We hope everyone has enjoyed reading our weekly updates as much as we’ve enjoyed putting them together.

Send any ideas about what you’d like to see coverage of next year or ways we can improve our electronic newsletters to news@brynmawr.edu.

Send Bryn Mawr College a “postcard” of your summer adventure (or staycation) by filling out a few quick questions and sending a picture via this form. Then we’ll post it on our “Drop Us a Line” blog which will appear on the College website throughout the summer.

Please remember to obtain your employer’s permission if you are sending a photo from your workplace or internship.

Dear Faculty and Staff members,

I would like to clarify a few items related to the changes in student hiring.

In my previous email I stated that you can hire a student without employment aid but they must be rehired by June 15, 2013. After June 15th you must give priority to those with aid.

The June 15 deadline will apply every year.  Any student hired before June 15 in any year can be hired for the upcoming academic year without regard to employment aid.  After June 15th priority must be given to employment aided students.

Additionally, this policy does not apply to summer hiring or graduate student hiring.

At the conference, which in German is titled Dreilandertagung Epilepsie 2013, Kerson presented on the portrayal of epilepsy on YouTube. She was joined by three other panelists who are all working from Kerson’s 15 years of data compilation on the dimensions of epilepsy in mass media. Studying the portrayal of epilepsy in mass media is an ongoing research and publication project for Kerson.

Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to announce the next round of Tri-Co DH grants for faculty and staff. For those wanting to pursue summer work, the Steering Committee will expedite proposals received by May 25. For those looking to pursue projects next year, the deadline is Sept. 1. Details may be consulted at http://tdh.brynmawr.edu/.

Deadlines: expedited May 25 deadline for Summer & Fall | Sept 1 for Fall & Spring
Submit to: Jen Rajchel, Assistant Director, TDH. jrajchel@haverford.edu

TDH grants may cover a wide-variety of digital scholarship initiatives, from training sessions at DHSI to project development, design and implementation. The three categories of grants (DH Seed, Training, and Pilot) are scaled to foster a variety of kinds of innovation, from initial explorations to full-scale projects. Faculty and staff in any discipline are eligible.

For our previous round of grants, we have funded training at workshops and conferences such as DHSI; implementation of small-scale digital publishing/design projects such as Traces of Mind Control; student research assistance on digital projects such as the Early Novels Database; and large-scale, inter-institutional collaborations. For those interested in developing a new digital project, TDH will connect you with experts who can assist in planning and implementation.

If you have any questions, would like further information, or would simply like to brainstorm ideas – please contact Katherine Rowe, Director of Tri-Co DH at krowe@brynmawr.edu or Jen Rajchel, Assistant Director of Tri-Co DH at jrajchel@haverford.edu.

The Staff Picnic will be held on Monday, June 3 from noon to 2 p.m. on the Wyndham Lawn. Winners of the staff McPherson Award and Newberry Award will be announced and service pins will be distributed. Staff are given two hours paid release time to attend the picnic. Rain site is Wyndham Alumnae House.

Huh is researching a new and efficient synthetic strategy that can, in the long run, be useful in building complex, biologically active molecules.

The Division of Organic Chemistry annually awards summer undergraduate research fellowships to outstanding undergraduate organic chemistry students attending colleges and universities in the United States. These competitive fellowships are awarded on the merits of students’ research proposals, academic records, faculty recommendations, and their passion for laboratory science. Click here for more on the program.

Bryn Mawr’s Chemistry Department combines high-quality, visible research programs with excellent teaching. Students have the opportunity to work side by side with faculty as researchers. The chemistry major program of study includes introductory and advanced courses in the core areas of biological, inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry. Advanced courses are informed by the research areas of bioinorganic, nanomaterials, medicinal, computational, organic materials, and nucleic acid and protein chemistry.

1. The organizer/advisor of a student group returning early to campus for training or programming (Athletics, Customs, TAs, etc.)
2. A campus employer whose student workers will be returning early to campus for work reasons (Dining Services, Library, Academic Departments, etc.).

If you plan on being responsible for bringing students back to campus before the dorms open for fall semester, please note:

A student may return to campus before the official start of the fall semester only as a part of a College-sponsored program, such as Athletics, Customs, Hall Advisor training, or working in a campus office.
The sponsoring office/department must fill out a College-Sponsored Early Return Form and submit it to the Residential Life Office no later than July 15. Click here to fill out the early return form.
College-sponsored programs may bring students back to campus as early as Friday, August 23, 2013.

Please contact the Office of Residential Life at reslife@brynmawr.edu with any questions regarding this policy.

The committee was formed by President Jane McAuliffe in November to look at several pressing campus housing issues, and in response to student concerns that their voices weren’t being heard in planning the future of Perry House. A former private home with room for seven that has served as the Black Student Cultural Center since the 1970s and in more recent years as a living space for members of Sisterhood, BACaSO, and Mujeres, Perry was taken offline this year due to structural concerns and issues with the home’s heating, electrical, and other systems.

Earlier this month, the committee issued a final report and shared its recommendations with the Bryn Mawr community. In the report, the committee urges Bryn Mawr’s Board of Trustees  to consider a “New Perry” that would maintain a dedicated gathering and dining space for the groups that had space in the home and which may also help solve some of the College’s other housing issues.

“Working on the Perry House committee with faculty, staff and students who are invested in the cause has given me a wider perspective on the politics that go into creating a successful solution,” says committee member Esteniolla Maitre ’15. “While the importance of Black and Latina heritage on campus has been the core of our work, I enjoyed thinking with the committee, and the entire community, on  a housing solution that is inclusive of everyone on campus and reflective of Bryn Mawr’s mission. This committee is the result of what student voice can do and a reason for Bryn Mawr College to continue making the experience of marginalized groups a priority. I am very optimistic about the future of Perry House and, above all, the future of diversity at Bryn Mawr College.”

A Board of Trustees subcommittee that has been formed to decide the College’s housing plans will consult with many of the students from the Student Housing Options Committee before any plans are finalized.

In addition to Perry House, the Student Housing Options Committee looked at—and the Board of Trustees subcommittee will consider—the future of Batten House, which currently houses 13 students and needs about $800,000 in repairs, and Haffner Hall, which has to undergo either a major renovation due to asbestos that was found on structural beams or which may be demolished.

“At this point we’re looking at three options,” says Bryn Mawr Chief Administrative Officer Jerry Berenson. “We may be able to renovate Haffner and add as many as 18 rooms; we could totally demolish Haffner and build a new dorm with nearly 50 more rooms; or we could renovate Haffner as presently configured and build a new small dorm somewhere else on campus.”

Berenson, who was part of the Student Housing Committee and who will also work with the Board this summer, says he expects a decision to be reached by the end of June.

For more details about the options being considered, see this email from Berenson.

Dear Bryn Mawr College Faculty, Staff and Students,

A few weeks ago I wrote to let you know about changes to planned renovations of Haffner Hall that will be much more extensive than originally planned. While many details of how we are moving forward on this project remain unresolved, we know that the building cannot be occupied during the next academic year. We have now identified sufficient spaces, both on campus and off campus, to house students for the next academic year.

College administrators and Trustees will continue to work on a plan for Haffner during the summer, and are also considering other student housing issues. The other issues are:

Perry House

Perry House was a residence purchased by the College about 50 years ago and, in the 1970’s, became the Black Student Cultural Center and a residence hall with a capacity to house seven students. Students living in Perry House are members of three minority student groups on campus: Sisterhood, BACaSO, or Mujeres.

Perry House has been in need of substantial repairs and the College has been considering the future of the house. The decision about Perry House is complicated for three reasons:

· The cost to renovate is somewhere between $1.5 and $2.5 million, which is high considering that only seven students are housed there.
· The location of the Black Cultural Center is not ideal since it is on the periphery of campus and is not a convenient location for most students.
· The renovation of the building could necessitate township zoning approval which would be difficult to obtain because the building is so close to neighboring residences.

Perry House is not currently occupied because of the poor condition of the building.

This year, a Student Housing Options Committee was formed to consider the College student housing issues and make recommendations about the future of Perry House and the Black Student Cultural Center. The Committee, consisting of student, faculty and staff representatives have issued a report, available here, http://inside.blogs.brynmawr.edu/files/2013/05/PerryHouseCommitteeReport.May2013-1.pdf, which includes recommendations for replacing the student housing and programmatic spaces that were in Perry House.

Batten House

Batten House is a residence that was donated to the College in 1959 and is adjacent to Brecon. The Batten Co-Operative, formed in 1999, houses thirteen students who are interested in a living and cooking experience that addresses environmental and social justice issues. Batten House needs significant repairs within the next couple of years that we estimate will cost about $800,000.

Undergraduate Enrollment and Housing Capacity

The College has now reached the enrollment goal of 1,300 undergraduate students that was recommended several years ago by the Optimal Enrollment Task Force. However, we do not have the capacity to house all of the undergraduate students who wish to live on-campus. We currently house twenty-two students in an apartment building adjacent to the campus, and we do not have housing capacity for additional students if enrollment were to be increased sometime in the future.

We are currently considering the following options to respond to these student housing issues:

Option 1 – Renovate Haffner

The cost to renovate Haffner is estimated to be $7 million. There is the possibility of increasing the number of beds from 78 to as many as 94 by reconfiguring the rooms such that there would be a mix of single and double rooms. Currently all rooms are singles. We are exploring the possibility of including the Perry House program in the renovated Haffner Hall.

Option 2 – Demolish Haffner and build new student housing on the site

It would be possible to increase the number of beds to 120 with a new student residence on the Haffner site. This is our estimate of the maximum number of beds that we could include in new student housing while also creating space for Perry House and the Black Student Cultural Center and Library. The additional beds make it possible to bring the students in the apartments onto campus, to include the Batten House Cooperative in the new housing and/or to increase student enrollment. The cost estimate for this option is in excess of $20 million.

Option 3 – Renovate Haffner and build a new, small student residence at another campus location

This option might be less expensive than demolishing Haffner and building new housing on that site. There are not yet cost estimates for this option. The new small residence could include the Perry House program and possibly the Batten House program.

A Board subcommittee will consider these options and hopes to have a decision by the end of June. Students from the Student Housing Options Committee will be consulted as the options are considered. I will send updates to the community whenever any decisions are reached or new details become available.