Columbia College Student Council

CCSC Logo

The Columbia College Student Council (CCSC) organizes events and promotes issues that are important to Columbia College students. The CCSC meets on Sundays at 8pm in the Satow Room on the 5th floor of Lerner Hall. All meetings are open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Beginning in fall 2011, CCSC begin its new branding campaign: yourCCSC. All updates and information about the council are now available at yourCCSC.com. You can email the Columbia College Student Council Executive Board at ccsc@columbia.edu.

Members

The CCSC consists of three parts: the executive board, the class councils, and the representatives-at-large.

Executive board

• Student Body President: Organizes and runs meetings; chief advocate for CC student body
• VP Policy: Pursues policy changes; heads policy subcommittee; assumes CCSC presidency upon vacancy of position by Student Body President
• VP Finance: Treasurer of the council; heads co-sponsorship subcommittee
• VP Campus Life: Plans campus-wide events for CC; heads campus life subcommittee
• VP Communications: Organizes internal and external communications; heads communications committee

Class Councils

• Senior Class Council: Consists of a president, vice-president, and 3 representatives from the senior class.
• Junior Class Council: Consists of a president, vice-president, and 3 representatives from the junior class.
• Sophomore Class Council: Consists of a president, vice-president, and 3 representatives from the sophomore class.
• First-Year Class Council: Consists of a president, vice-president, and 3 representatives from the freshman class.

Representatives at large

• University Senators (3): Fully elected members of the University Senate, although the three CC senators sit ex officio on the CCSC, they do not report to the CCSC, nor does the CCSC exercise any statutory or governance authority over any element whatsoever of the University Senate or its elected members .
• Academic Affairs Rep: Works with VP for Policy to pursue policy changes to academic life.
• Student Services Reps (2): Works with VP for Policy to pursue policy changes to student services such as housing and dining.
• Pre-professional Rep: Works with CCE to plan events geared towards career/internships.
• Alumni Affairs Rep: Works with CCYA, CCAA, and CCA to connect students and alumni.

Co-sponsorships

Any student group that includes Columbia College students can apply for CCSC co-sponsorship of their event. If a co-sponsorship is approved, CCSC will provide additional funding for the event based on the judgment of the council. In 2012 the council voted to approve the creation of two new student group co-sponsorship funds: one specifically for group travel to competitions and another for capital purchases.

History

Pre-History

Between 1892 and 1961, the Board of Student Representatives was Columbia College's central student government. In 1961 it was voted out of existence after students decided they were tired of ineffectiveness and even corruption. However, they also voted down the establishment of a successor, the Student Assembly, because it would be just as powerless as the Board was.

Years passed, and in the aftermath of the 1968 protests, the University Senate Student Affairs Committee mulled the idea of a "College student council" to handle some of the issues concerning the College that were being submitted to the University Senate, noting that that the College was one of the few divisions at the University without a student governing body. However, nothing directly came of the proposal.

Founding

CCSC was founded in 1979 as part of a movement to consolidate activities oversight, student policy, and other roles dispersed among various scattered councils.

Proposals for forming a council began circulating in spring of 1978.

The idea behind the creation of the council was to coordinate the activities at Ferris Booth Hall. Ferris Booth itself was run by a Board of Managers, and organizations that held events at Ferris Booth were represented by an organization known as the Student Polity. The first president of the Council was Jack O'Laughlin. At the time of its founding, CCSC collected fees of $20 per student, and had a budget of $90,000 per semester. Upon the formation of the Council, the Spectator presciently urged it to "show very quickly that it is something other than a gathering place for the blowhards who used to be high school student body presidents."

CCSC's first committees were Joint Budgeting and Calendaring, Academic Affairs and College Policy, and Concert. Starting in 1990, seniors were given the right to vote in CCSC elections. In 1991, members of the CCSC Elections Commission were paid $50, and members of the Judicial Commission were paid $25.

The first unsuccessful attempt to merge CCSC and ESC was in 1992, when the attempted to create a joint constitution. It's proposed name was Columbia College/School of Engineering and Applied Science Student Union (CCSEASSU?). Most of the opposition to the merger was the fact that CC students would be overrepresented. A referendum on the joint constitution failed with 55% of students voting against the proposal.

External links

• CCSC website
• CCSC's Twitter feed
• Old CCSC Websites (via archive.org):
  • CCSC Website December 1996 - September 2009 Snapshots

Famous Alumni

• Benjamin Jealous '94CC served as CCSC Student Representative in 1992.