Sean Zimmermann reports from last night’s ESC Meeting.

  • The last ESC meeting opened with a question and answer session with advising Deans Rinere and Plaa. The deans began by explaining how the SEAS department liaisons operate: incoming SEAS freshmen are assigned an advisor based on their expected major. If a student’s major changes, then their advisor also changes. This is different from the Columbia College students, who are assigned an advisor independent of their major.
  • The advisors also warned that engineering students should check with their CSA advisors about non-tech electives. In the past, students have been “led astray” about non-tech electives by departmental advisors (advisors assigned to an engineering students by their department after they declare their major).
  • CSA is in the process of implementing an advisor assessment project. Assuming the plan is approved by the Deans, students will be able to fill out surveys about their advisors that can be used to determine weaknesses in the CSA advising system.
  • Senator Tim Qin said that the Senate may be reviving the ROTC issue. He explained the issue to the council: “Why are we denying our students the opportunity to get an education for free?” Columbia students are currently able to enroll in ROTC programs through a “consortium agreement” with other NYC schools.
  • Dining survey results are in: only 25% percent of students who filled out the dining survey are satisfied with the dining, and engineering students are completely split regarding whether Ferris or John Jay should be open on weekends.
  • When developing new minors, the council determined that the important question was: “What would Jack McGourty do?”