What we imagine ESC meetings look like.

ESC Bureau Chief Rachel Deal is back this week (after ESC took a break last week following their weekend retreat) to bring you the latest news from the ESC meeting!

Last night’s Engineering Student Council meeting was a quick one, with the members covering topics such as the package center, Bacchanal, and food insecurity. President Caroline Park started the meeting with a few updates from her meeting with VP for Campus Services Scott Wright about the package center. She said that there has been progress since last year in terms of wait times (Columbia is now using a new vendor for the package center) but that there are still issues with packages going temporarily missing. Class of 2016 VP Chloe Blanchard also brought up the concern that the spoke center in Schapiro is in a dance studio, so she hopes in the future that mail services will take into account where student groups meet in choosing spoke center locations.

Park also gave updates on the Food Insecurity proposal–so far, 18 students have signed up for meal vouchers (three of whom are SEAS students). She also clarified that, in fact, they did not need 5,000 donated swipes for the proposal to pass. They currently have 580 donated meals.

Elections for Class of 2019 grade councils are currently taking place, so Park encouraged council members to tell their first year friends to vote. ESC also plans to host a potluck for the newly elected members from the Class of 2019.

Updates:

• VP Communication Sidd Ramakrishnan said the ESC website is a work in progress and should be back up by the end of the week.
• VP Finance Neha Jain explained the Bacchanal survey that will be going out to students.
• Student Services Representative Amritha Musipatla and Sustainability Representative Charles Harper talked about “Kill The Cup Columbia,” an initiative from EcoReps and Columbia Dining to try to use as many reusable cups as possible at ButCaf. Starting October 5th and until the 30th, coffee at Blue Java will cost $1.09 with a reusable mug, and EcoReps will also be giving out 300 free mugs in Butler. Columbia is competing against 15 other schools, and the winning school will receive grant money for sustainability initiatives.
• The Class of 2016 councils are hosting an Oktoberfest event outside of EC on Friday at 5pm. There will be free beer and food (but only for seniors).

ESC Oktoberfest Edition via Shutterstock