[Gsc-hca-family] Updates, no meeting this month

[Andréa Schmidt]

Kevin asked that I forward some information to the whole gsc-hca-family 
list regarding a few of the projects that the committee is working on:

I recently met with Dean Lerman regarding extending graduate student 
maternity leave, who seems very supportive of the idea, and thinks it's 
mainly a money issue. He is a little reluctant to accept departmental 
money because he would rather the policy be the same across the board, 
although he didn't rule it out (the Physics dept head was not so 
concerned about the money involved but had more implementation-related 
and fairness concerns).

I also had a few comments on the topics discussed at the last meeting 
(apologies again for not attending). Regarding the Z-center, I do think 
it is worth pursuing, but perhaps with the support of a dean, such as 
the Dean for Student Life or the Dean for Graduate Students. There is a 
grad rep on the DAPER board (appointed through the GSC). You could try 
to get in touch with this person (if he/she exists) or have someone 
apply for the position if it is currently unfilled. The fact of the 
matter is that the Z-center likely thinks they will lose money on this, 
but if more people sign up due to the more attractive price, they might 
come out ahead. Also, from a fairness perspective, almost no 
organization charges the same rate for children as they do for adults 
and almost no children use athletic facilities as heavily as adults. 
Perhaps a little research on what local gyms charge for membership, 
including or not including children would help.

Regarding extended families, my husband and I tried coming up with an 
extended family policy a couple of years ago with the old RLA, Dave 
Levy. It was a very futile endeavor. The basic reason is that if you 
make a policy, it will have to include a time limit (for example, your 
parents can only stay with you for one month or something like that). 
The problem is that people will not report their families in the same 
way that they don't report their kids when they're living in an 
apartment beyond its legal capacity. Their neighbors don't want to 
report it when parents are living there illegally (or children for that 
matter) because they don't want the parents to be deported or the family 
to be forced to move to a bigger apartment. The housing office basically 
turns a blind eye to what is going on. So at the end of the day, nothing 
actually changes, except that now you have a policy which no one who 
wants to violate the policy will follow. Anyway, I'm not trying to 
discourage you, but just trying to give you a little perspective on what 
has been done before and the pitfalls you might encounter. As GCs, my 
husband and I came to the conclusion that it would be better to have a 
policy on how to report *specific* guests who are violating the letter 
or spirit of the building rules, whether it be smoking on the playground 
or other offenses. These specific guests could be given a warning by the 
house manager after which point they would face possible eviction (or 
the threat of it anyway). We found in Eastgate that the majority of 
parents were minding their own business and not being a nuisance and a 
select few were doing menacing things. I don't know if that's the case 
in Westgate or not.

Andréa



Kevin Krsulich wrote:
> All,
>
> I wanted to send out an update on what's been going on since we last
> met. I decided not to hold a meeting this month for a few reasons, chief
> among which was the fact that it didn't look like we'd have a
> substantial enough agenda to justify getting everyone together,
> especially when I'm sure people are getting increasingly busy with term
> work.
>
> My hope is that we will be able to carry out light discussion over email
> so that we can keep the committee in a more constant state of motion,
> and then meet when we gather up an issue or two that requires more
> in-depth discussion.
>
> So here are the current states of our outstanding topics :
>    - Z center family access policy - Jason Walther has been in touch
> with the Z-center's director of customer service who, after discussing
> the issue with other Z-center administrators, responded that they have
> no interest in adjusting their family access policy or pricing for children.
>
>    - GSC Survey - Within the past few days, I've received a copy of the
> results of the GSC's most recent cost of living survey. It contains much
> of the useful financial and statistical data you would expect
> (income/expense info, dependents, childcare usage, housing stats) but
> also as expected, does not include some of the items we discussed at our
> first meeting (childbirth statistics, safety statistics, sources of
> income, etc.).
>
>    - Parking and Transportion - Randall Lewis, Randy Churchill and I are
> scheduled to meet with the Transportation and Parking Committee on Oct.
> 28 to discuss the rate structure and lack of benefits for families
> living on campus. We will likely be meeting within a week or so to begin
> planning for this.
>
>    - Extended families - Jason Walther and I met with Dennis Collins and
>  other members of the administration to discuss policy for extended
> families at MIT's family residences. A tentative solution was to
> implement a guest accomodation policy similar to that of Warehouse
> (where spousal visits are common) where extended families are welcomed
> to stay, informed of necessary safety and contact information, and in
> exchange are given card and/or key access to the residence during the
> time for which they've stated. The hope is that such a policy will
> accommodate families who travel great distances while insuring that they
> are welcomed, comfortable, and safe within the residence's community.
>
> So the outstanding questions are:
>  - Do we want to pursue this Z center policy further?
>  - Would a custom survey be useful to our work this year? What questions
> would we include?
>  - Is anyone else interested in helping with the meeting the the
> transportation committee? The more people we have, the more convincing
> an argument we can make.
>  - Thoughts/opinions on a policy to accommodate extended guests at
> family residences?
>
> Please feel free to reply all to discuss.
>
> I'll get out the minutes for the past meeting within a day or two. Sorry
> for the wait. Feel free to email me or the list with updates, opinions
> or items you'd like to discuss.
>
>
> Best,
>
> Kevin Krsulich
> GSC HCA Family Subcommittee Chair
>
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