Student Council

STUDENT COUNCIL MISSION

The GSAPP Student Council is an elected student body, made up of representatives of every program at the school. Student Council representatives are elected every Fall and serve a full calendar year, until the following Fall semester or until a representative graduates. The full list of this year’s representatives can be found below, including all existing positions.

Download the Columbia GSAPP Student Council Handbook here, the Student Organization Budget template here, and Preferred List of Vendors here.

The Student Council works to advocate on behalf of the student body with the consistent goal of improving student life at GSAPP and serves as a link between the student body and the school administration. More specifically the Student Council:

serves as a representative body to discuss the affairs of GSAPP and the quality of life of the students;
maintains a dialogue and acts as a link with the administration and faculty of GSAPP; represent the students and advocate student interests.
promotes the general welfare of the students, and fosters open communication and a sense of community and a sense of friendship and respect within GSAPP, between the programs and in our larger university community and neighborhood;
acts to develop and implement programs advancing student aspirations and addressing student concerns, including new ideas relating to specific programs, fulfill program specific functions (i.e. architecture program lottery) and serve the student body by organizing services and activities.

Elected members of the Student Council meet on a regular basis with the Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs to discuss matters pertaining to student life at the school. Meetings with the Dean of Academic and Student Affairs are open to each program cohort at least once every semester. The Student Council also meets semi-regularly with the Dean as well as other major offices of the University such as IT, Facilities, Finance, Career Services, Events and the Alumni & Development Office. In addition, the Student Council holds bi-monthly internal meetings.

The school’s Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs serves as an ad -hoc member of the Student Council in order to transmit student concerns directly to the Dean and faculty and respond to student questions about administrative or academic issues affecting them.

The Student Council invites students to directly participate in shaping the agendas discussed at weekly meetings with the Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs. Please use this form if you would like to anonymously submit an agenda item for an upcoming meeting. The full list of meetings can be found below.

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The Student Council works to advocate on behalf of the student body with the consistent goal of improving student life at GSAPP and serves as a link between the student body and the school administration. More specifically the Student Council:

serves as a representative body to discuss the affairs of GSAPP and the quality of life of the students;
maintains a dialogue and acts as a link with the administration and faculty of GSAPP; represent the students and advocate student interests.
promotes the general welfare of the students, and fosters open communication and a sense of community and a sense of friendship and respect within GSAPP, between the programs and in our larger university community and neighborhood;
acts to develop and implement programs advancing student aspirations and addressing student concerns, including new ideas relating to specific programs, fulfill program specific functions (i.e. architecture program lottery) and serve the student body by organizing services and activities.

Elected members of the Student Council meet on a regular basis with the Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs to discuss matters pertaining to student life at the school. Meetings with the Dean of Academic and Student Affairs are open to each program cohort at least once every semester. The Student Council also meets semi-regularly with the Dean as well as other major offices of the University such as IT, Facilities, Finance, Career Services, Events and the Alumni & Development Office. In addition, the Student Council holds bi-monthly internal meetings.

The school’s Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs serves as an ad -hoc member of the Student Council in order to transmit student concerns directly to the Dean and faculty and respond to student questions about administrative or academic issues affecting them.

The Student Council invites students to directly participate in shaping the agendas discussed at weekly meetings with the Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs. Please use this form if you would like to anonymously submit an agenda item for an upcoming meeting. The full list of meetings can be found below.

Student Council Elections

Students interested in serving on the Student Council should note important information and dates on the election process posted on the website. Elections are run every year in the Fall, unless there is a position opening throughout the year. In order to be eligible to run you need to be a current student at GSAPP and candidates are asked to declare their candidacy as well as submit a brief statement that will be circulated to students of each candidate’s program. This statement should be a paragraph or two in length and express a candidate’s motivations for running and a vision for how they will act as their program’s representative. Elections are held electronically and are administered by the acting Student Council. Only students of the candidate’s respective program are eligible to vote.

The next Student Council Election will take place in September 2022.

2022-23 Student Council Executive Board

President: Zoona Aamir
Vice President: Syed Haseeb Amjad
Treasurer: Carter Horton
Co-Secretaries: Anagha Arunkumar and Laura Blaszczak

2022-23 Student Council Members

Please note that two positions are reserved for each class (first-, second-, and third-year students as applicable) within each of the School’s degree programs.

M.ARCH III
Zoona Aamir
Laura Blaszczak

M.ARCH II
Christopher Armstrong
Allon Morgan

M.ARCH I
Brandon Gil
Carter Horton

M.S.AAD
Armita Peirovani
Syed Haseeb Amjad

M.S. AUD
Anagha Arunkumar

M.S. CCCP
Jason Ahuja

M.S. CDP
George Verghese

M.S. HP
Mimi Vaughan
Gray Danforth

M.S. UP
Victoria Lin

M.S. RED
Davis Mullins
Rebecca Irizarry

PhD
Shuyi Yin
Samantha Saona

Student Group
Teonna Cooksey