GS Students Form Independent Council

A group of students in the School of General Studies say they are eager to repudiate their status as "second-class citizens" in comparison to the traditional undergraduate students of the University.

"We [GS students] have intrinsic value. We're not just the cash cattle," said Amit Vachher-Gnanathurai, a core member of the GS students' autonomous representative organization, the Non-Traditional Student Action Coalition, during their first meeting on Friday.

Gathered in the Riverside Drive apartment of William Melendez, GS '08, about 20 GS students expressed their grievances and proposed their goals to address issues such as institutional aid, the tuition rate, housing, advising, and integration into the University. Starting in the fall semester, NSAC core organizers such as Niko Cunningham, GS '08, and Vachher-Gnanathurai, GS '09, and coalition members will work together to advocate for changes before the GS Student Council and the GS and University administrations.

"We don't want to create problems. We want justice," said Cunningham, who ran for vice-president of policy on GSSC president-elect Susannah Karlsson's New GS Order ticket but, because of rules violations, was disqualified from the election.

Cunningham founded NSAC as an autonomous representative organization, and said it plans to be bolder than the GSSC in presenting the challenging questions and concerns of GS students to the administration, even at the cost of ruffling a few feathers.

The GSSC is insufficient for GS students because an "invisible hand is guiding the student council" so that they represent more of the administration's wishes for the student body than the student body's wishes, Cunningham said. "The GSSC is run by people who are a lot younger, so their interests are more based on budgetary concerns and parties on campus," Cunningham said. He said he plans on working with Karlsson, newly elected student body president of the GSSC.

"I don't view it [NSAC] at all in competition with GSSC," Karlsson said. She said she plans to work together with NSAC on particular initiatives such as financial aid.

Cunningham said NSAC will be presenting the questions and problems that administration members will not mention because they want to keep their careers. "Although sometimes we may make the administration upset with how we do things, GS students 10 years from now will benefit," Cunningham said, adding that NSAC's goal is to strengthen the GS community. "We don't want to divide and conquer. NSAC serves a sort of coalesce-and-gel purpose," Cunningham said.

NSAC members said they feel that they have been misled into believing Columbia's sales pitch that the administration provides proper personal attention and accessibility.