Some General Studies Students Seek Traditional Club Life

While the activities fair is one of the simplest ways for students in Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Barnard College to connect to the campus organizations that will color their college experience, it can leave School of General Studies students feeling in the dark.

A fair that dominates College Walk for an afternoon is hard to miss for students who live on campus, but for the many GS students who live off campus, the activities fair can come and go without their knowledge. This lack of awareness can have a lasting impact on GS students’ extracurricular life at Columbia.

“I think the fact that GS students aren’t heavily involved in clubs is very detrimental, not only to the University identity, but to the GS identity as well,” said Aaron Lewis, GS and a representative of the Activities Board at Columbia. “Clubs are a significant, if not the most significant, way to develop bonds and to foster a sense of community.”

According to Lewis, many GS students don’t hear about the Activities Fair and consequently don’t have the opportunity to evaluate all club options at the beginning of their first year.

“I think there are things the GS Student Council and orientation could do better to get GS students involved,” Lewis said, but added that he believes progress is being made. “I feel like the new GS Student Council really came in with a very focused agenda for really trying to catch GS students at orientation in the beginning, and trying to get them more interested in student life before everyone disappeared into the wind.”
GSSC President Niko Cunningham said that increasing club participation among GS students is one of the GSSC’s top priorities.

“All these [GS] students are like blank slates,” Cunningham said. “They want to be involved in Columbia. ... We want to show these first years in their first month that Columbia wants them.”

Cunningham noted that significant progress has already been made in increasing GS extracurricular involvement. He said that he and ABC president Paula Cheng, CC ’08, have discussed holding a separate activities fair for GS students next year.

One factor that prevents some GS students from attending the fair is that it takes place in the middle of the day, when many students who hold jobs are working off campus.
While differences between the lives of many GS students and Columbia’s other undergraduate schools can complicate GS students’ ability to get involved, these differences also allow GS students to bring perspectives to organizations that other undergraduates may not be able to contribute.

“The thing about GS students is ... we have a couple supermodels, we have professional figure skaters, people who run hedge funds. ... Columbia almost is their extracurricular life,” Cunningham said. “There’s a lot of students who come here, get one of the best educations in the world, and also do the things that some of the people in these clubs aspire to do in a few years.”

Onika Shabazz, GS, said she believes that activist organizations are overlooking a critical ally by failing to recruit GS students.

“There’s a lot of students of color in General Studies, and we’re fighting our own fight,” Shabazz told the audience of an ethnic studies teach-in last April. “We need for you guys to reach out to us and get us involved. ... You guys are lacking a lot of manpower for not including us. Not only do we have the passion but have the experience.”

Shabazz was unaware that the activities fair was taking place today and is only involved in student and community outreach programs within GS.

Lewis said one reason why GS students are often in the dark about campus organizations is that they often are simply not the intended audience for many Columbia organizations’ outreach efforts. “If you go on a lot of the Web sites at Columbia, there will be mention of all the schools except for GS,” he said.

Cunningham said that once GS students get involved in one organization, they will inevitably find their way to others. “Get involved in something, and we don’t know where that road will take you, but it will take you to a wonderful place at this school.”

Laura Schreiber can be reached at laura.schreiber@columbiaspectator.com