09-16-15 Council Budget Dilemma, House Future, and Purple Knights?

Wednesday's meeting began with a prayer from SBA president, Chelsea Owens. The primary topics of the meeting were the Council Budget, the formation of a House Future Committee, and talks about the TKC mascot

Hannah Lezak, representative of SAAC, gave a report about upcoming athletic events, including Kayaking on the Hudson (September 26th beginning at 9am) and the Women's Volleyball Game at Pratt College (Sept. 24th at 7:30pm).

The SBP debriefed Fall Retreat, which had an official attendance of 430 people. He thanked all the House presidents for being actively involved in Fall Retreat.

The Director of Student Events gave her report about upcoming school-wide events. Next week, September 21st-25th, is International Week. Monday (Sept. 21st), there will be an International Food Fair in the City Room, where you can eat dishes from around the world for just $1. Tuesday (9/22) there will an International Talent Show in the City Room at 7:30pm. On Wednesday (9/23), you can wear whatever you want that's from a different country. On Thursday (9/24), there will be an international film will be screened in the Sloset at noon. On Friday (9/25), the International Students Club will lead a group to a foreign restaurant at 7pm.

The DoSE also announced that on Friday, September 25th, 400 free Chick-fil-A sandwiches will be given out during lunch. Homecoming week will start on September 28th with the start of TKC Assassins. Fall Picnic (Oct. 3rd) has a NEW location: Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Council Budget Dilemma

The SBP opened up the discussion about what to do with the extra $654 left to allocate in the Council budget. He gave the Council two options. The first option involved giving the money to the Houses, giving each of the Houses just above $65. This would increase the allocation per head by just $1.31 which is not much considering that each House is allocated $54 per head in the House. The second option would be to give the money to the Student Organizations. The SBP pushed heavily to the presidents the former option to set a precedent that Houses are of highest importance to the Council. He argued that if the funds were given to the Houses, those higher up the King's ladder would see that Houses need the money and that funding ought to continue. The SBP also advised the House presidents to be cautious of their spending, and to make sure that they do not have a huge rollover at the end of the year, or else Advancement will allot less money to the House for the following year.

QE1 said that it was unfair of the Council to ask where the money should go without having more information about each House's budget and the budgets of the Student Organizations. Due to this lack of information that could be presented in the meeting, the budget discussion was tabled for next week.

House Future Committee

The SBP then opened the discussion for a committee dealing with the future of the House system. He stated that it's important to set up a more formal way to deal with the future of the House system for the next five, ten, fifteen years. This topic follows the discussion from two weeks ago where the Council touched on House financial independence. To make sure that Advancement is okay with the Houses being financially independent, some House presidents argued that the Houses must have a concrete system to ensure that the Houses can sustain themselves. Reagan stated that "the point of the House Future committee wouldn't be to get all '1776' on the school" but rather to help the Houses find their way to a stable and sustainable future. Reagan then tried to form the official Committee, but the Director of Spiritual Life told him that he needed a list of actual members for the committee to be presented and voted on. Reagan then called out those presidents whom he had previously talked to about this committee (Thatcher, QE1, Lewis) and asked them to be a part of the Committee. Truth objected and stated that all House presidents should be on this Committee. The DoSL then clarified that more committee members could be added in the future. 

Before voting on the members, Reagan and Thatcher reiterated that the committee would eventually consist of all House presidents, staff, and faculty members, to get a more credible and official plan for the future of the Houses. The House Future Committee, consisting of QE1, ten Boom, Thatcher, Lewis, and Reagan, was then voted on and unanimously approved. 

TKC Mascot

The only new business of the meeting was a talk about the TKC mascot. The SBP brought up a poll done two years ago asking the athletes whether they would want to keep the Lion as their mascot or switch it to the mascot used by King's in its Briarcliff Manor days, the Purple Knights. The 2013 poll revealed only 4 of the 50+ athletes at the time would keep the Lions, and the rest would change the mascot. The SBP and the Director of Communications explained that alumni of TKC who attended when it was in Upstate NY feel that the school has abandoned them by changing their mascot, and they no longer feel associated with King's. The SBP urged the House presidents to think about changing the mascot for athletics back to the Purple Knights while keeping all other King's-related logos and gear as the Lions. The SBP tabled the discussion for next week when Tyler Hinsley would be present to show data supporting a move back to the Purple Knights. 

The meeting was then adjourned. 

09-02-2015 The State of House Budgets and Fall Retreat

Wednesday's Council meeting began with a prayer from Lewis president, Fisher Derderian. The primary themes of this meeting were the state of House budgets, fundraising, and updates about next week's Fall Retreat.

The SBP discussed the benevolence fund for Fall Retreat. He informed the presidents that the Council has only less than $100 in the fund, but he and the Cabinet had recently sent an email to faculty and staff to ask for donations. Expecting only a few hundred dollars from the faculty, he asked the House presidents to ask their alumni and upperclassmen for donations towards their respective Houses.

The SBP then announced his State of the College address, which will occur on October 29th at noon in the City Room.

The SBP then began a discussion about House budgets and House fundraising. He admitted that fundraising for Houses is much more difficult than it appears, stating that Houses can't fundraise too much money for broad purposes due to rules that the Office of Advancement has set on the fundraising system. He also presented the dilemma when it comes to alumni donations because there is no current system outside of King's jurisdiction which allows for these types of donations. If an alumni from a House wishes to donate to their House, it must coincide with a specific House fundraising effort for only that academic year. There's no fund where House exec teams can simply pull money from which alumni are allowed to donate to.

QE1 brought up the question as to how does King's want Houses that are financially self-sufficient while yet restraining the Houses with fundraising and donation regulations. Members of the Cabinet expressed that nobody in the King's institution is against House self-sufficiency, but some members of the King's administration are fearful of the idea of a self-sufficient House(s) who cannot be "controlled" by the administration. Ten Boom pointed out that before the Houses can even think about sufficiency, each of the Houses "need to define what the Houses are." She argued that if House members, even exec teams, can't agree on what the purpose of the Houses are, how will they expect anyone outside of the House to donate to an institution which has no clear meaning?

Truth asked the rest of the Council how will the relationship between the Houses and the school look like once the Houses reach their financial self-sufficiency. Reagan believes that the relationship will not be affected at all, stating that members of the Houses will still be involved with the school at large. The SBP agreed, saying that "without King's, there would be no Houses."  Reagan concluded that King's students will always be involved and invest in the school and House communities because "students are [always] yearning for ownership of something."


After the House budget/fundraising discussion, the other Cabinet members gave their reports.

The Director of Student Events announced that the location for Fall Picnic is... TBA. She also expressed her excitement for the fact that the school has decided to put three weekends into one, referring to Fall Picnic, Homecoming, and Parent's Weekend all occurring on the same weekend (October 2nd-4th).

The Director of Spiritual Life talked about the success of the first Refuge (Aug. 27), which had an official attendance of 133 students (through the "Check I'm Here" system). He also informed the Council of his meetings with the Spiritual Life Committee.

The Director of Communications updated the Council on the number of people signed up for Fall Retreat (as of 6:30pm on Sept. 2nd). He stated that 120 of the freshmen/first-years had signed up, and a total of 225 students had signed up.

The Director of Student Orgs motioned to have the new student org budget approved, and after brief debate about certain bylaws affecting the creation of the budget, the budget was unanimously approved.

The meeting was then adjourned.