Health Services Hours + PLATFORMS 

Extending weekday evening hours and adding weekend hours weekdays would let CU Health offer more appointments than its limited same-day-only ones. (I’ve spoken with administrators about this, and they are in favor of an extended-hours/days pilot.) Further, the University should pilot the implementation of an emergency text-hotline system. This allows students in emergency situations, where they must remain silent/hidden, to seek help. This addition would also make for a more accessible healthcare system – current emergency hotline systems exclude students with varying hearing abilities, who may have a social worker or aide during the day but cannot alone rely on phones in the middle of the night.

 

Free Pads/Tampons

I have worked on this project, which aims to provide free pads/tampons (especially for emergency use) in bathrooms throughout Columbia's campus, for over a year. From stocking multiple bathrooms up to multiple times a week/day for pilot programs, to advocating for the initiative using data my peers and I have analyzed from these pilots, I have been an active voice in dealing with the continuous sets of pushback this project has received. At this point, the future of this emergency supply of sanitary items in campus bathrooms relies on a longterm University-wide funding source, as the past model of undergraduate school-split ratios is unsustainable and inadequate. The Senate is an apt place to financially navigate this community-wide issue, since I know that despite undergrad-heavy leadership, this initiative has benefited people throughout our community, as well as guests visiting our school. The emergency pads/tampons system also solicits conversation about students who are in need of sanitary items on a more regular basis due to the financial burden pads/tampons pose. This calls for a necessary partnership with others platforms including the Food Bank, to offer this critical resource to students who need them on longterm levels. 

 

Sexual Violence Reporting

It is vital to revisit how first-respondent reporting happens in sexual violence response processes. Even after national headlines about the issue on this campus merely a few years ago, there is substantial uncertainty, distrust, and cynicism in this resource, which has incredible potential for helping students. Streamlining reporting processes, as well as outlining specific follow-up procedures to ensure cases are not lost in the dust over time, needs to happen. There are concerns that abandoned reports draw out until a perpetrator had graduated, at which point the case loses urgency in the Columbia system overnight. Any such cases are unequivocally unacceptable. 

 

Students of Color/LGBTQ+ Spaces

In recent years, University bodies have promised spaces for underrepresented communities on-campus, but multiple of them remain incomplete in transformation. I would see the current vision of this projected completed ASAP and advocate for an increase in such resources in preparation for campus space openings, those both related to Manhattanville and beyond the expansion. These conversations must also consider the harm to local communities imparted by such expansions, and this awareness must dictate which groups are prioritized in new space allocations.

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CCE Professional Attire Loaning System

Several current university resources to ensure financial security are not adequately stocked. The professional clothing loan system in place through the Center for Career Education is one that helps students prepare for job interviews, but there is a limited selection, especially in women’s sizes and options, and expanding sources like this are tangible, quick, and salient changes we can make on our campus. 

 

Housing lottery prioritizing community engagement

Many colleges employ a “tier-based” element in the housing system– a variable in the lottery that assigns students a tier based on some sort of measured university involvement. There have been conversations in several University channels about adding types of training for Columbia students, and while some base-level trainings should be mandatory for all students, Columbia Housing should implement a system that grants students eligibility into higher tiers in a system that randomly pick from students who have fulfilled some amount of additional/optional community trainings, related to topics such as diversity, gender-based misconduct, or mental health ones.

 

2018 Midterm ABSENTEE BALLOT CALENDAR 

Our role at Columbia includes civic engagement in the politics of our greater world, too. Navigating the absentee system in US elections, especially for the first time, is daunting. The University should consolidate a calendar of all important absentee voting dates per state for the 2018 midterm cycle and distribute it to the community to encourage voting.