Your GSSC Bureau Chief Olivia Mitchell is back at it again, reporting on all the interesting comings and goings of the General Studies Student Council. Does she know how to properly use the various forms of alum? That, my friend, is the answer you’ll find when reading this week’s GSSC write-up. 

President Christopher Thompson GS ’20 began the night, as usual, by talking about last week’s financial literacy event. The event was well attended by GS students and due to its success, the financial literacy series will be continuing with its last event on Monday, April 6th, at 4pm, where students will be joined by Student Financial Services for a financial wellness workshop, which includes a further delve into iGrad. Thompson continued by quickly mentioning that next week is the official week for midterms, so Snack Attack will be operating, and then explaining that the Elections Commission Appointment Committee (ECAC) has interviewed 2 nominees who will be presented later and voted on in a closed session.

GSSC then turned to this week’s special guest, or guests, the Alumni Relations Committee, who were represented by Jill Galas Hickey, the Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations at the School of General Studies, Aviva Zablocki, the Director of Alumni Relations for GS, and Michael Rovner, the Co-Chair of the Recent Alumni Committee. Hickey began by talking about the goals of the General Studies Alumni Association (GSAA), which are strengthening the alumni community and making it feel more connected to the school and the student body, thinking about the student to alumnus transition, and growing the team to think about better advancement opportunities for the school via scholarships and financial aid. The mic was then passed to Zablocki, who explained her previous role as the Senior Associate Director of Alumni Relations for Columbia College and her current role as Director in overseeing the GSAA Board of Directors, and emphasized the importance of the alumni network as a valuable research for students across the globe. Rovner then began speaking about the newest committee of the GSAA, the Recent Alumni Committee, and talked about their current  actions in ironing out the basic foundations of the committee and trying to engage recent alumni as they transition into the next stage of life post-graduation. The committee representatives then opened for questions from the council, who asked about possible co-sponsorship opportunities with GSSC, communications going out to current seniors about alumni information, donor expansion with GSAA, and Dual BA alumni.

The board then moved onto announcements from the Policy Committee, Communications, Finance, and Campus Life. The Policy Committee, as represented by Vice President of Policy Joshua Lefkow GS ’20, hyped up a new event being hosted by the Columbia Unviersity Family Support Network (CUFSN) on April 4th, time TBD, in the Lerner basement party space. They are currently looking for performers, so if interested, please contact CUFSN or Lefkow for more information. Communications, represented by Vice President of Communications Luísa Dacroce GS ’22, then talked about the Metrocard Pilot Program, which is a policy initiative that GSSC has been working on that would assist GS students who commute with the cost of transportation, whose application will be open on Thursday! Finance, represented by Vice President of Finance Nadia Vaso, then began with the discussion of multiple motions for reallocation due to finding of an additional $10,000 from last year’s rollover. Finance motioned for $1,600 for the Communications budget to pay for microphones, $1,990 for the Metro card program, $3,000 for next week’s Snack Attack, and all leftover funds going towards Gala. All motions passed unanimously. The mic then passed to Campus Life, represented by the Vice President of Campus Life Megan Calderazzo, who echoed President Thompson’s happiness with the success of last week’s financial literacy event. The Senior Class President Matt Linsky GS ’20, under Campus Life, then motioned for the allocation of $3,000 going from the Senior Gift Fund towards the Senior Events Fund to help fund the previous change in the Senior Cruise Fund, which had been discussed then as well. Campus Life continued by creating a motion for the allocation of $8,000 from the Student Events budget towards the Gala as a way to increase the accessibility of the event, increasing the amount of tickets from 500 to 600, with tickets being $70 each. The motion, after discussion, was passed unanimously. Finally, under Campus Life, International Students Representative Piragathesh Subramanian GS ’20, motioned for the allocation of $600 from the Student Events budget for two new events called International Bites, which are snack events to help get international students know the International Student Dean, taking place on April 2nd and April 28th. The motion passed unanimously.

The night wrapped up with the introduction of the two candidate nominees for the position of the General Studies Election Commission Chair by ECAC, Zoe Dresner, who held the position last year, and Michael Delfini. Both were given 5 minutes to introduce themselves and their reasoning behind wanting to hold the position of chair, and were then subject to questions by the Board. Voting took place in a closed session and the results are expected next week.

That’s GSSC for the week! Hope you all have a good week and remember to take care of yourselves during midterms. Bye!