Hopefully GS's bouncy house won't be this creepy

Hopefully GS’s bouncy house won’t be this creepy

It’s Wednesday, which means that Bwog GSSC bureau chiefs Romane Thomas and Jenny Nugent are back to talk about last night’s GSSC meeting! Read more to find out about GSSC/CCSC drama, bouncy houses, and other things that might affect you! 

Last night, in one of its most productive meetings yet, General Studies Student Council tackled important issues concerning students with disabilities and the food bank.

School senator Raymond Curtis gave an overview of the progress made on issues surrounding students with disabilities. The first subcommittee meeting for students with disabilities will take place next Wednesday. Curtis had also met with the director of the Office for Disability Services, and explained that they would be “picking up where [they] left off last semester.” New programs include a possibility to register for exams online and a general digitalization of the process.

The Food Bank program has also made progress since last week. The Policy team and the GS senator met with the Policy and Finance VP from Columbia College Student Council. There seemed to be a misunderstanding as to the scale and type of involvement that CCSC expected the food bank to involve. Although the food bank is currently up and running, GSSC is hoping for the initiative to take on a much larger role than one confined to the GS community. The representatives of CCSC online proposed to contribute $1500 to the initiative and, according to Curtis, “grossly underestimated the size of this project.” GSSC itself has contributed over $6000 and countless months of work to this initiative. As he put it, the GSSC is “seeking a partnership, not a sponsorship.” Although GSSC still hopes that CCSC will grasp the scale of this project, the council has also considered alternative options, such as filing for a Non-Profit. Even if CCSC decides not to participate, Curtis assured GSSC that the food bank would still be open to all undergraduate students, regardless of the contribution of each school’s council.

VP of Campus Life announced the start of a newsletter. A draft will be sent to the council this week and more information will become available later this semester. Student Life also presented a brief oral calendar of this semester’s events, including a Senior Halloween Party on October 27th and some midterm snack attacks.

Lastly, the council heard from Leila Martinez who is responsible for the organization of a panel on the issues faced by formerly incarcerated students. She asked for a co-sponsorship of $1500 for the food for the event. They argued that this money would go a long way to bring students to the event and encourage fruitful discussion. The council had the opportunity to ask questions but deliberations were saved to a closed session.

Other updates:

  • Giving Day: for every milestone reached during giving day, the administration will give out free gala tickets
  • The Columbia Elections Board is currently working on new bylaws that will be made official soon.
  • Pep Rally is set to take place on the 12th of October and will include so many free things: shirt giveaways, insomnia cookies, uber gift cards, cupcakes and a bouncy house!
  • The wheelchair lift in Lewisohn will finally get fixed this week!

Bouncy House via Wikimedia Commons