Open Space in Lerner Hall Causes Controversy

Strolling up and down the zig-zag ramps of Lerner Hall on a weekday evening, a student may have a variety of impressions. Outside of Roone Arledge Auditorium, a few students dance in the empty hallways; posters cover the metallic cylinders that line the walkways; and administrative offices lie dormant.
It is not the activity but the inactivity of the student center that has been a source of controversy among administrative and student governing bodies lately.
When Lerner Hall was built, the University created an Executive Committee of students and administrators to oversee the building's development as a student center. Now, three years later, the committee has not met for some time and some student groups have become dissatisfied with the allocation of space in Lerner. This dissatisfaction prompted a Nov. 9 resolution by the Columbia College Student Council calling for the formation of a stronger Executive Committee with an increased student presence.
Students and administrators say the reconstituted Executive Committee would help address the many challenges that Lerner faces.
"I think that the committee kind of melted away just because there weren't a lot of changes going on in the building over the last three years. It fell apart just because of lack of activity," Vice President of Student Services Lisa Hogarty said.
Hogarty said she hopes the new committee will meet at the beginning of next semester. A coalition of student councils and organizations have aggressively; they have scheduled a meeting with President Lee Bollinger on Tuesday, where they will suggest that the sixth floor be turned in to space for undergraduate clubs.
The future use of the sixth floor is only one of several issues about the building that concerns students. As administrative office space in the building has increased on the fourth and fifth floors, the amount of space allocated to student groups has decreased. Students argue that was once intended as a student center could become an economically self-sustaining building of administrative offices.
"Colleges have short institutional memories. Succeeding generations of students that will come to know Lerner solely as a student services center may not be able to conceive of the student center that it might have been," said Student Governing Board chair and Spectator Columnist Yoni Appelbaum, CC '03.
One example of the situation's complexity is the recent addition of the First-Year/Sophomore Academic Advising Center to the fourth floor. The advising system was designed to make the undergraduate population feel more comfortable at Columbia. On the other hand, the physical presence of the advising system takes away student space in Lerner.
Another contentious issue is the lack of practice space for students who play musical instruments. Some students are also upset at what they see as the downsizing of the Lerner Game Room.
The most contested issue, however, is the status of the sixth floor, one of the last substantial open spaces on campus. Commuters, graduate students, undergraduate student groups, and income-generating offices are all vying for a piece of the remaining un-allocated space in the building. Non-student groups also want a stake in the sixth floor property.
In response, there has been an attempt by a coalition of student governing bodies to present a united front to the administration. Members of these bodies suggested that too often there is a perception in the administration that student opinion at Columbia is fragmented and subject to whim.
"I want the proposal that the administration receives to be representative of the wishes of all the undergraduate students at Columbia," General Studies Vice President Mason Beard, GS '04, said.
While the students at the meeting will press for the sixth floor to be designated primarily as a space for undergraduate students to use for clubs, practice rooms, and other such uses, some in the University's administration have suggested that it is not so easy to assign the entire area to student groups.
It would be unlikely that student organizations could come up with the millions of dollars necessary to develop the sixth floor, Hogarty said. Because of this, income-generating offices would most likely need to be included on the sixth floor to deflate costs.
Some have suggested, however, that the University has an obligation to foot the bill for the student groups, at the expense of making the space self-funding.
"It should totally go toward undergraduate students. I believe it's up to our undergraduate schools to then support us. The funding is a secondary task," Engineering Student Council President JaMel Nelson, SEAS '03, said.
Columbia College Student Body President Michael Novielli, CC '03, echoed Nelson's sentiments.
"I think that any research university would admit how important the undergrad population is to it. I'd say that the student center should primarily serve the needs of the undergrad population," he said.