It turns out nothing can get done without a projector.

GSSC deals with a lot of issues during the year, including food insecurity, funding proposals, and student entertainment. But if the heart of GSSC doesn’t function, everything grinds to a halt. That’s why Bureau Chief Joe Milholland is covering GSSC’s plans to get a new projector, as well as other, less immediate, matters discussed this week.

At Tuesday night’s General Studies Student Council meeting, GSSC President Elizabeth Heyman announced to the council that GS’s projector was broken. The projector broke shortly after the council loaned it out to MilVets, although Heyman couldn’t say for sure if MilVets was responsible for the broken projector. Heyman suggested the council vote to spend money on a new projector, since, according to VP of Finance Dalitso Nkhoma, it costs $400 an hour to rent out a projector from CUIT.

This proposal lead to a brief projector-related discussion, including discussing how to rent out the GSSC projector to student groups (it happens around twice a semester for free, although it was suggested the council charge $200-300). Eventually, the council voted to spend no more than $500 for a new projector and projector stand.

A new projector isn’t all GSSC allocated money for on Tuesday. They also approved no more than $3,600 for a Thanksgiving lunch event (tickets will cost $15), and no more than $1,550 for a sweater party to be held December 2^nd in a bar in Harlem. The money goes to two free drinks and appetizers to the first 75 people who show up. Finally, The council approved no more than $150 for Project Identity, a group that reaches out to kids in Harlem on parole from Rikers with activities like music lessons and a soul food cookout.

Other Updates:

• Heyman read out at the meeting the student group adjudication proposal, which sets a standard method for working out issues that arise among student groups (see the coverage from CCSC here). The current proposal grants an appeal process for the ten days following a hearing, and a council member asked if it was possible to have an appeal 10 days after a hearing if new information comes up. Heyman said no but that she would look into changing it.
• VP of Campus Life Jade Le-Cascarino announced that the food drive will soon have six bins for food collection – two in Columbia dorms, two in Barnard dorms, and two in the GS lounge.
• The council approved two legislative assistants for University Senator Katherine Celentano, Marcos Rocha and Eugene Aiken, who will help her with gym improvements and family policy. Rocha was only approved to serve for the rest of the semester, as he will graduate in December. However, as Rocha will be going into the PostBac program, which Celentano represents alongside GS in the senate, she hopes to have him work as a legislative assistant for the rest of the school year (the Post Bac council is the Premedical Association or PMA, and Heyman hopes to connect with them in the future).
• According to Celentano, the Student Affairs Committee wrote a letter supporting the Lion Credit Union Initiative.

Old school projector life via Shutterstock