Global China Connection: the next big thing?

The idea behind Global China Connection (GCC), a student-run organization founded by Columbia students, originated from less-than-satisfactory study abroad options in China.

Gavin Newton-Tanzer, the co-founder of GCC, recalls: "This was supposed to be, based on the forums, previous testimony, to be the top study abroad program...but the Chinese family first, didn't have electricity, second didn't have hot water, and obviously, third, didn't have wireless internet or internet at all for that matter."

"We think that what's lacking in the States right now is that as a high school student, you don't really have a chance to do an exchange in China," said Haibo Zhao, President of GCC's Yale chapter.

For the management team, GCC is much more than a student club.

"I think the reason why our network's been able to grow so fast is because our vision, our dream, is really sort of universal...Although we are students, the role that we take on and the initiatives we pursue, are things that people twice out age are pursuing right now," said Derrick Fu, co-founder of GCC.

"There's no other student organization like us that has devoted so much energy...to exploring exchange opportunities on such a variety of issues between these two countries,"explained Haibo.

Global China Connection is currently the world's largest US-China student organization, and they have plans to further expand their cross-cultural network.

Besides providing quality study abroad programs for students in China and the US, they also facilitate networking opportunities between individuals from the two countries. Their annual conference, "A Glimpse of China's Future", held on Saturday, was attended by delegates from various GCC chapters throughout the US and featured keynote speakers such as Professor Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University.

"There's really an emphasis on the connections that you can make between people and the mutual symbiotic relationships that both sides can use to foster growth, benefit and progress," said Eric Baron, an NYU conference participant.

The GCC management team thinks big, and certainly isn't afraid to dream big. Passionate and visionary, they hope to become another Columbia global success story.

Fire at Community Food & Juice

Residents in Nussbaum dorm, located at 600 West 113th Street, got an unpleasant wakeup on Friday morning - the sound of the fire alarm. According to the FDNY, a grease fire broke out in the kitchen of Community Food and Juice, setting off fire alarms and sending smoke up through the dorms' ventilation system. Rooms on the second floor were damaged by smoke and fire, and those residents will be relocated to temporary housing on campus for the rest of the semester.

Hartley washing machines back up

The Hartley laundry room is back up and running, after a fire there last weekend. According to residents in the LLC, all of the washing machines and dryers in the laundry room have been reconnected and are available for student use. The work was completed two days ahead of schedule.

Kicking the habit

The clouds of smoke that hover above Columbia may soon evaporate. But before implementing a new policy that bans smoking within the gated areas of campus, several open forum sessions are being held for community feedback. The turnout at these sessions though indicates a gloomy forecast. The sole person to attend the event expressed his dissatisfaction, stating that he was "surprised and disappointed that there weren't more people here. I came here today to hear what other people have to say and, as I mentioned, I was surprised and a little disappointed there weren't others here." With a combined total of a one person turnout to the forums, the question now becomes whether people are aware of the policy and, more importantly, if they care. One student believes that people are talking about the issue but doesn't think that many people know that they have the option to voice their opinions. Apathy within the Columbia community stems from the idea that feedback will be ignored and also that any new policy cannot be enforced. Students we interviewed were generally pessimistic, with quotes like "I think this will become another policy that is largely ignored, there will be lots of resistance to it and I think it will create in the end a lot more problems," "I honestly don't think they will be able to enforce it all over campus because right now there already is a twenty feet rule but I don't think it's really enforced," and "I don't know how they would enforce it. I'll probably just smoke anyway." Once approached, however, opinions regarding the policy showered in: "If they do decide to ban it they should at least designate certain areas students are allowed to smoke on," "I think it's a little strict to be honest," and "Columbia campus is big and unless they're going to have designated areas around the entire campus, then I don't see what it's going to achieve." Two more open forum feedback sessions are planned and an ongoing confidential web form is available. A decision on the proposal will be made over the summer.

New dean for engineering school

A new dean has been appointed for the school of engineering. In an e-mail to students on Wednesday, university president Lee Bollinger announced that Fenoisky Pena-Mora will officially take over as dean on July 15th. Pena-Mora comes to Columbia from the University of Illinois, where he served as the associate provost. He received both a Master's Degree and a Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pena-Mora is a civil engineer by training, and his research interests are in information technology and management of large-scale civil engineering systems.

Madonna Constantine sues Teachers College

Madonna Constantine, the former Teacher's College professor who was fired for plagiarism, has filed a lawsuit against the graduate school for 200 million dollars. Constantine alleges that her firing was quote, an "academic lynching" and was fueled by "academic rivalry and political intrigue." Teacher's College has said that the suit is without basis. Constantine was the professor who found a noose hanging from her office door back in 2008.

Columbia students become greenspired

Going "green" has been a hot trend for a while now. On Wednesday, the campus took part in "Greenspiration" week - an effort to raise awareness of the need for a cleaner environment. Eliav Bitan, CC'09, said "The main idea of Greenspiration is to get students that aren't already involved in environmentalism to understand how the things they are interested in relate to environmental issues. We also want to, within the environmental community on campus, give it a sense of re-energizing and re-focusing." Perry Sasnett, CC'11, said "I think the main idea behind Greenspiration is uniting all sorts of different campus groups to promote sustainability."

Organizers planned special green dinners at John Jay and Hewitt to celebrate Earth Day. Goldi Juer, Director of Operations for Barnard Dining Services, said "We decided to partner with the Eco Reps and do a special dinner celebrating local sustainable ingredients. We also wanted to do a farmer's market and basically this is a spread of different fruits and vegetables that are grown in either New York or New Jersey." Other events throughout the week included discussions on environmentalism and walking tours of Harlem's gardens. Sarah Brafman, CC'10, said "The nature of the events is that we wanted to have social events where students can have a good time and project the view that living in an environmental lifestyle can be really fun. I think as a whole Columbia has a long way to go in terms of larger sistemic environmental sustainability, but I look forward to working to helping with this sistemic change." Greenspiration week may be over for now, but Columbia students plan to continue promoting green issues to provide a greener campus.

U.S. News releases graduate school rankings

The U.S. News and World Report has just released its annual list of graduate school rankings, and Columbia made its way to the top 10 of several lists. The School of Business was ranked 9th, Teacher's College was ranked 3rd in the country, the Law School came in 4th among graduate schools of law, and the medical school was 10th.

Ann Coulter to speak on campus

The College Republicans announced on Wednesday that they would be hosting a forum and speech by conservative columnist Ann Coulter at the beginning of May. Coulter is well known for her controversial opinions and her speech will be followed by a signing of her new book, entitled "Guilty: Liberal Victims and their Assault on America." Tickets will be available for the event starting this week.

Know your student council?

The CCSC executive board elections were revealed last week. The ESC executive board elections were revealed a couple of weeks ago. So who exactly are the new members of the student council executive board?

“Yes, it’s Sue Yang right?”

“Said...no, I don’t know the President.”

“Is it Heather?”

“CCSC. I know Sue Yang. Dysey is Campus Life Committee.”

“Sue Yang and that’s it. I don’t know any of them. Just the President.”

“I don’t know but I should. I know Whitney Green is going to be President. Gunner is going to on there too I believe. Gunner uh. I just know Gunner because he’s a cool guy.”

How informed are Columbia students about the winners and the new members of the executive board? How informed are they about the elections in general?

“I mean I read the stuff on the internet before I voted but for a lot of people there was only one option so I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll just vote for them. Otherwise, I wasn’t very well informed.”

The issue of publicity seemed to also impact students knowledge of student council elections

“I think they could have publicized it more and I think there could have been more parties running.”

“It’s well publicized. There are a lot of flyers all over, the elevators, the bulletin boards.”

“I live in John Jay and I didn’t really see any posters.”

“Spreading a message saying what you stand for, what your message is, what you are running on. That would have been better.”

Although most students are not completely aware of the results from student council elections, they are aware of the hard work that is involved in making Columbia student life better.

“I know they do a lot of things behind the scenes that people don’t necessarily know about, even if its changing dining. They impact it without us knowing about it.”

While the student council strives to improve the quality of student life, very few Columbia students were aware of the student government election results.

CCSC election results announced

CCSC election results were announced this week - the executive board was uncontested, with Sue Yang's Action Potential party taking over next year. For the Class of 2010, a last minute rules violation complaint set the scene for a dramatic race between incumbent AJ Pascua and Cliff Massey. Massey ultimately won with 65 percent of the vote. For the class of 2010, it was a clean sweep for Access Columbia, lead by president Aki Terasaki. The rest of the races were uncontested.

CCSC election results announced

The General Studies Student Council winners have been announced, though the elections had a very disappointing turnout. President Katherine Edwards defeated Alfred Davis with 63 percent of the vote. The rest of the executive board includes Hannah Kim as vice president of student life, Jacqueline Thong as vice president of finance, Clark Chaheine as VP of communications, and Scott Jurkowski as VP Policy. Given the low turnout, there were no winners for the positions of senior class vice president, sophomore class president or VP, alumni affairs rep, student services rep, or student workers rep. The freshman class president actually received only 14 votes.

Columbia says Aloha to Bacchanal

The annual "Malama Hawai'i Luau" cosponsored by Bacchanal took place this Saturday on Low Steps. Students enjoyed the beautiful day by listening to traditional Hawaiian music, watching dancers and learning how to do the hula.