It’s Wednesday, and that means new GSSC updates from your favorite and only GSSC Bureau Chief Olivia Mitchell. Here are some numbers that won’t make sense unless you read this write-up: 40, 12.8, and 100.

This week began as it always does, with a report and outline of the meeting agenda from President Jane Jeong GS’22. Jeong emphasized the importance of advocacy for the CARES Act in the form of the letter that Jeong, Vice President of Policy Serengeti Timungwa GS’23, and other GSSC members had written, and GSSC’s Get Out the Vote (GOTV) initiative for encouraging voting and civil engagement in the GS community for the upcoming election. Jeong then shifted the meeting towards committee updates, beginning with, as always, Policy.

The Policy Committee, as represented by Timungwa, gave updates on the CARES Act advocacy that GSSC has been undertaking. GS Administrators have already received the council’s letter in support of CARES, but, as this issue is larger than GS administrators themselves, the council’s letter, as stated in previous Bwog GSSC updates, is now targeted towards President Bollinger, the Board of Trustees, and Provost Katznelson. Timungwa requested if the vote for the letter was to pass, that GSSC come together as a collective and advocate for the CARES Act through social media. She went on to reiterate the importance of the CARES Act for GS students. 40% of GS students, President Jeong then stated, are Pell Grant recipients, and this $12.8 million from the CARES Act can be directed towards the students who need it. Later on in the meeting, the adoption of the letter for the CARES Act letter signing campaign, alongside the Google Form used for the signature component, was motioned for, and passed. The letter can be found here, and the Google Form for signing can be found here. Only GS students may sign this letter.

The Campus Life Committee, as represented by Vice President of Student Life Ohad Klopman GS’22, then began to discuss their updates on the HalloWeek events discussed in last week’s meeting. HalloWeek will consist of a full week of Halloween-themed events for GS students, starting on Sunday, October 25th, with a Halloween Game Night on Discord. On Monday, October 26th, they will be having an event called GSSC Read World Horror; on Tuesday, a Halloween Trivia Night; on Wednesday, a Horror Disco and Escape Room; on Thursday, a GSSC and MilVets mixer; and on Friday, a free screening of the movie Donnie Darko. On October 16th, to kick-off the new Discord channel, GSSC will also be hosting a Discord Scavenger Hunt, where the winning team will win $100, as Chief of Campus Life (and unofficial Discord Representative) Liam McGrane GS’24 stated. The GS Discord has reached over 200 members and can be joined here. First-Year Presdient Kambi Gathesha GS’23 then gave updates for first-year GS students, stating that the first-year newsletter will be coming out this week. The newsletter will be sent out every Wednesday or Thursday, and the first edition will be a survey for first-years to discuss what they’d like to see this upcoming year. Gathesha and First Year Vice President Rachel Harris GS’22 will be sitting in on meet-and-greets to introduce themselves to first-year students.

The Communications Committee, the Finance Committee, and the University Senator had no updates for the student body.

The council meeting then shifted towards new business. First, they discussed the nominee for the appointment of a new Academic Affairs & Student Services Representative, Bernadette Gostelow. Gostelow transferred to GS this past Spring, and explained that she, given that Fall 2020 is completely online, wants to make sure students are satisfied and comfortable with their academic experience, even though they’re currently online. Lastly, as presented by Vice President of Finance Josh Brown GS’22, the council discussed the use of a new virtual voting system for GSSC meetings. Brown motioned for this voting system to be voted on, but after a long series of questions regarding the security of votes, vote tracking, and inaccessibility, Klopman motioned for this issue and discussion to be tabled until next week’s meeting, which passed.

That’s everything for this week’s GSSC meeting updates! Check in next week for yet another!

Frank the Bunny Figurine via Flickr

Columbia University Crewneck via Columbia Store

General Studies Hat via Columbia Store