Minutes of Past Meetings

GENERAL STUDIES STUDENT COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING AGENDA
February 4th 2020 8:15PM

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN​ that the General Studies Student Council of Columbia University will hold a REGULAR meeting on February 4 at 8:15PM. The meeting information is noted below. The General Studies Student Council reserves the right to suspend the orders of the day if necessary to conduct business. All General Studies Student Council meetings are held in locations that are wheelchair accessible. Other disability-related accommodations will be provided to persons with disabilities upon request. Persons requesting such accommodations should notify the General Studies Student Council Chair at [email protected] no less than three (3) working days prior to the meeting. The General Studies Student Council will make efforts to meet requests made after such date, if possible. Please also contact the General Studies Student Council Chair for any agenda related questions.
1. ORDER OF BUSINESS
   1. Call To Order
   2. Roll Call (* → indicates non-voting | ~ → indicates Interim Position)
OFFICERS
    STATUS
    OFFICERS
    STATUS
    *President Christopher Thompson
     P
    VP of  Finance Nadia Vaso
    p
    Chief of Finance Dynah Vidaurre
    P
    VP of Policy Joshua Lefkow
    P
    Chief of Policy Max Waldroop
    P
    VP of Campus Life Megan Calderazzo
    P
    Chief of Campus Life Carolyn Christenson 
    P
    VP of Communications Luísa Dacroce
    P
    Chief of Communications Lenny Ciotti
    P
    Veteran Student Rep Kevin Petersen
    P
    Int’l Student Rep Sr. Piragathesh Son of Subramanian
    P
    Senator Jonathan Criswell
    P
    Senior Class President Matthew Linsky
    P
    Senior Class VP Alexa Boncimino
    P
    Senior Class Treasurer 
    vacant
    1st Year Class President Serengeti Timungwa
    P
    1st Year Class VP Paul Lee
    P
     Health & Wellness Representative Caroline Clifford
    P
    Special Events Chair Chantel Hover
    P
    Family and Working Students Rep Julia Dewey Hewitt
    P
    Alumni Affairs Rep Karla Puga
    P
    Dual B.A./Joint Program Rep Antony Rossi
    E
    Community/Sustainability Rep Mackenzie Collins
    P
    Treasurer Joshua Brown
    P
    JTS Rep 
    vacant
    Student Services/Academic Affairs Rep Jeremy Wahl
    P
    Equity & Inclusion Chair Jane Jeong
    E
    Students w/Disabilities Rep Nicole Lyons
    P
    Tech Chair 
    vacant
    Social Media Rep Paola Duran
    P
    *Advisor Sean Trulby
    

    27
    *Advisor Ashley Johnson
    

    Voting Members: 26 / Quorum: → 18
    

   3. Adoption of the Current Agenda for February 4th, 2020- Passes
   4. Adoption of Meeting Minutes for January 28th, 2020 - Passes

2. REPORTS

   5. President
      1. Remarks
   6. Padma Ravichandran Entsuah | Senior Health Promotion Specialist @ Alice! Health Promotion
Columbia Health tries to assess the health needs of Columbia students. CH provides individual counseling for students’ health questions. CH also provides workshops for stress management, substance abuse etc. CU Well peer leader program is a service that CH trains CU students to respond to student health issues and promote a healthy lifestyle especially with respect to alcohol and drugs during NSOP.
Columbia health peer ambassador program is working with student leaders to connect students to CH.

Matt Linsky-Did the peer leader initiative that we created last year end?
Padma- Yes, we have paused, regrouped, and tried to make it more effective.
The training is 7 weeks. A few of the students from last  semester are part of the pilot program.
   7. Policy Committee
 

   8. Communications Committee

   9. Finance Committee

   10. Campus Life Committee
      1. Flamingo Mingle update
The first batch of tickets will be available Thursday and the second on Monday. Refreshment provided. No refunds.

      2. Senior Gala is happening this Saturday. Tickets are $25. If you can contribute to the Senior fund please do. 
      3. Glass House Rocks progress
Thursday 20th 8pm-12am in Lerner. Dance performances in the ramps and smaller performances. Food provided. Theme is: The World’s Fair with a focus on sustainability. Food from different cultures. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS

   11. University Senator
No updates

3. NEW BUSINESS
   1. Vacancies/Interviews for Council(s) Position(s)
      1. Nominations
1. The council will discuss and possibly take action on the nomination of council vacancies. Including, but not limited to:
(i) JTS Representative
1. The Executive Board puts forth nominee 
Ohad Klopman
Sophomore at JTS majoring in political science and Jewish Ethics. Member of Campus Theater. Editor for Columbia Law Review.
Serengeti-What prior experience do you have
Ohad-I served as a student rep in high school and I took that spirit of service onto college.  
(ii) Tech Chair
   1. The Executive Board puts forth nominee
Nic Rockwood
First year CS major. I was a producer and a playwright before coming back to college and I intend to bring my producer-technical ability to the position.
Caroline-When was a time when things went wrong and what did you do.
Nic- in the last show I did, we had a mishap and I just had to embrace the fact that it didn’t work. 
       B.         Co-sponsorship Request
      1. CU Democrats 
Jeanine- Lobby Trip. CU Dems is a group of politically minded people who identify as democrats. The lobby trip is a fully funded trip to DC where students will be able to lobby with their congress people. The application is blind and the selected students will be able to learn more about the government. 
Caroline- We are asking for hotel and transportation for 8 people for a total of $1,184.00
Serengeti- what is the cost of individual tickets?
Jeanine- $25, plus the Metro tickets. 
Jeremy- Would you accept self-identifying Republicans
Caroline- There are no limitations for Republicans, although in this polarized climate it might be unlikely. 
Carolyn-Do you have an itinerary, what will you be exactly doing?
Caroline-We will be lobbying, the participants will have to research the congressperson they want to lobby and have a pitch. 
Jeanine- It will be only one day of lobbying
Max-How many GS students will be joining?
Caroline-We don’t know yet because the participants have not been accepted. But we will try to make sure that GS will be represented. 
Nadia-What is the cost per person? How did you come up with the number 16? And what would happen if less than 16 GS students are selected.
Caroline- We will try to take as many GS students as possible, but if that doesn’t happen we plan on giving the funds back. 
Chantel- Are there quotas for the different schools? And how will this trip benefit the GS community?
Jeanine- We will check which schools the applicants come from. 
Caroline- Are for transportation, hotel, and to get to and from the capitol. This will offer professional development opportunities to the participants
MOTION to allocate $74 per person up to 16 people ($1184)
DISCUSSION-
Max- I don’t think we should vote for the motion because we don’t know what will be lobbied for.
Nadia-The funds will be tied to the amount of GS students 
Josh-I think it would not be fair to anyone not on your end of the political spectrum
Jeremy- I think there’s an intrinsic educational value in lobbying so I think that we should vote for the discussion.
Max-One of the reasons we don’t know who the participants are is that the application process has been slow and muddy. Which makes me wonder how responsible they would be with the funds. 
Linsky-THere is value because it will create opportunities for GS students to build connections in DC as well as create a connection between CU dems and GS students.
Serengeti-This is an opportunity to practice and see how lobbying works.
Jeremy-In our context it should be very important to support this trip although we might not agree with what is being lobbied. 
MOTION PASSES 
    
  

      4. STANDING  BUSINESS
      1. Co-sponsorship Form Update
The discussion is to change the procedure for sponsorship. Should we go into executive session to approve co-sponsorships?

      5. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE FLOOR
This time is reserved for any General Studies Student Council Members to make announcements on items not on the agenda. A time limit of three (3) minutes per speaker and (25) twenty-five minutes total shall be observed. NO action will be taken and the total time limit for this item shall not be extended.

      6. PUBLIC COMMENT
This segment of the meeting is reserved for persons desiring to address the General Studies Student Council on any matter of concern that is not stated on the agenda. A time limit of three (3) minutes per speaker and ten (10) minutes per topic shall be observed. The law does not permit any action to be taken, nor extended discussion of any items not on the agenda. The General Studies Student Council may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed, however, for further information, please contact the General Studies Student Council Chair at [email protected] for the item of discussion to be placed on a future agenda. (Brown Act §54954.3)

      7. EXECUTIVE SESSION
This closed session is reserved for any General Studies Student Council Members to discuss and possibly take action on voting in the nominees for various, posted, council vacancies. The public, and the nominees, will be asked to step out of the room while the council conducts this business. 

      8. ADJOURNMENT