After 45 years on campus, members of Columbia’s volunteer ambulance say they’ve finally hit housing lottery gold.
On Monday night, student volunteers with Emergency Medical Services learned they will be relocating from their current headquarters in Carman into a much larger space in the first floor of Nussbaum at 600 West 113th St.
Members had previously lobbied for an unoccupied set of rooms on the ground floor of Broadway, but Alexander Harstrick, the director of CU-EMS, an organization popularly known as CAVA, said members are thrilled to be moving into Nussbaum.
“We are absolutely excited about the Nussbaum space. It’s much better than both the Carman basement and the Broadway space,” Harstrick said, adding that Nussbaum is larger than both of the other spaces combined. “We’re not getting Broadway, but we won in this whole process.”
The first floor of Nussbaum is currently occupied by the Office of Residential Programs; they will relocate to Broadway 102 and 103, the rooms CAVA had previously wanted to move into, and CAVA will take over their space after Commencement in May.
“It was a surprise. I was expecting it to be Broadway,” Fernando Rios, CC ’12 and a CAVA volunteer, said at their general body meeting on Monday night, where members learned of the unexpected news. “Anything would be an improvement from the Carman basement.”
In December, Harstrick went to various class councils with a proposal to relocate after he said the group had outgrown their longtime home. Harstrick said the group didn’t have enough space to hold meetings with their 45 active members or to store their increasing stockpile of supplies, and that they needed separate sleeping quarters for men and women.
“We were stepping over oxygen tanks and patient files,” Aaron Mileston, GS ’13, said of the Carman basement. “All that stuff will be better organized with the new space.”
Scott Wright, vice president of student and administrative services, said that since the first floor of Nussbaum used to function as a residential space, it has more amenities that will be useful to the group, including a kitchen, gender-segregated sleeping quarters, and meeting room for their training sessions.
Initially the Broadway space had been designated as a place for student groups to meet, but now CAVA’s vacated headquarters in Carman will become meeting space for student groups, according to Wright. He said he has been in touch with members of student councils about soliciting feedback from students about uses for the space.
Wright said the group’s ambulance will remain in its trademark parking spot on College Walk.
“It is a little concerning since we take pride in our response time,” Rios said. Nussbaum is across Broadway and a block further south than their current headquarters.
However Harstrick and Wright said the group will continue to maintain its four minute response time to all calls, regardless of the extra block.
Harstrick, Wright, and Samuel Seward, the director of Medical Services, took a timed walk from Nussbaum to the ambulance; they clocked four minutes and 15 seconds, but Wright said they were walking at a leisurely pace and emergency medical technicians would rush to the ambulance more quickly on a real call.
“One concern is that in rushing to get to a call we’ll be crossing Broadway,” Milestone said. However, he added that CAVA members are all able-bodied and will be able to handle a brisk walk or jog.
At an Engineering Student Council meeting on Monday night, members were informed of the news and said they were concerned about the distance.
“I don’t see how it would work,” said Santosh Balachandar, SEAS ’12 and vice president of student life, adding that Nussbaum is far away from East Campus, where CAVA takes many calls.
However, Richardon said Columbia’s campus is small and centralized enough that it shouldn’t be a problem.
“Students should not be concerned that it will take us long to get there,” he said.
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