Hopefully, this is the woman that they were talking to.

After Bacchanal, there’s nothing we want to do more than dive straight into CCSC—or at least, that’s the case for Bureau Chief Nadra Rahman, reporting straight from the Satow Room. 

After a holiday hiatus, CCSC is back at it and better than ever, focusing their time on directing waves of quiet rage at the administration. Last week’s gun control debate, set to be continued last night, was postponed, as the room had already emptied out.

Dean Hollibaugh Says Hi

Dean Hollibaugh, who oversees Academic Planning and Administration, paid CCSC a visit last night in an attempt to foster a relationship with students and provide transparency about her role and initiatives. Unsurprisingly, CCSC offloaded their angst, anxiety, and well-placed ire in the form of pointed questions. The questions tended to focus on: (1) mental health and stress culture, and (2) diversity in the Core.

Regarding the former, a few areas of focus included the role of Pass/D/Fail classes at Columbia, the recently-instituted credit cap, and advisor neglect. 2020 VP James Ritchie questioned whether the PDF option was used differently at Columbia than at its peer institutions, seen as a mechanism for saving one’s GPA rather than as encouragement for academic exploration. Others chimed in: 2018 VP Emily Lavine brought in the perspectives of students pursuing grad school (who might feel discouraged from PDF-ing classes), Alumni Affairs Rep Fernanda Martinez wondered about professors who explicitly forbid students from PDF-ing, and President Nathan Rosin questioned exclusions from the Dean’s List if one PDFs a course and the remainder of one’s credit-load is too low. This conversation about freedom to explore and easing stress led to a discussion of Core classes with high (“pedagogically unsound,” according to 2018 Rep Nicki Felmus) workloads that arguably, contribute to Columbia’s unique stress culture. Hearing responses to Lit Hum, Hollibaugh said, “As an English major, this is hurting my heart.”

A few suggestions: Less (more focused) reading in certain Core classes? No grades for the entirety of the first semester, as students transition to academics at Columbia? These will be explored by focus groups of students, who will likely have much to say.

The other strand of the conversation, inadequate representation of diversity in the Core, also prompted a flurry of responses and personal anecdotes. Members questioned whether faculty should have the liberty to exclude (or compress discussion of) certain works, specifically citing Toni Morrison in Lit Hum and jazz in Music Hum. As USenator Omar Khan later said, “How are you going to have one token text and then not even have it in the syllabus?” Inclusion and Equity Rep Elise Fuller and Martinez pointed out the imbalance between discussion-based Core classes focusing on the Western canon and lecture-based Global Core classes, to which Hollibaugh offered a wry laugh—for the past two years, CCSC (and in particular, VP Policy Nicole Allicock) has pushed for making Global Core classes seminar-style, when possible, though there has not been much headway. Other suggestions included incorporating non-Western influences on Western art in classes such as Art Hum and Music Hum, and taking a closer look at the faculty, which is not as diverse as the student body.

All in all, Hollibaugh soaked in the critiques and questions, directing students to the appropriate administrators and citing existing policy (e.g. the curriculum of Core classes is standardized, but departments refrain from “micromanaging teaching”) and upcoming curriculum revision processes. Lit Hum is up for review soon, FYI. Here’s to seeing some of CCSC’s (and your!) gripes addressed.

Updates:

• CCSC was also visited by Ixchel Rosal, Associate Vice President for Student Life in the Office of University Life. Rosal visited to encourage students to fill out the Well-being Survey, which as you may have noticed, is being heavily promoted. Members of CCSC suggested the Office host events with giveaways at which students can fill out the survey, co-sponsor or co-host events with student groups geared towards different communities, and add QR codes to any new posters advertising the survey. According to Rosal, around 10-15% of the student body has completed the survey, but the aim is to get an “unheard of” 30-40% response rate.
• USenate: At the last Senate plenary, a long-awaited resolution on freedom of expression was unanimously passed. The resolution includes provisions related to protecting protesters and allows for a committee to organize town halls in response to controversial events.
• Student Services: Are changes to the print quota afoot? Stay tuned, for CCSC may be hearing the administration’s case at next week’s meeting. Additionally: the dining app is on its way to being completed, and (tentatively) includes a feature on dining hall crowdedness, based on Wifi connections.
• 2019: The Junior Boat Cruise is on Tuesday, April 21, from 8:00 to 11:30 pm.
• Communications:  Now that the key to WikiCU has been rediscovered (again, not our fault), we can look forward to new edits and an upcoming Wikithon.
• Campus Life: College Days is all week. Check out the events here.

Alleged Hollibaugh via Columbia College