Name: Nicole Rodgers / Nicole R D Baker
Bio: Nicole Rodgers is a transfer-student from Berkeley, California. She is the current First Year Class President, and a Human Rights major concentrating in Computer Science. Active on campus with GSSC, Native American Council, Campus Life, Mental Health Committee, and other mental health initiatives, she is hearing impaired and speaks to students across New York to increase awareness for disability access. Prior to returning to school she served as Webmaster for a humanitarian consortium, Director of Communications for a consulting company, Social Media Manager for Digital Humanitarian Network, Social Media Coordinator for Humanity Road, and Executive Editor of Distilled academic journal.
Platform: Ensuring meetings are accessible to all. Live streaming meetings, having meeting agendas at least 3 days prior to the meetings online, and physically posted in the lounge and on the bulletin boards. Hard copies of governing documents and resources available in the lounge and around campus. Curating content from the rest of the school to include in our weekly GSSC bulletin. Curating Columbia club information onto our digital platforms including meeting times and places. Consolidating our online presence into a synced, cohesive user-friendly experience with access to resources and events. Creating an app to facilitate easier access. Focus on: Access, Student Engagement, and Technology.
ACCESS:
-Live streaming: all meetings. Live streaming will be accessible through multiple platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and the GSSC website. Including access to previous meetings.
-Accessible Documents and meetings minutes from every meeting, including links to the shared drive where minutes are stored, in every weekly bulletin.
-Print copies of Agendas posted around GS and the lounge, available during meetings. Online copies available to students and ability to comment or request time to speak on certain topics. Posted onto monitors in lounge.
-Non-electronic outlets for communication to ensure access for all students regardless of income and ability level.
-Information up on the screens in the lounge of our activities, events, and meeting agendas to ensure easier access.
-App for students. Consolidating all GSSC information and events, and a link to Public Service Announcements of events and resources on campus. A one-stop-shop for students.
-Closed captioning and microphones for meetings so the 30+ member council can better facilitate meetings and students have access to what is being discussed and decided.
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT:
-Interactive student engagement through online platform, website, social media, and phone app for iPhone and Android, where students may actively participate in each meeting remotely through commenting during meetings and asking questions.
This will include document sharing, active participation in engaging students before events including a standing poll to be included in the weekly bulletin to gauge student interest to allow for student-driven events/requests.
-Weekly Public Service Announcements: in the weekly bulletin, so as not to create more traffic for students, listing resources and events around campus. Currently our biweekly administration emails only list select big events. Curating content and events across schools is a regular request of students.
TECHNOLOGY::
-Analytics. Right now we don’t have any means to gauge how many students are reading our emails, nor do we have feedback. Analytics and performance reviews to see what students like to promote popular platforms.
-Synced updates across platforms, ensuring information is accurate on all sites and providing regular updates for each.
-Consolidation of all social media sites to make communication easier, less confusing, and more accessible.
-Website: Fully functional website by fall. This functionality will allow us to make easy changes throughout the year and allow focus on sharing events and resources throughout campus.
-Snapchat filters for events. Snapchat just launched a yearly package that makes the filters cheaper and more reasonably priced.
Name: Piragathesh Subramanian
Bio: I study Neuroscience and Behavior at Columbia University School of General Studies. Before GS, I was known for my service to the country of Singapore. I served as a Medical Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces from 2013-2015, and served as Student Council President at my previous college, Republic Polytechnic. Additionally I am the Media and Publicity Secretary for the People’s Action Party Youth Movement in Singapore, where I manage press and social communications for the organization. Here’s a fun fact about me: I am a polyglot! I speak 5 different languages—ask me if I can speak yours!
Platform: As a seasoned member of council, I am confident that I have the knowledge and leadership experience needed to continue representing GS, now as the GSSC VP of Communications. I have extensive experience working with GSSC and my peers throughout my time at Columbia GS as First Year Class President and as the Alumni Representative, and knowing how the council works is one of my biggest strengths. That being said, I have set forth two important goals for myself.
Firstly, I would like to address policy concerns that GS students have. Like many GS students, I am a strong believer in promoting diversity, increasing accessibility for students with disabilities campus-wide, and creating a safe haven and support system for those struggling with mental health issues. For these things to happen, we must first raise awareness to the causes, and that starts with the Communications and Policy teams working tirelessly together to listen to the student body, understand their needs, and build initiatives that can ignite change. In the midst of change, there is also a need for transparency. I firmly believe that the GSSC must always be honest with students and help them to set realistic expectations—all while keeping an open line of communication with the administration and being transparent with the student body about that as well.
Secondly, I am going to make sure that GS is portrayed in the best light, at all times. Oftentimes, it seems like GS gets lost in the hustle and bustle of Columbia University, but we play an integral role in making Columbia the place that it is. We serve as mentors to younger students, bring real world experiences and ideas to the table, and we all have a unique story to tell. And at GS, we also have so many ways to get involved in both our own GS community and in the Columbia community in general like as Snack Attacks, Giving Day, Gala, and the Homecoming Banner Competition—all of which I have been involved in and enjoyed. We also have a ton of social media platforms—from Snapchat, to Facebook, to Instagram—and we can make better use of these platforms by using them to communicate with a larger audience to encourage Giving Day donations, promote our events, and celebrate the unique diversity that the GS community brings to Columbia University.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration!
Name: Vladyslav Bobrovnyk
Bio: Vladyslav Bobrovnyk is a second-year GS student in the Columbia-Sciences Po Dual BA. He is a law major at SciencesPo, but will be pursuing the Economics-Mathematics major at Columbia. Vlad is currently the head of student communications for the BDE of his campus, which organizes the largest percentage-turnout and number of events on campus. He has also been involved in the launch of a social media communications startup. If he is elected, he will use his experience in social media campaigns and his ability to undertake intensive, high-turnout, events (often with hundreds of students) to re-think the GSSC communication plan.
Platform: My campaign platform rests upon three fundamental bases: Efficiency, Representation, and Engagement with the wider Columbia community.
Effective and Efficient Communication.
I propose:
1. Re-examination of social media engagement opportunities including but not limited to:
A) Facebook (groups, page, events);
B) Instagram;
C) Snapchat;
D) Our website.
2. Encouragement of students to interact with us on social media.
A) Accomplished through a variety of means, with emphasis placed on constructive feedback on events.
B) Also, working towards encouraging student engagement/attendance with/of our events through social media contests, deals, and giveaways.
3. Setting concrete engagement goals for all major events individually/cumulatively each semester.
A) Release a comprehensive account of our communication results throughout the year, which would allow for development of our communication plan.
4. Communication integration from start to completion of events.
A) To ensure that projects are successful in their entirety in terms of student body engagement, there must be a real push to work with the Campus Life Committee from the very inception of their event ideas.
B) This will necessitate a 5-10 minute meeting recap each week with the Student Life Committee (or a representative).
Direct Engagement with the GS Constituency.
I propose:
1. Greater cooperation with the student group representatives (including the JTS, Military Veterans, Family, and International students representatives).
A) This would primarily be facilitated through monthly meetings with all representatives.
B) This would also involve an end-of-semester meeting with each representative individually to assess performance and resulting goals.
C) These meetings would be to encourage student engagement through specially tailored communication, in addition to addressing any concerns that any groups are being left out.
2. Creation of a GS Student life booklet/GSSC manual.
A) The creation of this booklet will be based upon the needs and necessities formulated by the incoming GS students of the 2017-2018 academic year, determined through multiple surveys.
B) All GS students will be able to provide suggestions for the booklet via our website as well.
Width and Depth of Community Engagement.
I propose
1. More coordination between the communication VPs of all student councils (GSSC, CCSC, ESC).
A) I will do my utmost to ensure that the communication VPs meet at least twice a semester in order to coordinate planning of major events.
B) As well, I will push towards decreasing the exclusivity of certain events – to ensure that GS students are able to partake in as many events as possible. Hand-in-hand with this will be a move to increase inclusivity of our events, primarily through communication of GS-based events to other campus groups.
2. Increase GS student engagement with clubs and associations.
A) Accomplished through weekly ‘highlights’ of clubs and societies.
B) Ideally, this will be done jointly with the clubs themselves – in order to promote club growth and student life.
C) These highlights will be included in the weekly GS email (The Owl) in a separate section. They will also be compiled on our website as we add to the list.
Name: Karlee Rodrigues 
Bio: Karlee is a Film Studies junior at Columbia University. Before transferring to Columbia, she pursued an Associates in Communications. She has served on GSSC for 1.5 years as Social Media Representative and Chief of Communications, closely working in tangent with VP and Chief of Campus Life. She takes GSSC’s meeting minutes. Her goal while serving was building outreach and engagement with the student body, ensuring students would be aware of events and opportunities on campus. The GSSC FB page has reached up to 10k visitors a week, and event pages she created and promoted, up to 43k and growing.
Platform: Platform includes:
– The Communications Committee is placing final touches on a new GSSC website where students can have easy-access to obtaining information about events and opportunities on campus, resources available to them (such as health services for students), polls and a discussion board so students can communicate to GSSC what they want to see more of regarding campus life, finance, and policy initiatives. Last but certainly not least, we aim to add transparency with this website. GSSC’s budget is made up of student life fees. On the website, students will be able to see GSSC’s spending to promote university life. Additionally, meeting minutes will be posted every week. The website will be launched live, and I will make sure it is maintained and consistently updated.
– I will live-stream future GSSC meetings so that students who may not be able to attend our meetings can still tune-in or watch at their convenience.
– On GSSC, I worked on receiving access to the GS Lounge Monitors. My committee just received this access, so as VP of Comms, I will ensure that students who may not have social media platforms may now turn to the lounge as a hub for information and view important updates on the lounge monitors.
– I will update students regularly by distributing GSSC’s monthly newsletter, The Owl. This newsletter is sent out via email, I will add hard-copies for easy-access to the GS Lounge.
– As per my experience, I found that it is highly beneficial for those who acquire positions on the Communications Committee to have experience in designing graphics, especially for our event pages. On GSSC, I design graphics every week, especially for GSSC’s events. As of VP of Comms, I will continue to do so.
– As current Chief of Communications, I recently introduced two new segments: “Student Sunday Spotlight,” which highlights the diversity and accomplishments of our student body and “Wednesday Wellness,” that provides students tips for keeping healthy on campus. I will continue to work hard to promote these segments.
– After much expressed interest, I will communicate with dual BA students from international programs, so that the Communications Committee can disperse more info and reminders applicable to their needs.