Discussion topics ranged from financial aid to feng shui at a Columbia College Student Council-sponsored town hall meeting Sunday night.
The meeting, which was part of a larger push to make CCSC more responsive to its constituents, drew a nearly packed house to Lerner Hall’s Satow Room.
Students voiced concerns about housing, study drugs, student wellness, Columbia College’s role in the University, and the integration of transfer students, among other issues.
CCSC President Aki Terasaki, CC ’12, said the council would start tackling the “smaller, feasible” problems by working with administrators and then move on to larger issues like the relationship between faculty, students, and the administration.
Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, CC ’12, voiced concerns about CC Interim Dean James Valentini’s “3, 2, 1” fundraising challenge. Valentini has asked CC seniors to donate money to the University in each of the three years following their graduation and to tell two friends about the challenge.
“Honestly, Columbia has a lot more money than I’ll ever see,” Spitzer-Rubenstein said. “I’m not really sure how that’s helping me, let alone how more money would help Columbia.”
Class of 2013 Representative Alex Jasiulek said he wished Columbia College had greater representation in the University Senate, which he said is made up of “all these old poops who I don’t really know or care about.”
“I would like to see the general standing of Columbia College have a little more esteem within the University as a whole,” Jasiulek said. “It’s really problematic that they play the card that we’re one of 17 schools…and our vote is just one-seventeenth.”
The USenate has three student representatives from CC among its 108 members. Fifteen faculty members represent the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which encompasses CC and several other schools.
Some concerns of the town hall were very specific. Zachary Kagan, CC ’13, noted that many math classrooms are filled with aging desks.
“The charm only goes so far,” Kagan said. “When you look at these things compared to Michigan or any other colleges, it’s hard to go to another college and visit and not see facilities that are just nicer and more modern and more functional.”
Students at the town hall also said they wanted to help decide how the University uses classroom space and space in Lerner Hall. Class of 2013 President Ryan Mandelbaum voiced concerns about how the University will use spaces vacated as a result of the Manhattanville campus expansion, calling it “crucial” that undergraduates have a say in how those spaces are used.
Town hall attendees also discussed Columbia’s increasingly global reach. Barry Weinberg, CC ’12, said that the University’s Global Centers initiative reveals a “disconnect between people at the top and the students and faculty, who honestly don’t care that we’re opening up research facilities.”
The town hall was also the first CCSC meeting under a new policy that makes the council’s Sunday meetings optional for all members.
Twenty-four of the council’s 32 members attended. CCSC Vice President of Communications Virat Gupta, CC ’12, said that last semester, there were usually three to four members absent at each meeting.
Gupta explained that the town hall meeting was intended to help council members be more responsive to students’ concerns.
“We’re always trying to find new things to work on,” Gupta said. “It’s better if we don’t figure that out in our own little bubble on CCSC and reach out a little bit.”
CCSC Vice President for Campus Life Jasmine Senior, CC ’12, encouraged attendees to “think outside of the box” in bringing up issues they wanted addressed.
“This is what we’re here for,” Senior said. “We want to help you make life better on campus.”
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