A Good Proposal

Earlier this month, Columbia College Student Council passed a resolution that would streamline the approval process student organizations need to hold events at off-campus venues. By creating a list of pre-approved locations for Columbia events, the administration will encourage student groups to come up with more creative and original programming. While this is a constructive policy that will help campus life, CCSC should ensure the administration does not dilly dally in implementing this initiative.

Columbia's limited event space makes it difficult for student groups to secure on-campus locations for their events, and a complicated process for approving off-campus venues makes holding events elsewhere practically impossible. CCSC's initiative aims to alleviate some of this bureaucracy and encourage more groups to pursue events on a larger scale. Under the resolution, the University will approve off-campus locations by negotiating rental fees and checking into their safety records. Once approved, students will be able to secure administrative approval for off-campus events through a series of simple steps. Though the price of renting out space may still make off-campus events infrequent, the process at least allows student groups more flexibility in reserving a venue. Such events would also allow student groups to purchase food through catering services less expensive than Columbia University Catering.

CCSC should ensure that the administration puts this resolution into effect quickly. True, negotiations over liability and safety issues can be complicated and lengthy, but this proposal is important and the council should do its part to make sure administrators work on the initiative efficiently. The council must understand that the resolution is meaningless without implementation, and must hold the administration to assurances they made as the resolution was being drafted. For its part, the administrators must recognize that event space is a critical element of Columbia social life and cannot let ideas such as this one fall through the cracks. To that end, a phased timeline for those involved to complete steps of the approval process would help see them through this project, as well as future proposals. Such deadlines will help students and administrators set goals and keep track of the necessary work involved to achieve them.

Many students view the neighborhood around the University as an extension of campus, an extension that is central to their social lives. CCSC's resolution allows student groups that create a sense of community on campus to extend their reach and influence beyond Columbia's buildings. The resolution promises to encourage original event ideas and bring students together, but until it is implemented it is still a work in progress.