Student Councils Craft New Outreach Initiatives

Streamlined advising, the launch of Flex Off-Campus and increased communication with their constituencies headline busy agendas for the four undergraduate student councils this semester.

A common item on the Columbia College Student Council, the Engineering Student Council, the General Studies Student Council, and Barnard’s Student Government Association’s varying schedules for the semester is the goal of increasing contact with their respective constituencies through greater outreach and implementation of the feedback the student councils receive.

CCSC also plans to continue to work toward providing students and student groups with more available space on campus. The council is continuing to lobby the administration for use of the sixth floor of Lerner as a centralized Center for Student Advising, freeing up the spaces advising offices currently occupy in student dorms for the use of student groups, extra studying space, and music practice rooms.

Another initiative which is gathering momentum this semester is the implementation of Flex Off-Campus, a plan that would allow students to use their Flex dollars at various locations around the neighborhood. Both CCSC and ESC have been working to bring the program to fruition. The current target date for the implementation of this initiative is set for March 24. Once the program is put in place, a select group of vendors will be used during a testing period through the summer with more and more varied vendors to be added the following fall.

GSSC’s focus for the spring semester includes the creation of March literacy month. The council plans to collaborate with local public libraries to get students to participate in evening volunteer programs that partner students with non-native
English speakers.

Additionally, the philanthropic arm of the GSSC is collaborating with the non-profit organization Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic to record textbooks and other books of general interest. The council is specifically looking to record engineering, math, and science textbooks. Other GSSC initiatives will be discussed at their first meeting next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Satow Room.

Meanwhile, SGA’s major initiative for the semester includes the creation of an SGA bulletin board in Lerner and the distribution of a Barnard College-Columbia University pamphlet, the Four Undergraduate School Handout, which will help clarify the unclear relationship that exists between the two schools.

Also on SGA’s to-do list are a summer housing initiative for WKCR, a campus-wide security text message system, online departmental sign ups, a sign-in procedure evaluation, a bonfire, and a Nine Ways of Knowing evaluation. Following the success of its town hall from the fall semester, SGA will be holding two additional town halls this spring, one on the Nine Ways of Knowing on Jan. 30 and a second on campus activism on March 6.

christine.ortiz@columbiaspectator.com