Tuesday, April 9, 2019, 7:30-9:00Hopkins Hall 002

All College Council Meetings are open to the Williams Community. Anyone who wishes to speak before Council should contact Ellie or Olivia (eas6 or cot1).

Called to Order:

Guests/Proxies: Jake for Analytics Club, Oluseyi for black previews, Madeline, Kayli, Isabelle for WUFAAbsences:

I. Approval of Prior Minutes

Motion to approve: PorterSecond: TylerThe Ayes have it

II. Open Time

III. Budgets

Porter: Treestyle requesting for an event, Makahiki is planning on making and designing items and are hoping a club will come out of this, the plant sale is going to be giving out plants for cheap, VISTA is hosting the 15th anniversary of the Latinx studies department

being at Williams by hosting alumni and speakers, and anime club had their driver cancel

Max: my understanding for the Makahiki request is capital intensive, is that right?

Will: my understanding is they are all not one time use, but they are likely to be used several times in the future

Brendan: what do you mean anime club’s driver canceled?

Solly: they had a van going to Boston, but the driver can no longer drive them

Motion to approve the budgets Porter introduced in full: JesseSecond: MaxThe Ayes have it

Porter: the next is black previews. This event is to be hosted alongside previews specifically for black prefrosh. This request is for food.

Olivia: the Davis Center has reached out to me and has encouraged us not to fund this because the event is structured in an exclusionary manner. That goes against our bylaws and the Davis Center does not approve of exclusionary practices.

Oluseyi: I met with Bilal, and he told us that we needed anything we could reach out to him.

Olivia: when did you meet with him?

Oluseyi: Thursday

Olivia: I met with him Friday. Bilal told me you were running Black Previews as individual and not working with BSU through this

Oluseyi: Partially. I’m on the BSU board and we are coordinating with some of our BSU connections.

Olivia: is there any money coming from any other organizations or is it just CC?

Oluseyi: it’s just CC

Olivia: Bilal pulled me aside on Friday and asked me to not fund this

Tristan: If this isn’t being requested by BSU, who is requesting it?

Olivia: individuals

Linda: why is it not being requested through BSU?

Oluseyi: it’s just because we came up with this idea independent of BSU. The idea of this is to connect black prefrosh with students on campus and help them commit to Williams.

Jake: we’ve heard what this event is like from not you, but do you mind explaining what your plans for this event is?

Oluseyi: yes, as a student when I came to previews, I was very bored. A lot of the events at previews are very exclusive and do not really show students what it is like to be a black student at Williams. One night, we came to the idea of having a black previews. On the first night, for instance, we are planning on having an alternative dinner for black students because I remember the dinner being offered for previews being disgusting. On Wednesday, we were planning on having a darty of sorts so that prefrosh can meet current students and get to know what it is like to be at Williams. The next part doesn’t need funding, but we were planning on a black in academia panel where a group of current black students would be on a panel and answer questions from prefrosh. We would also have a panel of black athletes that could help incorporate prefrosh of color into the community. We would finish with an event that would be for prefrosh of color that aren’t just black to be more inclusive.

William: Olivia, you mentioned this violated the bylaws, which one?

Olivia: Yes, our bylaws say that events have to be open to all, and this is not.

Solly: what is with the budget discrepancy?

Oluseyi: yes, I had to update the budget. For the darty, our goal is to have a darty with a barbecue, but it may not be able to work out that way. Our backup plan was just to have a lot of snacks.

Alex: I had a clarifying question. Are these events supplemental to the current previews schedule or are they supplemental?

Oluseyi: some of them are alternatives, but they could also supplement. Like the dinner, for instance, prefrosh could go to the Previews dinner and then go to the other one after.

Brendan: If this isn’t sponsored by the administration, how do you plan on getting the word out to students?

Oluseyi: we have programs planned, and we are going to give the programs to black prefrosh hosts. Moreover, we have plans to give out the programs at the busses to black identifying students

Tristan: so previews are pretty soon, so if you don’t get funding from us, it wouldn’t be able to happen, correct?

Oluseyi: that’s probably correct.

Tristan: per our bylaws, we cannot fund anything that is exclusive. Seeing that, would you be willing to open up this event to all students?

Oluseyi: yes, I would be willing to do that

William: were you able to talk to the MinCo treasurer about this?

Oluseyi: No I haven’t, I was told CC would be able to give us the money

Motion to approve the funding with the condition that it is open to all of campus: WilliamSecond: ?9-10 The Nays have it

Jesse: is there a reason people are voting against this?

Solly: what does opening it to everyone mean? Before now, you were planning on handing programs exclusively to black identifying students, so with this, how would you change with this?

Oluseyi: an idea we touched about would be putting the programs into all of the folders. Giving them all the programs would allow everyone to come.

Solly: Brendan asked if these were supplemental versus optional, I think with the administration they would prefer prefrosh go to their events, right?

Oluseyi: we’ve worked closely with the schedule so that all the events I planned have been supplemental. Again, with the dinner, prefrosh can go after the Previews dinner

Linda: I think the exclusive aspect of this is resolved, and I can only think people with reservations are still making this call because there hasn’t been coordination with BSU or MinCo.

Tyler: the reason I’m still voting no is because I spoke with Bilal and I respect his call to say not to fund this

Oluseyi: what does it mean to be open to the entire campus, then?

Shane: I think the exclusivity issue has been resolved. If the program is in every folder and its entirely supplementary, I see no problem with funding it

Kai: I agree with Shane. I’d also like to remind everyone that the whole reason these two people are organizing this event because they felt not included by the administration and by College Council events. We go to a predominantly white institution and events that are ‘inclusive’ do not always feel inclusive

Serapia: I voted for this budget, but I wonder if the advertising was changed to say black students as well as allies would be welcome if that would fix people’s concerns

Jake: Have y’all worked with admissions at all? I think to do this with proper advertising and marketing would require to put this into Williams’ official flyers and schedules.

Oluseyi: I have worked very closely with Admissions, and that is why I said I planned the events to be supplemental

Lance: Olivia, did Bilal have any other concerns?

Olivia: I think the only other one may have been that he was unsure if there was administrative support behind thisAlice: did Bilal mention this in his meeting with you?

Oluseyi: no

Tristan: I think the question of MinCo funding is important here. I would certainly feel better about funding this if I knew there was some support from MinCo.

Margot: I voted no on this because I thought a lot of these events would force prefrosh to choose between your events and official events. As Shane mentioned, though, and I want to clarify, is it possible for all prefrosh to go to all events as well as your events?

Oluseyi: yes

Margot: that changes my vote.

William: one idea I have here is could we fund $795 for the barbecue and table the rest until after you go to MinCo? That would alleviate the concerns about MinCo not having a say in this

Jesse: If I can respond, I think a big aspect of this was timing. MinCo is also low on money

Tristan: I have a question about FinCom’s recommendation being blank

Porter: we never got this budget because of a dead link, but it was intended to go to FinCom

Motion to limit speaking time to 40 seconds: SollySecond: ?The Ayes have it

Will: I have some concerns about exclusionary parts of this event. Of course, we have RSOs here at Williams that have identity-focused events. With events that have a name like “Black previews” I wonder if that is exclusionary. Maybe it was named “Minority Previews” or something like that it would be more inclusive.

Shane: is that any more exclusive than a name like Black Student Union? I think we should fund this because it may force the administration to make events more inclusive moving forward. I don’t think we should force an event to rename anything any more than we should force QSU to rename themselves to “QS+ xyz and straight people too because they may want to come, who knows”

Will: I think that Williams students understand our campus culture and students understand why BSU is named BSU. I think students from outside the school may be confused.

Oluseyi: what more do you want than to allow anyone to come?

Will: I want to follow what Bilal asks

Oluseyi: what Bilal wants or what you want?

Will: Bilal

Kai: Will, you just conceded you want students to know what its like to be here at Williams, so why are you not wanting to sponsor this event that will help prefrosh know

Oluseyi: there are articles and papers that have reported on on-campus events, it isn’t like prefrosh can’t see that

Lili: can’t she add “all people are welcome” to the bottom of the flyers?

Will: yes, yes she can

Linda: We have resolved all the initial concerns. I think we should vote on this

Alex: can we call a strawpoll?

Tristan: just a couple things. I think this is a great idea, but I don’t think that CC should be funding this. This should be on every flyer and should be sent to every student. I think this is a great idea, and it should be supported by the administration. Also, on the flyers the LGBTIA+ events include language to make sure that everyone feels they are welcome to come. What if this event could do the same?

William: So y’all have been working with administration and it isn’t exclusive

Lili: everyone is able to go

Shane: I think its bad to change the name of the event because I see no difference

Tristan:

Lance: I think we should fund this in full. Are y’all turning anyone away?

Oluseyi: no

Lance: so its not exclusive! It sounds like a great event, so let’s fund it in full

Motion to fund it in full: LanceSecond:?

Brendan: objection. I have a question about how the food costs are going to be distributed

Motion to fund it in full: LanceSecond:? The Ayes have it

*Analytics Club*

Jake: There is a question about why Analytics club is getting involved in March Madness. The answer is this entire thing is very analytic-based; we are using a website that provides a statistical breakdown of decisions. I understand that there may be some concerns about how this was advertised, about us not asking beforehand, and all of that, but this is inline with our club.

Porter: we did not reach a majority on FinCom. Some of the procedures they used to actually get people to sign up were concerning.

Jake: CC’s website needs to be updated. The Funding guidelines were followed on your website, and if it was done wrong your website needs to be updated.

Solly: The website is correct.

Jake: Oh, I guess OSL messed up

Solly: that is probably what happened.

Kai: I think the submission was not the biggest deal, but I voted against it on FinCom. For us to pay the prizes for something that your club already does as an activity for fun seems odd.

Jake: this is true but I thought this would be a good event

Kai: was there a meeting where everyone met up and worked together

Jake: no the timing was awkward

Margot: I’m on FinCom and agree with Kai. I think we need to give out something to people. I’m in favor of $50

Jake: I think the word ‘need’ is interesting here. We don’t need to give anyone any money. It isn’t like there is a group in this case, no one got together to do this, people were just watching this on their own. I don’t understand why we are saying ‘need’

Will: I agree with Margot’s reasoning but I disagree with her conclusion. We should act like we would have if we got it on time, and I think we would have failed it

Motion to fund this $50: AlexSecond: ?The vote was a tie.

Jake: this was approved last year. We worked with administration to make sure it was legal and allowed. Were this event to be run in the future, is there anything that could have been done to make this plausible?

Margot: we have to fund things on CC that benefit the community, and I think a good idea would be to do an event that bring the community together. Perhaps if there was an event that brought people together that would be a good idea. I would be in favor for that.

Jake: I think this is interesting because I see the online space as the place where this is all coming together. I do a lot of things online with my family, friends, whatever. Just because its online doesn’t mean we don’t get together.

Olivia: We decided to break the tie by deciding to fund this $50 to Jake

By decision of the chair, the Ayes have it

*WUFA*

Porter: WUFA is coming early to request money to go to Nationals. The reason we have to fund airplane tickets is because this is in Texas right before Finals week.

Jesse: I’m not sure I quite understand. Is Nationals a separate fund?

Porter: yes, we do have one. It currently has $10,000. It will probably run out.

Long: does anyone else other than WUFA use nationals fund?

Porter: a single cyclist approached me at Treasurer training and said he thinks he will probably qualify for nationals.

Brendan: is $10,000 left over what we will have?

Motion to fund in full: JakeSecond:?The Ayes have it

Alex S.: I’m the treasurer for Rugby, so do I have to leave?

Olivia: no you can stay

Porter: in the Fall, a goal post fell and we funded to fix it. Now the other one fell. I was told we have to fund this.

Lance: my understanding is that the charge is on the CC credit card and we get to decide which account to charge it too *yay*

Alex: I can fill in some answers. I talked to Kris Hoey today. This happened over Spring Break, and Mike B. okayed the repair over break because otherwise we would have been unable to play this season. There is also a tournament fee that the national rugby organization reached out to us with. They are fairly angry and need us to pay ASAP. The president of Rugby went into OSL, got a Pcard, and paid the cost. I have no been looped in for all of this.

Tristan: this is a question for Solly and Lance… How can OSL bill things to us?

Solly: they just can

Tristan: I feel like we should make it clear to OSL that isn’t how our books work.

Alex: so the way that pcards work is that they have to resolve them at the end of the month. We will probably be charged for this in the end. The reason that this ended up happening was Mike B played Rugby

Motion to table this: JakeSecond:

Will: objection. I have a weekly meeting with Kris Hoey, so I think that we should table this until later.

Second:?The Ayes have it

Isaiah: I know that the funding for this has already been supported, but in speaking to Seyi after her experience I am appalled by how this was handled. *many expletives* I’m looking at this budget and I’m seeing all the ways white men are getting resources and community afforded to them, and whenever black students come and try to make spaces for students on this campus, we are stopped at every. single. Level.

Oluseyi: you, Tristan Whalen. Why aren’t you listening?

Isaiah: now we are writing. Everytime we open up our mouths, ears close. I don’t get it. *many more expletives* You have half a million dollars. How many % of the budget is black previews? .42% Every time we start talking to you we get shouted down by the white moderate, white liberals. You come here, you have $3billion dollars to your name. Why is CC not diverse? Because if we dare try to run, try to be in this space… we have to be with people like you. I just don’t get it. We keep our heads down. Yeah, we got the money, but we are tired of this. I refuse –– no more. You want to have free speech, you want to be racist, open your mouth now.

Oluseyi: everyone had something to say earlier,

Isaiah: this is the white liberal…

Tristan: when you were here, I gave you the same respect that we give everyone who comes here. The first thing, when you referenced what I was writing, I was taking note about what you were saying.

Will: I think what you said and what other people in this room resolved my problems.

Oluseyi: everyone in this room looks like you. How many people look like you?

Will: 1

Oluseyi: are you blind? Most of the people in this room are white men. This entire row is white men

Isaiah: did anyone else notice this room is segregated? I noticed it. I have been here three seconds and noticed it. I am not performing for you. I didn’t practice any lines for you. I came here and explain myself to you. You didn’t have to come to this and explain yourself. Here you are, coming here with your free time. We come here to ask for .42% of the budget, and when we ask for that, we get asked to include you. After we’ve dealt with everything and just want a break, we then get asked “can it be everyone else?” We are sick and tired having to beg, steal, barter, going to all of these offices and suck… … we didn’t ask for this space, yet here we are.

Oluseyi: don’t look at us with pity or empathy. I want you to be angry. I wanted so badly to say *expletives*

Isaiah: this person just told me that we got the money so I should stop talking. People tell us we got financial aid, so we should just shut up. You go to the #1 liberal arts school in the country because we go here. You think you could be #1 without us? No! I can’t believe we just got told that to our face. Just in case you were confused about what why I’m mad that you told me you have your money, be quiet. I can’t even remember who said it because you all look the same to me. I don’t have time for this. Why am I not at work? Because I’m right here. I have to come here. Who was going to make black previews? Was anyone in here going to make it? Did you have anything you needed to say Shane, Cleveland?

Shane: I have said everything I needed to say.

Isaiah: Shane why aren’t you president?

Shane: I didn’t have time

Isaiah: is there anything you all want to say? You all look like the minority coalition over here.

Ellie: Alright. That was… does anyone…

Linda: I think it’s very obvious that a lot of pain was caused to guests here. I don’t know how important the rest of the stuff today is, but we should deal with this.

William: I’m fairly sure this is something that has been felt in the past. I know that Council is not a welcoming space to be. I don’t have a solution per se.

Olivia: are people feeling okay?... Okay. Should we open up further discussion about how we should be addressing this? I think it would be very important to talk to Bilal about how events unfolded. If anyone else has any suggestions…

Motion to adjourn: WillSecond: Tristan

Tristan: novels and noms is going up soon, if you haven’t filled out the form, you should. You fill out the form, you say what your favorite book is, we buy the book, we wrap the book, then we trade them around. We have about 150 signups so far.

Kai: I have to say, minutes after hearing what we just heard I find it discomforting that we are willing to move on so quickly without at least having some sort of discussion about how we have impacted other students. Obviously this deeply affected these students and I want to make sure we give this the level of attention this deserves. As an institution, we cannot keep moving on so quickly after we make choices like this. I think we need to reflect on how we are creating space within our own institution that is exclusive. I think this is not an issue that we can move on from, and I think this should be a continued issue.

Tristan: I’ll note, Kai, that I think the reason for the motion to adjourn was exactly because of the gravity of what was just said. I think it is in the spirit of preserving what was said to adjourn.

Ellie: This is definitely something that will be continued to be discussed going forward. We don’t want anyone feeling emotionally taxed and forced to have more of this conversation.

Max: can we bring in Bilal and his associates in next meeting? I think it would be important to discuss this.

Margot: I think we should discuss this right now.

Linda: I think we should be careful name-dropping Bilal and us repeatedly warranting our lack of funding based on him. Isn’t that the fallacy of authority? Repeatedly saying someone in authority is right strictly because they are in authority? I have worked with Bilal in the past, and I think he wouldn’t be happy about his name being used like that.

Tristan: for reference of those here who may not know, can you explain who Bilal is?

Linda: he is the acting director of the Davis Center

Serapia: I think we should talk about this here because how we rationalize this later will be important. I’m going to at you, so don’t feel bad, but white men in this room, did you feel uncomfortable when Isaiah was speaking? Did you feel like you weren’t acting racist because you were referring to Bilal, a person of color? I think we should think about how we use rules in this Council violently against people of color. I want everyone to sit and think about how we have changed the rules in the past, and we didn’t consider changing our rules here. I know you never have to think about the positionality of poor black and brown students at Williams, but let’s use this space to think about it. Let’s think of this as a microcosm of government.

Jesse: just to echo that, I think it’s very telling that people that have been voting no have been the very same people that have cared more about the rules and processes than the events that have been happening. I think it’s telling that the people that have consistently been white men, and I think its an important note to remember for people on this side of the room to remember that the people who consistently vote against these events are those people. I know that makes me not feel comfortable in this space. And if I’m not comfortable, as someone who chose to run for cc, imagine how those who come into this space must feel.

Jake: I’d like to add that it hasn’t been just this vote. It was this vote. It was WASO. It was the Spring Break Out trip that was predominantly black. I think we should think about going forward we should move away from being an obstacle to students and instead being of assistance to groups on campus. I think we need to think about that with regards to funding. Going forward we need to think about how we can be an obstacle to prevent you from getting your money to how we can start helping students get their money considering we clearly are affecting some students more than others. CC should be a service to the student body, and it clearly is not.

Kai: one thing that I’d like to mention is about the bylaws. When we talk about issues like institutional racism in our political science courses, we throw that phrase around a lot, but we have to remember it is just institutions using its rules to make racist actions.

I think we should bring that to CC as well. We should be cognizant of how what has been written into our bylaws and procedures has perpetuated marginalizing groups that have been historically marginalized. We all agree that the bylaws are bad, so I wonder why we always have to refer to the bylaws when making decisions. If we all acknowledge they are bad, why should we use them in our decisions?

Shane: I think what goes with that is that the way we approach our bylaws is already loose already. I think it’s important to remember that we apply our bylaws more strictly against specific clubs. There is not much consistency with how we adhere our bylaws. It is commonly known that all things should be inclusive, but how we achieve that is not very clear. I think we should think a bit about how we can change the culture of College Council. With that, we should ask how we can be more of a service to the students.

Lili: When we debate and we figure out the problems that may exist with a budget request, why can't this happen in a smaller group setting? Why can’t these discussions happen before the budget is brought to the full Council? When people present budgets, why can’t those be discussed in a smaller setting?

Brendan: isn’t that what FinCom is for?

Tyler: we talked to her today

Porter: we got this request at 7PM. The way it works is that, at FinCom, we send a reason for our decisions to the groups in question. That is why the analytics guy had 4 concerns we brought to him. She did not have that because she did not bring this request to FinCom. We try to resolve those concerns beforehand so that no one feels attacked in Council.

Linda: I think we should talk about what we mean when we talk about inclusive spaces on campus. We should improve this in the bylaws. I think this has made it clear that the current status of what it means to be inclusive helps certain groups and disadvantages others.

Tristan: the current wording as it exists comes from the abolition of fraternities in 1968.

Margot: I think judging the way we interacted with people in Council today, I think it is clear that we use our procedures to intimidate people. I think we should not be using procedures to try and scare away people that come to us.

Will: I would like to apologize, mostly to all of you. I was relying too much on what I thought I had heard Bilal said. It’s difficult when you hear something from an administrative body and you are hearing something different from the person in here.

Olivia: I will also take responsibility for that. I should have asked Bilal to come here in person to discuss this. I think I put a lot of people in a difficult position. I do not think I had a clear enough understanding of what he wanted done here.

Will: Also, on notes with the constitutions. All of the inclusion discussion is all from OSL and it is inserted in every student organization’s constitution. There are certain things that must be written and said because the government and the school administration has told us to include those things in the constitutions. It is up to us to decide what does it mean for those things to be asked or for those things to be said. I think going forward, it is important for us to ask ourselves how we can best represent and serve the campus going forward.

Motion to adjourn: Tristan

Ellie: this is an important conversation, so I think people should stay and keep talking.

Olivia: if you have to go, you can, but please try to stay.

Alice: This Council is already predominantly white, and I think the issue lies with bringing other voices other than white guys.

Olivia: I’d like to add that I’m the only woman of color on exec. Just to give you an idea of what that is like, I feel like I’ve been the only touch point between the Davis Center and exec. Kai and I know what that is like, because we are the only two that have been the touch points between the Davis Center and minority groups mainly because we have to. As white people on exec, you should take it onto yourself to reach out.

Meeting Adjourned: 9:31

Respectfully Submitted,

Lance LedetParliamentarian, College Council