GS students vying for a chance to join the General Studies Student Council spent some time in the hot seat Tuesday night, with the council interviewing candidates for open positions. Chris Meyer reports from GSSC’s second meeting of the academic year:

• A fond farewell: In two separate measures, the council earmarked a total of $5,700 in the senior fund for graduation events, some of which will be dedicated to an event for fall semester graduates at Faculty House on Nov. 27.

• Selective: According to GSSC President Jennifer Wisdom, there were 30 applicants for 10 available positions on the council, making this year’s application process more selective than in the past. The council interviewed 17 of those applicants at its meeting Tuesday night. “In my past time on council, we’ve had to pull legs to get people to apply,” Wisdom said. The council decided on who would get a handful of the positions last night, but others won’t be decided until next week.

• Grand ideas: The candidate interviews took up most of the meeting. In his interview for academic representative, third-year GS student Chad Brauze suggested creating class sections exclusively for GS students, saying it helped him to be in classes with his peers. Later in the evening, first-year GS student Edward Grigoryan proposed allowing GS students to audit certain classes.

• Seizing opportunities: Interviewee Robbie LeDesma, GS ’13, recalled being hopelessly confused when attempting to fulfill a community service obligation for his scholarship. If chosen for community service representative, he said, he would help new GS students take advantage of the opportunities for service at Columbia.