25 CommentsThis 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.
Housing
Swipe acces for GS/JTS?
Ryan Cho, VP of Policy, is in talks with the administration to let GS/JTS students, who are generally the same age as CC/SEAS students, swipe into buildings. The powers that be have protested; their biggest reason is that if a GS/JTS student is caught violating a policy in a residence hall, the discipline process is not the same for GS/JTS students and CC/SEAS students. Sounds more like their problem than ours. Will Cho push back or will he concede to these bureaucratic obstacles?
Student space
Where can we go to just hang out?
Inspired by ESC’s proposal to bring back gaming systems in Lerner, the CCSC Policy Committee wants to look into converting the Broadway room on Lerner 2 into a real student hang-out den. Especially now with JJ’s under the meal plan, there are few spaces on campus for students all over campus to bump into each other and just relax that are not a library or dining hall (Lerner Piano Lounge was an attempt to be that space). Have any ideas about what it should look like?
Electronic mail collection
Brilliant or bad idea?
CCSC’s Commander-in-Chief Aki Terasaki brought up the possibility of instituting a kiosk system in Lerner that would effectively replace the check-in routine in the Lerner Mail Center. Basically, you’d go into the Lerner lobby, sign onto one of the computers, and, utilizing some nifty software, you’d notify the LMC of your intent to retrieve your package. Theoretically, by the time you got upstairs, your mail would be ready and waiting. However, as some rather astute members of the Council observed, the line wouldn’t really be “eliminated,” rather just “relocated.” Plus, you would still have to sign to indicate that you picked up your package.
Beloved care package via Wikimedia Commons
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25 Comments
@Anonymous Are you dumb? Dhoom went to CCSC for money…and you ask “how knowledgable are they [CCSC] in making make such a decision?”
ARE YOU DUMB? If Dhoom doesn’t want the Council to make decisions about giving them money, then they shouldn’t ASK for it!
Obviously…Dhoom did want CCSC to make a decision about whether or not they needed a co-sponsorship, and you’re the dumb one.
@Anonymous Certainly, but the point is that governing boards like SGB and ABC that oversee clubs have much more information and context than the Council does needed to make the best decision.
@Barnard Student I’d like to point out that there is a tendency among these posts that those who are oppose to swipe access for GS/JTS students are approaching it from a bureaucratic standpoint. I think there are a lot of issues related to the greater GS community, and I am neither attempting to address those nor disregard them. I simply want to point out that GS/JTS students are, on the whole, disproportionately active in student life, and are constantly socially excluded by both policy and the reality of living in different housing. Any policy issue that comes into question can be addressed by changing that policy. So the question isn’t really about policy. It’s about respecting and valuing these individuals as members of our community.
@Anonymous BWOG should check their facts- the official co-sponsorship request did NOT include tote bags.
I know this because I wrote it…
@Anonymous What if there were a CULPA-esque system of rating advisers? It seems like CULPA at the very least as provided some sense of accountability of having your name and reviews out on the interweb for all to see, which for advisers might work by scaring some of the worse ones into actually half-assing their jobs. Students who want to switch could also request an adviser they actually know is capable, instead of being shuffled from one pathetic excuse for an adviser to another. Just an idea!
@THIS THIS IS A GOOD IDEA!
@awkward bro Lol the one thing Columbia doesnt know how to do is hang out lolololol!
@GS nationalist As the only Ivy League college to accept people who weren’t fortunate enough to apply straight out of high school, Columbia poaches the very top students from state universities and other institutions, appearing to welcome us as part of the school…but then treats us like dirt. GS competes for admissions on name alone, because they have no other redeeming qualities due to the administration’s reluctance to treat us equally.
Swipe access for JTS students and not older, or younger GSers? So that’s discrimination in the flesh, then. All this talk about how the university wants to integrate GSers is an insult when they’re really encouraging CC students to exclude us from student life. Don’t even get me started on the class distinctions between impoverished GSers and upper-class CC students (re: the 1% powersuite post that follows this one).
And of all the fear tactics…discipline? What a joke. What magical trouble do GS students cause that can’t be taken care of by the university we all attend, exactly?
@Anonymous Well then you should have worked harder in high school. Cry me a river.
@GS nationalist Did great in high school. Guess I should have just decided to forget about supporting my family.
@GS/JTS Alum Just give the damn swipe access to GS. 3/4 of GS students will never use it anyway, but the 1/4 that will are heavily involved in undergraduate student life and and constantly hassled by having to be signed in for club meetings, group projects, etc. If disciplinary action is the issue, by granting swipe access you have a record of who was there which is much more accurate than the current sign-in system.
Barnard also should probably have swipe access, but that is a different issue because of competing student life/housing/bureaucratic systems.
@GS/JTS Alum And I agree with GS above. GS/JTS students are no different than any other GS students in the eyes of Columbia University, so it is ridiculous to make a distinction about them in this situation.
@GS/JTS Alum And while I’m at it, is there currently a distinction in the eyes of the university between a CC/CE student who lives in student housing and requires disciplinary action as a result of something that happens in student housing versus a CC/CE student who does not? Because the GS swipe issue has always been explained as “anyone who doesn’t live in Columbia undergraduate student housing can’t swipe in,” and CC/CE students who live off-campus require a sign-in, but if they break the rules while signed in, do they face the same disciplinary action as GS (non-housing) students or CC/CE (housing) students? Methinks they probably fall in the CC/CE track, which is a double standard.
@Fact Check The problem actually stems from the fact that GS students aren’t under the same discipline system as CC/SEAS students who fall under the Division of Student Affairs. Every CC/SEAS student, if being documented for a violation, regardless of whether you live on campus or not, is in the system. GS students, however, are not because they do not fall under the Dean of Res Life’s jurisdiction, who falls under Dean Schollenberger’s jurisdiction.
If you have any ideas on how to alleviate that, that would be welcome!
@GS/JTS Alum Thanks for clarifying. My post was more a “look into this situation, because it would be a problem if this were true” kind of post. Maybe they could put all Columbia students into a centralized database that identifies which school we are a part of? Everyone has CUIDs (or Barnard IDs–BIDs?). When a GS ID is swiped at a dorm, the picture comes up, it just says “don’t let them in.” What if the system just kept track of who has come into the building and their affiliation (this, of course, requires non-Columbia affiliates to still be signed in)? They could even track who has left the building with the RFID chips in the IDs.
@GS Of course GS are official undergrads of Columbia.
And it would be sad to make a difference between GS/JTS and the other GS in this process, it’s pure discrimination on age/experience without any legal foundation. I hope they realize how this would be easily (and fairly) found void by law.
@Guys, guys, guys I think the JTS vs. general GS distinction has been made because JTS actually has dorms so it falls under some form of Housing.
@Anonymous Many GS students live in University housing
@Anonymous There definitely should be game rooms, lounges to hang out and socialize, and TV rooms in John Jay and Lerner.
@Anonymous GS/ JTS/UTS should definitely not be allowed access to Columbia dorms and student buildings. They are not official undergrads of Columbia and are not under the same rules and jurisdictions. CC/CE would have no power over disciplinary actions. Further, this would significantly put at risk the security of the other students with literally hundreds of more students access to dorms, etc.
@Anonymous dunno about JTS/UTS but GS are official undergrads of columbia? and on commencement day, barnard is too!
@CC 13 yeah. it’s just silly that JTS/UTS and GS might get swipe access without Barnard also getting swipe access. I wonder why this isn’t part of the council’s proposal.
@I've got Hitler on the phone He wants his propaganda back.
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pro-GS CC’14
@Anonymous If you don’t live on campus you should not be given swipe access!
@Anonymous JTS/GS does live on campus… their dorms are actually closer to college walk than several you would consider “on campus”