Present: Jim Dontje, Judy Douglas, Deborah Downs Miers, Breanna Draxler, Lauren Fulner, Stacey Gerken, Lisa Heldke, Cindy Johnson-Groh, Steve Kjellgren, Joe Lencioni, Marilla MacGregor, John Mattson, Lucas Neher, Caleb Phillips, Angela Yahnke (A record!)
Reports
- Dining Service Director Steve reported that there were some surprises for people in the first month of the new declining balance plan (on which balances don’t roll over month to month). Those have been mostly ironed out, and students seem to be managing the new system well. It eliminates the large spending sprees before the end of the semester.
- GustieWare: Steve is fielding calls from Dartmouth and Toronto newspapers; we’re succeeding on the wider playing field. How are we doing at home? Inch by inch. Projects people have agreed to undertake:
- “Coffee tea or GustieWare” pickup in the administration building: Lisa. [Note: I just did this, and while I netted a few, it was not terribly dramatic. The custodian pointed out two “habitual offenders.” She wanted me to issue them a citation, but they weren’t in.]
- GustieWare costume: Lisa has enlisted a student to create a costume, that can be worn to dramatize the plight of stranded GustieWare.
- Lauren and Judy volunteered to undertake a campaign (the details of which I forgot to record)
- Connecting GustieWare to the campus energy wars…if they are happening.
- [Note: a new video by a Public Discourse student aired in the Dining Room this week; watch for it again.]
- [Note II: Lucas had a conversation with Student Senate, who came up with a list of ideas, some of which involve Residential Life. Will folks on the GustieWare subcommittee schedule a meeting with Charlie Strey to talk about what might be workable?]
- Bottled water: Cindy’s FTS is hosting a signature drive to get names of folks who would support a campaign to get bottled water off campus.
- Kitchen Cabinet Intern Angela reported on her activities, which include:
- Table tents about GustieWare and Year of China continue to go out
- Chill Out event went well, with advertising of both the Kitchen Cabinet and the internship program.
- The Speed Eating (progressive dinner) event was set to happen on Monday, with about fifteen students from various groups participating.
- She’ll be informally polling people in her classes about GustieWare.
- The group meeting with the president about sustainability issues will see him on December 4 at 1:30 p.m. They’ve targeted specific other persons on campus to join them in meeting with the president, to illustrate the fact that this concern shares a broad base of support. They will have a preliminary meeting to discuss their approach on December 1 at 1:30. Cindy is preparing a document that will identify specific places where the issue of sustainability needs to appear. Their emphasis is on the educational dimension of sustainability. At present, there is a lot of diffuse interest in sustainability, but without leadership and a rallying point, it will remain diffuse.
Working session: Farm to College survey
- Lisa identified a number of questions from the Farm to College survey that the group discussed together. Steve has completed a preliminary version of this survey, and will add to it any of the new observations that the group made. We observed that much of the survey is written in a way that suggests that the move to local foods somehow would happen all of a sudden, when the reality at Gustavus is that it has been incremental and often quite un-dramatic. More detailed information about this discussion is available on request. (I didn’t think anyone would really want to read through the specific questions we answered, but if you do, let me know.)