After our last finals, we probably bounced right out of Morningside or used the last few nights to party. Successfully finishing finals is the biggest accomplishment we could ever ask for during a semester. Over break we reflect on our previous semester’s work, re-assess our personal growth, and prepare to do it all again. The City Council’s approval of the Manhattanville plan brings about a parallel process for the University’s administration. However, “we,” all the non-administrators, must figure out whether the approval will accomplish our goals.

Surely, it offers the University more space, resources to conduct advanced research, and probably most importantly, a climb up the U.S. News rankings. The question we need to ask is: will the space allow our future student body members to more comfortably live their college careers? After all, Columbia is expanding in its name. After Ahmadinejad’s visit, how many of us were asked by our friends and family back home: how could you invite someone like him? Or the reverse: how could your University president treat a guest so horribly? Many of us spoke up that week, and we must speak up again now. We need to build a stronger campus-wide collective conscience. We need to reflect on what we are going to do with this land, so we can also improve and purify Columbia’s reputation for being extremely dedicated to undergraduate student life.

Specifically, all group leaders need to step up and take a position on expansion for the sake of their organizations’ future members. We commit ourselves to our groups’ programming and advocacy, so we have to obligate ourselves to their futures. From attending the hunger strike negotiation meetings last semester to a meeting with Columbia’s board of trustees, it has become apparent that student input is requested and desired; however, we have to proactively offer our opinions and express our needs. The University hosted many informational meetings for students to become acquainted with the plan, but has not asked us how we can add to it. Not being sarcastic, but why should they? The University trustees are Columbia’s financial operators. It’s up to us to tell them what they should consider during the planning stages. There are many aspects of expansion, which if not spearheaded by students, could result in a less tightly knit, less secure, and less culturally rooted academic university.

Going northwest brings us back to our roots, and it is up to us to simultaneously maintain Harlem’s and Columbia’s roots. As students, let’s create our own “Northwest Ordinance” approach to the expansion. Our leadership should be democratic, transparent, and cooperative. After all, we all have a common struggle.

We have problems finding rooms for weekly board meetings and space for events, all of which must pass high security measures. We do need more space, but we have to secure those parts of campus which unify us. Low Steps should continue to be our campus nexus, but with students being diverted to newer parts of Manhattanville for their classes and meetings, it will become void of interaction. Minimal activity on Low Steps implies difficulty for student organizations passing out flyers when they rally, getting signatures for petitions, or fewer students viewing and participating in Day Out Against Hate. We have to make sure what we request in Manhattanville will be helpful for our groups to continue to produce beautiful programming, but not taking away from a potentially disunited campus.

Expansion is going to take years, but safety is a sine qua non theme in the planning process. Safety will more concretely come through integrity and trust than it will through barbed wire, brick walls, or larger CU transport services. If students are going to be safe in Manhattanville, then we have to make sure that Columbia does not force its own traditions upon Harlem’s culture. Instead, we have to adapt to traditions in place and create new ones which will unite us with Harlem once again.

We, pinpointing our array of student groups, have to host festivals, fairs, and parades which bring us closer to various parts of the neighborhood and its youth. We also have to make sure that the jobs created will be provided to locals. If students live on campus, professors live nearby, so should the workers who will be hired. We cannot be seen as an intrusion to the locals, rather we need to plan it so we are welcomed. Let us see this as an opportunity to gain from a culture which many of us are not exposed to during our four years at Columbia. In order to anticipate the next decade of planning, students can ensure a safe transition for the University by asking for their own space in these neighborhoods. Let us find ways for all students to be involved in expansion, so that we can give voice to all the future students and to the Harlem residents who currently do not have one.

The author is a Columbia College junior majoring in history.