Joseph Milholland fearlessly ventures into the hallowed Hall of Lerner to bear witness to another CCSC meeting.

Confidence was in the air of this CCSC meeting after the success of several events, like Oktoberfest, and the anticipation for the many upcoming events. In fact, it seems like next week will be a particularly good one for student government providing for its students. There will be a second BAGELPALOOZA on Tuesday morning at Broadway and Hogan.

Basketball Mania will be on the Wednesday after the break (time of day TBD). There will also be an alumni mixer on November 6 at 9 pm. Class of 2017 yearbook pictures will be on November 6 and 7. This Saturday there will be a screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas with refreshments and 11 and the screening beginning at midnight in the hopes of being a “safe alternative” to drinking alcohol. Finally, this Monday there will be 1200 free servings of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in the Schapiro lounge, including a flavor just recently released.

In terms of updates, student project grants are going to change to have students focus on broad goals that still give them lots of opportunities to to experiment. Some of the areas of focus are student civic engagement, sustainability, wellness, apps, and fun. The council is working hard at addressing the WTF Columbia complaints and has created an excel sheet for council members to coordinate which complaint they are working on. The resolutions supporting both the Lenape plaque and CUIT advisory committee both passed unanimously.

The big topic of the meeting was the CPS data the council received and will make available to students shortly. The council talked about how students view CPS, the problems with CPS, and how things can be improved. Some problems are apparent–CPS’s website is of poor quality (this is being worked on) and availability of walk-ins are not well advertised. However, difficulties are more elusive. There was much discussion about wait times, but there was little consensus over the cause of the problem or a solution. The currently available data makes it unclear if CPS experiences more difficulties due to a lack of space or a lack of money. Another problem is the absence of CPS 24 hours a day since many emotional difficulties occur late at night.

A significant number of students have a negative view of CPS because of fears of being directed to St. Luke’s or having to go through a “forced medical leave” that can raise privacy issues. Students who use CPS sometimes see others in the waiting room, which can be an embarrassing experience. Suggested solutions to spread accurate information about CPS to students were to give info during NSOP and allowing people who have found CPS useful to share their experience with others.

Majestic Ice Cream Cone via ShutterStock