This is What Progress Looks Like

All-Business Maren Killackey, along with partner in crime, Sarah Ngu, report on the happenings from the CCSC meeting last night.

Instead of the usual yawner, for the first time this year, CCSC met as a general body in order to hear updates from committees and class councils as well as to set the agenda for the rest of the semester.

CCSC President Aki Terasaki, whose new efficient, get-shit-done persona is much welcomed, noted every proposed agenda item on poster paper, which is now hanging in the Lerner SGO. Next to each proposal is written the respective proposer’s name, the idea being that he or she will be held more accountable for, well… getting shit done. Looks like CCSC might end up being its own watchdog this semester.

Policy: It looks like Policy is gearing up for a busy semester as VP Ryan Cho described a rather lengthy agenda including everything from working with dining to create smaller meal plans to increasing the interaction between groups and admin to making CUIT more responsive to students. (Yes, Cubmail finally moved to Gmail, but according to Kenny Durrell, that should not have taken three to four years to happen.)

Funding: VP Kevin Zhai announced Student Project Grants which will fund your big idea that may benefit the Columbia community for up to $1,500. Zhai also mentioned a need for photographers and rappers to produce creative promotional material that would be posted on a Student Project Grant tumblr.

Read more…

Last night, CCSC knocked on doors to see what was up with freshmen and sophomore students. Incumbent Shadow Master Sarah Ngu was with them every step of the way.

Knock knock!

The first ever ESC meeting

Sean Zimmermann reports from the first ESC meeting of the semester.

The council began the evening by holding elections for VP Communications. The election was well-contested, especially considering it was held mid-year. The winner, Jim Huang, spoke about his experience on ABC and how his experience developing websites could help in council outreach. He beat Lauren Hsu and current SGA liaison Tanya Shah.

ESC President Levick recently spoke with Dean Pena-Mora, and explained that the Dean is working with the faculty to resolve the issues reported last semester. In the fall, he created the position of Executive Vice-Dean, held by Donald Goldfarb, to act as a intermediary between the faculty and the Dean’s office. Additionally, Pena-Mora told President Levick that the Dean’s office hired an outside consultant to help assess the situation with the faculty, and that they are discussing his recommendations. The Dean came under fire last semester from faculty for failing to address a number of faculty concerns, including addressing overcrowding in classes.

CCSC will no longer be holding mandatory regular meetings, according to CCSC Liaison Rebecca Frauzem. The meetings will be optional for CCSC members, and the council will be holding more town halls instead. President Levick assured council members that CCSC still exists; the idea is that meetings will be more like “office hours” for students.

Intrepid miners via Wikimedia Commons 

As we mentioned before, last night was CCSC’s kick-off 2012 event, “What’s Wrong, Columbia?” This morning, Kem Walker gave a more lyrical take of it. Now, Sarah Ngu and Maren Killackey bring some hard numbers to the table (which is good, because scientific truth is the only truth with any value).

Sunday night’s townhall was the first glimpse of the much-anticipated “revamping” of Council meetings, after last semester’s hubbub. Around 45 people sat in a big circle, a good portion of whom were non-Council. There was a contingent from the Occupy scene. People griped, and even Council members had meaningful ideas to put out there… although, of course, not everyone we elected to Council made it there.

People’s gripes, grouped:

• Housing Facilities: 3
• Classroom facilities: 2
• Tech: 1
• Ferris: 1
• Administration: 7
• Financial Aid: 2
• Disabilities: 2
• Transfer students: 1
• Space: 3
• Culture/Student body: 7
• University swallowing college: 2

See the breakdown of each grouping, after the jump.

Grievances, aired.

Last night, CCSC hosted a town hall/bitchfest called “What’s Wrong, Columbia?” Our very own Crackerjack Complainer Kem Walker went for the show, and came back with the following notes.

Update, 8 pm: Topics at the meeting are provided after the jump, courtesy of Sarah Ngu.

For an hour and a half this evening, Student Body President Aki Terasaki wrote a list of concerns in green marker on large pieces of paper, which were then stuck to a glass door in Lerner 555. Free, greasy pizza seemed to be the common pretense for attendance, though the snaps of agreement when someone brought up the problem of “free food always being unhealthy” suggested that maybe students there did care about improving Columbia.

About forty of us sat in a friendly circle, suggesting improvements for the College. Someone behind me wondered how many were not part of CCSC; her friend noted, “Quite a few.”

The conversation started with a complaint about showers and grew into a more serious discussion of things like the red sticks in the garden beds, which nobody thought was a good use of funds. We talked about building community and being nice to each other in an organic rather than institutionalized way.

The Manhattanville expansion prompted a chat about improving the use of space on campus and in a moment of self-realization, we contemplated that the College is only one of seventeen schools at the university.

A guy wearing a sideways cap suggested that dorms should have HDTVs and hardwood floors, and we forgave him for breaking the intellectual tension. There was an excited flurry of complaints about campus facilities, accompanied by sarcastic anecdotes of uncomfortable desks and the Cubmail homepage.

Continue reading Kem’s account after the jump.

From 8 till 10 pm tonight, CCSC will be hosting a town hall gripe-fest in Lerner’s Satow Room. The Facebook hype page for What’s Wrong, Columbia? asks you to hold your student government accountable for your happiness as a human (or something like that), and we advise that you take advantage of this opportunity to do so. While enjoying free food, obviously: Bwog has been promised pizza. So bring your problems and suggestions, and let’s get everything out on the table.

Cranach's "Cupid Complaining to Venus"—You are Cupid, CCSC is Venus

Already-lodged complaints include:

• “Why are there more benches at the gym than bench bars??”
• “Schapiro, why do you have no hot water? and why are your showerheads biased against people taller than 5’8″?”
• “Why is all the food at Ferris put away by 7:20 when they close at 8?”

Ahh, life’s eternal questions!

German Renaissance masterwork via Wikimedia

Coming back is such sweet sorrow

Free pastries at the Wien and Shapiro security desks, courtesy CCSC ’13. According to an anonymous tipster, “They’re really good, I am currently eating one.”

Image via Ryan Mandelbaum, CC ’13

Yesterday, Bwog’s Senior CCSC Correspondent Sarah Ngu explained a big shake-up in the council meetings. Today, she analyzes what this year’s Council has accomplished so far, and what’s left to be done.

Here’s the list of initiatives that have been pursued this year (along with relevant Bwog coverage), and the council member responsible. Bolded indicates a policy that has been accomplished by this semester.

• Junior Regroup: juniors can now re-group during suite selection (Ryan Cho, VP Policy)
• Sophomore +1 Suite Policy: If juniors regroup, there will be fewer suites for sophomores, so sophomore groups will be eligible for suites for one person more than their group number (Logan Donovan of ESC)
• Adding campus mail stations in addition to a change in hours (Logan Donovan, VP Policy of ESC)
• Coverage of Bacchanal’s debt (Kenny Durrell, CC Senator)
• Joint Subcommittee to review Residential Life (starts next semester)
• Video Screens in the Residence Halls: student groups will be able to advertise on these (Ryan)
• Review of campus Financial Aid (Karishma Habbu, Student Services Rep)
• Publishing of the final exam date change form (Bruno Mendes, Academic Affairs Rep)
• Administrative Referral Grade (Bruno)
• Expansion of Butler hours for 5th & 6th floors (Kenny)
• Student Art in Residence Halls (Jared Odessky, CC’15 president)
• JJ’s Place Healthy Choice Options (Jared)
• Who’s Who list for the Administration (Christina Fan, Student Services Rep)
• New space for students (in Broadway Room & Piano Lounge)

In the fall semester of 2011, Council’s focus has been primarily on internal and small-scale affairs. In terms of policy, VP Ryan Cho’s mission has simply been to make undergraduates’ lives easier, targeting areas that affect all of us: housing, dining, mail services, academic administrative affairs, etc. Ryan’s not pursuing anything too life-changing, but that was a conscious decision. CCSC only has one year to change things (e.g. Open Housing took a few years), so rather than tackling big issues and making little progress on them, this year’s leadership has targeted smaller, recurring issues and nailed them down. A structural problem of Council is changing leadership from year to year, making it difficult to guarantee policies will be followed up (again, Open Housing is an exception). There were a handful of policies that were “passed” last year but never implemented, such as enforcing the final grade deadline for professors. Ryan has done a lot to promote accountability for individual assignments within the policy committee.

Below we review funding, communications, and campus life

It’s a long one! Our Satow Room Bureau Chief/Muckraking philosopher queen Sarah Ngu has lots to say about Sunday’s CCSC meeting.

The Decision

At the majority of student council meetings, a remarkable amount of time is spent discussing unimportant details. Recognizing the state of “complacency” in CCSC, President Aki Terasaki made the executive decision (read: it was not up to vote or discussion among council members) to no longer make attendance at any Council meeting mandatory, unless a vote has to be taken. “[We don’t] want to force people to take their position seriously,” Terasaki said. Council will pilot the policy for the entire Spring semester.

Terasaki had been contemplating this decision for awhile and his ideas were confirmed after conducting evaluations from Council members and talking with (pro bono) a meeting consultant Al Pattampalli, an acquaintance of Virat Gupta, the VP of Communications. The resounding feedback was that meetings were too long and felt perfunctory, and that people weren’t really motivated to get things done. The new policy would “trim the fat,” by retaining those most invested, encouraging communication via email, and allowing people to focus on their interests. Council meetings, ideally, would become much more like “open forums” for the public.

Everyone agreed something had to change, but the whole E-Board wasn’t entirely behind Aki’s decision. Jasmine Senior, VP Campus Life, was concerned that the lack of mandatory attendance would make it harder for her committee to get things done. However, after the meeting ended, there was little lingering debate. Bwog spoke to a few members who agreed with Terasaki’s assessment of the problem, but attributed it more to a lack of leadership, and did not believe this new policy would change much.

Read about the current structure and the meeting’s implications after the jump.

Senior Satow Correspondents Sarah Ngu and Maren Killackey report from this week’s CCSC meeting. Topics covered at the meeting include the financial aid office, Bacchanal and their debts, along with various other policies along the way.

Financial aid, Bacchanal, proper drainage... gotta have those Benjamins!

FinAid:

Student Services Rep Karishma Habbu has continued meetings with administrators from the Undergraduate Office of Financial Aid. It appears the Undergrad OFA is finally beginning to make strides towards an internal review based on the feedback it received from students, oh… last semester.

Bacchanal:

CCSC President Aki Terasaki made the announcement that, after extensive discussions with Dean Schollenberger and Dean Martinez, they have offered to cover the entire Bacchanal debt (though the offer comes with the caveat that a new event review process must be pursued). Terasaki heinously stole USenator Kenny Durell’s thunder as Durell is popularly credited with doing the legwork for the Bacchanal investigation; Durell then made a comprehensive presentation to the Council regarding his inquiry into the event’s financial situation. Durell’s report included a breakdown of Bacchanal’s expected vs. actual costs for last year, which, in the case of security fees, amounted to a difference of more than $9,000 and, in the case of facilities fees, more than $10,000. Although the Deans have agreed to reimburse Bacchanal the “full” $16,107, the total debt was more along the lines of $25,400. That missing $9K chunk was paid for by the Student Government Security Fund and therefore didn’t show up on the books, however it still represents lost Student Life fees.

Policy:

VP Ryan Cho will meet with CC Senators sometime this week about redoing the Pupin Plaza and Amsterdam Bridge. For the seven of you out there who have yet to invest in a solid pair of rainboots, this is particularly good news because in the resolution Cho will discuss is mention of, among other things, plans to fix the infamous Plaza drainage (or rather, lack thereof). Also, in response to some students’ concerns, Cho said definitively that graduate libraries are open to undergraduates, with the exception of the Law library (only during finals) and the top floor of Uris.

Co-sponsorhips:

The Council announced that it would be seeking proportional sponsorship from SGA for Bacchanal, as they do not currently contribute to funding for the even, despite significant Barnard attendance to it.

You Know It’s Finals Season When…:

The meeting ended in record time at 9:00 p.m. It would have ended around 8:55 p.m. had the conversation not unexpectedly descended into excited chatter about what food should be served during next meeting’s Holiday Party.

Cold, hard cash via Wikimedia Commons

"I'll be your cuddle buddy"

Senior Satow Correspondents Sarah Ngu and Maren Killackey report from this week’s CCSC meeting. They recap a student-run wellness initiative, financial aid communication and reform, the possibility of junior regroup during housing, a vegan composter, and brownstones for general lottery.

Student Wellness Project

Karishma Habbu, the Student Services Rep, and Wilfred Chan, yourCCSC.com webmaster, unveiled the Student Wellness Project to CCSC. Chan and a number of students met soon after the death of Tina Bu to discuss how to best address long-standing wellness issues on campus. “Wellness is basically you at your best… It is marked by balanced quality of life and a sense of well-being,” Chan told CCSC at Sunday’s meeting, listing all the dimensions of wellness (mental, physical, financial, spiritual, social, etc). He continued, “A lot of students tend to take [wellness] for granted,” accepting it as a reality of life at a tough school like Columbia. But wellness, as the SWP aims to emphasize, should instead be thought of as a fundamental right.

They have already met with Dean Valentini, Dean Shollenberger, Dean Martinez and Dr. Richard Eichler (the director of Columbia Psychological Services) and have been personally recruiting interested students; it’s open for anyone to join in. The Project’s long-term aim is to provide a bridge between students and resources available to them, and further to improve these resources.

A few goals that are currently underway:

• Student-run wellness website that centralizes resources and encourages discussion
• Student-led committee that publishes an annual report on Columbia’s community wellness
• Improved wellness training programs for NSOP and ResLife
• Peer-to-peer mentoring
• Puppy therapy!

The SWP meets every Tuesday at 10pm in 522 Kent. Contact Wilfred or Karishma for more information on SWP and how to join in. The Student Wellness Project is involved with the CU Student Forum, a growing gathering of individual students who want to address major issues on campus like lacking student space.

Financial Aid

750 students were unable to register for classes this semester because they had a $1,000 unpaid balance for tuition payment—this is a standard Columbia policy. The Financial Aid office sent multiple e-mails notifying students of the outstanding bill, but most ignored them. A Council member countered, saying that when he tried to rectify the situation he was redirected to three different offices, none of whom really knew what was going on. Some students said that although they received the email they didn’t know it meant that they couldn’t register.

Student Development Affairs and Financial Aid are partnering with the councils to submit the Financial Aid Office to a systematic review process similar to that conducted of CSA last semester. It would include discussions, surveys and focus groups.

Housing

Junior Re-group

Council voiced near unanimous support for an option that would allow Juniors to regroup at the end of suite selection and double up to take remaining suites. It remains to be seen if administration will implement such a policy.

Composting

The long-awaited composter, destined for installation in the basement of Ruggles, will be up and running sometime next year. Only vegetable waste —no dairy, meat, or oil—can be used. The composter will first be opened up to dining halls, then to campus groups, and after a few weeks, to individuals.

Brownstones

The brownstones that Columbia just acquired will not be opened up for general lottery. Located on 113th St. between Broadway and Riverside, the former nunnery will be re-designed to create singles and doubles for 70 people. KevSho previously stated that these would be Student Affairs confirms that these will be reserved for new Living Learning special interest housing.

Just like that, the powers of CUIT that giveth and taketh have upgraded all student accounts from 250 MB to 1 GB, meaning you’ll now have more room for messages. The increased quota should be visible in the top bar of the CubMail page once you log in. As one CUIT official told us, you can also request additional space by emailing askcuit@columbia.edu.

While we previously showed you how to make the switch to Gmail, the upgrade is a much welcomed improvement for those bent on keeping the simpler interface. Last we heard from student council, CUIT is reportedly transitioning to Gmail once it can meet ADA criteria. In the meantime, what do you plan on doing with all the extra space? Finally send that Lit Hum video you made to all your Core professors? Or continue uploading those supplemental readings you’ll never get to anyway?

This week’s edition of student council coverage brings important information about switching your advisor, possibility of creating a student hang-out space, a controversial proposal to shorten Lerner Mail lines, swipe access for GS/JTS students, and (hip hip..) how Council should delegate and micro-manage less (hooray!). Satow Bureau Chiefs Sarah Ngu and Maren Killackey report!

Can CCSC get this package to you sooner?

First a few fun facts:

Apparently the entire supervision of the lawns is under one ancient caretaker who has been dubbed “Mr. Filch” and is extremely protective of the lawns.

Anyone who has a final on December 23 will be able to reschedule the exam. The form will be posted soon on the Columbia College website under Policy and Procedures.

Funding drama

Micro-managing!
The Council spent a good fifteen minutes discussing whether or not to give Dhoom, a Bollywood-fusion dance team, a few hundred dollars for a co-sponsorship. 30+ council members, most of whom knew very little about Dhoom or the South Asian dance scene, debated the details of their budget request down to whether Dhoom needed to spend that much on tote bags for this one event. Is this the best use of the Council’s time? How knowledgable are they in making make such a decision? Shouldn’t Dhoom’s governing board, ABC, which has student reps of various dance clubs on campus, make this decision? We’re still awaiting Zhai’s promised re-evaluation of the funding system at Columbia.

Advising

Did you know you can switch your advisor?
Last year the advising system went through a huge evaluation process, which confirmed what most students already know: Advisors may occasionally be stellar, but the system largely acts as a talking website. CSA’s mission statement states that it’s here to help us discover pursue our passions, set goals, think independently. So if you’re pretty sure your advisor is not going to help you reach the apex of your self-development at Columbia, don’t worry: it’s extremely easy to switch your advisors. Email Dean Rinere, tell her who you want (your options are here, you can read about them by clicking the ‘Biography’ link) and she’ll make the switch. Bwog tried it and we got a switch done in less than a day.

Read on for lots about buildings, and a new CCSC TV video about the Bacchanal budget

So glorious

Friends, ’tis the season to be seasonal. After taking in yesterday’s picturesque glories, the CC 2013 class council thought they’d keep up the momentum with an autumnal event of their own. They’ll be stationed outside of Butler at 6 pm this evening with plenty of free apple cider to keep you hydrated during your requisite Butler break. Bask in the loveliness of it all…and then go back inside and write your paper.

But…if you’re still feelin’ like celebrating the season (and we don’t blame you), it might be your in best interest to head over to Satow Room at 9:30 pm for the Culinary Society’s first-ever Thanksgiving Pie Competition! 15 teams have entered, and the evening’s menu looks positively scrumptious, featuring classics such as apple and pumpkin to such exoticisms as kabocha ginger and chocolate pecan. The event is completely free, and all attendees will get to vote for their favorite pie. Winners will receive the title of Master Pie Maker.

So much for studying tonight…

Apple assortment via Wikimedia Commons

Fingers crossed that this is what the new SGO looks like

CCSC battled it out in the Satow Room. Maren Killackey lived to tell the tale.

• VP Funding Kevin Zhai solicited proposals from the Council for changes to the Lerner SGO (Student Government Office) space. Among the top suggestions were “bright colors,” “fish tank,” “really fun couches,” “nothing,” and “get rid of that weird computer bay.” It wasn’t long, however, before the discussion of renovation ideas turned towards a series of complaints about a certain student group never officially booking the space for its Sunday meetings… but then it was back to “bucket full of Legos.”
• Director of Sports Marketing Danny Spiegel stopped by to talk about Basketball Mania—which is happening this Thursday at 9:30 pm in Levien Gym (show up early to get free CU swag!)—and congratulate Council members on the record-shattering attendance at Homecoming (2,400 this year, up from 1,600 two years ago). When Mr. Spiegel offered to answer questions, class of 2014 President Conan Cassidy asked why CU Atletics rejected the 2014 Council’s proposed t-shirt design, which featured a lion, but apparently not the lion. Analogies abounded: “It’s like if McDonald’s had five different M’s.”

Good use of Student Life fees via Wikimedia Commons