SGA met in the dark of the night yesterday in the glowing, open space that is the Diana Center Café. Waiting there with bated breath was Barnard Bureau Chief Renée Kraiem and below, as usual, is her report.

What if the Diana looked even more like a peach?

Last night’s SGA meeting featured its first administrative guest in quite some time, VP of Campus Services Gail Beltrone. Beltrone came bearing gifts, of sorts, just in time for the holiday finals season. Hear ye, hear ye, beginning now yesterday the Diana Center will be open for additional late-night group-study space. So, basically, you can finally go into the classrooms at night. Beltrone reported that, in response to student feedback requesting more group study spaces on campus, Barnard’s Director of Events Management Tiffany Dugan has blocked out spaces that classrooms on LL1, 3 and 4 of the Diana Center aren’t being used for classes; each will have a sign-up sheet outside of it for the duration of the pilot program. Also in the works is later access to Hewitt, and a “cheat sheet” for other group-study space on campus.

Beltrone also reported on the State of the Diana at large. She admitted almost-defeat at the hands of a lack of outlets, but announced that thanks to a not-so-secret Santa of sorts, Director of Facilities Julio Vazquez, over the holidays all columns in the Diana Center will be wrapped with the kind of posting-conducive material that now graces the presence of LL1, and promises an outlet in every “pocket.” Rep Council also offered feedback to Beltrone regarding her concerns about the maintenance of the Diana’s penchant for white paint. In case you were wondering, “highly saturated colored paint” are difficult to maintain, so the Diana might end up “a lighter peach color.” And you thought you didn’t care about SGA…

Beltrone offered the best update she could on the state of plans for the renovation of Lehman Hall; at next week’s Board of Trustees meeting the trustees will offer their feedback on plans for the plans for how to use the space. Sometimes the best laid plans…

In the words of Junior Class President Aliza Hassine: “I’m glad it’s finally happening;” SGA is getting a website, a la CCSC, ESC, and GSSC, but mostly CCSC, because the same person who designed CCSC’s is also doing SGA’s. Also praising the “user-friendliness” of the GSSC website, Rep Council discussed the purpose of their website, and agreed that it ought to be used as a “gateway to communication rather than a platform for communication.

And since this week’s meeting ran short and last week’s meeting ran long, you should know, however belatedly, that, two weeks ago now, Hassine and Junior Class Vice President Colleen Mulvihill met with a representative from the URC to discuss the language that Columbia and Barnard use in their tours about each other. Hassine reported a lack of language about Barnard in the URC tour guides’ script, and questioned why there “isn’t really any set explanation at all” about Barnard, except as a response to frequently asked questions. “Our tours do talk about it,” said Hassine. Mulvihill reported “some confusion,” but said that “at the end of the day they are very receptive.”