A sit down with Nicole

With the passing of student government elections, Bwog wanted to get a better sense of who would be each of the different colleges the following 2016-2017 year. Up next is the new CCSC Student Body President, Nicole Allicock. 

A Brief Bio

Nicole is a sophomore from DC and plans on majoring in Linguistics. She is in CU Players, the Columbia Musical Theatre Society, and a part of Alpha Omicron Pi. She has gained experience with student government by serving as the Academic Affairs Representative for CCSC and as the secretary for the Activities Board at Columbia, and she is also a part of the 1U party. Her favorite movie is Princess Bride, the last enjoyable meal she had was from Falafel on Broadway, and if she could be any bird, she would be a Roseate Spoonbill.

1U Platform Summary

Plans on…

1. Strengthening the inclusivity of students and student groups in all aspects of CCSC by
   1. Meeting regularly with relevant groups about specific policy initiatives
   2. Connecting groups with administrators about the policies they are working on
   3. Providing a document where any student group can publicize their messages
2. Ensuring transparency is prioritized, taking accountability for what it does (and doesn’t) get done by publicizing their status on all issues.
3. Cooperating with the Center for Student Advising and Office of Global Programs to create a better advising system for first year students. (Many study abroad programs and fellowship opportunities require students to take specific classes starting as early as their first year of college)
4. Improving the scattered financial system and will work toward eliminating the elongated period of time that inhibits students from receiving their work study checks on time.

Although Nicole has a well written platform and bio available online, we wanted to meet her in person and get a better idea of who she is and what she sees for CCSC.

A: What do u think is CCSC’s biggest accomplishment?

N: This year Ben [Makansi] and Viv [Ramakrishnan] were able to get a lot of subsidization for the Senior Balls, and that was great because they coordinated with so many different people to get the funding. But the best part about the subsidization was making that “hurrah” more accessible. Also, transfer financial aid was really bad. Sejal [Singh] and Peter [Bailinson] worked on eliminating that and were able to get more aid for more students. I think when you’re able to make changes that immediately affect students’ lives happen are the most admirable changes. I hope to make impacts like that during my time in this role.

A: What is your favorite part about CCSC?
N: I love knowing I can do something when I’m hanging out with my friends and they casually bring up an issue and complain about it. Last year we were trying to do something with course registration, and the system would constantly shut down, so I set up a meeting with Academic Affairs and was able to make slight changes. Although this is a small issue, it’s an example of an immediate change that made our lives a little easier. Impact that we can all see and benefit from are the changes I want to make.

A: How do you plan on maintaining transparency between the council and the student body?

N:

1. Getting a website will be important, and we are on our way to having that, but just generally having a centralized place where students can go to receive updates on what we’re doing. Until that place is finalized, we have been utilizing our Facebook page and posting our meeting minutes there.
2. We’re going to have a lot of surveys and polls as well as announcing that data will making the decision making process more transparent.
3. Although this is still in the works, we want to have town halls where we have specific issues (CCE, study abroad, science requirement, etc.) on the table for discussion with hopes of gaining a better sense of the student body’s opinion.
4. We want to make it clear when we hit a brick wall with administration, because we know it’s frustrating for students to not know what happened when something we were working on just disappears. And sometimes, the feedback we get from students is what we need to push through the brick wall.