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A visualization of CCSC’s funding

CCSC held its first meeting last night, and our valiant correspondent Joe Milholland was there to take notes.

The first CCSC meeting of the 2014-15 school year began with President Peter Bailinson quickly listing some of the major things he wanted to get done this year – College Days, mental health, and financial aid – and introducing the council by asking for an “interesting fact/story” about each council member’s name (best ones: Marshal Bozeman’s last name means “wicked man” in Dutch, Andrew Ren’s Chinese name means “Super Uncle,” and Sejal Singh and Ramis Wadood were named after soap opera characters).

Other council members gave updates on what CCSC-related stuff they did over their summer and their plans for the future:

  • VP of Policy Sejal Singh is working with CPS and identity-based groups to identify and respond to complaints that CPS was not handling the needs of certain student populations, such as students of color, properly.

  • Class of 2015 president Kareem Caryl and his council are working on alumni networking for the senior class.

  • Class of 2016 president Saaket Pradham and his council are developing career-oriented events

  • The class of 2017 is co-sponsoring a food expo with the Columbia Daily Spectator. Class president Sean Ryan is also working with his council on Major Discovery.

  • University Senator Marc Heinrich mentioned that the “lack of student input [in changes to the sexual assault policy] is troubling.” He is on the President’s Advisory Committee on Sexual Assault (PACSA) and wants more students involved in sexual assault policy reforms.

  • University Senator Jared Odessky is on the Rules Committee with Singh. While Odessky said he was “wary at first” in the senate possibly changing rules on how university students conduct protests, he is willing to go through the review process because Rules Administrator Stephen Rittenberg is leaving this year. Odessky hopes to educate the student body about the review through town halls this year.

  • Odessky also emphasized that the University can get access to anything students put on the new LionMail Drives.

Michael Li then gave a presentation about Funding at Columbia University (F@CU – pronounced “Fack you”) and the changes to CCSC’s funding this year. Every year, $216 from each student’s $1,396 in student life fees goes to CCSC, which totals up to $962,000 for CCSC. With their rollover surplus, their operating budget goes over $1 million. The amount from the student activities fee CCSC gets does not usually change.

This year, CCSC has decreased the money they give to student project grants to $10,000, increased the campus life funds 15% to $60,000, and decreased the class council funds 10% overall. The funds for the governing board have also increased 3.23% to around $650,000 (about $20,000 more for the governing boards – “a lot” Li and Bailinson said).

Money, money, money via Shutterstock