Improve Columbia

This page is a comprehensive plan to improve Columbia for its students. It is currently based on an article published in the Columbia Spectator on April 30, 2007.

Campus and buildings

Campus and outdoor spaces

• Replace aging bricks on College Walk - old bricks have been replaced by asphalt pavers
• Improve the drainage on campus, especially College Walk - drainage was improved during brick replacement
• Keep one field on South Lawn open at all times for recreation
• Improve campus wheelchair accessibility
• Provide dedicated distribution racks for all campus publications
• Keep 117th Street gates (at Broadway and Amsterdam) open until 9 pm

Buildings

• Provide more electrical outlets in all libraries and classrooms
• Design future buildings without grossly violating the campus aesthetic
• Extend hours of classroom buildings with study space

Bathrooms

• Install motion-sensitive sinks in all public bathrooms
• Install paper-towel dispensers in all campus bathrooms

Lerner Hall

• Bring the comfortable chairs and computers back to Lerner's lobby
• Extend Lerner's hours
• Provide USPS services in Lerner
• Make Lerner 6 available for student use - 2009 renovations created office space for Judicial Services, Dean's Office, and Financial Aid. Discussions about use of now vacant 4th floor spaces underway as of fall 09.

All libraries

• Allow students to bring water into all libraries

Butler Library

• Move ashtrays away from the Butler doors to the Butler steps
• Allow outside food and drinks in Butler, especially after Blue Java closes
• Open the sixth floor of Butler, and the third floor reference and card catalog rooms 24/7
• Open Butler stacks 24/7
• Put vending machines in Butler
• Remove unattended belongings in Butler at specified times - Scheduled cleaning of 24/7 rooms moves unattended belongings to Butler's Lost and Found.

Technology

General IT

• Provide consistent wireless coverage across campus, especially in dorms
• Include Barnard on the University-wide e-mail listserv

Network storage space

• Implement mappable SMB file shares so users can save and access their work anywhere on the network, instead of having to carry memory sticks, or obsessively emailing files to themselves

Printing

• Replace aging printers in computer labs around campus
• Allow print quotas to roll over from week to week (like cell phone minutes)
• Install color printers around campus
• Regularly replace toner in printers

CUIDs

• Allow complete swipe access between Barnard and Columbia
• Remove Social Security Numbers from CUIDs - project completed in 2008.
• Add a second card-swiper in EC, especially on weekends

ROLM phones

• Provide free local calls and inter-school calls on ROLM phones

Academics

Departments

• Expand the human rights, sustainable development, and ethnic studies programs.
• Revive the African Institute
• Improve inter-departmental communication
• Create a home economics course, or a variety of home economics courses (like cooking, family management - how to not be a part of the divorced population, household management, crafts, sewing, etc.)

Bookstore

• Stock course books in the bookstore according to the number of students registered
• Sell or provide electronic copies of textbooks

Course registration and technology

• Combine the Course Bulletin and Directory of Classes
• Update all department and campus Web sites regularly and implement a common content management system, such as Drupal
• Update online listings for Major Cultures and the science requirement based on available courses
• Allow students to see professors' names when registering for Core Curriculum classes
• Release course evaluation data
• Create more sections of Art and Music Humanities and set some aside specifically for sophomores and first-years
• Make course syllabi available online for all students

Seminars

• Standardize seminar registration processes across schools and implement online registration
• Allot seminar times before registration

Advising

• Standardize departmental advising

Study abroad

• Better facilitate the transfer of credits from institutions abroad to Columbia majors and transcript in general

Housing and dining

Housing

• Provide cheaper interim housing between the spring and summer sessions

Residence halls

• Regularly clean laundry rooms and install change machines
• Provide air conditioning in all dorms, and turn it on before May 15
• Install thermostats in dorms
• Renovate aging dorms
• Install bigger kitchen sinks and more counter space in all dorm kitchens

Dining Dollars and Flex

• Allow all first-year John Jay meals to roll over into sophomore year
• Do not require meal plan for non first-year Barnard students living on the quad
• Implement off-campus Flex, especially at Labyrinth and Village Copier - Completed in 2009.
• Accept Flex dollars at all campus eateries

All dining locations

• Provide more vegetarian and vegan options at all campus eateries
• Provide a spinach option at the 212 salad bar
• Extend Ferris Booth's breakfast options to later in the morning
• Keep JJ's open on weekends 24/7 and extend weekday hours EDIT: JJ's is now open on the weekends, though not 24/7

Dining halls

• Provide more-varied and better-quality fruit in John Jay
• Install a soy milk dispenser in John Jay - dispenser added in summer 2007
• Extend the hours of John Jay and Hewitt dining halls
• Install a deli bar in John Jay - added in summer 2007

Student life

General student life

• Hold monthly fireside chats with administrators other than PrezBo
• Emulate the Barnard Babysitting program at Columbia

Student government and clubs

• Allow students to vote online in CCSC elections - Online voting began in 2008.
• Increase funding for student clubs
• Allow students to determine, at least in part, which groups get the funds from their student activity fees

Events

• Sell Miller Theater and discounted New York theater tickets at Lerner's box office
• Devise better programming for campus events such as Bacchanal
• Allow students to drink more than one beer per hour at campus events

Student jobs

• Provide more on-campus jobs for students who don't have work study

Student facilities

CCE

• Expand CCE's alumni networking
• Increase CCE's resources and improve its offerings, particularly outside finance

CPS

• Move Counseling and Psychological Services to a more accessible location
• Allow students to make CPS appointments online

Gyms

• Allow students to sign up for Dodge Gym's aerobics machines online
• Put satellite gyms in more dorms
• Reinstate equipment rentals in Dodge