This week in GSSC: Come one, come all
After two small funding allocations, the General Studies Student Council spent the rest of its Tuesday night meeting holding interviews for chief financial representative, as well as hearing a brief presentation on the state of working students at GS. Chris Meyer reports:
A penny here, a penny there: In two minor votes, the council evenly allocated roughly $40 to the Columbia Musical Theater Society and Postcrypt, a student organization that hosts professional and amateur musical performers weekly in coffeehouses on campus.
Handling the money: Three candidates, each of whom had previously interviewed for other positions on the council, expressed interest in serving as GSSC’s chief financial representative. “One of the main reasons I want to apply is because I don’t want to study in this school and, at the end of my fourth year, say, ‘Hey I got to a 3.7 GPA and that’s it,’” said applicant Ethan Ling, a first-year student. “I really want to be involved with the student council, and try to help out the school governing body.”
Working for a living: Lee-on Pedahzur, GS ’13 and the council’s working students representative, gave a presentation in which he said that working students in GS want more family-friendly social gatherings, a notable reference to the Halloween party planned for the end of the month.
Welcome to the fold: After a lengthy interview process last week, Zachary Javitt, a first-year student in the joint program between GS and the Jewish Theological Seminary, made his first appearance on the council as the representative for JTS.
Just to clarify, the survey which included 69 responses revealed that working students want non-alcoholic event. Those could be family friendly, but it was not specifically mentioned by the respondents and thus was not a part of the presentation. The slide which referred to the events looked as such:
What kind of events would you like to see from GSSC that are geared more specifically toward working students?
Less Alcoholic oriented Party Type events/ Not 18-25 oriented events
Networking with alumni
Major focused events
Help for students who have switched careers
Time Management
Meet & Greet social for working students
“Happy Hour”/ social hours.
Free food
Working students are diverse and want a variety of different events, including family oriented, but the overwhelming sentiment is for more career oriented or professional events.
GS students who wish to see the full survey can join the GS Working Student group on Google Groups as well as Isaac. Other interested parties should contact me.
Lee-on Pedahzur
gsworkingstudents@columbia.edu
They want less alcoholic oriented Party Type events….. and they want “Happy Hour”/social hours…… riveting and pointless.