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DormCon GBM 02/27/2025

Date: 27 February 2025
Location: Maseeh
Attendees:

note

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

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

Full minutes​

Exec Updates​

  • Housing
    • Summer housing form is open :)) there will be a form in mid-March
    • Intent form is closed, meeting with HRS and RCL
    • RCL has tight budget so being stingier
    • HRS wants to meet monthly instead of biweekly :(
  • Dining
    • Concord Market is opening on March 11th (for Bianca’s birthday!!)
    • because Concord Market is opening, they took the vending machines out of the Stud 😭
    • trying to get FSAT back up and running (Food Security Action Team)
    • Gabe met with Next dining chair - working closely with HOM, trying to have more direct line of feedback
    • trying to collaborate, schedule meeting with all dining chairs
    • House Dining Committee
      • many people got email, not clear who’s actually supposed to go?
      • maybe everyone who used to be on house dining committees ?
      • no longer at 8am at Maseeh O.O
      • if there’s no dining chair for a dorm - can either elect one, or presidents can just go themselves
  • JudComm
    • special election for tech chair is Happening today
    • sent form to dorms@ and dormspam, but 0 responses (as per usual…)
    • hopefully someone runs 🥺
  • Treasurer
    • no updates, budget is budgeting
  • REX/CPW
    • deadline for event allocations
    • dorm REX chairs should have got email with document + form where you can request additional event slots (both regular + signature events) - deadline is Friday!!
    • question: what do you see as the max # of events dorm could have?
      • varies among dorms
      • they’ll give preference to dorms who have a plan for what they’ll use them for
      • the global cap is 215
      • initial allocation was ~80% of total
    • DormCon will be planning a CPW event or events, will be cursed, role-playing, PowerPoint karaoke, fighting admin
      • if more dorm presidents want to be involved in planning 👀 let Ananda know
  • i3
    • no updates
  • UC rep
    • met with Mark and Heather
    • dining is really complicated. structure in an InterestingTM way
    • having swipes at Stata requires a Sacrifice (e.g., murdering a dining hall?)
    • Eugenie asked what would be a good idea, they said even getting rid of a dining hall would be hard because of union stuff and they have nine vendors
      • apparently no other college does this?
    • how long has Bon Appetit’s contract now been extended to?
      • till when McCormick closes
      • keeps being one year more… one year more…
      • Everything Right Now Is Bad
        • “in this economy?”
      • MIT skeptical on major reform rn
  • Secretary
    • one GBM likely to be rescheduled since it’s during CPW
  • President (except Vice President)
    • Ananda’s one brain cell is half gone 🙁
      • Jordan is Out 🙁
      • visiting grad school :D
      • month till we see them both together again 🙁
    • met with Suzy et. al.
      • Student Life survey coming out in next month or so, happens every couple years, response rates are bad and declining
        • met with survey people
        • dorm with highest response rate gets MONEY
        • they do this for post-REX and Random always wins 😀
      • thanks to feedback from DormCon - the goal is for people to feel like by filling out survey, they’re doing something/things will happen?
        • presidents/DormCon will get results 👀
    • going to have a meeting March 14th for High-Level Dining Committee!!
      • expect TEA
    • Mark is retiring
      • DormCon is getting him a gift - will involve a surprise
      • Ananda has emailed Peter Cummings, Peter schedules a meeting that’s actually a surprise party, there will be cards, food, maybe something shark-themed, if anyone else (esp people who have worked with Mark) want to join
        • reach out to Ananda
      • will happen in next 2 weeks
    • working on Field Day
      • IFC and PanHel also want to organize one
        • Ananda’s competitive streak is activated

Tech Chair Election​

  • What tech chair does?
    • they’re in charge of tech for DormCon
    • mostly update website
    • any projects
      • e.g., meetings about StarRez or MyCard
      • maintaining or improving website
    • really all they have to do is update names of exec and minutes on the website :)
  • can come vibe at DormCon exec :)
    • with Cindy!!
  • we must become influencers.
  • nominations?
    • “you are allowed to nominate people without their consent”
    • Skateboard (Temkin’s cat) has been nominated, but is not here
    • Leo nominated, declines
    • apparently we are now harassing people in Maseeh dining
      • never mind!! we have a person!!
  • Candidate: Haylea
    • Why they want to run? No one in Maseeh Dining was likely to take up the offer, has done some amount of website editing in HTML
    • lives on Conner 2 in BC (British?)
  • Questions
    • most recent website experience
      • updated BC website (though that’s Google Sites)
    • favorite color?
      • purple
    • have you started the fluids p-set
      • “no, we’re starting on Saturday”
      • it’s due next Wednesday! they’re cooking!
    • do you know Temkin?
      • “yeah, loosely”
    • victim of Engage - has fought with it many times
      • MIT’s event website
    • other extracurriculars?
      • BC secretary
      • Debate
      • one of the UA committee’s for Public Affairs
    • have you made a mailing list?
      • many.
    • you want to do this, right?
      • yes
    • can use Athena dialup?
      • yes
    • if there were meetings about dormspam/engage/starrez, would they be interested in going?
      • yes.
  • candidate is Departing.
  • we are white-balloting.
    • objections? no.
      • Haylea has been elected!!
  • has been knighted with Cindy. it’s an honor.

Rescheduling CPW GBM​

  • don’t want to add more on people’s plates for current April 17th GBM
  • could reschedule for earlier that week, or cancel exec meeting and put it in a different week
  • currently scheduled for BC - need to see if BC can host at the new time
  • Jackson - makes most sense to replace an exec meeting with GBM? so that people don’t have other commitments
  • following GBM (May 1st) is elections
    • last “real” GBM
  • April 24th vs 10th?
  • Jackson - maybe April 24th so it’s closer to end of semester, since following one won’t really be real
  • April 24th at 7pm - dorms can check?
  • BC should be ok with hosting then

REX.​

  • OFY always wants to have blackout times with no events till 7pm. usually end up with a bad compromise, process isn’t as good as it should be
  • no REX events at all before 7pm :(
    • because people aren’t showing up to Orientation events
  • they’re not Supposed to be fun, they’re supposed to be informative :/
    • they can do things in a fun way
    • what they’re doing won’t get people to show up
    • combined expertise - we could help them run better events?
  • there are already blackout times during the day
    • gets stressful for REX chairs - when they change the blackout time at the last moment
    • I remember this 🙁
  • meals are also always a question - should they be blackout times?
  • blackout = Orientation + meals
  • what would satisfy dorms?
  • Hanu - what’s their idea of what prefrosh do that whole time? if they black out all the time before 7pm?
    • Farin - they had a brief meeting with OFY, blackout times exist so there’s no competition between official events + REX events, not clear why it would be more strict than when the orientation events are - events would be like 10-12 or 2-4
    • other question - if REX events have food and people don’t go to dining, there’s a food insecurity concern
    • what is a successful orientation?
      • other option could be online module - if people don’t show up, they could do the module instead
      • they want people to Have the info
      • they take attendance at events, people who don’t show up can do online module
    • clarifying question from Bianca - as a prefrosh, there were modules over the summer that took a while, unclear why more is needed
      • question of improving the modules?
    • Gabe - modules are still a thing, but they’re outsourced (not directly from MIT)
      • some content is irrelevant, doesn’t have stuff like 617-253-1212
    • presentations at orientation are largely outsourced
      • sex talk from improv group
      • other DEI guy
      • they’re trying to make them more in-house
  • benefit to modules - you have to answer questions afterwards
    • do mandatory orientation events actually make a difference? modules might not be great either, but at least you have to answer questions?
  • Ananda - universities have to do orientation events for legality/liability reasons
    • no one else has REX, other places just have orientation
  • Geoffrey - on CUP with Farin - had meeting about orientation that included Elizabeth
    • main focus was ASEs, but also touched on orientation
    • discretion because it’s an Institute committee
    • all the orientation things happen because of a freshman death in 1997
    • OFY would be very against moving things to online modules, they find these things important, it’s hard to convince them to move something like alcohol abuse or sexual assault modules to different platform, and in this political climate
      • if it makes the news that MIT removes Inclusion event for first years
    • Helena has been an orientation leader and a first year
      • not advocating for removing orientation events
      • if they’re worried about competition - why isn’t it just split them - make one two days and the other two days
      • Farin - they did bring that up, it was discussed
        • they had a reason why it wouldn’t be good, but doesn’t recall what it was, will bring it up again
    • Haylea - they know all this and know a lot of what they’re going to say, we know that blacking out All the time will not make frosh go
      • another framing
      • if there’s nothing all day, people are more likely to go off somewhere for the day or go to unofficial REX events
      • REX events between orientation events will keep the frosh around and on campus
    • Jackson - if REX events are blacked out till 7pm, there will be a ton of events at night and they’ll run late
      • other natural consequence - fewer REX events
    • Ella - clarification to what Farin said
      • concerned about food security - mealtime events provide more food
      • orientation and dining are supposed to provide the food, but if people skip those and just eat junk food at REX events, also bad for people with allergies or strict dietary requirements
      • then people can Choose between REX events and dining
      • Elizabeth has heard students say things like, they go to a REX event and there’s no food, but by the time they leave, the Orientation event with food has ended
      • if people are following their friends, they’re not as likely to go find food elsewhere
      • should clarify to frosh they shouldn’t be relying on REX events for food?
      • would be good to have clearer info on REX events on exactly what kind of food will be there
        • e.g., which dietary restrictions are met, snacks vs. full meal
    • other idea - adding an extra day of REX that doesn’t conflict with Orientation
      • problem is that parents are around :(
      • we don’t want parents around during REX
      • requires moving move-in day by a day?
    • this convo happens every year - goal is to tackle this early, animosity between OFY and REX chairs/people in dorms
      • at the end of the day - we all want the prefrosh to feel welcome and prepared!!
    • Bianca - as a prefrosh, was told by upperclassmen which Orientation events were worth going to, has now told prefrosh which ones are good
      • there is a network of informal communication where upperclassmen tell prefrosh what’s worth doing
      • Ananda - OFY complains about this (students telling prefrosh not to go)
        • then, shouldn’t give the prefrosh an Option not to go
        • attendance has been decreasing in past couple years
    • Jackson - during REX/orientation, felt like needed to go to orientation events, was sad because there were REX events that conflicted with orientation events :(
      • theoretically, not supposed to conflict
    • Gabriel - argument against providing tangible consequence to not showing up?
      • there would be backlash, admin doesn’t let them
      • MIT is not like other girls
      • not that crazy to have a consequence for not attending?
    • Jackson - could be deal to take attendance for events, but only for most important ones, and then have less strict blackout times?
    • Helena - what is the consequence of not attending?
    • Orientation is so long, every day, isn’t worth time, too early in the morning :(
    • shorten orientation schedule? get same info
    • if REX events only at 7pm, they’ll run late and people will sleep late
    • the upperclassmen are going to be around, doing Something…
    • they’re worried about the fire hose, REX+Orientation being Too Much
      • especially Helen
      • tumult of everything at once
      • hard to get it across to them that it’s Not too much, “MIT is a firehose, at least this one’s kind of fun” - Ananda
    • it’s really important to bond with people during REX, getting to know living community
    • moving some things to modules would be good (disperse over summer) - if you don’t go to event, have to do training module
    • REX events keep prefrosh on campus! otherwise people just Go To Boston
    • purpose of REX events - for students to decide where they want to live - important for people to be able to make informed decision?
      • vast majority of students stay in their dorms
      • not the Most important goal of REX anymore
      • more about getting to know people
  • hopefully will improve system and maybe have fewer problems in the future?

President Updates​

  • New House
    • having exec meetings
    • want to have a mixer, if any dorms interested?
    • also making merch!
      • reach out to Temkin
  • Baker
    • none
  • Random
    • successfully filled last exec position
    • had to run multiple elections
    • moving forward with attempt to formalize cat policy - they’ve soft-approved, but they’re also not fully approving it yet because they want to do it at the same time as EC, to standardize communication processes
      • procrastinating
  • McCormick
    • no major updates
    • house gov meeting
    • looking for dining chair
  • EC
    • currently in process of searching for associate head of house and gras, have offered six of them spots in EC (!), doing interview for associate head of house
    • budgeting makerspace, music room, kitchens
      • spending $46,000 on music room, $45,000 to single piano (????)
      • maybe some other stuff?
      • that is going to be a killer piano
    • Simmons CPW chairs are beefing with them and Random?
      • why?
      • for # of events??
    • 11 or 12 candidates for associate HoH
  • Simmons
    • about CPW chair beef
      • Eugenie - “I was not a part of that”
      • “they just decided to do that. they’re kind of competitive. it’s all fun and games.”
        • “until someone gets colonized.”
    • also doing GRA interviews (looking for 2)
    • more issues with people stealing food
      • same suspects
    • people are suspicious since confession posts
  • Next
    • not that many updates
    • first house team meeting
    • people voted on budget
    • planning for formal
    • also having piano issues - they have a grand piano, but it’s out of tune - could either repair or replace - replacing all the finger pads?
    • talking to dining chair about ways to have students more involved in what they eat
  • New Vassar
    • new Instagram
  • MacGregor
    • elected RACs
    • thousands of dollars of hydroponics (?)
    • someone is really excited about growing peppers?
      • they’re going to make MacGregor hot sauce??
  • BC
    • mostly internal stuff, allocating stuff post budget meeting
    • Rishika wanted them to ask - people working on HRS fire stuff?
      • a bunch of floor chairs WANT to be the smoky floor
      • that’s a Temkin question
      • make sure Rishika is looped in
  • Maseeh
    • nothing too crazy, just got parliamentarian, in charge of floor reps
    • floor reps approved budget
    • trying to redo basement, expanding gym, getting rid of media room, game room, changing dance space into craft room?
    • boat cruise on April 13th - DormCon is invited 👀
    • Ananda can be Helena’s plus one 🥺
    • assistant AD is leaving :(

IF people are interested in helping with CPW event or Mark’s retirement - reach out to Ananda!!