On Thursday, February 10th, 2022 the Lawrence Committee held its regularly scheduled town hall meeting. The following are the minutes of that meeting.
- The 3/10 Town Lawrence town hall meeting will be postponed to 3/17 to account for spring break. The 3/23 auxiliary meeting will be postponed to 3/30.
- Housing Updates
- Print and mail services have been in discussions with carriers concerning package misdeliveries, which extend beyond Lawrence.
- The university has reached out to the nearby golf course to fix their netting, hoping this might mitigate current issues with golf balls.
- Room draw for the upcoming school year is starting up. Info can be found here.
- Transportation Updates
- Jessica met with T&PS, and reports that we will get E-buses over the summer if supply chains do not cause further delays.
- T&PS has hired consultants from Gehl Copenhaugen to study transportation on campus. Please contact Amanda E. Steven if you would like to be interviewed about your experience with transportation on campus.
- The garden coordinator, Liz,documented a timeline for the Lawrence Garden. Signup will take place between March 1 and April 30. Zoom info sessions will occur in late March/early April. Tilling will take place in early May and the garden will kick off soon afterwards.
- The committee discussed the recent bonfire event and, based on popularity, plans on holding another bonfire later in the semester.
- The committee is also working on a bike event. T&PS will help supply rechargeable bike lights.
- Kimmy Sabsay presented a proposal to create a new committee position focused on sustainability, citing a lack of sustainability efforts associated with graduate housing committees.
- Duties and goals could include equipping Lawrence with electrical vehicle chargers, overseeing safe disposal of toxic waste, working with facilities to ensure sustainable maintenance practices, and coordinating activities with relevant offices on campus (Grad Housing, Office of Sustainability).
- A sustainability chair could also take some duties (e.g. composting) from the garden coordinator position.
- Facilities updates
- The facilities manager, Josh,will call facilities to bump a work order to fix Building 1 locks.
- Signage has been posted in laundry rooms near the newly-installed whiteboards.
- Josh will continue to investigate missing shovel delivery.
- The committee has acquired a laminator.
- Progress on the new Lawrence website continues. Hassan will reach out to OIT about unlocking WordPress features and meet with Deepen and Josh to discuss revisions.
- Constitution rewriting continues, with at least four roles/loads rebalanced and clearly specified.
- There is a measure on the GSG budget to increase the annual fee from $20 to $35 to better fund GSG events.
- The Lawrence Committee would like to pass on the following information from the Office of Disability Services (ODS)
- Accommodations are available to graduate students with a documented disability. Examples of disabilities include: temporary injuries (broken wrist, carpal tunnel), ADHD, anxiety, and depression.
- Accommodations can include: more test taking time, scribes for taking notes on technical material, speech to text software for taking notes in non-technical classes, etc.
- Interested students should contact ODS staff. Consultations with ODS staff are confidential but ODS is not a confidential resource (i.e. disclosure of harm to self or others must be reported by ODS staff).
- In attendance
- Kristin
- Jessica
- Hassan
- Kimmy Sabsay
- Liz
- Michelle
- Josh
- Deepen
- Shree
- Sarah Kwartler