SHOLLENBERGER
KeSho on student life fees
By Ben Gittelson
On Wednesday, Spectator sat down with Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger. Some highlights from the interview:
- $tudent life fee$: Shollenberger said that his office and the provost’s office would not release a dollar-by-dollar breakdown of how the administration spends student life fees, which were increased to $1,396 this year. He did, though, give Spectator a list of the offices that student life fees helped fund last year: Student Affairs, Student Activities, Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education, the Center for Career Education, and Columbia University Information Technology. Shollenberger said that administrators don’t release a breakdown of how Columbia spends the fees because they don’t “want to get into the debate of students saying, ‘Out of my $1,396, I don’t want X amount going to athletics because I don’t go to any of the games or work out at the gym’ … We view it as an option that’s available to everyone regardless of whether or not they choose to take advantage of it.”
- Getting (brown)stoned: Tomorrow is the deadline for applications for the brownstones vacated by Pi Kappa Alpha, Psi Upsilon, and Alpha Epsilon Pi. The Brownstone Review Committee—which is made up of four administrators and seven students, five of whom are members of Greek organizations—will choose finalists and invite them to make presentations Oct. 22, before notifying the three winners Nov. 9. Shollenberger said he expects 15 to 23 applications.
- Brownstones, Part II: Student Affairs is soliciting student input on how to theme the three former convent brownstones on West 113th Street, which are being converted to undergraduate dorms for next fall. Dean of Community Development and Multicultural Affairs Terry Martinez will host a community forum on the topic on Oct. 11 at 7:00 p.m. Some students have already suggested entrepreneurship and wellness as themes, Shollenberger said.
- Staying well: Shollenberger and Martinez will meet with the Student Wellness Project next week to get an update on what the group is doing. Shollenberger said he’s noticed a “general feeling of stress and pressure that students feel,” noting that “I really want to get the message out that there are people out there who care about students, who want to listen to students.”
GREAT PUN!!
I think there HAS TO be a debate about where the student life fee is going. If 95% of the population doesn’t want to go to games or play an intramural sport, why should they pay for the 5%?
alumni like athletics and alumni give the monies. BOOM.
Fuck entrepreneur house