Minutes of the MIT Dormitory Council meeting of October 16, 2008 The meeting was held in Baker and called to order at 17:44. All dorms were present. Guest: Chris Colombo, Dean for Student Life Everyone introduced themselves. Chris Colombo: I think you probably all know that I'm living on campus, in Next House, with my wife and two young boys. We did this at Columbia, so this is not new to them. I come from Columbia where I was dean for student affairs from 1992 to this August. Before that I was at Johns Hopkins for 18 years. If you know Larry Benedict well, he came from Hopkins; he took my place when I left Hopkins. He told me as I was walking out the door, "This is payback." ...I'm sure he was joking. I've been in this field for many years. I'm excited about being at MIT. I know something about the dormitory system, because while I was being interviewed, I made sure that I had an understanding there was a very different kind of structure here than at other institutions. I met a number of housemasters and residents, and a tour of EC, Next, New, and McCormick before I joined. So I had a sense of what the facilities looked like, but between June and August there weren't a lot of students around. I also asked very carefully about the culture of hacking, so then I received a book... I understand the tradition behind that and how strong it is and the very creative and wonderful things that have ben done. You've all recceived a letter from Phillip Clay. There's been some controversy about it. Some people think we're trying to crack down on hacking. I'll tell you that's not the conversation we're having. It's about people putting themselves in dangerous positions and injuring themselves. There was one individual who fell through the Chapel window and hurt themselves -- Keri: Was that related to hacking? Chris: No, but that's what some people said, so we're trying to clarify that. I've learned a lot about the dorm communities. New has several different groups. Next is quiet. EC is a community based around eating. Bexley, which I understand isn't here... I've learned about the housemaster system. I came in just as orientation was starting, so I had some experience with the exploration of where you may be living and the culture. I also learned quickly that DSL doesn't have a big role in orientation, mainly DUE and such. This weekend is Family Weekend. I hear there are 700 families coming, you guys can tell me more about it. And that's what I've learned so far. I'm happy to answer questions about me or about the Division of Student Life. Vinayak: Have you visited all the dorms? Chris: Yeah. During orientation I went up and down the alley and in every dorm there. I've been to EC, but not SH or Random. I've been to some of the graduate dorms. Vinayak: All of us got a letter from Hockfield about the Campaign for Students fundraiser. The website [giving.mit.edu] mentions everything else, but not dorms. (FSILGs, arts, athletics...) Is there a way we can have dorms as at least a small part of focus for fundraising? I understand there are troubles getting rich old people to donate -- Chris: Well, you'll be one, one day. Chris: While it may not be in the glossy brochures and the information that's been put out, there's been conversation about living/learning environments. But people are usually not interested in giving to facility needs. What they _are_ interested is programming within the dorms. You saw there's a big leadership thing: that includes things inside the dorms, the different cultures. Random Hall just had its 40th anniversary, and many alums came back. I understand there's a big community of alums interested in Random; many had not come back to MIT before. We're also looking at alums involved with programming in the dorms. Certainly we had a recent celebration of 35 years of women's crew, where alumni returned. So there's those different types of pieces. Keri: Is there any way we can generate more interest in giving back to dorms? Chris: I'd be happy to listen to what you think might be important. Also, I think DormCon can play a real role in thinking what is necessary within the dorms, with the programming within the dorms. Keri: As an example, SH every year has Steer Roast, and it's one of the largest alumni events. We send out invitations to every alum, and we get a lot of responses and even personal donations. I wonder what we can do on a dormwide basis, where we can talk to alums and say that their dorm was important to their life. Chris: I think you should bring Steve Immerman in here, and talk about the programming aspects in here. The question is, what would we ask alums to do. Kip: Coming in as a new dean, it's a lot different from becoming president where the first 100 days defines you. A lot of it is getting a feel for how things work, and that takes maybe about a year. You haven't seen IAP, etc. So, what is still a mystery, and what are you seeing right now are the most important things to involve the students on? Chris: One of the things I stil have difficulty getting my head around is the governance system at the undergrad level. I see everyone coming out of the woodworks speaking for everyone else. So you guys get really angry at the administration, because you haven't talked to us, but we talked to this other group. And it becomes this very dysfunctional method of communication. So you all say, basically, "No one speaks for the dorms but us!" But there's the UA, and... James: Well, I'm hoping the Student Engagement Task Force will help this. Vinayak: So one of the ways to avoid this is to put it where anyone can access it, say the DSL website. I want to say about 6 months ago, there was a grad student who made something called Technocracy. It's a wiki, and there's a place where if the administration is talking about something, they can post it on the website and have an online feedback form. So it doesn't matter if you tell the UA, DormCon, or GSC... if any student who may not be talking to these organizations feels strongly, they can post it on the website. Chris: I think you're right. And I've been asking the regular student, non-elected official, how do you get your information? And the majority of them have said to me, Friday's Tech. Vinayak: So you can put something in the Tech, say, the "Administrative Digest," with all the things that affect students. So a student wakes up and sees construction and can see why it's there. Chris: Let me tell you about your graduate counterparts. There's a single group that speaks for all graduate students. And they work effectively with their dorms, and are very good at getting the word out. I will tell you, I'll continue to try to wrap my arms around this and get a better understanding of who you speak to. There is an expectation that you as dorm leaders will communicate to the dorms. So I was amazed at how quickly East Campus responded to Phil Clay's e-mail. I'm on EC's e-mail list, and I saw all the discussion -- all of it. And I was wondering, you should tell this to Phil Clay. I was also very surprised at how belligerent it was. But I think this is an effective method of communication, Chris: So your issue with the Campaign -- you just raised dorms. Is that all you care about? Vinayak: Well, that's Dormcon's charge, but also any issue that affects people living within the dorms. Preeya: Most of our questions are housing-related. We could say curriculum affects everyone, but... Chris: So how do I sort through all of this, and who do I listen to? Preeya: I think it's also a problem with us coming to you. As you can't wrap your head around our structures, we can't wrap our heads around yours. So things that affect us are actually controlled by this committee which is led by this person we've never heard of... Chris: One thing that I've tried to do in DSL is tried to say that when students talk to us, this should be shared among all the groups. So if someone talks to Housing, it's not just Housing's business. Also, most of the things that affect you are initiated in the Chancellor's office: Dan Hastings, Steve Lerman, Phil Clay, and myself. So we will try to clarify for you where you go. So, Susan Hockfield can be a source as well, but quite honestly she's going to turn to us. Vinayak: So one issue is we don't know where to start. There's the house manager, RLAs, deans, senior associate dean, director of housing, so on and so forth, so you don't know where to go. So you try a random smattering of people... Chris: Or you e-mail me and I tell you who to go to. Preeya: Sometimes you e-mail someone, and they tell you to go to someone else, and they send you back to the first person. Chris: Well, before I direct you there, I'll talk to them and say, e.g., "Dennis Collins, are you the right person for them to be talking to?" Chris: Dining. We have this Blue Ribbon Committee. Now we have all this data, and people seem to think this is the right approach to discuss this. And we're preserving the options people want. And we're not going to satisfy any individual, but we'll try to satisfy as much of the community. My approach on all this is to work with students, not in opposition. Chris: So the other thingI can't get my head around is, you all represent the dorms, and... How many are you are seniors? (60% raise hands) You all will be leaving -- hopefully -- within the year. And people say "Nobody told me." So we need a record of these kinds of conversations. Geoffrey: So you've talked to a lot of groups, and they're saying what we think are different things to us? Chris: I don't think it's a different things, it's different approaches. Let's talk about hacking. So people come to us and talk about preserving the tradition of hacking. Some people have said, if I take 15 freshmen to the dome, it's called hacking... but it's called exploration ... but it's the orange tour. And people say this usually when they get caught. Now this might be the same thing, but not everyone's on the same page. So the UA comes to me and says you can't stop hacking, but we should prevent risky behavior. Define risky behavior. Now someone else comes with Phil Clay's letter, and the issue is not hacking, but with what he said and how he said it. I'm soon going to be sending you all a letter... my first letter is going to be on downloading. And we're worried about you being placed in situations that are harmful to you, and the feds are in a pain in the neck. Vinayak: What about Harvard [standing up to the RIAA]? Chris: We talked to Harvard, and they say that's not true. They may have a communication problem themselves. ... But I think the engagement committee is the right place. We put all the admins and all the student leaders in the same place. At the last engagement committee, we talked about police, and what their appropriate reponse is. So if someone's in a lab, and carrying burgling tools, and they get arrested... There's a faculty member that's really incensed, and everyone's up in arms about hacking, and the two students... So we'll have a meeting with John DiFava. He's said he'd like to have a committee to investigate complaints. We've asked him to hold off on this until this small group can give recommendationns to the engagement committee. It takes time, but it's a way for us to have discussions with all the student leadership in one room. Kip: Can you clarify that meeting with DiFava is with... the engagement committee? Chris: A subcommittee. I've been given the task to be chair. There are two representatives, one grad, one undergrad. Kip: When are your office hours? Chris: Fridays. 10-11. They told me that was a good time for you... Chris: Let me know if I can help in any other way. I really want to have a better understanding of the dorm system. I want to see how you get across the things you care about, and how you get in line with your colleagues at other institutions. I think that's important. Housing Kristen: We talked to our housemaster. He'l get whoever decided this in Housing to come and talk to the dorm. We said, everyone's mad at us, they think the dorm government decided this. We're hoping this resolves itself. Dining James T.: Blue Ribbon, there was an informal meeting yesterday to look at the ridiculous amounts of data. There's a PDF with 159 pages of data. Imagine any question, for any group... We have the answer. Erin: We asked these questions,, and the consultant had an answer.. and she knew some of them off the top of their head. James O.: Have you talked about putting the houses' dining chairs on the committee? James T.: We tried, but they said "We'll see." I explained how we have one from a dining hall and non-dining hall dorm, and one from MacGregor. Erin: There are a lot of students in the committee. Not saying you shouldn't be involved, but we're not hurting for lack of student representation. Risk Management Vinayak channelling Maggie: So they talked about getting a central database system for room assignments in dorms, so that every dorm has complete control over their own database. It will be easier technology for everyone to use. So instead of passing Excel spreadsheets around... James T.: Yes! Does it say anything about tracking chagnes? Vinayak: Not yet. There's going to be some committee, and a student representative, who I assume is Maggie. I'll forward you the e-mail, and you can ask questions to Maggie. James: Neither Vinayak or I made the ETOH meeting. JudComm Kip: So can I invite Dave Kennedy to the next meeting? He just wants to get an idea about how the JudComms work. James O.: Any agreement about the REX agreement? Kip: No, not yet. Kip: So we talked about disputes between DormCon and IFC. He could form a group between himself, the IFC person, and the ILG person. That would be the appellate body. Other business James T.: Meeting move? Wednesdays? ... I'll just e-mail out a Doodle. Meeting adjourned around 18:40.