General Studies Lounge

19:47

Nancy Saunders: Here is Erich Irving

Erich Irving: I have good news. We were approached for some money for the 4-council BBQ. GSSC didn't have the money, we're going to give it to you. But, we can't bail you out every time you need money. I advocated for this because my senior year was the first year we did the BBQ. So we're giving you the money but don't ask for next year.

Congratulations to those of you who were elected to office.

Nancy: updates

Maria Morad: President met with new Barnard President. I am going to be VP of Student Activities next year. I loved working with GSSC - best liaison.

Raul Wikkeling: Meeting with CCE to close out the year.

Clare Foord: Emailing all sorts of deans to figure out how to update the system for registration.

Paige Lampkin: I would have brought documents if I knew updates were on the schedule. But, the chairperson for housing in senate has asked committees to create outlines for proposals for Manhattanville. Since most housing is grad housing, if they move up-town, there would be more GS housing down here.

Housing end of year report coming up. Everything we've been working on, all resolutions, all proposed solutions.

We got the rent increase cap, but since CU housing is off-market we don't go under the NYC market rate increase cap. So senate used different logic. Next year they'll raise it 4.3%. They finally conceded that the current way they do business is unsustainable - to outstrip student ability to pay long term. Housing committee is working to get them to commit to dates.

Allen Settle: I was going to do constitution review today, but that's not going to happen. I spoke to Erich about getting the money, that came through. Please show up to the BBQ, should be fun. Volunteer if you have time. It's been a pleasure serving council this year and I hope to in the future. I'll always be here.

Monique Long: What are we doing?

Minutes 1 April 2008
These minutes were taken by Junior Class VP Evan Madeo.
Attendance:
Niko Cunningham
Nancy
Paige La
Brenden
Joey
Alex
Allen
Monique
Maria
Adrian
Richard
William
Joel
Dominic Stellini
Melissa
Clare Jake
Brody
Evan
Young
Updates: Club sports in University Calender, club sports involved. Delegate
Jake: time to have an event for senior thesis presentation, what times are good troughout the week
Tranisition insurance, expanding the role of insurance, mental health, physician accessibility
Lisa Weber: CCSC college days 4-7 – 4-12 and election
William: International students lunch this Friday
Richard: defers to Evan
Whitney: night off last night
Maria: elections are coming up
Monique: Karly and I working on Kaplan for test prep. Opinion on working with Kaplan? Senior committee tabling in the lounge for the gift fund. Kick off 29 April. Senior Dinner on the 20th.
Allen: working on the senior fund drive. Cherry Blossom festival upcoming
Raul
Alex: program for last week of April, 4 school event hopefully – water balloon dodge ball
Brenden: 9th, quiz night on 100th and Columbus, 8pm, update
Paige: facilities coming to senate to discuss rental allocation policy
Nancy – GS student more info on Financial Aid, lounge. Joey is trying to get students to be allowed to live in their dorms
Young – backyard event planning, candyland.
Brody: article on the GS Lounge Site.
Monique: Pilates class, free classes. Announce your events before the class. Will be going till the end of the semester
Niko: we should transition to the mst important issue of the evening. I would like to open up a conversation. I would like to introduce Susanna as well as the Judicial Chair.
Susanna: we put together a proposal for a fair hearing. You should consider us as an option to chair the meeting. We believe this to be fair.
Allow for motions
Speakers list
Random selection on the speakers list

3/25/2008

yong, evan, clare, jake, melissa, william, elie, mansur, monique, chikodi, brendan, raul, alex, paige, nancy, niko, brody

19:36

Niko: welcome back. Whitney you have a new postion?
Whitney: yes, secretary on ESC E-board

Niko: couple agenda items, and then financial stuff. If anyone has any updates let us know.

Raul: Alumni dinner, 13th April, working on the date, not a Sunday. Working with Erich Irving who is doing a fantastic job.

Niko: Senior class?

Chikodi: Lerner Pub Thursday. Gift is going along well - number of donors we're at half the amount raised last year before Christopher Riano's matching gift.

Niko: another Christopher gift?

Chikodi: we'll see

William: There is an int'l student monthly lunch on 4 April. It is around the IHouse

Melissa: I am sending an email out to the class presidents and vp's to get more awareness about both NY Cares (4/12) and Relay for Life. Don't have budget or strong participation yet. Want to use student channels to get the word out.

Jake: Now a COI website on the gslounge.com thanks to Brody Berg. Holding office hours. If you have concerns or questions about academic items let me know. This will help me see patterns to address them.

Evan: Many of you may have received the email about our second in a series luncheon in the GS Lounge. CCE in attendance. Free Yoga class this Thursday up and running in Earl Hall. Information upcoming, information on the calendar and online. Training on Excel in the library in a few weeks. And the Secret Spots tour, more information on that next time.

Yong: Facebook events for the yoga event and the secret spots tour.

Allen: Save the date, 3rd May, Hanami at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Will be leading a group. Cherry blossom festival.

Brody: CCE and DOS calendar integration onto main site by writing software over break.

Paige: minutes for housing meeting up soon on site.

Attendance:

niko, yong, chikodi, monique, elizabeth, elie, richard, william, helena, evan madeo, alex, nancy saunders

Niko: We’re going to keep this meeting extremely tight, and we’ll be taking a speakers list. Nancy has introduced new rules about the quorum. Today is about passing the budget, and talking about today;s financial aid announcement later. Carey Pointer for OMA.

Carey: Thanks Niko and Helen. Asst. Director in OMA. CU SpeakOUT. Out of handouts, just go to our website. how can GS Students get involved? Examples on our webpage. That page is here in handout form.

Our mission is quite varied, many of the programs and services are run and coordinated by students. STudents provide a lot of leadership in OMA. We’re only 5 years old. GS students have been involved for a number of years. Feels nature for me to say welcome. But we also want to continue to involve GS Students with what we do.

More specifically I want to speak about diversity training program. Can read about that here. I want to talk about CUSpeakOUT program, passing out a card and poster for you to keep. Some of you may know about “safe zone” where students can talk about gender identity and other topics. I am focusing time on this program to make this more than it was. Spent time focusing on LGBTQ and friend groups through focus groups.

LGBTQ students talk about this campus as tolerant, but not accepting. Hard time to find supporters, and finding safe space, where they can be themselves, where they can speak about their sexual and gender identity. I found that striking given this school and city. Allies are having a hard time as well. Studies show people are afraid of saying “the wrong thing” which contributes to the climate here. So this program is one part of helping to change that perception.

Minutes by Brody Berg from start to 8:30, Nicolle Rountree from 8:30 to finish.
START Notes by Brody Berg
Niko: Welcome to the Finance Town Hall. What we're going to be covering is Keith Hightower giving a historical overview of the budget and how student life fees have been run in the past. With a view toward solutions.
Nancy: Detailed rules for the question and answer sessions. First is presentation, no questions. Don't interrupt now or during questions, it's rude and Brody is typing minutes which is tough when multiple people speak.
Keith: Thanks for coming out everybody. At the end of last year we decided to have transparency about the budget and share with the student body. This week we added the information you'll see tonight on the gslounge.com/finance website and we handed out budget copies as well.
Student Life fees: $367 fee that comes out of tuition. It's a general studies fee, CC and SEAS pay $467 for student life. Student life fees pay for Dodge Fitness, Lerner, GS Lounge, printing, Libraries, Email. Left over is $78.70.
Beginning of this year GSSC had $198k. We split it into two parts, $99k per semester. At the end of Fall semester we were left with $1,131.
The Budget was approved by the GSSC during the Fall semester. Any questions?
Ashley: I have a question
Niko: Keith, let's do questions at the end
Keith: Just browse through and we'll do questions at the end
So for Spring we have $100k for gross revenue, $86k encumbered - Senior Pub, The Gala, Senior events.
What's happened this year is that we have a lot less money available to us. i want to show you what has happened.
2005-06 $163k
06-07: $213k
07-08: 198k
but, the club expenses payments went up dramatically.
06-07 gala: $19k, seniors: $15,5k
07-08 gala: 11,5, seniors: ?
Bottom Line: $39k less available for GSSC student life programming

Meeting Start: 19:46

Niko: meeting coming to order
This is a semester of action. Last semester was reaction.
Let's keep this meeting extremely brief
Let's on the GSSC introduce themselves, and what you'd like to see the GSSC accomplish. Bad: Better Unity. Good: Flag Pole in front of Lewisohn.

Nancy Saunders: VP Policy, Junior, want to focus on leaving behind a structural guidebook for the council so that every future council has something coming in - on how to get things done.

Paige Lampkin: University Senator, I want rent not to be increased 5% every year

Allen Settle: Student Workers. Metro Cards cheaper for students. Re-write the Constitution in a way that reflects our intelligence.

Timothy Jolis: Student Health, event for veterans getting information...

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Meeting Start: 19:46

Niko: meeting coming to order
This is a semester of action. Last semester was reaction.
Let's keep this meeting extremely brief
Let's on the GSSC introduce themselves, and what you'd like to see the GSSC accomplish. Bad: Better Unity. Good: Flag Pole in front of Lewisohn.

Nancy Saunders: VP Policy, Junior, want to focus on leaving behind a structural guidebook for the council so that every future council has something coming in - on how to get things done.

Paige Lampkin: University Senator, I want rent not to be increased 5% every year

Allen Settle: Student Workers. Metro Cards cheaper for students. Re-write the Constitution in a way that reflects our intelligence.

Timothy Jolis: Student Health, event for veterans getting information on health services.

Raul Wikkeling: Alumni Affairs & CCE rep. Get a better profile of the GS alum who'd like to get involved.

Brendan Rooney: Soph Class VP, would really like to see basketball tournament go down without a hitch.

Thomas Williams: I think I am in the wrong chair.

Ari Brenman: List College Student council (JTS) 10% of the GS population, right out of high school. More general programming - make JTS more visible to the wider community.

Alex Katz: Freshman class President. Goal for this semester is to work with the presidents of the other freshman councils to create four school freshmen events to integrate GS more into the greater Columbia.

Maria Morad: Barnard Liaison, increase ties between GS our respective colleges.

Whitney Green: Liaison for SEAS, keep communication open, incorporate GS more into the Columbia community.

Lisa Weber: CCSC Liaison, freshmen class doing four school programming.

Elizabeth Alonso Hallifax: Community @ Large Chairperson, involve more people in C@LC - dyslexia book drive.

Jake Matilsky: Delegate at Large, Policy. Swipe access, educational parity