feedback
- Apple picking updates
- UG in Grad Housing Rep follow-up
- REX feedback form
Full minutes
getting started! hello welcome to gbm #2 start with exec updates
Exec updates
- nate (tech)
- updating funding policy on the website. new funding cap 1750
- judcomm (mateo/sara)
- townhouse style meeting for ug in grad housing to see what representation
they would like to gauge interest
- also reached out to gsc and tang, ashdown, sidpac prez to see grad student gov involvement
- will have quick meeting with them to see their thoughts and then do join townhall to see both grad and undergrad sides
- were many opinions last meeting, if you have more, reach out to judcomm or p/vp
- new ver. of constitution that is easier to read. any amendments are put at the very bottom. old version is maintained for historical reasons.
- townhouse style meeting for ug in grad housing to see what representation
they would like to gauge interest
- housing (cameron/jordan)
- had meeting with rich + david aligning priorities b/w us and hrs
- high staff turnover in hrs (lots of hiring)
- new director of communications
- and some other people
- dorm renovations
- having as much time as possible
- next dorm decision will be made at end of this academic year probably
- starting to prioritize dorms that haven’t been meaningfully renovated in the last forty years
- potentially changing policy for ug placement in grad housing
- more streamlined process
- continued discussion
- david is excited about art
- rethinking dorm pricing
- two potential routes (not right now, implemented over time)
- renovated dorms go to tier 1 so they have a single tier and then different rates per room
- OR one rate policy where it is one price to live in ug on-campus housing regardless of room type and building
- continued discussion
- two potential routes (not right now, implemented over time)
- housing timeline
- sent dorms-prez and dorms-rac housing timeline
- significantly moved up a week or two
- if you have feedback on this, please let housing chairs know
- trying to avoid last minute crunch in may
- not completely set in stone
- hrs wants these dates but they are willing to talk about feedback to change
- high staff turnover in hrs (lots of hiring)
- helped hire new person in charge of sole/cac
- coming from umass boston
- student leaders got email about that
- thought was good candidate
- helping to hire communications person
- don’t technically hire them lol
- with gsc housing chairs and hrs folks
- couple interviews this week, went well. good options
- not sure of timeline?
- lusi: I think trying to hire as quickly as we can. after this week on-campus interviews we will give thoughts and then back and forth with hr. then next couple weeks we should have update
- had meeting with rich + david aligning priorities b/w us and hrs
- advisors (lusi/amanda):
- no updates
- dining (tyra/ananda):
- meeting with mark and heather
- got some updates on the stud of what movement looks like for vendors
in the stud (dunkin, teado, 2nd floor)
- dunkin is back from before
- teado is doing a lil better
- 2nd floor is doing similar which is bad news
- please try out the new place <3 very good - tawakal
- how to get more people to go to 2nd floor vendors
- not any concrete conclusions yet but looking at this
- food trucks on wednesdays in the outfinite
- generally food trucks haven’t been successful even when the stud closed
- looks like trying to go away from that
- thing to cater more to staff
- but apparently no one knows about them?
- theme this semester is on communication
- daily table free delivery
- was a ua email about this today!
- apparently you can get catering from all vendors in the stud so if
you have a student group (eyes)
- support your local stud vendors!
- also in the stud they are working on opening dunkin 7 days a week
(back to pre covid)
- hoping to do this by next semester
- opening for grocer (la verdes)
- possibility in march
- really nice concept
- small 24/7 space with food owned by the grocer
- how does this work if the stud is not 24/7
- to clarify: do not have vendor signed currently but working on it (sounded like it was pretty set but will clarify further)
- how to get more grad students in the stud
- pretty much mostly undergrads rn
- dining hall concerns
- some food was advertised as halal but was not actually
- following up on this with bon appetit
- getting chopstick in all the dining halls
- getting hand sanitizer
- some food was advertised as halal but was not actually
- figuring out which consulting group they will hire
- lots of focus groups
- how to make dining semi not completely fail and lose 3 million
dollars a year just on dining halls :’)
- rehaul everything but figuring out to what extent
- will be pretty comprehensive
- got some updates on the stud of what movement looks like for vendors
in the stud (dunkin, teado, 2nd floor)
- meeting with mark and heather
- underclass rep (geoffrey/hanu):
- next mural pilot
- waiting for p card stuff before major blick order
- reached out to maya annes(?) (original next house mural policy
drafter) and she said “my strategy was to ask for permission and
interpret it creatively. and be friends with night watch, know where
the stash of extra paint is so you can repair”
- jordan: ++ on being friends with facilities
- excited to potentially meet with interesting individual
- hrs is looking into updating mural policy stated on website
- pretty interested in having student input (sent to some students)
- trying to see how to expand this to other dorms, not just those with history of murals
- next mural pilot
- cpw/rex (temkin/daniel):
- yfn rex chair
- had post-mortem meeting with tasha (dsl coordinator)
- welcome week committee meeting
- we said what we wanted to say
- the things said by others were not really expected
- TEMKIN: we were really annoyed because blackout times were added last minute
- the meeting went silent for a bit
- megan: so parent orientation..
- “seems like everything else went well and welcome week was sups’ happy”
- consolidated information
- early return dates
- food policy
- dining hall access on the 26th
- requiring providing of meals was expensive and should not have been pushed onto students
- ids not being printed by default for new students (except for intl
students)
- undergrad advising center is taking that one on for some reason
- dsl tasha meeting for rex things
- mentioned safety and she didn’t care much
- new funding system
- interested to see if this would be applied for cpw
- let your cpw chairs know
- funding by request (always been the case for admissions, but we will do this too)
- admission officers coming to events (tried to push more onto cpw
events because that is more their deal)
- half of them came
- rex feedback form https://forms.gle/b4VXaQJfGP8H86T36
- please send us feedback
- was sent to dorms-prez and rex chairs
- about half the dorms have given feedback so far
- q’s:
- will the dining halls be open next year?
- ads seemed to like
- apparently financial burden
- fsilg feedback
- want to see how next year will turn out
- start planning early, like feb
- going to try to push so students don’t need to feed everyone
- will the dining halls be open next year?
- Secretary
- no updates
- p/vp (mitali/rebecca):
- had president training
- thank to those who came!
- let us know of feedback of how that went
- first time running this sort of thing, so want to make this better for next time
- feedback:
- mateo: brainstorming session of what is and isn’t president’s job was very helpful. really stuck with me
- jordan: made me think about how I’m being president wrong (no jordan you’re doing great <3)
- covid communications
- pushing hrs to do more about this
- they are working on this and we haven’t seen it yet but will hopefully see it soon
- helen: working with hohs to help students access limited number of
cots for students. covid test kits are available (for purchase - $10
for 1 and $40 for 5) at medstop for mit medical. hohs and ads are
good resources.
- btw the us gov is giving out free covid tests
- met with people from hrs (including lusi <3) and gender identity
initiative
- short term changes and long term developments
- not using incorrect names in starrez
- general data privacy within those systems
- ongoing conversation
- if you have any thoughts on this, send them to p/vp!
- had president training
Agenda
- apple picking updates (nate)
- tuesday oct 10
- basically done with booking buses. found cheaper buses so cost per person is <$30 (~$28), around $20 for bus, rest for apple picking
- we booked 448 spots and there are 480 interest submissions but people are
probably going to flake at least a little bit
- if there is a concern for this talk to me
- will send out form to collect names so we have concrete numbers and hold people accountable
- ifc updates after prez updates!
President updates
- simmons (ananda):
- simmons is great!
- hoping to organize next/mcc/simmons fall formal with social chairs. if not simmons is having 21st birthday bash
- things are going well otherwise
- next (sruthi):
- nothing new in next
- currently voting on wing reps, approving budget
- trying to have housewide event for painting murals
- new (camacho):
- our gras have not gotten their money
- they are floating off of ad budget rn
- trying to discuss this and the rex situation
- ec (jordan):
- our community liaison (subsitute for gra) has gotten money and has gotten a lot of money. apparently money all of the gras had apparently?
- started talking to random about potentially making east-side commons
(ec/random/maybe some other ilgs/frats)
- so esf and other “east-side” events can be not just ec running them
- approved budget yesterday
- did walk through of space in w20 basement
- the one bc had
- hopefully moving stuff in soon
- bc (cameron):
- night watch was telling people in suites to not be drinking
- historically allowed to drink in suites because suites are kitchen space where you would store alcohol typically
- will probably end up resolving this
- maybe some new night watch
- now know who is in charge of night watch (sean dursh?)
- travel things
- forms you have to fill out
- cannot just rfp things if it is for a trip
- still have not received frosh money
- no one else has
- might be nice to follow up with that
- lusi thinks this happens in early oct
- dormcon rex money might be a lil delayed
- trying to get house tax before this
- pls remember to have dormcon tax taken ($5/person)
- spring 2022 issue:
- some accounts were about to negative for that
- so please take it into account
- had a meeting with david (+ geoffrey)
- about panels in bc
- as soon as we come up with fundraising plan for funding ⅓ of cost of
panels is ready to start installing panels around bc
- planning on relying on alumni donations
- have never sent anything to our alumni
- got some help last year after the reopening through alum office
- going to do some fundraising
- going to tell david all this money is going to come from
- ok to not pay all right now but have plan to pay over next couple years
- seems like he is ready to start installing, nice surprise
- how much?
- 5 of 9 floors. more burton-side (significantly bigger)
- quoted $87k for all that, so funding $29k
- initially was $1M???? lol
- only on one side of one wall
- providing coverage where we don’t have canvases
- not on all floors of the building
- helen wang interested in connecting on fundraising
- will follow up on alum fundraising
- donation link that goes straight to house funds
- does work
- night watch was telling people in suites to not be drinking
- maseeh (mark):
- also planning maseeh formal in october
- issue: getting charged for someone else’s laundry?
- happened to a couple people
- not sure if this is widespread
- seems personal
- cameron: just saw status of another dryer but not charged I think
- will go back and double check
- never sign up, get a friend to refer you
- Baker (katie):
- carnival on sunday with dunk tank
- alum fundraising to fix gym
- having dinner to help with that
- let us know if you want to connect with helen wang on this!
- Macgregor (tyler):
- might start a makerspace
- social chairs are trying to figure something out
- also want to start murals, many requests
- house manager (bob) is a little bit…)
- random (sara):
- secretary elections
- our ad does lots of events
- longstanding tradition of meet and greet someone from mit pd to talk
about city safety
- last year this got pushback because sergeant came in full weapon
- but now in clean clothes
- how to better communicate with ad and student leaders about when and what events can be held
- most events are fine and normal but there was this issue
- longstanding tradition of meet and greet someone from mit pd to talk
about city safety
- mccormick (stella):
- facility problems
- elevator broken at least once each day
- we have residents who need elevators because of disabilities. great concern for community
- had open town hall with hrs and elevator company to discuss issues
- don’t think they made any changes to elevator but maybe replaced a lightbulb
- is there any support we can get from dormcon on this?
- elevator parts no longer being produced so we can do nothing about it?
- in future renovations they will probably replace the elevator but nothing rn
- jordan: can try to talk to rich and david (next thurs), email dormcon-housing-chairs@mit.edu with updates before then
- cameron: generally can email hrs through rich and then cc us so we
can follow up at meetings.
- helps a lot in bringing up issues at meetings
- laundry server outage
- not sure if mit is doing anything to make sure that doesn’t happen
- cameron: brought up previous outage (down for entire day). talking to csc about getting auto status updates sent out. good thing to bring up again
- re elect on social chair
- a little slow on apple picking but working on it
- facility problems
- new vassar (mateo):
- elections last week. half the gov re elected
- emailed keith moser early this week on guest list policy
- cameron: email housing-security@mit.edu reaches a wider group of people. keith might respond faster if that is cc’ed. keith is the guy but that is the crew.
mitali: suzy meeting tomorrow. going to talk about house team relationships because some tensions or someone is not as supportive as they could be. will be broader conversation about what the role of a house team is. and where they should be supporting you. and then we can go back if anyone is not filling that role or interacting in the way they should be. since this has been a concern in the past and have heard concerns this year.
rebecca: distributing dormcon funding for rex. if this is causing a large financial burden on your dorm come talk to us and we can sort it out. thank you all for your patience.
IFC
- grace: hi I am grace. ifc vp. senior, part of xi fellowship. want to discuss a
few areas we can work together in.
- mitali: so you wanna talk about those areas
- housing, dormspam, ifc philanthropy campus-wide
- housing:
- lots of ifc houses accept boarders
- was a request last spring to talk with dormcon and communicate where those opportunities are
- trying to start a hub to see which places are taking boarders. looking
for feedback on what this might look like
- jordan: people on housing waitlist are big group. if you take leave and then want to move back into the dorms you have to get on waitlist. we can talk to hrs and say ifc has this document and they can have a list of people who might be interested. to start, a spreadsheet with house, email this address. and list restrictions/rules.
- grace: planning on adding page to ifc website. will take time and need to reach out to all organizations
- is there a period in which this should be posted?
- jordan: there is timeline for housing waitlist
- lusi: when students reach out to hrs about off campus housing options, we would direct them to fsilg housing email managed by fsilg office who would point students toward houses looking for boarders. connect with fsilg website and have them direct to your webpage
- grace: we have fsilg advisor who we work with. and process isn’t too straightforward
- jordan: deadline for students to cancel housing is may 15 ish. there may be people who don’t want to live in a dorm anymore but may want to live off campus and interested in houses looking for boarders. waitlist usually opens march or april.
- grace: currently people reach out to houses and coordinate with them without fsilg office
- cameron: advice is make it easy to updates since you are not too centralized.
- working on integrating more with campus
- creating our own dormspam list, was going to do in spring but got pushed onto me
- how to run dormspam lists?
- mateo: two real options.
- new vassar has mailman list called new-vassar-forum.
- main benefit from mailman is you can add filters on what email can go out
- drawback is you have to add people through a website
- other option is moira but doesn’t allow filter stuff
- as long as you have a list of kerbs easy to add a bunch of people
- new vassar has mailman list called new-vassar-forum.
- updating by hand?
- moira you don’t have to (athena)
- letting people opt in/opt out?
- we were going to automatically put people on
- jordan: ec has public list called ec-discuss which everyone can join. can be good and bad because we have alums on it. we also use it for nonsense and not just dormspam. if you want it to be just dormspam might be reason to make it a mailman list
- cameron: bc has same thing. but I add all frosh at the beginning of the year and then they can opt out
- cameron: make sure your list is added to how-to-dormspam
- jordan: might need to do some pubbing
- mitali: make sure people know about how-to-dormspam website which has best practices and helps people to filter.
- geoffrey: pls don’t be another baker forum where you have to get a baker resident to forward it
- katie: baker residents hate dormspam even filtered
- grace: ifc exec is filtering a bunch of mailing lists already, not interested in adding more
- temkin: curious to know who runs how-to-dormspam?
- no one knows?
- ifc trying to improve presence on campus
- philanthropy event, is dormcon interested in partnering with us?
- interested in making this a yearly thing
- going to be running ifc olympics and going to open to lots of organizations outside fraternities
- pub chair suddenly disappeared over the summer :’(
- is this separate from bbq for mit police
- going to bring this back
- have enough funds for this and more
- idea of packing food
- interested in some sort of social event that increases connections
- any questions? or what can the ifc do for you?
- ananda: how are you doing?
- from the perspective of the ifc things are fine
- vp doesn’t really have designated role separate from running prez retreat so can run any initiatives I want
- dormspam has been common complaint
- ananda: how are you doing?
- looking forward to being main point of contact for the semester!
- ty grace for coming!!!
- you are welcome to keep coming to dormcon events
- very interesting vibes, very different from ifc pres meetings
- also dormcon is a meme :p
are we ending on time? :0 [meeting adjourned]