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In 1999, GSAC petitioned the administration to create a dedicated space for graduate students on the Morningside Heights campus. Responding to pressure from GSAC, Columbia renovated 301 Philosophy Hall for use by its graduate students. This lounge is open weekdays from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and offers students a quiet space to study and conduct school-related business. GSAC holds most of its events here, from monthly mixers to general council meetings. Many student organizations also use this space for concerts, conferences, social events, and workshops.
The Limitations of 301 Philosophy Hall
Given the overall size of the GSAS population and the severe shortage of workspace, we have quickly outgrown 301 Philosophy Hall. In 2003, we began a dialogue with the administration to create a formal graduate student center on the sixth floor of Alfred Lerner Hall. Our goals were simple. We wanted to create an attractive, multi-purpose space that would be:
o Exclusively for GSAS students (and students in affiliated PhD programs)
o Equipped with such basic amenities as computer terminals
o Accessible on nights and weekends
o Attractive for studying, socializing, and holding office hours
o Able to accommodate several simultaneous meetings/functions
Equally important, this new center would be GSAC’s home base of operations, allowing us to expand our programming to include a greater variety of professional development, cultural, and social events. Columbia is currently the only Ivy League institution that does not have a separate facility for its MA and PhD students.
Proposal for a New Center
Our proposal calls for the transformation of the now-empty sixth floor of Lerner Hall into a dedicated graduate student space. Because the Morningside Heights campus is so overcrowded, many other organizations have submitted competing proposals for this space. We are actively pressuring the administration to reach a decision about Lerner 6 during the 2004-05 academic year.
For More Information
Take a look at the overview of the proposed center [Lerner Proposal PDF]. To give us feedback on the proposal, or find out how you can help, send us an e-mail.
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