October 30, 2019 | Meeting minutes

Wednesday, October 30

Present: Aditi Malhotra, Arsenio (Jr.) Mostrales, Eddie Low, Eliza Davies-Greenwald, Ken Ogata, Klara Kovarova, Lin Xu, Maria Javier, Mariana Villada Rivera, Marty Penner, Mustafa Nalwala, Vinay Bansal, Yukta Khandagale

Terms of Reference Review

The purpose of the Residence Affairs Committee (RAC) is to review issues that are brought to the committee.
The Residence Affairs Committee shall meet twice per term.
Members of the community who are looking to bring matters forward to RAC for consideration may do so in the following ways:
- Floor Representatives – residents may approach their floor rep to bring forward ideas and concerns to RAC via the Chestnut Residence Council.
- Chestnut Residence Council – residents may approach any member of the CRC
- Executive and share their ideas or concerns to be brought forward to RAC.
- Electronic Communication – residents may share their ideas or concerns directly to RAC via email (chestnut.life@utoronto.ca).
- Attending a meeting – residents may also wish to attend a RAC meeting in person.
Please see meeting schedule on Residence website.
Any concerns regarding RAC should be brought to the attention of the Assistant Dean, Residence Administration.

Residence Life Updates

22 Dons
- 10 are returning Dons and 12 are new hires.
- 1 Don is PhD student, 10 Dons are Graduate Students and 11 Dons are
- Undergraduate Students.
- Large range of studies and expertise.
- Conducted training for the last two weeks of August.

Faculty in Residence

Professor Chirag Variawa, Engineering Professor.
Goals of the placement include:
Break down some of the barriers that might otherwise exist between faculty and students, especially given large class sizes for some courses.
Support all students (not limited to engineering students).
Coordinates programs, such as Industry Night and Dinner with Your Prof.

Bike Auction

Large turnout of students at the Auction (25+)
Sold 10 bikes and raised $575 for student programming at Chestnut Residence

Gym Equipment

Scheduled for Delivery mid-November:
One Upright Stationary Bicycle
Two Treadmills
Two Olympic Bars
One Flat Bench

Piano Tuning

Tuned and attempted to repair all four pianos
- Baby Grand in Room Three is unfortunately not fixable – as such it will be rehomed
- Moving forward there will be three pianos (two uprights and one baby grand) and 2-3 scheduled tuning/maintenance/piano/year.

Bulletin Boards

Ten new bulletin boards were installed in August 2019.
Project to replace damaged/old bulletin boards will continue with ten additional bulletin boards to be purchased and installed in 2020-21.

Building Operations

Parking Garage Project has been extended (previously end date: December 2019) (current end date: March 2020).
WiFi Update Project is complete:
- No one at the table had any negative experiences with the WiFi since the update.
Some of the residence rooms were missing furniture (armoire, chair, etc.) at Move-In:
- All rooms have since been fully furnished.

Food Services

Recent Hire: Tarini Bidaisee, Dietician (tarini.bidaisee@utoronto.ca)
If there are any concerns with Food Services, please let the cashier know right away. A SousChef is available between the hours of 6:30am-11:00pm
Menus: https://ueat.utoronto.ca/utsg-campus-food-locations-regular-hours/
- Note: Recipes at Cashier (not available online yet)
Events Calendar: https://ueat.utoronto.ca/utsg-campus-event-calendar_october/
Allergen form: https://ueat.utoronto.ca/allergen-dietary-form/
Have replaced all plates this year
Feedback from Students:
- Tongs better than the spoons in the salad station
- Better than last year re: cross-contamination
- Cutlery is a lot cleaner this year
- Still noticing dirty plates mixed into clean plates (can’t put away plates that are wet)

Urban Crew Updates

Marty Penner is the Urban Crew Manager
- Maintains the space and oversees 19 volunteers who help animate Urban
- New Hiring Process
  - Last Year: Online Applications Only
  - This Year: Early launch of Online Applications followed by In-Person Interview (will do this process again next year)
- Schedule for Urban Crew Volunteers:
  - Monday-Thursday: 5pm-11pm
  - Friday: 5pm-Midnight
  - Saturday/Sunday: Noon-Midnight
Encouraging Volunteers to take on additional programming responsibilities, as interested, ex. PingPong Tournament organized by Frank.

Residence Council

Recently put up board with images and names of Council Members.
- Recently Hosted:
  Haunted House
  Ping-Pong Tournament
Events are advertised on Facebook Page/ Instagram and Chestnut Facebook/ Posters on each Floor/ Lobby

Housekeeping

No updates at this time.