Hello! I’m one of the staff representatives on College Council. The reps will be blogging about College Council meetings so staff can know more about what is happening at College Council.
College Council meets three times each semester. Our most recent meeting was on November 22. Below is a brief summary of what I thought were the important issues discussed at that meeting:
College calendar: The new college calendar (previously approved) will begin Fall, 2014 and run for four years. A request was made to extend the new calendar one additional year. This would allow Marketing to create more material for prospective students who start Fall, 2015. College Council voted to hold off extending the calendar for now so we could see how it is working. We discussed other calendar-related matters, including finding a 3 day weekend in the spring to replace the President’s Day holiday. One option is a floating holiday.
Legislative Committee: We are keeping an eye on proposed legislation that could eliminate the real estate tax exemption for some non-profit organizations, including colleges.
Sustain Champlain: This is a very active committee, and Christina Erikson reported on the many initiatives they are pursing. While I can’t do justice here to Christina’s extensive report, some of the notable work includes: getting Fair Trade designation for the college; establishing a green revolving fund committee for energy efficiency projects; and creating a Sustainability spirit week. If you are interested in more information please contact Christina.
SGA: You may not be aware that College Council includes the SGA President and VP, and several other student representatives. The SGA reported on their recent activities around setting up the new student Senate, and also told us that Brooks Brothers is coming to campus for a big event to pilot a new clothes line and to do a photo shoot.
Administration: As part of our NEASC accreditation we are due for a ten year self-study. The kickoff meeting for this work was held November 4, and many faculty and staff will be involved in this massive undertaking. In other news, Cathy O’Rourke was hired as the new Interim VP for Enrollment starting 12/2; The EMC-MS in Shanghai program has started and Chinese students will be here this summer working with our MFA students; and the EMC has a team in El Salvador right now working on the Breakaway Game.