Executive Board Fall Office Hours:

Visit us in our NEW OFFICE CC237 (right above the retreat). We’re all available by appointment too.

Student Body President Sam Charner:

- Monday 6-8PM,Wednesday1:30-3PM, Thursday 12-1:30PM.
- Email: vsa@vassar.edu

VSA VP for Student Life: Morgan Warners

- Monday 12-2PM.
- Wednesday 8-10PM
- Email: VSAstudentlife@vassar.edu

VSA VP For Operations: Summer’s-Grace Green.

- Tuesday 10AM-12PM, Wednesday 2:45-4PM, Thursday 12-1:30PM and 3-4PM
- Email: VSAoperations@vassar.edu

VSA VP for Academics: Jessica Cho

- Monday 6-8PM, Wednesday 3-5PM,
- Email: VSAacademics@vassar.edu

VSA VP for Activities: Jimmy Kelly

- Monday 7-9PM, Tuesday 3-5PM, Thursday 10:30-11:30AM
- Email: VSAactivities@vassar.edu

VSA VP for Finance: Jessika Wong:

- Monday 2-4PM, Wednesday 1:30-3:30PM, Thursday 5:15-7:15PM
- E-mail: VSAfinance@vassar.edu

In light of the recent Jewett event, the VSA Executive Board urges any student member of the community to come and talk to us regarding any questions or concerns that he or she might have. We want to hear your voices on this issue that effects us all as a student body.

Dean of the Faculty Search Committee

With the current Dean of the Faculty, Ron Sharp, stepping down to pursue more teaching opportunities, one student and one faculty search committee were formed to address this upcoming vacancy. For the student representatives, the Executive Board recently appointed 5 students at-large (Krystian Boreyko, Peter Denny, Amanda Bell, Alex Stanczyk and Nate Silver) who will join the VP for Academics and a student representative from the Committee on Curricular Policy to begin the search. The student committee is operating separately of the faculty search committee. The College as of yet has not decided whether the search with be internal or external. For more information contact Jessica Cho at VSAacademics@vassar.edu.

Deletion of the Academic Fund

At the beginning of the semester, Council dissolved the VSA Academic Fund. The fund in the past was primarily used to supplement the needs of students on majors committees, actions that in the future will be paid for entirely by a major’s committee. Its reasons being that the College should have a greater commitment to sponsoring the academic needs of the student body. The money from this fund was added to the newly established College Academic Fund, which is now subsidizes the actions of all students in their academic endeavors. For more information on this fund contact Chris Roelke, the Dean of Studies.

Committee Check-in

Through our shared governance with the College, the VSA leadership not only sits on student run committees but also sends delegates to joint committees that include students, faculty, administrators and staff. The student delegations to committees around the college serve many purposes, including voicing the questions and concerns of all students to working with administrators on accomplishing many initiatives around the college. Because all the committees represent the needs and opinions of the student body they would all love to hear your opinion on the matters they review. Please feel free to contact the student delegates of the committees with any input you might have on their work. For a full list of Committees, including the Standing Committees of the VSA Council visit: VSA.vassar.edu.

The Committee presentations that will be made to Council over the next two weeks are:

November 11, 2007

- Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid
- Committee on Investor Responsibility
- Library Committee
- Committee on Curricular Policy
- Science Facility Planning Committee

November 18, 2007

- Student Wellness Advisory Committee
- Committee on College Life
- Drug and Alcohol Education Committee
- Residential Life Advisory Committee
- Orientation Committee

If you have issues that you would like to raise with any of these committees, please come to Council to hear their oral presentations.

Organizations

In the fall of 2006, the year long moratorium on starting organizations ended. The moratrium passed during Council ’05-’06 because of the complicated process that was once in place in starting organizations. What resulted from these discussions was a more viable system that not only allowed for organizations which addressed new needs of the college to establish themselves more easily, but it also provided a much more reliable system through which the viability of organizations could be addressed through regular processes.
The VSA structure and the spaces available within the college have been feeling the weight of the now 123 organizations on Campus. The VSA Council, comprised of the presidents of the Houses, apartment houses, Classes, the Town Students, the Ferry Representative and the Executive Board have been making efforts to address the budgetary contrainsts posed to the VSA system. Let your voice be heard on this issue. Please contact the VP for Activities, Jimmy Kelly, if you have any opinions on this topic: VSAactivities@vassar.edu.

VSA Bylaw Amendments:

A series of amendments were presented at Council this week addressing the structure of the Residential Life Advisory committee and the addition of The Council on Alumnae Student Advancement. They will be voted on in Council next week. If you would like to voice your opinions on these amendments please contact the Vice President for Operations at VSAoperations@vassar.edu or come to the Council meeting at 7pm in the College Center MPR on November 11, 2007.

At the next meeting of the Constitutional Review Committee, the members will address the structure of the Board of Elections.

Our Community: The PoJo

The Poughkeepsie Journal, published 365 days a year, and paid for by the VSA Executive Board is a great resource to find out what is going on in our wider Vassar community. They are placed around the college for your convenience: in the lobby of each House, in the entrance of ACDC, the Retreat and in the laundry room of both the TH’s and the TA’s. Read it, love it, live it.

*For more information about the meetings and activities of the VSA leadership, please contact Vice President for Operations at VSAoperations@vassar.edu.