Student councils

The student councils at Columbia are organized group of students charged with various responsibilities.

Each council is function in its own specific way, generally with individual by-laws, constitutions, and election procedures. The generally, however, do not have statutory powers in the governance and administration of the university, normally existing at the pleasure of the respective dean of student affairs.

List of student councils

Columbia has four undergraduate student councils, one for each of its four undergraduate schools, as follows:

• Columbia College Student Council (CCSC)
• Engineering Student Council (ESC)
• General Studies Student Council (GSSC)
• Barnard's Student Government Association (SGA)

An attempt was made in 2013 to merge the CCSC and ESC.

Functions

The functions of student councils are to:

• oversee and allocate funds to the governing boards, which in turn allocate funds to student groups
• pursue policy changes important to their constituents
• host programming of their own
• collaborate with each on joint programming such as the Tree Lighting Ceremony and Homecoming events
• make student views known when consulted by senior administrators from time to time

The allocation of funds is perhaps the most important function. Each spring, at a meeting known as "F@CU", the councils divide out the proceeds of the student life fees between themselves and the governing boards.