CCSC 2011: The After Party

To the CC 2011 dudes, dudettes, and people who go by gender-neutral “dude” pronouns:

We’re having a collective rally. It’s like it’s 2 a.m. on a Thursday night, and just when you thought that you were going to coast into the night, your spirits rise. This is it. This is senior year. As a class under a new fabulous banner, we have refocused on the priority to have fun.

Welcome to the After Party. Like you, we’re also rising-seniors looking to have an amazing send-off from Columbia. The After Party is a positive thinking, “sky’s-the-limit,” hard-working group of students who couldn’t be more passionate about making senior year as wonderfully memorable as possible. We can hear you, 2011. We know you’re excited. We’re excited too.

What distinguishes the After Party is that we’ve been listening—and responding—to you for almost three years now. As the class moved from our first year, where you wanted huge class parties and events, to our sophomore and junior year, where you still wanted big programming, but also wanted to start accessing Columbia and New York, members of the After Party were there to answer the call. From the Highlight dances to city events to fellowship/pre-professional events to class dinners to study breaks and (way) beyond, we’ve been there to provide programming that you demanded. And with senior traditions like Lerner Pubs, Senior Nights, athletic pre-games, the senior “booze cruise,” and Winter Gala on the horizon, we’re excited to shift gears in order to continue to facilitate the fabulous events that you desire and deserve.

But we don’t plan on relying on tradition alone to make for a freaking fantastic finish. We want to start the year off with a “Senior Inauguration” party in Roone, where you get ridiculous amounts of senior gear right away so you have it for the whole year. From there, we’re going to launch “post-Senior Night Breakfasts,” where we’ll get you fed and caffeinated so well that your professors won’t even guess that you had been out until 7 a.m. Then, we’ll introduce “Last-Chance New York,” an initiative where we will bring students to different city establishments every week, like Yankee Stadium, Chelsea Piers, or to Top of the Rock. While you’re making the most of New York, our class will take a weekend to venture to the not-so-concrete jungle on a camping retreat. In the spirit of traveling, we’re already looking into a senior spring break to somewhere warm. We’ll not only have 1,030 times more fun times (and stories!) as a class, but the price will also be reduced. Rounding out our traditions, we’d also like to start “Senior Day”—mark your calendars, 11/11 will be a day to remember.

Even with fun as priority number one, the After Party is still interested in leaving Columbia better than we found it. We’re going to continue our efforts in making gender-neutral housing a reality at Columbia so that we may all live in the most comfortable living situations possible. Furthermore, we want to make languages eligible for pass/fail so that future seniors can take Zulu just for fun. Moreover, we’re going to continue our popular pre-professional, fellowship, and alumni events to take the stress off of the job hunt. Finally, the After Party wants to form a textbook co-op and a Thanksgiving dinner for “far-from-home” students, two initiatives that will make Columbia more accessible to students with larger financial needs.

The After Party has the experience, enthusiasm, positive attitude, friendly disposition, and motivation to get all of this done. We know that you’re right here with us; take a couple of minutes to vote for the After Party on April 13 to make this final piece of the vision a reality for Columbia College 2011.

Sean Manning Udell is a junior majoring in urban studies running for class president. Alexandra Coromilas is a junior majoring in history running for vice president. Tom Amegadzie is a junior majoring in biology running for representative. Sonya Chandra is a junior majoring in computer science running for representative. Andy Kim is a junior majoring in environmental health science and running for representative.