Name: Nicho Villalobos
Bio: Nicho Villalobos is a junior from sunny San Diego, California majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in economics. Currently, he serves on ESC as the Academic Affairs Representative, and is also the Operations Director for the Columbia Space Initiative and the Applications Director for the 2017 Ivy Policy Conference. Nicho’s interests fall into two categories: Mexican food and space. But beyond his love for dank food-truck tacos and his desire to terraform Mars, he is passionate about policy and wants to be at the forefront of optimizing your experience at Columbia.
Platform: As Campus Affairs Representative, I will provide scalable policy solutions to multiple student serving entities within the Columbia community. Having served as ESC’s Academic Affairs Representative and worked alongside faculty members, administrators, and deans on the Committee on Instruction (COI), I believe I can utilize this experience and best represent SEAS on a number of campus-wide Advisory Committees (e.g. Lerner, Public Safety, Libraries, and Dining). Moving beyond the academic lens, I plan on making the bureaucracy of our school more transparent by making myself wholly accessible to input on student life issues that our undergraduate body is concerned with. My goal is to assist students in overcoming the logistical barriers present on our campus, and instead channel their energy into pursuing their passions.
In order to truly enhance the undergraduate experience here at Columbia, I would like to focus on the following:
MENTAL HEALTH:
1. Expand the offerings of Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) so students have access to in-person support for psychological and emotional needs 24 hours a day.
2. Increase the number of stress relief resources and activities in libraries during midterms and finals.
BUREAUCRATIC TRANSPARENCY:
1. Assist entities on campus like CCE, CSA, Dining, and Libraries to better publicize events in order to better serve students.
2. Work with Public Safety to reduce the constraints involved with Bacchanal, and advocate for an increased number of tickets available.
3. Promote use of the ESC Suggestion Box to allow students to have a more prominent voice on campus.
STUDENT SPECIFIC SPACE:
1. Create more recreational lounge spaces in Lerner to transform it into a functional student center.
2. Increase the hours of Lerner so students have a 24-hour multiuse space outside of Butler Library.
3. Advocate for space at Columbia’s new Manhattanville Campus for SEAS student groups.
4. Ensure that students of color, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities are allocated a permanent space on campus to foster a sense of community.
TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION:
1. Install more engineering specific software on all library computers, and better publicize software licenses that the university currently pays for.
2. Work with entities on campus to use polls and surveys to better gauge student opinion of current services.
3. Increase use of the MakerSpace through showcase events, and incentivized funding for projects by superusers.