In an effort to address potential registration holds due to delayed federal housing stipends for veterans, The General Studies Office of Educational Financing has introduced an anticipated aid system and two deferred payment plans, allowing students to pay accrued costs through multiple installments over the course of three or four months.

Peter Awn, former Dean of the School of General Studies, was struck in a car accident while walking home from campus Friday evening. He remains in critical but stable condition in the neuro-ICU at CUIMC, according to an email sent to GS students by GS Dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch this afternoon.

After 10 years as the director of the Core Curriculum, Roosevelt Montás, CC ’95, GSAS ’96, and GSAS ’04, will be stepping down from his role to take on a position as a senior lecturer in the department of English and comparative literature in the Center of American Studies.

Frontiers of Science received its highest student evaluation score ever for the Fall 2018 semester, according to course administrators who cited incremental changes that have better catered to the breadth of student academic backgrounds with increased opportunities for interactive engagement.

Columbia’s pre-bargaining framework with postdoctoral and graduate student unions—the first unions of their kind to have a legally binding agreement with a university prior to any bargaining efforts—treads into little-explored legal territory, introducing questions about where to draw the line between academic and labor issues, according to legal experts. The framework also does not guarantee a contract resolution, meaning that the promise to bargain does not necessitate a legal contract for either union.

The University Senate saw a tense debate a over post-vote revision to a policy prohibiting romantic and sexual relationships between undergraduate students and faculty members at its monthly plenary on Friday. The change—made over the summer without public knowledge or consultation with the Senate body—removed the guarantee of certain student protections in Columbia’s handling of illicit relationships.

In a continuing effort to improve the accessibility of outdoor spaces on campus, Columbia Facilities groundskeepers have made a series of small changes to the main lawn near Butler Library and upper-level campus lawns over the past few months, including reducing hedges, redirecting walkways, and improving drainage.

In the wake of former General Studies Dean of Students Tom Harford’s removal in August, GS students have reported a heightened reluctance in seeking support from their administration, despite its history of being particularly accessible to students.