Pictured: Possibly one GS student?

In the second exciting meeting of the General Studies Student Council, Acting Dean of Students Ivonne Rojas dropped by as a guest speaker for a Q&A, followed by the interview and appointment of nominees to the council! Brand spanking new GS bureau chief Andrew Chee brings you the exhilarating run down of all the nominees!

Q&A with Dean Rojas

In her second ever GSSC meeting, Dean Rojas gave a quick run through of her unbridled love for GS, summarizing her past as an admissions officer and student advisor, while also overseeing the dual BA program with Science Po and Trinity College. Her near future plans as Acting Dean include working on food insecurity and mental health, as well as emphasizing the success of the grad school coaching program. Clearly, she is all about supporting students while they are here in undergrad and after they graduate as well!

The Q&A revolved completely around the topic of food insecurity and what Student Life was doing to address it. Dean Rojas and Assistant Dean Sean Trulby stated that, in addition to existing initiatives, new ideas being discussed included attempts to make food insecurity programs more accessible – how could the school make students more comfortable in asking for help? Other goals floating around included expanding vouchers to even more restaurants and grocery stores, and an emergency stipend for immediate funds for unexpected emergencies and situations.

Updates!

Raisa Flor, GSSC President, then switched gears to discuss how she wanted to increase engagement between students and the alumni community, before handing it off to Sondra Woodruff, VP of Campus Life with a super FOMO-inducing video about “campus life”. The video was comprised solely of footage of GS students in the club partying, which is 100% accurate because who even studies anymore? (Dismantle stress culture!!) Sondra also mentioned some upcoming events currently being planned, such as spooky Halloween parties, ice skating parties (with some of the world famous ice skaters in GS wow!), events with the other schools, and so on.

Olivia Hartzell of the Policy Committee presented two Constitutional amendments: the abolishment of the role of First Year Class Treasurer and the creation of the Chief Negotiator. The First Year Class Treasurer was fairly underutilized because the First Year Committee would receive a proportionally small amount of funds. As such, the roles of the First Year Class Treasurer would be absorbed by the Finance committee, while Chief Negotiator would contact vendors around campus to see if they would want to cater or provide services for organizations on campus. Both motions to remove and create the positions passed without incident. Chief Negotiator will be open to all years because GS doesn’t really have “years” anyway per se.

Sitara Herur-Halbert of the Communications Committee touched upon the development of the GS website and focused on updating it with the latest information, particularly to serve students who may not use social media. The Finance Committee received a co-sponsorship budget request from Jenny and James of the MilVets for their Professional Imaging Seminar, one of the most popular MilVet events of the year, with services offered such as professional headshots, resume reviewing, and free pizza! Doubts were raised regarding the benefit to the greater community, but the MilVets assured the council that the event is inclusive and open to all members of the community, not strictly veterans. Voting passed smoothly, and everyone was happy happy happy. Finally, Senator Jonathan Criswell reminded everyone how much he loves and cares about all of us, emphasizing his commitment to students with disabilities, FLIP, students with housing issues, and really just about everybody. Thanks Jon, we love you too!

Social Media Rep: Justin Niece

The first nominee to be interviewed live by the student council was Justin Niece! His GS story is that he is a vet as well as a small business owner. Having to market his own brand and business is where he got his interest in being the social media rep. He’s made tons of videos for school projects and his business, and he’s a self-proclaimed “powerhouse”. His goal is to engage with students more on campus and the community. His video editing is clearly on point, but Justin said he didn’t have too much experience with Instagram or Snapchat, which are the main platforms people are on today. Regardless, Justin said he is very comfortable with Facebook, and the other platforms are fairly intuitive anyway. If he can run a small business, he can (hopefully) run social media accounts!

Tech Chair Rep: Tim Ku

I had super high expectations for this. Tim was actually sitting next to me and coding. Wow. Clearly a hacker tech god. Butttttttt then he came up and expressed that he did not feel he would be the proper fit for this role this semester. Womp womp. But wow, what a guy, he still came in and expressed his gratitude to the council instead of just ghosting! Hopefully the next Tech Chair Rep can live up to Tim’s benchmark.

Treasurer: Nadia Vaso

Nadia’s a second year political science major who transferred in from community college. Originally from Italy, she served as the VP of Finance for her organization in community college! Clearly she’s the person for the job! No questions asked for her, she’s a shoe-in for sure.

First Year Class President: Alexa Boncimino

A dual BA/Sciences Po student, Alexa decided to run because she wants to make her college experience the best it can be by being involved, and that includes making everyone else’s experience fantastic too! In her program, she’s met tons of great of people, but she feels many of the dual BA folks are not so integrated, so it’s her goal as First Year Class President to integrate the community. Who doesn’t love community integration? Alexa, this is so wholesome, play Beautiful by Bazzi.

First Year Class VP: Megan Calderazzo

Megan is the next nominee in the spotlight. She wants to get involved and fix things that aren’t working properly, like how GS students enroll in physical education classes. Hey, just because we don’t have a requirement doesn’t mean we don’t wanna be fit! Solid nominee all around.

Dual BA & Joint Program Rep: Louisa Lu

Similar to Alexa, Louisa seeks to integrate the community as the Dual BA & Joint Program Rep. She even wants to include students from the joint programs on other campuses! Excited to see how that pans out for sure.

International Students Rep: Luisa Dacroce

Luisa’s definitely got that international part down. Born in Portugal, she moved to Greece when she was 2, but moved back to her parents’ home country of Brazil at the age of 10. A few years ago, she moved to Orlando, FL, where she enrolled in a community college there. Her plan is to start a Travel Event, where people can go around tables and learn about other countries’ cultures, and then collect tickets and try out new cuisines! The current clubs on campus for international students are geared more toward CC/SEAS students, so Luisa’s goal is to cater toward the GS population more. Senator Jonathan questioned her about how she planned to reach out to the international student population, which is extremely diverse and can be hard to contact. There wasn’t much of a concrete answer, but Luisa will hopefully be able to work out the details!

Health & Wellness Rep: Christopher Thomson

Oh man, Christopher is great. Just hearing his laundry list of achievements is enough to know he’s gonna make moves. He serves as a peer advisor, on the Board of Mentorship Program, a founder of the Columbia Recovery Coalition, and he also does legislative work for some 12-step fellowships in the greater NYC/NJ area (!!). Chris wants to engage more in policy making and awareness on campus. He’s basically the Peter Kavinsky of Health & Wellness so what’s not to like? I heard Yakult is good for mental health too.

Students with Disabilities Rep: Jamie Lerner-Brecher

Jamie has a lot of experience engaging with various offices working with students with disabilities. Starting off at Barnard, she had to take leave for medical reasons, studying at City College for a time before ending up at GS. She has already taken initiative by attempting to create a disabilities support group with CPS, but CPS shot her down, saying they would need a list of 20+ people who would definitely go. Jamie is also advocating for more town hall style meetings, especially meetings at different points during the school year, when changes can be actually be effected to solve problems. She also notes that CPS’ support is focused on the needs of college age students, and not so much the GS community, a problem she hopes to remedy. She plans to implement policies that she witnessed first hand at City College.

Student Services and Academic Affairs Rep: Matthew Lindsky

Matthew Lindsky, who previously served on the Policy Committee, views all of the issues that affect students, such as disability support and academic conflicts, as student services. With past initiatives such as the University Student Health Form, Matthew is committed to improving our quality of life as students and helping us do what we gotta do.

Senior Class VP: Jake Law

Last but not least, Jake Law! By this time, the meeting had been going on for quite some time and Jake spared us by keeping his speech succinct but informative. With his past experience on student council, he hopes to “build a cohesive and strong senior class community, help promote our events, and help give back to the community”. Excellent stuff all around – music to my ears.

Closing Remarks

Nothing during Communications from the Floor, so Michael Higgins came up to discuss the Food Pantry, which he co-founded. He emphasized that anyone with any level of food insecurity can come in, and that volunteers are always wanted and appreciated. Finally, a rep from the Columbia Sustainable Leaders gave a quick shoutout to her org. They meet in order to plan out sustainability plans and goals. If that sounds interesting, check them out at greenowls.org!

Phew! That was my first GSSC meeting, but I have a feeling it was a little longer because of all the nominees! Regardless, it was a good time for sure! Check back in next week for a summary of the next GSSC meeting – as always, GSSC meets at 8:15 in the Satow Room in Lerner on Tuesday nights.

Image via Columbia