Fifty students circled up in Earl Hall Monday night for an end-of-the-year Columbia College Student Council town hall, an evening during which students and council members expressed ideas about what they would like to see done in the coming year.
While the audience raised issues that have been rehashed repeatedly throughout CCSC debates this election season, including school spirit and events turnout, students also brought up rising transportation costs, confusion over student group structure, and the need for better information about working printers on campus.
The evening gave CCSC members the opportunity to discuss the progress made so far as well as to outline what still remains to be done.
Several in attendance remarked on the council’s need for closer relationships with other student groups and councils, and some council members discussed some of the difficulties in pushing changes through past the administration.
“It is frustrating to be on council, too,” CCSC Vice President of Policy Adil Ahmed, CC ’09, said. He complained that slow response times from administrators and difficulty coordinating with the University sometimes make it impossible to give students realistic timelines for projects.
University Senator Monica Quaintance, CC ’09, remarked on the poor student turnout at University Senate meetings, where she said the number of student petitions brought to the floor had dropped. She suggested that students make better use of the senate as a way to make more headway on issues. CCSC President George Krebs, CC ’09, explained the lack of student involvement by mentioning that students have found different outlets for their activism than drawing up senate petitions.
Council hopefuls used the forum to speak on issues they would eventually like to address, and the outgoing council gave advice to the incoming board.
“I have a personal fear that there might be a lack of motivation in terms of getting anything done next year,” Ahmed said in regards to the uncontested executive board elections this year. He encouraged all students to continue to put pressure on the new board. “We work harder because people push us to work harder. Next year, that’s not really the case.”
One first-year in attendance requested that the CCSC look into finding a way to obtain discounted MetroCards for Columbia students, especially in light of the rising cost of transportation in New York City.
While Krebs said that they had looked into finding similar discounts as those offered to high school students, University Senator Rishika Samant, CC ’09, said that immediate implementation of the idea would not be feasible due to both the economic downturn and the limited time left in the academic year.
Several students spoke about the importance of making the council itself more accessible in order to break out of the “stereotypes as, like, the tools of the campus,” said Sean Udell, class of 2011 representative. “I think this is a good forum for making ourselves more accessible,” he said, though he encouraged increased outreach to students.
Ian Solsky, CC ’09 and vice president of communications. He thought that the CCSC’s liaison system to reach out to individual students had been a good start.
Krebs concluded by soliciting grievances about “deep-rooted, systematic” problems at the CCSC.
“George, I think you have too much power,” one member shouted out.
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