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

Learned and the CCSCrew partying it up!*

CCSC met. Brian Wagner tells all.

• The Council held this week’s meeting in Lerner Party Space, so everyone was ready for a good time. In addition, CCSC wants everyone to know that College Days have begun! Though their opening ceremony yesterday may not have been free of controversy (one rep apologized–“I’m sorry you hate V-necks!”), the Council looks forward to seeing you at all the fun events planned this week!
• The Council passed the amended EC Swipe Access Resolution. Under the new system, residents will still be limited to five guests, and it is up to the security guard to watch swipers and stop them from passing back IDs.
• Alex Rosen, Chairman of the CCSC Elections Board, discussed the CCSC elections process. He stated that he was very pleased with this year’s turnout: there were 70ish candidates, and around 45% of CC students voted, which is not a 20% increase from last year, but may also be a record!

Read more…

Meet the new face of EC

CCSC convened. Bwog’s Brian Wagner survived to bring you this harrowing account:

• DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!
• Quick hits: All the candidates for next year attended; College Days is coming up; prepare your coin purses, because Penny Wars is on the horizon; a committee on the Student Council elections process is being formed to review electoral policy, rules, and the like, and a bunch of CCSC-ers volunteered to join.
• The meeting focused on a potential new EC swipe access system. After several incidents involving unruly mobs mobbing the EC entrance while trying to get guests signed in, a fancy electronic swipe system is in the works that will allow residents to electronically sign in guests. The student scans to scan his or her CUID, visitors scan their ID (whether BC or a drivers’ license), and the system electronically records who signs in who. It will also scan your iris and arrest you for crimes that you commit in the future.
• In order to make room for this new system, there will be two lines going into EC: the traditional desk with the security guard and a separate line with a turnstile of some sort that admits signed in guests. This way congestion will be reduced and the entrance will remain secure.
• For those who think the CIA/PrezBo/Thought Police will use this digital information to delve into your personal records, never fear: the system is designed so that it will not record any extraneous information. Read more…

Diminish'd

CCSC cooked it up. Brian Wagner ate it down.

• The Council talked about granting Barnard swipe access to Columbia dorms. In the past, insurance and other legal matters have barred student government from changing the current system. The Council resolved to investigate these barriers and to see if any additional ones existed. They also plan to discuss whether swipe access should be extended to GS or GS/JTS students.
• Dean of Community Development and Multicultural Affairs Terry Martinez presented plans to create electronic forms for students seeking to reserve space and to grant certain student groups their own credit cards in order to make easier for student groups to access funds and space. Read more…

Carolyn Ruvkun, our Monday Daily Editor, lives off-campus. Even though most things are better for people like her (you don’t have to use Columbia bathrooms!), you are a half-person without swipe access to any dorm. Carolyn went on a quest to right these terrible wrongs. Follow these simple steps to get the Swipe Sticker of Dreams.

1. Go to 310 East Campus, where a lovely secretary will give you a form. (I was literally sent to 5 different places first, so reading this is useful.)
2. Take the time to fill out this form. Kristen Sylvester, housing associate and all around awesome person, told me that most swipe access applicants in SEAS and CC are accepted, but it’s still worth giving detailed answers. The form asks which residence halls you want access to and why. I just said all of them, in the off chance I decide to go hunting for Harmony. Write that you have friends who live in and belong to clubs that meet in all the residence halls. Bonus: you’re a piano virtuoso and need access to practice rooms. (Lerner pianists, there are pianos elsewhere!)
3. This form is taken to Public Safety, Student Affairs office and a few other places, just to verify you’re legit. According to Kristen, Housing is in the process of revamping the commuter access application process to make it more streamlined. Kudos, Columbia.
4. In a couple weeks, you’ll hear back from Cristen Kromm, Assistant for Residential Programs, and Nikkia Sharpe, Manager for Housing Service. Go pick up your shiny new sticker at the Hospitality Desk.

Access granted. Welcome to the inner circle.

Update: Eerily prescient, Tracy Parker and Nikkia Sharpe, just emailed Bwog about the new and improved process. It’s online now! Moving is totally overrated. Check it out here. In case you were worried, you still have to fill out a form and you still get a shiny new sticker. So, our advice isn’t totally moot.

Fu Foundation Bureau Chief Sean Zimmermann attended last night’s ESC meeting. Swipe Access died; revelations about Ferris Booth and JJs were unearthed.

Swipe access is dead, long live swipe access: During the last night’s ESC meeting, President Peter Valeiras announced that SGA, Barnard’s student council, had decided after meeting with the administration to stop pursuing swipe access. (Columbia’s student councils will still circulate a survey on the topic, but it’ll be just to see how much support there was for the initiative, which, again, is dead.) Swipe access for General Studies students is still in the works.
Read more…

New York Democrats try to sort out the spoils of their victory.

Barnard Profs rejoice with some love from a new research fund.

NROTC discussion to reach critical mass with one discussion, not two.

Do you have the Golden Touch?

Welcome to the new swipe society.

Barnard housing for the win! 

But still not quite able to let Columbians in.

CTV is going for broke…

While CU Snacks goes up in smoke.

Help us win more! the Spectator cries

Nothing to see here, the Ivy League lies

Aint nothing better than people behind mics (Religion!) (Education!)

Next stop Bonnaroo

Harvard, Brown, Penn > Princeton, Cornell, Yale

Fun with euphemisms (this ran yesterday)

Is that a banana in your costume? Or are you really a banana?

Preview to the protest

Fight! for your right! to… Project Runway!

Chabad is the new place in Harlem for singles to meet and “schmooze“.  Seriously, it beats 1020.

Coming soon in theaters, Checkmate at 112^th Street. You never knew a bishop could be so dangerous.

Why don’t you just go to Africa and save some lives like our “celebrated economist” tells us to?  Phelps and Stiglitz are in the next room, kind of ticked off.

You can’t get into Barnard because of failed mercantilism?  Bwog is just itching to protest the Columbia-Barnard Free Trade Agreement.

All the world’s a stage!  Know thyself!  At least before you go trick-or-treating…

According to CCSC: 20% of Columbia student council members favor swipe access reform — 84% of Barnard students find the current swipe policy inconvenient.

According to Bollinger: Few students understand financial crisis; students are generally happy.

According to Career Center rep: Career fair attendance went up 84% this year.

According to the Spectator Editorial Board: 3-1-1 needs to actually work in order to…work.

According to me: Last summer, my dad spoke to our dog more than he spoke to me.

Earlier today, we spoke to SGA President Sarah Besnoff, who explained that despite reports of Swipe Access’ imminence, in fact, a CCSC/SEAS survey on the issue is the next step in actually moving forward on this thing.

According to CCSC VP of Policy Adil Ahmed, this survey will be sent out “shortly.” CCSC is currently working with Housing and Dining, and then must present their efforts to Security.

As for the GS question, according to Ahmed: “[CCSC has] only talked about BC and will be incorporating GS into the discussions shortly. We’re going to work on this in stages with BC getting first priority.”  

Yesterday evening we reported on the exciting news that Swipe Access to Barnard dorms is imminent. This, while sort of true, is not the full picture, according to SGA President Sarah Besnoff. Though CCSC announced that last spring BC students had “voted overwhelming to allow Swipe Access,” according to Besnoff, nothing formal has been decided, so the imminence of Swipe Access is entirely debatable.

“Last year, SGA released a survey to the BC student body about Access and Security as relates to residential halls.  The survey demonstrated that there was overwhelming BC student dissastifaction with the current sign-in procedures and how this procedure procludes community integration.  As such, there is going to be an effort this year by SGA (in conjunction with CCSC and ESC) to move forward on examining what “universal access” would look like.  Nothing has been decided, and this year’s SGA has not formerly endorsed any resolution calling for CC students to have access to dorms,” Besnoff told Bwog in an email.

The first step to Swipe Access would involve sending out a referendum to the Columbia Community, as Class Councils operate democratically, occasionally.

Oh look, even more library system makeover surprises: The days of flashing an ID card to get into Butler are over — well, sort of. Starting today, all students heading into the library will be required to swipe in. However, the system is already down and according to a Butler employee it’s only “sort of working.” But of course.

Graduates will have to get an “Alumni Card”, as their old IDs will no longer swipe in. This is nothing new, but now alums might, you know, actually have to do it.

Columbia inexplicably fails to put a front-page story on their website about Vampire Weekend.

Meanwhile, Spec takes the low road and calls a Barnard swipe story “Easy Access.”

Further downtown, it turns out that the guy from Harry and the Potters has nothing interesting to say.

Community Board 9 is up in arms about a campus expansion — City College’s! Tricked you.

Of course, there’s never been a day when Columbia wasn’t evicting some strange old man. In this case, he was subletting to large numbers of students. Choice quote: he can’t move, he has “wallpaper all over the place!”