We will be as happy as this woman with our late night hot cocoa!

Passionate Pressman Joe Millholland covered last nights CCSC town hall meeting, which was a little low in terms of turnout.  There was still some discussion though, and you can read the coverage below.

Thirty minutes into the scheduled 90 minutes for CCSC’s Executive Board town hall session, President Peter Bailinson called it quits. Only 12 people, including the board itself, were around at the beginning of the E-Board session. A few came later, but some also left before the end. He admitted the 4.5 hours alloted for the three class councils and E-Board was “too long,” and he believed, based on past experience with a FroSci Town Hall, that single-issue forums would have a better turn out. Bailinson blamed his current inability to send out school-wide emails (the administration is supposed to give him the power, but they haven’t yet). He also suggested he call future town halls “office hours,” and VP of Finance Michael Li suggested giving better incentives for students to come.

In the half-hour before, however, Executive Board members did lay out some of their ideas and plans for the upcoming year. In particular, they tossed around three big questions about the recent space crunch in Lerner:

• What will the administration do? Bailinson said there was “no hard plan about what administrative departments are going to be moving out of Lerner.” He wants to have talks throughout the semester with administrators, but he thinks it is unlikely that any space that administrators leave will be given to students.

• Hamilton or Ferris? Bailinson also expressed enthusiasm for an unbookable, late-night student space in either Hamilton or Ferris. If it were in Hamilton, it would likely be a purely study space. The Hamilton student space would also not have food, and there would be the issue of re-arranging the spaces for classes at the end of the night. Ferris could double as both a social and a study space and have food served. Bailinson notes that, at Harvard, dining halls turn into student spaces late at night and serve coffee and hot chocolate.

• What will we call this controversy? Michael Li suggested “The War on Space.” VP of Policy Sejal Singh offered “Space Wars.”

Other E-Board members gave follow-ups on their campaign promises:

• VP of Campus Life Andrew Ren focused on increased framework and institutional memory for campus events and wanted to reach out to student groups and alumni. He also investigated the possibility of laser tag over the summer and was very hopeful of setting it up in the future.

• VP of Communications Abby Porter gave more specifics about her plan to poll students. She admitted her polls are “not going to be representative of everyone at Columbia” and will not be scientific. Her hope is to survey as many students as possible at student gathering places, such as dining halls, Butler, and lounges.

• VP of Finance Michael Li announced two changes to Capital Investment Funds, which allow student groups to purchase things they will use for several years (Li gave examples of speakers for a radio station and a tuba for a band). The minimum cost of the purchase has been reduced from $1,000 to $500, and unrecognized student groups can now apply for funding through recognized student groups.

Give us hot chocolate or give us death (or at least coffee!!) via Shutterstock