Community Council Year in Review

Author: Ben Salkowe




JS Woodward, student co-chair of Community Council, may not have scored all of his campaign promises this past year, but moved the big ones and took up multiple issues which arose in the year.

"Overall, I'm quite happy with the way this year turned out, especially considering the huge number of people and human hours diverted to the Strategic Planning Initiative," said Woodward. "If anyone thought last spring was frustrating because few people were willing to discuss new ideas because President McCardell was stepping down, this year has been five times worse because the College is orientating itself on a new, yet to be developed six-year plan."

Woodward's primary campaign concern last spring was improving on-campus social life. "The administration openly expresses worry that too many students are going off campus to party. The solution is simple: give the students incentive to stay on campus," he told The Campus in a pre-election interview. In his campaign, Woodward's biggest social life initiatives were reopening more lounges for parties, extending party hours and opening the Center for the Arts (CFA) for student activity use. In the past year most of the Council's progress on social life issues was in revising the alcohol policies in the College Handbook, which were the first item addressed by the SGA last fall.

The alcohol policy revisions included a number of changes to promote the hosting of parties. Hosts are now better protected from a state law that restricts open containers of alcohol from being carried in public spaces. The law means that even of-age students cannot have open containers of alcohol, for example, when walking across campus. Before the policy revisions students who broke the law were subjected only to citations, while the hosts were fined. Under the revisions, now the students with open containers receive warnings at first notice, and are fined $50 for each subsequent violation.

Additionally, the policy revisions led to the creation of "senior common rooms" where of-age students may consume alcohol. Of-age students can also now host small "gatherings" in their rooms, suites or houses, and serve alcohol without registering the event.

"I feel that I achieved my primary [social life] objectives, which largely centered on alcohol policy," said Woodward. "I've heard fewer complaints from students of-age and fewer complaints about the party registration process."

Another top priority for Woodward was promoting the student voice on campus. "I feel that students really learned this year that they can speak and be heard. This was illustrated in the non-discrimination issue, as well as the petitions against the SGA proposed security cameras in the dining halls," said Woodward. "I only hope that this trend continues and will do my best to encourage it."

The "non-discrimination issue" was arguably the most prominent debate within the 2004-2005 Community Council. When a military recruiter used an exception in the College's non-discrimination clause to hold an information session, and then recruit on-campus, despite the military's discriminatory recruiting policies, the Community Council found itself in the midst of a national debate over whether to allow the recruiters to continue using the College's facilities. Woodward worked with Co-Chair Ann Hanson, dean of Student Affairs, to hold community forums on the policy which ultimately led the Council to recommend policy revisions that would prevent discriminatory employers from participating in the College's recruitment programs, but still would allow them to speak on campus.

Another of Woodward's campaign promises was separating the intramural sports from the commons system. Many students have been frustrated by the administrations pushing of the intramural sports onto the commons framework. Woodward conceded he had not been able to make any headway this year on that issue. "Some issues seem to simply not be on the table for discussion, which is unfortunate," he said.

Finally, Woodward campaigned on a slew of environmental initiatives. Those included reviving the Midd CUPPS, which provides reusable plastic mugs for incoming first-years, improving the Dish Revovery System (DRS) and working to implement the Carbon Reduction Initiative (CRI).

"I'm quite happy to say that CUPPS will be continuing, though to be honest, it has nothing to do with me. It was simply worked out within the administration." The DRS, however, saw its doom at the end of last Winter Term when Matthew Biette, director of Dining Services, decided it had become an extended room service for students, and pulled the plug.

"The DRS issue was more complex than I had originally anticipated and incredibly frustrating. They were failures on all sides and I don't feel that all parties involved invested what was necessary to make it work, as a consequence, the program had to be dismantled," said Woodward.

Progress on the implementation of the CRI has trudged along - Farrel Vending, which manages the vending machines across campus, installed vending misers on all refrigerated vending machines on-campus to reduce energy consumption. There is also a possibility that one of the antiquated boilers in the service building will be replaced with "biomass boilers," which release less carbon when used.

Woodward's platform in his re-election campaign does contain some leftovers from last year - most notably a renewed pledge to increase the presence of student, public art on the campus.Woodward says now that while the Council was able to make progress on a number of his campaign promises, his platform for next year has also been molded by a new sense of what can be achieved in his position. "I feel I now have a better sense of what is possible and what will only turn into epic battles, he said. "More than anything, I've learned how difficult it is to plan more than a few weeks in advance in the dynamic that is the Middlebury administration."