Not what tabled means, guys.

Joseph C. Milholland fights through midterm malaise to check in with our tireless CCSC. 

This week’s CCSC meeting was a meeting of three resolutions in what was described as a “serious meeting.”

Barnard Columbia Divest started the meeting by bringing to the council their petition, the “first direct initiative” in the history of Columbia University in the City of New York. BC divest wanted divestment in which Columbia would immediately stop investing in the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies and over the course of five years get rid of the investments it currently has in those companies. They want to send a political statement through the divestment that America does not approve of what fossil fuel companies are doing and want Columbia to be a leader in making that statement. They claim divesting will have “no or negligible impact” on Columbia’s endowment and that financial aid would not be hurt. BC divest has been trying to reach administrators and wants to use the referendum numbers to support their campaign. The council approved the ballot initiative with not dissenting votes. In a straw poll the council held, most members are in favor of CCSC sending out a formal resolution in support of divestment, but that will not officially happen until later.

The council set its sights on Watson Library. Deantini will talk with Dean Hubbard about letting undergrads into the library and wanted a statement from the CCSC. The CCSC unanimously passed a resolution that asked that in the short term (finals this year) Watson Library should be open to undergrads after 5 pm (when business school students usually leave) and in the long term there should be no blocks on the access of undergrads into Watson Library.

The council also addressed the SGO rooms that are available to student groups. After a long discussion about what they should do with the tables (someone suggested “Let’s table it!”), they unanimously passed a resolution to have small rectangle tables that can be combined to great larger tables and also keep the large table that currently sits in the SGO rooms.

On top of these exciting resolution were some other updates. BAGELPALOOZA will be on Monday October 14 in John Jay. There will be a contest for the best idea for the Navigate Columbia website. The council also cleaned up the by-laws. They decided that the VP of finance will be a voting member of JCCC and that CCSC seniors but not the president will be on the judicial board.

Stealth via ShutterStock.