WCSA Holds First Meeting of the Year

By Spenser Hickey
Transcript Correspondent

Senior Anthony McGuire, president of the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs, was quick to lay the groundwork for WCSA activities this semester.

“I want [each executive committee chair] to have a set of goals for the year,” McGuire said at the start of the meeting, adding that he wanted them by week’s end.

According to its website, WCSA’s goals from last year included “[To] improve transparency and communication” between the student body and the administration. Student involvement in residential life policies and an improvement in the relationship between students and Public Safety were emphasized.

McGuire and senior Carly Hallal, vice president of WCSA, said “we definitely succeeded in accomplishing some of our goals,” particularly in improving communication between students and the administration. They also acknowledged they were not able to do everything they had hoped, such as putting parking meters in the Hamilton-Williams lot to reduce ticketing, which was not completed.

McGuire listed several activities he worked on over the summer and wanted to put into practice. First among these was a partnership with the Student Involvement Office and Politics and Government faculty members to increase voting on campus.

“We all come together to coordinate our efforts for registration and the elections in general,” McGuire said about the planned Voter Registration Task Force.

The task force will hold events such as National Voter Registration Day on September 25th and a visit from members of the Delaware Board of Elections later in the fall.

The WCSA also plans to work with the President’s Sustainability Task Force to increase the number of Hydration Stations on campus. Currently only Hamilton-Williams Campus Center has one, but they are considering installing them in the dorms and Edwards Hall.

Junior Tim O’Keeffe, co-chair of the Residential Life committee, said he was looking into Chartwells’ increase in meal prices. He and fellow chair Lauren Holler, a sophomore, are also working with Chartwells’ to increase diversity of food options, particularly vegetarian and Chinese courses. O’Keeffe and Holler are also generating cooperation between Chartwells’ and local businesses in Delaware, such as Mean Bean.

Public Safety Director Robert Wood delivered a report on the new card readers for the dorms, saying that they plan to have replaced the old ones within two to four weeks, and acknowledged that they couldn’t read all student IDs. He said that some IDs “weren’t very good quality” and that they were being replaced at no charge to students.

Last the council passed a revised sexual misconduct policy, which WCSA worked on throughout last year. The revisions were passed unanimously and were sent to the Faculty Committee for final voting.

Senior Kamila Goldin, a Small Living Unit Representative, said the revision represents “great moves” by the administration to protect students.