SGA Update

Cook Senator Georgia Grace Edwards ’18 opened the Oct. 18 meeting by introducing the idea of a campus-wide speed-dating event hosted by SGA, citing the occasion as a good way for SGA to connect with students. Senators considered hosting the event in Ross Dining Hall during the week following the spring semester’s midterms, or on Valentine’s Day.
The meeting continued with the appointment of First-Year Senators Charles Rainey ’19, Kieran Parikh ’19 and Junior Senator Pam Schulman ’17 to the Residential Life Committee. The committee holds monthly open meetings that address issues of residential housing policy, building policy, room draw and social and academic interest housing with members of the dining and custodial facilities.
SGA President Ilana Gratch ’16 then updated the SGA on her biweekly meetings with President of the College Laurie L. Patton. Gratch said, “Being in regular communication with President Patton and the rest of the Senior Leadership Group has been so essential in ensuring that students are, when possible, at the table for discussions that affect our lives.”
The focus of the meeting then shifted to the topic of student mental health. She announced that Vice President for Student Affairs Katy Smith Abbott, Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrea Lloyd and Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernandez developed a three-year plan for improving student mental health and will present their work to the SGA.
SGA Directors of the Health and Wellness Rachel Copulsky ’16 and Emma Erwin ’15.5 then led a presentation on the developing effort to address and alleviate stress. Currently, they have been hosting dinners in Atwater suites for a group of ten students to share their perspective on mental health.
“We will continue to expand our invitational pool and continue to reach a variety of students bearing different voices,” Erwin said.
The Health and Wellness Committee has also drafted a poster that includes a comprehensive list of all the resources on campus that serve specific health and wellness purposes. The poster is currently being reviewed by Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor and Director of Health and Wellness Education Barbara McCall, who will have a draft sent to the communications office. It is aimed to be distributed by the end of the fall semester.
Larson Lovdal ’16.5 then led a presentation on the Ian Burgin Memorial Lodge. After Ian Burgin ’08 was killed in a car accident in 2010, his family proposed the idea to build a lodge in his memory. Last fall, Lovdal and four other students began fundraising, designing the cabin and applying for construction permits.
The total construction budget is $100,000. Lovdal and his team have already raised $25,000 through crowdfunding and were allocated an additional $40,000 by the SGA. On Oct. 31, Lovdal was informed that his grant for $35,000 had been denied by the Fund for Innovation. He will meet with Vice President for College Advancement Michael Schoenfeld to discuss future funding options.
“We are looking forward to creating a space for current and future students to decompress from the pressures of life at Middlebury and enjoy the spectacular place that surrounds them,” Lovdal said.
The Oct. 18 meeting concluded with a proposal by Ross Senator Trisha Singh ’18 to semi-randomize first-year housing assignments such that roommates would be based solely on lifestyle preferences such as smoking, bedtimes and social habits.
“I have noticed that first-year housing assignments don’t seem to be random, and usually socioeconomically similar people room together. I believe that if socioeconomically different people room together, they would be prompted to see the other person as an individual, rather than identifying that person by their appearance or the social group they belong to,” Singh said.