It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…the latest news from Student Government!

CCSC: VP for Campus Life Deysy Ordonez outlined the much-anticipated schedule for College Days, the CC version of E-Week, which will start April 9. Among the highlights: all College Days events, including King’s Ball, will be completely free, Tuesday will see a live broadcast of Glee on Low Plaza, and, since College Days overlaps with Restaurant Week, the council has negotiated special low prices during the week for Columbia students.

After the free food-induced applause died down, the council received updates on Gender Neutral Housing and Study Days. VP for Policy Sarah Weiss told the council, “”I was disappointed, and I know my [policy] committee was disappointed” at the administration’s decision to delay Gender Neutral Housing for a year, adding that some administrators may have suggested more support for this than they actually gave.

Academic calendar update and ESC after the jump!

The council will set up a task force to meet with the Deans and address the remaining problems, with the goal of wrapping up all loose ends by the fall.

As for the future of the academic calendar, University Senator Alex Frouman told the council that the education committee would refer the matter to the full Senate on April 2nd at the earliest. Student representatives will continue to make the student case with faculty and administrators in the meantime. Frouman also noted that, mathematically speaking, the only two ways to always prevent exams ending on December 23rd and a compressed study period are either starting classes before Labor Day, or having exams after Winter Break. Not exactly the hardest choice…

ESC: University Senator Cherie Meyer updated the council on the Northwest Corner Building. It is currently being overseen by the Provost Claude Steele, but the office of the Provost is stretched thin with other work, and the project, according to Meyer, “lacks scientific direction.” Despite having a new library and a new computer lab, the building will not “be an academic building”–while “there is a lot of uncertainty” about its final form, the main purpose of the building will be research, as well as making every other campus building’s name seem inventive by comparison. In the other major policy issue of the night, the council expressed strong support for starting classes before Labor Day to address future academic calendar issues.

Due to a security vulnerability that enables players to login as other users, CU Assassins had to restart at midnight, with all targets and kills will be reset. Though ESC knows which students used the vulnerability, they said that because it was never made explicit that it was against the rules to log into other accounts, they will not be punished (though future attempts to breach security will be considered cheating). Even worse for student fortunes in the War on Fun, the senior class council’s proposed puppy study break has officially been rejected, as Facilities will not allow dogs on campus facilities, and Lerner is not happy with the event happening indoors. Efforts stressing the cuteness factor fell on deaf ears.

– JCD and SVZ, photo via Flickr