Oh, Plenary.
Sep. 27th, 2009 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
faded_laceOh, Plenary. With only two resolutions, I've still been here for an hour and a half. And I showed up 1 hour late. And we reached quorum like 20 minutes after I got here.
(For those of you who don't know, Plenary is this thing we have at Bryn Mawr where people suggest resolutions to the Bryn Mawr Constitution and then they are discussed and voted on. Because the Bryn Mawr student body is run by Self Governance and run almost entirely on the honour code, this is something that's really important to how we operate. Quorum is the number of people we need to have voting count, and this year it's like 433 or something... damn. However, it's still a pain in the ass.)
This year, we had one really not-controversial resolution (Written consent for sharing of private information discussed in counseling sessions, rather than verbal consent) a really controversial one, whether or not Haverford students should be allowed to be Hall Advisors, Dorm Presidents, and other elected positions of dorm leadership.
Honestly, the fact that this resolution was made out of one Haverford student's spite for not being allowed to be an HA or Dorm President, even before I heard the resolution as it was written, I was against it. I mean, Bryn Mawr is a tightly-knit community (not how we're sometimes jokingly or not so jokingly referred to as a cult) and traditions, some of which involve secrecy and the exclusion of all outside parties including Haverford students, means that no one but a Bryn Mawr student could really understand the responsibility needed of these positions. Additionally, despite the fact that there are some students at Bryn Mawr who don't identify as women, there is a difference between a student who has a Bryn Mawr experience and someone who doesn't, and people might not feel comfortable going to an HA who was not a Bryn Mawr student. On top of that, students are not able to choose their Hall Advisor. Whether an incoming freshman who has no idea or a returning student who participated in room draw, one would not have the option to choose a hall with a Bryn Mawr HA, but would be stuck with whoever they got.
Apparently, a lot of people felt the same way as me, because like >9000 amendments were made to the resolution, but I'm still not voting for it. We've been sitting on the resolution for an hour and a half, and we're finally voting on the resolution as a whole. It's been, as expected, kind of a blood bath. However, there was an amusing moment:
Person at the Pro-mike: Point of information: In the 60s, there were Haverford students as Dorm Presidents and in Leadership positions, so it's not a new concept.
Person at the stage mike: Point of information: THINGS HAVE CHANGED.
They got in trouble for that, but it was the high point of my afternoon.
(For those of you who don't know, Plenary is this thing we have at Bryn Mawr where people suggest resolutions to the Bryn Mawr Constitution and then they are discussed and voted on. Because the Bryn Mawr student body is run by Self Governance and run almost entirely on the honour code, this is something that's really important to how we operate. Quorum is the number of people we need to have voting count, and this year it's like 433 or something... damn. However, it's still a pain in the ass.)
This year, we had one really not-controversial resolution (Written consent for sharing of private information discussed in counseling sessions, rather than verbal consent) a really controversial one, whether or not Haverford students should be allowed to be Hall Advisors, Dorm Presidents, and other elected positions of dorm leadership.
Honestly, the fact that this resolution was made out of one Haverford student's spite for not being allowed to be an HA or Dorm President, even before I heard the resolution as it was written, I was against it. I mean, Bryn Mawr is a tightly-knit community (not how we're sometimes jokingly or not so jokingly referred to as a cult) and traditions, some of which involve secrecy and the exclusion of all outside parties including Haverford students, means that no one but a Bryn Mawr student could really understand the responsibility needed of these positions. Additionally, despite the fact that there are some students at Bryn Mawr who don't identify as women, there is a difference between a student who has a Bryn Mawr experience and someone who doesn't, and people might not feel comfortable going to an HA who was not a Bryn Mawr student. On top of that, students are not able to choose their Hall Advisor. Whether an incoming freshman who has no idea or a returning student who participated in room draw, one would not have the option to choose a hall with a Bryn Mawr HA, but would be stuck with whoever they got.
Apparently, a lot of people felt the same way as me, because like >9000 amendments were made to the resolution, but I'm still not voting for it. We've been sitting on the resolution for an hour and a half, and we're finally voting on the resolution as a whole. It's been, as expected, kind of a blood bath. However, there was an amusing moment:
Person at the Pro-mike: Point of information: In the 60s, there were Haverford students as Dorm Presidents and in Leadership positions, so it's not a new concept.
Person at the stage mike: Point of information: THINGS HAVE CHANGED.
They got in trouble for that, but it was the high point of my afternoon.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 09:58 pm (UTC)Republicanspeople were trying to bring ROTC back to Columbia. They kept saying things like "The original reason they got rid of it in the 60s wasn't Don't Ask Don't Tell, you know," and we were like "...your point?"But I hope Plenary worked out okay in the end...
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:57 am (UTC)It did :D They amended that shit and then it didn't even get passed, so. XD; All was well in the end.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:58 am (UTC)Cool~ I love Bryn Mawr and the community a lot! It's too bad you didn't come ;___;
Re:
Date: 2012-07-23 04:52 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMzgVshG6CI