An accurate representation of this meeting’s snacks.

Diverting from her usual Bwog fare of oddly-relatable shitposts, Deputy Editor Jenny Zhu stepped in this week to cover GSSC’s (General Studies Student Council) first meeting of the new semester. 

This week’s GSSC meeting opened with a feast of fresh fruit offerings, courtesy of the newly-appointed GS Dean, Lisa Rosen-Metsch. Dean Rosen-Metsch, who introduced herself to GSSC in December, came to speak more about her upcoming goals, talked with students in the audience prior to the meeting’s beginning, and brought snacks. Yep, we stan Dean Rosen-Metsch.

Rosen-Metsch Rocks

Rosen-Metsch took the mic to discuss her background as a GS alumna, a chair in the School of Public Health, a member of the Committee on Instruction, and now, the 9th dean of the General Studies as of January 1. Referencing her first official email sent to the Columbia community, she spent a moment recounting the sad passing of GS/JTS alumna Hannah Weiss, as well as the deaths of two other Columbia students.

After the floor opened up to questions, she first spoke on her accessibility to students, which she named as her top goal as a new dean (yay!) – she planned on meeting this goal by attending more events, allowing students to sign up for lunch meetings, and even eventually accommodating individual meetings requested via email. Beyond accessibility, her other priorities included financial aid, food insecurity, and social justice.

She also responded to questions about cyberbullying and GS integration in Columbia. To the former, she stated that she would hope to be briefed extensively about the extent of the problem first, and to the latter, she referenced her own past as a GS alumna as a basis for working on creating more GS inclusivity in the larger Columbia community.

Everything’s New

With the new year also came the introduction of a slew of new GSSC members and projects. GSSC first re-introduced the newly-appointed members from last semester (Students with Disabilities Representative Matt Linsky, Health and Wellness Representative Olivia Hartzell, and Equity and Inclusion Chair Jeffrey Panosian). The council also was introduced to new captioner Ricky and new JTS Representative Zach.

Beyond new council members, however, GSSC also recently got a new website! Built from scratch over the winter break, the new website is ready to be unveiled, once CUIT gives GSSC the approval to go live with the domain.

Other Updates

Upcoming events included a mystery Valentine’s Day event, which would include activities for GS to mingle, “especially the single ones.” GSSC also discussed the upcoming Glass House Rocks on February 1, which needed GSSC volunteers to both help set up and to solicit updated club information from performing arts groups at the event.