East Campus/Retreat 2009

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Contents

Attendance

Every hall but 1w brought 1 frosh, 1 upperclassman. Exec and a few other students were there. Several GRTs, the House Masters and the Associate House Masters were also there.

House Team Introductions

House Masters

Primary role is supporting what the students want to do, financially, with admins (CAP, SSS, COD, etc). More like coaches or supporters than leaders. Sounding board for the community for large events, also maintains confidentiality with individuals.

RLA

Works with EC, Senior House and Simmons. Administrative lieson. Supports activities, safe party practices and registration. Good gateway to resources of the institute.

GRTs

Extension of HMs. Direct way to talk to someone about person or academic issues. Don't have a defined responsibility other than supporting students and safe environment. Not very related to the administration, but not part of undergraduate community either.


Questions for house team

What is the dean on call system?

If medical emergency, dial 100. MIT takes a safety first approach to intoxication. Neither person who calls or person who is sick will not get in trouble. For other problems, you can ask 100 for the Dean on Call. CPs will accompany ambulance for medical transport, but just for safety, not to take action.

What is the purpose of the CPs?

Campus security, investigations into theft, if they happen to stumble across something that seems illegal when on your hall (ie for a fire alarm) they will do something about it. KEEP YOUR DOOR SHUT DURING A FIRE ALARM. Role of CPs is for positive, community building, but there are times when some officers overreact, etc. If you're ever in trouble with police or whoever, talk to Dave Kennedy (Student Citizenship). He will help you deal with shitty situations. Go to HMs immediately when something happens, GRTs too.

What is protected by MIT Good Samaritan (MIT's oath of confidentiality and safety first) rules?

Any sort of intoxication. Anything in your system is considered a medical issue, not an issue of possession. Tell medical everything they've been doing, you're not going to be held responsible, and medical cares more about treating your medical issue. Nonintoxication issues (getting hurt while rappeling, being where you're not supposed to be, etc) are not protected, but calling for medical transport still helps, EMTs will try to help you.

What is the MIT policy on drug possession?

Follows the law. Even with decriminalization of marijuana, MIT will still bring you in front of the COD (where they can be pretty lenient, but it varies). No plans to change that in the works.

How can you get kicked out of housing and how does the COD work?

COD can do it based on their discretion, but a dean can do it without COD approval. COD takes every case on an individual level, no broad outlines as far as sanctions/offense; can't compare two cases without knowing full details of the case. COD will look more highly upon your case if you talk to your HM and GRT before it gets to the COD. COD likes to see people admitting they've made a mistake and trying to take the actions to fix it. Any serious sanction must be decided by a unanimity of the members of COD.


Discretion

  • You don't say every bullshit thing you hear.
  • Be careful what you say on email. Don't leave a paper trail, especially to a large public mailing list that may contain administrators (many deans are on ec-discuss).
  • Use word of mouth, great way to publicize something without letting the wrong people know, also gives you plausible deniability.
  • Educate your freshman (and other freshmanlike people) in what they should and shouldn't do re: discretion.
  • Sending emails implicates GRTs and HMs if they don't try to stop it. Don't put them in a situation where they can't claim deniability.
  • DON'T PUT THINGS ON FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, ETC THAT YOU DON'T WANT THE ENTIRE WORLD TO SEE!
  • Once you bring a problem to the house team, let them deal with it completely. It's up to them to decide when to bring in higher authorities (which they'll use as a last resort)
  • If Night Watch tells you something (like shut down your party) do it the first time. Night watch keeps a log of everything they deal with every night.
  • ec-exec are usually among the first people who have to deal with admins/cops with most problems, so let them know if you're planning on doing something questionable. They have institutional memory so they know what will fly and what you can do in place of things that you can't.
  • To get safety approval for things, talk to Cary Williams (Health and Safety). He is awesome. He'll help make your project happen and work.
  • NEVER TALK TO THE PRESS! (the tech or otherwise). NEVER EVER. EVER. EVER. At least not about questionable issues or before consulting the house team, ec-exec, etc. They will misquote you. They will take things out of context. It's always easier to just walk away.


Joeg

  • joeg works for housing, so he does technically work for the administration, so he needs plausible deniability too.
  • joeg says: don't make your room like a lab, make it look safe for outside eyes.
  • Definitely talk to joeg before you make changes to public space, more visible to fire marshall and others.
  • joeg generally white washes freshman rooms, so think about this before you paint future freshman rooms or build lofts in them. If there is a genuinely good painting, joeg will do his best to try to keep it.
  • If you have a problem with the dorm, wanking on ec-discuss won't solve the problem, it will only make admins think EC is broken. Go to Joe.


Rooming

  • VP/RAC (currently maggied, soon jbails) is in charge of assigning you to a room inside of East Campus.
  • RAC does not get people into East Campus, that's done by MIT Housing.
  • Two housing lotteries each year: December and April. Best time to switch halls is during those times between terms. That is done by the RAC.
  • Lots of freshman are looking to game the Rush rooming system, so just tell them to be honest when filling out their forms.
  • For information on how interdorm transfers work, contact maggied


Rush

  • Freshman explore dorms. Begins early at EC. Materials arrive around 1 week before stuff starts really picking up. Projects and events to organize for freshmen and parents. Whole dorm helps with dorm.
  • No reason to talk shit about things to freshmen. If they can't figure it out on their own, they will soon enough. Let them learn for themselves. This applies to both rush events and talking about other halls/dorms. Tell people to go explore during Rush.
  • A lot of frosh this year seemed to have good experience with upperclassmen being friendly and helpful (sort of surprising)
  • Most frosh weren't decided on their hall before hall rush (which is good):
  • Dorm tours are kinda useless.
  • Hard to get sense of halls during dorm rush, just individuals.
  • Rush should have more opportunities to just chill with frosh, needs more talking, not just recruiting builders
  • Two large groups of frosh at EC during rush: those who have decided on EC, those who are deciding b/w EC and senior house (or some other dorm).
  • Freshmen: events dissuade frosh from going to MIT rush events
  • Upperclassmen: Can't afford to shutdown EC events during official events - so much to do. Some things are more fun. Personal opinions about Rush, not EC's.
  • Frosh: nothing from orientation couldn't have been explained in a packet


This Summer

  • It's been about 6 years since EC has hosted a large group during the summer, but this summer, a program called GAMBIT will be staying at EC.

GAMBIT is a program of 40 kids that brings college aged kids from Singapore to MIT to program video games GAMBIT people are pretty reasonable, includes an EC alum. Wants to put them in EC to submerge them in EC culture to show them something different.

  • EC's minimum requirement is that anyone who is at East Campus and wants to stay for the summer, can.
  • What's in it for us? We don't have much of a choice. We don't make any money (but housing does). We don't really get anything out of it. *It sort of just doesn't make us look more like a bunch of asses.
  • Reason to have here: centrally located, close to Legal area.
  • Reasons not to have them: they could complain about a lot of things (drinking, noise, "incidents"), housing will be really protective of them, very responsive to complaints they have.
  • Would intersperse these kids throughout the dorm, not just in one hall.
  • They're just looking for a place to sleep, which might be a problem because it's loud at night.
  • We'll talk to the GAMBIT organizers at HouseComm at some point.
  • They might be bringing their own RAs. What would their role be?


LUNCH TIMEEEEEEEEE!

Renovations

  • EC will not be renovated any time in the near future, don't trust the lies (or the internet)
  • But, eventually something bad will happen and things will need to change, we need to prepare though
  • None of us will be here for that, but leaving notes for the future is important
  • We should come up with a document stating what things we want to be promised by renovations and try to get people to agree (start with house team, work up through admins)
  • Important things: keeping kitchens, saving murals, keeping halls together during renovations, etc
  • Document should be signed by admins every 4 years to ensure that current admins agree to it
  • Renovations will probably be pretty substantial: will have to comply with ADA and Fire Code (wide hallways, elevator, etc)
  • We will probably have to lose our murals, which is unfortunate, but if renovations are large, it will happen
  • Last major renovation was in 1970, added kitchens, moved GRT suites, etc.
  • Senior House recent renovation was an epic fail, scattered students around campus, white washed murals, but took just 1 summer
  • Possible solution: just say students and house team gets veto power over any proposal (probably too extreme)
  • Use EC Cultural Report as a backbone of what we want to save culturewise, take pictures of murals
  • Important that EC alums in the future fight for EC, donation money is power
  • Idea: have more formal/frequent reunions to keep alumni involved and interested about the state of EC
  • Although EC has troubles, there are a lot of other dorms with issues to, which hurts EC's priority for renovation


Overview of EC government

  • VP/RAC: In charge of all housing things at EC
  • President typically works with stuff outside the dorm (DormCon) and oversee individual comms
  • Comms: support the dorm, promote/protect dorm culture
  • Hall Chairs: backbone of the EC government. Run things, elect other positions, fix problems on hall
  • Freshmen should get more involved and run for stuff
  • Hall Chairs are the only ones that get to vote at HouseComm (one vote per hall), but others can go to prod their hall chairs
  • ec-exec and comms should post minutes when they meet with admins and stuff


Overview of the rest of MIT Government

UA

  • More policy based, others more activities based
  • Senate:
    • Representatives from living groups (ours are Vrajesh and Sarah Dee)
    • Pass legislation and have a surprising amount of power
  • Exec:
    • Lots of Committees like SCEP, NomComm, Dining, etc
    • Major interface between students and admins
    • Work primarily on higher level policies

DormCon

  • President of each dorm votes in DormCon
  • Their major responsibility is REX, but also work with Dining, Housing, giving out money

$5 of your dorm tax goes to DormCon

IFC/Panhel/LGC (FSILG Governments)

  • LGC and Panhel don't really do much lately
  • IFC works pretty closely with dorm governments to make sure rushes don't overlap, etc
  • IFC is also a pretty strong penal body (rather large and active judcomm to deal with big complaints)

ASA

  • What gives all the student groups money
  • Talk to Rachel or Rishi to know more

If you have an awesome idea you need money for, best places are DormCon, UA Senate or LEF. If you prefer policy and higher level policy, get involved in UA Exec, talk to maggied.


Kitchens

  • Problem: kitchens are dirty, housemasters have to deal with a lot of problems because of it
  • Some people have tried using a cleaning rotation, but what do you about people who don't comply? Apparently you can't threaten cabinet space, but most people will just not be assholes and do it.
  • Not having communal dishes fixes the problem, but would majorly suck ass
  • Problem of personal dishes is when people leave them in drying rack and other people take them
  • 3rd east has a rotation of people who cook together and ensure the kitchen is clean
  • There is a kitchen bitch policy on Vinayak's public, but since their job isn't to clean dishes, still gets gross
  • Some kitchens don't have room to store all their dishes.
  • Admins want to get rid of kitchens, in part, because they're health hazardly messy


Blue Ribbon

  • Blue Ribbon Committee (dining) has a consultant that told them a bunch of recommendations including eating healthier (ie having a minimum amount of spending on food each semester). This would still allow people to spend money in different ways (frat meal plans, dining halls, tech cash, shaw's, trader joe's).
  • Sodexho can suck the lame duck president's balls
  • We're upset because the DormCon president is supporting this and we don't like it
  • Dean has final say for any proposal
  • Everyone is really confused about what's happening now, so only so much we can do now
  • Unclear how this plan will affect financial aid
  • Blue Ribbon is a mishmash of housemasters, grad students, admins, undergrads from UA and DormCon
  • KDel is on the committee, but she's the only one fighting against mandatory dining. She has been telling them that we're mature enough to make our own food decisions, suggesting an opt out policy.

Done

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