[600] in UA Senate
Re: Bill to provide free hygiene products in the Reading Room during
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim Stumbaugh)
Sat Apr 10 00:39:08 2010
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:39:06 -0400
From: Tim Stumbaugh <stum@MIT.EDU>
To: The Other Other CFS <campaignforsanitizers@gmail.com>
CC: UA Senate <ua-senate@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <x2q1ae20d141004092122w2111e536ne41c8bf485c1da60@mail.gmail.com>
For those who lack the relevant context:
http://web.mit.edu/ua/senate/UAS40/passed/40%20UAS%206.1%20-%20Student%20Center%20Sanitizers.pdf
On 10 Apr 2010 00.22, The Other Other CFS wrote:
> The Campaign for Sanitizers fully supports the spirit of this bill,
> but encourages consideration of a few other options:
>
> 1. turn on the sprinklers on Kresge Oval, drag all reading room
> occupants out there, enforce Mandatory Showering.
> Pros: essentially free, much more hysterical
> Cons: we hate anything mandatory
>
> 2. build a wall to divide the room into two sections, have a Smell
> Sheriff at the entrance determine whether a person belongs on the
> smell-free or smelly side.
> Pros: public shaming
> Cons: a decent wall is probably more expensive than the proposed
> expenditures.
>
> 3. don't allow (smelly) food
> Pros: would actually help if people followed it
> Cons: too obvious
>
> 4. shoot any smelly offenders
> Pros: sure would get the message across clearly
> Cons: might be illegal in some states. and countries. and might
> be ethically questionable.
>
> 5. close the damn Reading Room
> Pros: forces the smelly people to diffuse around campus. Then
> the space could be given to student groups. We hear that MITSFS would
> likely still love this idea.
> Cons: It has not been proven that the aforementioned
> substitution would make a significant positive impact with respect to
> the problem in question.
>
>
> In summary, The Campaign is against smelliness, but ironically has no
> strong stance in either direction on personal hygiene. So while The
> Campaign supports the spirit of this proposal, it would highly prefer
> a free and more amusing and shaming plan.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> The Other Other CFS
>
>
> ps - one point of inquiry: the Reading Room has a significant smell
> problem, but the neighboring cluster does not? This sure seems
> counter-intuitive to us.
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Janet Li<jli12@mit.edu> wrote:
>> Hey everyone,
>>
>> I wanted to give you a heads up on a bill I'm working on, which I'll try to
>> send to Tim soon so that it can be on the agenda for our next meeting.
>>
>> The Committee on Space Planning has been working with the CAC to improve the
>> Reading Room, namely the smell. The ventilation system and everything are
>> working fine, so the main problem is probably just the students themselves,
>> many of whom get locked up studying in the Reading Room without taking care
>> of their hygiene. We've made some posters about stress and hygiene to raise
>> awareness of this problem (which are going up soon, if they're not already
>> up), but for finals week, we wanted to do something more. Together with
>> Jennifer Smith (the assistant director of the CAC) and some of MIT's health
>> educators, we've decided to tackle this hygiene issue by having free samples
>> of toothpaste, soap, deodorant, and mouthwash available in the Reading Room
>> for the last day of spring classes through the last day of finals (May
>> 13-20).
>>
>> Jennifer was able to obtain free samples of toothpaste and soap, but for six
>> days of 50 samples/day, the other products would cost: $174 for deodorant
>> ($0.58/piece) and $267 for mouthwash ($0.89/piece). So the bill asks for a
>> total of $441 from Senate Discretionary to cover the cost of these samples.
>>
>> What do you all think? Since the Reading Room and its smell are issues that
>> affect many undergrads, and because the UA Committee on Space Planning has
>> been working with the CAC on this, I think that it's reasonable to request
>> this funding from the Senate discretionary fund. Jennifer is already using
>> the CAC's funds to print posters and buy the display stands, as well as
>> paying for the student graphics worker.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> ---
>> Janet Li
>> MIT Class of 2012
>> Dept. of Biological Engineering
>> Undergraduate Association Baker Senator
>>
--
-Tim
"Now, I'll stop the storm if it rains."
