Saturday, December 17, 2005

Assembly from Afar

For those who are unable to attend the special Assembly tomorrow, Shimer will provide an online reporting system which will allow you to track the progress of various motions and votes.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ONLY THOSE PRESENT AND ELIGIBLE ARE ALLOWED TO VOTE.

Our online system will not allow you to interact in any way with the proceedings short of reading the information as it is posted and/or updated.

The best way to use this tool without overwhelming the servers and/or becoming frustrated would be to let the page load and --occasionally-- refresh your browser or press your F5 key.

For those who might have forgotten the sometimes glacial pace at an assembly of such importance - leaning on your refresh button really won't do much besides swamp the server. Try a refresh cycle of every five or ten minutes.

To take part in viewing the progress of Assembly starting at 4:00PM Central Standard Time on Sunday December 18th, use the following link:

https://portal.shimer.edu/sites/special/default.aspx

USER NAME: shimerguest
PASSWORD: cinderella

(Note that this is a secure page, please copy the link EXACTLY as it appears above)

If you have any questions or experience difficulty, we will have very limited ability to help as our I.T. staff will be taking part in Assembly as community members. You might try to send e-mail to this address: assemblysupport@shimer.edu

As a guest, you will not be able to navigate to other parts of the campus portal, please don't try.

Thank you for your interest in this important event in the history of our College.

Marc Hoffman

8 comments :

Unknown said...

Thanks, Marc!

Saradevil said...

Can someone else who was at the full meeting yesterday post some notes about it. I think there is still a lot of discussion to be done before the board finally meets, and since we do have at least three board memebers here, I do not think we should give up inputting our ideas at this time.

I'm waiting for permission to post the official Shimer minutes from the meeting.

Cheers,

Sara

Anonymous said...

A few thoughts and knee-jerk reactions.

I will attempt to see if I can't put down a more factual account myself.

I am still concerned about the Shimer move.

The vote yesterday went 44 to 29 for recommending the move (plus those who were setting up what look like truly delicious samosas. Sometimes I miss samosas so much I could just cry. Maybe I don't have time for them anymore, maybe I just worry about the evil eye potential in asfoetida; don't ask).

The random thoughts:

I really don't think that people realize the biological imperative to change one's social/intellectual attitude in a highly populated area. Yes, I realize that coming from my mouth, it sounds like a bunch of, er, horsefetida, but I hope that the board might try the informal experiment of riding Pace and the Metra and comparing the openness of the faces on board to that of the CTA. How safe do you feel? How joyful? Look, these are the same people, largely. The same you. They are just more tightly packed.

I *really, really* resent the implication that those who felt trepidatious about the move felt this way because of... what the hell, people? Racism? Jeepers CREEPERS. Am I stupid, believing that Waukegan has a visible Hispanic population that is severely under-represented at Shimer? Are there no skintone variations in Waukegan? Look, as long as we're charging $20,000 + per annum, money is going to be a consideration, and that means many minorities are going to get screwed. If we make the move, maybe there is reason to hope that we'll have better financial aid? If there is reason to believe that we'll get a little more cultural variety, if someday you look around at the coven-sized classroom and see more people who are in the hyphen-American minority than the affluence-enabled, then that would be a point in favor of the move. Ten points. Does it tip the scale? You tell me. (I do, however, feel good that I am confident that those who are reading this are not going to start flame wars or personal soapboxing on little-related issues. The Leewit has excellent taste in friends!)

I am also surprised that those who lambasted people who recommended caution because they were "afraid." Or, more precisely, that this fear, this treating a quantum (in the sense of "holy shit, that's a major change") and irreversible step as something that is not to be approached with respect and caution? That looking at alternatives is something ridiculous and mouse-squeaky? Feh. Semantics is a dead "science," more dead than astrology, but I still think we were better off sticking to the facts, not labeling our "opponents." There is no "enemy;" there is no "our side, their side;" there are only those who want to see Shimer survive, and perhaps believe that, given what they have been presented with, this is their opinion regarding how best to go about this.

I did like Jim's comment about Shimer and Waukegan being like unto an old married couple who take each other for granted for years, then finds out the union is threatened, wakes up and says, "Hey I really *do* love this guy!"

THis has been x-posted to mine own humble lj.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and yes, thank you, Marc, for allowing those not in the building to follow along, as well as your insights at the meeting.


And thank you, Sara and Sarah, and Michael.

(I hope I don't sound patronizing. You know, we're all true believers here.)

~Laura

Saradevil said...

Hello Anonymous,

Can you give us a hint as to who you are?

Thanks,

Sara

Anonymous said...

Blech, that was me, Laura.

Anonymous said...

Also, if anyone once again posts something on my livejournal that says, "Stop leaving anonymous comments, you twat," I shall be sad. I *do* hope that was not someone from this forum.

Slightly off-topic, but with great love,

Laura

Saradevil said...

I can't speak for everyone, but it certainly wasn't me. I just want to be sure that we are in keeping with the face to face dialouge as much as possible so was asking who you were for clarity, nothing more.

Thanks for letting us know who you are.

Cheers,

Sara