Financial Aid’s mascot

CCSC’s up to its old tricks again. Bwog sent Student Council Celebrator Maren Killackey to make sure things didn’t get out of hand. Here’s what she found:

Dean Marinaccio stopped by to discuss some of the reforms the Office of Financial Aid has undertaken since reviewing the results of their internal review aka that thing you kept getting emails about in the fall… of 2011. Despite the delays, the changes are proving effective:

• Many students have already experienced dramatically shorter wait times during walk-in hours now that they no longer have to wait for their particular aid officer
• There’s been an increase in responsiveness thanks to a new email system and four new staff members
• Communication between both students and other administrative offices has improved. For example, the number of students  with $1K in the hole who had been booted from registration fell impressively, from 850 to 48.

In the upcoming months, the OFA will continue its efforts to reach out to students, including working with the student-run Common Cents project to create more opportunities to learn about managing your own finances. Also, as head of Undergrad Admissions as well as Financial Aid, Dean Marinaccio expressed excitement about the uptick in admission applications, an emotion that graciously overshadowed any sense of complete and utter dread (So. Much. Paperwork). She also says the office will wait with bated breath the Fisher v. Texas decision, which, in addition to possibly rendering PrezBo irrelevant, would limit the information admissions personnel can use in their decisions to admit students. If you have any questions about fin aid or- heaven knows why- undergraduate admissions, you can reach Dean Marinaccio at jm996@columbia.edu.

Next, the Council closed the meeting to all non-members so they could pretend to deliberate on USenate candidates, but really just talk about the return of “Community.” After about ten minutes- guess the premiere wasn’t that exciting- the meeting reopened and it was announced that Cleo Abram, CC’15, had been selected to fill suddenly vacated seat. Cleo founded TEDxColumbia as a first year and is passionate about developing Columbia’s online course offerings.

For references to S&M, how much UEM sucks, and things your elected representatives don’t care about read the official committee updates here.

Bizarre stock image of a piggy bank wearing a graduation cap via Shutterstock