Peter Antonov
Your representative-liaison on the Admissions and Financial Aid Committee and CSA Senate
Campus extension: 7026
Cell phone: (651) 307 9255
Thursday, September 13th, 2007
CSA Senate Meeting, and some ideas
I was very excited for our first meeting of CSA. This was mostly an organizational meeting, with a barbecue outside of Burton Hall. I am sensing some butterflies in my stomach!
Tim spoke about dividing our responsibilities this year, so that we can have a person to point to when any sort of issue comes up. He gathered our areas of interest. Apart from my position on AFAC, I declared and interest in working on the area of Constituent Communication and Curriculum Review.
Peter Fritz suggested that all smaller budget committee appropriations be passed en-mass, since historically “a replay of Budget committee” has taken up much of the time of CSA. To this end, he suggested that Senators take care to read Budget committee meeting minutes closely, in order to be able to open for discussion individual bids that they find disagreeable. Since last term I sat in on all meetings of Budget Committee (and plan to occasionally sit in this year as well), I feel well prepared to read the minutes knowledgeably.
It is my understanding that KRLX will be dedicating more time to CSA review and analysis this term. When I find out the times of the broadcasts, I will post them here. I feel however that there needs to be a more massive push for communication and especially an improvement in opportunities for feedback (something that Tim emphasized), so that Senators can more easily identify the important issues they need to address. To this end, I will be looking at improving the CSA website, which although fully functional is not as inviting and user-friendly as can be imagined.
Perhaps a somewhat over-ambitious possibility that I would like to explore is creating a general web-support group. Although the Internet is becoming more and more user-friendly, many of us lack the experience and time to set up beautiful websites that augment our group's activities. For instance, this web-page is a prime example of what we need to be able to work around. I am still not certain what the best way to set-up such a clearing-house would be, and whether CSA is even the appropriate way to approach this issue.
It would be great if students with experience in web design could form a student group on the model of the Yellow-Bike club, through which they would extend web development and support services to other campus groups. If you know people with some degree of expertise in this area, would you approach them and suggest to them the idea of such a group? Such a group has at least one avid supporter on Senate (me!), should it ever be conceived.
I chose the area of Curriculum Review, since the college is undergoing re accreditation. The proliferation of information storage and retrieval systems (the Internet) may suggest a change of academic focus or approach. I am curious to explore the different possibilities for improving our curriculum, so that in decades to come, Carleton retains its position of academic excellence and education that remains pertinent and significant to the contemporary lifestyle. I think that the new Art Center will be a huge step forward in this regard, and will greatly enrich our campus community and educational experience.
Specifically, I am not sure that the RAD requirement is accomplishing its goal. I am eager to hear your thoughts on this! In my opinion a mandatory class with a heavy emphasis on group discussion is perhaps the way to go.
AFAC has not met yet, but here is a preview of what's coming up. We will be reviewing the loan packages that Carleton offers as part of its awards. We will also be discussing with various groups the effects of the adjustment in the admissions policy.
As you may recall, in order to achieve greater precision in conformity with our budget, last year we decided to be mindful of income level as we admit our new classes. Although we are committed to our policy of admitting classes that are 80% need blind, financial data will now be reviewed earlier in the admission process in order to ensure that we can remain within the bounds of our budget.
This change inspired a spirited response on campus, as students felt that it was leading to Carleton becoming less Need-blind. Accordingly, we will be meeting with with the committee For Student Life to discuss the potential repercussions of this change, and I anticipate bringing the concerns of the student body to our AFAC discussions. Upon determining the appropriate line of action, I will communicate with members of the Student body who are currently on the College Council, so that they can bring the concerns of the student body to the table in this setting as well.
I am just getting my feet wet, and trying to discover what sorts of influences I can have. I will be glad to keep you posted as I become aware of new issues and as it becomes more apparent what sort of action is appropriate on all these matters.
I wish you all a successful Fall term!!!