VSA forms new committee to brainstorm about organizations

Hayley Tsukayama Staff Writer

At a recent Vassar Students Association (VSA) council meeting, VSA Secretary Laureen Cantwell ’06 proposed that the VSA form a new committee to re-evaluate the current state of VSA organizations.

Organizations receive money from the community fund, which is split into seven categories: Religious/Spiritual, Political/Social, Lifestyle/Ethnicity, Dorms and Classes, Entertainment, Education/Literary, and Sports.

“The idea [of the committee] sounds sort of silly at first,” said Cantwell after the meeting. “But what I found looking at the community fund was that it seems like a lot of different groups fit into more than one sub-bracket.”

For example, Cantwell pointed to the fact that groups categorized under the “Lifestyle/Ethnicity” section of the community are often important people to turn to when tense political or social situations arise.

Cantwell said that when Hurricane Katrina hit and members of the Vassar community came to the VSA to ask what they could do for the victims, the VSA looked to groups in the Political/Social bracket and missed communicating with groups in other categories—namely the ALANA Katrina fund—who had already begun relief efforts.

“We did not know to direct people to them,” said Cantwell of the ALANA Katrina effort. “It makes perfect sense that the ALANA center would do something for the hurricane victims, but when people came up and asked where to go, we were thinking of Hunger Action or Community Action, or possibly class or dorm efforts.”

According to Cantwell, the classification system as it currently exists causes problems, because it does not allow for VSA organizations to fit into more than one category.

Cantwell admits that this new committee “won’t solve everything,” and that events that happen suddenly, such as Hurricane Katrina, will always catch people off-guard. “But this is an effort by the exec council to re-evaluate how to look at things,” she added.
While this committee is not permanent, Cantwell says that the committee will work until the job is done. She said, “We’re looking to do this for the benefit of everyone.”