Posts Tagged ‘sga’
This week in SGA: More honor code
At Monday night’s Barnard Student Government Association representative council meeting, the representatives voted to approve a University-wide honor pledge proposal and heard brief speeches by several candidates for open representative council positions. Emma Goss has the top three news bits from the meeting.
- Take the pledge: Rachel Collins, BC ’13 and chair of the Barnard Honor Board, and Steven Castellano, CC ’13 and the academic affairs representatives for Columbia College Student Council presented the honor pledge resolution, which SGA voted to approve. The resolution called for all four undergraduate colleges to adopt an honor pledge that would be recited at convocation and New Student Orientation. Columbia College, General Studies, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science would also adopt an honor code similar to Barnard’s to place on course syllabi and blue books to promote academic integrity and honesty. The full story on this resolution appeared in yesterday’s Spectator.
This week in SGA: Libraries, curricula, and parties
At Monday night’s Barnard Student Government Association representative council meeting, Barnard College President Debora Spar announced that Barnard wants to demolish Lehman Hall and build a brand new 11-story library and spoke about plans for a major curriculum revamp. Spar prefaced her talk by acknowledging the explosions at the Boston Marathon. “I am deeply distraught by what’s happening in Boston right now. Half of my head is in Boston, I apologize, I’m a little distracted today,” Spar said. Emma Goss has the story on Spar’s big talk.
It’s debate day
If you’ve been looking for a way to get more civically engaged, today might be your day: CCSC, ESC, and SGA are all holding debates or candidates’ forums for their 2013-14 elections. Spectator and the Columbia College Student Council Elections Board are co-hosting the debate in the CC University Senate race, which I’ll be moderating.
Here are all the details:
CCSC:
4:30 – 4:55 p.m.: Academic Affairs Representative debate (Satow Room); Student Services Representative debate (Lerner 569)
5:00 – 5:25 p.m.: Alumni Affairs Representative debate (Satow Room), Pre-Professional Representative debate (Lerner 569)
5:30 – 6:15 p.m.: Candidates’ Forum for uncontested races (Satow Room); Class of 2016 council debate (Lerner 569)
6:30 – 7:00 p.m.: University Senate debate (Satow Room)
Engineering Student Council:
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.: Candidates’ Forum (401 Lerner)
Student Government Association:
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.: Candidates’ Forum (Diana Center Event Oval)
This week in SGA: approvals, bathrooms, and capstones
At Barnard Student Government Association’s last representative council meeting before spring break, the representatives supported a proposal to make more bathrooms gender-inclusive, approved Stage 1 recognition for the Clefhangers, and approved funding for several club events. Emma Goss brings you the top four newsworthy notes from the meeting.
- Secret’s out: The representatives spoke in vague terms about big changes in store for the Senior Experience and several departmental requirement changes, such as eliminating senior theses. Aliza Hassine, BC ’14 and junior class president urged SGA to publicize the discussions over such changes in order to inform students that changes are afoot; therefore, they won’t be taken aback when the new policies are enforced. JungHee Hyun, BC ’13 and SGA president agreed with Hassine, and said she’d consult Provost Linda Bell about communicating a message to students. More »
This week in SGA: WTFeedback, old drama, mocktails
At Monday night’s Barnard Student Government Association representative council meeting, the representatives suggested improvements to the What To Fix Columbia website and voted to approve Stage 1 recognition to a University club. Emma Goss brings you the top three bits of news from the meeting.
- WTF Barnard: Columbia College Student Council Vice President for Communications Jared Odessky, CC ’15, asked SGA for feedback on What To Fix Columbia, a new web site for students to vote on and discuss campus issues. SGA agreed to Odessky’s suggestion that representatives should moderate a portion of the site and help promote it on Barnard’s campus.
- Ancient club, new space: The Barnard/Columbia Ancient Drama Group, which has been at Columbia for 25 years, was granted Stage 1 recognition by SGA, allowing the group to use Barnard’s campus for practice space and to hold events. More »
This week in SGA: Talk of the town
At Barnard Student Government Association’s representative council meeting, the representatives discussed a new financial consulting initiative for students, a new sorority colonizing campus, and plans for the upcoming town hall. Emma Goss brings you the top four topics from Monday night’s meeting.
- Money mentors: The Efficient and Effective Expenditure Initiative, a new initiative provided by the Financial Advisory Council in collaboration with Chief Operating Officer, Greg Brown, will not fund student initiatives, but will give them the guidance, tools, and potential recommendation to make their ideas into realities. SGA will formally announce the initiative and provide more details at next week’s town hall event.
- Colonizing at Columbia: A representative from the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority spoke to the representatives about the process of colonizing a sorority chapter at Barnard. AOII was started by four Barnard students in 1889, and is forming its first chapter at Barnard. An information session will be held this Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. in the Lerner Hall Party Space. The colonization process begins this weekend with group interviews and events on Friday and Saturday, followed by a colonization ceremony on Sunday; everyone on Barnard’s campus is invited to attend the ceremony. Members will build the sorority’s traditions and values, and all students, regardless of class, are encouraged to join. Registration is here. More »
This week in SGA: pets, radios, and basketballs
At Barnard Student Government Association’s representative council meeting, Barnard’s community conduct director and disability services director explained the new policy that allows students to have support or service animals in their rooms. Emma Goss brings you the top points from this week’s meeting.
- Who let the dogs in?: Amy Zavadil, Barnard’s Community Conduct Director, and Morgan Murray, Director of Disability Services, fielded questions about the new policy on support animals. Zavadil explained that under the Fair Housing Act, colleges and universities are now required to accommodate students who meet the qualifications for needing a service or support animal in their room, and Barnard’s new policy is a response to this new requirement. Zavadil and Murray added that they would meet with any students who do not wish to live in close proximity to a student who has a service or support animal and suggest modifications to resolve any conflicts. More »
This week in SGA: Curriculum review
At Barnard Student Government Association’s representative council meeting, Barnard’s new provost, Linda Bell, discussed the changes in store for the college’s curriculum and the Nine Ways of Knowing. Read on for information about the upcoming town hall, where administrators will field student questions about Barnard’s finances. Emma Goss brings you the five most important bits of information that you may have missed this week.
- Saved by the bell: The administrative guest of the evening was Linda Bell, who became Provost and Dean of Faculty in October. Bell said that beginning next week, she plans to begin preliminary work on “a full-scale general education review.” Bell said that she is assembling a committee that will include faculty and students to discuss how to restructure Barnard’s curriculum and general education requirements. Bell added that it would take a year to a year and a half to conceptualize a new curriculum. More »
This week in SGA: fliers ‘not life or death’
At the first Barnard Student Government Association representative council meeting of 2013, SGA’s advisor Jessica Nuñez weighed in on last semester’s posting policy outrage and brainstormed ways to promote the constellations program. Emma Goss brings you the top five things that you should know about this week’s meeting.
- Following up the fliering flare-up: Nuñez, Associate Dean for Student Life, said that the policy was revised because it caused “an egregious waste of paper” due to too what administrators thought was excessive fliering.
“I’ve never been anywhere where posting is as obnoxious as it is here and across the street,” Nuñez said, noting that some fliers are plastered one on top of the other, overcrowding bulletin boards.
“It’s not life or death—it’s just trying to be responsible as students,” she said. “I think that we need to do better.”
Nuñez stressed that administrators were not trying to censor students with the changes and said that she wants to revisit the policy to explain how it could be beneficial. More »
This week in SGA: Sent to the ER?
At Barnard’s Student Government Association’s final representative council meeting of the semester, the representatives continued their discussion of study spaces, announced efforts to improve health and sign-in policies, and encouraged students to apply for a host of open positions in the council. Emma Goss reports.
- Doctor Dilemmas: Leah Rothstein, BC ’13 and representative for student services, is working with the Student Health Advisory Committee to collect feedback from students on their experiences using the on-call clinician. She said that many have reported that the clinician most often prescribes a visit to the emergency room, and SHACK wants to gather data to see if that’s true.
- Shabbat Sign-In Shpilkes: Next semester Rivka Holzer, BC ’15 and representative for community programming, plans on clarifying and publicizing the Shabbat guest sign-in policy because many students have voiced difficulties with hosting guests on Shabbat.
More »