this could be you

Greetings, y’all! It’s the first General Studies Student Council meeting of the spring semester and the start of the new year! It’s almost February, but Bubble Tea Bwogger Andrew Chee is determined to continue saying “new year, new me” until September at the very least. Catch GSSC on Tuesday nights at 8:15 pm in the Jed Satow Room of Lerner.

GSSC commenced with an update on Dean Awn’s status after his accident this past Friday evening. He is currently in critical but stable condition at CUMC. If you would like to show support for Dean Awn during this arduous time, there is a get well soon book in the GS lounge you can sign; alternatively, you can make a donation to the Dean Peter J. Awn Scholarship Fund here.

Elections Commissions Appointment Committee

The Elections Commissions Appointment Committee (ECAC) is accepting applications for the election commission chair. The purpose is to ensure that the elections committee is as removed from GSSC as possible while also maintaining accountability. As such, the election committee chair cannot run for or be on GSSC at the same time. The election committee chair will select two to three people to come to the council meeting to advocate for the qualifications of their election committee chair; the council will vote and when the person is appointed, they will nominate two to three people (who will be confirmed by the council) who will be a part of their committee. ECAC will have full autonomy over elections, including the dates, the appeals process for rules, the meetings for interested candidates, the posting of platforms, and all aspects of voting. As always, applications will be available via email.

Open Positions

There are currently two open positions on council, which are the Alumni Affairs Representative and the Chief of Finance Representative. Applications will close next Tuesday, February 5th, and they can be found in your email as well as the GSSC Facebook page.

Campus Life

Campus Life has been hard at work over the break to plan out fun events for the semester, and so far they have already planned 34, including more events not including alcohol!

Upcoming events for February include:

Senior Gala – Saturday, February 2nd, which will have fifteen subsidized tickets
Lunar Celebration – Wednesday, February 6th at 6 pm in the GS Lounge. The Lion Dance Team will be there and there will be eight hundred and eighty-eight (888) dumplings! So much luck!
Meet your International Rep – Wednesday, February 13th at 5 pm GS Lounge. The first 10 international students will receive free ear muffs!
Flamingo Mingle – Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14th at 8 pm at Amity Hall. GSSC voted to allocate an additional $1000 in order to provide both alcohol and food because it ain’t a party without both! The event will be 18 and over; the drink tickets will also be accepted for soft drinks.

Food Pantry

The Food Pantry provided plenty of updates in this week’s meeting, including their future plans as well as their upcoming event, Campus Hunger Awareness Week. The Food Pantry announced their long term goal of acquiring a satellite space in CUMC for Columbia medical students, as their campus is distant enough from the Morningside Heights campus that the Pantry can be inaccessible to medical students. Additionally, the Food Pantry announced that applications are open for two open board seats, the Vice Chair of Communications and the Vice Chair of Finance. The applications will be conducted on a rolling basis and can be found on their website. Questions can be directed to their website or their email at thefoodpantry@columbia.edu

Campus Hunger Awareness Week, which begins on Monday, February 4th, will consist of a kickoff event on Monday, a discussion event about food insecurity on Tuesday, a poetry night on Wednesday, a meal packaging event on Thursday, and a collaborative event with CU Dining on Friday consisting of an affordable cooking workshop. Further details will be released in event-specific Facebook pages as the dates approach.

GSSC Nominations

Lastly, GSSC has finally found new members for the open slots on the council, which means I don’t have to write about these open positions anymore! Please welcome your new reps!

Community Services & Sustainability Rep – Carolyn Christenson

Senior Class Treasurer – Nicole Rogers

Family & Working Families Rep – Julia Dewey Hewitt

That concludes GSSC for this week! Enjoy the rest of your add/drop week y’all! NuWu year, nuWu me!

Photo via Shutterstock