CCSC Top 5 Priorities Committee

Name: Sean Ryan, Kelly Echavarria, Nathan Rosin, Adam Resheff

Date: February 14th, 2016
General Topic: Developing the Columbia College Community and Reducing Stress
Objective: The objective of the CCSC is to build an increased sense of community among our
students and simultaneously decrease student stress levels.
Methods:

Administrator-sponsored Events
o Columbia College students would benefit from College administrators taking a
more active role in increasing the frequency of fun, engaging events on campus.
Students often report feeling like Bacchanal is one of the only days each year that
they can truly have fun on campus. Columbia College students satisfaction with
their Columbia experience would increase with more on-campus events that
distract from the stresses of academic life.
o Additionally, events such as more concerts, lawn parties, student showcases, and
dinners, for example, if sponsored, planned, and attended by Columbia College
administrators, would help strengthen relationships between students and
administrators and increase administrator visibility. Students want to see
administrators more actively engaged in their Student Life activities and want to
more visibly see administrators presence in the community. One method to begin
tackling this concern could be a professionally staffed Programming Board like
those seen at many of our peer institutions.

Student Group Events

o Columbia College students often report difficulties hosting events through their
student groups due to security and setup costs becoming a drain on their budgets

(Campus Life Committee is the only group that has enough of a budget to fund
large-scale events). With already highly limited budgets, decreasing financial and
other structural obstacles in this area, like security costs, would allow students to
host a greater number of events and engage greater numbers of students in the
campus community. Additionally, when student groups approach UEM about
hosting events, students are not able to negotiate pricing, which is often
inconsistent. Our students have many talents to share with the community but
often feel they do not have the means to do so.
o In line with many peer institutions, students should be allowed to include alcohol
in their on-campus events in smart, safe, responsible ways. Responsible
Community @ Columbia educates all incoming Columbia College students that
smart, safe, responsible consumption of alcohol is the standard to which our

community adheres.
Engaging New York City
o Columbia College students continuously express a strong desire for greater
Undergraduate Student Life involvement in the New York City community. New
York City should be an inseparable part of the Columbia experience. Students
would greatly benefit from the Columbia College administration engaging New
York City by bringing resources of the city to our campus and by planning offcampus events for large numbers of students to attend, not involving a lottery
system. Examples could include renting space downtown for social events (iceskating, picnic in the park), sponsoring large-scale student trips to cultural events
(concerts, museum exhibitions, food markets like Smorgasburg), musical
performances, and city landmarks, and bringing New York-based entertainment to
campus.