Beyond Barnard Facebook profile picture. Cool!

SGA’s Rep Council met once again last night and, as always, Dassi was there to report on what happened. We can’t promise any exciting news–everybody is a bit tired before Thanksgiving, and neither our Barnard Bureau Chief or our Barnard Student Government Association is an exception. But things do happen, so read on anyway to seek confirmation that both you and the world around you do continue to exist.

This week, Co-Associate Deans for Beyond Barnard Nikki Youngblood Giles and A-J Aronstein joined SGA’s Rep Council meeting this week to update everyone on what they’ve been doing since Beyond Barnard formed. Beyond Barnard is the title given last year to the new combination of Career Development, Student Employment, and Experiential Education efforts at Barnard. When the Deans spoke to SGA last year, they didn’t have much to report. This year, though they’ve managed to get some stuff done.

The Deans spoke about the newly clarified goals of Beyond Barnard, which include emphasizing that students’ majors don’t necessarily dictate where they’ll go after college and breaking down the supposed separations that exist between life on campus and life in the “real world.” Lofty and impressive goals. I’ll settle for finding something to do when I graduate. Aronstein and Youngblood Giles spoke about the events, panels, and other group sessions they’ve succesfully held in the past nine-months. Looks pretty good. Beyond Barnard currently has seventeen employees, including seven full-time advisors, and are planning on hiring another advisor soon to help manage the demand for one-on-one advising meetings.

SGA members were then allowed to ask questions. Rep for Campus Affairs Chelsea Sinclair made a motion that questions be open to visitors as well, which passed. But no non-Rep Council members asked anything. Exciting use of a motion for once, though. Its not clear to me that this is usually a procedure that is followed at all, and I had a good time seeing it in action. The questions asked covered on-campus employment, career fairs, and mental health in the job search process. The co-deans expressed hearing more from students, as they have largely shaped their priorities based on student feedback. They also encouraged everyone to stop by their offices in Elliot Hall. All in all, though like most SGA meetings, not much pf anything got said or done, Beyond Barnard seems to be shaping up well. Its too bad it didn’t exist three years ago when I was a first-year–we all could have used the support.