The person is you and the pencil eraser is CSA and the maze is your sad, sad life

ESC met last night to do their ESC thing. We can only speculate that SEAS puns abounded… We also sent energetic engineer Aparajita Maitra to get the actual facts.

It’s that time of the week again. With elections approaching, ESC is back from spring break and in full swing.

Yesterday’s ESC meeting began with a very extensive presentation by CSA. They  are trying to make changes to advising and want students to have deeper and more meaningful conversations with their advisors. CSA is promoting a new initiative  to support first generation students, with a mentoring program and a special  orientation during NSOP. They also want to reach out to students (future freshman) before they attend campus through summer advising sessions. FYI: Unlike Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Columbia’s advising pertains to a major.

The average student comes in to see their advisor 4 times a year. CSA has about 100 visitors per day. Read more in the CSA Four-Year Report here. CSA wants you to know that any advisor (not just major-specific) is available to talk to you at all times.

Upcoming events:

• Merchandise on low steps: ESC will be out on the steps for 1 hour passing out merch (rumor has it that SEAS hats will be made!), but ESC hasn’t told us what time.
• April 5^th– 11^th: The weeklong Columbia Music Festival is being organized the week before Bacchanal —contracts are in final stages, and all four councils are working to organize a show with various artists.
• SEAS Senior Dodgeball tournament this Sunday—seniors should sign up. So far IEOR is the only major that has enough people to form a team.
• For the junior class, SEAS 2015 sweatshirts will be distributed on Lerner’s west ramp lounge this Friday.
• Freshman council has planned an event called FU’d For Thought for anyone who is unsure of his or her major. There will be food.

VP Policy Tanya Shah revealed that there is going to be a pretty heavy restructuring of ESC positions (specifically, the liason positions will be replaced).

Senator Akshay Shah announced that the Quality of Life report is finally done and ready to be released on Sunday! Get ready to read a 70 page long collection of data comparing how satisfaction varies across different categories on campus.

And…in big news—the bathrooms on the fourth floor of Lerner will be made gender neutral! Student recommendations are finally being translated to real change.

Come to next week’s ESC meeting—same time, same place.

wow how did they take this stock photo via shutterstock