The second meeting of the Columbia College Student Council was held on September 18^th at 8 PM in Lerner’s Satow Room.  As always, a reminder that meetings are open to all Columbia students! The discussion centered mostly around executive board updates and a discussion of the class council funding allocation process.  Here is a quick recap of what you should know about last night’s meeting:

Aki Terasaki, President of CCSC, spoke briefly about recent meetings that he has had with Dean Shollenberger, Vice President of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks, and newly appointed Columbia College Dean Valentini.  Aki and Barry Weinberg, a member on the Committee on the Core, mentioned that in these conversations, administrators have expressed a commitment to ensuring student representation on the proposed Executive Planning and Policy Committee (PPC), which represents the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, a faculty body that oversees the administration of Columbia College.

They emphasized that many concerns students have about the autonomy of the College and the resignation of Dean Moody-Adams will be addressed directly by the new Dean James Valentini at a Town Hall with the Dean sponsored by CCSC and the Spectator on Tuesday at 8pm in Havemeyer 309.

VP of Policy Ryan Cho listed many of the policy priorities that his committee is looking into over the next few weeks, including swipe access for Columbia guests, Junior regroup in housing, video screens in residence halls for organized flyering, and earlier publishing of syllabi and textbook lists.  He also mentioned that Student Services Representative Karishma Habbu will be looking into Columbia Psychological Services, and ways to make their mental health services more accessible to students.

Discussion at the meeting also centered around the proposal of VP Funding, Kevin Zhai, to change the funding allocation process for class council sponsored events.  Some members expressed reservations about a new system with more hoops to jump through, while others in the room welcomed the attempt as an effort to increase oversight and cut student government spending.  You can see Kevin’s proposal here.

Finally, VP of Communication Virat Gupta gave a general overview of his committee’s goals for the year and centered his focus on the newly created yourCCSC.com website (you’re lookin’ at it!).  Virat introduced CCSC web guru Wilfred Chan, who discussed the ins and outs of the new website, his vision for its future, and his willingness to hear suggestions and feedback.

CCSC will be off next week because of a council retreat, where issues of policy, communication, and funding are all scheduled to be discussed….

ENJOY YOUR WEEK AND COME BACK SOON FOR ANOTHER MEETING RECAP!