PRINCIPLES
These are the five guiding principles that INSIGHT will carry throughout the 2014-2015 school year. While these principles are pertinent to all of our positions, each of us will focus specifically on one, in order to improve CCSC and your experience at Columbia.
To keep us accountable for having a student-centered agenda, we promise to reach out to students and student groups for insight and partnership on all initiatives. Ultimately our goal is to improve the larger Columbia community by supporting the small communities that compose it and encouraging inter-communal initiatives and events.
For example, let’s approach campus-wide issues as coalitions of groups and communities. Imagine our strength if our positions on need-blind financial aid for international students or the future of the Core were collectively voiced by cultural, political, and academic groups. Imagine the turnout, scope, and value of an event hosted by seemingly distant communities on campus. The possibilities are endless through collaboration.
Our purpose as advocates is to serve as a voice of students’ concerns and a partner in achieving those changes. As student representatives, we plan to analyze the issues of both students and organizations on a grassroots level. Student concerns are not on the agenda, they are the agenda. We will fight hard to bring true representation for all students.
Students and student groups have many concerns that CCSC is unaware of. To maintain informed advocacy, INSIGHT will start a tradition where members of CCSC attend weekly student group meetings throughout the year. In this way, we will be able to list concerns, identify overlap, and create coalitions of students with common concerns. Given our regular access to administrators, CCSC will work with these coalitions to ensure that their voices are heard.
A major way in which CCSC empowers students is through the funding that it provides student groups. Of the nearly $1M in student life fees that CCSC receives annually, it maintains $133,000 for Campus Life, class council and Student Project Grant spending. For the 2014-2015 school year, we will reduce spending by 20% in these areas by cutting CCSC programs that have under-performed and which overlap with student groups' programs.
This will free up $26,000+ to be allocated towards student groups via (1) F@CU, (2) annual funds such as the Joint Council Co-Sponsorship Fund (JCCC) and (3) a new fund for student groups seeking support for campus wide initiatives such as divestment or workers' rights.
In this way, INSIGHT seeks to empower student groups to hold more of their own valuable events, and to limit CCSC events to ones which only CCSC would do.
Student Council’s job is to take action on behalf of and in partnership with the student body. Accessibility is essential for effective communication when we collaborate with others, and students should always be aware of the initiatives and policies that we work on. To achieve this accessibility, there should be regular statements documenting CCSC’s successes and areas where we’re less effective, as well as an improved version of the semester report.
The improved semester report will clearly outline anticipated events and spending at the beginning of each semester, plus a follow up report documenting what actually happened, and what we’re going to change and improve based on our performance. This will allow us to be more accountable for our actions and to clearly communicate our results to our constituents. An informed community will result in more meaningful feedback from students than we have had in the past, and greater dialogue between CCSC, students, and student groups in the future.
CCSC holds many large-scale events that embody Columbia’s spirit, such as Homecoming andTree-Lighting. The Campus Life Committee's purpose is to bridge communities and bring the entire campus together. INSIGHT seeks to continue this spirit of Campus Life by not only improving traditional Columbia events, but also creating new events.
Some of our goals are to re-establish Columbia College Days, to revamp Homecoming Week, and to introduce monthly de-stressing events and weekly retro movie screenings. We hope to build a community in which students are excited and eager to participate in campus events.